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Now. On with the show. All day, let's go all day. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Once you put him in the game, he's gonna play.
From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show. ESPN college football analyst Josh Pate. Coming up. Steelers defensive tackle Cam Hayward.
Comedian Joe Coy. And now, it's Rich Eisen. All right, hour number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. We've got Cam Hayward in his usual Tuesday spot and joining us as he did last Tuesday and this Tuesday and the Tuesdays after this. Josh Pate's college football show is out there for you to check out on YouTube.
And of course, he's hanging out with the Bustin guys every Friday on site at 2 o'clock Eastern on ESPN. Josh Pate is here on The Rich Eisen Show. Hey, Josh. Buddy, Michigan's 2-0, just like we thought. They're 2-0, just like we talked about in August.
All's well. You look younger than you did last week.
So I assume some things changed in your recreational life, your personal life. You seem sprightly. You know how rarely I use that word, but you seem sprightly today. I appreciate that. But the only way I could follow up with you is: hey, Josh.
Don't you franklin me. Hey, Josh. Don't you franklin me. Hey, Josh. Hey, Josh.
Hey, coach. Hey, Coach, how are you? Was that so tough to respond? Shame on these idiots on Zoom with their delays and their videos turned off. What is wrong with these 19-year-olds?
Hey, John. I mean. You want to read that one for me? Is there What that was about? Josh?
I think what's happening right now is Virginia Tech has started 2-0. Not enough people have maybe noticed. And so, if they don't notice you on Saturday, as Mima always said, make them notice you on Monday at the press conference.
So, James Franklin is choosing the latter instead of the former. But I do want to say, they're a very, very strange, short, three and a half point favorite against Maryland this week. But I don't want to look at the here and now because I'm not a coach or player. I can afford to look down the road. You know, Pitt's undefeated too.
I know you brought me here to talk ACC football, mid-tier SEC, or ACC football at that. There's a Friday night game coming up, Rich, in three weeks between Pitt and Virginia Tech. And if they're both undefeated, That's going to get a lot of national attention, and that is James Franklin's opportunity. If the kids, coaches, and officials don't screw it up between now and then, that is James Franklin's opportunity. I love that how you put it there: kids, coaches, and officials.
All right, let's talk Texas, Ohio State. Your main takeaway from that game is what? Uh I think I would have ended up being more comfortable if I'm an Ohio State fan if we only went up 14 to 3. I think going up 23 to 3. Could very well have led to us taking our foot off the gas.
I was at the Miami FSU game last year, Miami gets up big. They let the foot off the gas. FSU didn't come back and win, but they came back and they kind of semi-made it a game. And their offensive coordinator, Shannon Dawson, walks up afterwards and he just goes, Never forget, it is tough to rev the engine twice in this sport. In these games, if we rev it once, that's great.
We can't rev it twice. And Ohio State couldn't rev it twice. Texas went on three different double-digit snap drives, I think, in the fourth quarter.
So the final score being 24-23, that's not shocking. Obviously, the way we got to it is shocking, but I got to be real with you. Sark needed that thing, man. Texas needed that. I know there's been a whole lot of weird off-the-field stuff after that, but just the football piece here: Sark and those guys needed that.
Now, It should be noted. Everything they tried within the framework, within the structure of their offense failed. It wasn't until they kind of took that thing in the backyard and let Arch Manning just play football, you know, tail as old as time, that they started to move it. And Ohio State folks, they'll say, oh, we let it happen, we imploded, whatever. It's football.
So it happened. That's all I know. Moving forward, You know, they're still going to be in a pressure cooker four or five more times. I really wonder. If this is a springboard effect, or if this was just an outcome, but there are still little question marks here and there.
On the Ohio State side, And I've talked to a lot of Ohio State fans who push back on me. It's this weird place where I'm trying to defend Ohio State, and Ohio State folks are saying, shut up, you don't know what you're talking about. We're terrible. I think they may still be the best team in the country, Rich. And I really think down the road, when Chris Henry ends up getting in the wide receiver rotation more, when Legend Bay ends up touching the ball more, these are both true freshmen, but they're supremely talented true freshmen.
When it's November, And Ryan Day and his staff are comfortable enough and have enough trust in those guys to have them on the field. You put that layer on the sandwich, and you also add the layer that they just learned one of the most important lessons in this sport, which is do not let up until it's triple zeros up there. Do not let up. No one's really going undefeated anymore.
