REShow: Dick Ebersol - Hour 2

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You say this to me is supposed to like bring fear to me or something. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles picked off at the goal line. The seventh round pick Jaylen Watson.

Watson Yes, that boy is good. The Rich Eisen Show earlier on the show Eagles quarterback Jaylen Hertz still to come Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, legendary TV executive Dick Ebersol plus from NCIS Los Angeles actor Gerald McCraney. And now it's Rich Eisen. Our number two The Rich Eisen Show here on the Roku channel Odyssey Westwood one we say hello to our podcast listeners who are listening at their leisure because it's their right to do so after taking our podcast, we're all podcasts are required and putting it on whatever device they listen to thanks to the Cumulus podcast network youtube.com slash Rich Eisen shows and backstop for anything that you may miss. Please hit the subscribe button on both our podcast and our YouTube page. We're also again on the Roku channel live every day from 12 to three Eastern on channel 210 on the Roku channel and then it just repeats. You can't miss us. Please watch us. We love being seen there. And we love the fact that it is free on all Roku devices, fire TVs, Samsung smart TVs, the Roku app, which has the Roku channel on it, the Roku channel.com that is the website. To get us and stream us for free every day.

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Okay, very good. Our number two little boy. Our number two this program.

There is no more legendary individual in sports television and entertainment television than Dick Ebersole. New book from Saturday night to Sunday night. We can't wait to talk with him about all of that.

I mean, we're going to 20 minutes with him. Just just again, just the notes from the book. I'll just throw this out there. Just just listen to this man.

This is the world of sports to work on the Mexican Olympics, made famous by the protest of John Carlos and Tommy Smith, and then worked on the Munich Olympics during the tragic hostage standoff. He co-created Saturday Night Live with Lorne Michaels, produced the show for four seasons, helped launch Eddie Murphy to start him. He was the one who invited Billy Crystal to host and said, you know what?

You should be a cast member. Billy Crystal on the back of the book said that that decision to see him as a cast member was something I didn't see in myself. I trusted him and his confidence in me changed my life. He brought pro wrestling to television, took over NBC Sports, first broadcaster to host the World Series, the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the Summer Olympics in the same year. He's the guy who put Al Michaels in a booth on NBC after Vince Scully for baseball and Marv Albert for basketball. Responsible for Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame in Atlanta.

Other stories include Jordan announcing his return to basketball, the late night wars between Jay Leno and Conan and the OJ Bronco chase. That's just for starters. How about that?

My gosh, he's coming up at 17 minutes time. And I'll be honest with you, Matt, in a couple of negotiations with the NFL, certainly that birthed this show, getting a carve out of my contract for this show, Chris and TJ and everyone else around here, you know who I reached out to for help and some advice? This guy. Oh, yeah. You know who gladly gave it?

This guy, Dick Ebersole. He didn't send you the voicemail? He did not send me the voicemail. Thank God. If he did, maybe we wouldn't be talking here today on the Roku channel.

I'm glad he didn't. So he's joining us in about 16 minutes time. Miles Garrett, top of the next hour, and then Gerald McCraney, the actor from NCIS Los Angeles now.

But so many folks know him from Longmire and Simon and Simon and Major Dad and Deadwood and House of Cards. He's joining us in hour number three of this program. We started the show. We chatted with Jalen Hurts. If you missed it again, there's the YouTube page as well as again, this show re-airs nonstop on the Roku channel, channel 210. Our clips are available there as well on demand.

Check it out. We also talked about the opener of this program. Last night's game where the Chiefs beat the Chargers and the Chiefs have now won two games this year in different fashion. Boat race, can't stop the offense in Arizona. And then with the offense sputtering at home last night, sticking in there, hanging in there, coming back from 10 points down and winning the football game thanks to a pick six by Jalen Watson. Not many people have him on a fantasy team.

He scored going up top on a deep ball that was very difficult for the Chiefs to connect on all night long. And then Jalen Watson, a seventh round selection with a pick six to put him up for good. So they've won those games. And so the last two nationally televised games involved the Seahawks at home and the Chargers. And I think you'll be hard pressed to find two teams that play the wildest games and the craziest things happen when these teams are on the field. And certainly Seattle, in Seattle at night, it's just, I don't know, I've been there, I've hosted things there, I've watched it there.

You just feel like you're on a different planet, like you're playing on the moon. Just crazy things happen. And the Chargers last night almost recovered the onside kick. So I've written down, that's one of the things that I've written down here about what happened with the Chargers last night. And again, the Chargers don't do these things, they just happen to them sometimes.

