Lil Wayne to Join New-Look Undisputed
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Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my 100th Mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much?

I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at midmobile.com slash save whenever you're ready. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details. Here we go. This is the Skip Bayless Show. Episode 74.

in honor of one of the all-time greatest Dallas Cowboys, Bob Lilly, out of Texas Christian University, who wore number 74 and who recently turned 84. This, as always, is The Un-Undisputed, everything I cannot share with you during Undisputed, which, by the way, does return with Nuclear Force on August 28th. Be there. But today, speaking of Undisputed, I will tell you the backstory

of a brand new theme song my man Lil Wayne has just created and recorded for the Undisputed relaunch. Today I will answer one of your questions about whether Dak Prescott is a Hall of Famer. Today I will tell you why Terrence "Bud" Crawford would have beaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. Today

I will tell you why Aaron Bleepin' Rogers finally did something that impressed even me. And why, very weirdly, Sean Payton also impressed me at the Jets' expense. And today, I will answer your questions about my most controversial opinion, in my opinion, and about my most difficult debate topic, in my opinion. But first up, as always...

It is not to be skipped. So I've spoken about this often on this podcast, my relationship with my brother Lil Wayne, how much the original theme song that he created and recorded for the kickoff of Undisputed on September 6th, 2016 meant to me. No mercy. That theme song is all time, all time great. I've long been a big Wayne fan.

a Millie, Lollipop, Mr. Carter, I could go on and on. To me, and maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, maybe I don't have any perspective, maybe I've lost all objectivity when it comes to Wayne, but to me, No Mercy is right up there with any of his greatest songs. It stands alone as a separate, beautiful entity that will stand the test of time.

My man Snoop Dogg has been on Undisputed several times and has said to me during commercial breaks, "That's a great song." In fact, Snoop has told me that he believes "No Mercy" was so great, so impactful, because it plays at the open up every single morning's Undisputed. Five days a week. We barely take vacation, we're on hiatus now, but it feels like 52 weeks a year.

you hear No Mercy. You see the accompanying video of Wayne spitting those bars. And at one point, Snoop told me that he believes that No Mercy actually launched the second half of Wayne's all-time greatest career. That's how powerful that song was in Snoop's eyes, which are far more accomplished, obviously, than my eyes.

So Wayne and I started going back and forth, sometimes on text, sometimes face to face about No Mercy going back a year ago, because at one point he said to me, I'm going to do another one. And I said, well, you mean you would replace No Mercy? Yeah. Yeah. And I said to him, you can't do better than the best. You can't do greater than the greatest because you're

That song, that theme song, No Mercy and I Won't Back Down, is simply the greatest sports show theme song ever, ever. Not even close. And he would say to me, watch me, just watch. Felt like I was daring him. So we went back and forth and I waited and I waited and nothing happened. And I thought, you know what? He came to his senses and he finally realized

You can't top that. And then that happened. Shannon Sharp left. We went back in the lab. We took a little break. We're going to relaunch August 28th. And all of a sudden, an opportunity has arisen for at least a tweak of No Mercy as we go forward into our next incarnation. At least a tweak. I thought, well, maybe he'll tweak the lyrics a bit. Maybe. I didn't know.

Wayne said, "I got you. Just give me a little time. I got you." I said, "Okay." Basically saying to him, "Good luck." So at one point, two, three weeks ago, he texted, "I've got the music. I'm working on the lyrics to the new theme song." "You've got the music?" And I'm thinking, "Wait. Are you going to create a whole new song?" "Okay." I didn't text back, "Good luck," but I was thinking, "Good luck." And I waited.

And he worked on it, texted a couple times, still working on it. Okay, I got it. Can't rush that creative process, how well I know, although I seem to do all of mine under pressure. I need a deadline. I think Wayne needs a deadline too. But once we went on a hiatus, it gave him a little bit more of a break to get it exactly right. And trust me, my brother Wayne is at least into a relaunch as I am.

He is heart and soul into the relaunch. And by the way, bigger picture, Wayne has agreed every Friday going forward to do a segment with me live. He might not always be in studio depending on his schedule, but he's going to join me every Friday for a segment, I don't know, 12, 15 minutes. If he's hot, if he's rolling, maybe we'll keep him a couple segments if he has the time. That you can look forward to. He is so deep when it comes to sports.

He doesn't yell or scream, but he does get emotional. And you hang on his every word because trust me, he has thought through every single word. I like to say that I see things and say things others don't. Wayne is my match. That's why I love him so much. That's why we text so much about sports. We're kindred spirits, but we do see things differently, but very deeply. So it was a couple of nights ago,

I was working late on my screenplay. I'm about halfway through it. It's starting to write me more than I'm writing it. I finally wore out. I said, "That's enough. I got to stop." Ernstine had already gone to bed. Bing! Wait, I got a late text. Usually, I know who that's from. It's from my brother Wayne. And all that he texted me

was the new song. No text, nothing written, no hope you like it, no nothing. Just the song. For a second, I tried to get it to play through Dropbox, and I couldn't make it work, and then I had to do this and that, and it was driving me out of my mind. But I finally got it to play. And as I finally got it to play, I stopped it and went and woke up Ernestine because I wanted her to sit with me, my wife Ernestine.

and I wanted to see how she and I reacted to whatever it was because we had no idea. It's a whole new song, and you're gonna have to trust me on this. It is spectacular. It was so new and so different that we were blown away initially in a weird way because we weren't ready for it. We had to listen to it a second time to say, "Wait a second. What is this?"

