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Let's do this, do this. This is the Rich Eisen Show. With guest host, Andrew Ceciliano. The kick is... Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.
I get a lot of fans, including my father.
Son? Yet. Who stop me and say, why are you talking about the Cowboys? Because this story right here moves the needle. On the show.
NFL Network Insider Tom Pellisero. Coming up. Pro Football Hall of Fame. Joe Tom. Thomas.
Alan Shipnock. Eng now, sitting in Barid, it's Andra Ceciliano. Oh, that would be me. Hi, I'm just sipping a bee. Cup of coffee here, one moment.
Oh jeez. Have you ever thought about cutting back? Heck to the no. Mm-hmm. No, even though I went to the dentist yesterday.
Hi! Chris Brockman. Hey, Jason. Hey, TJ. Hello to you all.
Rich is back on Monday. My name is Andrew. I'm happy to be here. Yeah, I work for the Browns. I do their games and I do some other podcasts.
Some of that might be announced coming up shortly, like in the next week. Big news coming up. We're happy about that. And I'm very happy to sit in here. For Rich, I could walk here from my home.
Not really. I could, though, technically, if I wanted to do like one of those Paul Pierce stunts, like walking a lot. We all could walk everywhere. We all could walk here. I mean, you could walk anywhere.
Hypothetically. I mean, like, physically, I could. Just roam the earth. Just roam the earth. You really could walk.
You could walk here, though. I could potentially walk right here. Coming up. In about 18 minutes. Hall of Famer Joe Thomas will join us.
We tracked down Joe. We have tracked down Joe. Actually, Joe has tracked down us. I'm going to give you the backstory real quick here. We're very, very, very, well, Joe's a good friend, friend of the program, friend of the network, friend of everybody.
We love Joe. Joe's on a lake right now in his native Wisconsin. No way. But when I texted him yesterday, I'm like, hey, do the show. He's like, oh, I'm excited to do the show.
Yes. He goes, I might have bad Wi-Fi. I'm going to find good Wi-Fi. I'm like, okay, we're good. He just texted and said, Hey, I'm driving into town right now to get better Wi-Fi.
So, Joe Todd's dedication, his Hall of Fame, dedication.
So, he was going to be right here. We're going to push him about 15 minutes because he does not accept second-rate. Visual And second-rate Wi-Fi. When you play 10,000 straight snaps for the Browns, you don't have-assist your dedication, dedication.
Okay, there are few better than the great Joe Thomas. He will join us shortly.
Now I'm sidetracked. Oh, I went to the dentist yesterday because, hey, remember to always have your teeth cleaned. I need to go. Drink a lot of coffee. Like I do, yeah.
Like how much? I'm like all day. Like all day. Like, no, I have like three cups usually by noon. She's like, okay.
And then you like, do you take time in between the cups? Are you sipping? Is there dairy? Wow, she's really getting in there. And she's like, have you thought about like washing in between?
Like, what? She's like, like. Like water and gurgl, like you're trying to wash your mouth out with water in between. Sips or cups? Between cups.
All right. But now I'm thinking. Jason, maybe between sips, like, should I get a double fifth? Like, coffee, water, coffee, water, coffee, water, portable toothbrush. Yeah, like diuretic water, diuretic water.
Um. And I say, well, during football season, like on Sundays. I will have one of these in my hand while you're doing the game. All day. Yeah.
Like for Red Zone Channel for 18 years, I had one of these, although we added an extra shot. This is only four. I would have one of these. I'd have a five-shot Americano on my way into work every morning to direct TV at like 7 a.m., 6:30, whatever it was. And then once the games kicked at 10 a.m.
Pacific, we're in LA here, I would have a cup of black coffee in my hand, and whenever it got low, Somebody would always hand me another one and then hand me another one. And then I would do that pretty much until the kick of the late games, late meaning 4 p.m. Eastern.
So by the time those games kicked, I would probably have the equivalent of nine cups of coffee in me. Not healthy. Congrats on healthy. Right. That's like the Dan Cam that Dan Campbell have a crazy coffee order.
Yeah, he would do like a five-shot red eye or something ridiculous like that. Dan Campbell Coffee Water comes up on the corner.
Okay, Sandra, you want something even crazier than that, though? Chris Brockman has never had coffee, never had coffee. It's okay. Never. It's not for everybody.
I mean, there's some people you trust in the world and some people you don't. It's okay. I love you. It's okay. I love you, buddy.
I've never seen Rudy. I've never seen um So many classic sports movies. We've done this bit.
So, like, there's some people that think I'm. I'm a weirdo. Yeah, not seeing Rudy's kind of weird, bro. I don't like sports movies. That's a whole nother bit.
New Hook Mountains. That's all good. I do. I just got back from Mount Fuji. That story later.
It was great. Anyway, she's like, Yeah, you really shouldn't. Like, if you're going to drink that much coffee, then you really have to do all this extra. And I'm like, listen, during games, I can't go coffee, water, coffee, water, coffee, water. That's a bad mix.
That ain't going to happen. But though The whites are pearly, at least right now. Anyway, let's real quickly here run down the headlines. We're going to start with the golf because the open championship is underway, and I know we just updated that, but let's update it one more time. The American Brian Harmon, the defending champion, is in the clubhouse with a 69, and then today a 65.
He is eight under after a six-under today. Day number two, fighting the elements and fighting the weather at the open championship at Royal Port Rush. Right behind him from China, Haitong Li, who has his second consecutive 67.
So he is also at eight under a four. Under today.
So he goes four under, four under to go to eight under. On moving day here. Andrew, they're now in second place because the 22 U.S. Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick is on fire. A third straight birdie on the par 512th.
