Hour 2: ‘Overreaction Monday,’ Raiders Analyst Kirk Morrison Talks Cousins vs Mendoza, and More

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Now, on with the show.

Now, commencing. This is the Rich Eisen Show.

So far, so good. With guest host, Kirk Morrison. I like it. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show, U.S.

men's soccer great Landon Donovan. Coming up. Senior NBA writer for the athletic, John Hollinger. Senior NFL writer for the athletic, Ted Wynn. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Kirk Morrison.

Hour number two of the Rich Eisen Show, Kirk Morrison here, filling in for Rich. Yes, that's right. Come on, let's go on this Monday, June 22nd, as we get into the second week of. True summer, as my kids and they're on vacation, or they go to summer camp.

So, a lot of kids are going to summer camp. Yeah, of course. You know, we've talked about it.

So, everybody's kind of in that summer mode a little bit.

So, you don't go to sleep until a little bit later. You know what I mean? I'm not going to sleep until. I won't even tell you what time because I'm finding things to watch. I'm binge watching this.

I'm binge watching that. Then you got soccer that's going on, and I'm watching that, and I'm taping what's going on with. golf and I'm watching the golf And And you're like, man, because you gotta start to find, it's that time of the year. where you gotta find your appointment viewing. What are you going to watch?

As a lot of sports come to an end, as a lot of free time will be upon us, what are you going to focus on?

Okay, because the NBA Finals was last week, and that was like the major. Like, we thought it was going to last maybe a little bit longer, get to six, seven games. You kind of go through that. And now that it's over The next part of the NBA season or on the NBA calendar is the NBA draft. And then we're going to have free agency.

That's a little bit later on. But I would say the next thing is going to be, and this is what I heard from some folks: NBA Summer League. And so NBA Summer League honestly is really about the guys who are going to be drafted. Tomorrow in the NBA's 2026 NBA draft.

So, the guy who can discuss it all with me, my guy John Hollinger, who joins us right here on the Rich Isaac.

So, John, thanks for coming on because look, look, Summer League is going to be here before we know it. They're going to be just, you know, shoving it down, just telling everybody, hey, Trump Summer League, AJ DeBonza, Darren Peters, just all the names. And so, as we head into this draft tomorrow, what's the expectation? You almost feel like it's already kind of set, but is there any surprises that you see maybe at the top two, top three?

Well, first of all, let me say true summer for anyone who works in the NBA doesn't begin till July 15th when you take that plane home from Vegas Summer League, right? Because we got all the transactions that are going to happen in the league are coming in the next two weeks, basically.

So, yeah, everyone's drinking out of the fire hose right now. But in terms of the draft, I think it's going to end up being chalk. The one thing that's still out there is: you wonder if the wizards. Surprise everyone and take Peterson first instead of DeVansa. But I think those will be the first two players off the board.

I think Boozer will go to Memphis, number three. I think Wilson will go to Chicago, number four, and then the draft will begin at five. Because there are a lot of different point guards out there that the Clippers could turn to. The Clippers could trade that pick. Like there's a lot of optionality there.

But one through four, I think we're going to end up pretty chalky. Yeah, pretty chalky on that.

So we could see a little bit of movement. Obviously, when it comes to this draft, what's the expectation For those players in that top four, because we're seeing what from this past NBA Finals, and no one expects Dylan Harper to do what he did, but he played a major part in the NBA Finals and throughout the season. How impactful can these young players be right away? Or is it looking more like a Cooper Flag situation where a guy plays great, but a team that's not very good? Yeah, I mean, you look at the teams these guys are going to.

I mean, Utah is positioned to be good next year. They're probably the one exception. But Memphis is rebuilding, Washington's rebuilding, Chicago's rebuilding.

So, yeah, it's probably more of a Cooper flag situation for the three guys that go there. Utah, whether it's Peterson or DeMansa, they're going into a situation where that might be a playoff team right away. In terms of the level of players, I think there's not a Wemby in this draft, but there are four Harpers at the top, is how I would put it, right? Like these guys are all really good players. The draft is very deep with quality going down to about 20, and then it falls off a cliff because everyone after 20 took the NIL money and went back to school, basically.

The NIL money, yeah.

Now we've got guys, not just players, but we've got coaches now who said, you know what? I'm done with this NIL era. I'm going to the NBA now with Dusty May being now the new head coach with the. The Dallas Mavericks, kind of talk about that a little bit. How does that come about where a head coach?

