Chicago Bears draft insight, Caleb Williams vs. Justin Fields, Jordan vs. LeBron | Colin Cowherd NFL

Colin Cowherd is joined by Chicago sports talk radio host Danny Parkins to discuss all things Windy City. The two radio hosts talk shop about the industry and the difference between the local Chicago audience and being a national sports talk show host. Next, they discuss the NBA’s biggest issues and why Michael Jordan is the clear GOAT over LeBron James. The Chicago Bears have the #1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, so Colin & Danny discuss Caleb Williams and what the Bears should do in the draft. Danny’s upcoming book “Pipeline to the Pros” is coming out soon, so Colin asks him for the motivation behind the project and his favorite parts of the book, while getting into some personal stories. Lastly, they finish with Justin Fields and if the Bears made the right decision to trade him to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

For more information on Morgan & Morgan, please go to FORTHEPEOPLE.COM/COLIN

Timeline:
00:00:00 – Introduction
00:02:50 – Chicago Sports Talk Radio
00:16:24 – NBA’s Biggest Problem
00:21:22 – Michael Jordan vs LeBron James
00:25:36 – Bears building a contender around Caleb Williams
00:33:27 – College with Nick Wright & Sports Gambling
00:39:44 – Danny’s book on Division 3 players to NBA coaches
00:50:10 – Dealing with struggles
00:55:13 – Justin Fields out for Caleb Williams

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#nfl #nba #nfldraft #bears #bulls #chicagobears #chicago #michaeljordan #lebronjames

welcome to the official YouTube channel for the Colin coward podcast go on hit the Subscribe button there you go right down there if you want to be among the first to hear my weekly takes NFL college football more right there all right a really talented guy um I I I really hope you listen to the next hour with Danny Parkins a Chicago radio host and the most talented Sports Talk radio host um I think uh out there right now in his at his age which is younger uh than I would hope for I was hoping he was old and beat up uh but he’s young and great and uh he’ll come on our show today uh to talk the Bears the draft radio um his book all that stuff before we get to Danny I want you to grab your smartphone and download the game time app it takes 90 seconds we’ve talked about this multiple times the game time app it’s the fastest and easiest way to buy great seats to sporting events Theater comedy concerts uh they have details you can buy tickets not only right up to the game but an hour after a game starts you get stuck in traffic you’re late you want to get tickets hour after it starts you can still use the game time app and get your tickets it’s the best place to find last minute seats they have Zone deals you pick the seats for Big Time Savings so download the game time app the redeem code that’s me redeem code Colin C $20 off your first purchase I think it’s the best thing out there to get last minute tickets game time app 20 bucks off the code is Colin download game time today please do that last minute tickets lowest price is guaranteed always well I first heard of um Danny Parkins um from Nick Wright who had said hey I I work with this guy and um you know Nick had introduced me to two or three people a couple of them were just uh obnoxious and annoying and then he introduced me to Danny and told me to listen to his show and so I I fashion myself as some sort of talent scout obviously not but since I started the volume I really enjoy it and so I said oh this guy’s really good and then I go to Chicago regularly and listened and I thought wow this guy’s about the best young guy I’ve heard in the country because I you know I’ve been listening to Sports Talk Radio forever and he’s come out with a new book which feels like um an intellectual exercise which I think is really important in our business because sports radio can be on our best days somewhat mindless it’s called pipeline to the pros it’s he’s Danny you’re a really good writer how D3 small College nobody’s Rose to rule the NBA and I’ll get to that in a second but it it it does look a little bit and I when I wrote a book it was sort of like you know I just wanted to prove to everybody I wasn’t a radio idiot completely but I want to start with something else I think because I listen now to sports radio and you and I contend New York Detroit Boston Chicago Philly uh is better Sports Talk Radio than Los Angeles uh that’s not that’s not a personal attack on anybody I do think they’re really talented people in LA but when the weather is good and there’s lots of options people bail on teams very quickly when they’re not good but the HUD levels in the Buffalo and the New York Chicago Detroit you stay indoors and you watch your crappy teams and you got strong opinions and you you know that Fosters sort of sometimes resentment and angst with your teams in La if I turn to sports talk radio there’s a 50/50 shot it’s Guy Talk which doesn’t really interest me so that’s my kind of theory on it Kansas City is another really good Sports Talk Radio Market where you came from do you buy into my theory 100% I’ve got some friends including Nick Wright and by the way thank you for not characterizing me as obnoxious even though maybe don’t know each other well enough because some definitely would uh Nick worked in Houston uh our buddy Mike Meltzer worked in Houston and it’s not a great sports radio Market but you would think that it would be because there’s so much traffic and they love football and football dominates sports radio but there’s two shares that they’re getting because they’re just other things for people to do warm weather all Miami they great shows that have come out of there great talents that have come out of there they don’t get any numbers uh I would put Cleveland on the list great sports radio Market they pull huge numbers yeah in Cleveland love the teams um Minneapolis pulls huge numbers on on K fans so yeah I think there’s a ton there and it’d be really nice to live in a place where you could go outside but today it snowed in Chicago in April so we’re supposed to talk about baseball on the radio I’m like I don’t know it feels like football weather to me well you know when um so I did sports radio for a while and then I wanted to create mostly out of survival when I was at ESPN I said guys I’ve got to create a simoc cast AM radio is is not a dynamic next 10year Horizon and so ESPN did not think I I was talented enough to be on ESPN 2 apparently so I said all right I’ll jet Us in this place I do appreciate it and things have gone well but um when I went to television I always did a show with a lot of football but I think I have moved in the direction of more football part of that is when you can see a TV number every day you see what’s working and you see what’s not and football almost always works secondarily though big beats small scale beats up Boutique the NFL makes everything now look small I think it’s well-run I think Sports gambling helps I think it’s better on television I think other leagues have made mistakes one and done has hurt college basketball men’s anyway what percentage of your show mine’s about 70% NFL I don’t want to be in the NFL Network I push back I’ve talked a lot of college basketball in the last two three weeks what percentage of yours is NFL