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Now, on with the show. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Chris Webble, do you want to take a swing at the Jaden McDaniels scoring with 1.3 seconds left and Jokic having an issue? There's no more protocol. You don't want a guy to score at the last second because they're up, then win the game.
The Rich Eisen Show. Today's guests. NFL Network Insider Tom Pellisero. Eagles GM Howie Roseman. ESPN senior NBA writer Brian Wintors.
And now, it's Rich Eisen.
Okay, welcome to this Friday edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Happy May, everybody. It is the time to celebrate not only May, but the favorite May in your life. Mine is Dusty. Who's yours?
844-204-RICH is the number to dial right here on the program at Rich Eisen Show to connect with us on all things social media and also, of course, YouTube. We're here live on Disney Plus, the Rich Eisen Show. On ESPN the app, ESPN Radio, our network coast to coast, SiriusXM Channel 80. We're four wide today with guest Tom Pellisero's gonna be first up with all the news going around the National Football League and one of the top newsmakers in the business. Howie Roseman, the general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles, who did it again with a Jedi mind trick and got.
The one of the best receivers in the league to just Go and go and get him. He's going to be joining us at the top of hour number two, Alan Shipnuck, on what appears to be the death rattle. Of Live Golf. And then we've got in our number three, one of our favorites, Brian Windhorse to Talk NBA, 844-204. It's your number to Dale.
How are you, Christopher Brockman? What's going on, sir? What's up, man? All the way, May, from a week of their own. I like that.
What about you, Jason Feller? How are you? I'm great. You weren't prepared for that. T.J.
Jefferson, how are you, sir? Candles lit. Candles lit. I think somebody raised my chair. I feel higher, but obviously for me, it's Aunt May from Spider-Man.
Ladies and gentlemen. None of them.
Well, our more champion than Dusty May. But that's the way I'm going to roll. Every day in May, I will mention Dusty at one point during the program. Madonna, obviously.
Okay, very good. Um listen. Very rarely will I come on the show and say I didn't see the game. Um but here I have to I have to admit. Um I stopped watching.
Hawks and Knicks after the Hawks were up 11 to 9, six minutes to go in the first quarter. Did anything happen after that? Do you really stopped at that 11 to 9? I'm being told.
Something did happen after the Hawks were up 11. Ah! A can of butt what was open. A case. Smitch is calling this board of record set by the Knicks in the 14089.
Close out victory in Atlanta. He's calling it area 51 because the Knicks won by 51 points. That's the largest playoff margin of victory in the history. of the New York Knickerbockers organization. The NBA record Was set by the Knicks last night by leading at halftime by the score of.
83 To 36. 83 in a 47. Point halftime lead. The Knicks went to the locker room, up 47. And at one point they led the game by sixty one, which is the largest lead in the history of the NBA playoffs held by anybody at any point in any playoff game.
Stupid. The Knicks one hundred and forty final Points Most they've ever scored in a playoff game. The 83 points most than a half. They had 21 assists in a half. That's the most they've ever had in a half.
That was in the first half. Most steals in a half, 12. Yeah, the Hawks would love to just freeze the game when they were up 11 to 9. 11 to 9. A one possession lead.
How many possessions uh did they did they win by? What is that? What is it? 51 divided by 317. I just know this.
The Knicks could have went almost 23 minutes and not scored at the end of the game, and they still would have won this game. I mean, it is absolutely insane what we saw last night. All of those records and marks set for the Knicks. An NBA record set for the Knicks. And in the middle of all of this, Dyson Daniels and Mitchell Robinson.
Throwing down, playing the feud. They got ejected in this game. It was a fight in this game. It was kind of awesome. OG Ananobi went off.
He was plus 42 in this game. And he got name-checked by Ann Hathaway on Jimmy Fallon. Whoa. What? Yes, she said she loves OG Ananobi and almost showed up on Fallon in an OG Ananobi jersey.
Let me tell you something. Carl Anthony Towns. Wow. Big cat. Carl Anthony Towns.
Boy, TJ. He had a triple-double with a line of 12, 11, and 10. Which is also maybe a new lottery system. It might be. To stop tanking 12, 11, and 10.
He had a plus-minus last night, a 35, which is tied for worst of the starters. And He's in Devilwear's Prada 2 himself. Kennis? Yes. I now know that.
Has a cameo at a party thrown by Meryl Streep's character. And a winter. Jalen Brunson collided with Boozy. That happened. And he was plus 41.
