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We're talking about practice. From the Rich Eisen Studios in New York City. Thank you, Starrier. Earlier on the show. ESPN NFL analyst Ryan Clark.
Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner. Coming up. Hosts of Bustin' with the Boys, Taylor Luan and Will Compton. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Final hour on this Thursday show from New York City, the Disney Studios, the Rich Eisen Show Studio taking over GetUp for this entire week.
We're here on Disney Plus, the ESPN app, and also, of course, ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance. For those who are streaming us live and watching us live, you can see these two very handsome gentlemen from Nashville, Tennessee have stuck around for their GetUp appearance every single Thursday. The busing with the boys, boys, ladies and gentlemen, Taylor LeWan, and also Will Compton. Good to see you, gentlemen. How are you?
Good to see you. What's going on? Welcome to my bus. Yeah, there's a lot going on out there. I'm sitting in between a couple Michigan guys.
Yeah. You asked me how we're doing. Been better? I've been better too. I think.
By the way, this was great. We're getting ready to sit down and tape this thing. And Will comes up to me and goes, How about that Michigan stuff, huh? And I'm like, Yeah, how about that Michigan stuff? Right?
How about that oxygen we're breathing in today, huh? What do you think of that oxygen? I look at the screen. Alumni that Michigan has. And I look about the great and powerful Rich Eisen.
And I'm thinking, like, if there's someone that's going to save this university, it's got to be you. I mean, last day it came out of my mouth. I'm like, what's Rich think about all this? Dude, same. Yeah.
Well, I mean, thinking about the same thing you are. I mean, just like, where the hell did this come from? Why is this happening? How did it happen? What in the world is Michigan going to do next?
I don't even know when the page turn is actually going to happen. Right. You know, I mean, you were asking me right off the top, like, who should be the next coach? I'm like, I have no idea. I mean, there's still a lot of pieces that need to land before you get to that square.
True. The fearful thing are the pieces that land, right? Like, right now, there's a lot of speculation taking place and what's really happened. Like, you know, there's arrests that happened. There's a bunch of crazy things that I should not comment on from a factual standpoint.
Right, sure. If we live in the world where everything we're seeing is true, you have to assume these next couple of weeks, and you were talking about this right after the Get Up shows, like, we're going to live in a world where if that's all true. Then, if I'm Michigan, it's what's our next move. Let's make this change as fast as possible. Because you're thinking about you're the youngest team in the entire Big Ten last year.
You went nine and three. You had a top 15 recruiting class. And January 2nd, you have the transfer portal.
So all those things combined. I look at Michigan as if they have the right structure in place from a coaching standpoint, the right coaches, assistant coaches, you can be a college football playoff contender next year. And if you want to get that done and not lose all your players, like you need to move quickly and diligently, but put the most important people for Michigan in a room. And have don't let them leave till they make a decision. This can't be middle of January and now.
Here's our new head coach.
Well, you know, half your guys have left. Who knows what happens with your quarterback? Like these, these recruits are like, well, I don't, I want to go to the NFL, right? Every player that comes to college football wants to go to the NFL. They're going to go to a place that has better structure.
Because right now, the way Michigan is, there's a lot of uncertainty taking place, and we got to fix it immediately. Yeah, it's like it's one of those best case scenario, you're able to take your time and find the right guy. But it feels like you're in the worst case scenario right now. Like last night it went from, oh, this doesn't seem good to it got bad in a hurry. And now it just feels like if they're not, if they don't have urgency for alignment to make a decision soon and you sit in this situation of saddom because you're taking your time to find the right guy, then the entire window of things could get even worse than what it was from last night is going to continue to happen, which to me, I feel like it kind of tarnishes, it ruptures the whole Michigan idea, the structure there.
Who's going to want to go there if things continue to leak out and come out and everything else?
So to me, that's why I feel like alignment's got to happen. In a hurry, and a decision's got to be made fairly quickly because of the recruiting class, the guys who are there right now. Like, you know, like as players in the world that we're in with the NIL, players in college football, you're not only waking up, group chats firing up to where you're talking about, did you see this? Did you see that? Man, did this happen?
I thought I saw this back in the day. To you're also having the conversations of, hey, what are we like? Are you thinking of moving? If you're thinking of moving, like, where are you looking at right now? My agent's telling me this.
There's a lot of dominoes that could fall if you don't make a decision somewhat soon.
So, because I veer back and forth between the we got to deal with this for the football program to we've got bigger issues potentially than just the football program. Right. If there's a systemic problem in terms of a coaching staff, if there's a systemic problem about what What the athletic department knows and when they know it, and what is happening. Like, there's a lot of. Issues here.
Also, a family is shattered. Yeah, which is heartbreaking. Actual family is shattered. Families are shattered. There is a football program that appears to be shattered right now.