He is just teed off on the par 313th at 9 under. Look at that as Andrew refreshes his browser, and it is still behind Chris Brockman's refreshing of his browser, unless you have this live on a monitor in this beautiful studio, which I do not see.
So Matt Fitzpatrick is now in the lead, and Scotty made the turn. Scotty Scheffler at seven under overall, four under on the day. Shot a 68 yesterday.
So Scheffler is now two back. of the lead. Yeah, leaderboard, like we said at the end of last hour, leaderboard really starting to jam up with some big names. One of note that I did notice: Phil Mickelson was one under yesterday. He shot a one over today.
He's at even. He's going to play the weekend. Phil Mickelson, out there at 55 years old, is going to play the weekend. Everybody's Working for the weekend. That's what I've heard.
Did you see the weekend when he was here a couple of weeks ago at SoFi? I did not either. Oh, bam. I thought you were talking about the family. I thought you're talking about fans.
Yeah, whatever that guy's name is. Phil was here? No, no, no, no, no, no, not Phil Mickelson. I'm sure Phil might have been in town, or you might have seen him in a card room in Hollywood. I have no idea, but he, I'm sure, was in town.
Let's get to the NFL headlines and coming up throughout the show, and we'll do one of them coming up in a bit as well. Biggest storylines for each division, but let's run through some NFL headlines. Mike Williams retired yesterday, the Chargers wide receiver, a second stint with the Chargers, their former first-round pick out of Clemson, big body wide receiver, played with the Jets and the Steelers last year. Decided I want to go through a Jim Harpaugh. Are you kidding me?
Training camp, and I am done. In all seriousness, he has fought knee injuries. Good player, great guy off the field. Mike Williams has decided to hang it up. A lot of teams have rookies coming in today.
Today is the 18th. Other teams have had rookies report throughout this week. For example, the Ravens had their rookies come in a couple of days ago. Same go for the Buffalo Bills. But today, the The Browns rookies are reporting.
The Packers rookies are reporting. The Commanders rookies are reporting, among other teams. And then most teams by Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of next week, we'll have everybody in. A week from tomorrow, it will be Back Together Weekend, in which all 32 teams. are back on the field.
For one big day, a celebration with live coverage for all 32 teams on NFL Network, on ABC, and ASPN, and on all your major partner platforms for all 32. And that is kind of the very first day. We are now. 13 days away from a nationally televised professional football game. 13 days away.
And we're not talking the flag championships right now on NFL Network Live from Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. We're talking an actual football game between the Lions and the Chargers at the Hall of Fame game. In Canton, Ohio. July 31st. Love it.
We have a football game that will get a rating. It will get a fantastic rating. And I'm going to tell you right now, I will guarantee you. Justin Herbert and Jared Goff ain't playing. Even Jim Harbaugh ain't playing Justin Herbert in the Hall of Fame game.
I mean, did Jim Harbaugh? Light up. Jim Harbaugh might run the ones for a quarter just because. Yeah. I mean, did you hear Harbaugh's presser yesterday going back and forth between Jesus and popes and presidents and and like shoe size and and and like catching foul balls and Oof.
We have it. Hold on.
Okay, so let me give you a setup real quick. In the offseason, Harbaugh went to the White House, went to the Oval Office, sat with President Trump, with his brother John Harbaugh, head coach of the Ravens. Had that he also went to Rome, I believe, and met our new Pope from Chicago, Villanova graduate and White Sox fan, Pope Leo, did that. And so Harbaugh yesterday went on this wild storytelling aside about how many popes and how many presidents. And, you know, he met Gerald Ford when he caddied for Beau Schembeckler when he was like 12 years old and all these things like that.
And then got into talking about catching foul balls. I've caught 22 foul balls in In games, but uh yeah like sitting in six. Legit, yeah, like it was either a foul ball or a home run, yeah. I'm really proud of that. I don't think I'll get to 22 presidents, but.
Hopefully, God willing, and the creek don't rise, and maybe 15, maybe, maybe, hopefully, 15 or 16. Can you go through all 22 foul balls now? Uh Most of them came, most of them came, uh... Yeah, I'd love to. Do you keep them?
No, I didn't keep them. I haven't kept them all.
Sometimes I gave them to one of my kids or a kid in this dance. I always bring my glove to the game. That's the key. You gotta you gotta bring your glove. You gotta sit, huh?
Position for that? Joe Ortiz asked me the same thing. He questioned me on like 22, like. Like, um.
So yeah, the uh 13 of those foul balls came when I was a youngster going to Tigers games. My dad and Gates Brown. grew up together in Crestline, Ohio. They played football, basketball, baseball together.
So uh s sometimes we would get tickets from Gates to uh go to the the game and uh at Tiger Stadium and there might have been like a thousand people. You know, at those games back then, I mean, it's not like it is today. I mean, so we could, me and my brother, we could go to the upper deck and. And there'd be just me You know, and I'd have the section here and a section there.
So anything that came up there, I was getting it. John had, he had three sections he was covering. You know, so we were coming away with, sometimes in a game, you know, two or three foul balls. I mean, the intensity with which he tells that story. And you hear Daniel Popper ask from the athletic, are you going to like, do you remember each one?
Because he, before that, had told the story of every pope and every president, like everything, right? But the idea, like when I first saw on the Twitter yesterday 22 foul balls, I was like, baloney. No way. But then when you hear that he and Harbaugh went to an empty tiger, him and his brother John went to the empty Tiger Stadium and they just covered the entire upper deck. That makes more sense.
Like, tip of the cap. To ya. Old man, like good, good. Good for you. But why are you still bringing your glove to the game as an adult?