The plus minuses in this game. Jeez. Josh Hart was plus 35. McCall Bridges was plus 40. Do I want to look at the Hawks ones?
Mitchell Robinson was plus 29 when he got ejected. The Hawks ones are ugly. Jalen Johnson minus 43. Oh my gosh. Minus forty-three, these are like Antarctica temperatures.
Minus thirty-eight. Minus thirty-six for Daniels when he got ejected. He was like, I'm out. That's the move, right? What an insane night for the Knicks to close it out and.
One of my worst takes Going off the air yesterday, I'm like, yeah, there's going to be a game seven for the next because they never make anything easy. And they were in a rocking chair after being down 11 to 9. I turned it on, it was 69 to 23. It's nuts. Nice.
It was unreal watching it happen.
So Jalen Brunson after the game. Talking about the Knicks defense. Hit it. I think it's most importantly uh It shows us uh what we're capable of defensively. And um I think that's really important.
But um That's we still have a long road. to travel and so um staying locked in and just knowing what we're capable of is uh it's really important. How about the Knicks being the first Eastern Conference team through to the second round? Didn't see that one coming. Mm-hmm.
After C.J. McCollum started acting like he was Reggie Miller and. Halliburton combined. In that Game Two win in Madison Square Garden. And then the next one, the last three games of the series.
And this one, I mean, honestly, this is as wild as it gets. Carl Anthony Towns after the game. I just wanted to answer the call. You know, you asked for the opportunities and they obliged, and you know, I gotta repay that trust and that opportunity. You know, I just want to do whatever.
I always talk to y'all about impact and winning. Um They gave me, you know, I got more opportunities to do that, and I wanted to make sure that I didn't. uh not take advantage of them. of the opportunities I was given. Proud that uh I've been able to help us win.
Yep. Not a single Nick played over 30 minutes, and now they got the weekend off, and they will watch the rest. of the Eastern Conference fight it out? Including the team that they will.
Next face. Game seven being forced in Boston this Sunday. We'll see how many other Game Sevens. will arise based on the rest of the East fighting it out tonight.
Now then. This is great. This is awesome. Because for those who are just somehow, someway joining this program. I would have to say The conversation that we have collectively here.
That has lasted the longest, that started so long ago, and we keep talking about over and over and over again, is coming home to roost right here. And it is. you, Chris Brockman, saying That you would rather be blown out than have a gut-wrenching, buzzer-beating loss. As a fan, you would rather be put out of your misery early, snap the television set off, and not even deal with the disastrous result. In a season ending loss or a gut-wrenching loss, you'd rather have it that way than being taken all the way to the end and stuck.
Mm-hmm. This one though. Area fifty-one. Yeah, the game's over after the first quarter. Hawks must wear all offseason, and until they get back to the playoffs and maybe win a series, they will wear this.
This is one of the most embarrassing closeout defeats Ever. This is one of the most embarrassing playoffs. Defeats ever, but they weren't on the road. They were at home in front of a fan base that was eager to say, We're going back to Madison Square Garden and putting the pressure on you in a seventh game, and instead, this pile of stink. is their cologne they must wear.
You still say that. You'd rather lose Area 51 way than, oh, Brunson beat us at the buzzer. Game over, season over. Knowing you're going to lose, knowing the result. Put me out of my misery.
First quarter? Great. I can shut that off. It's done. You have to wear this around town.
You've got to wear this wherever you go.
So what? You're just not as good. You're just not good enough. You're not as good as this team. This team clearly better than you in every single single facet.
Well, why would I change? I've thought this way for my whole life. I know that, but even this one, this one, we're pinning. This pins on the meter. This isn't just any blowout loss.
It's not like you lost by 20. You lost by 51. You were down by 61 at one point. You have the worst halftime deficit. This thing was over.
And you don't know you're going to lose. That's like you always like to say you're playing the result, right? You're playing the result. This conversation is always playing the result. Yeah, of course.
With a buzzer beater, with a buzzer beater, your whole offseason is like, man, one hustle play here, one thing there, we miss a free throw. You're like, you're playing the mental gymnastics in your head and riling yourself up. You can't sleep at night. This, pfft. Boom.
Game was over. These players won't quarter. If you're a lead pipe-wielding professional, which I assume most NBA players are. This is something that You want to talk about embarrassing. No, it's embarrassing.
The only thing you're thinking about is I got to grind. I'm back in the gym. We're just not as good. We're not at their level yet. It's not the oh, one play here, one play there.