So, this is like Miami losing to SMU or Louisville last year. That didn't derail them. If anything, it propelled them.
So, the difference between Miami last year and this Ohio State team is they also got some high hurdles in the future. But I loved it. It was a great high-level football game. Wish we had more of them. And I think I am a net percentage point higher on both teams in the aftermath.
Well, just a. Pushback in a conversation then. The Teams do go undefeated. Indiana and Michigan did around Ohio State, and that may be what's sticking in Buckeye. Craws Is that Two Big Ten teams, including the one they hate the most, did it.
But That being said, Buckeye fans are looking at it in a way that Um I think many people need to learn to stop looking at it. We've professionalized this now, right? Like the only thing that's missing is an actual commissioner that means anything at the top. And unionizing so the players can get the max, right? And who knows what's happening with this bill that's being voted on, yada, yada, yada.
But um You do have to look at it like In the NFL, The Rams just lost week one. Is the season over? Of course not. You know what I mean? The Broncos last night.
Didn't look great. There's still a whole bunch of games to go. Ohio State lost in a very difficult spot. against a really Really good and talented team.
So, what they could lose. I think maybe even two more times, Josh. They could lose even two more times. And still be. considered for the twelve spots to get in in in college football's playoffs.
That's the way you got to look at it now. It's a long run. You know, this conversation you and I are having right now is the perfect. Case study. For why the postseason format in college football is the perfect size.
Calls on one side of the fence. You got people freaked out that they lost a game because they're scared to lose games because they know there is that urgency in this sport. But then, on the other side, you're making the point that you're making. Both of them are valid points, by the way. And that is, well, you can afford to lose a game.
Now, you can't afford to lose four of them, but you can afford to lose a game, especially when you play that. Type of strength of schedule. I went at somebody about this Saturday night because they kept saying, boy, if we expand to 24 teams, imagine how many more of these games we'll get. You won't get more of those. Because you can't duplicate that urgency when you know the loser of this game can lose three more times and still be safely in.
So we're in a proper balance right now of access and urgency. And I don't want that to be lost in the conversation because, as you and I are talking behind some back door somewhere amidst the cigar smoke, because they do still smoke in these rooms, it's very old school. They're trying to expand this thing to 24. And I just hope people remember. How tight they still felt Saturday night.
You know, it's not over for either team if they lose. But you've still got that Saturday feel. It's a really good balance we have right now.
So of course, let's try and screw it up as soon as we can. Josh Pate here on the Rich Eisen Show, you want to take a crack at the AI comments and what's going on with Arch right now and what you think Texas is They weren't As you and I are talking? Right now? Have they issued the apology yet? I just assume any second is coming.
That not yet. Not yet, no. Yeah, so I um I had a day. Monday is always my day to get everything in my personal life done that I could possibly get done.
So when news happens on Monday, It's kind of hit or miss when I see it. This was one of those things where I kind of was aware that it was happening. I hadn't seen the video yet when I saw the little clip or whatever. And so I kind of went on about my business, circled back later, saw that it had blown up. And I mean, do we?
Do we need to state the obvious? I was watching you when you went to break, and you were like, Do we even need to say this? You probably don't need to laugh at that. People in the room don't need to laugh at it. On the other side, It's AI.
Why is anyone even giving this the time of day? Why is it even getting oxygen? Why are we wasting two seconds of our lives talking about it? Like, is anyone taking a pro stance on what was depicted in that AI video? If they are taking a pro stance, are they worth listening to?
To me, it's just stupid. Josh Pate here on The Rich Eisen Show. This game coming up. L S U and Ole Miss. Is going to be quite something.
Are you going? To Oxford? Is that where you're going on Friday? I'm going to be at Auburn for Florida to Auburn because I have. I've got opportunities down the road to see Ole Miss several times, already seen LSU, and there will be other moments.
But yeah, everything you just said about this game. This is the kind that your aunt who loosely cares about sports will be glued to. This is the one where your sister, who really couldn't even tell you the mascot at Ole Miss, she'll be glued to it. This one's going to bring in a lot of drive-by fans. This is theater.
This is spectacle. This is storyline. This is reality show. It's Lane Kiffens wheelhouse. In other words, is what I'm trying to say, Rich.
The beautiful part is Lane doesn't even lie about it. He just leans into it. He's like, yeah, I kind of do live for this. I also happen to be a pretty good football coach, but you know what? He said last week, hey, I bring entertainers off the bus with me.
