Speaker 1: So I really, you know, studied those tapes. I would
Speaker 1: take them out of the bin, put them in the
Speaker 1: machine and just stare and you know, write notes and whatever.
Speaker 2: And I'm in my own little world.
Speaker 1: And then one time I'm looking at, you know, the screen,
Speaker 1: and the tapes come out and they pop them in,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, I just felt this presence
Speaker 1: to my left and I look up and it's Dan Patrick.
Speaker 2: He goes, so you're nervous. Hello, my favorite listeners. This
Speaker 2: is the podcast we like to call Off the Beat,
Speaker 2: and I am the host that I like to call
Speaker 2: Brian bombcart nerd Listen. Some people may say the holidays
Speaker 2: end right after New Year, but those people are very
Speaker 2: very wrong. True believers celebrate the real holiday season all
Speaker 2: January long, straight through until the second Sunday in February.
Speaker 2: That's right. I am talking about the holy days of
Speaker 2: the NFL playoffs. And my guest today is, well, he's
Speaker 2: a holy man. Rich Eisen one of my favorite fellas
Speaker 2: in the business. He was a renowned sports reporter partnered
Speaker 2: with Stuart Scott on Sports Center on ESPN for many
Speaker 2: many years. He then was the first hire and is
Speaker 2: now the face of the NFL Network. He's also hosted
Speaker 2: his Emmy nominated talk show, The Rich Eisen Show for
Speaker 2: almost a decade now, where I am a frequent contributor.
Speaker 2: We have to celebrate a victory today as well, because
Speaker 2: Rich is a proud alumnus of the University of Michigan,
Speaker 2: and just a few hours before we recorded this, the
Speaker 2: Michigan Wolverines won the Division one twenty twenty three college
Speaker 2: football Playoff championship. Go Blue, as Rich would say, So
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk
Speaker 2: about his career in journalism, and of course wild Card Weekend.
Speaker 2: Let's see how right or wrong Rich was, and then
Speaker 2: of course everything leading up to the big game next month.
Speaker 2: Here he is one of my favorite people on the planet,
Speaker 2: Rich Eisen. Bubble and squeak, I love it. Bubble and
Speaker 2: Squeakna bubble and squeak. I could get every mon left
Speaker 2: over from the ninety before. Well, hail to the victor.
Speaker 2: That is correct. I appreciate you referring to me as
Speaker 2: a victor.
Speaker 1: Brian, have you slept it's Monday like a baby.
Speaker 2: Like a Yeah, you've slept really well, except I'm sure
Speaker 2: your phone's going off every forty five minutes as you're
Speaker 2: sleeping with all the news pouring in. I know, it's
Speaker 2: been insane, brother, it's been insane. Today we're recording this
Speaker 2: January the eleventh. Bill Belichick is no longer the coach
Speaker 2: of the Patriots. Yesterday, Nick Saban no longer the coach
Speaker 2: at Alabama. Your thoughts, It's been totally insane, man. I
Speaker 2: you know, I've been fortunate to do what I do
Speaker 2: for a long time since ninety six nationally and never
Speaker 2: seen it like this. Never never had the modern day
Speaker 2: Lombardi and the modern day Paul bear Bryant retire within
Speaker 2: a span of fifteen hours before the other one mutually
Speaker 2: parted ways with his longtime employer. And you know Belichick
Speaker 2: twenty four years at New England, seventeen years for Saban
Speaker 2: in Alabama, and to have them both leave their current
Speaker 2: positions within that time period, preceded by Pete Carroll after
Speaker 2: fourteen years in Seattle, I don't recall a quarterback a
Speaker 2: coaching carousel spinning off its axis like this one. Well,
Speaker 2: and also vray Ball leaving Tennessee, which I think most
Speaker 2: thought was unexpected.
Speaker 1: Yes, and then about to cannonball into this coaching carousel
Speaker 1: or pool is Jim Harbaugh, my guy from Michigan. So
Speaker 1: it's nuts man. So you've got a six time Super
Speaker 1: Bowl champion head coach and a seven time national champion
Speaker 1: head coach in Saban departing the current national champion head
Speaker 1: coach potentially entering the twenty twenty one Coach of the
Speaker 1: Year in vrabel switching jobs as well. And Pete Carroll,
Speaker 1: who like what Jim Harball wants to be is a
Speaker 1: super Bowl winning head coach with a national championship in
Speaker 1: his trophy case as well from college. It's nuts man,
Speaker 1: It's totally crazy.
Speaker 2: I want to talk a little bit more about your
Speaker 2: time at Michigan, but before I transition into your life,
Speaker 2: I just I have to ask you one question. Is
Speaker 2: that a Packers gay? I can't know you. I know
Speaker 2: where you're going. That's the other g I know you're
Speaker 2: going with this. Well, first off, should Georgia have been
Speaker 2: given the opportunity to play Michigan? No? Why should they have? Why?
Speaker 2: Four best teams? Okay for market one of the four
Speaker 2: best teams. Let me ask you this, QUOESU and Brian.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety seven, Michigan won a National Championship and
Speaker 1: had to share it with Nebraska, right, because they had
Speaker 1: the misfortune of playing the last I guess one would
Speaker 1: say a college football season before the BCS was born.
Speaker 1: Where had the BCS taken place in nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 1: Michigan and Nebraska would have faced off the next week
Speaker 1: against one another, and that didn't happen. So I have
Speaker 1: spent nineteen ninety seven to the present day having to
Speaker 1: push back at Nebraska Cornhusker fans, Well, you know, I know,
Speaker 1: you know you had well, I guess Tommy Fraser at
Speaker 1: the time, I don't know who the hell it was.
Speaker 1: You know, we had, you know, Charles Woodson patrolling the
Speaker 1: secondary and you know Tom Brady on our sideline. He
Speaker 1: wasn't playing. It was Brian Greasy. But I think you
Speaker 1: get to see where I'm going this whole argument. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to have it with you about Michigan. What
Speaker 1: would happened had Georgia taken on Michigan. I'm just not
Speaker 1: going to countless it because the bottom line is for
Speaker 1: Georgia to have made it, they needed to beat Alabama,
Speaker 1: which it did not do, right, And then Michigan took
Speaker 1: on Alabama the next week and retired Nick Saban. So
Speaker 1: you know, obviously you could sit here and say Georgia's
Speaker 1: better than Texas and Georgia is better than Washington. But
Speaker 1: Washington went through its season and a conference undefeated and
Speaker 1: won it.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Texas went through its conference season and won it. Didn't
Speaker 1: go undefeated, but they did beat Alabama, which beat Georgia.
Speaker 1: So you couldn't put Alabama in over Georgia, and you
Speaker 1: couldn't put Alabama in over Texas either, because Texas had
Speaker 1: beaten Alabama heads up. So for Georgia to have just
Speaker 1: avoided this whole conversation and they just needed to beat
Speaker 1: Alabama and didn't know that would have been interesting. Had
Speaker 1: they made it. They would have taken on Florida State
Speaker 1: in the Rose Bowl, and Michigan would have faced Washington
Speaker 1: one week earlier, and then we'll see what had happened.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I get what you're saying now.
