Antonio Pierce Should Get Raiders Job (Hour 2)

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It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. I don't know what world we're living in, but we are living in a world where the Las Vegas Raiders scored 63 points last night. Let me say that again because I don't really believe it. The Las Vegas Raiders scored 63 points last night.

Wow. And the Chargers, they lost the game 63 to 21. And Brandon Staley, here's things I start to believe, and Tom Tolesco, both out of jobs today, no longer the head coach and general manager of the Los Angeles Chargers.

And I tweeted this out last night and I stand by it. The Chargers handled the firing in the right way. There is no way you fire your head coach and your general manager in Las Vegas. You make sure they get back on that plane and they take the 45 minute flight from Vegas to Los Angeles and then you fire them the next day.

Cause that's like a dream that if you could tell me I can get fired anywhere, where would I want to get fired? It's in Las Vegas. Like if you need a bender, if you need to try to go through a little bit of mourning or be down in the dumps and try to uplift your spirits, it's with the casinos in Las Vegas. It's the perfect escape, all the food, all the drinks. It's a good place to get away and have a good two, three days to yourself or have some fun in a spot for two, three days.

But Brandon Staley, he does not get to enjoy that opportunity of getting two, three days away in Las Vegas. And quite frankly, I don't think he's really the Vegas type, but this guy, the Chargers tried to convince themselves. They had something innovative. They had something new. They had something ahead of the curve. And the first two years they were winning games, but they missed the playoffs the first year and a bad decision that he made, which allowed Basacchia to then say, you know what, I'm going to kick the field goal here.

When they were playing for the tie and both teams would have got into the postseason. Alrighty. So you have that one infraction. Not good. Your first year though, let's see what you could do in year number two. And the Spanos family just looked at it as we make the playoffs. We keep Staley. We're going to pay him that third year of the contract.

He has four years of that contract. So the Chargers wasn't always pretty. They make the playoffs and then they have a good draw, what we thought was a good draw.

Wildcard weekend. They're in Jacksonville, in Duval, and they're up 27 points in the game. And then they choked. And the moment that choke job happened, I don't care if the bar before the year was just to make the playoffs and he met that threshold. You needed to get rid of Brandon Staley. Also, you had an opportunity to go get Sean Payton, but the Chargers were cheap. The Chargers didn't want to give up the draft picks. The Chargers didn't want to pay the money to go secure a Super Bowl winning coach.

And where did Sean Payton go? Walked right over to Denver. Well, Denver, we'll trade the draft picks.

We'll use the Walmart money to go get our coach. And look, even though it was an ugly start for the Broncos, the Broncos now have everything right in front of them in the final four weeks of the season to go make the playoffs for a team that was one of the biggest laughing stocks in the league last year. And ever since they said goodbye to number 18, they've never been able to get it right in Denver.

This is a step in the right direction for the Broncos in year one. You're telling me, and I know injuries have played a factor in this, but there was a lack of belief from the players in that organization in regards to their coach, because you hear all the rumors, you hear all the conversation about Brandon Staley. Players read things. Players listen. Players know what the perception is about their coach. And I've had a lot of Chargers players on this show, whether it was Austin Eckler, whether it was Zion Johnson, whether it was Rashawn Slater, right? Anytime we've had a charger player on the show, even if they did not say it, when I asked them about their coach and Brandon Staley, who I've been extremely critical of, and it's not because I'm being critical just to be critical, it's because it was obvious this guy wasn't the fit to be the head coach of this team this year. And whenever we've had a Chargers player on, and we talked to them about Brandon Staley, they said words that if you just read them in an article with no tone and no context, you'd be like, oh, they like the coach. But when you hear what the players were saying, and you actually see the facial expressions via zoom, or you hear the tone in their voice, it was like, Zach, you know, I have to say something positive about my coach, but in reality, the conversations that are out there and that the, the, the opinions that have been formulated about him down deep, if you injected us with true serum, we'd probably all agree with it. And remember Austin Eckler, this was earlier in the season, he was asked about his coach and he was like, oh, it doesn't matter what I think about my head coach. Remember that comment? That is the nicest way of someone saying, this guy is a dope. This guy isn't fit to lead men. This guy is not the right head coach for the chargers. And then Austin Eckler had to clarify it. It was, oh, no, no, no, no. I didn't mean that in a negative way.

