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Now, on with the show. Yeah. This is the Rich Eisen Show. It's real with the Cowboys. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.
There's something real going on. It takes time. See what happens when Tom meets Vaughn with the Cowboys. Today's guests. Legendary broadcaster Bob Costas.
Comedian Adam Ray. Plus your phone calls, latest news, and more. And now, it's Rich Eisen. For two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Bob Costas will join us shortly, talk some baseball with Bob, and I will ask him if he has a fifth year of eligibility at Syracuse remaining.
I checked on my year at Michigan. You know, I might sue my way back in. I don't know. College sports is off. Bohawk.
It's totally off the hook. It's it's It's almost like unruly because listen. At the end of the day, At the end of the day, I understand it's tough for us to wrap our arms around how quickly things are changing and how they're changing. But none of us even on the craziest of days. could see coming The NFL As feeder system The college football.
Yeah. Well, the other preseason. It's always the other way around for, you know. Good reason because That's what happens when people get older. They move from college into professional ranks.
Now, I understand that college is run like professional football with general managers now and contracts. But no unions. In some rules, but not really. Yeah. Portals They open, they close.
Really? Portals open and close. That's what portals do. And Currently, there is A group of players in portals now Once they're cut by NFL teams, able to come back and sit in a portal. Because a judge in Louisiana Ruled that a new rule that college football instituted for players to You get five years of eligibility in fi in five years.
A five-year period of five years of eligibility. You can't have five years of eligibility over eight years. I believe this is what it is. I haven't read the fine print, but then a judge in Louisiana then comes in and says, Well, for players in the 22-23 season, That are not eligible to now get this new rule to benefit them, it now benefits them. And now, those players were allowed to enter a portal after they've turned pro.
to take advantage of this and LSU is with um Lane Kiffen, one of the schools, they're not the only ones. I mean, Texas took one. There's other schools that are out. Trying to take players. that are now entering a portal back a after a What a A brief dalliance with the national football.
Ever so um. I I was saying Yesterday, That the people I felt for the most. In all of this, Were the players currently at the schools who have been promised playing time? have earned playing time. have been told About playing time.
Having their Falls potentially up in the air because Some players from the NFL are coming back to college.
Okay. And, um Kudos to Kirby Smart. Who said this yesterday before the SEC made any actions, which we'll talk about in a second? About whether he was asked if Georgia was going to start diving in the portal to take a look at some players coming. Back to college from the NFL?
No, we're not currently evaluating anybody that's on NFL rosters and, you know. You know, my fault is just Uh To each his own is my thought. I'm worried about. our team, our organization, how we do things, the opportunities presented to the guys on our team is important to me. They've earned those opportunities through an off season, through a summer program, through a really tough fall camp.
And You have to decide, each and every person, if that's valuable enough to warrant replacing. your players that you know have worked with your team with others you know hey they might be better so our job is to upgrade and and and try to get better as much as we can and win games so some people feel like that gives them an opportunity to be better and doesn't change their culture then then more power to them I love that answer. It's like we got guys here, I promise, playing time. And if you feel that you can get better, you know, and not upset your culture. Sit right there.
That's it right there, then more power to 'em.
Well, the SEC after that Press conference. on Tuesday joined the Big Ten. and saying naw ain't happenin'. As a matter of fact, the SEC came out and said. According to Greg Sankey, They're going to pass new conference rules that gives Commissioner Greg Sankey full authority to enforce it with penalties.
Unanimous opposition, the SEC had 16-0. League presidents, chancellors, and athletic directors in the SEC all got together. And voted to give Sankey full enforcing with penalties, and we have on the screen here. According to Pat Forty of Sports Illustrated, what the penalties are, half season suspension for a head coach, a fine commensurate with 50% of the budget of the sport that takes a player.
Okay. The SEC voting privilege is revoked on business matters, and the Commissioner is at latitude to slap more on them. And that's if you take a player. That It's been made free. To return from the NFL.
The NBA Or the WNBA, which means we are going to take the highest revenue sports. Football. and men's and women's college basketball and Institute this.
Now, what does that mean for the kids that are in the portal? who are supposed to be joining Lane Kiffen.
Well, L S U is One of the sixteen nothins. Right? Alice, you voted for this.
So, is what's happening with the football and basketball programs not? In Concert with School president or Athletic director or chancellor or whatever. I I find that hard to believe. Cause they hired Lane Kiffin to suddenly go ahead and do what he's doing with LSU. And what he's doing is truly Nothing.