I texted back, obviously, "This is incredible. So thankful, so honored, so blessed." And the point is, it was so late at night and I was so worn out from a very long day of creating on my own that the total impact didn't hit me until the next morning when I played it again and again and again and again and again

And trust me on this, it got better every time. I miss that nuance and that nuance. I'll say this, Wayne sings in it more than usual, I'll say. He also plays the guitar in it. It's a very special song to the point that after hearing it the 27th time, I now actually believe it's even better than the original. I did not think even

That man, Lil Wayne, was capable of doing that, but he pulled it off. He outdid even his all-time greatest GOAT self. Reminded me quickly of a player I covered really all the way up through his career. You might or might not know him, named Dennis Thurman. He was with Deion Sanders, defensive coordinator at Jackson State. He's been defensive coordinator under Rex Ryan. Jets came up through the Baltimore system as a coach, but I knew him first.

In my first go-round out here in Los Angeles at the LA Times when I covered USC, those vaunted Trojans and Dennis Thurman was an all-American safety for those USC Trojans I covered. And then right on schedule as I took the columnist job at age 25, moved to Dallas to become their lead columnist of Dallas Morning News, Dennis got drafted, I think it was in the 11th round, I think they had 11 rounds at that point, but late round draft choice of my Cowboys.

And by God, he wound up breaking through and starting at cornerback for that team within a couple of years. So I got to know Dennis very well. And at one point we're having just an offhand conversation, a locker room conversation about the rise of Larry Bird in Boston in his first couple of years. And Dennis made this analogy to me. He said, you know, it's like you buy a new record.

there's a new song on it that you kind of like and you listen to it one time and you think, eh, it's pretty good. Then maybe a day later you listen to it a second time and you think, God, it's actually better than I thought. Then you listen to it a third and a fourth time and it starts to get really good. And then you listen to it an eighth and a ninth time and you say, this song is great because this song, as in Larry Bird, The Great White Hope, opposite Magic Johnson,

It just grows on you. Larry Bird's game just grew on you. You say, well, he can't do that and he can't do it. Yeah, but look what he can do. And he can do that and he can do that. And you know what? The more I watch him, the better he gets. The more I listen to the new version of the Undisputed Intro song, the better it gets. It just reverberates with magnitude. It's the best I can tell you before you get to hear it on or around August 28th.

Next day or two, we're going to shoot the accompanying video for it. Probably right here where I'm sitting right now, there's a sound stage over there. We'll probably have him up. Could be even this Friday. And we will shoot the video to go along with it that you will see every single morning as we relaunch Undisputed.

That song will launch undisputed every single morning. I will come out of my chair because of that song every single morning. I cannot wait for August 28th. Thank you, Wayne. Bless you, Wayne.

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and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash Bayless. Just go to Indeed.com slash Bayless right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash Bayless. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. First question I take is from Theo from Chicago. Is Dak Prescott a Hall of Famer?

When I first saw this question, I started to laugh and then I almost started to cry. Then that big part of me that's a delusional, lifelong, die-hard Dallas Cowboy fan, the part that controls my deepest psyche, took over. And I actually let my mind go to, well, maybe somehow miraculously in the next three or four years, Dak will qualify as a Hall of Famer.

And then my painfully honest self took back over, my objective self. And I shook my head and I said, you know, right now, Dak Prescott is in my hall of shame. He's so far from Hall of Famer. I mean, Dak Prescott is now two and four in the postseason. Two and four is Dak Prescott. He's had his moments. He's made two Pro Bowls.

That was his rookie year when Zeke had a whole lot to do with it. And that was 2018 when the arrival of Amari Cooper had a whole lot to do with it. I stand by what I said on Undisputed on this podcast last year. I watched Cooper Rush take over for five games for Dak Prescott and run the offense more efficiently and effectively than Dak ever did.

I'll be real comfortable this year if Cooper Rush is forced to take back over for X number of games. I'll be real comfortable because he is the realest deal. School is back and Dick's Sporting Goods has what you need to win your year. We've got everything from cleats to sambas, dunks, and more. Plus, the hottest looks from Nike, Jordan, and Adidas. Find your first day fits in-store or online at dicks.com. So, the other day,

I'm reading The Athletic, one of my favorite things to read. I'm reading Mike Sandoe, one of my favorite writers on The Athletic, his annual breakdown of quarterback tiers that sometimes brings me to T-E-A-R-S, tiers. And I'll start at the top. Mahomes at number one, Joe Burrow at number two. Got no problem. It's 1-2-2-1. I think Joe Burrow's a little better, but Patrick is it right now because...

To the victor go the spoils. They won it all. He should be number one. Joe Burrow should be number two. I'm good with that. Then I start to question the rest of the top tier because there are three other quarterbacks involved. One is Josh Allen at three. I'm sorry, I'm just still not quite sold. Let me dig out these sheets here with the Josh Allen on it. Josh Allen,

I love the anonymous quotes in here. They're from various executives and NFL coaches. This is from an NFL coordinator who says of Josh Allen, "I'm not sure he can win you a game as a dropback passer consistently, which is part of the Tier 1 description." I agree with that. Not quite sold. Then second on that next in line, I guess I should say, would be number four is Aaron Rodgers. I've told you what I think of Aaron. I'm going to get deeper into him in just a moment.

