Colin Cowherd’s worst takes and rants have kept him at the center of attention in sports media for the last decade. Known for his bashing of Russell Westbrook and Baker Mayfield, Cowherd has kept himself in the top of media headlines for his worst takes at Fox Sports. Of course this has led to some hilarious takes as time passes, and looking back at these old segments will cause you to scratch your head and wonder what Colin was thinking when he said these things. Here is an updated, top 10 list of the most poorly aged hot takes and head scratching comments that Colin Cowherd has provided on air.
10. He did not know that draft picks in baseball are unable to be traded
Colin Cowherd and Jason McIntyre have an entire conversation about trading draft picks for Shohei Ohtani... which you can't do in Major League Baseball. pic.twitter.com/nnCzKcUCkj
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 21, 2023
Kicking off the list is a hilarious segment on The Herd where Cowherd discusses Shohei Ohtani’s then looming free agency around the time of the 2023 MLB Trade Deadline, where he states if he were a general manager of an MLB team he would trade the next five first round draft picks for Ohtani. The biggest problem with this statement? You are unable to trade draft picks in the MLB, only prospects, something that Colin amusingly learns on air for the first time. For someone who gets paid to talk about sports for a living on national television, not knowing this bit of information about the sport is pretty inexcusable.
9. Started the narrative that Caleb Williams did not want to play in Chicago
Colin was one of the biggest names in media spewing the narrative that Caleb Williams did not want to be drafted by the Chicago Bears and was going to pull an Eli Manning if they drafted him. He claimed to talk to Caleb Williams’ camp saying they directly told him this due to the Bears’ history of constant coaching turnover and failing to develop quarterbacks. Colin did not do the proper research for most of the pre draft process, as he incorrectly thought the Bears did not even own the number one pick at one point and thought it still belonged to Carolina, in addition to saying these bold claims. Caleb Williams’ camp ended up calling him the next day to force him to address these claims on air, making Colin embarrassingly walk back his words.
8. "Marvin Bagley will be a multiple time All-Star"
Marvin Bagley (@MB3FIVE) should be the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft #Herdin60 pic.twitter.com/2ja6Fjsmq1
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) June 21, 2018
In what ended up a draft class that produced multiple superstars, the 2018 NBA Draft was one of the deeper classes in recent memory as some of the superstars were not the top picks in the draft. Colin, however, missed the mark on who he thought would he be the one to breakout of the bunch, as he thought that Duke’s Marvin Bagley would be the best of the draft class. Cowherd said that Bagley was no Ben Simmons, but would be a multiple time All-Star because he was gifted, coachable, could shoot a jumper, and knew his weaknesses. The complete opposite came true of Bagley’s career, as he is the biggest bust of the 2018 draft class. He has yet to make an All-Star appearance as Colin predicted, and his poor health, poor defense and poor outside shooting have led to his career being a huge disappointment. Considering that Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Brunson were all selected after Bagley, this pick and Colin’s words continue to age like milk every day that passes.
7. Colin "wouldn't touch" Derrick Henry in the NFL Draft
This could be the best one ever. 😂😂
— Funhouse (@BackAftaThis) November 23, 2020
Today, Cowherd wondered why all of those stupid GMs passed on Derrick Henry in the draft. He's big, he's fast, he doesn't fumble.... WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE???
Also Cowherd, draft day 2016, on Alabama's Derrick Henry: "I wouldn't touch him!" 🤡 pic.twitter.com/IktjKJD4yb
Ever since being drafted in 2016, Derrick Henry has been arguably the best running back to be drafted in the last decade. In 2020, he became just the eighth running back ever to rush for 2,000 yards in a season and was awarded the Offensive Player of the Year for this valiant effort. Every season where he has started over 50% of games he has rushed for over 1,000 yards, while logging the most carries in the league and giving new life to the term “workhorse.” However, Colin did not see the hype in Henry during draft time, saying that he wouldn’t touch him in the draft because Alabama running backs are overworked in college and do not usually pan out. Henry must have taken these words personally, considering his stats have proven every point that Colin made to not draft him dead wrong. Even worse is that instead of admitting that he was wrong, Colin pretends in the clip attached that he did not understand why Henry fell to the second round of the draft. Peak comedy if you ask me.
6. He did not like Vince Young in college because he reminded him of Tim Tebow
Colin Cowherd tells us that he did not like Vince Young coming out of Texas, because Young's throwing motion reminded him of Tim Tebow. One small problem: Tim Tebow was still in high school when Young was drafted.
— Funhouse (@BackAftaThis) February 25, 2020
Do you need more convincing that this guy is a fraud? pic.twitter.com/C2cMyBUMPW
In a complete mess up of chronological order of events, Cowherd said he did not like Vince Young because of his resemblance to Tebow, who was in high school at the time and would most definitely not be used as a fair comparison as prospect. This is certainly embarrassing for Cowherd, as this is about a 5-10 year discrepancy in when they played. Not sure how nobody on the Fox Sports team fact checked that one.