And then they do things that bring them about, put it together, and it's very Chargers-like. Second quarter, Marquez Valdez-Scantling of the Chiefs tosses Bryce Callahan out of the way, like shoves him out of the way, his defender. Nasir Adderley grabs the pass that Mahomes, I guess, intended for Marquez Valdez-Scantling. Interception, flag on the play, it's not offensive pass interference, which it clearly was, it was a legal contact by Callahan. They, I guess the contact they thought was created by the defender, even though Valdez-Scantling extended and shoved and like removed.

Take that interception off the board. That led to a Mahomes street ball touchdown, by the way. I texted that to you, street ball. I mean, it kind of was. It was. No, I know. He did run around forever. I'm not saying he doesn't play street ball, it's not the only thing that he does.

Right, no. It's not the only thing he's good at. That touchdown though was kind of crazy. Third quarter, offsetting penalties negated another interception thrown by Mahomes. Derwin James picked that off, but offsetting penalties negated that. And then the next play, Asante Samuel Jr. grabs the ball out of the air that, by the way, he initially could have had cleanly but didn't and kicked up in the air and then had to try and go and collect. It was initially called an interception.

I looked at it, I saw it again and again and again. The ball wasn't completely in his arms. If it was completely in his arms and then it touched the ground through his hands, they would have let it stand. But it was moving around as it hit the ground and it sure looked like he was pushing it together with his forearms. I knew it was going to be overturned and Terry McCauley, who's part of the Amazon Prime Video broadcast because NBC puts it all together on the production side of things.

He said on the spot that's going to be overturned and it was. And that was huge because the Chargers were up by 10, would have gotten the ball on the 30 yard line of Kansas City. And then a minute 24 to go in the third quarter, Mahomes looks like he's sacked, he spins around, he creates time. He finds a wide open Travis Kelce who looks like he's going in the end zone. But Derwin James not only stops him, but picks him up and throws him down. Spine buster, TJ. I mean, this was a full wrestling maneuver.

Shout out to Anderson. This wasn't flagged. It shouldn't have been. I'm just saying like when you see somebody violently thrown down, I thought it should not have been flagged. But you don't see Travis Kelce. He's a big boy. I mean, if you watch, you just watch it in full time. I mean, James stops him and kind of benches him like he is like a clean jerk from the Olympics.

He stands up. I thought for sure Kelce was scoring. He threw him down.

He looked like an Estonian trying to, you know, lift 500 pounds and throw him down. And by the way, that led to the Chiefs not scoring the touchdown. I couldn't believe they started the fourth quarter. They took the entire fourth quarter to make a decision on fourth and one from the one. Andy Reid kicked the field goal to tie it.

And Nathaniel Hackett at home was like, great move. It was because the three points was the difference. You take the points. Yeah. Yeah.

That was the difference eventually at the end, because, you know, with 1029 ago, the Chargers are moving in. They're tight end Gerald Everett's trying to tap out. They're going fast. No huddle for some reason, because I guess that's what they were doing. No huddle.

Fast. Everett can't come out of the game. He said after the game that he's hobbled, he's hurt, couldn't come out of the game. He and Herbert are on the wrong page. The Chiefs make the right call defensively and switch properly. And then as a 99 yard pick six for a seventh round draft choice, Jalen Watson to score the go ahead that eventually won it.

And Herbert, this was wild, too. He hurts his ribs. It looks like he's really hurt, but he gets off under his own power and then comes right back in.

But it's obvious that he's still hurt. It's third down. Third and one. It's third down. They're down by 10.

They've got a score. And Herbert has a clear, easy path to pick up the first down, but decides to just throw it away because I guess he figured sliding would hurt. He was in so much pain. Exactly. Or I can't take the hit. I'm just going to I thought he could have got out of bounds.

Right. All sorts of stuff could have done everything. Chris, I just think he was in pain. It was just weird. It was weird.

It was so weird. And I think that's it because he can't even pick up one yard running it. And then he throws a 40 yard frozen rope on fourth down. Dart. Like you need one yard.

Why are you throwing it? Thirty five years ago, Herbert, they don't throw enough like that with him. It feels like. He's got it. He's got it.

And then he can't cannon. He can't run the one yard. And Richard was just like he threw the ball down and just like in a perfect spot.

It was weird. He threw that pass and then threw another touchdown and then the onside kick to which you refer where it was for a split second. Up for grabs. Like right there. Chargers, man. So close. That's it.

That's the name of the that's the name of the headline. Actually, I said in the beginning of the season, can they avoid charger like things? Bingo. So far, they can't. Chargers, man. Let me tell you. They should be 2 and 0.