Heck, guys, have you had a conversation with him recently in person? Yeah, he was here a couple months ago. Like, I love him. He's wired differently. He's wired differently.
He wears cleats on the sideline to coach. Yeah, wired differently. He's wired differently. Like, right after he got the Charger job. He um real quick here, Don.
I promise. Um Right after I got the job, I ran into him at the combine in Indianapolis and I heard he was moving into my neighborhood, right? Or close enough, like, you know, neighboring town. And I'm like, hey, I heard you're moving into here. And he's like, Yeah, yeah, I am.
I'm like, great, I'm on. And I told him where I live. Like, where are you guys going? Where's the place? He's like, Yeah.
Um Alright. But you don't know. But Yeah. Like, like your wife, I'm sure, like, you've heard this before with the coaches. I don't know.
Like, my wife, I'm in the building. My wife found the place. Like, yeah, sure. That kind of thing. He's like, I don't know.
Yeah. He's like, I know it's close to the beach. I'm like, okay. He's like.
Okay. It's four minutes from work. I'm like, right, because they moved into El Segundo right there. Yeah, right. He's like, four minutes from work.
I'm like, cool, have you been to like whatever you like yet? He's like.
Four minutes from work. Yeah, like yeah, three minutes to Wapner. Like, and then we continued with another conversation about an entirely different topic. And it's not like, and I know some of you might be going, he doesn't want to tell you where he lives, son. I'm like, no, that wasn't it.
But, like, believe me, that was not it. It was more like, Yeah, one of those, which you saw right there. He's different. And I mean that in a good way. Like.
Like, I love the guy. Also, different in a great way. Ladies and gentlemen, he is not only a Hall of Famer, he is not only like a world-class lover of restaurants and outdoorsman, he is also now. A cattleman? Right?
Joe Thomas, connoisseur of beef, joins us next. The Hall of Famer on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts people. They're in the business of keeping your car on the road. OOOORILY Auto Parts offers friendly, helpful service and the parts knowledge you need for all your maintenance and repairs.
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Terms and conditions apply and are available at NavyFederal.org/slash TrueCar. Credit and collateral subject to approval. Navy Federal is insured by NCUA. Larry David, you are now the new commissioner of the National Football League. Really?
Yes, congratulations. Are you kidding? There you go. Congratulations. This is a dream, okay?
I'll quick curve your enthusiasm in a second if this is true.
Okay. Okay. What do you do first as the commissioner of the National Football League, Larry David? Number one, and I really don't care if people like it or not. Mm-hmm.
I'm losing the goalpost. Yeah. Why why are there goalposts?
Okay. Why are kickers who have they don't have football skills? They're not football players. I'm sure they're wonderful people, but they're not football players. Why are they kicking a ball through goalposts to decide games?
It doesn't make any sense at all. First of all, goalposts are a relic from the old English rugby, I think.
Okay. You know, when they used to actually run and kick a ball through goalposts, but they don't do that in the NFL. There's no need for goalposts. What? Wouldn't the game be better without him?
Think about it. Why not just have leaping frogs to decide games? Have a see if a see the frog can leap through a little goalpost that you set up, okay, on the floor. And if the frog can leap through the goalpost, then do that. Why kick it through a goalpost?
Well, it's not called leaping frog ball, it's called Football.
So you're saying take the feet out of footballs? Is that what you're saying, Leonard? Is that what you're saying? Yes. Why?
Feet are deciding games and they shouldn't. Why should one player, one player with this skill, like the guy on the Ravens? Mm-hmm. Justin Tucker, yeah. Why should this one player who does nothing but kick a ball?
be deciding games when you have 52 other players who are actually playing and this one person, this 53rd person, is deciding games, it makes no sense whatsoever. We want to thank everyone listening and watching because we know that you're taking time out of your day to participate and to be part of this show and this family. And maybe you're making a major effort to listen every day, putting your life aside and doing things that, you know, you're rather ignoring things that maybe you should be focusing on to be here with us. We want to thank. Joe Thomas for doing the same because he could be sitting on a lake right now in Wisconsin.
Instead, the Hall of Famer has gone planes, trains, and automobiles to set up this amazing Jack Hannah-like shot somewhere in Wisconsin. He sought out better Wi-Fi. And he joins us now on The Rich Eisen Show. Where in the heck are you, my friend? And thank you.
Well, thanks for having me on, Andrew. I'd do anything for you, buddy.
So I'm in Manitowish Waters up in northern Wisconsin. As you can see, it's God's country, but the term better Wi-Fi is just relative because better up here still means it's about the speed of the dial-up that you had when you were doing AOL online as a kid. The shot's amazing. Is that like an inlet? Is that a creek?
What is that? Yeah, so we got a little creek, little bay right here. There's a cool little coffee shop in town called Dixie's that actually has some Wi-Fi that's reasonable enough, at least for a phone call and a Zoom. And it's got this beautiful little bay behind me. And I brought my rod, so after this, I'm going to be casting for Muskies a little bit.
So make sure it's not too long. Can't cut into my Muskie time. This is the first time anyone has ever been on and said, Hey, I have to hurry up and get to casting for muskies. Are muskies like little ones? How big are they?
Oh, no, muskies are big. That's like one of our biggest freshwater fish we have here. You know, 50, 60 pounds they get up to. And it's kind of what made the Northwoods of Wisconsin famous.
So they're predators, man. They're out there trying to eat all the little bass and bluegills and hopefully my bait a little bit later. Oh, yeah. I'm looking at pictures. They have some teeth too, Joe.
Oh yeah, like a barracuda. They're kind of like a freshwater barracuda. They're a lot of fun. Sh shows you how much I know about fishing. And then would you would you actually like clean those fish, fillet those fish, and throw them on the grill tonight.