Is being kind of talked to a little bit, but says, you know what, I'm going to turn down a job where. I just won a national championship with this program in Michigan. I'm going to go to the NBA. And look, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. We've had some names of guys who remember Brad Stevens was a college coach.

He goes into the NBA. He took Billy Donovan.

So we've seen those lists of names. But what's the now expectation for Dusty May going to the NBA and becoming a head coach?

Well, hopefully, it works out better than the last Michigan coach who did that, John Beline. But realistically, I mean, Dusty May, I think, is in a good position to make this jump. He's still pretty young. And I think he's shown he can win in different environments. I mean, he took Florida Atlantic to the Final Four before he got the Michigan job.

So he's done it in different places with different teams. And so I think that's a really good. sign for him. I mean, there's definitely going to be a learning curve for him that first year. But I think that Dallas team isn't built to be a win now team either.

So he's going to be able to grow kind of along with Cooper Flag and Derek Lively and whoever they take tomorrow. Senior NBA writer for the athletic John Hollinger joining the Rich Eisen Show. Kirk Morrison here filling in for Rich. But there's been the note that's going around, the reports that Giannis Antotacupo will Select or the trade will happen. Obviously, he's got a lot of say in that, but the trade has now come down to the two finalists.

Boston Celtics, Miami Heat. When if you look at it right now, where do you think Giannis Optadi Cupo lands tomorrow, either before the draft or after the draft. But where does he think he lands? Mm-hmm. Man, I've been thinking Miami the whole time, and now I just wonder if the idea of Jalen Brown is just too tempting for the Bucs and that they're going to end up going that direction versus the package of interesting stuff from Miami that isn't, but it's not an all-NBA player, right?

So. Um and I think The change in the tanking rules may incentivize this somewhat, where. In the past, if you're Milwaukee, you might have done a full reset.

Now, I know they don't have control of some of their future picks, but still, you might have looked toward. Trying to rebuild, trying to get some of your picks back, maybe involve Portland in trade so you could, because the Blazers have some future Bucks tricks, picks. And now I think that's kind of out the window, and you just live with wherever your picks end up and you try to put together at least a halfway decent team. And you have a better chance of doing that with Jalen Brown, I think, than you do with a Tyler Hero-led package from Miami. I mean, Giannis will be traded.

We know that. And it's finally come to this point. All the rumors that we've heard for years, Giannis is going to be traded. Then he wants to stay. Then he wants to leave.

Then he wants to stay. But John, my question is, is that the expectation that when he does finally get traded, He's got to win a championship, right? I mean, he's already won one. I know that, but he's going to a place. Where he's actually Going to be the number two.

I don't see in this scenario that he goes into a team and he's going to be the alpha there. I feel like this is a situation where he's going to go to a team. and has to be the number two more so than the number one.

Well, he'll be the number one in Miami, without any doubt. In Boston, it's a little trickier because Tatum's already there. It's going to be kind of a 1A, 1B situation. And I think the trick for Giannis in Boston is that he has to embrace being a screener as much as being the on-ball guy, which is kind of the thing he's always done. In Milwaukee, even when they had Middleton and Hollo Holiday there, he was more playing on the ball.

And him being able to play off the ball than play with Tatum. That's where it has to happen. That's the adjustment he would have to make if he went to Boston. But I think he's still going there with either Boston or Miami. Like, you still got to look at him as a top five NBP candidate and all NBA level player.

So yeah, I don't think he takes a back seat to anyone on either of those rosters. John, I always say this because until the deal is final, There's always a little wig of room in there for a dark horse team to To come in and say, hey, hey, we got a little something extra. We got a little more for you. Because now, because to me, I said, why would you publicly say, oh, it's down? to Boston, it's down to Miami.

And I'm like, well, what is there as another team that puts a better package? And we know the NBA. This is a. Organization a league in which you can get two or three teams involved and not just one team.

So, to me, I feel like there could be a dark horse team or teams that make this deal a little bit better and everybody benefits from it rather than one team having to give up so many assets.

So there are two truisms for my time in an NBA front office. One, a deal is never done until it's done, right? And there's always ways it can go sideways until that point. And then usually, In a deal of this magnitude, it does help to bring in third and fourth teams, even though right now they're talking about. One-to-one trades, I wouldn't be surprised if this trade expanded.

I wouldn't be surprised, like, even if it's agreed to. I don't think it's going to be executed until early July. And that gives time for some of these secondary pieces that might be involved in the trade to end up in a third team. The Bucs might turn around and have a bidding. The Bucs could turn around and trade Jalen Brown.