Yeah, sure. You did it. And I love Austin.

He comes on the show all the time. We know how you meant that. Oh, it got taken out of context.

No, it didn't. You were tired of defending your coach and saying the same old bull crap. Cause he's a man of truth. That's what Austin Eckler is. And even though he could play it off as it doesn't matter what I think about the coach, it doesn't matter this, it doesn't matter that I got to control what I can control.

That's the nicest way of saying this dude just isn't that dude. So now the chargers, right? We'll get a jumpstart.

They'll think about their future. Tom Tolesco out of a job as a GM, Brandon Staley out of a job as a head coach. And this is a team that has talent. This is a team that they're not that far away, but they got to get the right coach. And as I said, to open up the show, as I said, going back to October, Dean Spanos, I had no confidence last year that you were going to get rid of Brandon Staley.

Don't allow history to repeat itself. You need to call up Robert Kraft and say, Robert, how many picks? Well, how much do I have to pay? Let me talk to Bill. How much do I have to pay him?

And I don't care what the answers are. You need to go get Bill Bellacheck. So since we're on the topic of coaches, we've seen the chargers in danger of potentially repeating history. We're in back to back years, right? They could have had Sean Payton. They said, no thanks. And now we'll see if Dean Spanos is going to put his money where his mouth is.

And if he really cares about his organization, he'll go get Bill Bellacheck. Now let's turn our attention to the team that was victorious in that slang of the Chargers, the Raiders, 63 to 21. Still can't believe that score. You know, like I walked into the studio and Stu said to me, can you pinch me? Stu said, pinch, pinch my cheek. That's what Stu said to me. I was like, whoa, wait, wait a second there.

What are you talking about? And Stu just couldn't believe it because Stu thought he was dreaming from what he watched last night. So the Raiders in 2021, right? John Gruden, the emails got leaked and all that stuff. And they had the separation from John Gruden and they handed the keys over to the Raiders to Rich Passaccia and no one thought Rich Passaccia was going to do anything, right?

Raiders go seven and five to make the playoffs. And also let me add if it wasn't for Derek Carr, just not being ready for the big moment at the end of the game. And I know Stu, what was the situation in that game?

I remember I was in Buffalo before the Bills just absolutely destroyed my Patriots. Wasn't there something controversial with the catch or something? Yeah, the guy ran out of bounds and came back in, but they didn't catch it. Okay. I think that was in the second quarter.

Yes. It was in the first half. I remember I was eating wings in Buffalo from Bar Bill and I was freezing my tuchus off watching that game in the parking lot or in the stadium. I remember I was watching the game at the Buffalo Bills stadium, but the Bills almost beat the Bengals. I mean, now the Raiders almost beat the Bengals.

The Bengals, by the way, went on to go to the Super Bowl where if Joe Burrow had another half second and the Bengals offensive line was able to block Aaron Donald for another half second, he would have hit Jamar Chase wide open down that right sideline and the Bengals would have won the Super Bowl. So the Raiders go from, all right, no more Gruden, Basacchia, seven and five playoffs where they lose a heartbreaker in the postseason on the road. And that off season, a lot of people in that organization, and just because players want a coach doesn't mean you have to hire that coach, but a lot of players said, we like Rich Basacchia.

We've gone through so much. Remember you had Henry Ruggs, you had Damon Arnett that year happened. Um, you had the whole John Gruden situation.

That group went through a lot. They went through a ton and Rich Basacchia was seven and five as an interim head coach. And they looked basically every other place but Rich Basacchia to try to make him the permanent head coach. And they ended up bringing in Josh McDaniel's who Josh McDaniel's by the way, was an embarrassment.

He lasted 25 games as the head coach of the Raiders. So now the Raiders have an opportunity once again to make the interim head coach, the permanent head coach. And this team is not good, right? You're playing Aidan O'Connell at quarterback. And you know, I know that he was awesome last night, but the week prior, he led an offense that had zero points. So just because Aidan O'Connell last night puts up 248 yards, four touchdowns and you beat the Chargers 63 to 21 doesn't mean that all of a sudden the Raiders are working with the whole lot.