You're the agonizing. You don't agree? You agree with him still? Yeah, I mean, I go back and forth on this a lot. And I don't want to be on my resume ever professionally.
You can't ever wash this off. Everyone has blowout losses on their stack. But not like this. Nobody's ever had a blowout loss like this.
Okay. Nobody. The Hawks weren't winning the championship, so... This happened. Nobody's ever gone at a halftime of a playoff game, home or road, down by 47.
Nobody's ever trailed by 61 in a playoff game. Nobody. Did you see Shaq at halftime on Inside the NBA? Did you see that? He had a Hawks little mascot stuffy that he was giving CPR to.
That's funny. You don't want to be that. Ever You wanna be the butt of Shaq's stuffy joke? Uh no. No.
Yeah, but With with with Ernie and and Charles Chucklin?
Okay. No. All right. You and I will never see eye to eye on this one.
So you'd rather have lost at the buzzer? Absolutely. We're right there. Let me get back in the gym. Everything you just said, we'll get back in the gym.
We'll work at it. We're right there. We're right there. Yeah, but if you lose at the buzzer, how do you improve? Because the one way you just said.
Nah, I disagree. They're just not as good as the Knicks, right?
So you have to figure out a way to get to that level. You lose at the buzzer, you're basically equals. How how much better are you going to get? Mm-hmm. Or You're like, we were better.
We should be better. I don't know. You and I are just going to keep going in circles. That's why I turned to you to break the tie.
Well, I was trying to. But go for it. I'm turning.
Well, I'm saying I go back and forth on this because what he says has merit, right? You sit there and you're going to all summer. If this has been a one-possession game, it's going to tear you apart all summer. Red lights when you're waking up at night. Yeah, it's going to wake you up in the morning.
You'll be sitting there having dinner with your lady, and all you're going to be thinking about is this. You're going to be playing with your kid. You're going to be watching your daughter in recital. You're going to be thinking about that one rebound that just escaped. When you just go out there and you get curb stomped, mud holded.
There is nothing to think about. Nothing to think about.
So it's going to be hard. I can't believe I got that. End of story. All right. So you side with him?
Yeah. Thank you. Like I said, Rich, some days I do on this, I go back and forth. Today I think. Even, well, then you'll never side with me because this is the worst loss I can recall.
I don't want that attached to mine. It's the worst of the worst. I don't want that attached to me. Yeah, you don't.
So if you agree with him now, you'll never agree with me. Speak now and forever hold. I guess I want to be competitive, right? Yes. But at the same point, I do understand that.
When you do get blown out, there's less for you to ponder. But yeah, I want to be in it. For short. This guy. Way to straddle the fence, TJ.
He did. He just got splinters. I speak for the people. No, you speak for yourself. What do you got?
Yes or no? Me or him? It's okay. All right, you today. Fine.
That's all right. You today. No, I feel like I'm badgering the witness. Yeah, you don't.
Because you were siding with him. That's okay. It's fine. Is it weird that I can say that both sides have. Validation.
No, that I think is the show's superpower if we have any. We talk about the gray area and nuance all the time.
So, what I'm saying is, normally I'd be like, yeah, blow me out. In this case, when the blowouts are that bad and what happened yesterday, I don't want to have my name attached to that.
So, I'd rather have a close case. TJ Jefferson. Ladies and gentlemen. Showing some sanity around here.
Well, you asked me next week. Jerry West lost eight finals. You think he wants to wear that? No. Still a top 20 player.
He's good. I side with Chris. They're still tied. Oh, damn it.
Okay. Let's take a break right here on the Rich. And this is a guy wearing a one-team hat. Let's take a break right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Tommy P, Tom Pellisero, busting open his reporter's notebook.
About the draft and George Pickens' signing is tender and so much more. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Oh, oh. Oh, O'Reilly. Check engine, ABS, or maintenance light on?
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Rich Eisen here. Take a second and look at your city's calendar. Everywhere I go, there's always something coming up. Games, concerts, conventions, tournaments, the kind of events that bring people in from all over. And when that happens, you can feel it.
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Yeah. Tom Pellisero has joined us, a very wise, sage reporter who's got a picture of him and a dog on a coffee mug. Um all right, Tom. The news of the day throughout the week is that George Pickens, he signed his tender, his franchise tender with the Dallas Cowboys. It is a what's more likely Friday on this program, as you know, as a frequent guest host of this show.
