Every day when we're on the road, people around us endanger themselves and others by looking at their phones while driving. There's the sneak-a-peaker who darts their eyes between the road and their texts, or the nightlighter who illuminates their car after dark. If that's you, reconsider before you find yourself becoming the fender bender-er, the got-a-ticket-er, or worst of all, the driver who killed someone. Put the phone away or pay.
Paid for by NHTSA. So you can keep running your business while you're on the go. See how the Amex Business Platinum Card gives business owners like you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love. Not all purchases will be approved. Terms apply.
Learn more at americanexpress.com slash Amex Business. This is the Rich Eisen Show. What was that? The Rich Eisen Show with guest host, Tom Pelissero. Luca's thrown out of the game. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Luca is saying he was talking to a fan.
I never got a fan ejected, but if he's gonna talk, I'm gonna talk back. Today's guests. Post of the Ross Tucker podcast, Ross Tucker. NFL draft writer for The Athletic, Dane Brugler. Senior NBA writer for The Athletic, Joe Vardin. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Tom Pelissero.
Welcome to a Rich Eisen-less show. I am Tom Pelissero. Thrilled to be back here and back with my boys in studio. Chris Brockman. Tommy P. What's happening, baby?
Mike Del Tufo. Great to see you, man. Hey, Tommy. Who's actually here for a day. It's day three.
Because I haven't seen you in a while. I'm like, weren't you here last time? I'm like, oh, I missed all these days.
If I get three straight days, that's a rarity. I go, oh, so you're here for the next three days with me? He goes, no, no, no, I'm off. I got something else going on tomorrow. But I'm here today. DJ Jefferson, what's up? Hey, Thomas. What's up, baby? How we doing?
Good, man. Good to see you. Happy you're here. Yeah, happy to be here. Fifteen days out from the NFL draft.
Wow. Eleven days from my flight to Green Bay. Fifteen Bart Starr days. For the NFL draft. That's right, Bart Starr number of days.
Gotta put one of those up today. Should be. It should be a cool environment there from all the renderings, all the descriptions I've heard of how they're going to set up the draft. It should be a lot of fun there. And I get a full week in Green Bay where I have no idea what the weather is going to be. A lot of it. Virtually all of it is set outside. Right. You're rolling the dice. It's I was looking at the forecast already.
I think Mina Kimes had posted something like this, too. There's a chance at night it's going to be in the 30s. Well, the bar the bar was set last year in Detroit because I'm always I'm on Good Morning Football in the morning. So first thing, good morning football. And then do the rest of the day. Do the insiders at night. And I'm telling you, that's one of the coldest I've ever been on TV. Set aside all the games where, you know, an NFL network, when they they you know, it's a bad time when the producer shows up with the thermometer, the big round thermometer that they were told to go by. You know, it's going to go home. You could go to Target and get a Theron.
Get one of those round like they're not. No, no. Trust me. You're unwrapping it and taking the price tag off and you're just shaking there.
But I'm telling you, Detroit last year, it was like 20 degrees in the morning. Somebody's got a photo of me where I'm wearing like this gigantic blanket and I'm sitting and I look like the Statue of Liberty sitting up in a chair because all you see is my head poking out and then just the robes going around. I'm optimistic we'll get by with that in Green Bay flying here yesterday to slightly different, bigger plane than you get to Green Bay. I have this thought. If you were making the power rankings right now, the worst seat on an airplane. Oh, great question.
What would be because there's some obvious answers. Top of your head, what's the worst seat on an airplane, Brockman? Oh, the middle seat.
Obviously, kind of anywhere. They'll see what role are we on the plane near the back. You really don't want to be near the bathroom, to be honest.
That's definitely a key point. A lot of people coming and going, the potential smell factor. The line of people waiting to get into the bathroom. Anywhere near the back.
Anything in the 30s, middle row. Don't you feel you're the same, back of the plane? Back of the plane, right? If your wall, like right at that wall behind the, like in front of the bathroom. Then you have to recline on the seats. You can't recline.
That's right. The other thing, too, is you probably had to gate check your bag because all the spots are filled. No, not in the back, because no one else goes back there. That's the last place anyone's going to put their bag. But if you're boarding in like group seven or whatever, and further back, there's no spots for your bags, and then you're in the middle seat also?
Yeah. TJ, worst seat on a plane. Well, if you've been watching this Rich Eisen show for the last five or so years, you would know the worst seat on the plane tends to be mine, because no matter where I'm at, the person in front of me will undoubtedly recline into me.
So I'm going to say that one. Or Brockman and I, we got stuck last row on a flight once, like back to the bathroom. We were in the last row. No reclining.
No reclining. The stewardess did not care for us. She was not paying any attention to us. Was there a third person in the row with you? No, it was actually just the two of us. It was kind of cool. That's not bad. That wasn't bad.
It wasn't increased by 50%. We just couldn't recline. Your space. But then the row next to us was like three 15 year old boys and she loved them, but she wouldn't. We'd say hi. She was like, Oh yeah. Oh, you never want to be behind the row that the flight attendant likes.
That's a bad spot to be in general. It's a long conversation. This is you. Do you need anything? I'm going to, I'm going to keep moving.
I have a controversial, controversial opinion on this. I think the worst seat on the plane, which I was in yesterday, is the seat on the aisle immediately behind first class. I decided to play upgrade roulette, right where you're just like the flight differentials. I'm going to, you know what, I'm diamond. I think I'm going to get upgraded to first class.
I'm not going to pay the extra, however many hundreds of dollars I'm going to, I'm going to take my chances and you did not. And then you check it and you narrowly missed out. So you're in the comfort, the comfort seat, the issue with the last seat or the first seat rather immediately behind first class is that is where the aisle turns. If you ever look at it, there's like a little, like a little 45 degree turn, which apparently no one sitting behind you knows is there. So you get seated and you then proceed to take in the face. Everyone's elbow, everyone's coat yesterday with a dog pack.