But it's not like the Raiders are working with, with nothing. You got Josh Jacobs. I know he was hurt last night and didn't play in the game, but you have Josh Jacobs and we'll see if he's back next year with the contract. You have Devante Adams, one of the better wide receivers in the league. Jacoby Myers is a solid two or three wide receiver. You have Max Crosby, one of the better defensive players in the league. Like last year in the NFL top 100 list, you had three out of the top 15 players in the league.

You have pieces there. This is not like the Raiders, Oh, they got nothing. They're not an attractive job. So I'm not saying you have to hire Antonio Pierce, but in terms of realistic names, I think there's only one name that I would be fine with that the Raiders hire where I could say, okay, I'm good with not bringing Antonio Pierce back. I don't think Bill Belichick is realistic. And that one name to be clear is Jim Harbaugh. If Mark Davis wants to hire Jim Harbaugh, who in four years as the coach of the 49ers went to three NFC title games and one Superbowl, I could understand that.

I could say, you know what, Mark, maybe you're finally starting to learn something. That's a good hire. Cause I didn't like the John Gruden hire when they gave him a 10 year, a hundred million dollar contract. Josh McDaniel's I thought was deserving of another opportunity, but I would not have hired him over rich Passatia.

And now the only name I could think of that's a big name that's proven. And that also I think is realistic is Jim Harbaugh and Jim wants, let's say Jim wants to go to the Raiders and Mark Davis hires him. I'm sure Sampter, when we go to Superbowl with these best friends with Mark Davis would shake his hand, maybe comb his hair and say, you know what, Mark, you made a good hire.

That's good. But let's say Jim Harbaugh stays at Michigan or let's say Jim Harbaugh says, you know what, I'm going to go to the bears or I'm going to go to the chargers. I don't think there's a good name out there. Like I know you could say, Oh, what about Ben Johnson with what he's doing with the, with the lions? That'd be a fine hire. But how many times is the young offensive coordinator?

That's a hot commodity. We've seen a lot of time. Those guys, they don't make for great head coaches, right? It's 50 50. It's a toss up. So I really do believe this decision for Mark Davis should be this simple Harbaugh.

Yes or no. And if it's no, it's Antonio Pierce and Antonio Pierce. You could tell that team plays for him because when you're already lost your coach, I know they couldn't stand McDaniel's guts when you know, the season's going nowhere and you just got shut out the week before to bounce back and just smother the chargers.

And there's no way the difference between those two teams should be 63 to 21. It shows that they still believe in this coach. It shows that they like Antonio Pierce. So I wouldn't at this point, Antonio Pierce doesn't get the job. It better be Jim Harbaugh. Now, just as I can't trust Dean Spanish to do the right thing. I can't really trust Mark Davis as well.

Stu, where are you at? Do you think that's a fair assessment? Like you're the Raider fan on this show. You love this organization.

You want to see this organization do well. You're not like one of those fans that gets off to like the team doing poorly just so you could bitch and complain and freak out. You are tired of bitching and complaining about this team.

You are a tortured soul when it comes to watching this team. Where are you at Antonio Pierce being the full time coach of the Raiders next year? I'm pretty much with you. I'd probably add Brian Flores to that list.

Oh, that's a good one. I would take him. But yeah, Pierce, if they can't get Harbaugh, I think Harbaugh probably might be unrealistic. I feel like there are probably better opportunities for him. If they can't get him or Flores, I would just give it to Pierce at this point because I don't want either a retread coach who has failed before or someone who's not proven because they've gone down both of those roads many of times and most of the times have been failures. The Flores one is fascinating because you have the pending lawsuit with the league.

The guy is deserving of another opportunity. And the only thing that concerns me about Flores, who has done a kick ass job with the Vikings defense this year, is that his relationship with Tua was so bad and Flores comes from the Belichick tree where it's my way or the highway. And a lot of times those Belichick guys, they don't adapt like a Josh McDaniels when given a second opportunity. So I do wonder with it being ambiguous of who the quarterback of the future is going to be for the Raiders if Brian Flores can adapt enough to have a decent relationship with this quarterback because it's clear he had no relationship with Tua Tunga Vailoa. That would be my only concern about Flores.

But it is a fascinating name that you do throw out there. And he should be a head coach next year. I would hope he's a head coach next year.

