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Now, on with the show. This is the Rich Eisen Show. The Seattle Seahawks, the best team in the National Football League. The Rich Eisen Show. They got May flustered and dare I say it, seen ghosts.
Today's guests. Legendary sports broadcaster Al Michaels. Three-time Super Bowl champion Mark Schlerin. Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones. Actor and comedian Joe McHale.
And now, it's Rich Eisen.
Well, hey everybody, welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show, as always, on Disney Plus and the ESPN app. If you want to see us between 12 and 3 Eastern every single day, today we're on ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports, as it used to be. But now we're serving sports fans everywhere. I'm hitting every box here on the show, along with ESPN Radio, along with SiriusXM Channel 80, our podcast listeners. We say hello to you, even though you don't have the ability right now to call 844-204-RICH and have a conversation with us.
Great times in store here today on ESPN. Al Michaels is in our green room. We're going to come out and he's going to hang out the rest of the hour with us, and it's going to be great. But I'm giving everyone a heads up right off the bat. Al and I are going to conduct our entire interview in Spanish.
So, all right? I'm just giving everyone a heads up. And guess what? I'm not going to know a word you're going to say, but I'm going to enjoy it. Very good.
I appreciate that. Thank you. Good to see you Chris Brockman. How are you? What's up, man?
I'm going to do the same thing with Joel McHale and our three. Of course, of course. Although, our three Seahawks fans, we've got Ernest Jones at the top. of the hour, Super Bowl 60 champion and also champion of Having Sam Darnold's back and Joel McHale, who's a die-hard Seahawk fan, he's a 12, he's going to be in the studio. And that's coming up in hour three.
Mark Schlere, three-time Super Bowl champ in his usual spot on a Tuesday, talking about what we've just seen on an NFL gridiron. And then it's you, as I mentioned, 844-204-Rich being the number to dial. Mike Del Tufo, good to see you, DJ Market G. Good to see you. TJ Jefferson, is the candle lit over there?
It doesn't look like it. It's good to be seeing the candle, I think, is kind of dead right now. Oh, no. Like the NFL season? It's over.
I mean, I had just enough wick to get us through about 21, 22 weeks.
Now I need a new one. Just enough John Wick. I got to do my Burmanisms here.
So, yeah.
Now that we're on ESPN, the candle is out, much like, or as Pella would say, the window has been closed. On your Dontavian Wicks candle. Look, guys. Am I out? Do not stop.
Do not. If this is a thing, I'm all in. Sign me up. We can do this. The Wickeds of East Wick.
One of my favorite.
Okay. Oh. Rich. I mean, we're on ESPN, right? Rich Benny Davis eyes.
Well, yes, yes. Rich Kaleidoscope eyes. TJ moving on up. Let's hit the Sam Darnold story again. You know what I mean?
I mean, we're still 48 hours since this all went down. And I'm just so excited for him. I'm excited about him, even though he doesn't seem to, you know, he's in a moat. Does he know that he won the Super Bowl? I know.
Did you see him and Kenneth Walker in the spinning cups in Disneyland? It's like, put your hands in the air at least. You know, like, you don't care. Like, you don't care. It doesn't seem like they don't.
Okay. Hopefully, they won an Indiana Jones. Mr. Darnold's Wild Ride. I don't know.
That's a great movie.
So, but I'm excited for him. Yeah. And the thing that I'm really excited about, at some point we're going to see like w What's next for Sam Darnold and who will he become? Mm. Whose career could he mirror?
What path is he on? And You know, that old start. As we'll end the show, as we always do, the Tuesday after the Super Bowl, looking at the upcoming schedule, who's scheduled to appear. In the home of the Super Bowl champion in the season after. in the season in which they defend.
And who might the league put in Seattle's building to kick off the season? But once that happens. How will Sam Darnold follow this up? Because Yes, while we're basking in the glory for him in the moment. he's got more opportunities coming his way.
And the question is, who will he become? Because as you know, Um Opportunity doesn't always knock. For somebody. And it does, and unfortunately, you're not unable to answer for whatever reason, due to injury, due to the rest of your roster, due to. The the league.
Getting better. Aaron Rodgers again. Won that one Super Bowl. for the Green Bay Packers has not been back since. Who would have thought it?
Not me. Not with that team. And so I'll throw some out for you. Because you take a look at Sam Darnold's postseason, what he did when opportunity knocked.