obviously it depends on the time right I mean we’re Cubs opening day we’re doing a ton of cubs we’re the home of the Cubs but even leading into that uh the Bears have been the dominant storyline with the last two years having the number one overall pick they’re the biggest story in the NFL for the off season so obviously they’re the biggest story here so even with a two- team Town there’s only three cities that have two baseball teams baseball on the radio is still incredibly powerful you know the Cubs are the biggest client of my radio station 67 score by far we’re still I and I wish the number was higher my co-host is a bigger baseball guy it’s over 50% for football even in opening day week with two teams in town because it’s all about Caleb Williams and the ninth pick and are the Bears on the come and all of that and the other thing at least in this market that I would say is football’s the great unifier when I was growing up kid in the 90s in Chicago the Bulls Were King the Blackhawks weren’t even on TV but there were people that were Blackhawks fans and not Bulls fans even at that period of time and certainly when they had their dynastic run with three titles the Hawks kind of overtook the Bulls as being the toughest ticket in town and that sort of thing Cubs and White Socks split Blackhawks and Bulls split everybody cares about the Bears everybody has an opinion on the Bears and for the national side of it yeah Sports gambling yeah fantasy but I think like the simplest way to explain it is that it’s every game matters yeah it’s one of 17 and no other league has that if I miss Bulls Hawks and I don’t talk about it on the show the next day we don’t get a single text call or tweet being like hey you missed this really important thing because if a really important thing happens I see about it on social media it cuts through we talk about it but if you came on the Monday after a Bears Packers game or a Bears Lions game or a bears Jaguars game or a bears Bucks game whomever even if they were five and 10 and you didn’t do four hours on the Bears game the ramifications who played well who didn’t who’s going to get fired who’s going to get extended all those things people would think you were insane so it it’s the Great unifier and the thing that it has is that every game matters and the rhythm of it I think is great you play a game on Sunday you react on Monday the coach and the quarterback speak uh on Monday and quarterback speaks on Wednesday you start looking ahead to the next game then there’s a Thursday night game teams in your division matter it’s just a for local sports radio National TV there’s just such a great Rhythm to football um I feel lucky a lot of times what I like mostly um is what the country likes um yeah me too I have a growing interest in soccer over the last decade um my mom was British I went to England as a kid got a little soccer set uh the World Cup was going on at that time Johan C England I it I remember Netherlands was great England was great um and then in the Northwest soccer was around me the the Sounders the Timbers uh University of Portland had a great program so I I I’ve always been more of a soccer fan than the average person I try to invest in the MLS twice but I’m not Tony Robbins or Magic Johnson um not yet yeah um I love NFL I really really like college football I really really like the NBA March mad March Madness is fun and I do like an occasional fight now more UFC than boxing but an fight on a Saturday night I’m going to tune in and buy the UFC card so are you aligned with the audience or do you have to sometimes go I don’t care about this I’ll talk about it that is the baseball part of it it’s not that I don’t care about baseball I grew up you know I’m 12 years old in Chicago in 1998 Jordan is completing the third the second threee and Samy SES hit in 66 home runs and saving baseball I I love the Cubs I grew up with Cubs Manan I’m invested in it but I can’t say that I care about a bullpen decision in a game in May one of 162 and the minutia of it I just I can’t and so that but that is a necessity in Philly Sports Talk Radio Chicago Sports Talk Radio New York Sports Talk Radio we do do some of that yeah and that is the part that I mean if that’s the part that feels like work okay I’m not on the side of a road I’m not welding I’m not you know I still love my job every day but there definitely is a an element of man this is a little bit of an effort uh boo shami’s terrific play-by-play guy he’s a buddy of mine he’s the voice of the Cubs locally does a lot of stuff nationally calls the World Series nationally for ESPN Radio him and I were talking about it one time and he had a great point about it said you know if we they were creating baseball today they wouldn’t say 162 games no exactly it it makes no sense but they’ll never they’ll never go back right because and people oh it’s because of the numbers and the stats it’s because of money yeah like we’re we’re recording this the Cubs are getting ready to play a game it’s 38 degrees and it was snowing today yeah no I had this argument years ago I said if I think I did a segment or two on it I said if sport started today baseball wouldn’t make it you’d say Okay 162 games slow pace no real clock although they have it now um multiple pitching changes uh any little weather delay they’ll cancel it sometimes other times you’ll sit in a stadium for 3 hours You’ be like yeah that doesn’t work it’s not very riveting on TV you would have UFC NFL NBA college sports uh you’d probably always have golf because it’s an event and it’s infrequent the Olympics it’s an event it’s infrequent but I do think I will say this I think Fox the company I work for I think they have the right baseball they have postseason baseball and that’s what I care about I can uh I can flip a switch a little bit on baseball and really deeply care if the Yankees or the Braves or you know the Cubs World Series I didn’t miss a pitch of course and I mean it was one of the greatest sporting things of my life that I’ve ever watched and people are crying and people are listening to the game on the radio uh in a cemetery next to the headstone of their father you know what I mean there is a connective tissue of baseball there’s a Romanticism to baseball there’s a comfort of baseball uh that I do like and appreciate and the history and how much it matters locally and people say baseball is dying I do think the new rules have really helped it yes but but also it’s a 12 billion doll industry it’s not it’s not dying it’s just football makes its billions with100 bills baseball makes its billions with singles and fives right it’s a it’s regional it’s a local thing your local TV deal matters how much money you spend on tickets locally really matters the NFL all that matter these NFL stadiums are television Studios they make their money from Fox CBS NBC ESPN Amazon that’s how the NFL makes its money baseball the Cubs make their money from Wrigley Field tickets sold at Wrigley Field and the Marquee Sports Network and that’s why it’s very different the white sock play eight miles south their economic situation is very different they’re in a huge Market but not as many people go and not as many people watch on TV same sport so it’s just a it’s a sport of halves and Have Nots a lot of its Arc I am drawn still to a ton of it but that’s more based on tradition and