But with the whole lawsuit I can't really say that I'm all confident that the 31 other owners in the NFL like outside of Mark Davis and you know even factor in Mark Davis make it all 32 would be A-OK with Brian Flores becoming head coach again in the NFL. It is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio. We go to a Chargers legend next, Lorenzo Neal, as he will react to Brandon Staley getting fired and that pathetic performance by the Chargers last night as they tapped out and quit.

All right, it is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio, the biggest story of the day. To no surprise, Brandon Staley fired as the head coach of the Chargers. The Chargers all say goodbye to their GM Tom Telesco as well as they lost to the Raiders last night 63 to 21.

I still can't believe that final score. Let's go out to the guest line right now and welcome in a legendary Chargers player, a guy that I think should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was a great fullback and that is Lorenzo Neal, kind enough to join us right now. Lorenzo, how you been, my friend? Great, Zach.

How are you? Thanks for having me on. I'm sorry I'm in my car, you know, but I said, hey, I got to talk to you anytime you call.

I'm going to answer, brother. Well, I appreciate you doing that and saying that. So just before we get to Staley's firing to see the performance last night by the Chargers, they quit on the coach. I think that's clear. But as a former player who was aggressive, who gave it his all, how did you process that one last night? I couldn't.

I got a text last night and someone asked me to come on the show and I said they quit and guys head should roll. And that's the difference because you've got to have leaders of men. And I know that, you know, you look at coach, you talk about Staley, who he is, you know, won a Super Bowl with the Rams. So people think, hey, there's young and up and coming coach. There's a lot of coaches. And I personally, I like Staley.

I've had many opportunities to meet him, sit down and talk with him. And it's sad because he has a family and all these other things. But this is a business and this is the right now business. When you have a franchise quarterback, you have your window of opportunity is to win. And the money that the Chargers went out and spent in free agency and bringing in guys, it hasn't yield the ROI, the return on investment. And like you just talked about, it was appalling to watch grown men that we all played with grown men playing a kid's game, getting the Kings ransom and to perform like that 49 and nothing in the first half was it's something that you can't even fathom. They quit. They weren't prepared. And here's, I'm not saying they weren't prepared. They weren't prepared mentally because let me tell you, when you go out there like that, you're not prepared mentally, fumbling the ball over and over again. You saw a Raiders team fast forward and rewind that had a coach that was in the same situation and got fired, but he's a, was, you know, a great coach, but was he a leader of men? You see how the guys now they didn't perform for him, but now you can get to let's go and you can get the Raiders coach and put them in a room. And I would bet on Telesco far as knowing X and O's far as just knowing football, but you see the way those men perform for the head coach because coaching is not just X and O's.

It's about having gravitas and having the ability to lead men and make them want to play not only for you, but for themselves. And that you had two teams, the Raiders last week only scored six, but they're competing and fighting hard for themselves and coach. And that's the one thing that Telesco lost. He didn't have those guys fighting hard enough that I think that you choose that the guys choose to do some kind of way.

There was a disconnect. And this is the thing with Brandon Staley, the last two years, there's been so much negativity and so much conversation. And I remember last year after the playoff game, we, we had John and we were both like, go get Sean Payton, get rid of Brandon Staley. And every time I've talked to chargers players, I would ask them about Brandon. So I'm like, you tell me why he's the right guy and what they were saying, you knew was a bunch of BS.

Cause when so many people are telling you, he's not the guy and we're able to see that from the outside. I really wonder how bad it was on the inside. Yeah. And here's the thing. What I do know, I know that the guys liked, and just like when you have a children and you know, they love mom kids, your kids, they love mom. They will do mom says, okay, the kids love mom and mom, but guess what? When dad comes, they love us, but they also fear us. See, you got to have a sense of respect and not that don't take anything away from women.

Cause I think women are the unbelievable creators of life. And, and, and, and so no, where I'm going, this is just, you know, the way life is kids. I, I was with my mom. I'm like, okay, mom, whatever.

When she said, wait till your dad get home, I'm like, mom, that's just the difference. And, and, and Staley didn't have that part. So if you don't have a guy that you still respect, don't Allah. And they say, well, can you lead like that?

Yes. Look at Tony Dungy. Look at Jeff Fisher. There's a lot of coaches that you can lead with a bag. You know, I tell people sometimes it's a, it's a book that I read and it said, just leave for God's sake. And the guy was leading one had a, he had a bag of money and other hand, he had a hatchet and the bag of money is like, Hey, if you do this, I'll give you this.