They should be 2 and 0. Wrote it all down, man. Crazy. Chargers, man.

OK, so I just went on and on and on. I want to be late for Dick Ebersole. You've got fantasy stuff coming up, right? Yes.

On this program. And you've got what's more likely that maybe we'll do what's more likely after Dick Ebersole. Great. If you don't mind.

And then we'll get to your fantasy in our number three sneaky good games going out the door. How does that sound? Great. We just showed everybody how the sausage gets made. Let's take a phone call here on the Rich Eisen Show. Spencer in Florida. You're here. What's up, Spencer? Hey, guys, how's it going? How are you, sir? What's going on?

Doing well. First of all, I will be at the Thursday night game next week, so I'll be sure to take a big old picture of Brownie the elf for you and send it to you on Twitter. You know what? I totally understand what Browns fans are into. It's a regional thing. The issue is, though, is the whole nation will see it and everyone's going to be wondering, who the hell is that elf?

And why are the Browns selling cookies? Is that what's happening? You know, it's kind of crazy, but you can do that. You can do that.

I look forward to it. What else is on your mind? So you guys were just talking about the game last night and Justin Herbert getting absolutely demolished. He had no time last night. Do you think that that's more the Chiefs defensive line just being that much better or that the Chargers really need to fix their offensive line and fix it quick?

Because it looked to me like shades of 40-year-old Brett Favre out there last night before that bomb. I don't know. To be honest with you, thanks for the call. Should I give the coach's answer?

What do you want? Do you want the coach's answer or my answer? I want coach first, then your answer. Coach's answer is, I haven't seen the tape yet. I can't evaluate it. I haven't seen the tape. Very boring.

What's your answer? I'm not looking at the tape and I just figure that they just need to protect better in the fourth quarter. That's all.

I mean, how about that? I have no earthly idea because it sure looked like they did enough against the Raiders. I didn't see Max Crosby and one of the guys who caused me to have the Raiders win this division in Chandler Jones. I didn't see him setting up in the backfield.

And you know what, man? It looked good for the Chargers up 17-7. Sure did. I mean, it was 17-7 after, let me get this correct here. It was 17-7 after the Chargers got the opening kickoff to the second half and went 11 plays, 75 yards in five minutes. That's the way you win games in Arrowhead. You go in, you keep hitting the homes in the mouth, you try and get them off schedule, to use the football phrase, and then you score touchdowns, you don't settle for field goals, and they did it. They were up 10.

I know Charger fans are complaining. You thought that was an interception by Asante Samuel Jr.? You really did.

I did too. Take a look one more time. Ball is moving in his arms and I know the people, oh God, it's framed by frame.

It's all right to move as long as you have possession. And he didn't have complete possession when the ball hit the ground, and you could see the ball hits the ground, he kind of pushes his forearms together to make the catch. That's the way I saw him. I thought he got his hand under the ball, but maybe I'm wrong. I thought it was definitely going to be overturned, and it was. I think what you see is the ball moving is him getting up.

Well, I guess he should have stayed down. 844-204 riches, the number to dial here on The Rich Eisen Show. From Saturday night to Sunday night, Dick Ebersole will be joining us when we come back here on The Rich Eisen Show.

Moving our way towards Miles Garrett, the actor Gerald McCraney in studio. What's more likely, where Chris Brockman throws a few ideas out at me, to guess what is more likely to occur on the rest of our sports weekend? Maybe a little college football mixed in there as well?

I don't know. All pro, baby. All pro. But then there's sneaky good games and some fantasy advice going out the door. So much more to get to, so we'll take a break when we're back.

Dick Ebersole, legend indeed, coming up next. Geico asks, how would you love a chance to save some money on insurance? Of course you would. After all, who doesn't love a great deal, right? And when it comes to great rates on insurance for all the things in your life, Geico can help. Like with insurance for your car, truck, motorcycle, boat and RV.

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844-204-rich number to dial on this program. From Saturday night to Sunday night, a new book that I cannot wait to crack. My 40 years of laughter, tears and touchdowns in television. And again, I will share with you how incredibly open he is to people who reach out to him for advice.

I'm one of them. The show might not exist without his counsel. Try and carve this out of a contract with the NFL years ago. He was a consigliere, for the lack of a better phrase, for me.

But also, so many pop culture moments, sports and entertainment that we've enjoyed over the last half century. Courtesy of this man's grit, determination and of course vision. From Saturday night to Sunday night, where all books are sold right now. Joining me on the Mercedes-Benz phone line on the Rich Eisen Show, Dick Ebersole. How are you, sir?