I will ask you this question in a what's more likely construct. What is more likely? George Pickens plays on the tender. for the Cowboys, or has signed it, Because he's going to be traded by the Cowboys. Tom Pillisero.
Post draft trades are difficult, but as the Cowboys showed one year ago, not impossible. Let's start with why you sign the tender now at the end of April, or in this case, today is May 1st. For George Pickens, now you have eliminated the long-shot possibility the Cowboys would pull the tender. It's rare, but it has happened in the past. By signing it, you have locked in.
Your worst-case scenario is you make $27.3 million for one season, and then they're either tagging you again in 2027 for like 33 million or. You hit the free agent market. Or, of course, obviously, you could also work out a contract with them in the meantime. The downside, from some players' perspective, would be: well, now, if you don't show up for mini camp or training camp, you're going to have to pay fines, you're going to lose money. But I would point out, George Pickens' agent, David Mulageda, who of course is well known to the Cowboys, his history is that he doesn't have guys lose money.
His players show up. How much they do sometimes varies from case to case, but for George Pickens, he was probably showing up. rather than giving away any sizable chunks of money in training camp anyway. Even if the Cowboys now work out a trade, Pickens still has control over where he goes because you would think if you're trading a player making that much money who's that important of a piece of the team. You'd want to work out.
A contract in advance. And if they can't work out a contract, it may well scuttle the trade. All of which is to say, Rich, I would say what's more likely at this point is George Pickens playing on the tender? Because we know that the Cowboys have already said we're not going to do a long-term deal. We're not going to talk about it.
He's going to play on the tender. He's a valuable piece of the team. And from everything that I have been told for several months, that's largely true. But there's certainly a possibility if someone offers the right Package for George Pickens, which remember would have to involve some combination now of players and future picks because we're past the 2026 draft. It's hard to imagine, which is why I'd say where it's more likely he plays on the tender, but that is certainly not the preference for George Pickens.
He, like most players, would prefer to get a deal. That deal's not coming in Dallas, the preference would be to get a deal someplace else. But I don't anticipate George Pickens giving back money, sitting out, losing almost $2 million per game. One way or another, he's going to be playing football, I anticipate, in week one. And you'd have to say, under the current circumstances, the most likely place that would be is in Dallas.
And in terms of likelihood, it's most likely.
Okay, he'd have to ask for a trade for the Cowboys to give him permission to find another spot. For a place that would pay him. Right.
Well, I mean, you said technically I know that. Um so What would the market be for George Pickens? I'm sorry to ask TJ, but clearly, if he wants to get paid and he wants a long-term deal, and the Cowboys are like, no. Or they're using some sort of a hardball tactic to get him to the table. between now and June fifteenth to some sign something he's not interested in signing.
Um what would the market be for Pickens that he's probably kicking the tires on? If you go back one year ago, if we're talking the draft pick compensation, there was only one team. that made an offer for George Pickens. The only team that made an offer, it was a one-suiter market. And that's why, when people say, well, oh man, look at the season Pickens is having.
How could the Steelers send him for a third-round pick? Because they didn't have another offer. Because they didn't feel like with Aaron Rodgers coming in and DK Metcalf coming in, that it would be a coexisting type of relationship in that receiver room. And so they took the best, which was the only offer they had, and sent him to Dallas. That's not to say, based on the season the Pickens just had and going to the Pro Bowl and putting up the numbers, he's always been a freakish type of player.
But the reason you don't have a bigger market is a lot of the same reasons that George Pickens wasn't the first run pick in the draft.
Some of the same things you saw at Georgia were happening in Pittsburgh as well. issues just with discipline and punctuality. He was suspended, as you remember, for the first series along with CeeDee Lambrich for a game, I believe, in Las Vegas last season.
So they were a little. Drips that maybe things weren't entirely perfect. But again, he's a hell of a player. He made a ton of plays for him. There would be a market out there.
Is it the type of market, though, that would cause the Cowboys to move? They weren't trading Micah Parsons last year unless they got two first-round picks. They ultimately got it and they shipped him off to Green Bay. But given the value teams are placing on 2027 draft picks, given the history with George Pickens, given the fact that teams don't have a ton of money right now to spend in general, a lot of things would have to fall into place. Never say never.
It's certainly a possibility. Signing the tender is one step in that process, but it would be difficult to get the type of compensation Dallas surely would want to move on from one of their key talents on offense.