I guess illegal. And you're wondering how LSU might take it. The only way you can is to listen to how Lane Kiffin described why. His program is taking this path. Give a listen to this and then get ready for A CBS sports report about LSU's involvement With these lawsuits.
We have you know, made a decision to recruit Some kids around the country. And Through these multiple injunctions around the country, which this is not a first time, they've been in. college sports for a while. A group of players were granted a fifth year of eligibility. around the country.
Multiple sports. And through them winning their injunction. an entry into the portal. they're available to recruit. And so ourselves, like Many places around the country are recruiting them.
And At the end of the day, You know. Because of these rulings, they're either going to play for you or they're going to play somewhere else around the country. Um We've made decision to recruit them, like Probably most people are. In my opinion, knowing the information, I think it's really wrong to be critical of these kids. You know, they were granted.
They were granted a fifth year by a judge saying that they were wronged by the NCAA. And that they should have had the fifth year all along, like all the kids moving forward will have a fifth year.
So I think there's a lot of misinformation that. who don't understand why these are getting them. It's not Because of some other reasons that people may think, it's simply that a judge decided that they should have had the fifth year, like everyone moving forward will have. Makes sense, right? Wouldn't you say?
It does. Would you feel differently? If this CBS sports report I'm about to read from It's true.
Okay. Double byline, John Talty and Chris Hammer writing. All right. I quote Kiffen and the Tigers reached out to multiple players on NFL rosters on or their representation. In an effort to get them to bring a lawsuit against the NCAA and return to school.
This includes some of the players who ended up in the Louisiana lawsuit, which sources have pointed out wasn't tried in Baton Rouge by accident. Sure.
So LSU sees, according to this report, That this new five and five rule. happens. But what about the kids In this bucket. That had this ruling come out. too late for them To make an informed decision about whether to return to school or go into the NCAA draft.
Let's reach out to those players. Let's reach out to their representation to let them know, hey. We see a Legal loophole that if you're willing to drive through it. We're willing to take your kid to play. Yep.
Am I picking up what I'm reading here? That's how I'm taking it. And my question is: is LSU paying their legal bills also? I have no idea. But all I know is now There is a transfer portal way of getting.
From screen. School to school. There is now a transfer portal way. For you to enter it. with the legal portal.
And if you find the right judges And you have the smart legal people on your staff to realize this. And you're like Okay. I don't care about messing with my culture by telling kids who have been Working hard? That you no longer have snaps because We recognized this legal loophole and we started calling people to say. If you want to file a lawsuit, just let us know you're doing it.
Am I reading this right? Am I reading this right? Thank you, Tyreek. You know? And Lane in this same press conference was saying, I wouldn't be.
I wouldn't like to be my boss that hired me and then come and say, Hey, here's these guys going around the country playing, making teams better. Why aren't we recruiting them? Because we may end up playing against them. That's the way I'm thinking about it, and I don't think that's unique. And you could say, you're right.
He's probably. But are you the one who told these kids? Hey, right. Hey, you should think about doing this. Sue everybody's.
Suddenly, he sounds like a jerky boy.
So Rosenberg. Get your shoes and your glasses and come to LSU and play some football. I'll come over to you, Joey. Sizzle chest. It's the truth.
It's crazy. It's not funny, but it's crazy. But now here's the SEC saying great idea. But you maybe you don't want to coach half the season if you take the kid. unless there's another lawsuit coming.
And then, you know, the minute you think Lane is talking out of one side of his mouth, and then there's the other side of the mouth. He dropped this about Todd Munkin Mentioning that Lane called him, like, now I know why Lane's calling me about my tight end. I'm not dressing because the medical staff says he's not healthy. This is what Lane had to say about that. There's some inaccuracies in that story, but I don't know.
Maybe someone else called them and said they were me, you know?
So. Um I actually don't know Todd. Um So I guess somebody Left him a text or call that was me because I don't know him where I have his number.
Okay. So they went running to Todd Munkin. In Cleveland, And Munkin's like my bad. Did you hear this? No.
Yeah. Hidden. One of our staff had said, That's when I said us, not me.
Okay. I said That Lean Kiffin or one of our staff had said that they'd gotten a text. I should have followed through with it. Maybe they meant someone from their staff. Right?
