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Jan. 12, 2024 - Doug Collins Podcast
54:03
Look Who's Walking Now
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You want to listen to a podcast?
By who?
Georgia GOP Congressman Doug Collins.
How is it?
The greatest thing I have ever heard in my whole life.
I could not believe my ears.
In this house, wherever the rules are disregarded, chaos and mob rule.
It has been said today, where is bravery?
I'll tell you where bravery is found and courage is found.
It's found in this minority who has lived through the last year of nothing but rules being broken, people being put down, questions not being answered, and this majority say, be damned with anything else.
We're going to impeach and do whatever we want to do.
Why?
Because we won an election.
I guarantee you, one day you'll be back in the minority and it ain't gonna be that fun.
Hey everybody, welcome back.
It is Friday's Finest, and do we have a Friday's Finest for you?
It is the second of the year, but we're having a double feature today.
Yes, we are.
Yes, Chip, James are both here.
Chip has reappeared.
Yes, the sightings were there.
We talked about it last week.
Since then, James, it is amazing.
The Auburn-Alabama game is now over, but he has reappeared.
We're here with him.
Glad to see it.
As we go.
So after the break, we get to hear from Chip and James.
Can't wait.
We've got all kinds of coaching news.
We've got all kinds of political news.
But also today on the podcast, you can also get a second feature.
We had a chance to sit down with Chan Gailey.
Coach Gailey, good friend of the show, always gives us insight.
The first man actually to tell us Baker Mayfield was the one that he would take coming out of Cleveland.
Hey, we never knew Joe Flacco would come along.
And Now Baker Mayfield is leading Tampa back into the playoffs.
So hey, you got to give Chan Gailey credit there.
But a lot of good things.
Interestingly enough, you'll notice because we're going to talk about it here on Friday's Finest, the announcement of several coaches who have either been fired or retired.
The great Nick Saban out of Alabama has retired.
Interesting enough on what Chan had to say about that because he didn't think he actually would.
So good stuff coming up here on the program.
Can't wait to dig into it.
But first, got to say a couple of things about some political.
I mean, we're going to Iowa caucuses on Monday.
Right now, Trump has a commanding lead.
On Monday, by the way, mark your calendar for podcasts on Monday.
Matt Whitaker is with us, giving you a breakdown of how the Iowa caucus actually works.
And I learned some stuff.
I thought there's a mix between how Democrats do it and Republicans do it.
And the way Republicans do it, It's basically, as you'll find out from Matt, just a simple, everybody come together at the same time, they do a straw poll and go home.
It's an interesting way to look at it.
So, that special episode on Monday with Matt explaining the Iowa Coxes.
You don't want to miss that as we go forward.
I wouldn't talk about Congress, except...
The Republicans are ungovernable again.
So surprise, we're not really shocked that nothing's happening there.
Speaker Johnson's in some trouble.
We'll see what happens.
We'll talk more about it in later episodes about possible shutdowns and everything else, but it's just not good as we go forward.
And I'm going to ask Chip after the break.
In fact, it's going to be our first question after the break.
Chip coming up and James.
And it's going to be about the dual screen last week with the debate with the Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Donald Trump on dueling networks at the same time.
Interestingly enough, it looked to me like that's where Trump wanted to be all along.
So all of this here on Friday's Finals right after the break.
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All right, we're here.
The gang is all back.
James, we've got Chip back with both of us now.
It is amazing.
Chip, welcome back buddy.
Great to be back.
I missed being on, so thanks for having me.
We're glad to have you.
You and James took it on a little bit while I was in, but now we're all back.
Hey, Chip, before we get into our favorites here on Fridays, that's football and talking about life.
Also, one thing I didn't mention in the intro is we've got to talk about McAfee and what is this about Aaron Rodgers.
I mean, my God, this is amazing.
But we hit this a little bit offline, though, Chip.
The split screen the other night with DeSantis and Haley in a food fight and Trump by himself on that night with the Fox folks and just Donald Trump was on in that.
I mean, I'm not going to say from a debate standpoint Haley and DeSantis wasn't on, but you and I have been in this a long time.
People would prefer not the sort of back and forth food fight to a more Pointed message whether they agree or not, but this base, you know and I know, they agree with Trump on a lot of stuff.
Well, they do, and I tell you, he is in as good of a position as anybody has been in going into an Iowa caucus in the history of the Iowa caucuses.
I think the largest margin of victory for any candidate in the Iowa caucuses was Bob Dahl, which I think was 13 points.
The last four polls to come out of Iowa...
Trafalgar Group came out this week.
He's up 34 points.
Morning Consult came out right before that.
He's up 43 points.
The only question right now is, does he break 50% and who comes in second?
What happened this week on the split screen, Doug, I think was Trump was on.
The reason he was on is because he knows he's about to win Iowa by his historic margin.
And, you know, it was interesting.
The Haley and DeSantis debate, I didn't think was going to be very interesting, but I couldn't turn it off.
I mean, once I started watching it, I couldn't turn it off.
It was a slow motion train wreck.
I mean, you know, you had two candidates.
You had two candidates who were both, you know, fighting to be within the margin of error of each other for second place, who were both going to lose by 30, 35 points on Monday, and you could sense their frustration, their frustration with each other.
And their frustration with the person who is on another network.