where I was born than like the current product yeah and I also think there are you know I I I think Sports is in a really good space um for a lot of reasons I think college basketball’s got some challenges because of one andone but the ignite League that went or the ignite team that left probably helps a little nil probably helps men’s college basketball a little I I do think the NBA um and I’m a huge fan so I’m going to a Nick’s Bulls Friday night in Chicago so I I love yeah I love the NBA you’re always at Bulls games in Chicago yeah I’m buying a bulls Blackhawks concert uh season ticket my wife and I are this weekend so we go to Chicago a lot and it’s a easy flight and she loves Chicago and she loves going out to she she really likes going to NBA games she really likes fights and NBA games and concerts it’s a great wife she likes fights yeah yeah yeah I I I mean I order UFC cards got a group getting together for UFC 300 in a couple of weeks but that not at my house my wife like you want to do that okay fine but either when I’m out of town or you go to your buddy’s house yeah so my wife is flying into Vegas to go to the UFC 300 with me and what’s interesting is my wife doesn’t love sports but she likes events and she likes hey let’s go get a cocktail let’s go out to dinner let’s dress up it’s fun and she’ll ask a million questions but she kind of has a sense of it and she likes the event of it the NB and the NBA games are an event UFC is an event she couldn’t get my wife to a baseball game or a football game in the snow there’s not a chance in hell I I you know so she’s not a sports fan but she’s aware of it and she asked the right questions if she asked a question it’s like oh yeah that’s a thoughtful question and hopefully I’m a sports caster and have most of the answers but I would say this so it’s 2024 and let’s talk about something really really important if you’re ever injured check out Morgan and Morgan it’s America’s largest injury law firm and they are there for you over a hundred off offices Nationwide think about that more than a thousand lawyers with over 20 billion that’s a B20 billion recovered for over 500,000 clients things happen in life unexpectedly submitting an injury claim with Morgan and Morgan is really really easy like winning in the NFL is hard we know that quarterbacking in the NFL is hard submitting a claim is easy you’re ever injured check out Morgan and Morgan their fee is free unless they win for more information go to forthepeople.com or dial pound law from your cell phone Morgan and Morgan has a proven track record of fighting for you to get a full and fair compensation if there’s an unexpected accident in your life and I’ve had a few I do and I think Sports in a great spot I do think it’s easier to be a harsh parent and get soft it’s much harder to be a soft parent and then pretend to get tough and your kids roll your eyes at you the NBA’s always been a players League I do think they’ve crossed a line the load management to be is outrageous base hockey doesn’t do it and they have 82 games and those guys are kicking the out of each other and have no teeth and it’s hockey by the way if you’ve ever gone into a hockey locker room in between periods or after the smell is oh it’s disgusting it is mildew meets perspiration meets death those guys work harder than any pro athlete Colin I I lived when I graduated college in 2009 I moved in to an absolute hole of an apartment by Wrigley Field about a block and a half away with four buddies that I’ve been friends with since third grade and so already we’re it’s five 22 year olds 23 year olds in an apart that we could afford a block and a half from Wrigley Field it’s disgusting now add in that two of the five were big-time hockey players like state champions in our high school played college Club hockey and so they would play in men’s leagues and they would come back with their uniform and their pads and their hockey sweaters or whatever and like dump it in the on the back deck you could smell it in the front room of the house it is so disgusting but yeah hockey live by the way is it’s great is a great time because if you’re like oh I’ve ice skated before I’ve skied I consider myself mildly coordinated and then you go out there and you see these guys are 200 pounds and they’re shooting the puck 100 miles an hour and they’re hitting each other on blades oh it’s ridiculous and my take is they play they play hard they drink they sex I mean hockey guys are legendary for they play hard they fight they sex they drink rinse and repeat complete degenerates yes and we love them the Best of the Best of Europe represented in Canada and the United States the NBA guys often on a Saturday night yeah I’m a take a night off I think it’s egregious I think it’s hurting the league I think it’s a cautionary tale what you’re seeing with lower quality in men’s basketball and massive ratings you’re giving us you’re giving us effort and I’m an NBA guy so I’m not here there’s a lot of people out there that are dishonest they’re they’re not they’re not fair actors I think it’s a real Mark Cuban sold his team I think Mark Cuban sees it so when we watched the NBA playoffs last year it was like holy this is a different sport because I watch I don’t know 70 of the 82 Bulls games live I’m a big bulls fan we’re the home of the Bulls good NBA City we talk about them and they’re bad they’re the ninth seed this year they’re the ninth seed last year but I watch a ton of NBA I stay up late and watch West Coast NBA on Tuesday night to watch whatever the game is I wrote a damn book about the NBA I love the league but they very clearly flip a switch come postseason time yeah and it’s kind of insulting yes and and it doesn’t mean that they’re not a thousand times better and more skilled than at any point in the history of basketball and that it’s still a better caliber of basketball than college basketball but when you know even if I can’t really tell and I could see Steph Curry drop 50 on a given night and you can see you go to an NBA game in person you’ll see something amazing which is another reason why it kicks the out of baseball because you go to a random baseball game it’s three nothing you see nothing that’s impressive okay what what the hell did I do other than have some beers in the sun uh but you go to any NBA game you’re gonna be see something amazing because every time because honestly even if the top three or four guys sit out and you’re disappointed because that’s the guy whose jersey you wear there’s more than 300 good basketball players in the world you know I so like the eighth ninth or tth guy on a team that never gets any run can come in and drop 25 or drop 30 or can do a windmill dunk or whatever but I think when we see the switch being flipped in the playoffs it’s insulting to our sensibilities um we’ll get to his book in a second this is Danny Parkins co-host of Parkins and Spiegel show in Chicago it’s a very very good show and and Danny to me is probably the most talented young Sports Talk radio host in the country he’s got kids he’s not that young uh but he knows my admiration for him and I felt that about Nick Wright before I had heard Danny and the book is pipeline to the pros which we’ll get to uh I’m not putting it off because it’s really well written and I’m and no I’m not talking to you I’m talking my my audience is probably