Thank you very much. Do I get a Mercedes? Yeah, yes you do, by the way. You know, what color interior do you want, Dick? We can figure, we can work on that.

We can figure that. A dark can. Okay, very good. Actually, I think that's called Tahoe.

I think that's called the Tahoe color. Very much, very much. How are you doing? Good to chat with you. Great. I'm at Notre Dame with Willie and my wife Susan, speaking to a couple of groups today. Okay. Just enjoying life and having no pressure.

Just seeing friends. What do you think of when you're seeing Thursday Night Football streaming on Amazon, Dick? What are your two cents on that subject matter? That we just watched a Thursday Night Football game, a package that was born out of a lot of hands being put on it, including NBC Sports from back in the day.

What do you think about the world we're living in right now, Dick Ebersole? Well, for starters, the greatest football television producer who's ever walked the face of the earth is Fred Gidelli. He did years and years of Sunday Night Football for me, making it the number one show on television. And Amazon was very smart in the deal that they made with the NFL and NBC to require that they get Gidelli. And so that game last night was extra special because Fred Gidelli was doing it. And Al was calling it. And Al was calling it and Al likes Fred's dulcet tones in his ear.

Of course he does. How difficult was it to pull off the Oswald the Rabbit for Al Michaels trade years ago at Super Bowl 40 to help birth the Madden Michaels booth for NBC and Sunday Night Football, Dick? Well, I was pretty far down the line already with John and John's agent, Sandy Montag, is a master.

And I never had any doubt I was going to be able to get him. Is that so? Yeah.

OK. I mean, John really had said for seven or eight years at that point that the one thing he wanted to do was do football for me. And I just wanted to do football with him.

It was a match made in heaven and we had a ball doing it together. Collinsworth told me that he was auditioning or you had him warming up, if you will, in the pen if Al wasn't coming. And that you came, you went to him and said, I think I can get Al. But you tell me if this is really what you want to do and call play by play with Madden. And his response was, if you can get Al, that's the end of this conversation. Is that true?

For sure. He wanted Al. He didn't want to do it. He was only going to do play by play because I wanted him to do play by play.

I think of Chris like a son and he was ready to do it. But fortunately enough, John and Sandy got him out of his ESPN deal. Dick Ebersole here on the Rich Eisen Show. Okay, so what made you want to sit down and finally put in a book your career, Dick Ebersole? My career and maybe more interestingly enough how blessed I've been to have the life that I've had.

Suzy and Charlie, my oldest son, took me to lunch in New York about, I guess, three years ago. And said, enough already. You've sort of gone back and forth. You're going to write it. You're not going to write it. You've written a couple of chapters.

You've got to do it and you've got to get somebody who you're really comfortable with to write it with you. And I looked at Charlie and he said, who? And he said, Aaron Cohen. And Aaron Cohen is an unbelievably talented young writer who had written Olympic openings, for example, for me for years.

The ones that Bob would do welcoming you to the nightly telecast and telling you the story of the stories that we're about to unfold. And Aaron has been unbelievable with me, with the book, and he's still heavily involved for NBC and a number of ventures. And he still works indirectly for ESPN because of his association with Connor Shell. So who was the, I think I know the answer to it, but I'll put it out on the table for you to answer. The most influential person to help you get started in your career, Dick Ebersole. Fortunately for me, Rune Arledge, who was the most important sports television producer ever walked the face of the earth. He's the one who pushed, pushed all of his young people, of which I was one, to be storytellers. Never to have a telecast where you weren't prepared from the time you came on the air to set the stories of the people who were about to participate in the event.

It was almost ready to unfold as we came on the air. And what was your biggest break, Dick? Biggest break?

Yes, sir. My biggest break was as a foreign exchange student living in Normandy. The family I lived with, I convinced them they weren't race car fans, but I said I'd like to see the 24 hours at Le Mans.

They, the father of the household and his three sons and I, drove to Le Mans, and I think I was about 17 at the time. But I went off on my own. All I wanted to do was find the wide world of sports people.

I did. I became a gopher. Gopher coffee, gopher ice cream, gopher cigarettes, you name it. And by the time that long weekend at Le Mans was over, they said to me, when you're back in the States, come into New York, meet Rune, but most importantly, we'll fix you up with some of the producers there. And for various events, you can be a gopher.