Most overhyped, overrated player in all the National Football League. And yet the critique here is a projection critique. He's still in the top tier. And this is from an NFC North coach. It says Tom Brady goes to Tampa. He has more talent around him. He hosts the receivers at his house for throwing sessions. He has a great year. Rodgers goes to the Jets. He has more talent around him. He is clearly more motivated. He was at OTAs.

He has been part of the offseason program. It's the same. No, it's not. That's not going to happen. Tom Brady is in another league as a leader and a clutch player from Aaron Bleepen Rogers. I'm sorry. I'll save more on this for later. But the point is, I don't see how he still qualifies as a top-tier quarterback when he had by far his worst year by his standards last year. And remember...

The previous two seasons, they had the one seed in the NFC and lost home playoff games in which he stunk. And last year, they had a season-ending home game to be a playoff team against their doormat rival, the Lions. This was on the frozen tundra, and Aaron stunk, and they lost that game. So how does he qualify as a one just on projection because this is the Jets' year? Baloney it is. Next is Justin Herbert.

I'm sorry, I didn't see it in college and I'm still not quite seeing it. I get the talent, I see it. A defensive coordinator is quoted in Sandoz's piece as saying, "What shocks you is his mobility for his size. He's a better version of Deshaun Watson." I don't see it. I know Deshaun's had his issues, his personal baggage which has weighed him down, but he's no, Justin Herbert is no Deshaun Watson when Deshaun was Deshaun. The problem was,

Justin Herbert had a 27-0 lead. 27-0 at Jacksonville in a playoff game. It was 27-7 at halftime. It was 30-20 with five minutes to go. They lost the second half 24-3 and lost the game. He had a ho-hum second half. They tried to run the ball. I know they got conservative. I know it wasn't all his fault. I'm just not sure he's that guy. Which brings me to the second tier. Jalen Hurts at six.

Lamar Jackson at seven, Trevor Lawrence at eight. Good, good, good. And by the way, speaking of Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, Justin Herbert, do I think they're better than Dak? Yes, I do. I'll take any of those guys over Dak right here, right now. I'll take Jalen Hurts over Dak. I'll take certainly Lamar over Dak. I'll take Trevor Lawrence. From what I saw last year, Trevor beat Dak head-to-head, obviously, in Jacksonville. I'll take Trevor over Dak. Dak is ninth on this list.

So here's a defensive coach saying, "Dak always falls short in the end, but he puts up numbers. I felt like a lot of the load was on him last season." Well, he's the quarterback of America's team. He's trying to uphold the tradition established by Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman, not to mention Dandy Don Meredith in the very beginning.

There's another defensive coordinator who says there's always a knock on guys who don't go deep in the playoffs. Dak can drop back. He's great with play action in the boot. He has some movement ability in the pocket. Ultimately, what keeps him from being a one is he turns the ball over for whatever reason. It is for whatever reason. I have my reasons. I've often said about Rain Dakota Prescott that he's closer to the fourth round pick that he was

than the, say, fourth overall pick that he sometimes plays like. So he can put up numbers. And I give Kellen Moore a lot of credit for that, and obviously Kellen Moore is now coordinating for Justin Herbert.

I'm fine that Mike McCarthy, once regarded as one of the better play callers in the league, when he and Aaron together, maybe it was Aaron alone, won that long-ago faraway Super Bowl for the Green Bay Packers. I'm fine with Mike McCarthy finally doing something. You might as well change your luck. But in the end, it's going to come down to just how good is Dak Prescott. And I'm pretty sure as we go into his eighth season, think about that, this is his eighth season, that he is what he isn't.

He's closer to being what he was, a fourth-round pick. He's not bad. He's not great. Can he take you to the promised land? No, he can't, unless he has so much help around him that the help lifts all boats. The rising top lifts all boats. A running game featuring Tony Pollard, featuring Deuce Vaughn. Maybe CeeDee Lamb takes another step as a number one, number one receiver, as a top five receiver.

And my defense, I keep touting. I believe it's going to be the best defense in the National Football League. Maybe it can carry a team through an offensive age in which defense no longer wins championships. Maybe they can eat by and at least get to an NFC championship game in large part because of their defense. Here's one more quote from an anonymous NFL executive about Dak.

Even having a dominant defense, why haven't they been able to go farther? That's the question. Dak missed five games last year. Cooper Rush saved the season. I thought he played a little more consistently than Dak. Dak wound up being tied for the lead in NFL interceptions thrown. He was graded the 21st best quarterback in overall grade by Pro Football Focus last year.

But he goes to right on schedule to Tampa for a playoff game against Tom Brady, which turned out to be Tom's swan song game. And Dak goes 25 of 33 for 305 yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions with a QBR scale of 0 to 100 of 97. That'll work. Tom Brady's QBR that night, 24.