saying get the goddamn book coward nobody cares about you so no no I I I know I worked that that little extra plug in to give you my NBA Bonafide by way can I um because we do not do a ton of Jordan v LeBron goat stuff it obviously comes up but it’s like a little bit like taboo to do it locally it’s like it’s a little hacky it’s like Pete Rose should he be in the Hall of Fame but I get why it drives a lot of conversation nationally can I tell you the thing that doesn’t get mentioned enough nationally because it’s Germaine to this conversation we’re having okay congratulations to LeBron for longevity for spending a million dollars a year on your body and a wild night out being splitting a $2,000 bottle of red wine yeah Jordan was doing it with 36 holes of golf 10 Miller lights a run at the blackjack table gambling debt and like sweating out tequila and he was dropping 40 and he was playing every damn night so can we can we grade on a curve of degeneracy for the era please like that’s the thing that no one talk like yes the skill is better the competition is better LeBron you know as an underdog he loses in the finals he wins whatever I I understand LeBron is amazing I’m not trying to take away from him but I’d like to to see the guy play 36 holes of golf and then go drop 45 on the Knicks I’d like to see it I’m not sure that he could do it no we all meet guys I had a friend one time he would go to South Carolina in the summer and um and he would he didn’t have a ton of money so we do like a three-day vacation he would golf 36 holes three days in a row get bombed each night and I’m talking 94 degrees in the Heat and I’m like bro I’m nine holes on Friday out I two two Miller lights I’m out some guys and Jordan was one of them have this Relentless genetic thing and I I’ve gone to college with guys they could drink all night long no hangover and Jordan to me is one of those athletes that is once in a lifetime that did not treat his body with a great deal of love and admiration and just when I saw the MJ story and he before the Eastern Conference games with the Celtics he’s getting in 18 holes in the I’m like that’s my day I’m having dinner at 5 I’m out guy had pregame Stakes like he he he smoked regularly like he he mixed booze all the time beer and liquor like it it is insane and these guys they’re like oh we’ve invested in a wine company like we we have an in-house somaler for the Miami Heat awesome awesome I I I I I respect the professionalism but then you also take off when oh man they they have a two-day stay over in South Beach so guys are going to take off no no no Jordan would close down the club in South Beach and then go drop 40 I always felt this about Johnny Bench best catcher ever not just because I think he’s the best catcher ever AstroTurf absolutely by the way back then a lot of Day games he would now Bill plumber was the backup so he didn’t do both games of a double header but he would do Friday night in Cincinnati Saturday National TV Sunday Steve Garvey told me it was so hot in Kansas City and Riverfront now he was a national leager right Dodgers he said Pittsburgh Philly and Riverfront you’d have to put lettuce in your shoes to keep it cool he goes one time in Philadelphia his cleat stuck to the turf and Johnny Bench had that gear on and would go three for four with Two Jacks game goes 12 Innings and he is catching the fourth Reds pitcher people have no idea baseball players in the 70s to about 85 it was 140 degree field in the midwest oh I mean and listen I mean different eras too I mean guys would have like bags of cocaine fall out of their pocket on the base paths you know what I mean like just like what they would do like if you go and by the way it’s why also if you go back and you watch a game from the 90s like oh the it was better no it wasn’t they they weren’t more skilled they were slower and 30 to 50% of the guys were hung over so not it really wasn’t better but there is a element of nostalgia to it and an amount of respect that I have so I don’t spend any time on social media some of that is simply because I have a staff at the volume I’m very fortunate and a pretty uh hearty staff at FS1 uh I I you know my my kids are not on it my my son never is on it my daughter infrequently but used to be not anymore but I um yeah it’s it’s pretty toxic so you know I think about this because um one of the things about our business and I and I don’t get many people on that I get to talk about the business which is why I’m doing it now because you’re you love radio I love radio and I do think occasionally fans like to just hear how you and I think and talk about this crap I love talking shot I didn’t like Ryan poles initially um vus Jones I watched him at USC could not track the ball I mean that I literally text you GMS and I’m like he doesn’t know what he’s doing that that he can’t play he’s a that he can’t play right so but I watched USC maybe more than Ryan po and then there was the chase clay poool which I defended because of the body type but Chase ended up going sideways and not being very mature and so my takeaway is I don’t trust the ownership Ryan po Matt Eber flu and then probably knowing he butchered vus Jones and knowing that there are certain things about offense like line play I think he’s drafted it pretty well that he knows he went and got DJ Mo he went and got Keenan Al and moved Mooney and I thought oh and then he brings in Gerald Everett and and and and he’s uh Swift who’s a good he can catch the ball to the Back Field and I’m like oh now I new information I think Ryan PS knows what he’s doing I think his last six move I love the Monte sweat move it got heat but I’m like folks there’s nobody in the second round as good as Monte sweat that okay so right no guarantee you’d get him in free agency that that’s right but what is the takeaway because the Bears e flu has been criticized the ownership has but where is everybody sitting on your GM which in football is such a substantial position because the rosters are so big and there’s so many moves to make I don’t know how you could have any grade on him other than an a it doesn’t mean that he’s perfect and you’ve listed a few of the big misses like veis Jones is the first offensive player that he ever selected but it was in the third round yeah teams Miss on third round picks all the time Chase Claypool it was a panick move yeah it was I’m trading away ran Smith I’m trading away Robert Quinn I’m carrying the most dead cap space of any team in the league but I am trying to be fair to Justin Fields who is an 11 out of 10 as a person and I’d like to figure out if I have something here I’ve got to give him something and he over traded for the traits of Chase Claypool and I think he undervalued the personal stuff yeah because then when he learns the mistake from that and he trades for Montes sweat there were a lot of people saying trade for Chase Young off that defensive line more talented better pedigree player all of that stuff but he loafs he takes plays off yes but and Montes sweat whatever he’s got he’s given it to you yeah and so I think he that is a direct because it’s the exact same trait it’s a second round pick for an established player that you’re hoping to pay they paid Montes sweat they obviously didn’t uh pay Claypool so I think also with anything learning proving that you learn from from your mistakes