I bring influencers into the stadium with me because this is the entertainment business. I just happen to be a football coach in the entertainment business, which, by the way, may make some people's blood curl, but he's not wrong about that. Like you, you don't get paid $10 or $15 million a year because you can diagram plays well. You get paid because this is the entertainment business and a whole lot of people love it. I will say this.
you Me personally, when I look at this Ole Miss LSU game. I get really captivated by the football part of it. If these were two seven and five caliber teams, I'd be captivated by the storyline aspect. But these are two of the 10 best teams in America, maybe even loftier than that. Sam Levitt was incredible in week one.
Trinidad Chambliss just is incredible. By the way, Rich, the argument could be made: the two best quarterbacks in the country are in Mississippi right now, but that's a side conversation. But this one's going to be incredible. I will say the whole Charlie Weiss Jr. piece of this all, the OC at Ole Miss that came with Lane to LSU, but stayed at Ole Miss to coach through the playoffs, that dude's going to be a head coach in very short order.
In fact, If that Florida State job opens up, I don't know who's going to be running the ship down there because they just fired the AD. That's who I'd call. But we're not a search firm, at least not yet.
So back up on the main road, there's so many football pieces here. There's so many things that you think you know about LSU after week one, but week one lies to us all the time. And so, you know, people's minds remember LSU blowout, Ole Miss taken to the wire in week one, 38 hung on that Ole Miss secondary. Boy, imagine what LSU is going to do. I guess if it's a wrench repeat of week one, then yeah, but hey, if week one to week two was rinse repeat, would we have seen Michigan beat Oklahoma?
Would we have seen a lot of things?
Now, Oregon, to their credit, they were rents repeat week one to week two, but there's still a lot of craziness and unpredictability here. The football piece is great. The theater is just like the cherry on top for me.
So, are you concerned about Oregon? Yes, I am. Yes, I'm concerned because So we're fresh off a season where we saw the failure to launch mode with several top 10 teams: the Clemson thing, the LSU thing, the Penn State thing.
So, you know, the new narrative in college football is: who's this year's Penn State? And Oregon just happens to be the first prime candidate to be this year's Penn State. It's like you got the stack of wood here, but it won't light because the wood's wet. Whatever. Choose your metaphor.
I don't think it's too late for them to pull the nose up. But you know what they reek of? They reek of a team that won it all the year before, and they've come in complacent. Little lethargic, taking things for granted. The difference, Rich, is they didn't win anything last year.
They got blown out by Indiana the year before. They got blown out by Ohio State.
So they've got all the trappings of complacency without the prize to show for it in their rearview mirror. I don't know. It's like watching a bunch of ingredients that should make a good meal, but no one's making the meal. They were very, very unprepared. I'd say in the past two weeks, I know that staff very well, man.
I've been in that building. I've sat in team meetings. I've sat in staff meetings. Like, I know how militaristic they are about this. Which makes it mind-boggling when you see the outcome here.
But, dude, their first five drives against Boise two weeks ago, seven offensive points. Their first five drives this past weekend, zero offensive points. They got dominated. You change one or two things about the beginning of that game, and it's 24-0, Oklahoma State. That's one where Oregon's lucky to be in that thing.
So. They got USC coming up on the road in a couple of weeks, and that'll define a lot of things. Because if they go down two losses already, and you know they've still got several big-time Big Ten hurdles. I don't feel great about it. Remember, this is a team replacing both coordinators.
Uh but That roster is a ready-made winner on paper. We don't play the game on paper, though. That's a big problem sometimes. We do not play this thing on paper. They play them inside television sets, as Kenny Main once said famously.
Before I let you go, what is your take from Michigan, Oklahoma? What is your takeaway? I was so disappointed only because I bought into John Matier. I bought in Hook, Line, and Sync. You know, I even put like 10 or 20 bucks on a Matier Heisman ticket, mainly because I thought it was good content.
But still, I did spend $20 American dollars in this economy on a John Matier-Heisman ticket. And I, man, I don't know. He got hurt midway through the year last year, and so there was the whole pre-post-injury stat line. But, you know, he was front-squatting 500 pounds in the offseason, which is, as we all know, that's integral to a quarterback's mechanics. How much can you front squat?
And people made fun of me, and they're like, man, he's the same Jon Matier. Doesn't matter. You can't bench press a touchdown pass. And I'm like, you'll see. And we went up there and I saw.