And how do you even sit here and say who should be the football coach, except for the fact that there is a program to run in a cutthroat world of college football? And if you are looking for your next head coach and you might be looking to buy somebody out, because that's the way you do things these days in college football. Who would you target? They're potentially getting ready for a college football playoff game right now, or they're getting ready for the end of an NFL season. I mean, coaches in the NFL aren't going to be available for this sort of conversation for another few weeks, for a month and a half.
And the transfer portal's coming up. You got to wonder if Lane Kiffens in Bryce Underwood's driveway right now. You know what I mean? Like these are things that you have to be figuring out while you're also trying to put the pieces together as to how did it go from what we We're seeing throughout the football season to Sharon Moore learning he's been. Fired, and then everything that happened after that didn't think in a million years.
Was that a real thing? I have no, see, and that's the other thing, too, is what's real and what isn't anymore. Yeah. You know, which, you know, obviously that's for a totally different show or a different day, but you know, it's just there is a lot of shocking stuff to get through and a scandal that you just can't believe has landed on our school, man. You know, like that's what's happening right now.
The thing that you bring up an incredible point of is there are families that have been shattered. There are people that are affected on a personal level that we sit on, like we said on GetUp, and it was Greene, him and Schefter kind of handled the sensitivity part to it. But then it's like, hey, we're so like, it might come off to a casual viewer that we're being extremely tone deaf about what's really an issue when we're sitting here trying to figure out who the next head coach is going to be. My argument to that is, is. I don't know what's real and what's not right now.
I would hate to go and say something and hurt somebody without knowing all the correct information.
So, because I sit on a show and have to talk about football, and this is a major piece of news, well, the only thing I'm gonna lean back on right now is: okay, where are we going with the University of Michigan?
So, it's not that I'm not empathetic to everybody that's affected, because it is very important that these people that were affected, like, I got two daughters. Sharon's got three daughters. Like, you have two daughters. Like, it's absolutely heartbreaking to know that those three girls, like, For the rest of time, they'll be able to pull that up on the internet, regardless of how things work out. And that I have a lot of empathy for.
But when it comes to the coaching search, You've really got to figure out, like 2023 happens in the midst of a national championship season. You have all these allegations come out. There's an NCA, they try to break down everything, figure out they end up slapping with a $20 million fine.
Now, this is taking place. It's like if you're Michigan and you want your logo to keep standing for the things that you and I believe it stands for, you have to make a credible decision, a long-term decision. Character integrity, all those things have to be in it. But you have to produce in the field now, too.
So there's a lot of different variables that need to happen in a hurry that you would love to have more time for. But because of the dates, you don't have those things. Tell me about it. Part of me is sitting about. Last night, you know, I was mentioned at the top of the show, I was getting ready for that Stuart Scott Booyah event.
Just took me about 20 minutes because not much is needed. Um not much primping uh needs to go down. Um, for various reasons. And I, 20 minutes away from my phone, I look at my phone, 29 text messages, and I'm like, What the hell is happening? And I'm going through all this, and I'm stunned, and I'm completely taken aback.
And then at some point, after all this, I land on the what next, right? Who's the next coach? Who could this possibly be? And I'm getting all of these texts about this person, and that person, and that person, and this person. And I'm thinking to myself, if there was an investigation going down, And rumors were everywhere.
You and I both heard them, just to share off air what we talk about. We heard them. We're just like, this can't possibly be true. I hope it's not true. I was thinking to myself, this couldn't get done before Matt Campbell gets hired by Penn State.
You know, just throw any name out there. You know, we just saw all of that. And And then there's the confliction, the conflicting part about it, about the human element of it that's going down. And I feel stupid talking about the football part of it, but at the end of the day, there is a Michigan standard that we keep talking about that now keeps getting torn down by real life events and everyone else rightfully saying what the hell is going on at your spot. That is legitimately what's happening right now.
I feel like this is a therapy session between us right now. And you're doing a great job of putting us to the doctor. How much do you guys charge by the hour? I'm very happy to sit in on this. You know, so this is the way I kind of feel about it.
Yeah, because you're treating this really well. There's a piece of Will Compton right now that is like screaming inside, wanting to be, wanting to be, you know, because I see, yes, it's true. Oh, no, no. Not the person, but just football in a vacuum. I enjoy the fun.
I enjoy the trolling. But this being a very real situation, then you're looking at the. The football side of it to where it's like you want to have time for all the things that are tragic and the sadness and everything going on. And then when you're talking about the football side, it's like, yeah, what are they going to do? Because no matter what, like the reality is, when you fire your coach, there's like a 30-day window that players have to leave.
You're going to want to keep them there. Is there a line? Like, I know they're trying to figure out their alignment right now and who they want to go after and what they want to do, but it's like, man, what? What are they gonna do? Because they're gonna need to do something fast if they don't wanna look like.