That's on me. Should not throw someone's name out there without what? Following through with it. I was just making light of it. I really.
I was really not trying to make a big thing of it. It was just like. Man, what this world we've come to. And I shouldn't have thrown that out there, right? Like, to me, Hey, I can't control this, right?
I was just, it was almost silliness and goofiness, like. Really? This is what we've come to, where guys can be here and go back to college. It's really not a big deal, other than I probably shouldn't have without knowing for sure, you know.
So it is what it is. I knew it when it got on social media. How the hell would I know? I mean, I've never had to deal with it. Like, who's had to deal with it?
Like, oh, and that happens. It happens in college with everybody like They catch word of something, right? You have players on your own team, you're like, Catching word from so-and-so that he might be entering the portal. It's just word of mouth. They're not going to come to you.
It's all you're gonna stop. Hey, what I'm thinking about, going back to college. No. So it was a weird situation. He got hurt.
He's going back to college. It is what it is. Good luck to him. He's a good kid. And they're going to do a great job at LSU.
That's what they should do. Their job is to get the best players they can to win games. I'm not mad at anybody. I was actually, like I said, shouldn't have taken what I'd heard and ran with it. Yeah.
Wow. It's just nuts. Yeah. I think Sean McVay summed it all up when he was asked about it. Do you hear that sound bite, that quote?
He was asked about NFL players going back to college. Quote, I feel like I took a freaking gummy gummy. Yeah, I saw that. End quote. Yeah, I saw that.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I guess now, if you're a football program, you gotta have a general manager, right? You gotta have somebody in charge of the NIL. You gotta have somebody who's also recruiting.
You got to have facilities. You got to have now a great legal team to try and find a loophole so you can tell some kids: why don't you sue your way onto our team? According to CBS Sports, This is really what I'm doing. And then the adults in the conference leadership are like. Yeah, no.
This ain't happening. And LSU is one of the schools that unanimously said Yeah. This isn't happening. Yet the coach of both the basketball and Football programs are saying Yeah, this is happening 'cause you want us to win, right? Jesus.
Wild. Let's take a break. When we come back, we'll ask Bob if he's got a fifth year of eligibility in Syracuse, everybody. Oh, yeah. We didn't even mention Pete Golding, apparently, of all miss sweeping for bugs once Lane left.
Let's take a break. Bob zoomed in. This is the Rich Eisen Show here on a very busy. Wednesday. Our friends at LinkedIn would like you to know before we take a break that they know that running a small business Is not simple to do because every hire matters, and a bad hire costs time and money.
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but not okay with the subsequent chaos. And what I've seen advanced congressional initiatives, perhaps, it's more to put a cap on it, almost like to have some kind of salary cap that smooths out the chaos. But no one that I can think of, maybe somebody out there, is saying this. It is fundamentally perverse to pay a kid beyond the cost of education to come to your university. Fundamentally perverse.
And another thing that always bothered me. was during the conversations for a decade or more about this a standard trope was everybody's getting rich off this except for the athletes who are being exploited That says implicitly that the education is worth nothing.
So if this athlete attends class, and you've got to believe under these circumstances, many of them aren't even attending class. And if you play at four or five different universities, do the credits transfer if you have any credits at all? But in theory, that kid could be sitting next to Another student He's a student athlete, theoretically. Another student whose parents worked multiple jobs to put him and perhaps his siblings through college. Saving hundreds of thousands of dollars if he gets a scholarship.
And we all know there are studies that say if you have a college degree, you're likely to make much more over the course of your life than if you don't.
So the idea that nothing matters here, the education doesn't matter. That's fundamentally perverse. And all of this is an affront to not just common sense, but any principle that should prevail at a university. For the radio audience that just joined, that's the voice, as you know, of the 29-time Emmy Award winner, Bob Costas, here on The Rich Eisen Show. Let's jump into the subject matter of the last time we spoke: Tarek Skubel destroying baseball, and the Dodgers doing the same thing.
And, you know, I guess this is baseball, Bob, at the end of the day, in the. In the interim, the guy has just one win. That's it for the Dodgers. And I know that that. Mike, that's not the only telling statistic, but it hasn't tilted the playing field just yet.
Maybe it happens in October at the end of the day, anyway. But. I give you against the Pirates. He got nicked for a few runs in the first inning and then he settled in and had like six strong innings after that. And he's coming off minor elbow surgery in the middle of this season.