Speaker 2: I know it is interesting. I talked to Josh Brooks,
Speaker 2: the athletic director at the University of Georgia, the week before,
Speaker 2: and I asked him what happens if Alabama wins? You know,
Speaker 2: Georgia was hurt. Bowers was hurt. Conkey was hurt, and
Speaker 2: he wouldn't he said, well, I always have to win. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was it. That was it, you know.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what it would have been an
Speaker 1: interesting battle because Michigan was way better and deeper this
Speaker 1: year than the time the two of our schools faced
Speaker 1: each other in the Orange Bowl two years ago, where
Speaker 1: Michigan wasn't ready for that. This year, I think Michigan
Speaker 1: would have been a bit more ready for it.
Speaker 2: Now you deserve of all kudos, congratulations and and yeah
Speaker 2: you did it, and now I did it. Yes, you
Speaker 2: did well. You you would part well if you have
Speaker 2: Portnoy did it right, you you should have as much
Speaker 2: say as him, right.
Speaker 1: I was just down the road from him at the
Speaker 1: Rose Bowl. Yes, as a matter of fact, And you know,
Speaker 1: my twelve year old son was sitting next to my nephew,
Speaker 1: who's a senior in Syracuse and is well versed on
Speaker 1: the travails of the stool Presidente and his seven figure
Speaker 1: bet on Michigan.
Speaker 2: At the Rose Bowl.
Speaker 1: My twelve year old son turns to me in no
Speaker 1: fewer than about eight times during the game, he goes, Dad,
Speaker 1: is that guy over there really betting a million dollars
Speaker 1: on this game, and I'm like, I believe, so, I
Speaker 1: believe so that you should ever do such a thing.
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, so I hear you. You grew up
Speaker 2: in Stayland, Yeah yeah, and Wagner High School there. When
Speaker 2: did you get an idea? I always liked talking to
Speaker 2: people about you know, when you're a kid, you have
Speaker 2: a dream of being a fireman or being a quarterback
Speaker 2: of the Patriots or whatever. When for you did you
Speaker 2: start thinking that that journalism at least was something that
Speaker 2: you wanted to do well.
Speaker 1: It was basically when I realized I couldn't hit the curveball,
Speaker 1: make the jump shot, throw the perfect spiral, run very fast.
Speaker 1: And I did love sports, and I always did love
Speaker 1: the idea of being a sportscaster. You know, I learned
Speaker 1: early on that if I ever wanted to reach a
Speaker 1: certain level within the sports world, it wasn't going to
Speaker 1: be through the athletic part of it. It was going
Speaker 1: to be through the verbal part of it. So I
Speaker 1: grew up having emulate Marv Albert was the NBC local
Speaker 1: sportscaster at night, also called Knicks Games and Ranger games,
Speaker 1: And I grew up listening to Marv and watching him
Speaker 1: Howard Cosell on Monday Night football was somebody who I emulated,
Speaker 1: and so I always thought to myself, that's something I'd
Speaker 1: want to do and found my way into it through
Speaker 1: just a long journey from college into working for a
Speaker 1: local newspaper in my hometown as an intern working for
Speaker 1: the student newspaper at Michigan and Sports Center came into
Speaker 1: the world in nineteen seventy nine, and then while I
Speaker 1: was in college from eighty six to ninety that's really
Speaker 1: when it began to explode and was kind of put
Speaker 1: on my radar screen as a goal of wanting to
Speaker 1: do that. Oh you were thinking about it then in college? Hell, yeah, absolutely, Well.
Speaker 1: I did a couple of things extracurricular in college. One
Speaker 1: was work for the Michigan Daily and I covered beaucham
Speaker 1: Beckler's final season as the football coach there and covered
Speaker 1: the Rose Bowl that year actually, and that's what's kind
Speaker 1: of emotional for me to see Michigan with Harbaugh win
Speaker 1: the Rose Bowl this year and bring my wife and
Speaker 1: kids and nephew to the game, and so you know,
Speaker 1: kind of point like that press box right there is
Speaker 1: where I sat in that in nineteen ninety and now
Speaker 1: here I was in January first of twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: with the you know, my whole family watching Michigan Win.
Speaker 1: It was really emotional for me. And the other thing
Speaker 1: I did was stand up comedy. That was when stand
Speaker 1: up really exploded in the mid to late eighties, when
Speaker 1: they made Tom Hanks Sally Fields movie out of you know,
Speaker 1: stand up comedy, and people were waiting around the block
Speaker 1: to get in, and the student union was having a
Speaker 1: comedy night once a month, and I did comedy there
Speaker 1: probably once every other month. Sometimes I did it one
Speaker 1: month after another, and I loved it. I loved the feedback.
Speaker 1: I loved trying to figure out what a crowd was
Speaker 1: into making jokes and having a set and doing that.
Speaker 1: And it was the toughest thing to date, Brian, that
Speaker 1: I've ever had to do is stand up which is
Speaker 1: another reason why I love to have funny people on
Speaker 1: my show every day, and comedians. You know, not only
Speaker 1: because I grew up also watching Johnny Carson and Letterman
Speaker 1: and that's the lifeblood of talk shows, are comedians coming
Speaker 1: in and you playing straight man to him or her.
Speaker 1: But I also just really respect the craft. Those are
Speaker 1: the two things I did in college. Who do you
Speaker 1: remember like loving or you know, kind of following in
Speaker 1: terms of stand up as you were doing it, or
Speaker 1: was there anybody you emulated or well, I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know if I really was into that, I mean
Speaker 1: about getting into who I emulated. I just loved going
Speaker 1: and doing something and the immediate feedback of performing in
Speaker 1: front of a crowd. I've always never really had a
Speaker 1: problem with that. And at this point, you know, in
Speaker 1: time in my life and my career, I'll make a
Speaker 1: joke on NFL Network or my Daily show, or I'll
Speaker 1: have done it on Sports Center, which is again in college,
Speaker 1: it kind of mixed all the dreams together of comedy
Speaker 1: and performing art and sportscasting, which is what Sports Center
Speaker 1: really was at the time. And so I really didn't
Speaker 1: have one comic that I was trying to emulate. I
Speaker 1: was just being myself and having a good time. And
Speaker 1: I loved it. I just like I said, I really
Speaker 1: loved it to the point where now I'll make a
Speaker 1: joke on any of those sets, and it's not the
Speaker 1: job of the you know, the folks behind the cameras
Speaker 1: on the floor to laugh at my stuff. But if
Speaker 1: I don't get an immediate feedback to a joke I
Speaker 1: make on the air, I'll think it's fallen flat. So
Speaker 1: I do miss the feedback. I do miss all of that,
Speaker 1: and it was amazing, man. I I loved doing it,
Speaker 1: loved it.
Speaker 2: Well. You know, another thing that was happening at this
Speaker 2: time was the huge comedy Second City that was birthing
Speaker 2: out of Chicago. I know you spent some time in
Speaker 2: Chicago before moving on to ESPN. You got a job
Speaker 2: of the Chicago Tribune. Were you covering sports there? Jeez?
Speaker 2: Was I covering in Chicago? I'm not really. I went.