yeah and that you don’t double down that’s a sign of intelligence to yes so to me like it’s like yeah did it start a little choppy no question but he also inherited one of the oldest teams in the league with a ton of bad contracts a quarterback that someone else drafted no first round pick in his first year so his first draft picks or second round picks both of whom by the way pretty good Kyler Gordon and jaquin brisker two guys who are starters in one of the best young secondaries in football then when he gets a first round pick a lot of us are saying Jaylen Carter Jaylen Carter Jaylen Carter you need a three technique for this defense he moves down from nine to 10 picks up an extra fourth round pick drafts Darnell right right tackle to support the quarterback he makes all rookie team looks like he’s gonna be a starter at right tackle yeah for 10 for 10 years and then the biggest thing by far and the sweat one was big and the Keenan Allen was big is he trades the number one overall pick and picks the right team to trade to yeah gets DJ Moore gets the second round pick that is Tyreek Stevenson another starter at quarterback who was really damn good last year gets the first round pick this year which is g to be you know Caleb Williams a once in a generation quarterback prospect he has their second rounds pick next year from Carolina and oh yeah by the way DJ Moore so it’s one of the great I mean people will reference the Hershel Walker trade it is truly one of the great trades in modern history if Caleb Williams is everything that you and I and the vast majority of people think that he will be they’ve got a very good cap situation they’ve got very good players in their athletic Prime Jaylen Johnson taine Edmonds Montes SWAT Cole KT DJ Moore these guys are all 25 26 27 years old under contract good players on rookie deals brisker Gordon Tyreek Stevenson Darnell wri Kevin Jenkins who I hadn’t mentioned and now you’re going to inject the ninth overall pick whoever he ends up taking and there’s a ton of great options and Caleb Williams and a good quarterback on a rookie deal the Bears should be set up under Ryan poles for a really long Runway of success here I can’t be the only person that has noticed Matt Eber flu the coach has changed his look what’s up with that yeah so he credits his wife and daughters and it’s very weird because when Maddie bro talked before the beard and the uh little product in the hair he sounded really dumb and now he’s saying the same things with like designer hoodies and a beard and a little scruff and a little product and I’m like a flu has some swag there like my my co is like I’m enthusiastic I’m like that’s a really corny dad joke but I kind respect it uh he’s like for some like he’s like sitting Courtside next to handsome Matt laflor and I’m like oh which is the more handsome NFL head coach is it floor is it is it Matt eberl like he’s carrying himself with a little swag my problem with Eber flu um yeah a couple of assistant coaches including his defensive coordinator who he brought over Allen Williams left in disgrace um yeah I don’t like hiring a defensive coach I’m biased to offensive coaches because it’s just sustained uh success I think it’s the best way to Foster an environment for a quarterback my thing was when you hit the lottery of getting the number one overall pick for Caleb Williams are you really telling me that the best possible person to develop him is Matt EO and Shane Waldren right or would Jim Harbaugh have been better or would Ben Johnson have been better would Ben Johnson have taken this job instead of going back to Detroit because I think this job would be really damn attractive if it was open and they had a pretty good offensive coaching staff because it’s an attractive job and you get to coach Caleb Williams but you obviously were limiting talent pool if you’re only hiring for coordinator so that was my issue with how poles handled the coach but he swears by him he swears by the culture he swears by the effort and the team did play hard and the defense did get better did finish the season relatively strong and they should be a top 10 maybe top five defense next season so there are reasons to keep him and he’s swaggy now so that’s too yeah my wife always says that she always my wife has this ability it’s so uh I don’t have it that she has great funny lines and she can hold them for 12 years and then she’ll drop it at the perfect time and I’m like where did you hear that she goes oh I heard that in eth grade and I’m like I couldn’t hold that for 15 minutes if I went to out to dinner with you I would find a way to get it into the conversation just to impress you sure and and um and so one of the things um you know like one of her things she said to me one time and I made a mistake and she said honey you’re either right or you’re learning she said unless you keep making the same mistake then you’re wrong she goes you don’t make the same mistake much so you’re right or you’re learning I’m like God I got to steal that the the uh the other one she said to me when we started dating about three years in I was not a very good dad or something I made a mistake and she goes be a great example or a horrible warning kids learn from both I’m like we’re gonna do a book now this come on you’re just you’re holding now over me I what what your it’s like I know Joel ostein meets Tony Robbins where’s this stuff coming from yeah she’s a philosopher who loves the UFC where did you find this unicorn this is unbelievable so she is big speaking of e flu she is always she is big on current her big line is with everything your career your look just stay current she said you know musical acts they they look backwards and I’ve always had a thing where I always say I’m a windshield guy not a rearview mirror guy most of that I didn’t have a traditional upbringing but I think the the point with Eber flu and I think we’ve talked about this in our careers you and I may have grown up Baseball fans we shifted to NFL fans and Sports Talk gambling topics because that’s where the that’s where the audience went yep it is how comfortable I am comfortable with sports gambling the dist or the disturbance rate’s 1% it’s 6% for alcohol you know the the people that go sideways DraftKings told me very early it’s $4 per bet that’s literally what the average bet is so it’s hard to R break your family up but there are some do gooders some you know you know there’s the kind of precious Sports media out there often that says gambling is the end of society you’re a guy that is I believe a poker player you’re very matthy like Nick Wright you’d be a lawyer if you didn’t do this or a financial guy right like you guys are both very mathy of course I would never give my money to Nick because of the the black and tans or whatever he smokes he gets yeah he gets sideways very quickly yeah he’s been he’s been quitting smoking for 20 years while wearing a nicotine patch and buying cigarettes individually individually sto we’re stopping off for a Lucy again just buy a pack it will save us time like you’re buming individual cigarettes from different people at the casino you could just buy a pack you can afford it you’re on TV all right the NBA season is in full swing coming down the stretch then we move right into the playoffs in April May and June I can’t wait spice things up with draft King sports