He wasn't having a season with the Tigers equal to his Cy Young back-to-backs in the two previous seasons. But something else about that trade before we get into the larger issue of baseball's economic structure. You said to yourself, When we heard before Schuba wound up being dealt to the Dodgers, that a number of other teams were in the mix. Let's say you're Milwaukee. Which has a strong farm system.
And I understand, I've spoken with people, they made what they thought was a very strong offer to the Tigers. But why wouldn't you, if you were the brewers, Go a step further. Farther. Why wouldn't you say to yourself that it's very likely that we meet the Dodgers at some point in October, in a Division Series or in an LCS? in a division series In four of the five games, because they build in extra off days for television, we could, in theory, throw Mizarowski and Skubel at the Dodgers, no matter how much better they might be over 162.
And in truth, the Brewers have a better record than the Dodgers right now. But we know what happened last October when they had a better record than wound up being swept by the Dodgers in the LCS. Why wouldn't you look at a scenario where Mizurowski and Skubel could pitch potentially four or at least three of a best of five? Pitch at least four, maybe five if they combined in a game seven in a best-of-seven LCS. Why wouldn't you push all the available chips into the middle of the table to do that?
Now, I know that teams have a general model, and that model for the Rays or the Guardians or the Brewers is different than the Yankees or the Dodgers. But aren't there circumstances in which you say, Wait a minute, we're going outside that model right now. We've been a consistent contender. We make great use of our limited resources, but we haven't been to the World Series since 1982, and we've never won the World Series. What would it mean to our brand and to our fan base if we could get to the World Series?
And so well I guess at the end of the day Why not indeed? Yeah. Right. I mean, and the Rays, too, at this point in time. And you know, another thought is the Dodgers.
And last time I was on with you, people misinterpreted, I guess, or some people did, when we were talking about. How smart the Dodgers are as an organization, how they have overwhelming resources, yes. And we'll find out. I don't know all the particulars. None of us do yet.
We'll find out if the financial circumstances of the Dodgers change as everything is being looked into in Mark Walters' empire. But we can't deny that they have made very intelligent and effective use of their overwhelming resources. And part of what they might have been thinking about is not so much acquiring Skubel, who's a definite plus, but keeping him away. from a team like the Brewers. The Dodgers are playing a long game.
Last year they slow walked to 93 wins, which was the third best division winner. And it could happen to them again. They could have to play in the wild card round again. But all their planning is pushing toward October, getting that deep pitching staff completely healthy and all ready for October. They're going to have a half dozen guys, any one of whom would have been either the ace or no worse than the number two pitcher on any other team.
And so if Edwin Diaz craps out, as so far he has, okay, one of these starters is going to be our closer. Robloxki was an all-star. Maybe he's our left-handed piece coming out of the bullpen in combination with somebody else. It is, it's overwhelming the advantages they have. But by adding scuba and keeping him away from the brewers?
That's another good chess move.
Well, I mean, that's exactly what the Dodgers do every year, right? Is that they. Certainly, folks around here in Los Angeles wringing their hands over the pen stinks. It's terrible. Oh, let's just throw Sasaki out there, you know, and let's get him, let's get him in a role out of the blue.
Kershaw, at one point, as you all know, came in out of the pen first time in his life, you know, and then it all works out because Roberts pushes the right buttons and knowing when. But You know, you you do take a look at the the central. With the Cubs and the Brewers, would you say that that's where the biggest challenge might be? I know the Padres have come on a little bit. There are the there's the Braves in the mix as well, the Phillies, you know.
With the diamond back, I mean, you got them up on the screen right here. This is basically your playoff picture in the NL. Um, or you just we're we're penciling the Dodgers in for October again right now. Yeah. Uh look.
I know that some people don't want to hear this, and it doesn't justify the inequities in baseball's present economic system. But almost any team could win any given short series. In October. The Dodgers, now granted, it was pre-Yamamoto and Otani, but the Dodgers lost back-to-back to the Padres in 22 and to the Diamondbacks from their own division in 23 in the Division Series. And as an aside, I think baseball ought to put in a rule that says in the first round, in the wildcard round, you can't meet a team from your own division.
Right now, when you looked at those standings, the Padres would be playing the Dodgers, assuming that the Padres finish ahead of the Diamondbacks and the Dodgers wind up.