How long does that work? And then you can have a hatchet and say, if you don't do this, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to get you in pretty soon. If you can't get the mind and the heart, you lose. So you can't lead with just here. I'm gonna give you this because kids would make up their bed one day. All right, I want more money. Okay.

You know, the hatchet, you get to a certain age and fear doesn't work. That's the thing about coaching. You got to have the ability to lead in both facets. Do you want bill Belicheck coaching the chargers next year? I think bill Belicheck would be an unbelievable. He will change the culture. And I don't think bill Belicheck is going to be the chargers coach. I don't mind, but I just think the way that bill Belicheck is, I don't know if that style of football coaching works anymore for this generation and let me explain what I'm saying is Bella check no X's and O's.

Heck yeah. But you have realized we live in a society now that you can't just talk to men any kind of way. I'm saying to my width and have guys walking on pins and needles.

That style does not work. The only way it works is you got to have a guy like, you know who the greatest quarterback that ever played Tom Brady. See, you have Jimmy G who was under him, but if Jimmy G see if you, it's a difference between a thermostat and a thermometer. See a thermometer. It just measures temperature. A thermostat regulates temperature. See Jimmy G and there's certain quarterbacks and certain leaders. They don't, they're not a thermostat. So Tom Brady could go and Belicheck could get on him because it's Tom Brady and Bella can take and say, Tom, you do this and Tom could get all the troops to fall in line.

Name me places that you have that. Now, if you don't have your trigger man that the coach and him are not on the same page and he can't win. Guess what?

Guys won't fall. Lorenzo Neil here with us. Former great charger.

Fullback played a bunch of stops in the NFL on the other side, right? You have a similar situation where you had a coach that got fired and Josh McDaniel's. Now the interim comes in and Antonio Pierce is three and three. We saw a few years ago the whole Gruden situation happened. Rich Passatia goes seven and five and Mark Davis didn't hire Rich Passatia in a full time basis. Do you believe that Antonio Pierce should get the permanent gig in Las Vegas next season? Not only do I believe that, but I think that Mark Davis made a mistake. I think he should have kept Passasi when you think about what he did as a special teams coach. See everyone wants all the flash and what everyone's saying, no, because he's a special teams coach who cares. That's what, and that's where, that's where Davis has to understand he's going to be pulled on and he's going to be tugged in and he's got to close down his circle.

I can look at a place and you know where I'm going with this in Baltimore. Who's the head coach there? But think about him as a special teams coach.

He's not no great exes and old guy. He was my coach, but it was a way he respect you, but you knew he meant business. I love hardball. I love the hardball boys, but if you think about, I've had both of them as, as friends and as coaches, he's, you still respected him and you knew, Hey Lorenzo, if I wasn't doing my job, he's like, you're not coming back. You're not going to play. And that's, that's, that's not personal. That's just making business decisions because hardball gets it, but he'll laugh with you.

He'll joke with you, but he's going to push you. And so when I say that, I think that Antonio should be the head coach. I think he's earned that and you have to realize they don't have the quarterback. I don't think the quarterback is on that team. And that's why last week you only gave, you only couldn't score anything and you only lost six to nothing. So you played well enough to win that game. So not no disrespect to the quarterback bowler up, hammer down and love the young kid, but the Raiders are a pretty good team.

If they get the right trigger, man, I'm telling you, they're not far away. Lorenzo Neil here with us. If you had an MVP vote right now through 14 weeks, who would you vote for the NFL MVP? Wow. That is very, very tough.

But if you give you say, Hey, who is it? It's two guys from me, Purdy and Josh Allen. Josh Allen does not get enough. Josh Allen does not get enough credit for what he's done and what he has to do. Buffalo bills has struggled and struggled immensely this year.

You think about what they did to Philadelphia. Josh carried that team. You have to realize you think about the system and everyone talks about Purdy, a system quarterback. I don't think he is. I think Purdy has shown that he can operate the system because Jimmy G couldn't do it.

You know what? Trey Lance couldn't do it, but you'd look about these systems. Look, look over in Miami, same type of system.