They didn't see. I saw. A lot of people are piling blame on like Ben Arbuckle, who's the OC at Oklahoma, which. I don't know what he could have schemed. Like, I don't know how you work around a guy with accuracy that poor.
I will say. Maybe The biggest surprise is the coaching staff seem to be as shocked at the production or lack thereof as we did. And that's a problem. Because normally, when the public is seeing it, the coaching staff has known it for weeks or months. And the reason I say that is because if you knew he was going to struggle that bad as a passer, You wouldn't have scripted him up to throw as many passes in the first half as Underwood did the entire game.
I'm sitting there mid-second quarter talking to Ian Fitzsimmons, who works for ESPN Radio, and I said, Does it not seem to you like Michigan is running the offensive game plan that oh, you should be running? You look at Underwood's stat line running the ball this game versus Matiers from last year's game. It's nearly identical.
So I got what I expected. It's just the opposite team did what I expected them to do. Yeah, I mean, I guess I should have been more fine-tuned in my question. I don't care what you thought about Oklahoma. What do you think about Michigan?
My bad. What a sick, sick individual. That's me. I. All right, so I'll be real with you.
This is just you and I talking. No one else is listening. That's right, everybody, earmuffs. We were there Friday. We were in the building Friday.
Michigan was great to us, by the way, man. Like, I love those folks, so I appreciate them. Me too. I Have been around a lot of places Fridays before a big game. I've been around a lot of places after they lost and they're going into a big game.
So I've got a lot of historical case study for this. The vibe around Michigan. was not that of a ton of confidence.
Now, I have not been around Kyle Whittingham teams a whole lot.
So I chalked it up to maybe this is just the way a Kyle Whittingham building organization feels before a big game. But I couldn't help but juxtapose that to how supremely confident OU was.
So when Michigan came out and just took the fight to him. That's what, I don't know if I'd say shocked, because I knew Michigan was a really good defensive team, but it surprised me. But the other thing is, you talk about preparation. How many was it six OU drives that had to start inside their own 20? Two of them started at the one-yard line.
They dominated in special teams. They forced Mateir into making a mistake that they could benefit from. They ran underwood. They did everything you and I talked about last week, bullet point after bullet point, that they'd need to do to win the game.
So huge amounts of credit. Like, you don't, I don't think anyone leaves that game saying, well, all my questions have been answered about Michigan, but they're 2-0. That's what we know. They're 2-0, whole season ahead. And that game we saw last week, that's a foundation game.
I can build on that. I can stand on that. I didn't have anything to stand on after the Western Michigan game. No doubt. I'm with you.
Josh, always great to catch up with you. Josh Pate's college football show on YouTube. You at the Busting Guys on Friday to Eastern on ESPN. And the only thing I have to say to you is Bye, Josh. Bye, coach.
That was simple.
Now we can get off the Zoom. Thank you. That's Josh Pate, everybody. See you, bud. Bye, Josh.
Sometimes you just got to be direct. What'd you think of Michigan? I don't care what you think of Oklahoma. I shouldn't say that.
Well, of course they care what it is. It's about Oklahoma because it's good for Michigan. Running a small business means every hire matters. A bad hire costs time and money, but the right one helps your business grow. The challenge is finding that person without sorting through resumes.
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Apply. When we come back, it's Overreaction Monday on a Tuesday. Cam Hayward and the comedian Joe Coy are also on the horizon. Did you know every 36 minutes a child in the U.S. is diagnosed with cancer?
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Taylor in Arkansas. Has a mm. Fantasy questions for us, apparently. What's up, Taylor? Taylor.
Hey Rich, how are you? What's on your mind? Hey, some of my friends were doing a guillotine league for the first time.
Okay. I heard y'all talk about it all the time. They're fun. They're fun. They're fun.
And if you're looking for advice, you've come to the right place. Um, because TJ Jefferson had a shot of being potentially chopped in week one of our league, uh, but was Smart enough to just bench Cortland Sutton last night because if he had fumbled twice, you'd have lost. You gotta chopped. Saw my first row. Oh, yeah.
So, so, so TJ, honestly, we're we're we're all over whatever you need. What do you mean? Yeah, there's so many different strategy ideas.
So I was I was getting close to getting chopped, but I had Isaiah Likely, so that saved me.
Okay. And I have AJ Brown, so that's not looking too good.
So the team that got chopped has Jalen Waddle and DK Metcalf.