Now that it's all over, now that he played the three games, And he won them all. And he averaged 224 in the year. And a passer rating of a high-grade fever or a light rock station, 102.4. KSAM, your light rock station, your yacht rock station in Seattle. Over on the 19th, 102.4.
102.4. And so the key, though, is he leads the league in giveaways with 20, and he doesn't have a single one in the three postseason games while throwing for five touchdowns. And So I'm saying, you know, what happens next for him? Because you look at those numbers, you're thinking the future could be particularly bright for his return to the Super Bowl and things of that nature. Joe Flacco had 11 touchdowns with no interceptions in his Super Bowl season, in which he won the MVP and then put a big ass bag on Steve Bashoti's table and said, fill it up, let's pay me.
He never made it back to the Super Bowl to date. And he has played only after that Super Bowl run, played only three postseason games the rest of his career. He played two for the Ravens after that. and then one for the Cleveland Browns. Wow, that's it.
So And maybe, though, Sam Darnold will get back. to the Super Bowl next year for Seattle. and potentially is his career going to be like Russell Wilson's. where he gets to the Super Bowl and he wins it. Doesn't win Super Bowl MVP.
gets them back the next year. Wins, doesn't win. If he wins again, two Super Bowls in a row, then the question is: what's going to happen? After that, does he make another Super Bowl at all? Could his career be like Jalen Hurts's?
Yeah. I'm throwing him in that mix as well, where Jalen's made two Super Bowls. He played great in both. He won one. And then the next year, It reverts back to the mean of everybody kind of saying mean things about him.
Right. Mm-hmm. You know, Jalen Hurts showed up in his. Letterman jacket, one of the greatest Letterman jacket of all time. Super Bowl MVPs.
He was in the same room as Tom Brady and Steve Young and Peyton Manning and Joe Montana and Emmett Smith and Jerry Rice Lynn Swan.
Okay. And you're seeing that of Jalen Hurts. You're like, that's pretty cool for Jalen Hurts, man. And it's just like, oh. That's right.
Jalen Hurts got criticized all year after being Super Bowl MVP.
So could Sam Darnold go right back into that mix? Where it's just like oh, well Okay. Good run, Sam. Keep smiling. But we're going to keep on wondering if you're the guy or not.
Can you do it again? An opportunity knocks for Sam Darnold. If he wins another one, is he like Eli Manning's career? We're talking about Eli right now for Hall of Fame. I think Eli Manning's a Hall of Famer.
Eli Manning was in that room. with everyone else. On Sunday, Super Sunday, with his Super Bowl MVP Letterman's jacket. And Sam Garnold, could he win another one after having some regular season struggles, but his team just catches fire? And he wins the Super Bowl.
And he's got two now. And we're talking about Sam Darnell having multiple rings. Or could Sam just do something that's totally unexpected? which has just sparked the dynasty now. in Seattle.
and keep making Super Bowls with this defense and this offense, and this coaching staff. And by the way, the Jalen Hurts of it all, just to cycle back about. Uh an analogy. He's on the Jalen Hurts. Offensive coordinator carousel.
Just like everyone else, he seems to have a different one every single year. Every single year. And he's going to have another one too because Kalint Kubiak is going to be the new head coach. in Las Vegas. Can he overcome that change?
And get This Seattle team on a path That is dynastic. We wonder that every single year about a Super Bowl champion. Can they do it again? Can they repeat? How good are they?
Can they make it back? What is it going to look like? Which is this entire conversation that again may be unfair. Because we're asking it, or at least I am, within 48 hours, less than. of a Super Bowl championship.
Being born. But can Sam Darnold win two, three? Can Sam Darnold now say, This is who I've always been? And I just didn't have. The nurture.
Along with the nature. I know what my human nature is, but I didn't have. the right people guiding me down a path. Setting me up with the proper staffs, setting me up with the proper roster. I also didn't have the neck up ability that I do have now.
But I'm still the same guy here. I'm going to win three. I'm gonna win four. Can he be that guy? Can he be the guy in Seattle and do what Russell Wilson couldn't do, which is win another?
And Ross won one. and then lost one. And then the Legion of Boom started drifting apart. This Dark side. Just Got born.
With Sam Darnold. And JSN, Jackson Smith, and Jigba. And canine Ron in it. If he's still going to be there. And an offensive line and a defensive backfield that is young.