book an official sports betting partner of the NBA right now all you have to do is put down five bucks and get $150 instantly in bonus bets pretty good tradeoff I pay five I get $150 North Carolina listeners do not forget welcome to the party draft King sports book now live in your state North Carolina download the draftking sports app takes 90 seconds the code is Colin C o l i n again 90 seconds download draftking Sportsbook app put in Colin new customers bet five get 150 back in bonus bets instantly that is the trade all right the code is always Colin the crown is yours are you ever uncomfortable talking sports betting no uh I blame my parents my my parents were Market people Finance people and I’m like that’s gambling now the difference of course is NVIDIA is not going to zero tomorrow and if I bet the over in the Bears game and it’s under that bet goes to zero so obviously there are differences but it’s all just a market it’s a market of expectations and I find it actually really informative even for people who don’t gamble because they don’t just come up with these things randomly sharp better set the lines and there are formulas and Excel spreadsheets that predict oh this guy is going to have is expected to have this number of yards that might be relevant for if you play Fantasy Football or just who do you like you know there there are practical implications to it that I do think are relevant even if you aren’t putting $4 $40 or $4,000 on the game and also I mean and this is back to the shop talk it is supporting the industry yes it you know it for a while it was beer for a while it was car dealerships now it is legalized gambling and throughout history prohibition doesn’t work it didn’t work with alcohol it doesn’t work with weed it doesn’t work with gambling I’m not saying that nothing should be illegal but there’s something too no speed limit on the autobond you know like just in general people are going to do what they are going to do and it may as well be regulated and taxed yeah and and try to funnel that money into something productive are there going to be consequences of it along the way sure for sure but that’s why taxes on cigarettes are expensive that’s why if you walk into a dispensary here in Illinois and you want to buy a pre-rolled joint it costs way more than it would if I got it from a dude in the you know my next door neighbor but I know what it’s gonna be you know so it’s the type of thing like it’s taxed it’s regulated you know where the money goes so no I I have no quals about it I’ve been betting on sports uh since I was 15 years old I love it and I’m thrilled that all of my vices are now legal it’s great everything’s coming up me so the book is pipeline to the pros W gives it a uh a great um recommendation if you love basketball you’ll devour a pipeline of the pros so I’m a couple of chapters in you’re a very very clever writer which doesn’t surprise me at all so let’s start with this tell the audience um why you decided to write this book and the connectivity from your family from you right so me and my buddy Ben Kaplan who’s the co-author on the book so Ben played D3 basketball and I went to Syracuse and he was the starting point guard on our high school team and I was the guy who was doing the play-by-play on the radio um we’ve been best friends since third grade Nick is my best friend since College Ben is my best friend since third grade uh they were both groomsmen in my wedding so he came to me and he said I got this idea there’s a story here and we’ve been going NBA games our entire life and I didn’t know anything about it about all of these D3 guys who had broken in to the NBA former division 3 players who made its way to being coaches uh or Executives and when he pitched me the idea 12 of the 30 teams in the NBA either their head coach or their top basketball decision maker had played D3 basketball and I’m like that’s insane and I was drawn to the disproportionate nature of that number you would think cleanest path to that job would be you play at Duke or you play in the NBA whatever the case may be right and so that that just instantly fascinated me and the network side of it like networking like you go to Harvard Medical School there’s a network of the alums you go to Syracuse for broadcasting there’s a network of the alums these guys all know each other and they’re all helping each other and they’re hiring their friends and a few people got in and broke down the door and then they were like hey you know a guy and they started hiring these people and it has as the league has changed and it’s gotten more smart and more analytical these smart guys from these liberal arts colleges have taken it over and I was just instantly drawn to like the management and the networking and how some of the lessons in the book I think are applicable to hey are you considering a liberal arts education like it’s a basketball book but there’s a lot of things yes that are that are really practically um applicable to any Walk of Life I would say and then just like one more personal anecdote um we I didn’t I almost didn’t take the project on because my at the time my my dad was uh dealing with Dementia and my brother had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and so you have those two things you have a young son and you have a pregnant wife with your second along the way and I’m like I am spent I cannot take on anything else but we you and I I think are maybe cut from the same cloth like I need more than one thing for my creative Outlet yeah yeah I need to be intellectually stimulated and it’s not that I’m not for my 4H hour a day radio show but I’ve got my 10,000 hours in it yeah I I know how to do this yeah and so I was like you know I’m gonna really regret it if I don’t partner up with one of my best friends and and then his father ended up getting diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and passing away so from concept to publishing we both lost our dads and I lost my brother and so that’s who the book is dedicated to I’m donating a portion of each book sold to brain cancer research in honor of my brother but like it was a his passion project became our passion project and he doesn’t have a media profile and it’s obviously a niche subject matter D3 guys make it to the NBA so the book would have never been made if we didn’t partner up together with my media profile and all that so like it we worked really hard on it for a couple of years and uh we’re really proud of the final product yeah you can tell you put the time into it it it’s not only an intellectual project um it’s so deep it’s so smart it’s so thoughtful and I think you know you and Nick are very similar so you um Nick has um Nick likes to prod he really likes to poke people in the ribs uh you I don’t think you’re quite that from what I’ve heard on your show but um you you you you get exhaust you don’t suffer fools gladly you get exhausted very quick with nonsense um when when when you do a project like this and you go through all this drama and um I mean what was Nick’s first Rea because I know Nick read it I know Nick’s so proud of you what was his first reaction to it because Nick um is so competitive and he loves you dearly he probably thought I’ve got to write a book that’s funny um I wish uh you know he got on national TV and I was like I gotta get on national TV you get to