It took him 66 passes to complete only 35, albeit for 351 yards. But you could see what was happening. Tom saw what was happening right before his crying eyes that were not lying eyes. Tampa had hit the wall. Tampa had gotten old right before all of our eyes. They had lost their two-year-old Super Bowl edge. And Tom said, that's it. I've had enough. I've got to go.

And Dak went on to San Francisco, and predictably, you know what happened. He went 23 of 37 for a grand total of 206 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Two more that didn't count, weren't added on to his regular season league leading interception total.

They lost that game 19-12 by seven points because Dak Prescott missed throw after throw after wide open throw. He went from sensational to sin city, committing cardinal sin after cardinal sin of missing that open receiver deep and that one and that one and that one late. Michael Gallup wide open, I thought, for a touchdown. QBR was middling 51, but once again,

The 49ers sent my Cowboys home. That was that. Dak is 61-36 as starting quarterback. They're 24-10 over the last two years. That'll work, but 2-4 won't work, 2-4 in the postseason. I look on down the tier list. Matt Stafford's right behind Dak at 10, then Deshaun at 11. Kirk Cousins is at 12. I'll take Dak over Kirk Cousins, but that's it. Kyler at 13. I don't know what to make of Kyler.

Where's his commitment coming off the ACL now? I'm not sure. But talent-wise, I'll take Kyler over Dak any day or night. Derek Carr, I'll take him over Dak. I'm sorry, I just will. I know he's had his struggles, but he's won a lot of games. He beat Dak head-to-head on a Thanksgiving that I will never forget. Right now, I'd give him a slight edge over Dak. Russell Wilson, I'm about to get to him. Had a...

Miserable year last year, but do most people think he's better than Dak? Yes, they do. Listen, Daniel Jones had a much better year than Dak had last year. He's 19th on this list. Last year, I would have taken him over Dak. Brock Purdy is down at 24. Got hurt at Philly. Is he better than Dak? He's way better than Dak last year. There have been times, and I'm about to get to Baker Mayfield in a moment. He's all the way down at 26th on this list. There have been times that Baker Mayfield has played better than Dak has.

Hall of Fame, I hope so, with all my cowboy love and heart. But right now, seriously? No. Last week's podcast, I told you I was trying to get excited about the Spence Crawford fight, and I could not. I have been a huge boxing fan back to the days of Ali, then Sugar Ray Leonard. I was so into Pacquiao Mayweather. Heck, I was so into the goosebumps caused by

hoping that Conor McGregor could connect just one long looping left hand to Floyd's jaw when those two fought in Vegas. I was into it, and it made those two beaucoups of money. I said I was going to watch Spence versus Crawford. I said I was going to tweet about it, and I did, round by round. The problem is neither of those fighters have the magnetism, have the charisma,

detonate the magnitude that Ali and Sugar Ray could, or even Floyd because of his 50-0 greatness, especially defensively. But the more I watch Bud Crawford do a number on poor Errol Spence, pick him to pieces, the more impressed I was. He doesn't have aura. He doesn't have brand appeal. He's not a household name.

This man has achieved the quietest 40-0 in the history of boxing because I knew who he was, but I didn't appreciate what he was until Saturday night, until it was completely over. He toyed with Errol Spence because he's a boxer and Errol, at best, is a long, lanky puncher. What he did to Errol Spence was unspectacularly spectacular.

He left the poor man's face a complete mess. He left no doubt. And he got me to thinking, because he's not that controversial, he's not that charismatic, have we completely underestimated and underrated Bud Crawford? Lo, these many years, he's 35 years old. What if he had been 10 years older? What if he had come up with Floyd Mayweather Jr.? What if they had had

a matchup the way Spence and Crawford finally had on Saturday night. Would Bud Crawford have beaten Floyd Mayweather? You better believe he would have, and I'll be the first to confess. I'm sorry, Bud's 36 now, because Floyd is 46, so it's a 10-year gap, but I'll be the first to confess. I'm not a Floyd fan, never have been, but I look at stature to start with. Floyd, 5 feet 8 inches tall, reach of 72 inches.

Bud Crawford is 5 feet 8 inches tall with a reach of 74 inches. He's got long arms. He's bested around 147-ish, which is pretty much Floyd's preferred fighting weight. I said this before about Floyd. I said it last week. I don't know. Who did he ever really beat? What mega fight did he win? He took Canelo to school when Canelo, to me, was still a boxing baby.

He took advantage of De La Hoya when De La Hoya was at the end, if not over the edge, into shot fighter. He beat Sugar Shane Mosley when Shane was 39 years of age. Cotto and Judah and Madonna and Marquez. I don't know. I don't know. None of those did anything for me.

Pacquiao, yes, but they were both over the hill at that point, and then Pacquiao tears his rotator cuff sparring just before the fight, needs surgery the day after that fight. It proved nothing to me. The point here is that Bud Crawford would nearly be Floyd's equal in defensive skill, nearly be. He's at least as gifted as Floyd is when it comes to strategic brilliance.

Remember what he was doing to Spence. He just gave him the first round because he's probing, he's checking, he's playing chess. You're going to try what on me? Then he takes control in round two. I thought he gave him round three because he's still probing and checking, and then here we went, and the onslaught came, and it was hard to watch. It was a beatdown of the highest order. Yet here's the difference. Bud Crawford is a Mayweather who can actually punch.

he can actually bring blood with those short, quick inside shots of his. Those little jabs and crosses, little counter punches. Bud has underrated thud to him. Mayweather would ultimately be looking into the mirror at a better Mayweather. That's what would have happened. Mayweather would be trying to figure out a chess master of a boxer with KO power.