No? No, no, the musky is just kind of catch and release for the joy of musky is the challenge and the fight and things like that. You know, you're usually catching walleye and bluegill, something a little bit smaller, a little bit more plentiful if you're putting it on the table. I did have some good walleye last night with some tartar sauce and some delicious, spicy coleslaw. It was the perfect northern Wisconsin meal with cheese curds on the season.
Yeah, that was amazing. See, I don't know if I want the cheese curds, like good Wisconsin beer, yes. The cheese curd thing. Joe, I will never forget the first time I was in Wisconsin. I was a young man.
I was working in Chicago. I had to go up to Wisconsin. And first of all, all your roads are screwed up with your state roads. It's like State Route D and State Route F, and they're not in order. You would think that it goes D and E and F and G if you're heading up the highway.
But no, it'll be like you go from B to L and then back to G. It makes no sense whatsoever. That was one thing that stood out to me. The other thing was every sign for every restaurant is advertising only one thing, and that's cheese curds. We got a lot of cheese here.
I don't know if you noticed, but we're the Dairy State. And if you don't like cheese curds, you probably just haven't had the right ones.
So when I see you here in a couple of weeks, Andrew, I'm going to have to bring you some real Wisconsin cheese curds because it changed your mind. The great Joe Thomas, everyone, joining us from Wisconsin. Let's get to the football. I will see you in a couple of weeks in Cleveland when the Browns head down yet another path towards greatness, and we'll figure out the quarterback eventually. We'll get to that later.
Let's just talk the other quarterback down the street, like two and a half hours away in Pittsburgh, because the Browns do have to go there week six to face Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers, assuming it is still Aaron Rodgers. They are boomer bust, like, I think more so than any team we've ever seen. This reminds me of like the Daniel Snyder Redskins teams back in the day when it's like we're going to sign any and everything that isn't nailed down, and we're going to win this year. Do you think Joe It actually works. You know, there's not many quarterbacks that have had a bad year after coming off of an injury as they get really old in their third or fourth teams that have really found great success.
At least that's what I'm telling myself here with the Pittsburgh Steelers, obviously, our big rival in Cleveland. But I think really the big question is: can they get locker room buy-in around him, right? Like, because. Earlier on in his career, and then even when he went to the Jets, there was a lot of hoopla. And it was easy for the veterans and the players and the team to just buy all in, think, hey, man, this was our lottery ticket.
This was our missing piece. He's going to be the guy taking us to a championship. But I think that aura around him is kind of gone at this point. And so he really needs to kind of humble himself a little bit, I think, and find a way to get the rest of the locker room to buy in to what he's selling and to believe that, yes, he can be the Aaron Rodgers of old. And until he does that, really, I think they're going to be a little bit lukewarm on his presence, right?
Because it's going to be disruptive. It's going to be a media circus when you bring Aaron Rodgers anywhere. He's going to be. And of course, he's going to do his shows and say controversial things. And players don't really love that unless you're producing on the field.
So it would really be interesting to see what he does and how he changes in little ways just to make himself maybe more available, more approachable to his teammates and to try to get them to buy in and really believe in, you know, what he's doing on the field that he can be the guy that can lead him to a Super Bowl. I was saying before that worst case scenario for them, for them, that is. Is if they're just nine and eight. And they're one and done again. Because then, what have you spent all this money for?
Like, what have you paid DK for? And what have you paid TJ for? And what have you done the Jalen Ramsey trade for? If you're just going to get. The same result, and I don't know that a lot of people, Joe, like you said, are bullish that they are going to all of a sudden, especially with you know the way the AFC North lines up this year.
You know, this AFC North plays NFC North. I mean, it is not an easy schedule for any team in that division. If they're just nine and eight and they're one and done, then what did we do this for? And then next year, you're looking at picking 20th or 21st again, and you're not going to go find your quarterback of the future.
So, like, we spent a lot of money, but to quote Ricky Waters, for who, for what? I don't blame him for trying, though. Yeah, I mean, you got to do it, right? You got to have somebody at that quarterback position. They feel like the team that can win now.
But it is interesting because Aaron Rodgers is now in Arthur Smith's offensive system, which is more of a run-heavy system, right? It's the system that Kyle Shanahan has kind of spawned throughout the NFL, where you're leaning on the run game a little bit more. It's less about matchups, which is what Aaron Rodgers has loved throughout his career. That's what he did with Mike McCarthy in Green Bay all those years. And that's what he was trying to do in different places that he went after with the Jets and now here with the Steelers is try to find: okay, who's my best matchup?
And then let my arm win. The Arthur Smith system is much more of a, hey, take the plays that are there within the flow of the game, within the system. We're going to lean on the run game. We're going to find you your shot plays. And certainly Aaron Rodgers has the capabilities to do that, but does he have the patience to do that?
And is he willing to listen to Arthur Smith and run his system and not try to overimpose too much of what he would like to see with this system? Because, like you said, it's kind of a one and done. And it's a win now. You got to make it work with this one-year contract that Aaron Rodgers signed. And so it's not like they have all this time to be able to figure each other out and kind of blend the two systems together.
They're going to hit the ground running in day one. And there's a lot of extra pressure right now. I mean, outside of Pittsburgh, everyone thinks it's crazy to consider Mike Tomlin on the hot seat because he's one of the greatest coaches the NFL has ever seen. He's never had a losing season. But the people in Pittsburgh are getting restless.
They want to see championships. That's what they're used to. Pittsburgh hasn't won a playoff game since 2016. And then now you make these signings. Like you mentioned, you bring it in.