Well, I've got Tom Pelicero here on the Rich Rising Show. The next guest is Howie Roseman of Philadelphia. I implore all those watching us on Disney Plus and the ESPN app or listening to us on ESPN Radio and Sirius XM Channel 80 to stay tuned for the way I will how sort of backdoor the question to him about trading A.J. Brown, and then he will front door give me a cutesy answer where he doesn't really answer the question. That'll happen in about a half an hour.
Um but You never know. this is gonna happen, right? I mean, Mikai Lemon being acquired, through the draft and everybody else being acquired Through free agency and trade. For the wide receiver room, screams A.J. Brown's gone.
Yeah. Tom? If you look at everything that the Eagles have done, you would certainly say all signs are pointing toward A.J. Brown moving on, most likely to the Patriots come June 2nd. I know there's been a lot of debate about all the different dynamics of this and reporting on the subject.
Here's what's real with A.J. Brown. There absolutely have been trade talks. Not recently, from my understanding, but you go back to February and March, there were a lot of trade talks about A.J. Brown involving multiple teams, including the Patriots.
And once teams like the Rams kind of went in a different direction, the Patriots seemed to have all the arrows pointing in their direction. At the time, my understanding was they were not offering a first-round pick. They did not offer number 31. Howie has wanted a first-round pick and more, just like what he gave up for A.J. Brown when he acquired him, I believe it was four years ago.
That's the type of offer that he wanted here.
So, the only question, really, at this point, it's not about could A.J. Brown come back into a room with Makai Lemon and Hollywood Brown and Dantavion Wicks. It's Anything's possible, Rich, but it certainly seems unlikely at this point. It's more about what is the fair compensation. We've seen trades worked out before where there's only one team in the market.
Aaron Rodgers is a good example. When he was being traded from the Packers to the Jets, he had said, The only place I want to go to is the Jets. Work out a deal. And there was a lot of horse trading between Joe Douglas and Brian Gutikoonst at the time to figure out what is the proper trade value because the Packers also could have gone, we'll just sit and wait. And until you come up to our number, but there was also a pressure point with the draft.
Eventually, okay, if you want to pick, if you want to move up, I think they moved up two spots in that draft. If you want to get that, you got to do the trade now. Ultimately, they were able to get it done. There's some kind of similar dynamics here in terms of this seems to be a one-team market for A.J. Brown.
The Patriots and Eagles both have their own leverage. Surely, the Patriots would like to get A.J. Brown in the building sooner than later. The Eagles would like to get the best possible compensation, but it's going to be in the 2027 draft. They don't have an urgency necessarily to move quickly.
So Is it possible that a deal is in place? Rich, how we wouldn't be able to tell you that even if there were, because that would be called cap circumvention. You're not allowed to hold trades solely for cap purposes.
However, certainly you would anticipate everybody knows more or less what this is going to take, and we'll see whether or not they're able to get there a month from now. All right. The Aaron Rodgers, I guess, procedural contract, the procedure that the Steelers underwent earlier this week, a deadline to make sure that they get some form of. What they backstop something for them if Rogers decides to go somewhere else at the end of the day. Um, what do we know anything more about Rogers at this point in time, or should we move on?
Is it still the same? What do you got for me? We had Art Rooney II on the show on Wednesday night, the Steelers president on the insiders on NFL Network. And he said basically what I told you on Monday, which was this was strictly procedural. They gave Aaron and his agent a heads up that it was coming.
It was just they don't think this is going to happen, but it's to protect themselves in the event that Aaron Rogers would sign someplace else prior to July 22nd and allow them to have that apply to the compensatory pick formula. If it's the type of contract Rogers is probably going to get, that's like a fourth or fifth round comp pick, so it's not insignificant. But nobody believes that's the direction that this is going. You can have injuries happen someplace else that change the dynamics. They're just protecting themselves because why would you not in this particular case?
At July 22nd, that's when they would own his exclusive rights through the season. Everybody anticipates his decisions coming sooner than later. Rooney said in the next several weeks, I have told you, Rick. On the show, May 18th, the first day of OTAs. That's the date to circle on the calendar.
They would like to know sometime before then, just to get Rodgers a little bit more time on task with his teammates. You know, there's all kinds of conspiracy theories of why you use the UFA tender. All I would tell you is this is not abnormal. We saw it twice last year. We've seen UFA tenders almost every year, not a lot of them, but it happens occasionally when you have a guy who's going to make money and hasn't signed a contract at this point, which is a pretty small group of players.