So like I was wondering how much money I should spend on someone like that because I don't want to spend too much for someone like Waddle, but. I also only have Matthew Golden and Casey Concepcion as my wide receivers.
So I kind of make them help there, so I don't know what to do. Taylor, here's the deal, man. 30%. You got to go get one of those guys. Yeah, it's surviving advance, right?
I'm only going to put a few bucks down because I need to save my money for later. There's no later in the guillotine. If you're close to the block, you've got to improve your roster at any cost. Yeah. How does that sound?
Like $100 beats? No, I mean, what's your budget? Yeah, what is your budget? It's $1,000.
Okay. Yeah, I think 100 minimum. Those guys are going to get a lot of things. But you also don't want to put yourself in a position where you spend too much early. I know this from last year, and then you keep advancing, and now you've got nothing.
So you just got to kind of be smart about it.
Well, I think we just gave it a week. Kuka Nakua was almost chopped, but the guy in last place needed four points from Waddle, and he got. Nothing there, so Puko was almost available.
So I was going to break the bones for him. That would have been $60,700. Taylor, thanks for the call. There you go. Look at us.
Arius Consulting Unite. We're here for you. You're there, we're here. Let's go to Lloyd in Louisiana wants to talk. What's up, Lloyd?
Lloyd. Lloyd. How are we doing today? Lloyd. Lloyd.
I appreciate y'all taking my call. I have an opinion, and I was kind of mad that yesterday no sports shows, no news media talked about this, but I guarantee if it was a bigger game, Everybody would have talked about it. What? About the second quarter play between Detroit and New Orleans. We talked about it.
That didn't happen that got overturned to an incomplete pass and explained so stupidly by Mike Pereira.
Well,. Lloyd. I need to get your opinion on what you think about that play. Lloyd. I could have changed the game.
Here, I'll give you the beats, if you will. We did talk about it yesterday. To the point where we had a quote from the league's vice president of instant replay. His name is Mark Butterworth, Lloyd. I don't know if you know any Butterworths.
No.
Okay. Okay. Exactly. But long story short, is that's the appropriate. Um officiating of what's in the rule book.
That really is. I don't know why it's in the rule book. It's so confusing to me. It makes no sense to me. That looked 1,000% like a backwards pass.
And if it wasn't a pass, it was a fumble. Period, the ball went backwards, but there's something in the rule book that says if your arm's going forward and the ball goes backwards, it's as if it's going forward, which is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
So I totally understand why you feel like you're hosed. Totally. I still I still believe that the NFL still hates the Saints, go back to the NFC Championship game versus the Rams with a non-pass interference that this right here could have changed the game. We don't know how the game would have been on week one.
Well, it would have been seven seven and instead of being down twenty one nothing, you know, it would have been seven to seven. You know, so I understand that, but it was appropriately called. And I appreciate the call, Lloyd. And that's the other thing that I wanted to. kind of hit yesterday, but we were at the end of our segment time.
Um why it's in the rule book that way. You know, because I asked that of Pereira back in the day about the tuck rule, and he goes, Well, there's too much gray area, so you have to make there's less gray area by having the. Taking the football down. as a pass. And I'm like, gray area.
Like, you just created the gray area. Because this looks like you don't want to pass anymore, you want to run it, and you're calling it a pass.
So You've created a gray area of this. Hand moving forward is a pass. This ball tucked underneath an arm is... a run and the process of tucking it Is not Now considering it a run. It's considering it a pass still.
Why? Makes no sense. 'Cause it looks like when you make a move with your arm, That you don't intend to throw it anymore. Why are we still calling it a pass? You're creating the gray area.
You're making me feel ridiculous. With my two eyes you say they're lying, but they're not. That's what this thing is. Ball goes backwards. Backwards.
Right.
So, even if it is a forward pass, it's going backwards.
Well, even if it's a ladder, even if that means we're intending it to pass, right? Then The intent is to pass and the ball goes backwards, that's just the way it should go. Yeah. Not like, oh, the intention to pass means I'm intending to throw it forward, thus, it's now this move. means it's an incomplete forward pass.
What? Yeah. Did you see Brian Fitzpatrick's tweet yesterday? Which was. He quote-tweeted Pereira's video of breaking down the whole explanation and the intent and all that.
And he goes: Per this ruling, I'd like the league to review all 169 of my interceptions. My intent was clearly to throw it to my receiver. And the rule book. Very funny. An appropriate amount of snark.