DK Metcalf, Jalen Riemann, John Smith, Aaron Rodgers, Resign, TJ Watt. It's like, hey, pressure's done. Everybody in the front office thinks this is a team that can win the Super Bowl. And now it's up to the coaching staff to be able to do it. And so when you ramp up that pressure, you bring in a bunch of new faces.
There's a lot of pressure for them, not only throughout the whole season to have success, but early on to show those dividends right away and kind of give fans and the front office a little bit of a preview of, hey, this is the trajectory we are on. We can see and convince ourselves of the path we can take to go win a championship. Because if it's a little bit sideways and they're having a hard time with their cohesion and getting on the same page and figuring out, you know, what Arthur Smith system version they want to run with Aaron Rodgers, you know. It'll be interesting to watch what that pressure cooker looks like and how those different personalities mesh because it's easy for everybody to get along when you're winning. But when times are tough and you're under that microscope and you're getting heat from the fans, like it's pretty easy for those guys to splinter because it's not like these guys are lifetime Pittsburgh Steeler guys that know how to handle adversity together.
I mean, it's pretty easy for guys that are sort of mercenaries just come in there. If it does not working well, all of a sudden they're pointing the fingers and it gets pretty ugly. Yeah. And it could get ugly and you're going to see a million sideline shots of Arthur Smith and Mike Tomlin and Aaron Rodgers and you're going to. Going to be trying to figure out, hey, did Aaron just check out of that and trying to read Arthur Smith's facial expressions?
Buckle up. I'm here for it, though. Joe Thomas, the Hall of Famer, joining us on the Rich Eisen Show. Real quick on the Browns. I would say right now, and I'm not trying to do bulletin board stuff.
That if Joe Flacco starts week one, Browns played the Bengals at home week one. We know how the Bengals start. We know how, other than last year and maybe the year before that, the Browns have had the Bengals number, especially in Cleveland. I'll tell you right now: if Joe Flacco starts, I am confident Quinchein or no Quinn Chein the Browns are going to win that game. My question is.
Joe. And I'm not saying just throw the kids in because the first six weeks are brutal. on the schedule. But, like, is that sustainable? And is it, if you're looking long term and you have to.
Is it the best thing for the team to say, Joe Flacco, this is your team? And and just go. I mean, at one point, if you're drafting two rookie quarterbacks. You have to see what one or both of them can do, right? Yeah, I've been in that situation quite a few times during my career where you've got a veteran quarterback who you feel pretty comfortable with, at least being able to manage the team and get you guys into the right place, throw the ball to the right receiver.
And certainly Flacco, I think, is that and more. And I think he win a lot of games for the Browns. But I think the best strategy is. You give them the keys and say, Hey, this is your team, Joe. And you don't ever look back.
You don't ever look in any other direction. But obviously, as the season goes along, you're evaluating every throw he makes. And you're also watching the young guys in practice and you're trying to figure out how ready can they be. And then depending on how the team is playing, how everybody's meshing, how these young receivers are coming along, because I think they got one of the better receiving groups that we've seen in Cleveland in a while. Obviously, Jerry Judy had a little bit of a breakout year last year.
Cedric Tillman's playing better. You got Deontay Johnson this year. David Njoku's still there at tight end.
So you got some good pass catchers, some good weapons. They're going to lean, I think, a little bit more on the run game, no matter what happens with Quinchon Judkins. And so this is a team on offense that has a lot of good young players. And it's a matter of how are they meshing? How are they playing?
Are they able to produce points and numbers? And if they do hit a little bit of a skid and maybe they're starting to be on the outside looking into the playoff hunt, it's going to be, I think, really important for the future for next year to start saying.
Okay, we need to play one of these young quarterbacks because, as you know, being a Browns fan like me, when they traded out of that pick in the second pick and they traded back and they picked up a first-round pick next year, that was so that they have flexibility in the 2026 draft to be able to go up and grab a quarterback of the future for a high first-round draft pick to be the future guy. If one of these young guys, whether it be Kenny Pickett or Dylan Gabriel or Shadur Sanders, doesn't become a standout where you say, Yep, we found our franchise guy. We didn't have to waste a first-round pick.
Now we build around him. And so it's really important to know how good these young players, whoever is going to be the best of them, perform down the stretch to see what type of potential they have and if they can be that long-term answer at quarterback.
So you really have to answer that question at quarterback at some point this year, but I don't think you ever want anybody to feel like. They have to look over their shoulder from Joe Flacco's perspective. He knows he's been in the game long enough. He knows these guys are breathing down his neck, and the team is going to look to make that change to find out what they got. And Shadur Sanders and Dylan Gabriel, and maybe even Kenny Pickett.
So you don't have to tell them that. You just want to make sure that nobody on the offense, especially the pass catchers, are wondering and waiting, like, all right, when's the next guy coming in? Right? You want to get the most out of him and you want him just focusing on what's right in front of him in that moment. Who's my quarterback right now?
And then if you need to make the switch, you do it under the cover of darkness. And you walk in one day and you say, Hey, Shadur Sanders is our quarterback. Going forward, that's the way it is. Let's move on. Just like Belichick, hey, we're moving on to Cincinnati.
This is what we got, and this is who we're moving forward with. Because, like you said, you got to find out about those young guys because of that extra first-round pick that you do have in 2026. Yeah, organizationally, if you take Dylan Gabriel at 94 and then at 144, so 50 picks later, Shador Sanders, you need to know what you have at one point. The question is, is when is that point? And look, maybe with Joe Flacco or Kenny Pickett, either veteran, that you are two and four after the first six.
I don't think that's going to happen, but the first six games are brutal. And we had it up on the screen before. You got Cincinnati at home. That's fine. You're at Baltimore week two.