That would be a fatal boxing recipe for Floyd Mayweather Jr. I just don't think he could have beaten this man head to head at their ultimate, at their primest of the prime. I'm sorry, Bud Crawford blew me away the other night. He is the realest deal, and he has gotten little to no acclaim for the fame that he deserves.

Man, I wish I could have seen Bud Crawford take apart Floyd Mayweather Jr. the way he did Errol Spence. So suffer me this, if you will, indulge me this. The other day, an interviewer asked me some pretty simple, basic, you could even say trite questions that got me to thinking after I answered them. But sometimes the most simple, basic, cliched questions unlock the best answers.

So I thought, hmm, maybe I should take this opportunity to share my very simple, basic philosophies of life with you for what they're worth and as cliched as you might consider them. So the interviewer asked me, what's the best advice you've ever gotten? And I immediately thought of one morning back in my high school days in Oklahoma City, one Saturday morning,

I was, as usual, sleeping at somebody else's house. My home had been broken already. I was probably 14-ish. This time, I was sleeping at the home of my best friend Craig Humphreys on 44th Street in Oklahoma City. We'd stayed up pretty late on Friday night. 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning, the door blows open, and in comes his father, Jack Humphreys, a self-made man who'd gone from nothing

to pretty soon everything. He became a very wealthy man to Jack Humphries, self-made. Big, deep, booming voice. "Wake up! Get up! Let's go!" And then he said something that stuck with me the rest of my natural-born days. He said, "You know what? No man ever made a success of himself on 40 hours a week." Jack worked every day. Worked long hours, hard hours. I worked in one of Jack's warehouses

Summer before I went away to Vanderbilt, it was always 105 degrees in that warehouse. It was some hard labor, and I learned some hard lessons in that warehouse. But no man ever made a success of himself on just the required 40 hours a week. What's my all-time favorite quotation? I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again. It's from the oddly named Felix Frankfurter, a former Supreme Court justice who served

in the United States Supreme Court from 1939 all the way to 1962. And Felix once said, "Anyone who is any good is different from anybody else." You've got to dare to think differently, to follow your deepest instincts, to follow the path you believe that you were born to follow. I live by that quotation.

Next question, what proverb means the most to you? Proverbs 23, 9. You could look it up if you so choose. Do not speak within the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. I'll say it again. Do not speak within the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. I live by that. I cling to that.

One side note, my favorite chapter in the Bible, Isaiah 41. Talk about power-packed. I live by Isaiah 41. Isaiah, you might know, was the Old Testament prophet. What was my biggest inspiration in life? I've mentioned before, and I would like to mention it one more time, please.

It was the high school teacher back in Oklahoma City who forced me to go into journalism my sophomore year. I would not be here if not for Elizabeth Burdette. She entered me into the full scholarship competition that I ultimately won at Vanderbilt. I didn't even know what Vanderbilt was at the time.

She forced me to go take the SAT required to get accepted to Vanderbilt. She drove home that if I don't get accepted, I can't qualify for the scholarship competition. She did that. I love you, Mrs. Burdett. May you rest in peace. I'm about to tell you why Aaron Rodgers finally shocked me and why Sean Payton shocked me.

yet oddly impressed me in a very different way, but first Aaron Rodgers. Out of the blue, it was reported the other day, Aaron took a $35 million pay cut. I never thought I would see the day. This is the ultimate, as I always say, blame-deflecting, finger-pointing diva. The ultimate me, me, me guy in a we, we, we game.

And Aaron has been wee-weeing all over the field up in Green Bay the last three years, especially in the postseason. I think Aaron Rodgers finally saw the light. I think he finally realized he's on the hottest seat in the NFL this year. And suddenly, the bandwagon is rolling for Jets, Jets, Jets. J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets. The opening preseason game.

Hard knocks to follow next Tuesday evening for five straight Tuesdays. Aaron Rodgers is in the harshest spotlight, but $35 million is a lot to sacrifice. And he explained it by saying that it was pretty cut and dried. It was like a million something this year and then a hundred million and something next year, and it obviously never would have worked. So he gave his team a chance to add more pieces around him.

He said it was the right thing to do. It was the only thing to do, the only way to fly. And I, for one, as a Rodgers critic, am impressed. Suddenly, I give the Jets a little more hope than I gave them in the first place. Aaron Rodgers is best at leading only Aaron Rodgers. A lot of the people who played with him in Green Bay did not enjoy playing with him. But he just sent a message to his locker room that,

he's going to sacrifice for them again he's made a ton of money in his career he's going to be just fine obviously he's still got his state farm ads obviously but that impressed me and so oddly and weirdly did what sean payton did a few days back in his new gig in denver i don't really know sean payton

I had one good hallway conversation right here in this building last year while Sean was working for Fox doing our pregame shows on Sundays. I told Sean that I hoped he'd stay with us, but that he was born to coach football at the highest level. I always thought that Sean Payton had some Jimmy Johnson in him, and I am the biggest Jimmy fan.