You know, Penn State, who's kind of fell off, and the way they had to go about their hiring process throughout the year, like, what candidates are you going to have? You're going to have to target guys who are currently in the college football playoff, like talking about Kalen DeBoer. Guys who just signed extensions. Yeah, guys who just signed extensions. NFL names coming up, and you alluded to like, you know, those guys aren't going to be available right now.
Well, mid-January, or if you want to take someone from a winning Playoff run football team, maybe not till, you know, I know these things can be on the side and we'll wait for you, but you can't. Tell a bunch of kids who are like, What's happening there and having the opportunity in the first two weeks of January to figure something out. Yeah. Say, just stick with us. You know, you like the campus, you know, you like the education opportunities.
Like you, that's not flying. And then that selling point being stick with this, we have this, we have that wall. Rough stuff. You have your agent in your ear, and other guys talking about money you could be getting if you could leave here. This is a mess.
I can start a betting more for you if you do it now. Regardless of the true product in the field, we saw this year. It's the youngest team in the Big Ten. It's the youngest team in the Big Ten. So there's a bunch of talent that all these kids who played significant snaps woke up to multiple text messages about where you can go.
What are you hearing? What are you hearing from your guys that you played with or other, just as a Michigan fighter? Football alum here.
Well, when it comes to hearing the rumors, I think there were all rumors kind of getting sprinkled around a couple of weeks ago and. I think everyone is now caught off guard, which is a little confusing to me. Because if I'm a common being just on the outside as a fan watching, like if I'm hearing rumors and you're hearing rumors and you're hearing rumors, well, then the administration and the people that are in control of everything obviously know the rumors as well.
So if this was ever going to be a thing, let's say it's not true and it never happened, great. But if it is true and we live in the world we are right now, You have to be a little critical of the University of Michigan. If you're a top five brand in college football, we had Ed Oseron, who kind of talks about the back channels and the third party. You should have been prepared for any scenario that could have possibly taken place from a business standpoint. And a business standpoint is the football team.
Right. So. That's why I'm sitting there going like... If you guys really have your stuff together, you should know who your next guy is. Those back channel conversations should have already taken place because that's the world we live in.
It's not like there's a lot of information that gets out now, but there's also ways to go talk to somebody, you know, kind of feel their temp on, hey, do you want to go here? What's the thought process? Would you ever be a Michigan head coach? And you know who your top two, three guys are, or you should know who they are and be able to pull the trigger at any moment for a brand like Michigan. Yeah.
And again, if you're putting the critical hat on, it's like if you're sitting there wondering if Michigan was going to make a move like.
Some of the rumors started to circulate after the Ohio State game to where those conversations were starting to take place and it didn't happen or they didn't make a decision to do it then. And now that it comes all out right now and it kind of just derails everything, that's why I feel like it went from not good to this is bad to where it could get worse in a hurry if they don't figure out what the alignment's going to be and a decision they might make.
So that way they can turn the page and start doing damage control for the future because you brought somebody in that represents the brand well.
So does this answer your question of how about that Michigan stuff? Did this answer your question? You're open-ended. Hey, you hear about that Michigan things, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
A lot more. Again, you guys are Michigan guys. Like we were getting the information last night, like while we were going to dinner, and I'm sitting there kind of seeing Taylor receive text messages, try and figure out what's going on. And I'm kind of taking back, seeing all the rumors, seeing everything going on on the internet, watching it burn. And I'm just like, man, what is going on?
Yeah, what is going on? Like, I wonder what... Was we were given a heads up, maybe, that a firing was on.
Well, again, you know, you heard from the beginning of the show, I heard nothing but this rumor. within an hour and a half. Of Ohio State beating Michigan from four different people. Right. I mean, and as soon as Ohio State happened, I heard this, you know, I told Suze.
I didn't really want to spread it to anybody because I don't know what's real. Yeah, and this is as scarrous as it comes. Like, this is as, you know, look that up. He's right. He's right.
He said scarlet.
Sounds like a great word. I'm sorry. I can't be on my Michigan mountain. Yeah, no, there's no mount to stand on. There's no mountain.
It's whatever there's an inverse mount. We are beneath Nebraska. That's how far we've got. It's as fastier rumors it could possibly be. Right.
And now, you know, throughout the entire process with everybody being hired here and hired there and moving around and buying out and extending their contracts, I thought to myself, well, I guess this can't be true. I had no idea there was an investigation happening. And then, boom, out of the blue comes this announcement that 100% seems to confirm exactly what I was hearing, what you were hearing. And so. Yeah, I mean and the the ultimate shocker was the aftermath And it's been really difficult to try and figure out how.
Somebody in the administration of our school needs to figure out, as you mentioned, what is the next step? Is this a larger issue? But because you look across the rest of the athletic department landscape, I mean, Um Everybody in the basketball program is loving life right now. Yeah. You know, and so that's the same athletic department.