They just won one at the outset. This is kind of like the Legion of Boom winning the year of You Mad, bro. Yeah. You know what I mean? That year.
kind of sparked it. And then went on a run. Maybe this is the beginning of something, and Sam Darnold is going to wind up being that avatar. Because Sam boy did his teammates love him. They love him.
That's another part of this. and in advance of Ernest Jones coming on. Cause this guy, as you saw in Minnesota. After he beat the Green Bay Packers, they put him on his shoulders. And I love revisiting this moment because we thought this was.
Sam Darnall being born. And then the next two weeks Losses to the Lions and the Rams, and it was all over. This wound up being his last winning moment as a Minnesota Viking. But you could see his teammates loved him. And then when Sam Darnold threw four touchdowns against Los Angeles Rams just up the road in week number 11, Ernest Jones, our third-hour guest.
Had this to say. Sam's been balling like if we want to try to define Sam by this game or what man Sam's been had us in every Yeah.
So, for him to sit there and say, Oh, that's my fault. No, it's not. It was plays that defensively we could have made plays. There were opportunities where we could have got better stops. Yeah, I mean, like, it's football, man.
He's our quarterback. We got his back, and. Got anything to say, quite frankly. You know, any sound bite that ends with the forward word, quite frankly, F you. We need that as a drop.
But could we ever play it? You know, I mean, the beep, I mean, it's implied. Kiru.
So Thank you. That's um That says it all about Sam Darnold and how they feel about him. That's me defending you in the YouTube comments. And I appreciate that.
Well, more Twitter comments or X comments. Either one. Yeah, they love my bad bunny take there. Yeah. Um But that's The basis here.
Okay. The coach is in his second year. The Quarterback in his first year. Ernest Jones is not even two years in. Right?
Nikki Minwari's only one year in. Witherspoon's just what, three years in? That's third, yeah. I mean. Rick Willins just a few years in.
Come on, now Charles Cross, just a few years in. This is real. The question is: how spectacular can it be? And Sam Darnold. Is going to be the guy to answer all this stuff.
And I can't wait to watch what the next step's going to be because it could go in any direction I just gave you. Any direction I just gave you. Opportunity is knocking. Could he be the next Kurt Warner as well? Right?
Winning at age 28. And then maybe needing to bounce around again. Don't forget, Kurt's path to the St. Louis Rams went through Amsterdam, went through Green Bay, went through the High-V, went through a ton of places. And Darnold went through many places as well.
wins Can he go to a does he go to another spot? And went again there.
So many different ways to go. All right, so I just threw up a poll. Let's do this. Who wins more Super Bowls in their career? We'll do the last two winners.
Obviously, they each have one. Sam Darnold, Jalen Hurts. And we'll put the previous two years MVPs. Everyone talks about the same draft class as well. Josh Allen.
Lamar Jackson. Look at you. Who comes to the more Super Bowls in their career? Fantastic. And where do we put this?
That is on Rich Eisen Show Twitter account.
Okay. At Rich Eisen. At Rich Eisen Show. Or call us. Why not?
Why not? 844-204 Rich is the number phone lines are lit.
So sit back and hopefully you're hooked on phonics because Alberto Michaels is coming out here. Espeno. At any rate, Al Michaels is going to come out here, one of my favorite humans on the planet, one of the greatest of all time, talking about Super Bowl 60 and everything else. All the 11 Super Bowls he called. Oh, yeah, the Miracle on Ice Anniversary is around the corner, too.
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And, you know, so that Super Bowl. Ending at the one-yard line. The Malcolm Butler play. coming on the one yard line. I mean, how many more one yard line games can somebody call in the Super Bowl?
It's unbelievable. It was I saw there were a lot of surveys, polls about what were the greatest plays in Super Bowl history. To me, the greatest one was James Harrison, 100-yard interception return at the end of the first half of our man Kurt Warner, which turned what would have been an Arizona halftime lead. Into an 11-point lead for the Pittsburgh Steelers. If you look at that play, of course, he intercepts it at the goal line, and then.
That defense had been out on the field for a while. He has to be gassed. There he goes down the sideline. You got Larry Fitzgerald chasing him. He's out of bounds.
He's trying to work his way through his guys. And then the thing that people forget is that if Harrison gets tackled at the one-yard line, The half is over. You don't even get to kick a field goal. No points. No.