Well, that's not true. The Braves have a lesser record than the Dodgers, but let's say the Dodgers wound up with a third best division record. You'd wind up playing a team that you just sprinted past for 162 games. You wind up playing them in a best two out of three roll of the dice. That doesn't make much sense.
I think you should keep divisional foes away from each other as long as possible when you get to the postseason. Yeah, I mean, the Braves in the Phillies, that might be a more feasible scenario as we're seeing it play out right now. Where do you stand on the PCA versus Otani conversation for the MVP in the NL right now, Bob? Obviously, Otani is the greater player, no disrespect to PCA, but I think, even though some of the way people view this has changed over time. The idea of most valuable in the minds of most voters, at least historically.
was somewhat different than Player of the Year. Player of the Year is somewhat different than most valuable. Pete Crow Armstrong likely has a number of great seasons still ahead of him. But this to this point is his greatest season, and the impact he's had with his bat. With his defense in center field, And with his base running, you know, Atani was once a 50-steel guy.
He doesn't run the bases quite the way he used to for obvious reasons. They got to be cautious. And Just as obviously, Otani, unicorn that he is, contributes as a pitcher. I think a lot of voters say Otani is in the mix. He's going to be first or second every single year, barring injury.
He's going to be first or second in the MVP voting every single year. And this is PCA's best year. And he's certainly elevated his team. And the Dodgers, without Otani, certainly that would be a huge blow to lose him. But the Dodgers have a lot more going for them besides Otani.
So if we're interpreting it as this is This is PCA's career year. And his value to the Cubs might be in this one year marginally better than Otani. If we have an excuse to vote for someone other than Otani, this year we have a good excuse. Yeah, I I'm with you on that. Do you think Otani should stop pitching, Bob?
What do you think? He doesn't want to stop pitching.
So that's the answer. He doesn't want to. Then that's it. I mean, because it's Otani's world and we're paying rent and you just got to keep him out. That's right.
And the Dodgers want him to pitch in October. Why not? I guess. The American League Moshpit Who emerges? Could be anybody, obviously.
The rays have hit a rough patch. The Red Sox have cooled off since they're 35-5. The White Sox are starting to. you know, perform very well again. Uh there's always the guardians, which is uh uh difficult Team to get past.
Any other any thoughts on this mosh pit, as I mentioned?
Well, again, as we're talking about the haves and the have-nots, no one wants to hear this, but the Yankees are where they are. And if the postseason would start Tomorrow, they would have home field in a best two out of three against the Red Sox, which is a marquee matchup for television. But they've done this largely without Aaron Judge. Max Freed is only now coming back. Carlos Rodan is only now coming back.
They were without Bellinger for a while. He came back and homered either last night or the night before.
So when they get to full strain. And Stanton, I think, has run out of calves to strain. I think he's got, you know, there's only two of them, and he's now got both of them. Which is a shame because no matter how many games he misses during the regular season, he's always been a tremendous October performer. He has like all-time stats in the postseason.
But even without Stanton, when you look at the depth of the Yankees' pitching, And if Judge is back and their lineup is at full strength, then you have to give the Yankees a pretty good chance to get to the World Series. Yankees Dodgers again would be something else. That would be. You know, it would work for television, and a good portion of the baseball world would be up in arms. And with good reason.
with good reason. There has not been a team in the bottom half of MLB payrolls to win the World Series since 2015, and that was Kansas City. Fans in general. All the surveys indicate this. Fans in general feel that the deck is stacked against most teams.
The Dodgers paid more in luxury tax last year than 16 MLB teams paid in payroll. But maybe the most telling comparison is this. In the last decade, the Pittsburgh Penguins have won the Stanley Cup. Are they in the same economic circumstance as the pirates? The Lightning has won the Stanley Cup.
Are they in the same economic circumstance as the Rays? The Panthers have won the Stanley Cup. Are they in the same economic circumstance as the Marlins? And In the NFL, are the Chiefs who've won the Super Bowl three times in the past decade, are they in the same economic circumstance as the Royals? The NHL has a hard cap, so there's that.
The NBA, you need a PhD five times over to figure out what their cap is, but it exists. And here's a key point about the NBA. In the last two finals, You've got the Pacers against OKC, and you've got the Spurs against the Knicks.
So you take the Knicks out. three of those four teams not only would be small market teams in MLB, they would never even have a team. They're too small a market to have a team in Major League Baseball.