This woman who was wearing like a half shirt and she had more bags and you're supposed to have on the plane and also holding the dog in the carrier. I didn't see it coming and I just try in that moment. I don't want to make eye contact cause also they're walking straight. They're not paying attention. You're the first person to make eye contact with because I'm like everywhere else on the plane you're just poked out. It looks like you're not supposed to be there. She's not paying attention and I can see it coming.
I'm just trying to stare straight ahead. I got the AirPods in, just ignore and I just get whacked right here with the dog carrier right in the side of the face and I'm just in those moments, all right, I'm not talking to anyone. I'm not going to end up on TikTok being, and then that guy stood up from seat 10C and yelled at the lady, whatever the male version of Karen is, I'm not going to be that guy. I'm not going to be Tom the jerk in row 10, no one in particular, I'm just like you bleeping moron. Like I just like straight ahead and just like to myself under my breath, but probably louder cause I got the AirPods in. I've already got the noise canceling on. I'm sure it's louder than I think it definitely was.
And that is what I felt like had to be running through Lucas head last night. He brought it all the way back when he gets tossed from the game, which is I can imagine at some point I make that, Hey, you just hit me in the face with your dog. You moron. And then somebody else like, what did you say to me?
No, not you. I'm talking to, well, she's gone now, but I was talking to her. Look at last night, TJ's texting. We're on a group thread last night. I'm sitting at the hotel bar watching on a thing I didn't know existed.
It's NBA crunch time, which is like the red zone of NBA. I don't know where it came from. I don't know what channel I was watching. It was just on. It was tremendous.
But you're live texting. Luca just got, I think that was Chris. I was like, yeah, Luca got, Luca just got tossed for yelling at a fan. I say you guys the video and it's so absurd. The whole thing is ridiculous. Here's what Luca had to say last night after the game about getting tossed. Yeah. I mean, you can see it that that happened, but you know, I never got a fan ejected never.
But if he's going to talk, I'm going to talk back like always. So they had nothing to do with the ref. So I didn't really understand. I love that the Dave McMenamin from ESPN then went and found the fan in the stands. So the passage from his story and it was JT or is the referee who threw him out. But Dave McMenamin goes and finds a guy who refers to himself, according to the story, the fan, Jeremy Price, who referred to himself as the court side tattoo, dude told ESPN that Doncic was shouting at him and not the referee. Here's the quote during the game within the game.
Start there. Okay. Let's just pause. Imagine things were during the game within the game. The audacity court side tattooed already courtside tattoo dude literally thinks he's part of the game. He was right off the bat.
You're right. And he actually was during the game within the game because he was short on his shot and he missed it and he turned around and he shot an expletive back and JT happened to see it. And at that point teed him up. Courtside tattoo dude went on to say that he had also John with Luca last year during the thunders playoff series against the Mavericks and said referee JT or possibly could have been mistaken as to whom Luca was addressing courtside tattoo dude said, quote, that's probably why he picked up that technical to be quite honest, just my opinion.
You need to be really sure when one of the star players in the game, in a close game that has massive playoff implications and bark something you can do a little amateur lip reading. I went through it a few times. I'm pretty sure I know what the expletive was, but you gotta be pretty sure this is the, this reminds me of like at home, I got a 10 and an eight year old, they're girls.
Most of the time they're great kids, but they will get into it and it'll be knocked down, drag out. And if you're sitting there trying to work and you just see a little bit of it or you hear something, inevitably I go after the older one, just like, what are you doing? She said, she should know better, older, not fair, man is the oldest. I hated that. But that's, but that's what JT or apparently did here was just the, he heard something and decided, you know what?
Go to your room. And then look, it does look like a child as he then continues to play the whole thing out. That's a tough beat, man, in a Western conference playoff race that again, watching all those games simultaneously last night, the timbrels are in the process of blowing a 24 point lead. The largest deficit that the bucks have overcome in franchise history on the day that the nuggets fire Michael Malone, as they cling to the fourth seed in the playoffs, the Lakers game was highly competitive until Luca gets ejected. And then it goes completely sideways.
Like there's a very real chance that court side tattoo dude playing the game within the game just became the difference between the Lakers, having a first round playoff series, maybe even hosting a first round playoff series or having home court advantage and being in the play in what was that? What was that? My reaction to that is, Oh, Mike, come on. Nah, I didn't have it ready. That's a shame. I heard you say it. I don't know why you didn't just say it with your mic open.
We had the Jerry Seinfeld drop that I wanted Mike to play, but, uh, hit, hit it, please. That's a shame. That's a shame. Anything bad that happens to the Lakers?
That's too bad. How'd it go for your, uh, your Celtics on the stretch last night? Oh, great. That was, that was incredible. Victory. Incredible game. I'm not proving why should be in the MVP conversation.
Won't be, uh, we'll make first team all NBA for the fourth straight year because he's unbelievable. Uh, nobody really knows it, uh, weirdly, but yeah, awesome, awesome game down the stretch. Uh, and also show why the Knicks are completely pretenders Carmelo Anthony sitting court side and like the look on his face when that shot goes in and throughout the entire way that the, the final moments of that game played out, I can't say you can't say the Nixon pretenders. They threw a ball off of bridges, hands at the end of the game. So it was, it was that close. Their record against the top teams in the east and west is it's not, you know, have they won a game yet against any of them?
So yeah, here's my title, but you know, cool. So you're the NBA, right? It's it's a uniquely intimate game in terms of the proximity of the fans to the action. Even in baseball, they're pretty close. And you know, the people sitting behind the dugout, if they want to chirp, the visiting team, you can do that all game right there. But there's now a net. There's no a net, but it's not, it's not a true barrier. There's nothing stopping you from being able to hear football, NFL far away. The people behind the bench, you see the occasional stuff, but even there, that's a pretty decent distance. You're not going to jump out of the front row down onto the field.