You know, hockey just split with Michigan State, which is a big thing. It's a big to-do. Michigan's hockey program. I just, I could go on and on and on, but we have to sit around as a collective, you and I, and the rest of the alums have to sit around. And how do we process all of this stuff?
And I'm still doing it.
So, I don't know if that answers your question. It's like the Homer Simpson gif, where it's like you're wearing the Michigan football pads backing into the bush, and now you're coming out with the basketball jersey on the bottom. Yeah. Pretty much. That's for the casuals, Will.
We need to figure out the problems here. I'll tell you who can fix the program. And he's sitting at this desk. It's Rich Eisen. Rich Eisen might have to become the AD.
Might have to become the head coach. Everything. We just need one dictator, and his name is Rich Eisen.
Sounds good. I've never been referred to as a dictator.
So, well, I'm saying you have, I'm giving you, I'm giving you my vote for dictators. The one thing. The Supreme Ruler. The Spread ruler, I appreciate Horizon. The one thing that I am in charge of right now is throwing a break.
So we're going to come back, and we're going to talk about the rest of whatever's going on in your guys' world. And obviously, the NFL is coming down to it with four games to go for everybody. We've got Will Compton. We've got Taylor LaWan. We've got the Bustin Boys right here on the Rich Eisen Show.
One more segment with them, and then we'll take more of your calls and wrap up this show from New York City. On a Thursday. As many of you know, supporting pediatric cancer research is something I care deeply about. That's why I'm proud to share what Hyundai is doing through Hyundai Hope on Wheels. For over 27 years, with every Hyundai sold, they've helped fund pediatric cancer research.
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The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. You're very good. And shout out to your dad. We're on the Rick Scottson show on the radio side. We were talking about Will Compton going bald.
See, that was not right. You shaved your head.
Now it looks great. I was wondering what you did to yourself.
Now you got that. That's that Michigan pedestal. Back here. Did you say scarcity earlier? I like it.
We're here on ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance. The best team in the National Football League with four weeks to go, Will Compton, is. Best team. The Rams. I agree.
I'd have to say the Rams. Would you agree with that? Tamil Lawon. I like the Seahawks. I know they played each other.
Sam Darnold had four interceptions in that game, and they still had a field goal to win it at the end. Yes.
So I like Sam Darnold. I love the story. I love that defense. And so I think I'm going to stay in the same division, but I'm going to go Seahawks. And I also do Patriots.
We gotta talk pads. And don't count out the Niners in the West. No doubt. The NFC West is the nastiest division right now. Yeah, it's like.
Outside of the Cardinals, it's the West and the Packers and everybody else in the NFC. I bought them Cowboys, though, right? No, I do got this year. I'll be honest with you. I bought into the Cowboys.
I thought to myself, if they could just be mediocre at best on defense, they're true contenders. I bought into them right before they played the Denver Broncos in Denver. Once I watch that all unfold, I'm like, there's no shot here. I'm a huge fan of Schottenheimer, though. I think his play calling, how dynamic.
Yeah, I think from an offensive standpoint, it's incredible. Defensively, they've gotten better too with the two guys up in the middle. If they can go through an offseason, add a couple of pieces. I'm feeling the Cowboys now. It's not over this year.
The way the Eagles are playing as a whole, like the way that they've had the offensive struggles all year long, and them dropping that game to the Chargers last week, Dallas lost as well. But Dallas, they still have an outside shot if they win out because the Eagles would have to win, what, three out of four games? The issue is the Eagles' schedule is they play, what, three muffins in a monster? Yeah, Washington. The Raiders, Commanders twice, and then the Bills.
The Bills in the middle of all that.
Well, while Dallas is next, they also have the Chargers on the mix, but they do finish up. Where the w the the two muffins, is that what you were saying? Yeah, muffins. Muffins are bad. Yeah, they're good, taste delicious.
Two muffins. Yeah. Washington and New York. And one week from tonight is when Seattle does play the Rams for a second time. That's the way week 16 kicks off.
Give me good variable stuff, Matt, because this is for real. I mean, and you mentioned the Patriots for a reason, and obviously Drake May doing what he's doing, and the rest of the offense looking as great as they've looked around him. But Vrabel adding His greatness to the mix here. I know you love him. What do you think he's adding to this mix?
Knowing him as well as you do. You know, when we went during our little training camp tour for Bustling with the Boys, we went to the Patriots, and I think we both walked away from that being like, hey, they're going to be better than they were last year, but from a talent standpoint, I don't think their roster is just put together. We were saying they'll be fighting for number two in the division. Yeah, they'll be fighting for number two in the division. I think Vrabel took a new step as a head coach.
The thing that always amazed me about Vrabel is the way he had the ability to break down the keys to victory and give you kind of a crystal ball of how the game is going to unfold. When he was at the Titans, we would play superior opponents. We play like you know, the Chiefs, we play teams that had much more talent than we had at that moment. And it was all the conversation was always, hey, you're not going to send a walk into Sundays and win the game. I'll tell you how this game is going to go.