I'd rather be at Baltimore week two than say week 18 last year. That game was just worthless and it was five degrees and hope it could have ended at halftime. It would have been great if it did. But week three, then you get Green Bay at home and then you go to Detroit and then you go to London to face a wrested Vikings team and then you come back to face a Steelers team that is coming off a buy. Because they had been in Ireland two weeks earlier.
Those first six. Are awful, but Joe Flacco does throw the prettiest pass. And like, we know that. Like, Joe Flacco could be 50 years old and off his couch again, and his kids could be in college at that point, and he can walk into an NFL training camp and still throw the prettiest ball. But again, Like If he is the guy.
For how long is he truly the guy? I want to go real quick through some of these quarterback things here around the league. We did Rodgers, we did the Browns. The other two, I guess if you want to say battles, I don't think it's a battle in New Orleans. I think Tyler Shuck gets the job.
It's the Giants with Jameis Russell and Jackson Dart. But to me, Joe, the most interesting one is, and I don't think you had Colts quarterback conversation on your dance card when you tried to find good Wi-Fi today, but let's do it. Like if Daniel Jones gets that job, let's just say he wins the job. Hypothetically. Have you seen enough of Anthony Richardson where if you're one of the other 31.
You call up the Colts and say, Hey, can I take em off your hands? I think he definitely still has enough potential, and he's a good enough athlete. I don't think the book has been written on him just yet because there's a team out there that's going to look at him and say, Hey, we think he fits a little bit better in the system we're trying to run. You know, maybe you're going to feature his legs a little bit more and give him an opportunity to kind of work his way into the system that you're running. Because there's plenty of teams that don't have that answer at quarterback right now, and he could be a good interim.
I mean, if the Browns had an opportunity to have him this offseason in the room, I'm sure they would have added him, right? And have six guys or five guys in the room, depending on whether you're considering Deshaun Watson on the team or not. But quarterback, it's the most important position in sports. You can never have enough of them. And when you've got a guy like Anthony Richardson, who's got that crazy potential and just hasn't been able to tap it yet, has had some problems.
Undoubtedly, and he's recovering from shoulder surgery. But it's easy to take a flyer on a guy like that. But I don't know if the Colts will be ready to get rid of him because I think we have seen enough Daniel Jones to know that he's probably not the long-term answer there in Indianapolis. And so, really, for Anthony Richardson, they may be a little bit down on him right now, but I don't think they're completely out on him. And I think they do want to give him another chance because you've invested a lot when you pick a guy in the first round.
And so, I think they still want to make it work if it's possible, even though it's doubtful.
So, I think they're much more thinking that Daniel Jones is just that stopgap, and Anthony Richardson might get another opportunity at some point this season to get some playing time no matter what happens with Daniel Jones, because I think they do want to really just give him one more chance before they kind of. Close the book on his Indianapolis Coltons career. They have great steakhouses in Indianapolis.
So let's get to the beef here. Can we see the Joe Thomas shirt there on his lapel? Yeah, look at this. It says Hall of Fame beef.
So you are. You're a hunter. You're an outdoorsman. You had the big turkey hunting weekend. Back in May, I believe.
I need to be part of that next time. And you're holding up where those sausages are, what are those? Beef you okay.
So you are in the beef business, Joe. Tell us about the beef. The beef business is going great, man. My farm, Six Springs Farms, we're raising some impeccable beef along the banks of the Blue River in the driftless area of Wisconsin. We've been raising different breeds of Angus, and I'm super excited because you just came from Japan.
Yeah. the beef on planet earth. is wagyu. We've been developing our wagyu herd for a few years now. On August 1st, we're going to launch our very first wagyu, and I cannot be more excited because I got a little preview.
Yeah, this past week I had some friends over to the farm. And we cooked some of that wagyu steak. It was easily the best beef I've ever had in my entire life. And I can't wait to make it available here at the beginning of August to all of my friends at HallofameBeef.com because it's going to absolutely blow you away. Did you get a chance to have any beautiful wagyu steaks when you were in Japan?
I did not. I went all sushi and Yakitori. I was going to make a side trip to Kobe, and I didn't have enough time. I I so My next Wagyu is going to be... From Hall of Fan Deef.
Well And you will not be disappointed because we're raising. Genetics. The Wagyu that are direct descendants of those ones that are raised in Kobe, that have that amazing A5 marbling, the snow-white spider webs. Their fat melts at a lower temperature at mouth temperature basically.
So, you put that steak in your mouth, it immediately starts melting like an MM when you were a kid. Or maybe still an adult eating some MMs, but. It is such a different experience. that people that haven't had full blood wagu yet. When they try it for the first time, they're going to say I don't need any of that regular beef the rest of my life.
This stuff is what I'm going with. It is so, so good. And I can't wait for us to experience it together. Maybe when we're on the road, actually, Fahrenheit, they buy some of my stuff.
So maybe when we're in Carolina together, we can get some of that Hall of Fame beef full blood wag you and allow you to experience the pinnacle. Of steak excellence. I'm down. A Fahrenheit a restaurant in Cleveland and the original in Charlotte as well. TJ, it's 10:40 in the morning here in LA.
I could starving watering. Hey, Joe, what's up, TJ? Here, just wondering when you're getting this steak in and these cheese curds. I was just wondering, is this what you wear when you happen to go out and get these things? Because the last time I saw you before you died in Germany night.
And I said, good talking to you, Joe Thomas. We took this picture and I saw you walking down the street wearing this. And this was the last time I saw you.
So I just wondered, is this what you wear to go get cheese skirts? That is the official look right there. That is official leaderhosen from Angermeier Trochten store in Munich. They hooked me up and I moved there. It is some great stuff.