Speaker 1: I went there for a hot minute, really for graduate school,
Speaker 1: and that's where I really had hoped to move into
Speaker 1: the TV world in Chicago, because I after graduating Michigan,
Speaker 1: I went back to my hometown newspaper for three years
Speaker 1: and worked there for a while and had a great time,
Speaker 1: but realized that wasn't really what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: I really wanted to try sports casting. We really wanted
Speaker 1: to get into TV. So I went back to Northwestern
Speaker 1: lived there for about six months, I you know, just
Speaker 1: to pay some bills. I did some stringing for the
Speaker 1: Chicago Tribune, where I would, you know, go out to
Speaker 1: Wheeling or Schomberg and and and get the stats from
Speaker 1: the coaches of the high school games and call them
Speaker 1: in to the sports desk. You know, like that's what
Speaker 1: I did, right, But I also had a great time
Speaker 1: covering sports for the school you know, or I guess
Speaker 1: for my school work. And that's when Jordan retired for
Speaker 1: the first time. Okay, that was wild. Was there met
Speaker 1: Harry Carrey as the Cubs once I think it was
Speaker 1: they named Tom Treblelhorn their new manager. So I met
Speaker 1: Carrie Carrey before the press conference.
Speaker 2: It was noon. He was already into a couple bloody Mary's.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget that.
Speaker 1: So that's what I basically did in Chicago while I
Speaker 1: was there trying to get my degree, my master's degree.
Speaker 2: Right, you know. One of the other things that I
Speaker 2: like to touch on our people that others don't know about,
Speaker 2: who have sort of a profound impact on you. I
Speaker 2: read Mike Mangus, yea there in Northern California, read and reading, Yes,
Speaker 2: you worked at k r c R there. Yeah, did
Speaker 2: he have a specific he was a sports director, have
Speaker 2: a specific idea? Was in your director.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got my first job in Reading California after
Speaker 1: I was done with Medill at the School of Journalism
Speaker 1: There I graduated, and I got a call from one
Speaker 1: of my fellow classmates who got a job in Reading California,
Speaker 1: and she told me, you know, the sports casting job
Speaker 1: is open here.
Speaker 2: You should apply for it. And I did.
Speaker 1: And it took really I had to really, you know,
Speaker 1: twist the arm of the news director to let him
Speaker 1: know that this kid from New York City was really
Speaker 1: serious about coming to his hamlet in northern California and
Speaker 1: treating a job with seriousness, but also bringing my brand
Speaker 1: of sports center isms to local sports casting. And I
Speaker 1: did that. And Mike was the main sports anchor there.
Speaker 1: He had been there for a long time and he's
Speaker 1: still there now. And there were four sports casts there
Speaker 1: that per day, at five o'clock, five thirty, six thirty,
Speaker 1: and eleven. So I did the five and the eleven,
Speaker 1: and so it was a long day. But I just
Speaker 1: remember a lot of the stuff that I did was
Speaker 1: just off the wall. I brought a sports center style
Speaker 1: to local TV. And you know, there was a big
Speaker 1: wrestling match that was going on in the high school
Speaker 1: prep sports world there Anderson High School. Their school's nickname
Speaker 1: were the Cubs, and they were going against another local
Speaker 1: high school and a big, you know, real wrestling competition,
Speaker 1: and I decided to make like a wrestling promo out
Speaker 1: of it and turn myself into the junkyard Cub, you know.
Speaker 1: And I enlisted Mike in to be the straight man,
Speaker 1: like the mean gene of it, you know. And there
Speaker 1: were a lot of people there and reading who were like,
Speaker 1: you know, what is wrong with this person, you know,
Speaker 1: like and they'd call up and they'd complain, like he's
Speaker 1: not taking this seriously. My son is trying to get
Speaker 1: a wrestling scholarship, or my son, this is really important.
Speaker 1: I used to wrestle for Anderson, and my kid is
Speaker 1: now wrestling because it's a legacy, and he's treating it
Speaker 1: like it's it's the WWF because I believe it predated
Speaker 1: the WWE. And Mike, I mean, I don't think he
Speaker 1: ever told me, but I'm sure you saved my job
Speaker 1: a couple of times, you know, where he took the
Speaker 1: figure it a bullet for me and the complaint department
Speaker 1: and the general manager of the station at the time,
Speaker 1: who was very you know, matrician and buttoned up and
Speaker 1: probably was wondering, why did we hire this person who's
Speaker 1: creating so much of a ruckus that we're getting calls
Speaker 1: at nights. Then we never got calls from people over
Speaker 1: twenty o'clock sports cast, like what the hell is happening?
Speaker 2: You know? So Mike.
Speaker 1: Mike was always awesome to me and gave me the space,
Speaker 1: knowing that I wasn't planning on being there to make
Speaker 1: a career out of being and reading. My goal was
Speaker 1: to get to Sports Center, and remarkably I got there
Speaker 1: from reading, Like I really like won the lottery by
Speaker 1: being discovered by ESPN while I was at KARCRTV, and
Speaker 1: I went from there to Sports Center at age twenty six.
Speaker 1: It was like getting struck by lightning.
Speaker 2: But what an incredible gift, though, to have the experience
Speaker 2: before being thrown in there, to be able to do,
Speaker 2: you know, some different ideas, to allow you to explore
Speaker 2: your own brand of humor, and to have that experience
Speaker 2: in front of a camera with a crew around. You know,
Speaker 2: it's not just in your basement, but having that on
Speaker 2: air experience that seems like a great gift.
Speaker 1: Well it was, and you know, I mean, when I
Speaker 1: walked into Sports Center for the first time, Brian, there
Speaker 1: were more people in the newsroom than were in the
Speaker 1: entire employee list of KRCR, you know, and then you
Speaker 1: look around the newsroom and it was everybody that I
Speaker 1: was dreaming of becoming a colleague of, or had been
Speaker 1: emulating or ripping off in my sports casts. And suddenly
Speaker 1: I was thrown into that world. And it was the
Speaker 1: golden age of Sports Center nineteen ninety six. When I
Speaker 1: strolled in there, it was Dan Patrick, Dan and Keith.
Speaker 1: At night the big show, the six o'clock Eastern Sports
Speaker 1: Center with Bob Lee and Robin Roberts and Charlie Steiner,
Speaker 1: and then the overnight show was Craig Kilbourne and Linda Cone,
Speaker 1: and you know, a whole host of others. Mike Tarrico
Speaker 1: is occasionally doing it still, like Kenny Maine. Kenny Maine obviously.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then you know, the ultimate obvious one is Stuart Scott,
Speaker 1: who I was connected with more often than not for
Speaker 1: about a seven year period after that.
Speaker 2: Were you intimidated walking in, Oh hell ya.
Speaker 1: Of course, you know. I mean I remember trying out.
Speaker 1: I mean, they flew me all the way across the
Speaker 1: country from Reading to Connecticut, and unbelievably, there was a
Speaker 1: snowstorm on the East coast. The first time I attempted,
Speaker 1: it couldn't get as far as Chicago. Had to go
Speaker 1: back to Redding without telling anybody there where I was going.
Speaker 1: And I was just like broken hearted that I had
Speaker 1: to go back because I'm dreaming as I'm flying east
Speaker 1: and then I'd never get there and turn around. I'm like,
Speaker 1: maybe this is a sign that's never going to happen.