And he would break down the first, second, third, and fourth quarter. And he's like, if we get to the fourth quarter in this situation, this is how we win the game. And there was a handful of times where he called it exactly as if he was traveling back in time. And it's those types of things that he has the ability to do with guys like John Stryker, Stretch, which I joke is his assistant. But those two together and their ability to put game planes together.
It's pretty incredible what they're doing in New England right now. Yeah, it's also funny, too. We were on the air with you live when Vrabo got fired. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
And so from that moment to now, it's just crazy what a ride it's been. Yeah, if you're the Tennessee Titans, if you're the ownership there, you are punching air every single time the Patriots up the field because they look incredible right now. And to build on Taylor's point, the way he's able to paint that picture of how you're going to win a football game, him doing that so well, like even Josh Allen, he plays him again this weekend. But when we play the Bills and he talk about, hey, you got to get Josh, what is it, rolling left? Yeah, yeah, he quarterbacks where you got to affect the pocket.
You're playing Lamar Jackson. This guy, you got to make him throw outside the numbers. Here's how we're going to attack Baltimore in the run game. Like all the. My apologies.
All the things you have to do to paint that picture of success for just we're not going to show up and win on Sunday, combined with the fact that we've been on the teams where you're winning. When you went on the AFC Championship run, when we went 11-5 that one year and ended up losing to the playoffs to Baltimore, but when you're feeling that energy of Vrabel, seeing it take place with the Patriots so soon, so early, like with their tight end Hunter, Drake May, Stephon Diggs, the relationships you see that is there, the culture that he brings in when you are winning, seeing that take place in New England, we're not surprised that they're sitting at the top of the division. Is he more touchy, Philly? Right now, by like shaking everybody, did he always shake everybody's hands going in the locker room with you guys? Oh, yeah, he would stay outside the tunnel in Tennessee.
Very both nose with the camera. No, not nice. He's very aware. But he's very aware. But even as he's on the sideline, like putting arms around guys or putting hands on the shoulder pads, I don't know if I saw it at times.
I do think if he's 18, though. He did not. Right. If he's self-scouting himself, he did it with certain guys, but I think he understands how much he affects his players, like whether or not they're having a good game or a bad game, like what his emotion does.
So I feel like with you, I've kind of observed and noticed the same thing to where he's always kind of keeping that rallying energy now out in New England. And you see it, you see it kind of permeating and formulate permeating. You like that? You like that? Well, I think it's...
No, no, I think I'm permeating to you right now. Yeah, yes. That's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking, okay, I kind of got out of my depths with that word. You stuck to Lenny.
No, you stuck to Lenny. But you see that happening. Yeah, because I don't know. It just seems like maybe he's. He's just as intense and he's just as demanding.
But he's turned the red ass down from like maybe 11 to like 9. And we're always in the media looking for that sort of stuff. Like Tom Coughlin, right? Coughlin got all of his players together and he handed stuff off to them. And they're basically saying, you're being too much of a hard ass.
Okay, let us handle a little bit more of the emotional piece of this and let's get you guys, coach, and players a little bit more closer on the same level. I'm wondering if there's just a little piece of that. You mentioned self-scout, a guy getting his second coaching opportunity just from afar. And he's still when he came on the show, he still was needling me. You know, I feel like he's still the same guy.
He's still on the board. He's always going to be in every conversation, he's going to be the alpha. He's going to dictate the conversation. If you go in, you're laughing and joking around. He doesn't feel like that, buddy.
You're going to get checked very, very fast. And it's not like a smooth, soft landing that day. That's abrupt. All right. That's like you watched the Crash Cars test dummy type thing.
But. 2018, when Vrabel first came into the Titans versus when he, my last season with him, was 21. Completely different coach from a being a little more massaging, a little more like once he instills the culture that he thinks is acceptable for championship football, that's when he starts to back up a little bit and allows his leaders to lead. But the 2018, there were guys ready to. Rally.
Yeah, my the my second stint I didn't know when he's joking with me, I almost never knew how to take it because I'm like, do I laugh with him at this? I know he's busting my balls, but the kind of the image I had and relationship I felt like I had with him in that first year was way different. But he's a guy who's able to do it because every player views him in such a way. Because again, he played. what, 14 years in the league?
14 years in the league, was at every position. He sat in every seat in the locker room. But that right there. He'll tell you that every time. Which we'll joke about, but that is a connecting piece that he has that no other coach has.
He's sat in every seat. He's been a draft pick that didn't, you know, and Pittsburgh wasn't working out. Then he goes to New England and has the career that he does, finishes up on the back end with Kansas City. He has been in every seat, every position in the locker room.