And gopher expanded usually beyond going for cigarettes, coffee, and ice cream to being the guy who advanced many of the things that were about to unfold. And more importantly, lined up interviews for the announcers with the major athletes if they were foreign language arranging translation. And it was all great. And plus I spoke French. That's why I was there as a foreign exchange student. And so the Olympics were your first gigs?

Is that the first big gigs for you? They were. And when I came back to the States, I was finishing up at Yale.

I had a year left. And every weekend, I would get in a car, rent a car, drive to Kennedy, most times to Kennedy, and fly to Europe and hook up, usually with an event that Jim McKay was the lead announcer on. Jim is the father of storytelling and American sport. He was already a great newspaper storyteller, but I became the guy who would give him my bios, and he taught me over a period of a year how to really know how to edit a story, how to particularly for an announcer to edit it in the fewest number of words so that that announcer would have to absorb it into his mind.

It wouldn't sound like he was reading something. So how did you go, Dick Ebersole here on the Rich Eisen Show from Saturday night to Sunday night where all books can be acquired, how did you go from ABC Sports to on the radar screen to create, co-create with Lorne Michaels Saturday Night Live? How did that happen, Dick? Herb Schlosser ran NBC for a number of years, and he tried at one point to get me to be interested in being the head of NBC Sports. I was still a kid, and I was wise enough to know I couldn't compete against our village. First of all, I might know a little bit about producing, but I knew nothing about negotiating, and you can't be a success in television sports until you know how to acquire the event rights.

If you don't have the rights, it doesn't matter how good you think you are or how good you are, you have to have the rights to the event to be there, to be able to cover it, and to be able to produce it. And so how did you wind up with SNL? How did that get born for you? Schlosser, having headed me into that NBC sort of attempt to get me to do sports, it led him to inquire whether or not I'd be interested in running NBC Sports, as I said, and I really wasn't interested in doing that. But one day he threw in, would you like to create a new show, late night show, that were there on Saturday nights, and after about a week of thinking about it, I accepted it, dropped out of Yale. My parents were out west on the first long disaster. Oh, Johnny didn't want his reruns on Saturday night anymore, and that's why that time period was opening up. And I began almost right away. I'm sorry, I've lost my place.

No, no problem. What happened with Saturday Night Live? Johnny's like, I don't want my rears on Saturday night, that time slot opens up and you get offered the gig. He was trying to get down from five nights a week of doing his show to four nights a week of doing his show. And so it was sort of a free ball for me to find something. I roamed around comedy clubs in the United States and Canada, looking at young comedy talent.

It wasn't really getting anywhere. And one day I was at a famous Hollywood manager's office, and out of a door came this young man, and he came over and introduced himself. He was Lorne Michaels. And he invited me to go to dinner, or first of all, to see a comedy club in L.A. with him. We had dinner when dinner was over. Serendipity struck again. We went to the Polo Lunch of the Beverly Hills Hotel.

I lived in the Beverly Hills Hotel in those days because I had my deal with NBC, guaranteed me a room there. And Lorne, as we walked in the door, said, isn't that your father figure over there? And I looked with my bad vision, and sure enough, Rune was sitting there with his wife, Howard Cosell, and his wife. I walked over. Rune stood up with open arms. I walked over, he enveloped me in a huge hug, as did Howard, which was very rare.

Howard was not a big hug. And I sat with them for a while. I realized that Rune held no hard feelings of the fact that I'd left. And I just felt real comfortable from that point on, about where I was with my life and what I wanted to do.

And off I went, continuing to look for people with Lorne. And we found some other production people, Chevy originally we found as a writer, not as a performer. But he kept pushing Lorne that he had great ideas about stuff he could do on the show, which led to one incredible night.

We were a couple months, a month later, and we were coming out of a comedy club way downtown in New York. It was a driving rainstorm, Rich. And Chevy had been pushing, pushing Lorne and me for this thing the fall of the week he wanted to do. And I thought it was nuts.

Lorne was willing to try it. When all of a sudden Chevy took off in this driving rainstorm down the middle of Third Avenue. And he must have had some idea of what I'm about to tell you was there. He's probably 30 feet in front of us and suddenly he kind of disappeared. And he'd fallen into, as we learned later deliberately, this enormous pothole. He was sopping wet. He got out of the pothole, as I said, we're probably 30 or 40 feet away. Turned back to us, took a bow, and Lorne looked at me and said, Now aren't you really willing to give a guy crazy enough to do that, a break, and let him do it on our show? And I said yes. As the president of the United States, Gerald Ford, right?

Like pretty much eventually. That's maybe what he was on distance. Yeah, that evolved.