And so, you know, I really didn't think much of the debate going into it, the debate between DeSantis and Nikki Haley, but I found it where I couldn't turn the channel.
It was just a train wreck.
It definitely was.
And then, of course, we had, and we'll get to this then, but I have to get this in.
Hey, Christy drops out.
For me personally, Chip, I mean, you're from a political professional background.
I don't get it.
I mean, if he was dropping out to endorse somebody else, I get it.
But he torched everybody else on his way out the door.
And you're four days from Iowa to a week and a half from New Hampshire.
I don't get why he dropped out like he did.
Well, I think a couple things.
Number one, I don't think he wanted to get embarrassed.
Nobody likes to get embarrassed.
That's no fun.
And then, you know, number two, I think the governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, put a full court press on his steering committee, many of whom, if not all of whom, are supporters of the governor, too, to kind of get him out and, you know, and At the end of the day, the crazy dynamic is, I mean, if you're Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, do you want his endorsement?
Because then you have to, if you get it, you've got to accept it.
And then you've got to talk about it.
That's not where the party is right now.
You know, it's just not where the party is.
And so, you know, of course, if you're Nikki Haley, you like Chris Christie getting out in New Hampshire, because I do think Nikki Haley is probably likely to benefit from that.
But she's going to benefit from that probably just as much without his endorsement.
So, you know, I think...
I think he made the right decision because I do think he was about to get embarrassed and really didn't campaign a lot in Iowa.
His numbers in New Hampshire, which were good three or four months ago, were really dwindling very quickly.
Yeah, I can see that.
All right.
Lots still going on there, and we'll have more on that next week.
But we have, I mean, could you have, James, Chip, can you, we've lived through Black Mondays before.
I mean, after the season's over, firings, everything else.
Right now, I think as we tape, it is eight coaching vacancies right now in the NFL. Yeah.
But yet, look from the NFL perspective.
You have Belichick gone.
You have Pete Carroll gone.
I mean, icons of the coaching legacy in the NFL. And then, of course, you've got the, you know, again, like Alabama, don't like Alabama, the GOAT, Nick Saban.
Retiring yesterday actually, I think, surprised a lot, a lot of people.
Yeah.
Hello, everybody, by the way.
I didn't say hello yet.
Morning, James.
Good morning.
By the way, did you guys really expect a fat Italian person from New Jersey to go out quietly?
I mean, Chris Christie wasn't going to go out down without a play.
From New Jersey?
Come on, guys.
That's why you have James for political content on New York, folks.
Right there.
You pay extra for James, baby.
What are your thoughts on the political climate?
Chris Christie's a fat Italian guy.
There's a...
It's really funny.
When Mike Vrabel got fired, my first thought was, oh, he's gonna go to the Patriots as a coordinator, hang under Bill Belichick for a year, and then they'll just give him the job, right?
And now that, to me, that's not even a debate.
He's going out of no question Mike Vrabel is going to be the coach of the Patriots now that Bill Belichick's dropped out.
If he goes anywhere, I hope he goes to the Chargers because that franchise deserves a little bit of love.
They've been down in the dumps and they have too good of a quarterback.
Nick Saban leaving Alabama leaves the most important head coaching vacancy in football right now.
It's not even up for debate.
That's the biggest, most important job.
And I know there was word about Dabo Sweeney going there, but that would just be...
I can't stand Dabo, so that would stink.
And Pete Carroll, I don't really care, because he's going to go somewhere else and chew gum upstairs where everyone can watch him in a booth.
Chip, what do you think?
Look, I mean...
You know, the Bill Belichick moving on really wasn't a huge surprise.
Pete Carroll, in hindsight, shouldn't have been a huge surprise.
Nick Saban was a surprise, but really, I mean, we're in a moment in history where Even though the Belichick announcement wasn't a surprise, until it happens, it doesn't happen.
Literally, within 18 hours, we've lost Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll, and Nick Saban.
Three guys who have been in this game for decades and decades and had a tremendous amount of success.
It's a pretty moving time.
I would agree with James' assessment about the Alabama job.
Although I think whoever takes that job...
Is walking into an impossible situation, replacing a legend, especially in college football, maybe less so in the NFL, but still the dynamics exist.
But replacing a legend in college football, you don't want to be the guy to replace the legend.
You want to be the guy that replaces the guy after he gets fired that replaced the legend.
Because, you know, the expectations at Alabama right now are, they've been out of whack for a long time.
And, you know, Alabama expects to win 10, 11, 12 games every year and play for a national title.
I think those days are over.
I think they're about to be in the rearview mirror.
The portal opened for all the Alabama players.
A 30-day window just opened with Saban's announcement.
And, you know, I don't know that a new person can keep all of those players.
George is about to...
It works.
George has got his knife and fork out just waiting to pick the carcass.
You know, I have a question, though.
There was a couple, it was probably the week before the championship game on the McAfee show, and we talk about that show too much, but Saban was on there, and he was kind of complaining about the fact that he's got to do all this recruiting stuff while he's in the playoffs.
And I honestly, now looking at that, I'm thinking he was probably concerned that he had to do both, knowing he was going to retire, win or lose.
And he basically recruited all these guys and had to lie to them and be like, I'm going to be here.