He goes into the end zone. Of course, that game also had the Santonio Holmes cash with three defenders at the end of the game. But to me, the Harrison play is number one in my mind.
Well, I mean, again, it's just the unexpected. And I've asked you this many times before because you've been always so kind when I reach out to you before I call a game about how do you do this? How do you do that? How does one plan for the unexpected? Like Malcolm Butler, I guess you had the good fortune of Butler tipping the ball to curse the play before because.
He wasn't probably on your board as one of the top cornerbacks to be employed by the Patriots in a big spot. Rich, the night before the game, I'm well prepared for the game, but now I'm going through the guys at the end of the roster just in case.
So maybe at 10:30 the night before the game, I'm in the hotel and I'm looking at a couple of guys that. Maybe they get in, maybe they don't. And Butler happened to be one of them. And then, as you mentioned, he didn't even start the game. I think he played something like 18 snaps, maybe a third of the snaps in that game, because Kyle Arrington was in there and they took him out of the game, and somebody got hurt.
And so Butler is in the game. And then, fortunately, he was involved in that crazy catch where the ball bounced off curse like four or five times. It was almost like a he did what moment. It was a he did Antonio Freeman. It was very much the same kind of a situation.
And so when he is able to make the play, you know. It's an astonishing play. To this day, though, Rich, everybody talks about the fact they should have given it to Marshawn Lynch. I get it. They made a terrible call.
It was a bad call, a bad play, and obviously we know how it turned out. But it was second down. In my mind, it's in a four-down situation. You have three more plays.
So, what I would have done, you know, in retrospect, of course, being a couch coach right now. Russell Wilson, 5'11, maybe, roll him out. Rolled him out to the left. He could run it in. You had Doug Baldwin outside one-on-one.
Fade, throw it to Baldwin. Russell Wilson walks in. If it doesn't work, okay, it's third down.
Now maybe you go back to Lynch. But you and I both know. That we have seen a ton of games and a ton of plays where sometimes the running back just doesn't get in, and they're at the one-yard line.
Now all of a sudden, you're at the three-yard line, a two-yard loss. Could have happened. I know it's easy to say that Lynch should have been the guy. I'm just saying you got three plays. One should have been Russell Wilson rolling out.
Do we ever know? Have you found out about why that decision was made? Because, again, by the way, this play got a two-week renaissance of a run because the Patriots made the Super Bowl and the Seahawks made the Super Bowl. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been talking about it as much as we had over the last two weeks. But have you ever found that out?
Well, the mystery is because I did the next Super Bowl in New England, which was against Philadelphia and Minneapolis after the 17th season. And then Malcolm Butler is, he's in uniform, he's not playing. That's something, Brockman, our resident Patriot fan, you have been wondering about that for a while. Yeah, it's one of those things up there. We'll never know, the true reason why he didn't play in that game.
You're right, because Malcolm doesn't talk about it. Right. Belichick doesn't talk about it. Yeah. Even Robert Kraft, I don't know if he knows.
I've asked him a couple of times, and he says I don't know. Yeah, Matt Patricia, probably we still haven't heard. Yeah, no one wants to talk about it. For some crazy reason, I don't know why. We've got to get to the bottom of this.
I know that these are Malcolm Butler mysteries. Full of history. I only scored 41 points in that game. Probably could have used them. Yeah.
Yeah. False history. That's cheap, but you know, I got it. You know what? It's there.
You know what, Al? If fruit hangs low, it doesn't mean you can't pluck it. Of course. You know what I mean? Just grab it.
Just grab it. Come on, baby. Butler did it. Or was active and then wasn't used because that's the thing, too, about that one. If you're not going to use them, deactivate them.
And you could potentially activate another Malcolm Butler. That is correct. Exactly. Right. You wasted a roster spot.
It was wild. But again, you've never heard why Marshawn never got the ball. You've never sussed that. No, no. But again, I go back to maybe they thought they could throw it into the end zone.
But as I say, if Russell Wilson throws at 5-11, throwing into the middle of the pack. Yes. And also, if you look at that play from any different angle, Brandon Browner creates what amounts to. To be, what amounts to a defensive pick, and that lets Butler get inside, Ricardo Lockett is the intended receiver, and lets him get there.
So, Browner is Gretzky. You should get the assistant. Yeah, very good. I love that. Al Michael's here on The Rich Eisen Show.