He's probably auditioning. And the amazing thing was probably of every president that we had up to that point, Gerald Ford was legitimately the best athlete who had ever been president. That's true. That sort of evolved into kind of a joke. But we went to the White House, Lorne and I and Chevy and a couple of other people, to shoot show openings. Live from New York, it's Saturday night, blah, blah, blah.

I'm Gerald Ford and you're not. And the ultimate irony is that if he finished his last thing that he had to record, that he had been on a cue card, he started to walk away forgetting he was hooked up to the camera. He pulled the camera over and went flying all over the floor with a film camera. But we never showed that piece of tape because he was such a guy we were not going to add to the falling-down mythology. Dick Ebersole here on The Rich Eisen Show. Unbelievable.

In the few minutes I have left, wow, there's so many different ways to go. When did you first meet? I thought we had the morning. When did Eddie Murphy cross your screen? When did you first meet him?

When did that ever happen for you? Well, after Lorne left the show, they gave it to somebody else and that person did not have much luck. But she did. She did hire Eddie. And when I got to Saturday Night Live, about two months after he was hired, it took me about four seconds to realize he was about the most talented young person in comedy I had ever met. On top of it, he really could conceptualize all kinds of things. And with two writers who later wrote most of his movies, Blaustein and Sheffield, they began to write sketches for me and almost every one of them were memorable, including my favorite, which was the assassination of Buck Weaver. It was Eddie's idea.

The character was the hottest thing in America at the time. And he came in to pitch it to me and said, You realize not only are you maybe committing a big mistake here, but you're making my life really difficult. He said, Come on, Dick, this is really a good idea.

So, excuse me, I said yes. And the three of them, Blaustein, Sheffield and Eddie, sat down, wrote the assassination of Buck Weaver, and about two hours later they're back in my office. And they said, We got to do the follow up.

And I said, What's the follow up? And they said, The assassination of John David Stutz. I said, Who's John David Stutz? Well, he's the assassin. They write down the three names. It couldn't be Jack Ruby or something like that, but it was Stutz. The only addition to that story is that about a day and a half before it was done, it had been rehearsed. The censors came to see me and said, You can't do that.

Too many people will think that we're really having an assassination. I looked at them and I said, Are you guys out of your mind? This is Eddie Murphy, the hottest comic in America. And we're staging his character, Buttweep. Let's get out of here.

And they kind of realized their folly and they stopped doing it. Oh, my gosh. Is it true, Dick, that the real Mr. Rogers, Fred Rogers, asked you to please have Eddie cease and desist of Mr. Robinson's neighborhood? Is that true?

Yeah, same year. I'm sitting at my desk. My assistant comes in and says, Fred Rogers is downstairs. I said, Yeah, sure, sure, sure. Anyway, I finally said, Bring him up. So he came up and he sat with me and I think Bob Tischler, my co producer at the time, and we heard him out.

And he just said he thought it was sacrilege. Mr. Rogers had this pure reputation and all that. And I said, Mr. Rogers, come on. This is a lovable comedy piece from somebody who loves you.

No matter how I try, I was getting nowhere. So I said, Mr. Rogers, come with me, and I walked him down the hallway with me into the writers offices and where Eddie was. Oh, gosh.

And there alone, I figured particularly Eddie would romance the hell out of him. Anyway, a little while later, Mr. Rogers stopped by my office to say goodbye and said he was sorry it hadn't worked out. I quickly went back down the hall. I said, What the hell happened? And he said, We tried everything, boss, but he just doesn't want it done. I said, Well, we're doing it, but we just are not going to talk to Mr. Rogers anymore.

And sure enough, we entered the character that weekend. It was a sensation. And since it was such a wet kiss to Mr. Rogers, nobody in the media or anywhere else ever said a word about it.

I never heard from Fred again. Oh, my gosh. Dick, before I let you go, Vin Scully, as we know, passed away recently, you getting him on the microphone for some of the most incredible moments in the history of baseball. I mean, his passing was just unleashed so many incredible memories. You got a good Vin story for me?

I do. As soon as I got the job, it just struck me having followed Scully for so many years and knowing him a little bit. I was sure I could convince him to come through the telecast with Vin.

And what was up was he just needed to be really comfortable. And he agreed to do the color to Vin's play by play. And Reagan had already agreed to be party to it because I had taken Vin to when I went to meet with Scully the first time about all of this.

And it was, again, my favorite word under those circumstances, serendipity, because everybody get it off. Now, on the day of that telecast, about two hours before air, I got a phone call that Vin was going to be late. So I went downstairs to wait for him, and they brought him into a waiting room under the stands behind the home plate. And he said, I won't do my Reagan impersonation because it's terrible, but he said basically, Dick, I'm here only because I was able to persuade Mommy to let me come, talking about Nancy Reagan. He said I had a fall.