Unless he didn't, but he couldn't do that because they would all know and that would get out.
But I have a feeling he was probably like, I have to lie to all these players to tell them to come to Alabama and in a couple weeks I'm going to retire.
Because now Alabama is going to lose at least a third of the guys.
There's no way they don't.
It's possible, but look, it depends on how quickly they move for a coach.
I mean, that's going to be one of the keys.
I mean, if you bring in a Dan Lanning, you bring in somebody like that that may still have that sort of pizazz, they may stay.
But here's an interesting thing, Chip, you just mentioned this.
It also, to me, and maybe I'm ascribing too much to something, but I think we're all in agreement he's one of the greatest college football coaches.
I mean, two of the greatest college football coaches ever came out of Alabama, Bear Bryant and Nick Saban.
But the issue, he announced his retirement after the portal had closed, which opened up an exclusive portal for his kids for 30 days.
I can't deny that unplanned.
It's the construct of what college football is under now.
And look, I'm sure Nick Saban knew that too.
I mean, James is right and you're right, Doug.
But it's the construct of which we're at.
I mean, you can't announce your retirement before the season's over.
You don't want to announce your retirement...
You know, in mid-late February.
I mean, it does suck.
I mean, you know, people are saying, oh, why are you?
The Bulls are so bad.
You got six and six teams and you got people transferring.
You know, why don't you open the portal, you know, after the new year?
Well, hello.
These kids have to go to school.
The semester starts in January.
The reason the portal is open in December is it's the end of the school year.
If kids are going to transfer immediately, they need to get enrolled in their new school for the new semester.
You really can't transfer mid-semester.
You know, it's tough, and there was never going to be an easy time or a right time if you're Nick Saban to retire.
I mean, when is a right time for a guy like Nick Saban to retire?
Well, my thought was, I think he actually did this and actually helped those that he recruited.
I think it helped those that on his team, because now they're the only ones that could be newly into the portal.
They're going to get all the attention.
Sure.
That's right.
And all the coaches will see him.
So like the one who decommitted yesterday, that big tight end, I don't know, it was a wide receiver.
Ryan Williams.
I mean, he's back on the market, can still go anywhere, can conceivably still register into school early if he needed to.
I just think it was probably as hard as it is with what you just described, Chip, probably one of the classier moves I've seen from Nick Saban for his players.
Yeah.
Yeah.
As we go.
Hey, speaking of which though, I mean, that opens it up.
I mean, I brought up a name, Dan Lanning.
James brought up Dabo Sweeney.
Who else is out there on this one?
Well, I think you're going to see Lane Kiffin's name in the show.
I was just going to say, if Lane Kiffin gets the job.
Because Lane Kiffin's a good coach, and I think Alabama has bigger bags, you know, bigger money bags than Ole Miss does.
I mean, you know, but I just don't think, I don't think they're going to get a Dan Lanning or a Lane Kiffin or a Davos Sweeney.
You know, I think, you know, I don't know that Alabama wants Davos Sweeney.
I think they would want Lane Kiffin and Dan Lanning, but they're not idiots too on what's happened in history.
What they would be looking at doing in order to come in.
Let me ask you this.
What is success succeeding Nick Saban?
Answer that.
What is success?
What are you going to judge success by as the next football coach at Alabama?
You have three years to win a championship.
Nick Saban didn't win a championship in the last three years.
That's what I'm saying.
That's your only option.
You have three years.
You have a three-year window before they fire you because he wants six there or five.
Yeah.
I think you look at this sort of like it was after Bayer We're good to go.
Gene Stallings?
Stallings.
Gene Stallings brought it back.
And then when Stallings left again, they had the drop down.
And then Saban, of course, comes back in.
And for the last, you know, 16 years, 17 years has been, you know, off the chart.
Georgia had the same thing.
Duly retired.
Ray Goff was loved by most.
Had no chance.
I mean, he played for a few years.
And then they went through another one.
Then they got Rick.
And Rick...
I think one of the reasons that Kirby has done so well is Rick was good, but Kirby has proved to be better.
And there was a few years toward the end, people had lost faith in Rick being more than where we were.
And so I think that's a transition.
They don't have that at Alabama.
The Alabama transition is, why aren't you winning a national title?
Yeah, I mean, you talked about being in an impossible position.
Yeah, it's going to be tough to go in there.
But you're talking about the recruiting classes, right?
This is why, and I'm not saying any of it.
I don't want to compare college to pro football because college basketball, again, is so much about the coaches.
But Krzyzewski, when he retired, he retired at the beginning of the season, right?
And then said, this is my last year.
That recruiting class after that wasn't as good.
Let's just be honest.
That's what you're talking about with Alabama now.
The recruiting class next year and the year after have to be convinced that it's about Alabama's pedigree and them getting you into the NFL over you're not going to play for Nick Saban.
That's a tough thing to sell right now.
It's, yeah, I would argue it's an impossible thing to sell and have success with.
I mean, I guess we'll find out, you know, I mean, whoever the successor is, but...
There's no one, is there someone under him right now that people have said, because obviously he's had a ton of people like Kirby and other guys that moved on, and is there someone under him right now that has a chance to be a good coach, or is there not?
I haven't even heard anything about his assistants.
No, I think their defensive coordinator just retired a week ago, and he wasn't going to fit.