You called, I think, the play that flipped the season, too. And I'm not, by the way, the Bears-Packers game that you called, my goodness gracious. But the play that flipped the season, I think. uh was the two-point conversion On Thursday night football, Between the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams. Right.
Because the Rams had that game in the bag. They did. And then. Everything flipped when Rashid Shaheed returns that kick for a touchdown, and then they're three and out. They get the ball back, and they march down the field and score a touchdown, goal for two, don't get it until New York buzzes in and goes, you know what, I think.
Halfway there, the ball gets batted down, but it kind of looked like it was backwards. And Zach Charbonnet plucks that ball. When did you did like T-Man, your producer, get in your head and say, hold on a minute, they're reviewing this thing? Walk me through that moment. Sure, you didn't know whether it was a backward pass or what.
Right. And then Charbonnet. All those guys are taught, if the ball is just hanging out there, pick it up. And I don't think he even knew at that particular point that that was going to make the difference in the game.
So there were a lot of things going on. They had to take a look at this thing. It was pure luck. And then, of course, you get the, at the end of the game, in overtime, the Rams go all the way down and score.
Now they've got a touchdown lead.
Now, what is Seattle going to do? They go down and score. I mean, that was some drive that Darnold led. And then what do you do at that point? Do you go for the win?
Do you go for the tie? I forget what the circumstance was in terms of had that game wound up in a tie.
Well, it would not have gone well for Seattle. It would not be. Because the Rams would have won the season series 1-0-1. Correct. Exactly right.
That was a big, huge moment. And after Puka scored the touchdown to put the Rams up to start overtime. Yeah, that was the game of the year at that point. And then there were a few other games. I mean, there were about 10 games that could have been the game of the year this year in the NFL.
I mean, for sure. But that game was so impactful because that's really that now you're talking about the difference between the one seed and the five seed. And the NFC Championship game could have been down the road here where next year's Super Bowl is, as opposed to where it was in Seattle. Correct. And the Rams and the Seahawks played a de facto Super Bowl.
Obviously, we're playing the result of what Super Bowl 60 looked like. But that was a huge moment, Al. And I'm wondering, when you were leading up to that game, talking to Mike McDonald, talking to Sam Darnold, did you get a sense That this was a Super Bowl run in the making? Did you get that sense? Yeah, both teams were very good.
There was no question about that. I thought maybe at that point, maybe the Rams were the best team in the league. I thought so, too. They still could be, as far as we know. I mean, as things turned out, obviously, they got beaten by Seattle.
They got beaten by Seattle in Seattle in the championship game. No, I knew we had two of the best teams in the league in that game, and it didn't surprise me that either one of them could get to the Super Bowl, which they did. But again, you go back to that 1-5 situation, which is we had one of those games, San Francisco, Seattle on Sunday night a few years ago. I mean, you think about it: the one-seed, two games, you get a week off, you get healthy, two games at home, you don't have to go on the road again. And the five-seed is likely to play.
Three games on the road, the only time they could play a home game is if the six got there as well as them, which almost happened with San Francisco this year. But, you know, when you think about that, I think that's what makes it so interesting, too. I kind of like this format. People say they should have, you know, if you're the second best team, you should have a home game, whatever it is. I kind of like it the way it is right now.
It puts a lot of pressure on the team to win certain games.
Well, hey, I mean, everyone's like Carolina finished below 500, didn't deserve a home game. They gave the Rams all they could handle. And then the Rams were, you know, were fortunate enough to have Matthew Stafford come on that, go on that drive for the ages. I mean, you had, if I'm not mistaken, you had New England once. Against the Jets.
So that was the. Uh That was a run for the ages. I mean, obviously, you know New England very well, called them in Super Bowls. You know Kraft very well. I mean, this does have a feeling to me, despite the result, that they're ahead of schedule and 100% going to be in the mix for the next few years.
Well, way ahead of schedule. Of course, you know, people like to denigrate them and say they had an easy schedule. Hey, the schedule is the schedule. You have to play a team, you have to win the game. Rabel obviously did a fantastic job.
That team, obviously, after having won, what, eight games total. in the prior two seasons, got it back. I'd have laughed like crazy. Jason Gay in the Wall Street Journal had a great story about the Patriots, and all of a sudden they're back. He goes, Shouldn't they have stunk longer?