Sean, Jimmy, both born with what I call the leadership gene, the ability to command a pro football team, an NFL team, even though they didn't play at a high level, both were just college football players, both have that gift of being able to inspire fear and respect in a locker room loaded with NFL football players. So what Sean Payton did last week shocked and

initially disappointed me, and then ultimately actually impressed me, and I'll explain why. Sean had just done his press conference with the Denver area media. Then he went straight into his office, followed by a friend of mine who I worked with long ago in Dallas, Texas, named Jarrett Bell, who has become the national NFL columnist for USA Today. I texted with Jarrett about this.

Jarrett sat down, probably asking some pretty simple basic questions, and Sean Payton had something he wanted to say, and he chose Jarrett as that conduit. He unloaded on what happened last year in Denver, and unfortunately, that required Sean Payton unloading on Nathaniel Hackett, now the ex-Denver Broncos football coach.

A young man I first met when he was about eight years of age because I was close to his father, Paul Hackett, who was then the offensive coordinator of my Dallas Cowboys. Paul went on to be a head coach, especially at USC, also at Pitt. So Nathaniel was raised the right way by a real live football coach, who, by the way, had been Joe Montana's coordinator in San Francisco. And Joe asked,

Paul to help induct him into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I'm a big fan of Paul Hackett's, which obviously made me respect Nathaniel. But Sean Payton shocked me by breaking the coach's code and going after Nathaniel for what happened last year in Denver, calling it maybe, maybe the worst coaching job in NFL history. And you know what? Maybe it was. It did not work.

Russell Wilson did not work with and for Nathaniel Hackett. Nathaniel had been a coordinator, been a successful coordinator. Call him plays, you remember, in Jacksonville as they had Tom Brady in New England on the ropes in the AFC Championship game a few years back. Nathaniel had been a favorite, obviously, of Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay. And obviously, when Denver chose Nathaniel to be their head coach, I think they thought that

That would pave the way for Aaron to be their next quarterback, not Russell Wilson. I still believe that Pete Carroll in Seattle made a wise choice to cut bait with Russell Wilson when he did. It felt like Russ had become a little more of a celebrity than a NFL quarterback, a little more of a diva than a winner, and that he had become a little more trouble than he was worth as far as having to cater to his diva needs.

So I was fine with that. I think Seattle proved that they could go on pretty well without him, even though it's hard to replace what Russell Wilson once was to that franchise, Let Russ Cook. So here's what I believe happened. Obviously, Sean Payton came to his senses a couple days later, walked back his comments, apologized to Nathaniel, apologized to Sala, said, "I'm going to call them both."

They obviously see each other across the field week five, October 8th in a real game. But at one point, Sean said, you know, maybe I still had my TV hat on and maybe I went over the edge and acted more like a TV guy than an NFL coach. I disagree with that. I believe that Sean Payton knew exactly what he was doing because he had spent a year in television. The media is so powerful.

the National Football League media can have such staggering impact that if you know how, you can use that media to your benefit and gain. And I believe that's what he chose to do at the expense of the Jets. And I think it hurt him to do what he did, but he thought that he had to do it to rebuild Russell's confidence.

He needed to blame it all on Nathaniel so that Russ could heave a sigh and say, "Okay, I'm ready to start fresh under a guy who knows how to do it." Sean Payton knows how to coach quarterbacks. He's demonstrated that again and again. Now, he had a great one, obviously, but he made him greater. And however great Russ can be at this stage and age, he will be under Sean Payton. But the main message that Sean needed to send was,

It was Nathaniel's fault. It was everybody's fault around Russ. I don't have a problem with that, as messy as it got. That's the correct message. I also think Sean needed to announce his own arrival in Denver. He needed to say, I'm a real coach and I'm here. Not that Nathaniel might someday turn into a real coach. He might at some point.

But Sean Payton needed to go TV and say, hey, look at me, look at us. And listen, Sean asked for and accepted a ton of new pressure because now everybody's going to sit back and say, okay, show us something. Show us you're way better than Nathaniel Hackett was last year.

I love the pressure that Sean put on himself. I love the attention that Sean garnered from sea to shining sea, from Denver all the way to the New York City, the New Jersey area where the Jets are training in Forum Park. I love the impact of this because this was the correct way to launch yourself in Denver.

even if it was at the Jets expense. You needed to tell Russ he's going to be okay. You needed to give him an excuse for last year. And then you needed to take all the heat on yourself and say to America, I'm here, I've arrived, and we are about to be back the way the Denver Broncos should be back. Aaron fired back, Sean walked it back. I get all that. But in the end,

I believe Sean and the Broncos will benefit from the message Sean sent through my man, Jarrett Bell. Sean Payton is one of those guys I don't bet against. Question from Danny from Boston. What do you consider to be your hottest take? Danny, I do appreciate this question, but...

Just for the record, I despise the term hot take. I despise it with all my heart and soul because it suggests fraudulence. It smells of contrived, as in, what could I say today that might go viral, that might make me trend?

Trust me, I do not sit around thinking, "I could say that," or, "Maybe I could say that. That would be an even hotter take." I see it and I say it without fear and especially without any devious calculation. I'm going to say it again. I'm not a poser, not a grandstander, not a wind-up toy, not a caricature. I am a natural-born opinionist.