drive really nice cars um yeah you know that’s funny he he was surprised because really so he he he was surprised in the um not in that I couldn’t do it but that I or that I didn’t have the bandwidth for it but just like the nature of the project he’s like you’re doing what he’s like you and I talk once or twice a week we’ve never talked about this I’m like yeah man I don’t know I got a few other interests like a few other things like keep surprising you so I think that he’s like I figured if you’re writing a book you’re writing a book on gambling you’re writing a book on uh on media you know you’re writing a book on something like that so I think like the the research nature of it and the the depth of the project but again like I have to credit my friend for bringing me the story um and so this is a a thing of opportunity but yeah him and I are always coming up with Nick and I are always coming up with like we should do this we’re going to do this together and we’ve done a lot of those things like yes you know what I mean we’ve we’ve helped each other throughout our career we always have big ideas sometimes our conversations end up uh like oh we’re doing it again we’re spinning this thing forward 17 permutations into the future you know and so um when I told him about this he uh I think he wanted to know if I was going to tell him about it again or if it was just an idea in the moment and then damn near three years later wow we got a out of it well because that’s the thing like we’re both doing full-time jobs he has three kids I have two kids we’ve got all this personal TR like we were really doing this we and we knew we weren’t like compet we don’t have to be we don’t have to worry about being first to market right with with a D3 NBA but no one else is on this corner yeah Danny give me a story let’s do a little tease for the audience give me one of the unconventional paths that was very endearing and connected with you okay well I mean so Jeff Van Gundy wrote the forward of the book and he he um he was the perfect person to do it because he hired a bunch of former D3 people including his brother Stan Van Gundy but he was the transfer portal before there was the transfer portal we are 100% sure that Jeff Van Gundy is the first and only person to tra to transfer from Yale to meno Jr College he then transfers to Nazareth and then he finishes at Brockport goes to Yale thinking can play in the ivy league they say no not good enough we’re not even going to let you try out for the team goes to meno goes to Nazareth where his dad gets a job they fire his dad out of loyalty he ends up at Brockport so four schools following his For the Love of the Game and he is convinced that because short guy white guy nerdy guy comes out of Brockport ultimately that he will never get a shot but brilliant dude through connections through camps grinds grinds grinds works his way up and eventually is on Pat Riley’s staff with the Knicks and Riley leaves he’d been there through a couple of different coaches he’s there he’s there for four years he is named the interim head coach of the Knicks he is the head coach of the Knicks and the New York daily news runs a column that lists back to gambling the odds on who the next full-time head coach of the Knicks is gonna be Larry Brown’s the favorite John Calipari is the next favorite L carosa at 71 years old is listed at 5,000 to one red Holtzman at 76 years old is listed as a one million to one to be the next head coach of the Knicks and Jeff Van Gundy was given 50 million to one odds in the New York daily news while he is the current head coach of the Knicks to actually keep the job as head coach of the Knicks and he gets it he perseveres and between him and his brother who he hired and Jeff Van Gundy or and uh Tom Tibido and Steve Clifford and Andy Greer and all these other guys that he brought into the league it’s over a thousand wins between Jeff and Stan Van Gundy couple of D3 guys their name is now synonymous with the NBA so these guys who are the best to do it were doubted when they literally already had the job one more quick one Greg papovich maybe the best coach ever he’s a coach at Pomona just goes into the Hall of Fame it’s April of 97 he is just gotten a three-year extension because he was the GM and the coach for a minute in in in San Antonio when the three-year extension gets announced the San Antonio newspaper does a survey of of readers what do you think of the Greg papovich extension 90 2% of respondents said that Greg papovich should be fired in 1997 when he was about to become the dynastic Greg papovich right so these guys they were overlooked for forever and just through intelligence and being good teachers and good networkers and hard workers they Rose their way up I could never play in the NBA I could never play in major in Wrigley Field or the NFL but there’s something to like the work ethic and the intelligence and the networking that I was just drawn to the story and I I think we really covered it well um it’s pipeline to the pros uh this is a more personal question and we can edit it out if you’re not comfortable but you had a very you’re a smart guy and your parents were successful yeah and you’ve had a very redeemable um career and a an ascending career that very few people have in our business and then your brother and your and and Father’s dying is painful um a brother dying is a whole different story and um this is so personal how are you equipped you you not that you hadn’t had struggle but how are you equipped to deal with it have you been equipped how difficult I mean that’s I can’t I mean I get emotional not knowing your brother right I don’t know I don’t know how I wouldn’t be equipped um okay so that’s that’s that’s a good question um Brad was diagnosed with gleo blastoma June 5th of 2020 my son My First Son Owen was born at 31 weeks so he was born nine weeks premature January 17th of 2020 we all know what happened in March of 2020 I remember vividly saying to my wife in call it April oh no no no excuse me it was like June 1st I don’t know that I can take anymore was just super stressed sure money stressed pandemic stress new baby stress feeling overwhelmed my dad’s dementia diagnosis was it was it was ugly alzheim it’s a terrible terrible horrible disease I was like I honestly don’t know that I can take anymore three days later my brother gets diagnosed with terminal brain cancer you just learn that you can deal with more than you expect and it hurts if you stay in bed and it hurts if you get up so you may as well get the up like that’s what I’ve learned if I’ve learned anything I have cried I’ve been in therapy I have definitely not handled everything perfectly throughout this process but I have learned that um it hurts either way so you may as well keep going because your world can change with a phone call tomorrow so I don’t know if that answers your question but I would not have said that I was equipped to handle it and it still devastates me every day that my brother isn’t here but somehow I’m still here and I’m doing what I’m doing well I first of all I appreciate um you answering that it’s probably too personal but I also think um I knew you’d go to a place because you’re so capable um that somebody is listening to our podcast and dealing with a very similar situation in the family and uh when I heard your story I it made