I think that's hard to do. It's hard to contact 29 teams about a player you don't have. Possession of and talk seriously about a trade, right? But I think it's more easily done if they do this trade first. It's similar kind of to what happened with.

with Drew Holiday when they when they put him in the Liller trade and then he went to Portland and then and then he ended up going to Boston later.

So it would be sort of similar to that, just in reverse.

So I still think there are some dominoes. That can fall on this. At this point, I don't see a third team getting involved. I mean, I think they've put enough smoke signals out there that is Boston and Miami that if there was a third team that had a compelling package. By this time they would have called Milwaukee and made their pitch.

Senior NBA writer for the athletic John Hollinger joined the Rich Eisen Show. Always laugh when I hear that because I feel like everybody's putting their elevator pitch in and there's still some room to move around. But always look at the team that just last won the championship. And the New York Knicks, and how they've built their team. And it's always say in a copycat league like the NFL, people see what's successful for one organization, and you try to bring that to your organization.

Is that something now that people are looking the way the Knicks were built and say, hey, we can kind of do some of that as well, and how Leon Rose and those guys were able to build it all? It's interesting because I think Sometimes Teams end up with like this magic bullet theory of how they're going to build a team and succeed. Of, you know, we're going to tank and win the lottery, or we're going to get three max guys and do it that way. The way the Knicks did it was just stacking about 15 straight, really smart moves on top of each other. Like, even if you go back to like drafting quickly, who they ended up putting in the Ananobi trade, right?

Or, you know, the free agent signing of DiVincenzo, who ended up being an important piece in the Towns trade. It was like they had to build to the point that they could make those moves for Towns and Ananobi, and they successfully did that, even though those guys weren't part of the championship team. Those moves were crucial to New York eventually winning.

So they did, and they did a, you know, if you go back and look over the last five, six years, how many of those moves they needed to make to build the team to this point?

So it's hard to say that in a meeting is like the magic. Thing, but like, yeah, what if we just make a bunch of really smart moves and bring in good players? Like, can we try that? You know, so yeah, I think that's the lesson learned from New York. Like, they just hats off.

They made a bunch of really great moves, were able to win a championship. Even without having anyone who got an MVP vote just because they were so solid top to bottom. I mean, obviously, Brunson was amazing in the playoffs too, but they were just so solid one through five in that starting lineup, especially. You know, John, excuse me, because it's only June 22nd. And so it's kind of cool and kind of quiet at the moment, but we always know.

that right when a summer comes, especially during Summer league. The LeBron news starts to ramp up. Where is LeBron going? And who is he with at Summer League? Does he want to return as a Laker?

Could he go to Golden State? I know it's kind of quiet right now on the LeBron front, but we know it will heat up at some point. What do you think are going to be the major keys that we look at to where LeBron James will push? possibly, hopefully, maybe finish his career. The first thing is what the Lakers do with their cap space, because he would occupy a big chunk of it if he resigns at anything close to his market value.

Second thing to look at is if he would have any interest in going to the Golden State Warriors, which I think is one other plausible landing spot where he can get somewhere close to his market value. I mean, Cleveland would be the sentimental place, but if you look at the Cavs' cap situation, they could really only sign him to a minimum deal right now, which I'm not sure he's quite willing to settle for that.

So. I think it's to me, it's Lakers or Warriors. You know, the most likely landing spots, and whether it's Lakers or not, I mean, it has to be resolved relatively soon because the Lakers have to figure out. What are the other moves that they're going to make this summer? They have a bunch of cap room they could use to sign other players.

I know they want to get a rim-running big man for Luca, for instance, and that's not going to be cheap. And they have some other options on the table, and then they can come back and re-sign Austin Reeves and Jackson Hayes and getting nerdy here, but like they have really low cap holds in free agency. And so that's what enables the Lakers to have this kind of. Opportunity right now to sign players with CapSpace and then come back and re-sign Reeves and Hayes and put together a hopefully stronger team than they had a year ago. John, I'll get you out of here with this one.

We can talk about the draft tomorrow for round one, Tuesday. Round two. On Wednesday. That's something new with the NBA. And I think they did that because by the time we got to the second round, it just became a European draft more so than a regular draft.

I get that, but tomorrow we'll be tuned in round number one. Is there anybody outside of the top four guys that you've been in chalk that we should kind of keep an eye on in tomorrow's first round of the draft? As far as like a super sleek, I mean, the one guy. Who everyone is really intrigued by is Alan Graves from Santa Clara, in terms of a guy who wasn't in a Power Five league, but Put up really great numbers analytically. Doesn't always look the part.