To me, a truth teller, see it and I say it, whether you like it or not. So, Danny, if you mean by hottest take, my most controversial opinion, I guess it's LeBron not having a clutch gene or, as I say lately, a closer gene. But that's, for me, just a duh. That's just obvious. I started seeing and saying that back in, I don't know, 2005, 2006.

And LeBron has routinely proven me right over the years. I know he's made a few late shots in his career, 20 years worth, but he has missed a whole lot more and he has run from a whole lot more. You know it and I know it. So is Jordan over LeBron controversial? No, it's just painfully obvious to me. It's laughably obvious to me.

T.O., Team Obliterator, Tebow, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady. Forgive me, but I was proven right about all of them because I dug in with my opinion and I refused to waver on my opinion. So I was being interviewed the other day by a reporter who covers the media, and he felt compelled to throw in

I just want you to know, I don't agree with a lot of things that you say on TV, a lot of your opinions. And I'm like, give me one. Well, I don't know. Just give me one. I feel like I get condemned on the Internet for all these, quote unquote, slanderous opinions, for all these crazy things I say. And yet I always ask, what exactly is

Crazy did I say. Can you show me? Can you tell me? It feels to me like a bogus narrative gets created to discredit the truth that I tell that some people, such as the billions of blind witnesses out there, the LeBron lovers, defenders, apologists, that some people out there just don't want to hear. So to me, my hot takes are just does.

even if no one else is saying what I'm saying. Just one quick thought, just to show you how my mind works. I watch everything. And when I watch, I'm thinking, "What's really going on here?"

So I'm watching our women's soccer team, Women's World Cup, right here on Fox. I haven't missed a second of it, including all the stoppage time, and I still don't get it. I still don't understand stuff. Why don't they just stop the clock? If somebody gets hurt, let's just stop the clock. That's just me. Don't get me started. I'm not the biggest soccer fan until it comes to the World Cup, and then I'm all eyes. And I was all eyes after...

We got tied. We were fortunate to tie Portugal the other night. Start at midnight out here in LA. I watched it all. Then I watched the entire post game right here live on Fox. I watched Carly Lloyd because I hang on her every word. She captained our US Women's World Cup teams.

She played for this coach. She knows what she's talking about. She doesn't yell or scream. She doesn't really raise her voice. But does she ever spit facts and fire? And it drove me nuts how the media missed the point the next day as I read the fallout and the reaction, too, because everybody zeroed in on Carly saying, well,

We just didn't play with enough passion. Obviously, Portugal had a late shot that hit the post or we'd be gone. That would have been historically bad. We did survive the group. We did get to the knockout stage. We will play Sweden. But Carly said so much more than just doubting our passion. And obviously, our coach then responded, it's insane, quote unquote, for anybody to suggest that we aren't out there trying to win.

I don't think it's so insane. Karlie said so much more than doubting passion. She doubted the fitness of our women. Doubted their fitness. That was what? Leap on that media. Run with that. She doubted the fitness. She doubted this coach's ability to have the kind of fiery personality to ignite and inspire this team at this stage.

of their growth and development when it seems like everybody's brand name going different directions promoting each other. Carly Lloyd jumped all over this team and we had some great quick video right on cue here on Fox. She jumped all over this team for being so happy after the tie with Portugal that we advanced. Ha ha ha.

We're just fine. Taking selfies over in the crowd and some pre-match dancing that they were doing. She was all over them for all of that. I loved her for that. And I wanted the media to love her more for that, to jump on the guts of what she was saying. That's who I am. That's truth-telling. That's looking deeper. That's pulling back the curtain. Thank you, Carly. If you will, I can relate.

This is Greg from Camarillo, California. What debate topic do you consider your weakest? Okay, so forgive me for this, Greg, but I don't have a weakest. You can, to me, pull a topic out of a hat right here, right now. I'll go at it with you right off the top of my head, and I'll beat you. That's how I feel. But...

I will tell you this. I will tell you about the one topic that has turned into my trickiest debate topic, and that concerns Baker Mayfield. I did say way back when that Browns should take Baker number one overall over Sam Darnold and over Josh Rosen, and I stand by that. Obviously, I did not see Lamar coming. I'm not sure anybody, but Ozzie Newsome did.

But the problem, obviously, with Baker Mayfield has been that his career has been so literally all over the map. It has been so underrated good interspersed with so bad luck bad, so inexplicably bad to me. Look, do I like Baker personally? I do not. Some of his misfortune, obviously, has been brought on himself by himself because he can be such an egomaniacal jerk.

There's a better word for it, but I'm not going to say it here on this podcast. Yet, yet, yet. What did the former GM of the Browns, John Dorsey, what did Hugh Jackson, the former coach of the Browns, what did they love the most about Baker before they drafted him? His leadership. They called him the Pied Piper when they went to visit him down in Norman, Oklahoma, where he played for my Oklahoma Sooners.

And did he ever show leadership, charisma, and spark when he finally got his shot that rookie year in 2018. That team had gone 0-16 the year before. Baker Mayfield led them to seven victories that year. That's incomprehensibly great. The following year, here came Odell. They were good friends. They vacationed together. But the good friends were a bad fit on the field. Odell's apologists began to blame Baker.