Now, in the NFL, they have a cap, yes, but the problem was solved back in Pete Roselle days. when they decided to share the massive and ever-growing television revenues equally, which is why the Green Bay Packers are not in the same circumstance as the Milwaukee Brewers. They can compete equally with good management and a little luck with New York, Chicago, Los Angeles.
Somehow, without getting into all the granular aspects of this, The average baseball fan understands that even if with three wild cards and three separate divisions and the two central divisions generally grouping teams that are in like economic circumstances with the possible exception of the Cubs, they understand that there's a way to sneak in there and anything can happen, but that in the big picture, it is not fair.
Well, and we could spend the next hour and twenty minutes finishing my show if you had the time and I didn't have other guests with you telling me stories about Marvin Miller and Donald Fear and the history. Of the union, you know, that's a non-starter. The whole, everything that you just said is right. There's no question about that. Um, and and you also know the history of labor disputes in other sports.
You know, the owners aren't really going to sit down and try and figure it out themselves and then come with a reasoned proposal to the players, they're just going to throw it on the players and say, You figure it out. Like, that's the way we get a nuclear winner, and even worse, potentially, Bob, right? Like, so what's the answer? Yeah, you know, I know you're a little short on time. No, no, go for it.
I think the approach of the owners this time is going to be to appeal as much as they can to the rank and file. Look, we want a salary cap. But that's not a cap necessarily on any individual salary. It's a cap on overall team payrolls. but we will absolutely offer a payroll floor So every team has to pay up to that floor.
We will also share all of the local media revenues.
Now it doesn't match the NFL. But since the collapse of the regional sports networks, a lot of teams really took a hit. But the Dodgers didn't, the Yankees didn't, the Red Sox didn't, the Mets didn't, no matter how they may squander their resources.
So if we can central, who's that laughing? That's my guy, Mike Del Tufo. He's a great line bomb.
So if we can centralize our media revenues that way, that will have a leavening effect. They could offer the players. free agency after five years rather than after six they could increase the minimum salary They could say, look, we'll improve pensions, which are already very generous in baseball, but we'll improve the pension program. All these things designed to appeal to the rank and file. The last time there was a potential stoppage, it didn't cost any games, like five years ago, the issues that were on the table were slightly different.
But this is revealing. There's an executive council of the Major League Players Association. All eight of them, disproportionately very high-salaried guys, Scott Boris guys, not a criticism of Boris. He does his job very, very well. They voted 8-0 to reject the owner's proposal.
But the players overall, through their player representatives, voted 26 to 4 out of the 30 teams to accept it.
So I think the approach, I don't know all the particulars, but the approach is going to be, hey, we're going to make this better for 90% of you. Half of you are consigned to teams that don't have a really good chance to compete anyway.
So why don't we change the overall landscape? And the result is not going to be any one of you standing on a corner rattling a tin cup asking for spare change. Yeah. Yeah. As succinct as you could possibly make it, man.
We're going to clip and save that and hopefully keep replaying it if the two sides don't listen to each other when it allows you to do that. Rich, last thing, less than a minute. This gets lost on people. Look, the players were right in every way, right on principle, going back to Marvin Miller and all the rest. And the owners didn't help by being duplicitous and they were caught colluding in the 1980s, all that stuff.
But the idea that this always has to be a holy war and that a salary cap is just a principle that we cannot even talk about. Mm-hmm. doesn't take into account this simple fact. A league. is a business in which the competitors must simultaneously be partners.
The Dodgers can't play an intra-squad game and get the same television ratings. Half the league is responsible for every competition. That should be obvious. You can run a diner down the street. Uh under different Business principles than a five-star restaurant on the other side of the street, and they can both be.
successful on their own terms. But that doesn't work in a league. Why does no one get upset back in the day with whatever Mike Tyson's purse was or whatever someone won in a golf tournament or tennis? Because those are individual things for either prize money or what Tyson got or any other boxer got is what the business calculation said their worth was when they stepped into the ring. in baseball and any other sport that has a league.
Yes, players should be handsomely compensated in the R. But the league itself has to function. And recognizing that, recognizing the stepping back and recognizing what should be obvious. The definition of what a league is, as opposed to almost any other business, then there have to be devices in place so that the league runs in not just a more efficient way, but in a way that better serves its customers who are the fans. Love it.