Like he's a little bit kind of heavy-footed, but really skilled and has great hands and stuff.

So he's going to be a really interesting evaluation. I think he's going to go in the second half of the first round. And I'm interested to see sort of what. What is the type of team that ends up Selecting him. But as far as the two-day draft goes, I think everyone who ever worked in the front office thinks, thank goodness.

I mean, there was only two minutes between picks, and they were getting those second-round picks were getting traded so fast. You could hardly even catch up to who had the pick, even if you were trying to acquire it.

So putting. More time in between the picks and spreading it out to a second day. I think for the emotional health of front office executives, I think that was a great move.

So I don't know how it works for TV ratings and everything else, but I was a big fan of that.

Well, I know you've got a lot to cover over the next 48 hours when it comes to round one and round two and all the other news as we're still on. Giannis Watch, as I'm calling it, John. Appreciate the time, as always, John. Catch up with you soon. All right, thanks for having me on the show.

All right, that's NBA senior writer John Hollinger joining the Rich Eisen Show. I guess we won't see a three-team trade. I always say before it's in writing or the ink touches the paper. You never know because you can't buy a jersey because once you buy that jersey, what happens? Like the guy gets traded.

Yeah, exactly. You know, I think I was watching the 2018 draft. People were talking about that draft and. all the guys who were in that draft and how the Knicks passed up on Certain players along the way. They could have got this player, but this player ended up coming back and.

Uh, Mikael Bridges wasn't even drafted. You forgot? I thought Mikael Bridges started with the Knicks. I forgot he was drafted to the Suns. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Mikhail Bridges is on the list of very long draft day blunders that the Philadelphia 76ers have made. You see, they drafted him. They drafted him. I said they drafted him. Then they traded him to the sun.

A guy who wasn't even in the league two years later. And Mikhail Bridges, by the way, has never missed a game. Yeah. Ever. Yeah, but I was watching it.

Yeah, I was watching the building of the New York Knicks roster. Everything has been all Knicks. Like I said, I was in New York for a week last week.

So I've watched every documentary on how this team was built. And so I was just thinking, like, man, how this team truly was built and listening to John Hollinger there, it was little moves after little moves that allowed you to get to the team that you got, which I thought was pretty cool in watching how it was done. But this would not be a Monday. If we didn't overreact, we got to overreact to what we saw. Overreaction Monday coming up right here on the Rich Eisen Show with Kirk Morrison here filling in for Rich.

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So grab a bag of Lays and jump on the bandwagon. We're undefeated. Lays, the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Kurt Warner, 55 today. You think about that moment, and you mentioned it, Rock.

I don't know why you did, but it's like. We are getting old, man. Yeah, dude. You think about it, man. I remember because Kirk Warner and that greatest show on turf, they won the Super Bowl, and that was in 99.

I was a sophomore in college. That was the one in which Mike Jones against the Titans. That man, Kevin Dyson. And that was one of the plays that you just remember. There are certain moments that you remember where you were when that happened.

My high school coach actually was the high school, NFL high school coach of the year that year.

So he was actually at the game. On our behalf, so we were excited. Like, oh, we got coach of the year there.

So, we watched it with a little more intense focus. And then, boom, right away, that play happens. And Marshall Falk was on that team. I ended up going to San Diego State, so I'm all excited. Like, it was just.

A lot to that one.

So, always, but uh, we got a phone call. We got to get to these phone calls too: 844-204-RICH-844-204-R-I-C-H. Um. Who's on the line? I forgot.

I didn't see it. Who do you want to do? Yeah. It's up to you. Do you want to talk?

Do you want to get Raiders' thoughts? Do you want to hear from a Bills fans? Is it Raiders' thoughts already? Let's go. Always love to get Raiders' thoughts already.

All right, let's do it. We got an overreaction coming up, so let's go. What's up, Derek? What's going on, Kirk? Nice to make your acquaintance, brother.

I was gonna say, if I remember you serves me right. The last time you were on a well, the last time you were on a show, Kenny Pickett got traded to the Eagles. And on that same day, Stan Aaron Donald. announced his retirement, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I believe so.

Yeah, Kenny Pickett's been traded, what, from the Rams?

Well, no, he went from the Eagles. And I still don't understand how we gave up a fifth-round pick the Raiders did last year to bring him in to be the backup to Geno Smith. That's a whole nother story. I'm putting the 2025 Raiders season in my rear view. It is no longer in my front windshield.

Okay. But yeah, Aaron Donald, yeah, hopefully he stays retired. A lot of people want him to come back because if he comes back and he teams up with Miles Garrett, that's like a form of the Avengers. Like, I don't think the NFL wants to see that.