He wasn't going to check the box for the Alabama brass.
I mean, you know, the Alabama donors are going to be putting a lot of pressure on a big-name coach to come in here, and I just don't know that they succeeded at getting one, you know?
Yeah, definitely.
This is the weakest, and weak is a very loose term here.
This is the less star-powered assistant coaching staff that Saban's ever had.
I think that's fair.
Yeah, it's just, I mean, can you go back over the last 17 years, you've had Sarkeesian, you've had Kiffin, you've had Kirby, you've had, you know, you just, you know.
I mean, their offensive coordinator this year was Tommy Reese.
I mean, he's not going to get the job.
No, not at all.
Well, he can be the sacrificial lamb.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, look, here's what I'm looking for more than anything.
There will come a time in the near future, and it probably won't be this week whenever he does his announcement in his press conference and things like that.
But in the near future, I'd say probably within the next three months.
You know, Nick Saban will sit down under his own terms and give an interview to somebody at his own terms.
And I think, you know, I look forward to his candid comments on where he thinks the state of college football is.
Oh, it's going to be good.
Yeah, and what role that played and the changes that college football has undergone, you know, both with the NIL, both with the transfer portal, both with conference realignment.
You throw all that in there.
I mean, that's a lot of change to this product in the last five years.
And look, I know Nick Saban's 72 years old as well.
There were only two coaches in Division I football who were older than him.
So let's also not pretend that age didn't play a role in this too.
But, you know, he now has his handcuffs off and he can now be as candid as he's ever been.
And I really look forward to that.
Do you guys want a quick ESPN's top seven to replace real quick?
They had Dabo at number one, Dan Lanning at number two, but he just re-signed with Oregon, right?
Alabama's got the money to buy that out.
I'm just saying he just re-signed, like yesterday or today.
Kalen DeBoer, Mike Norville, Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkeesian, and James Franklin.
James Franklin's kind of interesting.
No.
No, listen, hear me out.
I'm not saying you want him.
No.
I'm just saying that to me, that's Penn State.
I don't know how to put it.
Penn State is one of those.
They always play a pretty good schedule.
They do.
But what I'm saying is they always end up in the top 15. You're talking about getting Alabama's recruiting class.
If you can convince them James Franklin can be the next guy.
I'm not saying you want him.
I'm just saying, I feel like that's the most interesting one.
Because all the other guys are like, underlies essentially.
Yeah, I mean, I think it's very interesting, but all of those coaches that you just mentioned are successful coaches right now at good programs, and they're making a lot of money.
A lot of money.
You're right, you haven't won the big game yet.
You tend to lose big games, but you're not on the cusp of losing your job.
True, true.
No, he's not going to lose that.
No.
Even if Alabama is to go down the ladder, per se, the fifth or sixth rung on the ladder and decide they want to pursue a James Franklin, is that really something that he would want to do, too?
That's why I just think...
I don't know.
I mean, look, this could go so many different directions, you know, and so, you know, we'll see.
Yeah, James Franklin needs to stay in a place that won't fire him for losing every one of his big games every year and still win 10 games.
Don't be grumpy about this, all right?
Bill Belichick's coming to Alabama.
That's what's going to happen.
This has all been planned out.
Arthur Smith.
Send Arthur Smith to Alabama.
Yeah.
Y'all saw, I sent y'all out yesterday, the Annie Agar stuff.
That was incredible.
I mean, we need to be a sponsor for Annie Agar on this show because she is amazing.
You know what?
Can we just take a moment of silence for Cordero Patterson's career now that Arthur Smith's gone?
Johnny Smith's gone, too.
Tyler Algier's career.
You know what's funny?
Tyler Algier is one of those guys that last year played perfectly fine.
He was absolutely suitable for that role.
And he was fine this year, let's be honest.
The amount of touches didn't work out for either of them.
But I think it's very funny.
Alabama is so interesting.
They're like, let's just get all these super weapons and we're going to use every single one of them at the most inopportune time.
That's the Arthur Smith motto.
And now he's gone, and now they just have everything they need.
They just need someone who's willing to be like, Algier, you are the backup running back.
I cannot stress this enough.
Yeah, I got to bring up something here that you're going to hear, folks, on the double portion of today's Friday's Finals with Coach Jan Gailey, just as a little hint here.
I asked the question, Jan, if you're a member of Coach, that, you know, I think that instead of a new, you know, whiz or whatever coming in, could they benefit from a You know, an older, you know, more seasoned coach, a Belichick or something like that.
And Chan actually agreed with us, Chip, that that might be what the Falcons needed.
He talked about Dan, the coach in the Lions, brought in that toughness mentality.
Because that's what Atlanta seems to lack.
They lack that Stopping a bill, that toughness on both sides of the ball.
And it's just like, we're going to make everybody happy, everybody feel good with the ATL, whatever, but they never play.
The other thing is, Blank has a literal blank check.
I mean, and he shows a propensity to the high name.
So I'm wondering who he's actually going to go after.
Well, look at the teams that turned it around a little bit this year.
You said Dan Campbell brings toughness.
The Texans got, what's his name?
I'm blanking out on his name.
Nico Ryan.
Nico Ryan's a tough dude.
Look at the Raiders' turnaround.