Speaker 1: But two weeks later I went back and I remember
Speaker 1: staying in the hotel across the street on the Sunday
Speaker 1: night before the Monday, I was auditioning, and I just
Speaker 1: couldn't sleep, just not only because I was so hyped up,
Speaker 1: but it was one of those hotels where you could
Speaker 1: hear this stream of water above you and you realize
Speaker 1: it was the person urinating in the room above you.
Speaker 1: So I couldn't get any sleep, and I'm like, you
Speaker 1: know what, let me just turn on Sports Center now
Speaker 1: and get in the mode. And I'm watching the Dan
Speaker 1: and Keith Big Show, and as they're going through their highlights,
Speaker 1: I thought to myself, I would have done it this
Speaker 1: way I would have used that line. My thought would
Speaker 1: have been that not this or that was a great line,
Speaker 1: but I would have tried it this way. That's how
Speaker 1: I was going, just to keep my mind as an
Speaker 1: exercise going through it. Next day, go in, it's now
Speaker 1: time and they give me the rundown, you know, piece
Speaker 1: of paper with the list of the highlights that I
Speaker 1: would be calling and the you know, hey, write us
Speaker 1: in on camera, lead in into this highlight, and then
Speaker 1: you'll do three three highlights, and then you'll do this
Speaker 1: on camera, lead into those highlights. And the highlights that
Speaker 1: they gave me were the exact tapes from the Dan
Speaker 1: and Keith show the night before. So I was unwittingly
Speaker 1: preparing exactly for the audition I was going to have
Speaker 1: the next day. And so I crushed it. Man, I
Speaker 1: knew exactly what I was going to say, all the stuff.
Speaker 1: If I would have done it this way, I then
Speaker 1: did that, did that right, And I nailed it. I
Speaker 1: mean I crushed the audition, crushed it. And I remember
Speaker 1: Al Jaffy was the VP of Talent at the time,
Speaker 1: coming out and he was elated because, you know me,
Speaker 1: he's flying some kid, twenty six year old kid from
Speaker 1: reading California across the country. I'm sure there were some
Speaker 1: of his colleagues going really like, is this the guy
Speaker 1: you really want to throw in the mix with all these,
Speaker 1: you know, with everybody, And and I then got completely
Speaker 1: intimidated by walking in there. When I was fully hired.
Speaker 1: They had me observe I was the last hire before
Speaker 1: ESPN News was created where they would then put all
Speaker 1: the future hires on there to cut their teeth. I
Speaker 1: was the last one that they hired and threw directly
Speaker 1: into the Sports Center pool. And the one thing that
Speaker 1: I did observe that I did pick up on it.
Speaker 1: That's something that sticks to me to this day is
Speaker 1: every single one of the Sports Center anchor colleagues that
Speaker 1: I was so eager to be colleagues with, and that
Speaker 1: I thought I knew because I watched them each and
Speaker 1: every one of them walked in the room and was
Speaker 1: the same exact person that they were on the air.
Speaker 1: And I remember thinking to myself, Okay, so if I
Speaker 1: don't know if you can curse on this pod or not, yes, okay,
Speaker 1: I mean so if you're going to try any bullshit
Speaker 1: on the viewer, they're gonna smell it that you have
Speaker 1: to be completely authentic. I mean when Chris Berman walked
Speaker 1: in the room, because he rarely did sports centers back
Speaker 1: when I started, but he would just kind of parachute
Speaker 1: in for one week and go back and do sports centers,
Speaker 1: and that was the week I was observing. So to
Speaker 1: watch Berman walk in the room and be the Chris
Speaker 1: Berman I watched on the Draft and Sports Center, I'm like, wow, okay,
Speaker 1: like that's the way to do it. You can't come
Speaker 1: out and give some sort of a voice, some sort
Speaker 1: of you know, bullshit. Just be yourself and everyone Dan
Speaker 1: Keith name it, everyone killboard my god. I mean that
Speaker 1: he's as genuine from on the air as off the
Speaker 1: air as anybody I've seen. So that was definitely a
Speaker 1: lesson I learned real fast.
Speaker 2: It seemed like, or I don't know, from the outside,
Speaker 2: it seemed well like you and Dan seemed to clearly
Speaker 2: have a great relationship. Now both of you visit each
Speaker 2: other's shows fairly regularly. Did you feel like there was
Speaker 2: a lot of internal competition because everyone at that point,
Speaker 2: Oh okay, there was yeah, oh yeah, I'm sorry I
Speaker 2: mean to interrupt you. No, no, no, yeah, yeah, no, I.
Speaker 1: Mean, but you know you also had to understand as well,
Speaker 1: you know, like sure there was some internal competition, but
Speaker 1: there was also some tough love. And you know, I
Speaker 1: got some from Keith about my on air style and
Speaker 1: Dan hayes me. You know, like the tapes that I
Speaker 1: told you about that that I was able to audition
Speaker 1: off of and know already because they were from the
Speaker 1: show the night before. When I would do the two
Speaker 1: AM Sports Center, the eleven o'clock tapes would come upstairs
Speaker 1: and most of them would be reused, you know, the
Speaker 1: when there was a baseball game that was over for
Speaker 1: the eleven o'clock show, and they would just use it
Speaker 1: again for the two am show because there wasn't anything
Speaker 1: that was that needed to be added to it. So
Speaker 1: I really, you know, studied those tapes. I would take
Speaker 1: them out of the bin, put them in the machine
Speaker 1: and just stare and you know, write notes and whatever.
Speaker 2: And I'm in my own little world.
Speaker 1: And then one time I'm looking at you know, the screen,
Speaker 1: and the tapes come out and they pop them in,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, I just felt this presence
Speaker 1: to my left and I look up and it's Dan Patrick.
Speaker 2: He goes, so you're nervous, And I thought.
Speaker 1: To myself, you know, like, all right, I think I'm
Speaker 1: being as here. And I took that as a little
Speaker 1: bit of a He wouldn't have done it if he
Speaker 1: didn't think I could handle it or I that was that,
Speaker 1: you know, when when Keith left to go to MSNBC
Speaker 1: and his seat was open, there was I wanted it bad.
Speaker 1: Stuart was pissed that I wanted it bad. He's like,
Speaker 1: we're a team, Like, what do you want to leave
Speaker 1: our team to go just be with Dan? Like Dan
Speaker 1: was with Keith, Like you know, you don't need to
Speaker 1: create a new team. We're the team, you know. Like,
Speaker 1: but you know, and when Kenny got it, there was
Speaker 1: some a lot of people like, well, you know, I
Speaker 1: deserved it.
Speaker 2: There was some of that, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: But it was just an incredible place to be and
Speaker 1: certainly at the time that Sports Center was having it
Speaker 1: was I'm really lucky to have that time, really lucky.
Speaker 2: What were you most proud of during your time there?
Speaker 1: Uh, just most proud of being myself and growing up
Speaker 1: and having a great time with Stuart. And I'm just
Speaker 1: proud of the fact that I still run into people again.
Speaker 1: I'm fifty four now, and I'll have like it's crazy, man.