Well, I think fans would, but I'm just saying other players don't want to see those two guys lining up on the same side. These are two massive men who are like the strongest in the NFL, by the way. Like, Miles Garrett already looks like a mutant. And then Aaron Donald is just another mutant.

So, two mutants together is just basically the X-Men up on offenses. Yeah. That's the X-Men. Yeah. It's diabolical and it's pretty much our form of uh doomsday in the NFL.

Donald does come back. But Kirk, being the former Raider that you are, what are your expectations for the team down there in Vegas this coming season? And do you believe it should be Fernando being QB1 or could it be Kirk just because it just play things safe if anything. If he, you know, signs in camp and so and so Wh where does it where do we stand with Fernando at this point, do you think? You know, Derek, I'm going to give you the Clint Kubiak answer, and it's one that I've been using for a very long time.

It will all reveal itself. Oh. It will all reveal itself. And the reason, and it's not a cop-out answer. But I think with a lot of these quarterback competitions that are going on in the NFL, there's a competition in Atlanta between Michael Pennix and Tuatanga Vailoa.

There's a competition in Minnesota when it comes to Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy. Like, there's a competition when it comes to the Raiders' quarterback position. And right now, the leader in the clubhouse, to me, from what I've seen with my two eyes. Um has been Kirk Cousins.

He has the resume. He has the knowledge of the offense. He has the leadership capabilities. And there was a story, I think, that came out today about Ferdinando Mendoza learning how to be a leader now in the National Football League. That's one of the hardest things for any rookie.

Quarterback, let alone player. Like, I remember as a bookkeeper. You kind of sit back a little bit, you try to figure out how do I lead? Where do I lead? Because right now, Kirk Cousins is able to go and say, hey, hey, no, no, get over here, line up here.

No, no, you're the ex. Get over here. Like, there's a level. Of expertise that Kirk Cousins has right now that Fernando Mendoza is going to get. He's going to learn.

It's not there yet.

So, I think as you go into the season, what will reveal itself is who's the guy that can get you to week one and can help you win right away. There is no doubt the future. is Fernando Mendoza. But you want to be able to have him go out there when the time is right. We don't want to rush it.

We don't want to rush it unless Kirk Cousins is just god-awful. And I don't think that. From what I've talked with him and seeing what he's been able to do so far in t-shirts. And shorts has looked pretty good.

So. I'll caution you with that as there's multiple plans that I think will kind of take place, but again. training camp, and preseason, it will all reveal itself. Thanks for the phone call, Derek. Yeah, Kirk, and you look at the Raiders' first schedule.

I mean, you know, you open against Miami, and you know, a lot of people are expecting them to be. But they're all on Sunday, so you don't have to tell me about the primetime. At the top of the day, they're playing on Sundays, everything. But then you look at Chargers, at New Orleans, Chiefs, at New England, Buffalo. That's a really tough first.

And then the Rams.

So, you know, week one aside, just because that's based on Miami's expectations. And then the next six weeks are like, whoa. Yeah, you know, you'd rather have you know kind of similar to what New England did with Jacoby Brissette and Drake May. Let's have the veteran out there to start the season, and then we'll see where we're at kind of midway through. And if it's Fernando time, then it's Fernando time.

Yeah. I always say, as a player, you kind of know. And I've been in those situations too where you know what you have in front of you, and the guy who is best for that position right now. You know. You can't, the one thing you can't fool players on the team, that's the one thing you can't do.

You can't fool those guys. We're the ones watching that practice, and all the fans and media writers can speculate. But when you're on a practice field and you see, like, okay, this dude is ready to go right now, he's ready to play right now. Or, this guy is the best option for us to go out and win. I'm not trying to waste my years, I don't want to do all that.

Because I feel like Once you put Fernando Mendoza in, he's not coming out.

So, how long can you resist that temptation? Before you put them in there, because look, we've seen it every single year. Everybody says quarterback's gonna wait. He's gonna wait. We're gonna wait.

And all of a sudden you're one and three. It's like, put him out there, put him out there. You know, we saw it with Jackson Dart last year. Look, we still don't know how good Jackson Dart is. I mean, he's got a lot to prove this year.

We're seeing Cam Ward coming in year two.

Now are they going to have the jump similar to what we saw with Caleb Williams? Or, what seems to be a regression from a guy like C.J. Stroud who going in his fourth year, so you've got. I think examples all across the NFL when it comes to the quarterback position, but that's why we overreact. And that's why I'm going to Overreaction Monday with you, Brock.