No, I wouldn't think it would be a bad idea. You probably think you call Bobby Wagner will take you out if you run on the field. Occasionally.
What was it? Michael Clemens a couple of years ago when he was going through the bleep, you bleep, you bleep you to everybody in the sand. You don't want to mess with Michael Clemens.
No, the dude shows up the training camp, holding a baseball bat without a shirt on. That is not somebody you want to mess with. But the NBA you're so close and you've always had this back and forth. Luca, above all others, probably not afraid to go back and forth with fans. But if you're looking at courtside tattoo dude today, who is now that's his name, not ours, courtside tattoo, dude, you've now set the standard here because he wasn't making bad comments about Luca's, his children, his parents. He wasn't saying anything personal. He wasn't cursing.
Just go short. Luca can't hold back, says, whoa, whoa, Tom, according to courtside tattoo guy, that's all he said. If we can't trust courtside tattoo guy, who can we trust? Well, first of all, first to the game inside of the game, even crazier than that guy's a lot of tattoos, even crazier that knows the name of the official like they're on a first name basis.
Like I can watch a lot of basketball. I can tell you like three officials, JT, first name basis with the officials, that's your man's right there. He is wearing Travis Scott Lowe's like that says a lot, right? But he has a ton of tattoos. Now courtside tattoo dude has been substantially emboldened, all the other want to be courtside tattoo dudes. Like somewhere that poor kid who wandered onto the floor during the malice at the palace and just got punched right in the jaw by Ron Artest, the turtle looking guy, that guy wearing the Jersey and the whole thing comes off, you're going to just bang gets floored by Ron Artest. It came out, you know, it was Jermaine O'Neill, Jermaine O'Neill, excuse me. That guy, his only mistake was he was, he was a little too soon and he got a little too close.
Yep. And influencing playoff seeding, there's a whole, there's a whole flood of those want to be courtside tattoo dudes. Well, I would think are going to come out of the woodwork if you just keep it clean. Don't say any, don't say any of the magic words.
Don't say any magic words, just talk, keep it respectful, just have a dialogue. Every other fan. I mean, I think everybody already knew that Luca, I think get under his skin and Luca is easily combustible. And if you, you know, keep poking, keep poking, he's going to kind of erupt and he did. And now wherever he goes down the stretch of this season, I mean the Mavericks moved on from him for reasons that really didn't have a lot to do with basketball. It was conditioning.
It was the guy, it was all the antics. Now he goes to the Lakers, just blend in Luca, just for the rest of this season, you're doing another super max, just kind of blend in, be a really good player. Don't, you know, if he can just try to avoid getting in an argument with courtside tattoo dude to get thrown out of an important game on the stretch of the season, we're right back there. Now, every fan, when he goes on the road, you just have to be come up with the cleanest insults. You can't just have a list show up with an entire script of clean insults for Luca. And you've got a real chance.
At least he's not playing against his former team tonight in their city. Wait a second. I'm being told. Yep.
Lakers at Mavericks. So beloved, right? The fact is he's going to get cheered. They're going to treat him because they, none of them wanted him to go. So it's, he's not going to have to worry about any ill will tonight.
You know what I'm doing? If I'm, if I'm the Mavericks front office right now, I call tattoo, dude, and I get him courtside. Oh, that would be absolutely getting him.
That would be the Richard move right there. I call courtside tattoo, dude. Hey man, you want to sit center court tonight? We got two seats for you. One of these shirts, the thank you for everything translated that the Mavericks are giving out to their fans for Luca.
Get one of those for courtside tattoo, dude. Yes. You fly them in. I mean, this Cuban technically is not the owner anymore, but I'm sure he would like to be involved.
I think he still has a percentage. Correct. Yeah. So if anybody's going to do it, Mark will send the jet for him and just, just have him sit there. Don't even say anything. Just sit there. Give him the best seat in the house.
Here's a beer, free food, have a great time. Just maybe be known who's refereeing that game tonight. Hold on. If it's JTR, we can, we can, we can dare to dream.
All right. Well, we'll get back to this a little later. Joe Vardon is going to join the show, but coming up after this, we are 15 days out from the NFL draft. We are going to be joined in studio by somebody who was an authority. Now in the media, former player, Ross Tucker is going to join us.
I'm also curious to get Ross's impression on the potential of banning the tush push because you know, Ross in his day, push, push a good touch. I'll be right back. Every day when we're on the road, people around us endanger themselves and others by using their phones while driving. They think they're hiding it, but we've all seen them and know exactly who they are. For instance, there is the sneaker peeker who darts their eyes between the road and their texts. There's also the got a ticketer looking upset because they just got a ticket for using their phone while driving. And what about the fast scroller who can't drive five minutes without updating their social feeds or the nightlighter who has that mysterious glow illuminating the inside of their car after dark.
Do any of these sound familiar? If they remind you of yourself or someone you know, rethink your behavior before you find yourself becoming the fender bender, the veering off the rotor, or worst of all, the driver who killed someone. Put the phone away or pay, paid for by NHTSA.
Don't let the urge to sing along to that catchy tune distract you from that truck drifting towards your lane or that lane splitting biker creeping up beside you. Fortunately, every Hyundai offers advanced safety features that can alert you to potential dangers around you. And Hyundai is over 120 IIHS top safety awards since 2006 because Hyundai is always working to ensure the road doesn't get you.
Hyundai vehicles have won over 120 IIHS top safety awards from 2006 to 2024. This episode is brought to you by Navy Federal Credit Union. We know just how fast your life moves. You have bills to pay, mouths to feed, and not a lot of free time. That's why we created an all-in-one banking experience that lets you keep on banking on. It can save you time and money with new lightning-fast direct deposit setup, and it offers checking accounts with ATM refunds and no service fees. Plus, whether you have credit or not, you can build your credit score with the new ability to report on-time bill payments and with personalized financial insights on my making sense, the ability to view all your accounts in one place, custom notifications, and 24-7 fraud protection, you can get a full picture of your finances. So if you want an all-in-one banking experience that lets you keep on banking on, sign up today. Learn more at navyfederal.org. Navy Federal Credit Union.