I mean, didn't we just see these guys on this long run? I mean, it's not fair. He's saying it facetiously about, what are they doing back here so soon? That's just not fair. But it speaks, I think, to that organization's always been great.
I've had the greatest respect for Robert Kraft and what he's done. And all of a sudden, they are back, no question. And the Bears, too. I mean, you were there. The Bears, too.
You were there for that playoff game. That fourth and eighth throw may be one of the greatest throws all season. Incredible. Where they're down 11. Like, if the comeback doesn't happen, if Caleb doesn't make that throw.
Through a million Packers' arms right to the waiting arms of his guy. How about the next week? How about the next week at the end of the day? Unreal. At the end of regulation.
Unreal. Going all the way back. That was unreal. That was great. That's why we love football.
Right. The NFL is like crazy. There were a lot of like, oh my God, moments. There were a ton this year. Just want to circle back to the Harrison touchdown.
What is it like hitting halftime and John Madden sitting next to you? It's his last game. It turned out to be his last. I didn't know it at the time. You did not know it at the time.
No, John did not officially retire until April of that year.
So you did not know as you're calling the Super Bowl this was his last. He didn't give you a single indication to it, huh? No, not really. Right. Not really.
I mean, I just, I think John had a great year. That was our seventh year together. Right. We had the first three, the first four were at ABC, and then the next three were at NBC. No, John was in great spirits.
I thought he called a tremendous. This game that may have been my favorite game to announce. What were the Arizona Cardinals doing in the Super Bowl, right? I mean, the next last week of the season, I think they lost to New England 47-7, and then they get in. And the boss, Dick Eversol, he's going crazy because it's our first Super Bowl at NBC.
And he says, oh, I don't want the Cardinals in the game. I said, Dick, Dick. Relax. A couple doesn't get up on Sunday morning and the husband says to the wife, Zelda, the Arizona Cardinals are in the Super Bowl. Let's go to the movies.
Dick, that's not going to happen. And the rating was great, and the game was tremendous. Unbelievable. Yeah. Unbelievable.
I remember doing that game with NFL Network, as I've been fortunate to do for all these Super Bowls, to host the post-game show. And I'm coming down with Marshall Falk and Deion Sanders and Mariuchi and Irv. And we just get out of the elevator. To go on the field to get ready for the post-game. And we get out walking out of the tunnel just as Larry Fitzgerald is running scot-free towards us.
And we were just like, wait a minute. Was there a whistle blown? What happened? How come there's nobody around him? No, he took a pass from Warner, touchdown.
The Arizona Cardinals are up with near minutes to go. At two and a half, yeah. We could not believe what we were seeing. That was truly unbelievable. But what conversation do you have with John Madden after?
Harrison takes that ball for a score, and you call it with him. It's unbelievable. That was one of the greatest moments, as you say, in the history of the Super Bowl. And you turn to John Madden at halftime. And what's the conversation like?
It was like we were both astonished at what that play was. I mean, there were three plays where we could have had a long discussion, but we got a commercial coming on the other side, as you sure. We got the Fitzgerald play, and then, of course, the San Antonio Holmes catch. But I remember Bruce Springsteen was halftime. Mm-hmm.
And it's one of those things that comes into your brain, but I'm getting counted down to the commercial.
So here are the Cardinals, this big underdog. Why are they here? But they're here. They're here. And now the two and a half minutes to go in the game.
and they they may become the Super Bowl champions. And it popped into my head, but it was too late to get it out. What I wanted to say was the Arizona Cardinals just asked Bruce Springsteen to come back out and play no surrender. Look at you. Yeah, right.
He's on a cutting room floor of garbage, right? Wow. Bruce Springsteen in the Owl Street band. That'd be pretty cool, right there. Oh, man.
One step too late. One step too late. Yeah. But I'm just, again, I can't get enough of Madden the times that I was around him. Fortunate.
Just they. I just was never really crossing paths with him too enough over the years. The one time that I really did was when he got in the Hall of Fame. And I got to interview him, and he and Mariuchi were tight. Sure.
And so Mooch was the analyst that week. It was the 2006. class, I believe Aikman went in with him as well. And I just remember he was just on Cloud Nine the entire weekend. No question.
That weekend. John, and I've talked about this in the past. John was a very special man because a lot of people look at him and they see him. Bursting through the set on the Miller Light commercials. The telestrator going back and forth, the sounds, the doinks, the whole thing.