Speaker 1: I'll have like I'll be standing there at school, you know,
Speaker 1: with my my kids, you know, I had kids a
Speaker 1: little late with my wife. I'm standing there and a
Speaker 1: dad whose kid is in my kids class will come
Speaker 1: up to me and tell me, you know that they
Speaker 1: grew up watching me on Sports Center, you know, before
Speaker 1: they went to fifth grade school. Because Sports Center used
Speaker 1: to be re aired, the one that Stuart and I
Speaker 1: did was wrapped by three am. Like my regular out
Speaker 1: time average was about three thirty in the morning, and
Speaker 1: then I'd go to sleep and the shows would be
Speaker 1: reared from five am Eastern all the way to one
Speaker 1: o'clock Eastern. There would be a noon to one o'clock
Speaker 1: Eastern show. Now, as you know, ESPN is live programming NonStop,
Speaker 1: but at the time they would just rea air those
Speaker 1: Sports centers. I got some of the biggest exposure television
Speaker 1: exposure of my career while I was sleeping, you know,
Speaker 1: I was aids the world, like sleeping at eleven in
Speaker 1: the morning because I needed my six hours, you know.
Speaker 1: And so I'm just proud that it still resonates for
Speaker 1: so many people, and that whenever the subject matter may
Speaker 1: come up on social media or wherever I meet people,
Speaker 1: they've got like this warm and fuzzy feeling about their
Speaker 1: own childhood or growing up, and they view me as
Speaker 1: some sort of a figure from that time when they
Speaker 1: were young and innocent and learning about sports and having
Speaker 1: fun watching Sports Center, that I'm that person for them
Speaker 1: here in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: I'm really proud of that. Yeah, that's really awesome. And
Speaker 2: I love to hear you say how authentic everyone was,
Speaker 2: because I would say, particularly you and Stuart worked so
Speaker 2: well together and felt so comfortable, so different in so
Speaker 2: many ways, but just complimented each other perfectly. Yeah, did
Speaker 2: you get to meet him? I did get to meet him?
Speaker 2: What and where was it early SBS? I think yeah,
Speaker 2: the first time and and maybe the first couple of times, yes,
Speaker 2: And saw him on the golf course actually the ESPN
Speaker 2: thing they used to do. Uh yeah for the SP's
Speaker 2: right out for the s that's right. Yeah. Yeah, he
Speaker 2: loved to play golf.
Speaker 1: He was terrible at it, terrible, He was terrible at it, yes,
Speaker 1: but he loved it and he had no concept of
Speaker 1: how to score none at all. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we we had to tell him at one point, like
Speaker 1: listen today, if you hit the ball out of bounds
Speaker 1: and you then drop the ball where there is a
Speaker 1: white steak, you need to go back and read tea it.
Speaker 1: If you drop it where there's a red steak, you
Speaker 1: may hit it from there, but it isn't your second shot,
Speaker 1: you know. Like we had to tell him that, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't It wasn't him being you know, trying to
Speaker 1: teach it like there was no money on the line
Speaker 1: or anything like that. We're just like, dude, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no, there are provisionals like pro v's. He thought
Speaker 1: meant provisional. I'm like, no, that's the name of the
Speaker 1: golf ball man, you know, Like.
Speaker 2: I remember, and I think I played with him twice,
Speaker 2: and this was before this was a thing. I don't
Speaker 2: know if if this was a normal thing or maybe
Speaker 2: it was a weather.
Speaker 1: He wore sleeves like a long, tight part of that
Speaker 1: is because he was ripped. He was ripped. I think
Speaker 1: you want to show off as physique. Stewart was ripped.
Speaker 1: He was always ripped that. Oh yeah, and it was
Speaker 1: a Jordan thing too. I'm sure he had all the
Speaker 1: latest Nike gear from his buddy MJ.
Speaker 2: And Tiger.
Speaker 1: Oh god, Tiger loved him, and he loved Tiger. He
Speaker 1: always Stewart always looked great on the golf course. He
Speaker 1: always had the latest of this, that the other thing.
Speaker 1: And then he'd go out and shoot a buck thirty
Speaker 1: and tell you he shot in eighty nine and we're like, dude,
Speaker 1: oh my god, like you gotta be kidd me.
Speaker 2: And then again, like his eyesight was very poor.
Speaker 1: Just watching him look for a golf ball, We're like, dude,
Speaker 1: you've got fifty of them in your golf bag. You know,
Speaker 1: Tiger just sent you a box of nine hundred of them.
Speaker 1: Just drop one and count it as a stroke, you
Speaker 1: know when you do it. Oh my god. I just
Speaker 1: love being around him. He was just he was always
Speaker 1: a blast man. And we did we did get along.
Speaker 1: We did get along from the very very beginning. One
Speaker 1: of my favorite Sports Center commercials we did together. It's
Speaker 1: very rarely seen. We ad lib the entire thing. It
Speaker 1: was right around We shot a Sports Center commercial around
Speaker 1: that they said they were gonna air and they were
Speaker 1: gonna air it around Christmas. They wanted to shoot a
Speaker 1: Christmas time spot, and they didn't even have a script
Speaker 1: for it. They just had an idea that Stewart would
Speaker 1: present me with an IFB in a box like one
Speaker 1: of those ear pieces and just present it to me, like,
Speaker 1: come up to me in my desk and we add
Speaker 1: lib the whole thing where I'm just typing away, taps
Speaker 1: me on the show and he goes, this is for you,
Speaker 1: and I'm like for me, and I open it up
Speaker 1: and it's the my earpiece they had mine and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, it fits you know, my size and everything.
Speaker 1: Thanks man, And we would then we paused and waited
Speaker 1: and quickly gave the bro hug and then separated like
Speaker 1: a right, you know, cool, and he walked away wordlessly.
Speaker 1: It was perfect, like we did it and like one
Speaker 1: or two takes. It was exactly thirty seconds. They're like
Speaker 1: good enough on and we thought they'll never air it
Speaker 1: because there was no script, and those Sports Center commercials
Speaker 1: were really closely guarded, like they would walk around the
Speaker 1: Widen Kennedy people with the ESPN folks from the marketing department.
Speaker 1: If you were chosen for those spots, that was very
Speaker 1: competitive too, Like you like how many.
Speaker 2: Spots did they get? How many?
Speaker 1: Because I only got one? And you like, and you know,
Speaker 1: am I you know how much am I in it?
Speaker 1: You know that's that was very competitive back at the time.
Speaker 1: And they're like, you know, we were thinking of doing
Speaker 1: one for Christmas. You guys want to try it, and
Speaker 1: they put my earpiece in a box. He walked, tap
Speaker 1: me on the shoulder. I remember, I was sitting at
Speaker 1: my desk. It's rarely seen. I don't even know if
Speaker 1: it's on YouTube or not.
Speaker 2: Wow, I loved it. We just we ad lived it
Speaker 2: the whole thing and it was I love that guy, man,
Speaker 2: love it. It's awesome. Uh, you leave seven eight years
Speaker 2: at ESPN and you become I mean, I think it's
Speaker 2: safe to say the face of the NFL network, the
Speaker 2: first higher, first talent higher in two thousand and three.
Speaker 2: You've now been there over twenty years. How difficult was
Speaker 2: it for you to leave ESPN? Oh it's real tough.