Our members are the mission, insured by NCUA. Larry David, we've done this before with you. I've got three social situations.
You are the judge and jury as to what is done. Okay. The first one is destination weddings. Okay.
It's already funny. Destination weddings. I say to my wife, we're going to a destination wedding. We should not give a present because my presence is my present.
What do you say, Larry David? First of all, where is the wedding? How far is it?
In the other country. Okay. You don't go. You don't go. You don't go. But it's a close family friend. I don't care. I am not flying 14 hours on a plane to somebody's wedding. I'm not going to do that. The distance from your house that you would consider.
An hour and a half by car. That's it. Here's social situation number two for you, Larry David. Sure. So you're going into somebody's house for, let's say the fight, the Mayweather McGregor fight.
This happened to one of our producers, Ken Tullo. Okay. They brought desserts.
Fight ends. Nobody's touched the desserts. They like these desserts. Is it okay to take the desserts home? It's still, you're bringing it to the host, right?
That's true. The host saw it. It's different if the host didn't see it, then you could sneak out. So if the host never saw it, if you place it on the table and there's no note. Yeah. That's when you could take it. If you think, if you think you're not going to get caught, yeah, then you could take it.
Last one for you, Larry, LD. Shoes off on a plane. Do you have a problem with somebody on a plane?
I have a big problem with it. Yeah. Yeah. Keep them on. Okay.
You know, don't make yourself, it's not your house. All right. You're outside. You're in public. I don't want to, I don't want to see your socks and God forbid you have a little odor down there who needs that. Right.
And I don't even want to know if you do have it. Exactly. It's close quarters. Come on. Take a couple of minutes. Keep your shoes on.
So those who take their shoes off with shorts on and then put their sock feet up on the bulkhead. Oh God. Almighty. No. Oh God.
That is out. Welcome back to the rich eyes and show. I'm Tom Pellicero filling in for rich and sitting at the rich eyes and show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry Grainger has the right product for you.
Call click Grainger.com or just stop by stopping by with us right now. Guy I've known for a long time. He's a podcaster. He's an analyst.
I got a list here. Ross of all the different things. Ross Tucker, NFL game analyst for CBS and Westwood one, as well as host of the Ross Tucker football podcast that I've not been on in a few years or called the last time I was on that podcast. We were talking a COVID protocols, so it has been a minute since you had me. It's good to see you though. It's great to see you. And I'm so proud of you and guys like you because I remember, you know, you were just busting your butt on the Vikings beat. And I remember on the fantasy show, I have a fantasy podcast, fantasy feast, Evan Silva. Like he basically ranks beat writers and he was like, Tom Pellicero is the best in the NFL.
Like this guy is on it. If he says something, it's a lot. So then when you got the opportunities that you've gotten now, very, very well deserved and well earned. I appreciate that. We were talking off air. You were playing at Lambeau field, your rookie year, what, 25 years ago, the 24 years ago at this point.
Yeah. Two 2001. Um, interestingly, 2001 was my rookie year.
So what's crazy about that is we play the first game and then before the second game, you know, so if you're like a rookie, like I was, they give you a hotel room through the first week of the season, then it's like, all right, you got to find an apartment. So then I finally get an apartment Tuesday, September 11th, the cable guy comes to hook up my cable. It was September 11th. He comes into my apartment, he's hooking my TV up real quick and he's like some small plane just flew into the, the, the, the twin towers.
I'm not kidding. The Comcast guy and I sat there for two hours and just watched my TV that he had just hooked up. It was crazy and not to get too far into it, but, uh, my wife who was my girlfriend at the time, that was her first day of work. I didn't actually know where she worked down there.
So I kept calling and it kept going, you know, circuits are busy or whatever. I didn't know where all my buddies from college at Princeton were. It was wild. So then that weekend they canceled all the games. The next weekend we played Monday night football at Green Bay against the Packers, which was like a very emotional, cause this is before Thursday night, Sunday night wasn't a big deal. So that Monday night game was like the real coming together Monday night. We lose badly. We fly back on Tuesday, Wednesday morning, I come to the facility, they cut Jeff George. He was our starting quarterback.
This is my rookie year, Tom. They just cut the star. They just cut Jeff George. Like I, I mean, think about those first three weeks of my NFL life where September 11th happened, we miss a game and then they cut the starting quarterback and I was like, okay, all right, that's, I better not mess up a practice today.
They just cut Jeff George. It was a slightly heavier cable installation story than one of the ones we were telling off air earlier. We did a two-fold in the black box and the sight of this draft, you were saying, you know, you pull up to it. It's like a, it was like a high school.
I was on the Green Bay press Gazette from 2007 to 2009 covering the Packers. There was nothing there. It was just the, the single story houses all the way around it across the street. Now where you're going to see all these, these beautiful shots of the title town area that they're calling it to the hotel. It was literally a gas station with a subway in it on the corner directly across from Lambeau field. And I ate at that subway many times, one of the better subways in Green Bay at the two things I remember in Green Bay, the two things I remember. Number one, we're driving on these back roads and it felt like you were just like in my hometown and why I'm missing Pennsylvania. And then you turn around this one town, this one house and Lambeau fields right there. And then we're getting smoked by the Packers.
Okay. And I'm inactive. I'm on the sideline and one of the veterans says, I'm ready for my bra, bro. I'm ready for my bra. And I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, oh, there's some lady that stands outside the visiting team locker room. And while we get on the bus, after we shower, she gives us, gives you a bra.
Sure enough. My first two years we played at Green Bay. The game is over.
You go shower before you get on the bus. There's a lady there happy as can be maybe because the Packers beat us both times, give them this brats. I am convinced that the Packers planted her there, psychological warfare because you get to the fourth quarter, you're hungry for you to win this game, but overtime doesn't sound good.