For Aaron, he's continuing to mull his options. My understanding, he has talked with the Steelers regularly. He has talked to them since the draft. Everything they did in the draft may not have been designed for Aaron Rodgers, but certainly, if you were saying, what might Aaron Rodgers want? A tackle, a guard as a barroom brawler, and a big slot receiver.
Those are three things that Aaron Rodgers likes.
So everything seems to have been built in that direction. Aaron's got to make the final call. If I'm leaning at this point, I am still leaning toward Aaron Rodgers, is on board. And he's on the field, not just in minicamp, but in OTAs at some point. But they still await that call, and we'll see when exactly they get it.
But it does beg the question, and I think it's legit: why do this? Unless you're uncertain. Right? Like they are uncertain. They're uncertain.
Absolutely. And that it just flies in the face of all the people, all the conjecture about like, this is all, it's all for the media. Rogers likes messing with the media. This is all. They already agreed.
You know, they know when he's coming. They don't. I don't know how many times I could say it. He hasn't told them that. Talking to them regularly about what they're going to do for on the field and in the offense would certainly suggest Aaron Rodgers intends to show up, but he hasn't actually said, hey, it's done.
Call my agent. Do a contract. That part of it hasn't happened yet.
So, like I said, there's always that possibility. You know, freak things happen. OTAs, minicamp, somebody breaks a bone, somebody tears their ACL, and all of a sudden it's, you know, hey, Aaron, we could use you on this contender as opposed to a Steelers team that hopes to be a contender, but that Aaron might not view as being as close as a different team. Those are the things. The last time, though, Tom, you know, we heard from Rogers, didn't he say to her, didn't he say to Pat basically?
like there's no contract in front of me to even you know, think about. Right.
Like he made it seem like he didn't have anything in front of him, or at least he implied there's nothing in front of me anyway.
So why wouldn't the Steelers just draw something up and send it to, you know, athletes first, which I think still reps him? Why don't they just. The UFA tender is a one-year offer worth 110% of what he made last year.
So 15.6 million, which is what the tender's worth, I believe. That's now essentially the baseline for any contract.
So to that extent, Rogers now knows, hey, you're going to make at least this much to show up. I mean, last year, Rich, there were months of conversations, obviously. They didn't negotiate the contract until after he had committed. They're following the same type of sequencing here that they did last offseason. The communication is very similar.
Different people involved. It's Mike McCarthy and not Mike Tomlin, but McCarthy knows Rogers better than anybody else. They've had hours upon hours of conversations, you know, FaceTime, phone, whatever it's been, about, you know, life, but also football and what this thing would look like. Like here, Aaron's a 42-year-old man. He's already played more football than almost every player in NFL history.
Ever has at this point. He's got to make a decision. They're giving him the time and space, as frustrating as it certainly must be to many people in that building. And as even as Art Rooney said to us, well, we were thinking it was going to have a conclusion by now, but I think we're going to get that conclusion in the next few weeks. It's not ideal.
It's the Pittsburgh Steelers that you're dealing with here. They don't want the optics of we're just waiting on this guy to show up, but it's Aaron. They want him back. Let's make that abundantly clear. This is not all some big scam to try to get him mad so he says, I'm not coming back.
They want Aaron Rodgers to be the quarterback. And they're willing to wait and see what his ultimate answer is going to be. All right, before I let you go, open up the reporter's notebook on the draft. What do you got for me? Tom.
I'll give you a couple of things here. One, you know, we talked a lot before the draft about how thin the blue chip line of players was. And the thinking within the league was, all right, that could lead to more trades, bold trades, because there's so few players. People are either going to want to go up and get that guy, or they're going to want to fall back and get completely out of the back half of round one. We saw a movement.
There were eight trades in round one, Rich, but it involved a grand total of 22 spots. There was not a first rounder in the 2027 draft traded. There was not a second rounder next year traded. The only third rounder next year traded was in the Jonathan Gernard deal for a veteran player.
So the fact that teams regard the 2027 draft as highly as they do for overall talent and for quarterback play made the impact that I anticipated here, which was teams were really guarding from giving up anything. You heard guys like John Schneider talking about it. The only offers they had was to go so far back. And you didn't have the compensation to make those deals because people weren't willing to give up future picks of any consequence.
So that all impacted this draft. It turns all eyes to what should be a fascinating draft. In 2027, one that should be more flush with quarterbacks than the one that we just had in 2026, which brings me to a second thing. This is about the draft. But it's about the supplemental draft, Rich.