Indeed, he had had a fall off of a horse the day before. But he did that telecast, and I don't think anybody out there saw anything lost. It was terrific for the two innings he was up there. And the only thing that was unbelievable, the All-Star Games in the previous years, immediate previous years, had been a dud. And in that All-Star Game, I'll probably be off by one, but I think there were either four or five home runs hit in the first two or three innings.

Well, it's not just that, Dick. It was the home run that Bo Jackson hit. I mean, and as you know, obviously, throughout all the years, having a moment that the country would love to see and then it happens is, to use your word, serendipity to the nth degree. I mean, you got Vin and Ronald Reagan and Bo Jackson homers off Rick Russell.

I mean, that is unbelievable. Yeah, it was. But then, if you've read my book, you know that good things just continued to happen for me. I've never said I didn't work hard, but I was blessed by good friends and almost always the ability to get into the room.

I always say to people, the thing that matters most is being there. And I managed to get into the room, whether it was the office where the president or Reagan was retired into in Century City. Or to constantly be able to get into offices of sports leaders in Europe. And once I got in the room, I was pretty persuasive. And usually Jack Welsh, the head of GE that owned NBC at the time, had always entrusted me with tens of millions of dollars to buy the rights or to hire somebody.

And I just kept getting people and kept building the reputation of NBC Sports to a level that no sports department has ever been in since the halcyon days of ABC Sports. Dick, you are the best, simply the best, from Saturday Night Live to Sunday Night, a book by you, sir, and Aaron Cohen, you mentioned. And thanks for everything. Say hi to your entire family. Thanks for everything. I will.

Much love to your bride. Right back at you. That is Dick Ebersole. This book, I mean, we just barely scratched the surface in that interview right here on The Rich Eisen Show. That was awesome. Let's take a break right here on the program.

What's more likely when we come back? Week number two of the NFL Weekend, Miles Garrett of the Browns, the actor Gerald McCraney and more. We could talk about how complicated other banks make it to redeem credit card rewards, like how they require minimums and worse, how their rewards flat out expire. Or we could talk about how with Discover, you can redeem your rewards for cash in any amount at any time. I mean, talk about amazing. And now that we've talked about that, let's get back to The Rich Eisen Show, you know, the stuff we talk about here.

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It's week number two, the weekend. What's more likely? Chris Brockman. Hit it, hit it, hit it. Go for it right here. What's more likely?

Never say never, but never. Okay, Christopher, you have the floor. NFL films music, Mr. Feller for a little bit of ambiance. Go for it, Chris. All right, big preview of the weekend here.

Let's get it going. All right, NFC power more likely to start. Oh, and two Rams or Packers. Oh, man, I'll go Rams, man. I think Aaron Rodgers owns the Bears. It would stun me for the Bears to go up the toll road and take care of the guy who, quote, unquote, owns them. I think the Packers are going to run over them.

How about how does that sound? I think they're going to run like they're going to run the football. Jones and Dylan, they're going to go run them, run at them.

And, you know, maybe Lazard will be active and help out. Rodgers, these young kids are going to get the message. Atlanta has the opportunity to come in here and shock some people potentially. I think Atlanta coming to Los Angeles and shocking the Rams is far more viable than the Bears on Sunday night football going to the Packers. That's the what's more likely. I think both of them win, though.

What else, Chris? OK. Hey, he was in my MVP rankings this week. Carson Wentz, guys, big Washington Detroit game this weekend. You know, Detroit, they have been underdogs in 24 straight games. They're favored in this game. The Lions are favored.

So what's more likely? Wentz throws for 300 plus again in a win. Or the Lions win by more than a score. I'll take the Lions. I'll take the Lions. The D.C. offense, though, is sneaky, sneaky good. You know, I might I might have overstated when I've said the Ravens are the sneakiest good offense passing offense in the league.

I should I should have potentially given a little bit more credit to what Washington's doing, but I'll go the Lions. It's time that they start actually placing their foot in the ground. What did what did what did Dan Campbell say took him about a minute to answer in the final hard knocks that this team is the team that can and will? I don't know what that meant.

He said so many and mixed so many metaphors. This is the team that can and will. Well, it's time for them to can the the underdog status and win this thing. I'll go there.