What you got? Let's do it. That was terrible. That was crap. That was garbage.

That's why it sucks. Overreaction. Mondays. Mondays. Hey, what's up, guys?

Happy Monday. Great to see you. Great to see you, my man. Everybody good? Oh, we got a real hodgepodge.

You know, NFL, there's not a lot going on. You know, it's summer break for the league here for the next month or so.

So we're just kind of a TJ, you know, you like to use this term. It's a grab bag. It's a mixed bag overreaction Monday. Remember those things? And we got to get to it right away because.

The hype is real for the U.S. men's national team. You know, two wins.

Okay. Looked great in both scoring. We're on it. And we're going to the World Cup. Final.

Wow. That is the final. Final? The final. Like the last game.

The last game. Whenever gets the trophy on the desk. You know what I mean? Nick Spurs, USA versus. USA versus whoever.

Probably not going to be Argentina. Messi's out here missing penalty kicks.

So they're out. That is an overreaction right there, man. Seriously. Like, I love the U.S. men's national team.

And I like just their kits that they're wearing. They look phenomenal. It looks great. It looks great. On television, it's great.

The guys look cool. I mean, I think like Glendon Donovan said earlier when we caught up with him. Mike. They look cool. Like before, when you would see the U.S.

business national thing, oh, here goes the guys, right? Oh, there they go. Yeah. But like now, like, they look cool. We have got swag.

They got stared at. See, that's what I was looking at. They got confidence and swagger. Yeah. There's their confidence and a swagger about them.

I think I just love that the more and more we see the U.S. team, the more and more people are trying to fight for these tickets. The influencers are out right now. Everybody wants to go. These are insane.

Prices are crazy. I'm looking at them. I'm like, wow, what if I wanted to go on Thursday? Can't go. No, you got to sell a kidney.

Yeah. Can't go Thursday. I'll tell you that. I remember someone asked me before: like, hey, do you want to go to the World Cup? I said, yeah, I would love to go to a match or two if possible.

And then they were like, yeah, this is how. I said, wait, hold on. You're asking for Super Bowl prices for one nigga. Super Bowl prizes for one. Just wait till we're in the final, TJ.

Hey, I'm just saying, once in Pittsburgh, I snuck into the Civic Arena for a Bone Thugs in Harmony, a Mary Kay Blight concert. I wonder if I could do the same thing at SoFi. It's right up street. You're going to try to sneak in? Sneak in?

Why not? Put on a, you know, the thing about doing something like that: just look like you know what you're doing. Look like you belong there. I agree, I agree with that. You might think I'm a ramp.

I'm a go. I am like 6'3. You can be a player. All right, over it. Otherwise, Chris, I ain't going because I can't afford to pick this.

All right, fine. Kirk Morrison, though. World Cup final.

Okay, I get it. Overreaction. Big money, Kirk. Here's a deal. World Cup, okay?

Yeah. We got a World Baseball Classic. WBC. We got, what do we have? We got a basketball version of this, right?

Yep. It's time for a World Cup version of our football.

Okay. I need a World Cup for American football. Let's do it. How? Uh no.

With other countries? Yeah. Yeah. Wait a minute. We'll play against Australia.

We'll play against Europeans. We know they love soccer. I mean, football. We were over there. I don't think that would work out.

That would work. The Germans play football, right? First of all, a couple things here. Number one: David Njoku's got a big family. He could build a team.

Um. I think the closest thing we'll see to this is the flag football, right? Fight football in the Olympics. Black footwater Olympics. Which we already know, we already got beat.

How we get beat by our own US team? Remember, all the NFL dudes tried to get a different game, man. They got beat up. It's a different game. It's a different game.

It's a different game. But I'm saying that's just like the appetizer. That's the appetizer. You were going to go to the bathroom. We're going to throw that out there.

We're going to be like, hey, look how cool flag football is in the Olympics. Let's do real football, World Cup style. Yeah, no one would wit, but us. I will probably go more. Conquer calf.

More like a regional thing, yeah. A regional thing, that's what I'm thinking: U.S. versus Canada for football, yeah, like a NFL versus NFL. That can only be the only way we do this is just in America and we separate out like West Coast, East Coast, North, South, or like Texas versus Texas versus Pennsylvania versus Florida, California. But otherwise, you can't have no.

You don't think it's going to be like the WBC where guys are like, you know, like our buddy Vinnie Pasquantino, he's American, but he played for Team Italy. That's it. You don't think guys in the, you know, in the NFL would dip into their heritage and play for different countries, and then we could do a World Cup for football. It sounds great. Put it.