I really want this bra right now. You took a lot of plane rides in your time in the NFL. Do you have strong feelings on the plane seat? You were backstage while we were talking about this seat on the plane. I argue, they argue back of the plane right near the bathroom. I argue first seat back of the plane, middle back of the plane, middle. I argue first seat in the area directly behind first class on the side where the walkway turns. What is your, what is your worst? That's my number.
What are you talking about? That's my number one favorite seat. You have as much leg room as you want.
It's amazing. First by far for me, okay, is the exact last row middle because you can't lean your seat back at all. That was the argument. And I know there's a lot of debate about leaning back or not.
Let me just tell you guys in all sincerity, okay, I had a back surgery when I played in Buffalo, L4, L5, L5, S1. If I'm like this, I am absolutely miserable. Like like a plane is. If I can go like that, this is, this is heaven.
This is joy. I'm telling you, it's like, I don't need to go all the way back, but when people say you should never lean your seat back on a plane, I'm telling you right now, I promise you I'm leaning it back every single time. And if you wait, how long do you wait when you put the seat back?
Is it the, do you wait for the ding? Is it the moment the wheels, I'm a wheels off the ground, the seats going back at that point? I don't think that anything I do is really going to impact me in the case of a crash soon as the flight attendant straps in and it's not going to come back to my, I go back on the ground. That's on the ground. You can't, you can't do it on the ground. I have to say you're an adult man and you're willing to risk the, excuse me, sir, did you not hear the announcement?
You can't do that yet. Tom, do you think, do you think there's a lot of people that are likely to do that to me? You've lost a lot of weight since your plane days. You see, you're pretty good.
You're going to say is the person directly behind you and they're not going to say anything. So you're out here right now for the broadcast bootcamp. I was over at NFL network yesterday hosting the insiders and so I was seeing some of the people coming through. You are, you are faculty for this, but you're also, you're not just a, uh, the hair club for men president.
You're also a client. I was, I went to the first one they ever had. It was 2007 NFL films, Mount Laurel, New Jersey. I didn't know if I wanted to do this or not. I actually always grown up wanting to be a broadcaster, but then you kind of get at Princeton, nobody talks about that.
Right? It's all finance, blah, blah, blah. And then the NFL, that's what everybody says they're going to do actually called finance, blah, blah, blah. And then the NFL is what everybody says they're going to do. So I did internships like when I play for the Cowboys, Roger, Starbucks, commercial real estate company, like I did all those internships, but then the NFL had this broadcast bootcamp and I just thought, Tom, I love football so much and people can tell when they hear me do whatever.
Even if I just do the Princeton games on the radio, like I'm going to have to have, I'm going to have to fill that void somehow. So I went to the bootcamp and I'll never forget, one of the first things they do is it's James Brown is the host and it's like an audition kind of, and they told you, welcome in the camera. Like the camera's the third person in the conversation. So James Brown asked me a question and I said, well, James, that's a really good question. And the answer, Tom, I looked at the camera, I froze for, it felt like 10 seconds. It probably was only three or four. I realized right then I never actually just looked into a camera and talk before.
It's not natural to look into a metal object and just start talking and treat it like a person like that took. So I froze. So my audition tape from the first ever broadcast, James Brown asking me a question and me just freezing. Thank goodness.
That's not what I had to use. Try to get these gigs. I was over there talking to Chris Wertz and Andy Greg and some of the guys who do that. I'm sure that tape does exist. So now that you've made me aware of it, I'm going to make it my mission when I'm there later today to go ahead and find out. I want to get your take on this because it's going to be a big topic over the next six weeks or so. It was tabled at the league meeting. It'll come up again in May. But the idea of banning the tush push and not just the tush push, the conversation now has centered on a rule that was changed during your playing career after the 04 season. Prior to that, all pushing and pulling was outlawed. They then made all of it legal in 2005. So you remember how playing the position was taught before and after. What is your take on this now? What do you remember then?
Well, so it's interesting. I don't remember it being that big of a deal. I remember them being very clear, you can't pull, but I'm even looking back, Tom, I can almost remember plays where I would come in and push the pile.
Think about like John Runyon for the Eagles during that time and some of those guys. They never called it. Like if you came in and pushed the pile forward, they never called that. In fact, somebody did the research and you probably know Tom, the last time like pushing was called was like in the 90s, like 93 or something.
Last time they actually called it. My issue is there's two things that they keep talking about. Number one, the health and safety. And number two, they really don't like how it looks stylistically, right?
I don't think they're going to be able to write a rule that changes that. First of all, the health and safety aspect of it, that is the posture and the mechanism in which the O line and D line are in their stance. Even if you take away the tush push, that's welcome.
That's every quarterback sneak, bro. That's every fourth and inches. That's the posture. So they're changing nothing in my mind in terms of the health and safety, right? The next thing about how it looks stylistically, let's say they go back to the pre O five rules. The Eagles are still going to have or any team they'll have a tight end or whoever on Jalen hurts his hip and they will have that guy wedge block basically to prevent anybody come from the outside.
Push the guard in front of them, protect the side of Hertz. In other words, it's still going to, my opinion, Tom, it'll still look the same. It'll look very, very similar. You won't see the full on two hand push forward, but you'll see, you'll still see guys, I believe behind Hertz or on the wings of Hertz filtering in there to try to help root out a hole for him and give him more space. So I just, I don't, even if they go back to the pre O five, they might be happy that they passed a rule to ban the tushbush.
I personally believe stylistically it will still probably look very similar. So when you say wedge block, you mean basically, all right, you put two tight ends on either side of Jalen Hertz and you just have them run forward like they're going to block. So somehow the guard or the center gets beat and the detackles coming through, you're hitting that guy behind them.
Right? So they put their helmet on Hertz, his hip, okay. And they drive block either way. So they protect Hertz from the outside and they continue to push the pile forward. So maybe they're pushing the center and the guard. They're pushing that forward.