Okay. Let's go a little further than look in Chicago, same system. If you look at these coaches and some of these offenses, quarterbacks, they operate the system to this too is not a great quarterback, but in that system he's good. Brock Purdy has an it factor that separates him. So I like what Brock Purdy is doing, but I do have to be careful because you look at what happened when Trenton Deebo wasn't there and what happened. And that's the thing that I think that's going to hurt him, but I'm telling you what Josh Allen has been able to do with that team. And yes, he stoned interceptions, but he has to do more for his team to win.

So I like him a lot. Don't sleep one last one. Don't sleep on the bingles and, and, and, and, and, uh, God, my team over there now that I'm losing new Green Bay Packers. I think the seal, the Cincinnati bingles, even not having a great quarterback, they're going to find a way in the playoffs and they're going to make some noise. Wrapping up with Lorenzo Neil, just get him back to the MVP conversation. I actually don't think it should be a quarterback this year. I think it should either be Tyree kill. Who's closing in on 2000 yards.

We'll see if he plays this weekend and then I'll stay in the Bay area. If it's not Tyreek, I think Christian McCaffrey should be the MVP too. I love it.

I absolutely love it. And I think that you're absolutely right. I think that Tyreek and McCaffrey doesn't get enough credit and don't get enough thought process in that, but it goes to show you and even look at the giants. Look at these quarterbacks. Now, everyone said you can just plug in a running back and they can just run the ball.

You can plug in a receiver. They don't have to be great lime and all the quarterback positions, the only position they say, well, you got to can't miss in the draft and got to look at now around the league. How many backup quarterbacks? You look at Purdy, look at these guys, what they're doing. Look at Cincinnati quarterback position.

Are we going to start viewing it different now? Because now you don't have to necessarily have the face of the franchise. Just give guys opportunity. So you can say that for every single position, but I totally agree with you what McCaffrey has done and what he means to the Niners and what he means to the league. And so about Tyreek with the Miami dolphins, Hey, I'm with you, same church, same Pew. Let's give it to someone else.

And last thing I'll ask you. So you talk about how everyone just goes quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, clearly for the hall of fame, more than just quarterbacks get in the hall of fame, but when it comes to the fullback, there is not really an appreciation for the fullback. You were one of the all time, great fullbacks. What would you say to a hall of fame voter to try to make your case on why you should one day be in Canton, Ohio?

Well, thank you for the opportunity. I think that there should be a fullback and I'm not going to sit here and say it's me because I know that there's guys that's worthy, but I think it's a shame when you think punters now feel kickers guys are in there. And we talk about Franco Harris and those guys, they were not true necessarily fullbacks. I look at a guy like Larry centers, people don't talk about that was the best catching fullback in the league caught a hundred passes in one year. He taught me, showed me how to be a great chip blocker. If you go look at what, what Moose Johnson did, you know, how great a blocker that he was.

There's another guy. If you think about Mike Allstate, if you talk about just a running fullback, Mike Allstate was the greatest running fullback, probably in the league, one of the top. So when you think about there's guys that Moose Johnson, Mike Allstate, you know, there's guys that deserve being in this conversation. You look at what Seattle did and Mike strum and what he did, you know, Alexander, I think there's definitely some fullbacks should be mentioned and there should be a fullback, a true fullback in the hall of fame.

It's not me, the Moose Johnson, you know, like I said, Mike Allstate, Larry centers, there should be a fullback in the hall of fame. I'm with you. Lorenzo Neil always appreciate the time. You'd be well, no worries. Cheers.

Thanks so much. There he is. Lorenzo Neil joining us live on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. By the way, stream the NFL and Westwood One for free sponsored by AutoZone all season long. You can listen to every Westwood One broadcast of the NFL live on the NFL app by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports or on the Odyssey app. Get in the zone, AutoZone.

AutoZone's free battery testing and charging is available for free at your local AutoZone. Get in the zone, AutoZone. Restrictions apply. We'll come on back. Should Steph Curry request a trade from the Golden State Warriors and also reaction from Kevin Durant on what did occur with Draymond Green and his indefinite suspension. Update time first.

Here he is El Capitan, Marco Balletti. Let's take a look at who's got home field advantage this weekend in our NCAA football preview sponsored by Fairfield by Marriott. Fairfield by Marriott is the official hotel partner of the NCAA with over 1000 locations around the country. You'll always have the home field advantage.