So I feel like that is a superpower that he's now tapped into in New England. I'm not very savvy on how much time we have, but my favorite story about Mike Vrabel is 2020, we're in the midst of COVID. We're doing the masks. We're doing the tests and the whole thing. And so there's an outbreak with the Titans.
We're like the first team of like six or seven that had like a bunch of issues.
So we go to Zoom calls. We're supposed to play the Steelers. Four or five days take place. Guys keep getting positives over and over and over again to where the league says, Hey, this is now your bye week. And in four or five days, you're going to play the Buffalo Bills.
So we end up playing the Bills on a Tuesday. We do not meet. Like in person for whatever those nine days are. And we have like one, like Saturday-esque walkthrough on Monday. And Rabel quickly breaks down what Will was talking to in the beginning of this conversation: Josh Allen.
When he rolls to the left, this is the kind of stats you're gonna see. You're gonna see incompletions at first downs. When he rolls to the right, that's when you see explosive plays and touchdowns.
So, if we are going to rush him a certain way, you have to do it this way. And quick breakdown of the whole thing, Dave's breakdown, how the game's gonna go. We smacked the Buffalo Bills. We smacked them to the point where it's like, you ain't got to practice anymore. Like, we're talking about, hey, like, Will's war enough to feel like this ass beat was brought to you by Zoom.
Like, we're, it was like, we sat there. We kind of went to Vrave's office. Like, we got to practice these. He's like, so we're not going to practice anymore, right? We can just go to the park with our position.
He's sitting there. You're practicing. And that was, I mean, that's, that's the leadership that he has. I hate how much we've kind of loved on him on this because you know he's sitting there right now calling stretching being like, look at these clowns. That's our boy.
Yeah. Hey, Vrabe, you are our boy. We're friends, man. Yeah. My, uh, my, my wife got our young son, who, your youngest son, who's a die-hard Patriot fan, a ready, willing, and vrabel t-shirt for the holidays.
I love that. Eddie wore it to school the other day, and he's just out of his mind. That's another Patriot fan there that's out of his mind. I'm married into a whole family of Patriots fans who have lost their minds because it is real. I mean this is real.
I mean you mentioned them as a as a legit Team right now. Yeah. Because it is 100% real. I don't care about the who have you really beaten when you've got a team that's choosing at the top of the draft three years in a row. They're not in a position to just beat anybody, let alone the who have you really beaten, let alone beat a bunch of people up, let alone going to Buffalo, to Tampa, and coming out with wins.
Yeah. You know, like, that's, this is, this is a legit team because, you know. But with the momentum with the momentum the Bills have right now, like and them playing him a second time, this would be, you know, to kind of quiet all of the the quote-unquote haters out there that talk about the scheduling. This is why this one's a big game. Like, I don't think Josh Allen's been swept by divisional opponent going 0-2 since Tom Brady.
Sean Brady when he was with the Patriots. Yeah, and again, I mean, Brady and the Patriots, Brady was a first-time starter in his second year for coach getting his second crack at it, and then nobody expected him to keep winning. And when he let Dellen go to the Super Bowl, maybe play the Rams. I mean, everything is kind of. Going in a direction that feels a little deja vuy.
What a spoiled fan base, huh? You guys? What? What? The Boston fan base?
Yeah. Well, dude, I mean, just specifically the Patriots, because that's kind of more my wheelhouse. You get Tom Brady. For as long as you do, Bill Belichick, and then you have like a couple of years of, oh man, we suck. And now all of a sudden we're back.
Here's the thing. Like, try being a Titans fan, man. Here's the thing. There are two-year-olds in New England right now that haven't seen a parade. Think of the kids.
Look at this. Think about the kids. Think of the kids. Think of the Titans. Think of the kids.
This is, I love your bit, dude. It's hilarious. You and your fandom privilege is crazy. Two-year-olds. Good bit.
Two-year-olds. I mean, think about the kids. By the way, the late window games this weekend: Packers at Broncos, Lions at Rams playing each other. And then you got. Philip Rivers might be starting in Seattle.
What the hell, man? We're going to find out.
Well, honestly, like, how... Wild. Would this be if he does, in fact, start in Seattle to go from sitting at home not even knowing what is going on, maybe on the field with an Achilles, getting a phone call, deciding to do it. And then suddenly he's going to be under center within four days, five days. Yeah, it's incredible.
And he says he gets more confident by the day by the snap.
Well, that's never, that was never Philly Rivs' issues. No, yeah, confidence. Yeah, that's towards the end of his career, you know, moving around and getting out of danger and extending plays when you need to. He's built much more like a father, too, now. He's built much more like a father.
That's a light way of putting that. Yeah, yeah. And his oldest child is 23, the same age as Cam Ward. Yeah. Like his oldest kid is the same age as the number one overall pick.
He's literally Gramps, the OG, coming out. And Seattle has been dispatching quarterbacks by the end of the first quarter. Yeah, but you'd rather have Seattle than like Houston. Could you imagine him playing against Houston this year? They play a lot of people.