It's super comfortable. The best thing is that's what farmers wear in Germany and southern Bavaria. And so I wear it here, of course. And you don't have to wash it and you don't need underwear. It's the best outfit of all time.
That's all I would have worn because, you know, as a kid, you never want to wear underwear. You never want to shower. You never want to wash your clothes. And those things, they unlock the beauty of childhood, the dream of every little boy in the world. You're the best, man.
Joe Thomas, not on a lake. Not on the same lake from 2007, in which he ignored the draft, but a lake nonetheless. A body of water nonetheless in Wisconsin, HallofameBeef.com, the Hall of Famer himself, eating beef live on the TV. And we will see you shortly.
So, you know, we love talking movies around here. You know, we love talking comedy around here. We also love talking about classics around here.
So, you know what I'm all about. That said, All of that said. You know how I must have felt when I was sitting in the movie theater like I was the other day watching the previews, and up came a preview. for the naked gun. with Liam Neeson as Frank Greben, junior.
That Preview had me at hello. I loved police squad back in the day. I loved the naked gun back in the day. And here comes the naked gun once again with yes, Liam Neeson as Frank Drebbin Jr. Come on now, son of the celebrated police squad, Lieutenant Frank Drebbin from the original movie, Paul Walter Hauser's in this movie, also Pamela Anderson.
Guess who also makes an appearance? WWE superstar. Cody Rhodes, and the producer of the movie is Seth McFarlane, the creator of The Family Guy. Come on now. This is going to be so much fun.
I'm excited to see The Naked Gun in theaters on August 1st.
So. What do you do on August 1st? Of course, you're going to a theater near you and you're seeing the naked gun. I might even be there. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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Andrew, sitting in for a rich, want to thank the great Joe Thomas again. I mean, are there any better than the great Joe Thomas? No, of course not. No, no, no, no, no. He had just texted, hey, can't wait to hear about Japan.
I did go, I just got back a couple of days ago. From Japan. I went for two reasons. Number one, to climb Mount Fuji, which check we did. And then because no one goes, I mean, everyone goes to Japan in July.
It's when the kids are out of school, summer vacation time, just like Europe, but it is hot as Hades in Japan in July. But you can't, they don't permit you for Fuji until July. You can't do it before July 1st.
So this is when I had to go. It was my second time there. But the other highlight of my trip was, so Greg Rosenthal was over there also traveling with the family. GregRosenthal NFL.com, great podcast, obviously formerly around the NFL, now NFL Daily on the NFL platform. Greg was going to be over there.
So we're like, oh, let's connect.
So we went to a baseball game, went to see the Occult Swallows. Ever been to a Japanese baseball game? No, you should. It's all like team cheering and songs, and it's vibe, man. It's amazing.
But what we also did is we went to day one. Of the annual midsummer national, like it's broadcast on NHK all day, every day. Sumo. Tournament at the brand new IG Arena in downtown Nagoya. As you can see, we were not in the front row, okay?
But Rosenthal and I paid an arm and a leg to get in the building and watch 10 Hours of sumo. Maybe we stayed eight. The first matches are at 8:30, and everyone says, Don't go there at 8:30. The big stuff's at 4. I'm like, all right.
So, but Greg and I are like, Well, we paid all this money for these tickets. We don't want to show up like at the end of the day.
So, we're like, Let's get there at 10:30. At 10:30, there's nobody in the building at all, right? But we still stayed all day. And I was texting some of these videos. Joe and I are on a tech chain with some other people in Cleveland, and Joe's like, Oh my God, I love it.
This is because I'm sending videos and it's all about leverage and low-man wins. And Joe's like providing his commentary on the sumo texts. If you haven't seen this stuff, Like, find a stream. Like, it's going on right now. It's like a tennis tournament.
It's a two-week thing every day. I went to day one. Day one was Sunday.
So we're not even a week in yet. Like Watch the sumo. It is fascinating.
Some of the matches go two seconds.
Some of them go like 30, 40 a minute. Like if they go a minute, it's ridiculous. But it's all about leverage. You got to get the guy out of the ring or take him down. One of the two.
You either take him to the ground or you take him out of the ring. There were some matches in which they both fly out of the ring together and then they've got to decide. And the judges all get together. Like, who left the ring first? And they're grappling and they're falling out of the ring.
There are some where literally a dude gets thrown out of the club. I got some of those videos where literally guy just grabs him and shucks to see him throws him out of the club. There are some where they come off the line and one guy just matrixes him, stands by, like steps by, and that dude goes flying out the ring. And there was one guy. I sent the video to Joe.
I can't remember the guy's name. Who's a legit five whatever? He's the fourth biggest guy of all time. Oh. Can't move.
Can't move. Can't move. And he got beaten by a guy like 200 pounds later than him. It's amazing. Back on radio here, Andrew Ciciliano sitting in for Rich Eisen.
On the TV side, real quick, can we put up the Fuji pick? Yeah, what the heck?
So, if you're listening on radio, I'm showing here me on top of Mount Fuji, 12,300 and something feet. Wow. I cannot tell you how cool this was. It's like 40 degrees when we got up there to the top, but to watch the sunset, I got up there at 3:30. Like, we beat everyone up the mountain.
Sunrises at 4:30. Um, Again, 12,300 whatever feet. Not the most difficult climb of all time, but check that box. Absolutely stunning. This isn't even the best picture.
This is one that I quickly found to send to Don because we, as always, I throw things together last second when I'm on the TV or the radio or wherever. But yeah, that was awesome. Your first time. He stays ready back there. Your first time doing Mount Fuji?