me think about a friend I had years ago in Vegas that lost his wife and so first of all I thank you for sharing that but it’s you know it goes back to a saying I it’s kind of a cliche but I we’ve heard it before is you just never know what people have gone through in a day just be nice to people I know social media does not Elevate the life experience it uh deteriorates it that’s why I stay away so that that was a pretty remarkable answer and I do Danny I appreciate that and I don’t want to end on this because you’re you’re not a downer you’re you’re it’s a really raw um topic and I thought it was um I wanted to hear I wouldn’t have been equipped I don’t know how you would have handled it um and I guess I think you probably would have been but you don’t know until you’re confronted with it and I’m glad that you haven’t been and you don’t want anybody to to deal with it and and I you know grief is hard man grief is really hard um and yeah it is it is a downer but it is relatable um yeah there’s a there’s a thing called anticipatory grief which I didn’t even know about but it’s like when you get a terminal diagnosis and then you’re like grieving and you’re like waiting for the actual person to die and you think like you have you’re dealing with anticipatory grief like you know eventually your dad’s going to pass away he has Alzheimer’s you know your brother’s going to pass away he’s got terminal brain cancer uh and then it happens and it’s like oh it doesn’t actually replace the real grief so you just deal with it and because you have literally no other choice but I don’t know man buy a book I’ll donate a portion of it to Brin cancer research it’s so smart it’s such a and it really is so um you’re a good man thank you you bet I I want to um Circle back is that Chicago to me is um I kind of feel Chicago people there is a divide sometimes it’s Financial sometimes times it’s in reach obviously between syndicated national and local I think local sports radio is much better than national sports radio and I think you’re at the top of the Heap I and I say that the best show I’ve ever heard I think you’re the best talent doing it in the country I think um felger and maass in Boston have the ability to be um in a in a very tribal Town incredibly honest and hated and adored simultaneously it’s a really good listen pull huge numbers yeah it’s it’s a I used to uh as I was you know crafting this uh scrawny physique I used to sit in my uh my downstairs in my wait room and just sit there and I would watch them for you know an hour um Chicago is to me it’s just everything I watch on TV local TV still matters it looks like syndicated it look like National it’s it’s I mean Lester Holt I think came from Chicago My Buddy Joe donin’s an anchor uh in Chicago um I think he’s as good a local anchor as you’re going to get in the country Chicago sports radio to me I love listening to it because it’s just the perfect mix of tribal smart insane oh yeah if if you you have recently taken a rare you’re a liked figure The Voice um you’re tolerant you’re bright but you are a little bit you kind of moved into a space as far as I can tell you were not really a Justin Fields guy and the city was you know of course they’re clinging to it working hell the Bears were clinging to it they wanted to say we’ll get nine picks for Caleb Williams everybody wanted it to work so what is it like now probably for the first time in your career as being a villain for a few months okay so this is fascinating I’m gonna take off my headset for just one second because this will this will make sense so because this is there is an exact moment when my likability plummeted and wild I just have to pull out a prop real quick I didn’t know we were gonna talk about this hold on so I I commissioned a Caleb Williams 13 Bears Jersey the day they got the number one pick so with a week left in the season and so Justin Fields is still on the Bears it’s been he’s likable he’s fun he’s exciting he was voted the 86th best player in the NFL coming off of the 2022 season when they had the most dead cap space and no one else good on the team people love Justin fields and the Bears did not treat him well and it was not fair and they did not build around him and the situation that Caleb is walking into is a thousand times better but life isn’t fair and I was like listen here’s the thing I like hanger steak but I’ve got a chance for 85 wagu and it’s cheaper like for some reason it’s for some some reason the waggo is cheaper than the hanger s like I’m gonna go for it every time and so when I people were like I because now everyone’s pumped for Caleb but I was just like this is how it’s going to end and I told them how it was going to end before they were ready to hear how it was going to end sure and if I would have just had the take people would have really disagreed but for some reason the fact that I spent $140 on a jersey and like became a prop comic for a minute and like sh like I I showed you how in how positive I was that this was how it was going to end buddy were people mean to me on the internet like man but what’s so weird about the whole thing is that I’m gonna be right like I bet Mitch trisk at 200 to one to win MVP blew up in my face I said there was a 0% chance the white socks were going to hire Tony larusa blew up in my face like I’ve been wrong plenty of times we give 20 hours a week of opinions you’re going to be wrong all the time but man did people hate this jersey but now it’s going to be the number one selling jersey in the NFL for the next like five years so I’m a I don’t know if you knew this I’m a fashion icon I’m a trend Setter I’m aead I’m ahead of the curve people are dressing like me now and I frankly love it but yeah did I have it on on my on my board that the thing that would make me most hated is is the thing that I have been the most right about no that I did I did not expect that to be how my uh how my career has gone but now people are being pretty nice because they’re pretty excited about Caleb Williams should be hypine to the pros um how D3 small College nobody’s Rose to rule in the NBA Ben Kaplan Danny Parkins forward by Jeff and Gundy I say this um uh authentically and um accurately and um with a 100% belief uh I think you’re um how old are you now 42 43 40 how old are you I’m I’m 30 38 Jesus Christ it’s disgusting how good you are at 38 it’s really such a bummer I was hoping you were 54 and this was years of training and you are really gifted and um oh actually hey I’m 37 I turned 38 in October oh you’re just a jerk now now you’re just piling up anyway you’re great at what you do I love listening and um congrat ulations on the book your career your Ascension and I love you man I think you’re I just I just think you’re just everything wrapped in empathy curiosity smarts funny and a little bit of a villain that’s okay it’s fun yeah LeBron didn’t like it in Miami but you know it is it’s part of the merry go round of our life I can I can handle it and uh it’s just Sports at the end of the day so like I can’t I can’t get take it all too seriously but no thank listen thank you for uh the kind words and in the platform and supporting this and trying to hire me a couple of years ago I’m I’m not done I’m not done with that so uh we’ll make another run on that buddy I I I appreciate you Colin thank you very much thank you [Music] Danny