Baker's fans began to blame Odell. Odell got hurt. He had three different surgeries that he went through while he was a Cleveland Brown. Baker tried to force the ball to him and it was a disaster. But the third year Baker Mayfield, Odell fatefully unfortunately got hurt at Cincinnati and here went Baker. He took off and I don't think it was a coincidence he goes on an 8-3 run.

Over that run, 20 touchdowns to only three interceptions. He was graded the fourth best quarterback over that span by Pro Football Focus. Behind only Aaron Rodgers, Deshaun, and Tom Brady. That stretch ended with Baker Mayfield leading the Browns to their first playoff win.

since 1994, that was at arch rival Pittsburgh. They won that game 48 to 37. Baker Mayfield had a QBR of 91 in that game. Scale of zero to 100, he was really, really, really good.

some other games, some of his highlight games while he was a Cleveland Brown. He threw for, Baker Mayfield did, 397 against Houston, and then these are all against arch rival Baltimore in division games. All against Baltimore, he threw for 376,

343, 342, and 342. I'm going to repeat those numbers against the Baltimore Ravens defense. Baker threw in four big division games for 376, 343, 342, 342. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, please. But then he got replaced by a guy I had graded as a top five quarterback, Deshaun Watson, again, 343.

Carried big baggage all the way up from Houston to Cleveland. Baggage that weighed him down last year. Maybe he'll be able to jettison some of that as he goes forward. But the Deshaun that they initially signed for $250 million guaranteed dollars, I couldn't argue. He's better than Baker Mayfield. But Baker is still very, very good. Now Baker's been replaced in Carolina by a kid I absolutely love in Bryce Young, number one overall pick.

I think Bryce is going to be very, very good, better than Baker Mayfield. So it's bad luck, bad luck, bad timing, bad timing, wrong place, wrong time. At Carolina last year, remember the opener against his old team, the Browns, at Carolina, fourth quarter. What did Baker do in the fourth quarter? Think about this.

He goes five of six in the fourth quarter for 131 yards and a touchdown. He brings them all the way back to lead 24 to 23, and then two awful calls cost them the game because it set up a 58-yard field goal attempt by a rookie kicker from LSU named Cade York, and he made it to beat Baker Mayfield.

and to knock the bottom out of what would have been a huge opening day win against his ex-team. In week two, it took a 56-yard field goal up at the Giants to beat Baker Mayfield, that one by Graham Gonneau, the ex-Carolina kicker. And then it all fell apart, obviously, in Carolina for Baker Mayfield. They rallied late, mostly because of their defense.

had a showdown game with Brady and company, lost that, but they did regain some respect without Baker Mayfield, who then was jettisoned and wound up arriving about 24 hours before a Thursday night kickoff. He had one practice with the Rams against the Raiders. Remember the Thursday night game? Fourth quarter of that game, Baker Mayfield went 15 of 20 for 141 yards just in the fourth quarter.

They won the fourth quarter 14-3, and thanks to a 23-yard touchdown pass to Van Jefferson by Baker Mayfield with nine seconds left, Rams 17, Raiders 16. Whew. That looked pretty good to me. I don't know about you, but that looked like a number one overall pick with no practice, no prep. I'll do it. I got it. I watched Baker play on Christmas Day at Denver. I know they were a shell of themselves, but...

It was a route, and Baker was really good in that game. 24 of 28 for 230. And yet now I read in Mike Sandoz, the athletic tier breakdown of quarterbacks. Baker ranks all the way down at 26. And here's some of the quotes. This is from a coordinator. I don't know what's missing. Baker's been jettisoned all over the place. Nobody really wants to put their arms around him and keep him. Okay. Here's an offensive coach.

anonymously quoted saying, "Baker's accuracy has suffered. He takes too many risks and it seems like his emotions negatively affect the way he plays." Sometimes, but those same emotions can be very positive as we saw in Baker's rookie year. And here finally is a GM anonymously quoted,

Mayfield moves well enough, he throws well enough, he does some things well enough, but possesses no special ability. He may win you a game because he may run around and people aren't prepared, but at the end of the day, he is just a backup, in my opinion, said an anonymous general manager. If so, if Baker is destined to be nothing but a backup, he is the greatest backup in the history of the National Football League because he sure has done a whole lot of stuff. But here we go again.

He's now battling Kyle Trask for the starting job to replace Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. in Tampa Bay, which is now a shell of itself. The offensive line is looking like a shambles to me. Nothing like what did protect Tom Brady in the Super Bowl year. The defense just got old, as I said previously, right before everybody's very eyes.

And now they've gone from Bruce Arians as their offensive mastermind to Dave Kanellis. I don't know much about him. He was the passing game coordinator up in Seattle. Once was offensive coordinator at Carson High School out here in LA. But he's a first-year coordinator for Baker Mayfield. It's going to be really difficult for Baker. Again, wrong place, wrong time. So our debate rages. He's great.

He's awful. He's great. No, he's awful. A tricky topic is about to get even trickier. I cannot wait for August 28th. That's it for episode 74. Thank you for listening and or watching. Thanks to Jonathan Berger and his All Pro team for making this show go. Thanks to Tyler Korn for producing. Please remember, Undisputed returns August 28th.

The Skip Bayless Show returns next week.