Well said, Bob, as always, and I'm with you. I totally hear you and agree with you. Although I would pay good, hard-earned American dollars to watch the Mets play the Savannah Bananas once. Like that would be great. And then when they lost to the bananas, I know.
Can you imagine the back page of the New York Post? Oh my God. Yes. That's bananas. Exclamation point.
That's better than what I was going to say: slipping on a banana peel. Ladies and gentlemen. Bob Costas, right here in the program. Great to see you, Bob. We'll chat against him.
The one and only Bob Costas. And then Soto would get on stilts, right? You don't see the Savannah bananas? I don't help him catch. Bob's 100%.
We was crushed right there. Hey, listen, I hope what he said, man. I hope what he said is just like, let's get the rank and file, the rank and file, tell the. Gajillionaires. Let's figure this thing out, right?
Let's figure this thing out. But, you know, when you tell the kids you can be a gajillionaire under this system, it'll be tough. Awesome stuff with Bob. We're back with more in a moment. The Rich Heisen Show, the podcast.
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Loans originated by SoFi Bank and a member FDIC terms and conditions apply. NMLS 69-6891. All right. It's four downs time with the Los Angeles Rams. This one's easy.
This one was like the simplest one. I have to do much research. Hit it. Four downs with Rich. Here we go.
Why did he suck him? Season preview of the Los Angeles Rams four down style. This one was easy. This one was real simple. You know what first down is?
First down. Is he back there? Is he back yet? Is he back yet? Mm.
No. He's not. I get it. I get it. I think it's inevitable still.
But the fact that it's still now, we're in the last Wednesday of. Of August, you're thinking maybe not, but who cares? They'll take him whenever the hell he wants to be taken. And if he doesn't, Well They've got a pretty hell of a uh great of a uh roster to fall back on.
So. But he comes back. Oh boy. Is he back yet? It's first down.
Second down. Here for the Rams. It's in this, again. It just goes to show you how good they are. And how Few questions there are.
that I'm asking as a legitimate second down. Question. Who's the backup quarterback? That's a legit question. I know that.
Because everything else is ready to roll. And again, Matthew Stafford last year, one year ago at this time, is like: is he going to be able to stand up, right? Let alone take a snap? And then he has an MVP season.
So let's knock on this: that this is not even going to be an issue. Um Bod. Would they be able to win the Super Bowl if they have to go a significant amount of time with either Stetson Bennett or Ty Simpson? Or Jimmy Garoppolo? I don't know.
He's not, I mean, I really believe the Rams are, and I go on high register here. Would go into the season with either one of these kids. Maybe I'm wrong. Uh Third down. You could say this about any team, but again, I'm grasping at straws here.
You're just basically saying if they stay healthy and they keep playing football. At full strength. They're going to win the Super Bowl, or they're going to go to the Super Bowl, or they're going to win their division, and then who knows any given Sunday, blah, blah, blah. You could say this about any. This could be a down for any of the 32 teams in the NFL, but this one is truly.
What am I going to sit here and wonder about that running back room, the receiver room? They're lying. Come on. Fourth down. Fourth down.
No, really, is he back yet? I mean. Is he back yet? Where is he? Oh really?
Where are you? All right, I'll give you. I'll give you another.
Okay, I thought that was really fourth down. It could have been, though. All right, I'll give you another fourth down. How off the hook can Miles Garrett be? Yeah.
Okay? Like that's the question. Seeing him On a winning team. with a quarterback. that can put points on the board and let him hunt in a way which is frightening to say, that he's never really been able to do.
With a lead to protect a fourth quarter lead over and over again. A down and distance where he can go hunt all the time. The scoreboard helps, the down and distance helps. The pressure the offense puts on the defense. of the opposition helps.
How off the hook can this guy be? Certainly if Aaron comes back. And that's my four downs on the Los Angeles Rams. Adam Ray, Diehard Seahawk fan, to be fair and balanced, coming up in studio in our third hour. Thanks for listening to the Rich Eisen Show Podcast.
You can watch and listen to The Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from noon to 3 Eastern on ESPN Radio, Disney Plus, and on the ESPN app, The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast. At Zock Doc, we know being a healthy adult is like living in a video game. Every day has side quests, taxes, laundry, birthdays, and just when you're leveling up, you have to book a doctor. The insurance portal crashes, they put you on hold, your doctor doesn't take your plan. Game over.
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