I don't think it would be very competitive, I personally. I mean, I thought it was a cool idea. It's a cool idea, but dudes don't even want to play in the Pro Bowl no more, let alone play in the World Cup. The World Cup of football, I would think, is exciting. Remember, we had the World League and it was built up of all players, but.

Yeah, man, that's gonna be a stretch, dog. I'm sorry, man. You put $50 million in midfield. Guess what?

Okay, now we're talking.

Now you peaked my interest. Thank you. Thank you. You peaked my interest. You had a sponsor?

I don't know what I'm saying. All right, never mind. I just don't think, I mean, we're so dominant. Like, I can't imagine this. We're so dominant, we couldn't even beat the flag football guys.

Well, that's they were all American, too. Yeah, well, it's because it was a finesse game. All right.

Now we get to the real game. They ain't got a chance. Yeah, like who's stopping Miles Garrett? Yeah. I was Garrett might be playing for somebody else, a different country.

He won't. Yeah. Gotta make it worth his while. All right.

Look at social media. This guy's been a maniac. We don't really know what he's doing. Real wild card. But Brandon Ayuk is talking about Go Commanders on his stories there.

He's gonna lead the commanders in touchdown catches this year. Do you Okay. Seems like he wants to be there. Wow. Begging the 49ers to cut them.

That is a question. Begging the 49ers. I don't know what. And why are people reporting on it? Like, it's just reporting on it.

Yes, obviously, there's a previous relationship. Brandon Ayuk and Jaden Daniels were teammates at Arizona State University.

So they know each other. They're good guys. They're buddies. All that good stuff.

Okay, cool. But. I don't see it. Oh, is that live?

Sorry. Breaking it. Is that live? Yeah, Messi just scored. He did.

Okay, congratulations. Leonal Messi. The all-time leader in goal scored in World Cup history.

Sorry to break in on the overreaction, but that's an overreaction right now. That's breaking news. That's breaking news. Congratulations, Lionel Messi. I don't know what number that is.

What number goal that is, by the way? 17? 17? Man, congratulations, man. That is that's huge.

All right, Argentina's good again. All right, he's good, he's back, right?

So, he's he's he's my version of Pele, right? I never saw Pele play live, but Pele, this is my version of it, right? We're seeing it right here. Because Pele is considered one of the greatest soccer players of all time. Maybe they're where does Messi is he not Messi's probably first.

Is he not first now? Like now with goals scored? I would need RJ in the back to tell me he's more of a soccer fan than me.

So I would need that like a real soccer fan. All right, USA RJ in the final. Let's go. This is like MJ versus LeBron, right? Those type arguments.

Messi just because Pele, from what we all grew up, Pele was that dude? GOAT. He was a goat. I mean, any soccer partner we knew of. Any time that you just say, No, we knew Maradona.

Oh, yeah, that's true. Oh, they're today's time. The hand of God, I think it was today. Hey. One name guys.

One name guys. One name guys. Alright, Brandon, are you commanders or no? Uh I think Terry McCormick. Terry McCormick may have something to say with that.

Okay. That's a good duo.

So they picked up somebody else this year as wide receiver effort. I don't know. I gotta look it up. I haven't put the commanders on my radar just yet. Grind a tape.

Do the Carriers play the Raiders this year? No, no, no. We did that last year. We're done with them. All right, last one.

The biggest news of the day: Dusty Mae, obviously, leaving Michigan after two seasons in Annatti to go to the Dallas Mavericks. He's going to have Dallas back in the NBA Finals in two years. I said. Two years. That's another overreaction right there, brother.

I just wanted to get them to the playoffs. They got to get to the playoffs first. Kyrie's back?

Okay. Cooper flag, Cooper Flag. Who's the alpha on that team? Is it Kyrie or is it Cooper? That's Cooper Flag's team.

That's Cooper Flag's team now.

So is Kyrie going to take a back seat to Cooper Flag? Or he's got to? I feel like Kyrie's that uncle now. Like, I just wanna see the young guys do it, man. I'm just gonna be on the team.

When you need me, I got you. But until then, you guys got it. Is that Kyrie? I like that. They have a top 10 pick in the draft coming up.

Derek Lively's nice. Yeah, I mean, sounding like that's a nice free agent. Playoffs first. Because that beast over in San Antonio ain't going nowhere. Yeah, they're only going to be there.

That beast over in San Antonio ain't going nowhere. And look, Wimby's going to hear it all offseason. How he didn't shake hands after it was over. Poor sportsmanship. All of that, and they're going to feel that.