They didn't play excellent at the end of the season, but compared to what they were doing, the fact that Antonio Pierce isn't signed already, if I'm Atlanta, I'm calling.
Yeah.
I know you said a veteran coach, but I'm just talking about guys who bring a certain mentality.
I get it.
If you're the Raiders, you should sign him.
But I'm just saying that's exactly what Atlanta needs because they just have a bunch of flash guys that can ball out.
Every one of those dudes is super talented.
It just needs to be brought in, kind of squared around the edges.
You know what I'm saying?
We need the grits blitz back there, Chip.
Yeah, and what I don't know with the Falcons, too, is here's what I don't know.
I know B. John Robinson's going to be a longtime good performer in the NFL. I know that Drake London will.
I think Kyle Pitts might be a bust.
At this point, his psyche is ruined.
But I could be wrong.
It could just be he's been in the wrong system.
The pieces hadn't come together.
At the beginning of the season, I was thinking that.
Now I'm really beginning to feel like he's just kind of a bust.
I hope I'm wrong.
I would love to see his career resurrected, but I've not been impressed with anything I've seen from Kyle Pitts in three years.
You know, and so, you know, is that all attributed to Arthur Smith?
I don't doubt it.
You know, but we need a quarterback in here.
We need a coach that can put it together because we're not that far away.
I mean, we're not from a personnel perspective where some of the other teams are.
I mean, we got skill players.
We got people that can make plays.
You know, we got good players on defense.
It's just not, you know, it's just for whatever reason, like you said, I mean, it's just...
Not been put together and maybe that is something like a Belichick could do.
Yeah, that'll be interesting to see.
You know, Blank is, I mean, he's got the ability.
The financial ability is not a problem, I mean, as far as bringing somebody in.
We know in the past he's wanted to go after Parcells and Gibbs and everybody else.
I mean, so he's willing to go after the big name.
So we'll see what happens there.
James, I got to agree with you about Pierce in Las Vegas.
It's interesting, though, they've allowed him, teams have asked to talk to them about their head coaching job.
The Raiders haven't sort of objected yet, so that's an interesting...
I just don't get it.
What are they waiting for?
What are the Raiders waiting for?
Mark Davis wants John Madden.
Mark Davis wants John Madden.
I just don't get it.
He ain't fair.
John Gruden.
No, he wants John Madden.
He wants to go back.
I guess.
He literally wants to go.
Ask him going after Gruden again.
No, no, no.
Gruden's out.
That ain't going to happen as we go into this thing.
But, I mean, it's just an interesting perspective here.
But I also think, while we're discussing this, and I know you...
Let's take a break from coaches for a second.
To me, it's just intriguing, and this is Friday's Finest.
And I think we need to take these quirkily in the roads.
And James, you said about McAfee a minute ago.
I agree with you, but this is fascinating to me.
McAfee goes after his boss, I guess, at ESPN. The big boss over the boss that McAfee trashed was with him at the Indianapolis game over the weekend.
He continues trashing the ESPN boss again on the college football pregame show when his crew was there on Monday.
He then has Aaron Rodgers on to give a retort back to Jimmy Kimmel on the whole Epstein and vaccines and everything else, Bill.
The next day, McAfee says, okay, the Aaron Rodgers part of the season is over.
He won't be back.
I'm glad this is not going to happen.
And I'm not going to be mentioned, which I thought was pretty interesting.
And then yesterday, on Thursday, Belichick retires and they bump the McAfee show off of 12 o'clock on ESPN. Something's going on at this level.
We'll see on Friday, you know, today what happens, but we may see YouTube reappear in McAfee's future.
It's the sports equivalent to what happens in politics all the time in Game of Thrones.
I mean, the Pat McAfee show and ESPN. Completely Game of Thrones.
Yeah.
Wow.
Announced the Aaron Rodgers thing was over for the season.
The season's over anyway.
We've got playoff games starting tomorrow.
James, you're in this industry.
You know the stuff that Arbitron, all this kind of viewership ratings.
Chip and I are just...
We're politicos and stuff.
You get this from that insider.
If you've noticed...
I hear conflicting statements.
A lot of folks say that the McAfee show has actually helped ESPN. They've actually increased viewership during that hour.
I can't believe that people watch Get Up and whatever first take.
I mean, that's the most boring shows I've ever seen in my life.
But where is this in reality?
I mean, is ESPN really an institutional decision here?
They paid him a lot of money.
But they seem to be making a lot of money on this as well.
From the business background, what do you take from this?
I mean, I don't want to...
How do I put this?
How many McAfee clips are there on the internet that aren't related to ESPN or the McAfee show?
Like, his stuff goes viral anyway.
Aaron Rodgers went viral.
Coach Saban goes viral.
I mean, even that video, this was like three years ago, feels like.
Maybe even more where that little kid came on and said, screw Boston.
My point is that they are a viral show, regardless.
They don't need ESPN. ESPN needed them.
Can we be real about that?
ESPN has bad programming.
I grew up, when I was a kid, I woke up to SportsCenter, I came home to SportsCenter.
I cared about it.
That show is, I hate saying it, that show is absolute trash.
It's not the same as when I was a kid, and the shows they put on around it aren't very good.
I think they've lost a lot of luster.