Look at you too. Supplemental draft normally held. At the end of June, there has not been a player taken in the supplemental draft, I believe, in seven years. There has not been a player taken with a first-round pick since I believe the quarterback's name was Dave Brown to the Giants in like 1992. You just don't see the supplemental draft.
Is held for players whose eligibility has changed since the real draft. Given all the different things that have changed with eligibility and NIL and everything else, there's just far fewer occasions of that happening. And so there have been several times in recent years, the supplemental draft has just been canceled. They haven't even had it because there was no one in it. Keep an eye on the situation.
involving Brennan Saresby. The former Cincinnati quarterback, now at Texas Tech. He is, as Pete Thamble revealed earlier this week, under investigation for gambling. He has checked himself voluntarily into a treatment center. My understanding is he'll be there for about five weeks.
So, essentially, through the bulk of this month, he placed many, many bets. A very small number of which were on his own team. Prior to him even being on the travel roster for Indiana four years ago, betting them to cover. They didn't in any of those cases because that was the old Indiana football, but that's played into where now Brennan Soursby's eligibility and his future in football are up for grabs.
So there's two parts to this. There's two parts. There's one very large part. I mean,. The number of times I have spoken to people in the NFL saying a gambling scandal is their worst nightmare.
Like they're w like I I The o the other worst nightmares are obvious in terms of uh safety of of games and things like that, but Wow, really? I mean, that's a tall order. to cross that bar. I understand talent over everything is a phrase we hear all the time in evaluation, certainly with talented quarterbacks like this young man. But I'm sorry, I mean to interrupt, but give me the two-piece.
He's not betting against his team. He's not betting on games that he is playing in. There were, again, a ton of bets. He has obviously taken a level of accountability by going off to Rhea. But for the NCAA, there's a couple different ways they can go.
The first way would be The Don't Suicide, which is the way they normally go. What's that one? Work out in. The surest way to actually wrap this up would be to negotiate a settlement, similar to what the NFL does in a lot of these cases, where You just work it out, and they start here, and the player starts here, and you try to find some way in the middle. College football is pro football.
There's way more money, there's way more agents, there's way more lawyers, there's way more bureaucracy, and there's way more uncertainty about everything. And so one way to approach this would be the size just work it out. And is it three games? Is it six games? Whatever it is.
Let's work it out. He pays the price. He pays back part of his multi-million dollar contract. And you go from there. The second way, which is what the NCAA usually does, is drop the hammer and go sue us.
And then the player goes done. And then they end up in court, and the whole thing becomes an absolute clown show that can go on for days, weeks, months, and overshadow everything else that's going on in college football. If that happens, the second part, Rich, is then Brendan Sorsby would have a couple of choices to make. If he's ruled ineligible, He could go into court. He could spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in court fees, fight for his college eligibility with no guarantee that he is going to win, continue to take that out, or he could go.
I'm going to go into the NFL supplemental draft. I'm going to apply. The NFL would have to decide whether to grant him an exemption into the supplemental draft, but his eligibility changing, you would certainly think would indicate they would be allowed to do that. And then it would be a very, to your point, unique evaluation for teams, because I will tell you this, Rich. In all my quarterback research this year.
and talking to people about Fernando Mendoza, where would he fit in? He's clearly QB1 in this class. Where would he fit in to a broader group of quarterbacks? And One of the things that came up repeatedly was: if some of the other guys came out this year, he might not even be the number one pick. Dante Moore from Oregon is one, got a ton of money to go back to Oregon.
Brendan Soursby is another who, for some people, had a really high grade, a first-round grade. It would have been a first-round prospect in this draft.
So all of a sudden, you would have a quarterback at the most important position go into the supplemental draft. You would certainly be seeking clarity from the NFL on whether they would take any NCAA punishment and apply it to NFL punishment, similar to what they did with Terrell Pryor once upon a time. But that was in a different era of college football. That was a guy getting suspended for free tattoos.
Now players can be paid above the table multi-millions of dollars. And by the way, Jim Harbaugh, who had like a five-year show cause agreement for integrity of the game issues while at Michigan, was allowed to come in and coach the Chargers while serving no suspension. There's a lot of tentacles of this, Rich, but I would just say if Brendan Sourceby goes into the supplemental draft, which would require, again, The NCAA to rule prior to the end of June, prior to the supplemental draft, and him to decide to not follow through on legal options. If he goes into the supplemental draft, we are probably going to have the highest drafted supplemental draft player in decades. And teams are going to be balancing out everything you just said: integrity of the game, the concern over gambling issues, and a player who potentially is a franchise quarterback in the NFL.