John was a very well-read, fascinating man. And in all of the years I worked with him, seven years, and that would lead to at least 150 or so dinners. Uh We talked maybe a quarter of the the dinner about football and the rest of the time. About the rest of the world. John was interested in everything.
He was a fascinating conversationalist, extremely well-read, and And look, I got unbelievably lucky. I had seven with him, and I had 13 with Conlin's worth coming off of that. That's a. That's a pretty good two-decade run, I got to tell you. No doubt about it.
His way of speaking is unparalleled, to communicate. the way that he was able to communicate With anybody, with any walk of life, but the way he would just see the world and be able to simplify it. and boil it down in a way that makes you think. Unparalleled, and I think about him every time I go back to Canton. About the busts talking to each other when the lights go out at night.
It really was one of the most amazing analogies to talk about the immortality of the moment, but also how cool it is and how sort of humbled it makes you. That you would have a conversation with anybody in that bus gallery, and you would want to be a fly in that wall, man. You know, it blew me away when he said that. In his speech. I look at him, Rich, and I'm going to put him in a category of as important.
As anybody in the history of professional football. I don't want to go one, two, three, but I'm just saying as important. Why? He's a coach. He's a Hall of Fame coach.
I think he still has the highest winning percentage of any coach ever. Broadcaster created a new template. Video game. Oh, yeah. Think about that.
Those are three different genres. and John was spectacular at all of them. How many people can say that? Not many people. Al Michaels here on The Rich Eisen Show.
We'll take a break, come back. Let's go. We do this every year. You've been kind enough to come on this program around this time of year. It's the Miracle on Ice anniversary, it's right around the corner.
We'll talk about that as the Olympics, the Winter Olympics, are up and running as well. Al Michael's here on The Rich Eisen Show, back here on ESPN. Disney Plus and ESP on the app in a moment. Yeah. The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast.
With Al Michaels here. And so I just seeing the photograph of the 14 guys that Netflix got back together from the 1980 team is. you know, gray haired grandfathers forty six years later.
Now you said it was shot uh last year, so I guess forty five mini forty five years later. And you ch what what is it what are the conversations like when you're chopping it up with these guys who are teenagers and college kids and Ragtag bunch that took down the Soviets. What's that conversation like? I think everybody. It changed everybody's life.
I mean, the players can go through life and. And if you say you played on that team. A lot of people don't believe them. They don't. It's so funny.
I ran into Dave Silk was one of the top players on the team, part of the Forgot. Washington University contingent.
So I ran into Silk maybe ten years ago, and Dave said to me, You know, I'll tell people that um I played on that team. And some people say, oh, no, you didn't. He said, no, no, no, no. When Michael says, Mauro up ahead to silk, five seconds left in the game, do you believe in miracles? That's I'm silk, as in Mauro uphead to silk.
I'm the silk. I'm silk. I'm that guy. See, your voice serves as his identification. It does.
I'll take it. That is so funny. Yeah. And Aruzioni, of course, you know, Mike's made an entire career out of that moment in time. And he's so funny.
I mean, if he says he said, if that puck is six inches to the To the right, he said, I'm painting bridges. And I said to Mike, I said, Yeah, now they're naming bridges after you. I mean, think about one moment in time, one split second. And an entire Life has been changed. And Mike is the perfect guy to have gone out there for over 46 years.
I mean, I think Bain Capital brought him to Malta to make a speech like. Three weeks ago. That's crazy.
So it lives internationally, too. I love it. I love it. And so, what was Herb Brooks like? Herb was a taskmaster.
It's very well portrayed. They respected him tremendously. They feared him, but they did love him too. And everybody to to a man basically says, hey, without him This doesn't happen. But Herb, during the Olympics, Herb was very standoffish with the press, trying to keep the guys away.
But my partner was Ken Dryden, who was the great goalie. He just passed away. Right. He just passed away suddenly, and we had no idea that that was in the mix up until we heard about it. Kenny was my partner, and Herb Brooks had such great respect for Ken, who was a brilliant man, that we had access to Herb every day.
Every other night we they play like on Tuesday night, Wednesday night off, Thursday play, Friday off. and her would come over to our hotel. For a beer, Not because of me, but because of Kenny, but the conversation.