That's been nasty, but you're right. Daniel Hunter and Will Anderson coming after you. Crazy. The Colts' last opponent is Houston. Yeah, yeah.
Jacksonville is another Colts' opponent. And then he's home for San Francisco. Really? Isn't it wild? I'm excited for Phillip Rivers to come back because I feel like he's playing with house money, getting to kind of come back.
He's kind of, there's no expectation. He can go out there and grip a rib. He just gets to find out and play the game that he remembers like loving as he was in the process. But also, the question for me is: what does this say about the quarterback development? In the league with your young guys.
The fact that there's nobody else out there, or even that you have on your roster, who's was it Riley Leonard? Riley Leonard is hurt, which is another reason why they were maybe not even going to just throw all their eggs in that basket. But to the point where you're calling Phillip Rivers, who's their next available quarterback was Tyler Warren. All state and high school. Quarterback, yeah.
So, listen, if you're a Colts fan and you're watching this show, it's don't have the expectation of being like, Hey, we're gonna compete for a Super Bowl. Like, sit back, grab the popcorn, get in the group chats, tell your boys, this is wild. Let's see if he's blowing crazy because he's not gonna go in. Like, he's playing with house money. He does not have we talked about in the show about Joe Burrow and how he's just in hell with all the injuries he's had and how he zoomed into the process.
Like, Philip Briffers, I've been out of the league for this is my third season being in the league, and I watch, I go to games and I watch people warm up, and I think to myself, oh my God. Like, you guys are doing this. This is like the most horrible thing ever. Like, you kind of lose it, and you realize you zoom out, and you're like, man, all those things that I was doing and having this main character syndrome about. They're not real.
So now Philip Rivers gets to go in, chuck it like Joe Flacco did, probably have, you know, 315, two touchdowns, three interceptions. Just out there, ripping. Like he's going to just throw, he's not going to care. And if you're a police shit, get him mic'd up. Yeah, get him mic'd up 100%.
And we also talked with Kurt earlier, Kurt Warner earlier on the show, not just about this, but about Joe Burrow, too. He sounded like an Andrew Luck 2.0. Yeah. Dude, that's exactly like that. That's what it sounded like.
I heard him. On on on Wednesday. And I thought to myself, have the Bengals broken Joe Burrow? Like, did that happen? Because that's always been the Bengals fans' deep fear, as all Jet fan fears or Browns fans' fears are when they get somebody who's potentially generationally great.
Are we going to break him? And just hearing him, because he's normally like, oh, we've got a chance here. I am, because I'm the window. I am the window here. You want to talk about a Super Bowl window?
I am the window. Or, you know, hey, yeah, I'm back and I'm feeling really good. And you think to yourself, oh, he's ready. Yeah. But you heard that yesterday.
I thought to myself, he's ready for the season to end, which is kind of crazy, unless I read too much into it. No, I agree with you, Shane. Go ahead. I was just going to say, yeah, it's bizarre watching that answer from Joe Burrow and feel like, this dude is questioning if he's even enjoying the game he thinks he loves right now. Perfect way to do that.
Because he's so beaten down. Like, again, we're seeing Phillip Rivers. He got outside of the bubble and now he gets to come back in with just this sense of freedom and lightness and loss of expectation. Whereas you look at Joe Burrow and you see a guy who's. Fully in the bubble, fully in the suck, and just kind of saying out loud, like, man, I don't even know if I'm enjoying the game right now, but is it that way?
Like, I still love the game, I think I love the game, the injuries, whatever's going on in off the football field, like everything kind of coming to a head to where this dude plays this game at a high level, he wants to play this game at a high level and be with a team that can play the game at a high level. I, for me, I'm reading it, and it's like, man, I think he wants out of Cincinnati. Yeah, if not, it's a very smart chess move by him to publicly be as vague as he is. Because now, if you're the Bengals, you pull him in the office and be like, What do you need? What do you need from us for you to be happy, for you to feel more protected?
Because as a player who was injured and was plagued by injuries at the end of his career, like, dude, it really does kill the fun. Like, there's a level of everyone's like, hey, treat it like a business. But if you don't love playing the game, like when you get to October, November, it's like. Those things add up. Like a bank account, people talk about how players get paid so much money, and it's, yeah, people are very well compensated.
But when you're in the suck and you're so zoomed in, like it is very difficult to remove yourself if you're dealing with ailments over and over and over again.
So he just needs to get healthy. He needs to get healthy. He needs to be protected. And the Bengals got to do whatever they can to keep him. Taylor LaWan, Will Compton, busting with the boys.
Check it out wherever you get your podcast and wherever you get your LaWan and Compton. And of course, on GetUp every Thursday, lots of great things happening with you guys. Have you pinpointed one specific moment where everything did, in fact, turn and start to go much better for an already. Terrific career. I know exactly.