I think it's going to look very, very similar no matter how they try to write the rule. And you're right. The, the John Runyon highlight reel, which you can still find sometimes like made on Instagram and it's all like the play is over. And then three seconds later, full Superman over the pile, hitting a guy who's not involved in the play.
And that's why they changed. The rule was downfield, not those plays specifically, which you should be able to see, but it was just the, every play of a guy going down to block. And was he pushing?
Was he trying to hit the defender? They weren't able to officiate it. And that's one thing that always drives these rule changes beyond health and safety is if we can't officiate it consistently, then let's not try to have that be the rule.
Let's rewrite it. And Tom, let's say they go hard and fast with that rule and you cannot push the ball carrier. So the offensive lineman like me, we're not going to, not just going to stand around.
So what are we going to do instead, rib shots, kidney shots for the defenders that are coming to gang tackle, right? If we're not allowed to push our guy forward, then we're going to try to pick those guys off. It does not make sense to me that let's say there's one ball carrier and one tackler. So five other tacklers can come in and gang tackle and knock that ball carrier backwards, but you're not going to let any of the offensive players push him forward. That doesn't make sense. Well, let's say that's the rule.
Okay. Better because the offensive lineman come through and just try to pick those guys off the pile with helmets and shoulders to the ribs, to the kidneys. I mean, it's actually going to be worse from a health and safety standpoint for the defenders downfield. Well, we also saw the other part of that, which is Washington last year, everybody remembers the repeatedly jumping over the pile and the threats were going to award the score. It also was having guys off the edge, just run and try to tackle the pushers.
Right? If you watch it, they've got guys just lined up, but all they're trying to do is get to AJ Brown or Dallas, Goddard, or whoever it is, basically tackle those guys before they can push. That's the part of it that I understand. I also think that just the play itself, it doesn't, it does not look like football.
It looks like something else. It looks like a rugby play to your point. Even if you don't go with the alignment, you have a champion powerlifter at quarterback. We've got the most talented offensive line in the NFL that those plays have just head down, move the pile. Are we then going to get to the point of, well, now you've got to be head up and what are all the fallouts of that?
That's where you can do a complicated part of this. There's still going to be extremely successful running the quarterback sneak. Landon Dickerson and Milada in particular on the left side, movers of men, those guys are absolute monsters.
So I'd be surprised if the Eagles aren't still effective no matter how they do it. You had any strong NFL draft takes for 15 days out. Is there one thing, whether it's a prospect, what a team should do, one thing that you feel very confident saying right now?
Yeah. And I think, Tom, it's however much we talk about Travis Hunter, it's probably not enough. I did a Colorado, Colorado state game last year. I went to their practice. The guy, you ever see like a baseball player who like a tremendous outfielder that they just, the way they go up for the timing of like to catch a fly ball or whatever, or a long drive, or even a basketball player that's just so awesome with the finger rolls, watching him at practice was unbelievable. Just this week, okay, today's Ross Tucker football podcast, I had Todd McShea on the show. You guys all know Todd McShea. He has Travis Hunter as the number one ranked wide receiver, the number one ranked corner.
Fran Duffy, who does a terrific job, was on my Fantasy Feast podcast today. He did two separate players in his scouting database, Travis Hunter, the wide receiver, Travis Hunter, the quarterback. He did two totally different players, okay? They're not the same guy. Both players are in the top five of his database, top five prospects for this draft.
We're not talking about that enough. Tom, you know, college football is like 160 snaps, 80 snaps, both teams, no huddle. The fact that he played that many snaps, the fact that he's better than every other guy at both positions, it is crazy. He's one of one.
I can see why the Titans would take a guy like Cam Ward because they need a quarterback. But if you're the, and I love Abdul Carter. I'm from outside of Philly.
I live near Penn State. I love Abdul Carter. I'm not taking Abdul Carter over Travis Hunter.
I'm not doing that. If you're a guy that can truly affect both sides of the ball, and I think will at the NFL level, I'm taking Travis Hunter number two. The biggest thing in talking to coaches about Travis Hunter, and I asked several head coaches, we got a feature that we're working out for NFL Network around the draft, just like what's the feasibility? Could you actually play 140 snaps, let's say, on average in an NFL game?
Could you do that? The primary thing that, and I asked Brian Callahan about this, Brian Schottenheimer among others, was the biggest challenge is going to be there's so much technique, there's so much volume and scheme. It's the, you can't be in two places at once. You can't be in two different meetings. You can't go through individual drills at both position every day. So are you holding yourself back in your development or do you need to start out, okay, you're going to play corner. And then as we ramp up here, we're going to give you a package.
Okay, now we're going to give you two packages and try to get there. There is something to be said though for, this guy believes he can do it because he's done it. He did it at the college level, playing every snap. And how do you then get him on board with, okay, here's exactly how we're going to roll out this entire plan? I think he has to be in the defensive meetings. I think he has to be in the defensive back meetings.
Communication, other than offensive line, the secondary is where communication is probably the second most important. He can't just go out there and start to cover guys. He has to know how they're switching up coverages, how they're passing things off. So he's got to be a corner and in all the corner meetings and then you just said it. You can package him on offense. You can give him a small introductory package of five to 10 plays where he knows what route he's running and kind of ease him in on the offensive side of the ball.
You can't do it the opposite way. Although I've had people say that they think he's more ready on the offensive side of the ball to contribute and that if he went to New England at four or if he went to these other teams at two or three, that maybe they're better off just making him a full-time receiver for what their team needs. Deion Sanders, the closest thing that we saw to it in the mid-90s, that was a ways into his career too. But legit playing, he was the third receiver on the Cowboys. He had like 45 catches one year.