So I feel like that fuels them for the next couple years. And then OKC, they, you know, check got pushed around a little bit. A lot of it. A lot of it. They're going to get healthy.

So Dallas got a long way to go. That's why I'm saying overreacting on that one, only because. The West is gonna be tough. Tough.

Now, Denver, what happened to Denver? Remember, Denver won, it was like, oh, this is the new dynasty. And then I looked at Something like you said, we always search in the net, we're always looking for stuff. And now it's been what, like, eight straight champions? Different champions, they've been that every single year.

Oh, they're about to go on a run, they're about to go on a run. Eight straight. Winners, no repeats. I love dynasties, man. Like, I love a dominant.

I know people don't like when I hear that, but it's good for sports. Because we need somebody to root for, and we always need a villain. We need somebody to root against. Yeah, we need a villain, we need to root against them because that's what creates us. Because we always want to know.

Are they going to win or go? The Kansas City Chiefs were the greatest thing for the NFL. It got us through that point and it came off of the Patriots. Right. Right.

So it was like Patriots. Then it went to Kansas City. Then it's like a partial Eagles right now because it's like you don't want to see them win, but you're going to watch them. And then now we're in a situation where. I don't know how people feel about Seattle being a defending champion.

It's like they're just seen. People have no thoughts because they're all the way tucked up in the Pacific Northwest, and they just kind of an afterthought. I like the variety myself. You do like the variety? Yeah.

Because I remember when the Warriors start winning, and you kind of knew, all right, for the next five years, this is kind of, if you're not a Warriors fan, then you kind of lose interest in the game. Variety, man, gets everyone interested. You know, your team has a chance every year. Every year you get a chance. But you know what?

That's why I like the NFL though. We do. It's our thing. It's our thing, and that's what we're doing right here on the Rich Isand Show. More coming up right here on the Rich Isand Show with Kirk Morrison filling in for Rich.

Uh Yeah. The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast. Rich Eisen here. And summer's here too. And that means it's travel season.

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With the World Cup, there's so much that's been going on. I've been excited to see all of these. New traditions that, or not even new traditions, traditions that we had no idea about. Watching Norway and their fans take over Times Square has been something that I just never knew. I mean, I've haven't been to an international game before, so seeing all of this is like, I feel like it's a big giant college football playoff.

Did you see the clip this morning of the Norway fans on the subway, and they were doing the row sitting in the aisle on the subway? That's crazy. It's amazing. That's crazy. It is unreal.

I mean, I'm learning way too much as always. But look, first of all, if you're running a small business, means every hire matters. A bad hire costs time and money. But the right one helps you build, helps your business grow. The challenge is finding that person without sorting through resumes.

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So join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com/slash Eisen. Terms and conditions apply. I think when you look at now This is the way that this World Cup has expanded. And they allow more countries to be a part of it.

We're seeing a lot of these. traditions and the rituals and the fandom. I You're saying it all over. You know, I remember I was, I think the U.S. play, what, Paraguay, the first game.

Yep. And I'm over in Englewood going to the gym. And I'm seeing like the ur the Paraguay uniforms. I'm like, just people everywhere. And like it's people from all over and you really truly understand what the World Cup is all about.

It is truly the World's Cup. And it really got me thinking last night too, fellas. Because The NFL We'll have, I believe it is, is it nine? or seven international games this year. Oh, I think nine in this made more, right?

I had my sheet somewhere. But I'm only bringing that up. Nine. It's nine games. Yeah.

Nine international games. Seven countries, four continents. Seven countries, four continents. This year will be nine. In future It's going to be every week.

Every week. Yeah. There's going to be at least where each team will play at least one international game. Every season. And why is the NFL pushing, pushing, pushing?

Because it's pushing for moments like what we're witnessing right now in the World Cup. 'Cause everybody's like, Well, nobody wants to see football over well. You probably if you haven't been, you don't know. I've played an international series game before.

Now, not over. Seize, but I play in a Toronto series. And that was, it just made games bigger that were just regular. non I mean non-playoff game. It was a regular season game.

But this is what the NFL, I think, is trying to do, guys. They want to have this appeal around the world. Get everybody to buy in. Because if you buy in, more people will watch, more people will buy tickets, and it makes the games that much bigger. That's what the NFL is doing.

The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Yeah. MLB.tv on ESPN is your home for every auto-market game, live or on demand. Catch your favorite teams and players, plus MLB network and ESPN app features like multi-view, syncing your stats, key plays, bets, and fantasy. All in one place.

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