I know exactly when it turned to the end of 2019. It's July. I'm sitting in the parking lot of Lipscomb High School. I get a phone call. Who is it?
Michigan alumni Rich Eisen. Hey, what are you up to? I'm starting a podcast. We'll come. Yeah, it's really interesting.
You're going to bring it down to LA? The bus doesn't run. But would you come on? Make the bus run and I'll come on. Click hangs up.
That moment right there, I knew, boys, we got something. I would think it was when I actually showed on the bus. That was a huge moment. You know what I mean? It was almost kind of sad that it was over.
The cloud lifted. Yeah. I thought a cloud lifted, a weight lifted, and then everything just took off from there. Don't you think? It was what I would like to.
I mean, now suddenly you're on Disney. I'm on Disney. When we were on the sideline for the alt cast we did over the weekend for the SEC championship, that was a very much like, I cannot believe we are getting to do this. There you go. Should have seen Will walking around the stadium, too.
He thought he was. Going to play. No, I didn't think so. I was getting locked in. These gentlemen, Taylor LaWan and Will Compton, bust with the boys.
Check them out there, and obviously on GetUp every single Thursday. There's the bus. In its original form. Yeah, that is where it started. We're back to wrap up this Thursday show from New York in a moment.
The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast. The Rich Eisen Show, brought to you by Sonos. We are, that was a very Yoda way for me to say it. The holidays sound better with Sonos speakers, everybody. Whether it's a movie night that feels larger than life, the roar of the crowd as your team takes the field, Sonos helps create the moments you will remember.
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I believe we got a couple phone calls that we want to get to. Our friend Al in Dallas. Al, Al, we're in the old hinterlands here, brother. Hey, listen, the reason you're there obviously is more important than anything, right?
So you were there to do your event and a couple of other things. You know, that means I'm glad you're in New York. But since you've been there, Richard. Uh and you brought this uh This carpet bagger, T.J. Jefferson, with you.
Uh The sports world has completely fought off its axis, so I need you to leave immediately. Um What's going on with the Bets? What's going on with the Wolverines? What's got... I mean This is a disaster.
How are you blaming me now? I'm not blaming you, Richard. Why am I the carpet bank? No, it's all right, Albert. I hear you.
Yeah. A Dodger fan too. I Are you out of here? Are you myself? Give it to him.
Give it to him. Give it to him. Give it to him. Come on, TJ. You're mine?
Give it to him. Nobody knows how good you are, but I know you remember 1988. Like, that's a memory that'll never leave me. I mean, this is, that's a fan. Fan is short.
Yeah, both barrels. Give it to him. You can't cross the barrel. I'm. I'm fighting a losing battle, Al.
I can't have my baseball team stink and both basketball teams stink. I love sports too much.
So it's either I got to stop being a sports fan or. No.
So what, I mean, come on. Ladies and gentlemen, well done, Al. Good reference. I did when the Yankees. Thanks for the call, Al.
Appreciate you jumping in, Al. You're just another. Goodbye. Alan, tell it. Al, that's it.
I'm going to hang on. All right, let's take this call. I believe Brian in Raleigh, North Carolina, is calling in for some advice, as you know. Are you ready to unite? Yes.
Oh, what's up, Brian? Good afternoon, gentlemen. How are you all today? They're Great, thank you. Fantastic.
Fantastic. Uh yeah, I have a bit of a conundrum on my little fantasy league here. It's my first year ever doing it. My wife and I do it together. I have three quarterbacks purely out of spite for everybody else to not have them.
So put that out there in front. But I have Matt Stafford, Josh Allen, and Darnold this week. Who Who you want to start? Um I would go Matthew Stafford. at home against the Lions.
Who, as you know, had Brian Branch out with an Achilles injury. Um we we just heard uh I don't know if you were you were on hold hearing The Busson boys from their day with Vrabel know exactly how to try and beat. Josh Allen, and that happened again earlier in this season as well.
So I would go with that. I'd go with that. Yeah, Rams Lions is the highest total of the week, 54.5. Rams have an implied total of 30 points. I think Stafford's going to throw it a lot.
And Seattle might make short work of the Colts with all due respect to Uh, our senior citizens, you know, that may happen, Sam Darnold. Against You know, hull of potential for the whole thing. Philip Rivers. What are you doing? I hear you.
I hear you. But he hasn't been a points machine when the Seattle defense is giving him the rest of the afternoon or evening off by halftime. Thanks for the call, Brian and Raleigh. Start Josh Allen, Brian. Quite a show.
Quite a show. So good. Tom Pilacero is going to be on the program tomorrow in part of our final day here in New York City. We sign off of ESPN Radio. Thanks for listening to the Rich Eisen Show podcast.
You can watch and listen to The Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from noon to 3 Eastern on ESPN Radio, Disney Plus, and on the ESPN app, The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast.