Yeah. And Sarcasm. That is an appropriate answer. Because The rule book is written in a way that makes me feel stupid. When I think me You The American people listening and watching us, the international community that watches us later.
The US. Um We all collectively look at that and say that's A backwards or a backward pass. Right.
One or the other. No, no, no, no, no.
Sorry. The rule book says that if the hand makes a certain motion, We are just assuming you intended to throw it forward, so we are just going to rule it as such. Why? Why? We're trying to protect the people.
Who are throwing the football from what? Fumbling? Because that's what that was. Or a backwards pass, because that's what that was. It makes no sense.
All right. We'll take one more call and then we'll do overreaction Monday on the Tuesday when we come back. How does that sound? Um.
Okay, let's go to Mike in Arizona. Mike. What's up, Mike?
Okay. You there, Mike? Hello? Hello, how are you guys? You're on the air, sir.
What's going on? What's up, man? Mike. Hi, I've got a a fifty four year old dad from Clean Creek, Arizona. I've been a forty niners fan since nineteen eighty, since Arizona didn't have a pro team until about eighty seven.
I've grown a little bored watching my team, they haven't done so well over the Glory years, of course. And so, with some extra time, I've sat around and thought of a couple ideas that I think would benefit the NFL and kind of like you guys to give me your best one. I have time for one. Give me your best one, Mike.
Okay, the open NFL concept would be reorganizing the league to a flat. Open NFL with no divisions, no AFC, no NFC. And the benefit is, every team would play every other team every two years. and you would get every team in NF in every NFL stadium every four years, The best records would determine the playoff seating, and the home games. and any two teams could meet in the Super Bowl any year, including legacy rivalries that have never been possible.
And the idea would lend itself to expansion.
So you could add one team, you could add two teams, you don't need to worry about eight divisions being balanced. And I think it's a pretty exciting idea.
So it could be a Jets it could be a like what, a Like a Packers-Bears Super Bowl. Like a Packers Bears Super Bowl. I don't hate this idea. I don't eat it. Right off the bat.
Hmm. I'm going back and forth as to why the league would do that.
So I think the expandability argument is fairly strong that right now there's thirty two teams, so there's thirty one opponents for every team, meaning thirty one games.
So the current seventeen games Schedule lends itself to thirty-four games every two years.
So you'd have three. Competitive balance games on top of the mandatory playing every other team.
So that could work. strength the schedule and try to balance things out, maybe play rivalries a little more often. But that expandability, there's not these major ten, twenty year leaps that you need to add eight teams to balance the divisions or something like that. It could be very incremental. The number of games per season could be incremental.
And if you're a fan, you guarantee to get every team in your stadium every four years, which is pretty exciting for season ticket holders. Mike, in Arizona, frequently when I look down at my call screen, like an idea for a rule change or the league. I'm thinking, uh, this is not gonna work out well, but I'll take the call anyway. But th You might be onto something here. Just put a pin in that and we'll see how it works with the NFL moving forward.
I don't think there is going to be much, thanks to the call, NFL ownership, membership. There would have to be A massive influx of Weirdness that goes down on a field or in a division or a massive influx of under 500. Teams winning divisions over and over again for some for them to. make a change like this. You know sometimes that ownership has got to be talked into doing it five, six, seven, eight, nine years in a row.
But the expansion idea, that's the one. You just add one. Yeah, but yeah, to his point, exactly. You don't have to do it. You can keep the division.
Keep the number of teams right. Right.
You'd have to do. Two, four, six.
Now you're just like, eh, we can add a team every couple of years and have one big group. I don't know. Not bad. Interesting. It's in a weird way.
You don't really want to copy college football right now, but in a weird way, it's like the college football model where it's just big groups. It's like your fantasy league, too. No, just a little bit of a market. Man, put 12, 16 teams in. But our fantasy teams aren't 30 deep.
I know that. Let's take a break over Reaction Monday on a Tuesday when we come back before we welcome in Cam Hayward on a Zoom and Joe Coy in person. Rich Eisen here with some advice. If high-interest credit card debt is grinding you down, it might be time to call an Audible with a SoFi personal loan. It consolidates your debt into one low monthly payment with no fees required.
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All right. It's a Tuesday. During a football season.
So that means it's over Reaction Monday on a Tuesday, presented by Marriott Bonboy. That was terrible. That was crap. That was garbage. This place sucks.