First time doing yes, Mount Fuji. Kind of the reason I went, as I said, had been to Japan many, many years ago, but wanted to go check the box and, you know what, and run around the country and do some other things. Went to Nara, went to Hiroshima. Um uh and yeah, went to Nagoya for the sumo tournament. Um looking up your golf leaderboard as we spig.
Oh, look at that. Matt Fitzpatrick is ripping up the back nine. Brockman, he's at 10 under.
Well, you're again, you're behind. Hit refresh. Uh, Matt Fraser did get to 10 under. He gave one back on 14. He's at 9 under.
One ahead of Brian Harmon and How Tung Lee. Scotty Scheffler did get to 8 under. He gave one back as well, but is on the par 512 in 2.
So he's going to have a good chance to get Birdie there. He is. Two back. Like, what are you on? I'm on pgatour.com.
I'm literally watching the broadcast. It's live on this side. There you go. Chris Goddard up, who won last week. Thanks for showing me the game here.
He's in fifth place. Over here, I have the tennis channel.
Sorry. I got an NFL networking as fancy. I mean, you guys got the mix over there. I don't know. No, it's all good.
I'm not. I'm not. It's good. Like, we're good. Like, I'm not complaining.
Andrew, it's all part of the bid. Yes, TJ. Speaking of sumos, have you guys, and Brockman, I know we talked about this last year. Have you seen the video from last year where Micah Parsons and CJ took a little tour? They did like a little reality thing.
And they went into the sumo place, and Micah, there was a 17-year-old, 17-year-old sumo wrestler that Michael got in the ring with, and Micah Parsons was barely. Barely able to move this kid. And it's just like: if I need an offensive lineman, I'm going to go find. One of these sumo wrestles and bring that. A lot of it's about footwork, though, too, and leverage and theory.
Yeah, I mean, there are. It's interesting you say that, though. I was back during mandatory minicamp, I was with the Browns and I was talking to one of their scouts. We're talking about, hey, last day of camp, like summer plans. What are you doing?
Vacation time, family stuff, and whatever. And I mentioned, I'm going to go to Japan and I'm going to see the sumo. And his eyes lit up. And he's a former O-lineman. And he goes, AHHHHHHHHH Like, I pitched that last year.
Like, there was some LA Sumo event. I wanted to go to LA because I'm like, hey. This is a legit scouting operation thing. To your point, TJ, I want to go look at Sumo. My cab, I go, Yeah, it got denied.
Well, it should deny because these, you're right. And I don't know if you know, there's a series on Netflix. I think it came out last year. I watched it called Sanctuary, which follows the journey of this kid who becomes a sumo. Gotta see it.
If you're into it, it's well worth watching. And I forget the word in Japanese, but there's a certain sumo food that they eat, like to bulk up, and you could buy that stuff at the tournament. Oh, here's the Yakitori stand, and here's the Yakisoba stand. And here's where you could eat the sumo food, too. It's like, how many pounds can I gain by the end of the evening?
A hearty stew, I think. Yeah, what is the food vibe at one of those things? What are you guys doing? It was actually pretty cool. You said you were there for eight hours.
We were there for eight hours. We got there way too early. It was day one. When I say day one, like the very first event at a brand new arena in Nagoya, the IG Arena. For years, this tournament in Nagoya, and it's the massive national tournament.
Summer tournament was held at an old gymnasium, which is right down the street from where they built this arena, where no air conditioning, legendary for the heat and the humidity. And it's one of the reasons you don't go for the early matches because everyone sits there with their fans. I mean, it is awful, but this was a beautiful air-conditioned arena that had all the modern stands.
So it had, as I mentioned, a Yaki Tori and a Yaki Soba and a ramen and had a taco stand for Pete's sake. It had American food. It had any and everything imaginable. And then it had. Instead of like a gift shop, you go downstairs to the basement, and it had almost like a convention center-sized room with just.
All the merchandise and memorabilia where you could buy the food, and you could buy any imaginable Japanese food labeled with the sumo wrestlers. And dozens of t-shirts and all this gift stuff. There was a line, and I'm not kidding, hundreds of people deep in the bowels in the tunnel downstairs, because that's all how you get to the floor seating as well to get in line, to get into. The merchandising stuff.
So, luckily, Rosenthal and I hit it early, and we got our t-shirts and we got all our stuff for his kids and everything. But it is, and that was only day one. And it only gets bigger. The tickets are: you're not allowed to scalp tickets. It's there.
You're not supposed to scalp tickets. The tickets are only 4,000 yen. Which is like 28 bucks.
Okay. We went on the secondary market here in the States. and paid after fees like Three bills. Shoes. But then you get the email, we will mail you the tickets because there's no electronic tickets because you're not allowed to flip them necessarily.
But bottom through a reputable Above board official ticketing partner here in the States, like totally legit. But then we had to get an address in Japan to have them sent to, and like, I spent all this money, these things ain't coming. They arrived. And Greg and I are walking up to the front gate. We're like, are they going to go like Guy Gene, get out of here, forget about this?
These are clearly scalped. And like, these are fake. Like, Then they ripped our tickets and handed us the map and the schedule. We're like, We made it! We made it!
Alan Shipner coming up. We'll talk golf. Rich Eisenjo, everybody. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why?
Because you're not playing me. With rapid fire takes. And a lot to get to, and I'm not sure you're going to like all of it. Honestly, I don't even care if you like all of it or not. I have a job to do.
Scorching debates. On any given week, you have lots to beef about. Take advantage of it. Get up in here. He's the Spitfire of Sports Smack.
Which is not my fault. We will get to all of that. The Jim Rome Show podcast. Get up in here and we'll beef later on. What's your beef?
Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned. Yeah.