Visit Fairfield dot Marriott dot com to book your stay tomorrow. Seven and five UCLA battles eight and five Boise State in a bowl game. And the game takes place at SoFi Stadium just 24 miles away from the Rose Bowl. And by the way, from the granddaddy of them all with the Rose Bowl coming up, man, I cannot wait for that game on New Year's Day when you just say Rose Bowl and then you have two big brands like Michigan going up against Alabama for a trip to the national championship on the line in Houston coming up.

I think that's January 8th, whatever that Monday is, man, that's going to be exciting. And also we have Texas and Washington as well. I'm really excited for the college football playoff and every year do these semifinal games actually produce good games? Most years they don't. Last year was good.

We're going in. Everyone thought Michigan was going to win. And that ended up being somewhat of a close game in the second half when TCU was taking it to Michigan and then TCU ended up getting the victory. And then the crazy one was Georgia going up against Ohio State where it was 321 Happy New Year and the kicker missed the field goal in Georgia did go back to the national championship game where it was a blowout as there was a big time beatdown by the Georgia Bulldogs up against the Horn Frogs of TCU. But this year I really I think Texas Washington is by a flip of the coin right now today.

And I'm you know this could be subject to change from now on December 15th to January 1st. I do lean Washington over Texas. And then also in the other game I'm thinking Michigan wins right now 23 to 20.

I think that spread is begging you to plus the points with the Alabama Crimson Tide. So we'll continue to break down more of the college football playoffs as we inch closer and closer to the start of the new year in 2024. But first let's hear from Kevin Durant. So we played your audio from Steve Kerr earlier. Now this is Kevin Durant who remember had an ugly end to his relationship with the Golden State Warriors and Draymond Green. We all remember the back and forth incident between Draymond Green and Kevin Durant where Draymond Green basically said how about you make your decision and stop holding us hostage like who cares what you think when you're probably going to bounce and leave us the following season. This is KD on Draymond punching Nurkic.

Yeah that was insane to see. Glad Nurkic is all right. Never seen that before on the basketball court in the NBA game. I hope Draymond gets the help he needs.

It's been incident after incident. So I know Draymond and that's not you know he doesn't he hasn't been that way when I was around him and coming into the league. So hopefully he gets the help he needs and get back on the court and you know put all this stuff behind him. Let me just ask you this.