Speaker 2: Oh it was real tough. But they made it easy.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, after a while, you know, Sports
Speaker 1: Center changed as an entity because just a you know,
Speaker 1: in our fast paced media world, man, I mean, the
Speaker 1: advent of cell phones and the explosion of I know
Speaker 1: I'm dating myself the Internet. It really changed Sports Center
Speaker 1: from a show, and at least in the mindseye of
Speaker 1: management of a show telling you what happened, assuming you
Speaker 1: hadn't seen it yet, or assuming you'd only seen it
Speaker 1: once and wanted to see it again in a entertainingly
Speaker 1: presented highlight form. And it went from that when I
Speaker 1: first got there to the end of them assuming you've
Speaker 1: not only seen it, you've seen all the highlights. Now
Speaker 1: you just want to know why something happened, or an
Speaker 1: argument over why something happened and whose fault it was,
Speaker 1: or you know that sort of thing. And that was
Speaker 1: how things changed. I went from being a sports center
Speaker 1: anchor to a crossfire moderator sometimes is how I felt.
Speaker 1: And I also saw that, you know, Disney had just
Speaker 1: recently bought ESPN, and I wanted to play with other
Speaker 1: toys in the Disney chest. I thought I should have
Speaker 1: a presence on say, Good Morning America when a big
Speaker 1: sports story hit, or do other things like play by play,
Speaker 1: and at the time management only wanted me to do
Speaker 1: more sports centers right, and I firmed my ground, and
Speaker 1: towards the end they gave me a possibility, like literally
Speaker 1: two weeks before the end of my contract, being up
Speaker 1: to the idea of maybe hosting a show called Cold
Speaker 1: Pizza that turned into their morning Venture in New York City.
Speaker 1: I turned that down for various reason, even though I
Speaker 1: wanted to live in New York City, and so I
Speaker 1: guess they took that as an opinion of, Hey, we
Speaker 1: tried our best and you're out. That was tough, man,
Speaker 1: I mean it was tough. I never thought I would
Speaker 1: leave ESPN. It was my identity. They took me out
Speaker 1: of Reading California, and so I joined NFL Network. I
Speaker 1: had another opportunity to potentially call Braves games for TBS
Speaker 1: because they were taking full and complete control of the
Speaker 1: Braves broadcast into a re tooled TBS. And I guess
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to think here, would I have wound
Speaker 1: up on TBS more than you.
Speaker 2: I don't know anymore?
Speaker 1: Okay, not anymore, I know, not anymore, but back in
Speaker 1: two thousand, you know, back in the aughts, you know,
Speaker 1: and in the early sure. Okay, I'm just I know,
Speaker 1: I'm just throwing out I'm just trying to find like,
Speaker 1: because they were retooling TBS into a spot where people
Speaker 1: would watch comedy and stuff like that and and then
Speaker 1: braves games and things that nature. But I chose NFL
Speaker 1: network out here in LA and you know it was
Speaker 1: run at the time by Steve Bornstein is the former
Speaker 1: president of ESPN, and you knew what I could do.
Speaker 1: I always tell Stevie smart enough to have hired me twice,
Speaker 1: and now here I am twenty years in man.
Speaker 2: Twenty years. You do an amazing thanks job on the network.
Speaker 2: I feel like, you know this sounds weird, but I
Speaker 2: feel like you're very, very fair when you perceive there
Speaker 2: to be multitude of sides. Thank you. I appreciate that,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: I honestly I always feel, you know, Brian, like there's
Speaker 1: got to be some version of a nuance, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean that maybe I'm not thinking about or
Speaker 1: anybody else is thinking about.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just want to take the approach that I hope
Speaker 1: is completely open, too.
Speaker 2: Normal.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know what I mean, like don't
Speaker 1: I don't know what else how else to describe it,
Speaker 1: but it is something that I'm I'm hopeful that people
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Yes, And I always try to be as
Speaker 1: reasonable as possible, but I'll sometimes fly off the handle.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know. Well, you know, I love
Speaker 2: the NFL and by the way, the work that they
Speaker 2: have given me an opportunity to do on Good Way
Speaker 2: Football a number of times. I love seeing you on it,
Speaker 2: man that really enjoy doing that, even co hosting it
Speaker 2: very rarely. But you know, I think the thing that
Speaker 2: the NFL is awesome. They're not always right, and everything
Speaker 2: that happens on the field doesn't always go correctly. And
Speaker 2: to me, just as a person doesn't have to be perfect,
Speaker 2: that entity doesn't have to be perfect. I think where
Speaker 2: I think at times people get frustrated is when we
Speaker 2: are all expected to pretend that it is perfect right,
Speaker 2: and I feel like you, in a very even handed way,
Speaker 2: are are very fair. Well, I appreciate that, but.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, I'm fortunate. I'm fortunate to that when
Speaker 1: I took my job with the NFL. So I got
Speaker 1: I got let go by ESPN, and late in May
Speaker 1: of three I got married. On June seventh of o three,
Speaker 1: I went on my honeymoon. On my honeymoon, I was
Speaker 1: driving from Venice where I signed my contract, down to
Speaker 1: Tuscany and on driving my wife on me a one.
Speaker 1: My phone goes off and you know, and so she
Speaker 1: answers it because of course she's not going to give
Speaker 1: it to me driving in Italy where people, you know,
Speaker 1: drive this close to your bumper, and then she hands
Speaker 1: me the phone and I'm like, this must be someone important.
Speaker 1: It must be The president said it was Dick Vital.
Speaker 1: He was sad that I had left. But the reason
Speaker 1: why I bring all this up is I got a
Speaker 1: call when I came back from my honey moon from
Speaker 1: the COO of the NFL. I was unfamiliar with the
Speaker 1: NFL float chart. Brian completely unfamiliar with the float chart.
Speaker 2: I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I did more baseball than anything else when I was
Speaker 1: at ESPN, and I call up Bornstein and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I got a call from an executive who says he
Speaker 1: would like to meet and talk. He goes, who is it.
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's the CEO. His name is Roger Goodell,
Speaker 1: and he goes, Roger called you, and I'm like yeah.
Speaker 1: He goes, hang up for me call him back, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I got it. And I called Roger Goodell,
Speaker 1: the Chief Operating Officer of the NFL, and he got
Speaker 1: right on the phone, welcome to the NFL, and do
Speaker 1: you play golf? And I'm like yeah, and he goes,
Speaker 1: do you want to play? And I'm like sure. And
Speaker 1: within the next week to ten days, I was on
Speaker 1: a golf course with him, just me and him, and
Speaker 1: we're playing around.
Speaker 2: And I remember where I was.
Speaker 1: Because it was at the time what I appeared to
Speaker 1: be in my life, the deepest sandtrap I'd ever been in.
Speaker 1: And you'll remember those, right, Brian, even though you're not
Speaker 1: in those very often. I know you're a game, You're
Speaker 1: a great state. I remember getting out of that sandtrap
Speaker 1: and he finally got around a business in the back nine.