5. Thought Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen were the best picks of the 2018 NFL Draft
During the time of the 2018 NFL Draft, Cowherd was a huge fan of both Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen as prospects. He repeatedly preached on his show that he thought Sam Darnold was the best quarterback prospect in the draft and would be the first quarterback selected over Baker Mayfield (spoiler: he wasn’t). He said that both the Jets and Cardinals were the winners of the 2018 draft because they got their respective franchise quarterbacks in Darnold and Rosen. Both quarterbacks were far from the answer for their teams. Rosen only lasted a single season as the starter in Arizona before they drafted Kyler Murray as his replacement with the number one pick, becoming arguably one of the biggest NFL Draft busts in league history. Darnold fared slightly better than Rosen, as he at least lasted three seasons on the Jets, but overall he has been an inconsistent thrower that can not consistently win games or stay healthy when it matters. To make matters worse for Cowherd, he went on record before the draft saying that Darnold would be a better player than not only Baker Mayfield, but also reigning MVP Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. Safe to say that prediction came back and slapped him in the face.
4. Viewed Dak Prescott's ceiling as a backup tight end
Dak Prescott is a back up in NFL. At tight end.
— Colin Cowherd (@ColinCowherd) November 15, 2014
This is another one of Colin’s draft prospect blunders. In 2016, there were a lot of doubts that Dak Prescott could be a successful quarterback. This was not an uncommon take for scouts and media analysts to have. It shows the odds Dak had to overcome and how impressive his play has been. However, the statement that Cowherd had made referred to Dak as having a ceiling of a “backup tight end.” Even at the time this was an insulting statement to make about Dak as a prospect. The rest is history, Dak took the world by storm in his rookie year by taking over Tony Romo’s starting spot and never looking back. Pretty safe to say that Dak is playing the right position in the NFL. If all “backup tight ends” could have three seasons throwing for over 4,000 passing yards and 30 passing touchdowns, the league would be positionless.
3. Would take Carson Wentz over Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson
Carson Wentz was another quarterback that Cowherd was weirdly infatuated over. Over the 2020 offseason, Cowherd went on a segment naming the QBs he would take Carson Wentz over, and the list was quite outrageous even for four years back. Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson all made the list of people he would pass on for Wentz. This very quickly blew up in Colin’s face, considering Rodgers won an MVP in 2020, Watson led the league in passing yards, Brady won his 7th Super Bowl, and Lamar ran for over 1,000 yards while throwing for 2,757 passing yards. On the contrary, Wentz badly regressed from his 4,039 passing yard season in 2019, as his passing yards dropped to 2,620 and he doubled his interceptions from 7 to 15. The numbers speak for itself here.
2. Says that Golden State would never sign KD or win titles with KD
Out of all the cold takes on the Herd, this is one of the most freezing. Colin embarrassingly calls the 2016 free agency rumors of Kevin Durant leaving Oklahoma City for Golden State unlikely to happen, and he makes it worse by saying if it were to happen, the Warriors chemistry would be terrible because Klay Thompson would be playing third fiddle. Not much else needs to be said here, considering KD and Curry ended up being one the best duos the league has ever seen and won two championship rings together before KD left the Warriors in 2019 free agency. This is a pretty large “Where Colin Was Wrong” moment.
1. "Ben Simmons is a top five player in the NBA and is more fun to watch than LeBron James"
Cowherd was huge on Ben Simmons and led the hype train back in 2017. Simmons started his career as hot, with impressive accolades such as winning rookie of the year and making three straight all star appearances, but his career has gone off the rails over the last few years. After questions about his commitment to playing aggressively and developing on offense as a shooter, Simmons had an infamously horrendous showing in the Sixers 2021 playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks, where he refused to shoot in the 4th quarter five out of seven games, shot 33 percent from the free throw line, and averaged low stats all series (9.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 8.6 assists per game). We all remember the aftermath of this series, Simmons held out for the entirety of the next season before being included in the James Harden trade with the Nets. Ever since, it is a rarity to even see Simmons suit up on the court. His constant back injuries and personal issues keeping him from playing games have turned Simmons from one of the NBA’s most promising young players into one of the biggest “what ifs.” However, even at the time of this comment, comparing Simmons to LeBron was always absurd. Someone who has never been able to shoot a mid range jumper or a three point shot simply cannot be more exciting than one of the greatest players to ever touch a basketball. Simmons was also never a top five player in the league, he had the potential to he if he was more confident, but Colin was always jumping the gun by referring to him as a superstar.
Were there any cold takes from Colin that I missed? Let me know in the comments.
I am not a Cowherd fan and for the most part he is a clown but I have to say I share the same opinion about the Chicago Bears’ inability to develop a quarterback. His assessment about quarterbacks resurrecting their careers after their first team is pretty accurate. Lets see if all the offensive tools they put in place around Caleb Williams will do the trick this time. I am cautiously optimistic!