I'm like 50 50 on this one. I'm a little bit surprised by KD's answer but then I'm not surprised. And what I mean by that was usually in the league it's almost as if a lot of these players are afraid to like speak out against another player because everyone's so buddy buddy. And we know Draymond and KD they are friendly ish and through any relationship you have some ups and downs and you know they had an ugly ending in Golden State. I was kind of though like mildly surprised to hear Kevin Durant even be like somewhat critical of Draymond and admit that Draymond is in the wrong when everyone knows that's the case that Draymond is in the wrong here. But how many times in the league there's like guys that are afraid to step on other guys toes and talk about things that really don't have anything to do with them even though naturally right they'll be linked together KD and Draymond because of their time together in the Bay Area. I think it might be a little bit different if Nurkic wasn't a teammate of KD's. Maybe if he was just from another player on a different team. But I do feel like KD's like you know what whatever my relationship is or is not with Draymond I got to defend my teammate. So there's probably some of that. Let me look after Nurkic. But I do think that there's part of it where like you might be friends with someone you might be friendly with someone and obviously their relationship like you said didn't end well but when a guy is going through some sort of trauma something that's going on in Draymond's life because there's something there's something happened whether he's you know realizing that he's not the same guy that he used to be and he's acting out or that he's you know frustrated with the team's struggles or whatever it is or maybe he has something else going on in his personal life or it could be something who else who knows what else it could be but whatever it is as much as we've said about Draymond in the past what's happened the past year and a half two years is even a step above what Draymond's ever done in his career. So this is where I struggle with this. Sometimes when you do something wrong people to try to justify their actions say oh I need to get help and the Warriors now are saying like oh Draymond needs to get help. I wonder what Draymond actually thinks about that and just because Draymond like let's say Draymond says I don't need help it doesn't mean that Draymond doesn't need help and I'm not ignoring what has transpired where we've just in the last this regular season saw him put Rudy Gobert in a chokehold and then punch you're right a teammate of Kevin Durant in Jusuf Nurkic which you know does make sense why Durant is a little bit more overly critical of Draymond if it wasn't a current teammate of him I don't know if that's going to be the case but when you like with how sensitive of a topic mental health is and how sensitive of a topic and how honest and open we've talked about that throughout the last years and now there's an acceptance where for years if you were a male and you said you had an issue or you needed therapy or you had a mental health problem it was almost as if you were viewed as weak or you were viewed as like a coward you were afraid to reach out and get help and every like a lot of people in this world need help and even though the actions would indicate that yes something is wrong with Draymond Green what I'm saying is I just hope because Draymond is doing things on the basketball court that aren't cool and that are totally wrong I just hope they're not using him needing help as something that we're dressing it up to to eventually just get him back and accelerate him back on the basketball court as soon as possible to say oh he saw this person he talked to this person and he's a changed person that's just where I struggle here like the actions absolutely when I see what he did to to Nurkic and what I see what he did to Rudy Gobert it would suggest that he needs help but then also I know the sports part of it where there is a line and he's don't get me wrong he has clearly crossed the line here but is this him crossing the line because he thinks he needs to do this these things to get the most advantage on the basketball court or is there something going on and I don't know how to you know I don't want to speculate on this in his personal life or something going on with him mentally where he's just acting out this way and right he has some anger problem so all I'm saying is out of the respect to people that actually go through these really tough times and maybe Draymond is going through these tough times I hope they're just not using this as an outlet as an excuse to get him back on the court as soon as possible that's my only fear Samter with this situation and listen it's a legitimate fear to have but at the end of the day they have to do something so maybe you're right maybe he's just gonna you know seek help until he appeases the higher ups and gets back on the court and does the same thing again but I think the reality is when everybody around you saying listen dude you need help and they're saying it kind of like what Zion said the other day and what Antonio Daniels said about Zion if it's coming from a place where you're trying to bring a player down and tear him down that's one thing but if you're saying things he needs help not as an insult but as I care about him and he legitimately needs help when people start saying that around you you maybe eventually start to realize that you need help and the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem and the fact is it doesn't seem like Draymond thinks that he has a problem but no one's ever held him really accountable right and you know what I wonder if we were out with Steve Kerr and we injected him with true serum if he even thinks Draymond has a problem because for so many years Draymond Green was enabled by the Warriors and almost everyone was afraid and maybe that means he does have a problem because people are afraid to address the issue with him and now it's like okay they're finally admitting that something's wrong here with Draymond like I don't know it just doesn't it doesn't add up to me because this was so obvious that this guy crosses the line and just this past offseason they thought it was essential to bring him back and give him a hundred million dollar contract and maybe that's part of it as we all know in sports fair or not you're judged off wins and losses right that's what you're judged off of and they won together they have a bond that is something that you can't break and maybe everyone was just afraid to to move on and and start this new era of Golden State Warriors basketball but like honestly that was my point that Steph who's chasing magic to try to be the greatest point guard of all time and we all know the clip that happened this summer when Magic joined me on CBS Sports Radio and said Steph needs to do all these things and cross all these numbers off to move past me like Steph is still a great player Clay is no longer a great player Draymond is no longer a great player and I just wonder for Steph Curry does this maybe give him an outlet where I don't think Steph ever wants to be viewed as a bad guy I think he wants to stay with the Warriors the rest of his career and I think he's still under contract for three more years in this world of how often we see guys move and I don't know how you move Draymond now does maybe Steph who seems like a real loyal guy does he maybe say okay now I got to force my way out if I want to go win another championship and that's just something I thought about as well alrighty this is that Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio we'll take a time out coming on back to kick off the 5 p.m. Eastern Time Hour 2 p.m. Pacific we'll do a little Chargers coaches draft and who should be the next head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers and then also the Lions and the Broncos meet up this weekend on Saturday does how badly does Detroit need this win we'll discuss that on the other side it's really in the last three weeks we've seen just two bad efforts by the Detroit Lions and now we're all wondering well what are the Lions going to accomplish to wrap up the end of 2023 as we then go into 2024 it is that Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio we will take a five-minute timeout Ryan Horvat still to come at 5 20 p.m. Eastern to 20 p.m. Pacific as we'll go around the NFL betting landscape and make some picks in the National Football League Zach Gelb show CBS Sports Radio.