Plus, you're in a generation now, and I know we can talk about this company all we want, but Barstool is the standard, guys.
Barstool is the standard.
Every one of their clips goes viral.
There's nothing on ESPN that goes viral.
Outside of a couple comments here and there from Stephen A. Smith, but mostly it's Stephen A. Smith's post, his late night show, that's just him.
Like, the McAfee show is going to help ESPN. And there's somebody who just doesn't like the fact that they say what they want and do what they want and get away with it.
Well, guess what?
It's 2024. This is the world we live in.
People want that.
People want people to be real and interesting.
And as far as the Aaron Rodgers thing is concerned, they had to dump that because he, first of all, he's pissing people off.
I did not know how much it was.
Aaron Rodgers, he's starting to piss off conservatives at this point.
This guy's all off the map.
They don't like that he's brash.
They don't like his fake New York nonsense where he's pretending he likes it.
I think that's what some people are getting.
Everyone thinks he's a phony now, and I think that's part of the problem.
Chip, from a perspective of me, and I'm going to bring this back to a serious question, Chip, on Fridays.
I know we do this some, but Is this not reflective a little bit of what you and I face in the political realm right now with messaging?
That you're seeing where people are getting their talking points, where they're getting their influencers, where they're getting is so different than where it was, say, even five to 10 years ago.
Yeah, I mean, the example that I was going to use is, you know, when Donald Trump first decided he wanted to run for president, you know, one of the reasons he was so maddening to a lot of people, and I remember Amy Walter from, I still remember reading Amy's opinion piece, National Journal, was, you know, Republicans don't like him because he's not following the rules, right?
Right?
He's kind of making his own rules up.
And I think Pat McAfee is kind of the sports equivalent of that, right?
A lot of the old guard at ESPN, they're not used to succeeding that way.
They're not used to their programming and their talent being like a Pat McAfee.
But like James said, it's got a lot of eyeballs and a lot of listeners on it.
It's shock value stuff.
You know, Stephen A. Smith is, you know, there's some times I want to wring his neck and he drives me crazy, and then there's other times.
I mean, I really enjoy listening because he's entertaining.
I mean, you know, I don't have to like what he has to say, but he sure is a lot more entertaining than a lot of talent that they have at the network.
And, you know, the guy's got more energy than, you know, than an Energizer bunny.
So, yeah, I think there's some parallels that we can draw.
Absolutely.
Did you see?
I'm sorry.
Go ahead, Doug.
Go ahead, Doug.
Well, I'm just saying, did you guys see Stephen A. Smith about Jason Whitlock or whatever his name is?
Oh, yes.
Right.
He went bananas on him, right?
That clip went viral, but he said he called him a fat this, this, that.
He cursed at him.
And I'm not saying cursing.
I know people say cursing is the lowest form and blah, blah, blah.
You've been watching Reacher lately, huh?
Hey, I love that show.
But cursing is real.
Cursing is what people do.
It's part of how people speak.
It's not uncommon, okay?
Let's stop pretending it is.
And they stop pretending.
Barstool stopped pretending that people don't talk like that.
Yeah, sometimes does it cross a line and it's a little gratuitous?
Of course it is.
I mean, that's everything, right?
I mean...
But Stephen A last night went, like, wailed on this man, whether you agree with him or not.
Why?
I missed it.
Why?
Jason Whitlock, I think Jason Whitlock is just, personally, I think he just comes off like such a smug scumbag, but that's my opinion.
I think a lot of the stuff is that he came out with an article and went after a bunch of ESPN people, and they were mostly black people, and I think it had something to do with that, whether it was or wasn't.
I believe that had something to do with it.
And Stephen A. Smith just lost it and was like, you're telling people all this stuff about me.
And he went bananas.
Last night, he just went off on them.
It seemed unprompted, to be honest, but I don't know.
No, I tell you, I believe it's been building for a while, but I tell you, the straw that broke the camel's back was that Jason Whitlock, this week, accused Stephen A. Smith of not writing the book that he's about to publish.
Oh, okay.
I didn't catch that because they didn't show that part of the clip.
All right, that's my bad.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jason Whitlock claims he has it on a good source.
Because evidently, or that he just published or is about to publish, Stephen A. Smith's about to put out a book.
Obviously, he wants to get a lot of people to write it or read it.
But Jason Whitlock claims he has a good source that says that it was ghostwritten and it's not really in Stephen A. Smith's words.
Who cares?
I was just going to say, who cares?
These people are delusional.
Do you think Brett Baer and Brian Kilmeade write every word of the books they wrote?
No, they don't.
No, but I know that Doug Collins wrote his book.
You better believe it.
It was in my bottom line.
You know what's funny?
I'm pounding that sucker out.
Well, you wrote it when I read it.
I said, I know Doug wrote this because this is in his language.
Exactly right.
Does that say y'all?
Barely above literate.
You know what's funny?
I tuned Jason Whitlock out years ago because he was disparaging women who were writers, and I was like, okay.
But then a couple weeks ago at some event, I think it's called AmFest, He basically said that women shouldn't vote.
And all I could think to myself was like, I know you think you're at a convention that might be a safe space, champ, but I don't think there's that.
He's like, remember before suffrage?
And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no.
You don't get to go there.
You lose all credibility by going there.
Remember when it was a family vote?