Speaker 1: He says to me, you were hired to do a
Speaker 1: job for us, and I want to make sure you
Speaker 1: do the job that you were hired to do. If
Speaker 1: there's anybody that ever pushes back against something that you say,
Speaker 1: you know, and you're uncomfortable about that, you reach out
Speaker 1: to me and I'll help fix it. That's what he
Speaker 1: said to me before I even uttered a syllable for
Speaker 1: NFL Network, I didn't come on the air until November
Speaker 1: of that year. This was the summer, and true to
Speaker 1: his word, honestly, so, I feel safe if you will
Speaker 1: to criticize officiating or coaches decisions or anything that may
Speaker 1: happen when it comes to changing a rule or anything
Speaker 1: like that. I feel completely at ease, And I think
Speaker 1: that helps.
Speaker 2: You know with what you're talking about. You know, I
Speaker 2: was going to ask you about this. You mentioned it before,
Speaker 2: obviously I know now it is something that's exciting to you.
Speaker 2: Celebrate twenty year anniversary in November. The next day you
Speaker 2: call the Chiefs. Yeah, the Chiefs Dolphins game from Germany,
Speaker 2: only the second time there? You like calling the games? Oh? Man?
Speaker 2: Do I love it?
Speaker 1: I love it because everything that you know I've in
Speaker 1: this conversation is you know, your listeners probably would gather
Speaker 1: by now. What I've done my entire career is talk
Speaker 1: about things either after it's over, or talk about things
Speaker 1: in advance of them to get.
Speaker 2: You ready for them.
Speaker 1: Yes, and here I am talking about it in real
Speaker 1: time and I'm the one describing it for you.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: What a what a complete blessing it is to have,
Speaker 1: you know, quarter century into my career, an opportunity to
Speaker 1: try something different, to be challenged by the endeavor and
Speaker 1: love every second of it, you know, like the kid
Speaker 1: that learned fast. I can't hit the curve, and I
Speaker 1: can't throw the spiral, and I can't make the jump shot.
Speaker 1: I would be the one watching those who could and
Speaker 1: calling the action in the street in Staten Island, you know.
Speaker 1: And now here I am doing that, like doing that,
Speaker 1: and not just anywhere in these different locations around the world.
Speaker 1: These very important games for the league to try and
Speaker 1: sell the game abroad, and the crowds there are awesome.
Speaker 2: They are awesome. The crowd in Munich, Germany.
Speaker 1: You know, ask Brady, ask Pete Carroll anytime you see him,
Speaker 1: what was that game in Munich like? And they will
Speaker 1: tell you it felt like a super Bowl and it did.
Speaker 1: The games in Germany this year, the games in London,
Speaker 1: whenever I get to do them, and then the ones
Speaker 1: that I call domestically, I don't take them for granted
Speaker 1: for various reasons. One because there is such a fleeting
Speaker 1: time where you get to do something new and love it,
Speaker 1: so I'll take advantage of that. Also, I better get
Speaker 1: it right because it is the largest audience that I
Speaker 1: speak to. I mean, you could take you could take
Speaker 1: the ratings of the Sunday Morning show that I've been
Speaker 1: fortunate to do for thirteen years now. Add it up
Speaker 1: for an entire season, and it doesn't equal potentially the
Speaker 1: audience for name a game like that Dolphins Chiefs one.
Speaker 1: What a huge h audience it was. So if I
Speaker 1: get something wrong, twenty five years of my credibility could
Speaker 1: be flushed right down the toilet on the spot. And
Speaker 1: then the last thing is it is a serious responsibility
Speaker 1: for somebody to call a game accurately but not overwhelm
Speaker 1: the viewer. I've got to be additive, right, you know,
Speaker 1: I can't be subtracting from your enjoyment of the game
Speaker 1: because I'm screwing it up or I'm talking too much,
Speaker 1: and it is really challenging.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: One last thing on it. It just dawned on me
Speaker 1: this morning. I said this to my wife when it
Speaker 1: woke up. I mentioned it on my show today that
Speaker 1: in the twenty four years of Belichick being the head
Speaker 1: coach of the Patriots, the number of big games he
Speaker 1: coached in right, all those Super Bowls. The first one
Speaker 1: was called by Pat Summerle In his last game in
Speaker 1: the booth was Tom Brady's over the Rams in that
Speaker 1: Super Bowl with John Madden in the booth. It was
Speaker 1: the last ever Summer All Madden game, and then their
Speaker 1: next Super Bowl was Joe Buck's first game in the
Speaker 1: booth calling a super Bowl for Fox with Collinsworth and
Speaker 1: Aikman in the booth. And Jim Nance has called all
Speaker 1: those Super Bowls for him as well, and Al Michael's
Speaker 1: called the Malcolm Butler super Bowl moment in all of
Speaker 1: those AFC Championship games and Monday Night games and Sunday
Speaker 1: Night games. The person who called Bill Belichick's last win
Speaker 1: as a head coach of the New England Patriots, you
Speaker 1: were looking at.
Speaker 2: You here you go.
Speaker 1: So what I told my wife this morning, I'm like,
Speaker 1: isn't that something that's so cool? I called it on
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know. And I'm like, okay, I'll put that
Speaker 2: on my resume. Yeah I got that, And I don't
Speaker 2: take it for granted. Man. I'm like, that's I got
Speaker 2: to do it. I'm really lucky. That's awesome. There's so
Speaker 2: much I could talk to you about the Rich Eisend Show,
Speaker 2: but you've been on and I may be on again soon.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've heard the word yet. But
Speaker 2: I will be in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl
Speaker 2: this year. Let's go. Sure someone will call you about Okay, good, okay,
Speaker 2: all that you have done for Saint Jus Research Hospital,
Speaker 2: through that, the amount of money that you have made
Speaker 2: on Run for Run, Rich Run. I can't let you
Speaker 2: go though. We're here on January eleventh, wild Card weekend. Yes,
Speaker 2: you have your own job. They pay way more than
Speaker 2: I do on NFL network. But I want, I want
Speaker 2: you to give me a thought about each game.
Speaker 1: Brown Okay, you're ready. This will help me prepare. You're helping,
Speaker 1: just a thought. You don't you don't have to do
Speaker 1: at you. I know what you're looking for. Browns. Texans
Speaker 1: is fascinating.
Speaker 2: Uh. CJ.
Speaker 1: Stroud is only the sixteenth rookie starting quarterback. Again, we're
Speaker 1: counting brock per in this, even though he didn't start
Speaker 1: a full year like CJ.
Speaker 2: Stroud did.
Speaker 1: Somebody who is unquestionably the starting quarterback for someone's team
Speaker 1: as a rookie going into the playoffs. He's He's the
Speaker 1: sixteenth such quarterback in the Super Bowl era to do
Speaker 1: what he has done. I believe he is going to
Speaker 1: be the offensive rookie of the year. He has been dynamite.
Speaker 1: He has been dynamic. He has taken the Texans from
Speaker 1: worst to first. And the guy he's facing is a
Speaker 1: thirty eight year old starting quarterback just like you know,
Speaker 1: Purty in a way, got the gig late in the
Speaker 1: season and he is the most mister relevant guy in
Speaker 1: a long time. And Joe Flacco as Super Bowl MVP
Speaker 1: for the brown thirty eight year old going against a
Speaker 1: twenty two year old Brown's against Texans. I can't wait.