Well, I hope the young man gets the, you know, he got the help he says he needs, and hopefully he gets it because if he can't get over it, And he gets the NFL, I I I think they would um Have eyes on him, to say the least, and it would be very difficult for him to continue that sort of behavior and and and. Uh, professionally live to tell the tale. Uh, Tom, thanks. Don't even need eyes. Your phone pings if you gamble from in a facility, if your name pops up on anything for any athletes of any level watching, you will get caught.
It's a hundred percent chance you will get caught, and that's the reality where we are. Tom, you're the man. Thanks for the time. We'll be uh in touch. That's Tommy.
Tommy, see, buddy. All right, we got to beat it on down a little bit. Look for your video soon. There you go. That's next.
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Back here on the Rich Eisen Show is one big happy family here. Which. Sports City Had the best night last night. or day. Just the best Thursday.
You've got uh the city of Minneapolis-St. Paul. For instance, right, uh Tom Pellisero just referred To the Timberwolves, minus Anthony Edwards and Dante di Vincenzo. Knocking off the Denver Nuggets And Julius Randall and those T-Wolves, Jaden McDaniels and those T-Wolves. Jaden McDaniels.
By the way, um. Chris Finch can coach, can he not? Yeah. For sure. Taking care of the nuggets.
They're moving on. They're into the next round before either the Lakers or the Rockets, actually. Didn't we kind of predict that was going to go? Yeah. Well, we thought Anthony Edwards would be healthy throughout, correct?
Yeah. Didn't see the uh and he could return. Uh, Dante DiVincenzo, as you see, has got his. Foot up. He's there at the game just celebrating, having a good time.
He had surgery already. That was in Minneapolis.
Meanwhile, in St. Paul, the Minnesota Wild. Uh losers of nine straight Playoff Series win for the first time uh in the first round, moving on to the second round for the first time since twenty fifteen. Jack Hughes, uh he of the golden gold p pardon Quinn Hughes, pardon me, uh he of, as we all know, the um The terrific Team USA. Victorious team.
Um he as we all know Put one off the skate last night. To win the game and beat the Dallas Stars. How about that? The Minnesota Wild not only move on, but they move on against the franchise that stole their team. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, right? They're going crazy. That's hilarious. They were going nuts last night. Nuts.
So Yeah, two goals. You got Minneapolis, St. Paul. Minneapolis, you got the NBA team moving on to the second round. Good night.
Beating the Nuggets in Jokic. And in St. Paul, you've got the Wild moving on for the first time in over a decade. Against the franchise that Took the team from the town. Then You got Philadelphia.
TJ, you're Sixers. Took care of business. There was one sequence last night: behind-the-back bounce pass from Embiid to Oubre. Sick. And then Jalen Brown goes down the floor.
Oubre and Embiid block him. And then Paul George goes behind the back to Edgecombe for a dunk. For a dunk. I mean, and that was. This is when I turned it off.
Don't blame me. They were going, man. That's when I screamed. There's now a game seven in Boston on Sunday. It's hard.
Look, man, at the beginning of this series, I told you guys one game was all I wanted because I just, as a Sixers fan, you just get so beat down, man. But. I don't, I don't, guys, I don't know if I should give myself hope, Rich.
Well, earlier in the day, across the street, if you will, the Philadelphia Phillies. Behind interim manager. Downey baseball. Woo! Woo!
Um sweep the giants. in a double header. And game one, a walk off hit by Justin Crawford. And Jason Stark, because he is the king of nuggets. Tweets out that in 2014, Carl Crawford walked one off for the Dodgers.
Look at him high-fiving hitting coach Mark McGuire. Whoa. And you see him over his right shoulder. That's the manager, Don Mattingly. And then in 2026, his son walked one off for that.
In game one of a doubleheader that they wind up sweeping. He's good too, Justin Crawford. Baseball. I mean, in two other aspects of it too. Um the Flyers eliminated the Penguins the night before.
And then they'll put it over the top. for the city of Philadelphia. Harry Roseman's about to appear on the Rich Eisen Show. I mean, so what more can you say about that? I think I'm leaning Minnesota since.
I know you're a Boston guy.
Well, I'm just saying it wasn't a close-out win that the Sixers had. That's great. You're feeling Minnesota. I understand. The Rich Eisen Show podcast.
Yeah.