Okay, we get it.
You don't like women.
That's fine.
But yeah, that part of it made me laugh.
But that's what I'm saying.
Last night, that clip went viral because Stephen A went bananas on the guy.
And that's what you get when you get Pat McAfee's show.
And ESPN needs that.
They're losing to everyone.
The only thing they have are sporting events at this point.
Okay.
Wild card weekend.
We've touched on coaches.
We've touched on a lot of things.
We've touched on the absolute debacle of Philadelphia, Miami, in the last little bit.
They've been terrible.
But let's break down the games.
We'll talk about them a minute.
We'll give a prediction and we'll move.
Okay?
Let's start off with the first one.
It will be on Saturday afternoon, Browns-Texans.
The story of the kid and the old man.
What do you think?
I'm taking the kid.
I mean, you know, I'm an old man.
I'm taking the kid.
I'm putting my money on C.J. Stroud and the fairy tale season, which is Joe Flacco, I think comes to an end on Saturday.
But I think it's going to be a close game.
The line on that one is Cleveland's favorite by two and a half.
Give me Flacco, baby.
The run ain't over yet, Chip.
It ain't over yet.
I really hope this game is good, though.
I'll be rooting for CJ Stroud, too.
But yeah, I think the Flacco continues.
Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with that.
I've gained a ton of respect for C.J. Stroud this year, just watching him play more than anything else.
He's got a lot of old traditional school in him.
I think it's pretty cool.
But I'm gonna have to take the Flacco experience here.
Too many of Texans' folks are still young.
They're still getting there.
I mean, look, it wouldn't surprise me.
They won.
They're at home.
There'll be a great atmosphere there at home.
But I'm gonna have to go with the old man on this one.
Chip, you're gonna have to take the young one.
And then the stupid bowl.
Next week, I'll say I told you so.
Yeah, you told me so.
Okay, there you go.
And now we have the stupid bowl, and that is the Dolphins Chiefs on Peacock.
KC's a four and a half favorite.
Dolphins should never have been here.
Of course, Jacksonville should have actually been in the playoffs too, but that's a whole different story.
Dolphins Chiefs, James.
Oh man, it's the Chiefs.
The Dolphins aren't going to be able to throw a ball in ice weather.
Do you think it will slow Tyreek Hill down?
No, no.
His blood pumps in negative five degrees.
He's fine.
He's the only one who's going to be okay.
He's played in this.
I'm worried about everybody else.
Yeah, that's right.
He does go back home here, so that's an interesting fact.
Chipper?
Yeah, look.
I mean, the Chiefs at home...
With the conditions like they are, and Miami has to be thinking in the back of their heads when they come out for warm-ups and four-degree temperatures and wind chills minus 15, they've got to be going, why didn't we take care of business next week?
Give me the Chiefs in an ugly, low-scoring game.
Prop bet.
Swift there or not?
Of course.
James?
Oh yeah, put your money on Taylor Swift.
Remember, she wasn't there this weekend.
She was at Golden Globe, so she couldn't be there.
She was busy getting awards.
She was busy talking to people.
By the way, some of the best memes have come out of Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande talking to each other.
There's been some best memes come out of that.
That was a tough Golden Globes.
Joe Coy, I feel bad for him, man.
He had 10 days to prepare for that show, man.
Did you see the first part of it?
What's that?
The Golden Globes.
I did not.
Okay, I stayed.
It was after a football game, so I stayed for five minutes.
I said, let me hear the monologue, because sometimes they're good.
I wanted to get into the TV and pull him off the stage.
I felt so bad for him.
It was so bad.
He's funnier than that.
I've seen him.
He's funnier than that.
People know him better than that, too, that said this was an unfair...
I don't know how they did this to him.
The Taylor Swift joke went off so poorly.
It was like watching an episode of all the worst hard parts of The Office over and over again.
It was terrible.
Chip, it was mind-numbingly bad.
I saw the clip of the Swift joke and it wasn't all that funny.
When you're having to tell the audience, hey, I got hired two weeks ago.
I didn't write all of this.
There's a problem.
Yeah, that was tough, man.
That was tough to watch.
Alright, moving into Sunday.
The 1 o'clock game.
Steelers-Bills.
Bills are minus...
They're giving 10. Bills are up by 10 in this.
Are we taking the game or the spread?
I'm just letting it be out there.
Straight up pick, money line pick.
You know what?
Give me Josh Allen.
He's rolling, baby.
Yeah, I'm taking the Bills.
I mean, whether they cover or not, it's probably a coin flip.
But look, Mason Rudolph's done great over the last three weeks.
It makes you wonder why Kenny Pickett started so many games.
But I got the Bills in this one.
Yeah, we're all three here on this one.
All three with the Bills.
Then the throwback game, 4-30 game on Fox, Packers-Cowboys.
Chip?
The Cowboys win this game.
Very close game.
Very close game.
But the Cowboys squeak it out and they advance.
But there will be some nervous people.
Very nervous.
Cowboys by 50. Cowboys by 50. Chip, so you'll take the 7.5 on Green Bay, correct?
I'll take the 7.5.
Dallas wins, but they don't cover.
Painful for me to say Cowboys on that one.
And then the fun feel-good game.
The 8 o'clock game, NBC Rams lines at Detroit.