Speaker 1: It could be a matchup between two of the finalists
Speaker 1: for Coach of the Year in Stefanski and Damico Ryans,
Speaker 1: and the Browns have an opt opportunity if they win
Speaker 1: that game, depending on if the Chiefs do beat the
Speaker 1: Dolphins in that night game, which we are possibly expecting
Speaker 1: because the Dolphins, as you and I are talking right now,
Speaker 1: don't have Xavi and Howard one of their defensive backs
Speaker 1: Jalen Waddell and Raheem Moster are questionable for that game.
Speaker 1: Tyreek Hill was in a walking boot, and I'll just
Speaker 1: say this, despite his remarkable physical capabilities and athleticism, I
Speaker 1: profer to say ankles that are already a little bit
Speaker 1: banged up. Tighten up in zero degree temperature, which is
Speaker 1: what this is supposed to be like in Kansas City.
Speaker 1: And it's the Tyreek Kill game against the Chiefs in
Speaker 1: Kansas City that we did not get because that matchup
Speaker 1: was called by me and NFL Network in Germany, so
Speaker 1: we didn't get that. We're going to get that now.
Speaker 1: And then the rarity of the third playoff game of
Speaker 1: the week, and those are the two on Saturday. Get Peacock, folks,
Speaker 1: because it's only streamed that Kansas City Dolphins game. Woe
Speaker 1: to what works in the Foe and Banks in Thirty
Speaker 1: Rock and Burbank in New York and California of people
Speaker 1: calling up on Saturday saying where is that Chiefs Dophins game.
Speaker 1: It's on Peacock. It's only being streamed. So there's that.
Speaker 1: And then the rarity that the third playoff game, the
Speaker 1: first on Sunday, completes the entire conference. The AFC will
Speaker 1: be done and wrapped up of Super wild Card weekend
Speaker 1: before the NFC plays a single down on this weekend.
Speaker 1: It's the Steelers in Browns at part of the Steelers
Speaker 1: in Bills on Sunday, and the Bills a team that
Speaker 1: a lot of folks didn't think they'd make the playoffs
Speaker 1: at six and six, and the Steelers go from seven
Speaker 1: and seven to make the playoffs. You got a six
Speaker 1: and sixteen as the two seed now hosting a seven
Speaker 1: and seven team that you think was going to go there.
Speaker 1: And everybody from Pittsburgh, as you know, makes a straight
Speaker 1: line up to Buffalo to actually go and see that game.
Speaker 1: Potentially you put it all together, and there's bad weather
Speaker 1: coming for that one too.
Speaker 2: Do the Packers have a chance.
Speaker 1: So the Cowboys and the Packers, as you know, my god,
Speaker 1: you know green Bay very well. I know you're a
Speaker 1: Packers and Falcons guy together. And so you know Rogers'
Speaker 1: success against Dallas in his two playoff games. One of
Speaker 1: them was Des caught it in Lambeau. The other one
Speaker 1: was Jared Cook caught it in Dallas. Farv had less
Speaker 1: success against Dallas in his times against the Cowboys in
Speaker 1: the playoffs for Green Bay, which, as we all know,
Speaker 1: if Fox wants to show some Ice Bowl footage, I
Speaker 1: think they'll do that too. These are classic teams to
Speaker 1: face each other in a perfect perfect matchup for Jordan
Speaker 1: Love in his remarkable first playoff season as the full
Speaker 1: time starter in Green Bay. I'm psyched, man. What better
Speaker 1: way for the Cowboys to be tested at home where
Speaker 1: they seem to be invincible than have a team that
Speaker 1: doesn't know any better because they're all like nineteen years old,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And so I can't wait
Speaker 1: to see what that one is. And then of course
Speaker 1: the fact that it's Mike McCarthy against the Packers against
Speaker 1: the guy that replaced him. It's pretty sweet on every front.
Speaker 1: There then the Lions taking on the Rams. Math of
Speaker 1: all the people for the Lions to have to stroll
Speaker 1: into their building, them all the gin joints in all
Speaker 1: the world. Okay, it's been thirty years that this gin
Speaker 1: joint has hosted a playoff game, and the Lions have
Speaker 1: been waiting this for decades. The one guy who strolls
Speaker 1: into one and done him in that situation is the
Speaker 1: Lion King himself in Matthew Stafford. And then there's the
Speaker 1: fact that you know he's on the Rams because the
Speaker 1: Rams flipped Jared Golf to Detroit and he's the guy
Speaker 1: that's trying to show McVeigh that, yeah, I know you
Speaker 1: got your ring with Stafford, but not today. And Dan
Speaker 1: Campbell's bite kneecaps off and that's why I think the
Speaker 1: NFL chose that one for Sunday Night Football on Sunday
Speaker 1: Night on NBC. And then you've got the Monday Night
Speaker 1: finale between the Bucks and the Eagles. And last year
Speaker 1: the Bucks were on Monday Night with Brady couldn't get
Speaker 1: past the Cowboys? Can Baker get past Philly which has
Speaker 1: looked like a shell of a team compared to what
Speaker 1: they looked like even in the first dozen weeks of
Speaker 1: this season, let alone last year's NFC Championship game. And
Speaker 1: the Eagles and Bucks have a playoff history for sure.
Speaker 1: Warren Sapp always loves to tell me how the team
Speaker 1: shut down the vet in their Super Bowl season years
Speaker 1: ago when they went to the Super Bowl and won it,
Speaker 1: and then the next year opened up the New Link
Speaker 1: and beat the Eagles. There that back to back boom boom.
Speaker 1: They beat the Eagles twice, shutting their old building and
Speaker 1: christening their new building with a big fat L. They
Speaker 1: go way back, and I can't wait. I hope that's
Speaker 1: what you were looking for for a bold card preview.
Speaker 2: That's why you're the best in the business. Thanks Rich Eison.
Speaker 2: I mean if that didn't get you excited for this weekend.
Speaker 2: Nothing here we go, nothing will. Congratulations on your Wolverines,
Speaker 2: Thanks Pal, as Pat McAfee said pregame Monday night. Despite
Speaker 2: all the distractions this year, these players found a way
Speaker 2: to impose their will and they did and they won
Speaker 2: and your has.
Speaker 1: To full disclosure. Pat said that, and then chose Washington.
Speaker 1: So I saw it. I see everything, Brian, I see everything.
Speaker 2: Well they made No he was right. He just wasn't
Speaker 2: right about that. Well done. Congratulations and good luck this weekend.
Speaker 2: Thanks Pal. Thank you Rich. It's always fun talking a
Speaker 2: little NFL with you and so interesting to hear about
Speaker 2: your journey from Redding, California to well Bristol, Connecticut. I'm
Speaker 2: looking forward to see how your predictions play out over
Speaker 2: the next few weeks. Thank you everyone for listening. Come
Speaker 2: back next time. An old friend be in the studio
Speaker 2: with me. She's a hell of a lady and she
Speaker 2: loves cats. Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced
Speaker 2: by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Ling Lee.
Speaker 2: Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes,
Speaker 2: Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan
Speaker 2: Papa Zachary and our intern is Ali Amir Sahem. Our
Speaker 2: theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and
Speaker 2: only Creed Bratton,