I'll go there. Big game down in New Orleans, guys. Bucks, Saints, Tom Brady, not a not a lot of success in his Bucks tenure against New Orleans. How about this wide receiver running back duo to each score a touchdown? Mike Thomas, Alvin Kamara, Mike Evans, Leonard Fournette. I'll go Thomas Kamara. I'll just say that the Saints defense has got the Bucks number offensively. And I think I'll go Thomas Kamara.

That's what I'll do until I need to see it to believe. I can't believe I'm believe I'm saying that about Tom Brady. But they've really struggled against the except in the playoffs, except right, regular, except in the playoffs, regular season. Yeah.

Yeah. What else, Chris? How about the team most unlikely to be to a no unlikely to a no team, Giants or Browns? Oh, I think it's unlikely for the Giants. Brown should beat the Jets, man. What are we talking about?

The Browns at home should beat the Jets. Kevin Stefanski. Do you want me to get the quote again? Oh, I know he's talking about Joe Flacco. I get the quote that he said about Joe. Kevin Stefanski's comments on Joe Flacco would make Lou Holtz trying to get Rice in a top five status before Rice would come in. An hour ago, Stefanski called Joe Flacco a great player. Unbelievable arm talent and very, very gifted.

That's all I'm saying. The Browns should win this. The Browns should win this. And the Panthers coming in are a much more stout team than the Jets going into Cleveland.

Really sneaky good game in Baltimore, Miami and the Ravens. What's more likely, Tyreek gets over 100 yards in scores or Lamar, 300 total yards in three touchdowns? I'll go Tyreek Hill. I'll go Tyreek Hill. Only 94 yards last week for Tyreek Hill.

I got it. I'll say it's more. He's just such a big gamer and 300 total yards in three touchdowns is 300 total yards. Total yards.

That includes rushing. I'll still say Tyreek Hill. I'll still say Tyreek Hill. I think the Ravens win, but I still think Tyreek can get his yards. AFC West team to avoid 0-2 Broncos or Raiders.

What's more likely? I think I'll choose the Raiders. The Raiders, the way that Arizona just looked bad. Arizona's coming in the Bronco.

Well, I don't know. The Broncos are taking on Houston. They should win that game. Houston should have won their game in week one. I got it. I think they both win.

I know that that's not answering your question, but you got to play. I'll take Houston. I mean, I'll take Denver then because maybe Arizona is going to be like embarrassed by what happened. Denver should come in and they shouldn't even send out McManus. They should go for it on fourth down every time. Every time. McManus shouldn't kick one.

Sorry, Brandon. Every fourth down, it should be like an eight year old playing Madden hopped up on a bag of Skittles. That would be great. That's the way it should be. We shouldn't see McManus once.

So I'll take Denver in that equation. OK, good. What's more likely? I have one more coming up with Gerald McCraney here on the Rich Eisen Show. But for those those on Roku, you got one more. Thank you. All right. We'll get one. Thanks, George.

Appreciate that. What do you got over there? Big matchup in the bay. Divisional first place Seattle. Yes.

San Francisco. More likely quarterback with more passing yards. Gino or Trey Lance. I'll go Gino. I'll go Gino. I'll take Gino on that one. If Seattle wins this game, then then P. Cowell, how loud how loud are the cries for Jimmy G and oh, and to start and oh, and to start would be the exact scenario with losing to the Bears at home and then see the Bears on the road. And and Seattle at home would be that. But I think they might run it.

Jeff Wilson and everyone else. Kittles looks like it's going to be a game time decision. It does not look good for him to play. Not look good for George Kittle. No, but I'll still take Gino.

Ask her and I'll take Lance. Come on, Trey. Here we go. Keep Jimmy G nailed to the bench. I mean, you saw the video of Trey Lance, right? What he was doing with his free time.

Please tell me the weather's going to be fine. What is that? Apache. What's he doing? He was in an establishment. Are you serious? Well, it's what he was doing.

It was clear is he was reinvesting into the community. Are you serious? When was this that, you know, fellow and TJ like to frequent? What are you talking about?

Are you was this is this thing on? Oh, God, it's a 70 percent chance arranged Sunday. It's going to rain on his parade again. Go Hawks. I'll take Gino. I'll take Gino. I'm back with Gino.

Stay out of the club, Trey. For the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments, it's something to wrestle with Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson, too. All-time Hogan opponents. Macho Man's got to be in the conversation. Where's Andre for you? I've always said Andre was number one. Wow. Because even going back before, you know, Hulk Hogan was a babyface, Hulk and Andre were able to go in and headline at the New Orleans Superdome at Shea Stadium in Japan. Wherever they went, that was an attraction. Something to wrestle with. Bruce Prichard. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.