First home game, first playoff game, all these other things.
Stafford coming back, Goff's quarterbacking.
James, I'll let you go first.
It pains me to say this because I really dislike Dan Campbell so much in every way known to man now that he's enemy number one.
But yeah, they're going to beat the Rams.
I think the Rams' luck is...
I don't want to call it luck, but they've had a pretty close schedule where they could win some games, and they did.
They almost lost to the Giants, for God's sakes.
Yeah, I think Detroit's going to win.
They're going to win by at least a touchdown.
Yeah, Detroit covers.
They finally figured out the right rotation with David Montgomery and Jameer Gibbs.
It takes the load off of what Jared Goff has to do.
Give me the Lions.
I'm taking the Lions and I'll give away the three points.
Yeah, I'll take the Lions as well.
And although I think it could be very close.
I think this is one that I think Sometimes you just have to go with the mojo factor and Stafford walking back into that place.
I'd love to see a shootout, wouldn't you?
Yeah.
This feels like it could be one of those.
Yeah.
And it'll be one touchdown.
Well, especially when you've got LaPorta's down for the Lions.
Right.
Right, right, right, right, right.
He's been, wow.
Talk about one of the best rookie tight ends of all time.
Yep.
And then the really, frankly, Monday night, who cares?
I mean, because it's from the NFC South, the 9-18.
Give me the Bucs!
And got Bucs-Eagles, and it's at Tampa Bay.
I love the Bucs here.
I don't know why.
I know that the Eagles have been struggling, and that's part of it, but, like, I don't know.
Baker Mayfield to Mike Evans has been a godsend.
Yeah, look, I mean, this game to me is a coin flip.
I mean, you know, the Eagles should win, but it's really baffling what's happened to the Eagles down the road.
And so, you know, I mean, this is a coin flip for me, and depending on whether it's heads or tails, you know, it wouldn't surprise me if either thing happened.
But I will say this, if the Buccaneers beat the Eagles, look for there to be another head coaching opening in the NFL. I think Philly fans are Ready to move on from Nick Sirianni, which is remarkable considering where they were six, seven weeks ago.
Belichick to the Eagles?
Is that what Chip just said?
Oh, I didn't say that.
I didn't say that.
But that would be a very logical landing spot because it's not a rebuild.
That's not a rebuild.
Correct.
Well, it's going to be interesting there because, I mean, last year at this time, a little about three weeks from now, I was flying on a plane from Atlanta to Portland, Oregon and watching Kansas City and Philadelphia in the Super Bowl.
So that just shows you where this whole season has fallen.
A lot of good games there, a lot of stuff to talk about for next week as we go forward.
We may see some coaching by the next time we gather for Friday's Finals.
We may see some coaching vacancies filled.
I think some of these will be filled fairly quickly.
It'll be interesting to see.
I don't think the Alabama job will be filled fairly quickly, but who knows?
We'll see how it all works out.
One last political note for Chip before we go.
Scale of 1 to 10, not that he would be replaced, okay?
Because I don't think Hakeem would let another vacation, the chair, go through.
I think Hakeem would step in, even if he knows it's detrimental to the Speaker anyway.
But I don't think they...
Because he wasted six weeks of life in the fall with no Speaker.
1 to 10, 10 being...
One being no problem at all.
Right now, where do you put the climate for Speaker Johnson?
Oh, wow.
Probably a three.
And the reason I say three is because...
You know, what Mike Johnson enjoys that Kevin McCarthy didn't enjoy is he is...
And look, I like Kevin McCarthy.
I don't know Mike Johnson.
He seems like a nice guy.
But it seems like Mike Johnson is liked and trusted by more of the caucus.
And so maybe, you know, he can get away with more.
And so I think it's probably closer to one than ten, although it's been a long week with the budget deal with Chuck Schumer.
And so, you know, but I ultimately, Doug, and I think, you know, I think you've said it too.
I think Republicans' problem right now is math.
We don't have as big enough margin as we need.
And, you know, and that's a big problem.
But I think, you know, I think it's probably around three, which is, you know, higher than it was last week.
But, you know, a lot lower than it was when, you know, when the temperature was hot for the previous speaker.
Yeah, I don't think they're going to get rid of it.
I just don't think they can afford to.
But I also think that the next three weeks determine if the Republicans keep the House.
I would almost think that it would be very difficult for...
Speaker Johnson to be Speaker Johnson next year.
I think that's accurate.
That's probably more accurate.
And I also don't see him being...
And if, God forbid, it happened, they go to the minority, I don't see him as minority leader.
I mean, there's been some harsh rhetoric this week, especially with the budget deal and everything else.
I mean, there's so much things not just talking about as well that you've got to look at from not only the budget deal, but also FISA. I mean, you've got Ag Bill.
You've got so many other things out there on the plate.
But we'll all get into it as we go.
Had to get that last little bit in there.
It's been a great Friday's Finest.
We also got Chan Gaby on here today, so you got plenty of stuff to go on your day, on your weekend.
We'll see you Monday.
Matt Whitaker is with us for talking about the Iowa caucuses and a lot more coming up with you.
And I will see you folks, as I reminded you'll see.
I'll see you next week on Fox.
We'll see you next week here on the Doug Collins Podcast.
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