That's the closest thing. He had one year, Brockman can look up the exact stats, but he had 40 plus catches. The one year they totally cut him loose, okay, you're going to do this. And he did it at a pretty high level through the course of that season. I didn't remember him doing it that way. That's the last player that I recall doing it in any extended way. Not the Mike Grable, J.J. Watt at the goal line.
What do you got, Brockman? His second year in Dallas, 96. He had 36 catches for almost 500 yards. He was a legit number three wide receiver on the team.
67 targets. Right. I mean, that's full volume number three receiver. And back then, that was high volume because they were a running football team.
Correct. So back then with Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith and those guys, for him to get that, that's a lot of volume. Troy Aikman is an NFL game analyst for CBS and Westwood One, host of the Ross Tucker Football Podcast. Anything else you want to plug before you get out of here, Ross?
Yeah, no, that's good. Ross Tucker. Follow me on social media if you want to, at Ross Tucker NFL. We'll see what food I got going tonight.
Maybe a nice beer or two. And don't sit in front of Ross on a plane because he's going to be stretching those legs out in the canyon. You're sitting and reclining into your lap, Ross. Great seeing you, buddy. Thanks for being here.
Of course. Thanks for having me, Tom. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts, people. Here in the business of keeping your car on the road, O, O, O, O'Reilly Auto Parts offers friendly, helpful service in the parts knowledge you need for all your maintenance and repairs.
They've got thousands of parts and accessories in stock, either in store or online, so you never have to worry if you're in a jam. The team at O'Reilly Auto Parts can also test your battery for free in or out of your car. If it needs to be replaced, they'll help you find just the right battery for your vehicle. Need your windshield wipers replaced or brake light fixed or a quick service? Well, they'll help you find the right part or point you to the nearest local repair shop for help.
I know because it's happened to me. The professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts are your one-stop shop for all things auto. Do it yourself and you can find what you need in store or online. Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today or visit us at OReillyAuto.com slash Eisen.
That's OReillyAuto.com slash Eisen. What's up, everyone? Mike Sykoma here from the PFF NFL Show, here to get you ready for the 2025 NFL Draft. We're dropping PFF podcast episodes three times a week with the rankings, sleepers, team fits, mock drafts, and more, powered by the same data used by all 32 NFL teams. If you want a deeper insight into this year's class and how it all shapes up on draft day, we've got you covered. Become a smarter draft fan right now on the PFF NFL Podcast. The PFF NFL Podcast, part of the Believe Network.
Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Okay, here we go. Mike Del Tufo. I'm in my natural environment. You are.
I'm in a field with cheerleaders. Emily, take it away. Hey, Mike, are you nervous? No, not at all. Go ahead. We'll hear you set a clock. All right. Okay. Here, I'll take your mic.
How do you guys hold on to these things? There we go. There we go. There we go. All right, Mike.
So what move are you teaching him? Okay, so we're going to do a dance. This is how it's going to start. You're going to step out and your arms are going to go right, left, right.
Oh my gosh. Okay, then you're going to box and pump. Good. Box and pump.
Okay. So right, left, right, box and pump. Five, six, seven, eight.
One and two, three, four. Good. Close. Now your hips are going to go right, left, while you frame your face, so five, six, and now... Get those hips in there, Mike. Come on. You got a big hair flip to the back and then hair flip all the way over to the front.
Hair flip. Good. That's definitely one thing I couldn't do.
Take that into account. Oh my God. And five, six, seven, eight.
One and two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Show off your red boots and walk. So hair flip. Maybe. Yeah. It has to be a sassy walk.
Yeah. Sassy walk. So walk one, two... That's not sassy enough. Three. Step together. Four. Now pump it.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Oh, you guys are real... No way. You got to get low on that. Mike, focus.
You got to get low on that. Coach, how about just a cheer? Ready.
Take it from the hair flip. Ready. And five, six, seven, eight.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Can we do it from the top? Let's do it from the top.
Top. Ready. Okay, hold on a minute.
Roll back. So how would I introduce... This is HTC Mike. HTC Mike. HTC Mike. HTC Mike. HTC Mike. HTC Mike. HTC Mike. HTC Mike. HTC Mike. HTC Mike. HTC Mike. HTC Mike. I like it. Here we go.
HTC Mike and the Houston Texas Cheerleaders, everybody. Five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, back, seven, eight.
Walk one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Emily, tell him what he's won.
Mike. And for being a great sport, we brought you a full-size piece of tissue. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
And for being a great sport, we brought you a full-size piece of Texas Cheerleading Challenge. Yeah. All right. Mike, Del Tufo's, it's a Delphi, it's the first Delphi of the week. HTC Mike. Fantastic.
You did great. Not creepy at all. Mike, after watching that video, all you'd think is, were you a dancer growing up? Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. I danced in clubs all the time, but I wasn't. So there was no choreography you had to memorize, because what I see is a man who has like, you forget everything after three seconds.
Exactly. There was absolutely nothing, I'm not saying I could do better. No. I'm just saying there was nothing in your final performance there. It was terrible.
That even loosely resembled what they'd been teaching you. No. I thought maybe one move you had a chance. Not even, I didn't have one move.
That was terrible. Could you do better now? Yeah, probably. We can do better now.
Brockman, TJ, what do you have? I mean, there's less of you now. Yeah, you might move a little bit better. Yeah, I might be a little more graceful. But not now. Yeah. Being lighter on your feet, I do think helps. Yeah, but that wouldn't... Light, no.
What did you do with that selfie pre-Instagram? It's hard to imagine. Don't let the urge to sing along to that catchy tune distract you from that truck drifting towards your lane or that lane-splitting biker creeping up beside you. Fortunately, every Hyundai offers available class-exclusive advanced safety features that can alert you to potential dangers around you. And Hyundai has over 130 IIHS Top Safety Awards since 2006 because Hyundai is always working to ensure the road doesn't get you.
IIHS Top Safety Awards include Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick plus awards to Hyundai vehicles from 2006 to 2025. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show. Tom Pelissero sitting in for Rich here on a Wednesday.