So I had a lot of access to her. And you could see what he tried to do with this team. He made them probably the best conditioned team. In the tournament, even though the Soviets had trained 11 months a year, they were all professionals basically. But when you look at and you know that they are well conditioned, I think Over the course of the Olympics, the U.S.
outscored the opponents something like 16-3 in the third period.
So when you look at that, especially in the last two games, remember they're trailing the Soviets 3-2 going in the third. Outscore them 2-0. Trailing Finland 2-1 at the end of the second. They lose that game, they don't win the gold medal. And that's the famous Herb Brooks speech before they go out onto the ice for the third period.
If you lose this game, you'll take it to your blanking grave. Which was perfect because had they lost that game, they would have taken that to their grave. Like, you beat the Soviets, you lost to Finland, you didn't win the gold medal? What the hell happened to you guys?
So he knew how to push every right button, and it all worked magically.
Well, I mean, you know how NFL head coaches. in your pre-broadcast meetings Knowing that this is Off the record, even though it's on the record, we'll give you kind of a little heads up, a little wink, and a nod, go, we got this guy. We have this team this weekend. You're going to be calling this game, we know we've got him. Did Herb ever say anything like that about the Soviets going in?
Like, never once said, We've got this thing. No, no. Okay. Never once, no. And in fact, there are some interviews, and you'll see them in that documentary where he says, No, give them the gold.
I think they interviewed him before the Olympics.
Something, they won the gold.
So That was.
So even he was surprised by the win. He had to be because the Soviets were the best team in the world, bar none. And when they pulled Trediak, were you crazy? Were you that was that was very surprising? And nobody really seemed to know what happened.
I mean, when we like Malcolm Butler being like Malcolm Butler, right? No, but I will tell you this: fast forward in 2014, I'm over in Sochi covering the Olympics on NBC. Yeah, and Trediak was the head of the Soviet Olympic Committee.
Okay. And I was dying to get an interview with him, and they kept saying, No, no, no, yet, yet. And then all of a sudden, they said, No, he'll do an interview. As long as he can bring an interpreter in, fine.
So he brings the interpreter in and I do the interview with Trudiak. And he's going back and forth from Russian to English, right? When he wants to answer the question, and he knows he can get it out the way he wants to get it out.
So I said, I asked him about that situation when he got pulled. And he said that the coach, Viktor Tikhanov, admitted to him At one point Biggest mistake I ever made. Biggest mistake I ever made. Yeah, sure was. Yeah, it was.
Yeah. Can confirm. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.
Man, it just a Everybody, check out Miracle, the Boys of 80, available now for streaming on Netflix. Got about 90 seconds left. Were you surprised about the Super Bowl? You surprised? Not really.
No, I I thought Seattle had the better, better team. You know, defense, so many games are determined by the pressure that's put on by the front, especially the defensive line. Four guys up front, plus, you know, that whole defense is terrific.
So I just thought, you know, they definitely had the advantage. Yeah, I mean, coming into the game, that left side of the offensive line for New England was susceptible and. And sure enough, you know how it works in postseason sports, in any sport. If you've got a weakness, it will be found and it will be exploited, which is kind of amazing how New England got. To the Super Bowl, as far as they got.
And kudos to Kenneth Walker. I mean, that was gigantic. Yeah. I mean, that first half, I mean, he dominated. You get that running back in there who can do something like that.
Right. That makes a lot of the difference. And if I'm not mistaken, he had the second most yards in the first half. since a guy who ran forever in your first Super Bowl you ever called, right? You called the Timmy Smith first quarter.
That was your first first quarter of your Super Bowl career calling it. 10-0 Denver end of one, thirty five ten Washington at the half. That baby went away in a hurry. You thought you go, you go on sitting there thinking, maybe I'm going to call the first overtime game in my first Super Bowl game. Good night.
And you know, 35 cents a half. You know what the second half is? Talk radio. That's. I've got Frank Gifford and Dan Diero, and we don't know where the hell to go.
Oh, Frank, tell me about Tutch Shore when Snach walked in. Right. When Damashio came over, what was that like? That would have been my first question. Sure.
Frank Gifford. You're the best, man. Thanks for coming on. Oh, anytime, Richard. You got it.
And Al Michaels getting set for year five and beyond on Prime Video for Thursday night football here the Tuesday after Super Bowl 60, right here on the Rich Eisen Show. We've got Joel McHale coming up in hour number three. Don't you dare move. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Mm-hmm.