We're 15 days out from the NFL Draft in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was great talking to Ross Tucker about a lot of things, namely the subway that used to be directly across the street in the gas station. What was your order? The Lambeau Field. That was not that long ago either.
What was your go-to order? I think at that point, it would have been the footlong. You know, you're younger with a better metabolism.
This is like 2007. Definitely a footlong. Probably the sweet onion chicken teriyaki. I want to see that meat be cooked in front of me.
I think any time that I go into any fast food place, sandwich place, I just want something that goes in a microwave. I don't want to know the meat. I don't know how long it's been since that meat. Of course. No, valid. Very valid.
You just have to be very cautious. Yeah. I can still remember, and this is not to rag on Green Bay, a city that I'm very much looking forward to going back to, but there were a lot of pieces of advice that I got there in the early days. I had great coworkers at the Green Bay Press Gazette. Pete Doherty, who's still there, now a columnist at the Press Gazette. Rob Demofsky, who's now at ESPN.
Duke of Dorchester, Pete Doherty? Not him. Oh, okay. Different one.
He's got some letters, but still there. Still covering the Packers, UW Green Bay basketball and all that stuff. But I remember being in a bar with them in the first week that I was there and they told me, I think I ordered a Guinness, and they're like, you don't want to order a Guinness there. And this isn't basically a house bar. If you've been to Green Bay, there's literal house bars, just people who have a bar in their front in their living room and you can go in there. And then you've got ones that are just like these little 10 seat, what we'd call dive bars.
But there's bars in Green Bay. Right. You order. Yeah.
You only want to order spotted cow or Miller Lite because you just have no idea how long it's been since they changed the tubes on any of those other kegs. Interesting. You don't order anything that's off book. Right. And I never, never did that again. That's hilarious.
My choice in the meats is really just based upon I'd rather not be cold. Is that restaurant still there? That's right across the place.
Yes. West Butter Burger, which only only takes cash on game days. So there have been there have been many times, especially back when I was at USA Today and I'd be writing late on deadline. And so, like, everything's kind of cleared out all the party.
The party folks have cleared out because, I mean, Lambos is a madhouse. The part of the pre tailgating. But I can remember rolling in there like midnight and just going and ordering a butter burger and being like, it's cash only and going, well, this is going to be a bit of a problem. Then you go to the ATM, which probably charges a seven dollar fee.
You get the cash. That's the only way those butter burgers, even without drinking, just coming straight from work when it's been a long day melt in your mouth. Really?
Just absolutely sensational. Now that you mention it, I might be making an appearance there. Cheese curds from that place are epic. Cash only on game day. Is this like the town too? Or like it's because that fucking proves so busy.
Rob Green Bay because it's cash only on game days. At those, which reminds me the other day I saw at the airport coming back from spring break in Florida. And there's I ordered my wife a drink at a coffee shop there. And then the woman like two minutes later, I see her just sitting at one of the tables counting money out of the till. She's just sitting there literally taking the money out.
Twenties. And like, you know, airport restaurants are. There's just like a two foot high little, you know, barrier. And then there's just people there like it's been the easiest snatch and grab of all time. I know there's a lot of there's a lot of surveillance, you know, in an airport.
I've never seen somebody openly count the till sitting at a table in a restaurant. There's no law. It's like international waters in the airport.
Nothing there. Well, time there. Time is not an issue either. You can drink and eat and do whatever you want at any time of day at an airport.
Except the Sky Club at Newark. I found out years ago coming back from a weekend trip with my wife closes no alcohol before. I think it's 11 a.m.
So you want a mimosa on a Sunday morning at like 10 o'clock before flight? I'm sorry. We can't do ours. There's no don't quote me on the time.
That's insane. But there was a I did specifically remember what like 6 a.m. I don't have a problem.
But at 10 a.m. the most I think that's well within the balance. 100 percent. There's no alcohol. Yeah. That's the only one I've been to that's like that. EWR.
So where's the airport in the world? It might be. It might be a Newark thing. 100 percent.
I don't know. I'm excited to go to one of these house bars in Green Bay. Like there's literally someone's house?
Yeah. There are literally there are places in town. There's over 200 bars in a city of like 100,000 people. But there are legit house bars that are just you're in the neighborhood and you can go in and it's in the living room.
They have a liquor license or like how does this work? I don't quite know what the rules are. OK. OK. Don't ask. Don't tell. You're going to be there, right? We're going to be there.
All right. So one night we're going with you. You tweet us that you've got a house bar in Green Bay?
Yes, exactly. And we'll bring Tom. We will come to your house bar. Mike, you're not going to be in Green Bay, are you? No.
No. I'm not going to be in Green Bay. We will do it. We will do it either Wednesday night or Thursday night. We will come.
There's one right across from the field. Thursday night is the first round. I'm going to send it to him every day. So we got to do this pretty early. Off the air on the inside.
Totally fine. We're on the air. Like 730. We're on the air from 11 to 2.
201. We are ready to go. So tweet us. Send us a picture of your house bar. And we will come.
Got to make sure it's, you know, up to regulations. Oh. Hey, NFL draft. 15 days away in Green Bay. Andy burglar unleashed the beast today, one of the greatest draft guides.
He joins us next on the Rich Eisen Show. Every day when we're on the road, people around us endanger themselves and others by using their phones while driving. They think they're hiding it, but we've all seen them and know exactly who they are. For instance, there is the sneak, a peeker who darts their eyes between the road and their texts. There's also the got a ticket or looking upset because they just got a ticket for using their phone while driving. And what about the fast scroller who can't drive five minutes without updating their social feeds or the night lighter who has that mysterious glow illuminating the inside of their car after dark? Do any of these sound familiar? If they remind you of yourself or someone, you know, rethink your behavior before you find yourself becoming the fender bender, the veering off the rotor, or worst of all, the driver who killed someone put the phone away or pay paid for by NHTSA.