Overreaction Mondays. Monday. On a Tuesday. It's presented by Marriott Bonvoy, and it's Overreaction Monday on a Tuesday. Chris, I imagine you had so many in the camera for the podcast itself that, by the way, has gone over 350,000 views in just 24 hours.
It's a record for us. I imagine you have some left for us. And I got a couple from last night, so let's start there. The Chiefs signing Kenneth Walker III will go down as the best decision of the 2025 offseason. 2026 offseason.
So what do you. What are we comparing it to?
Well, I mean, A.J. Brown and Jalen and Jalen Waddle so far. Every free agent move, every trade, Miles Garrett, Jalen Waddell, A.J. Brown. The number one offseason move.
Week one, right? We should not overreact. Why am I sitting here thinking about it? Normally, I would just immediately spit back it's week one. TJ this morning said that he's gonna win back-to-back Super Bowl MVPs.
I said, could you just imagine? Chiefs go on to win the Super Bowl and Ken Bacher.
Well, again, AJ Brown's going to be out for a month. Probably more. Six weeks. Miles Garrett's gonna be out for a month. Maybe more.
Let's see what Aaron Donald does. Is he going to play at all? I don't. At all, he will. I'll just call this an overreaction for the moment.
Because that is exactly what he certainly was that in week one. He's on a base for 3,000 rushing yards. He certainly was that in week one. All that in the biscuit. What else you got, Chris?
This guy was hinting at a decision in the halftime interview. If you guys picked up with Sean Payton, ask me in a half. Sean Payton's going to take back play calling for the Broncos before the end of this month. Before the end of this month. How about before the end of this day?
Again, you're referring to Laura Rutledge ask him at halftime. coming out. Right? Coming out. Coming out of the halftime.
How's it been not calling today? Great question, by the way. Great question. Superb question. Um and he said, ask me and a half.
Bye. Which I think was his way of just, you know, being funny and cutesy and getting out of the way. Getting back to the you know, giving a quick answer so you can get back to the sideline, which is where all coaches want to go. Um Before the end of September is an overreaction.
Sometime this season, if you just put it that way. Halloween. Mm. I don't know. I don't think that's an overreaction, but That may be way off.
He could be sitting here this morning going, you know what? I know we lost, but the guy did a great job. It's exactly what I would have done. I wouldn't have done it too much differently, and I feel better today. Than I would normally coaching after a game.
I don't know. We have no idea. But I'll call this an overreaction. What else? TJ, sorry, not sorry.
We're all idiots for hopping on the Cowboys bandwagon this summer. I mean It's an overreaction. I'll answer it for you. What were we thinking? What were we thinking?
We thought, oh, Jerry Jones isn't talking much, so that means everyone's more locked in. Move here, move there. George Pickens, franchise tag. Dak looks great. No!
It's the exact same thing! Still an overreaction. It's week one, man. It's week one. End of story.
Let's see how these kids on defense get coached up and how quickly they can get up to speed. Yeah, you know. You saw my guy Barham. He jumped off sides once, but then he also went in the backfield and got those five yards back. Yeah, you could tell he's going to be a dog.
Also, you know, like to. Not overreact. There are a few fumbles that if we get that game's different, you know, if we, you know, so I know you said we got punked, and I'm still not, that's not sitting well, but I don't think we can overreact too much to it. What else, Chris? The bounces did go the Giants' way.
TJ, you're right on those fumbles. Week one, the way week one ended in Houston, showed the Texans were right. To wait on Stroud's future. What was the issue in the playoffs? Dude.
All this guy did was fumble. He had a terrific week one. Wait a minute.
So it was his fault to fumble and not the right tackles? Yeah, exactly. This guy. That's an overreaction. I thought he played a terrific football game.
You didn't? He went toe. to toe. With Josh Allen. And if Kawame Lasseter.
Snags a You know. Gimme. No, I shouldn't say that, pardon me. Yeah, hit me. If he a gift opportunity, how about that?
It's what Josh Allen does, he gives them to you. I know.
So Come on now, give this guy a little bit of grace. I know the way it ended. And I know that didn't give him the contract, but that doesn't happen. I'm going to wait until the end of the year. What else?
Somebody's finally listening to me. I'll dispatch this. The Casario on the one. All right, we talked about it, and I'm doing it here, TJ. Derrick Henry will finish his career on the Mount Rushmore of running backs.
He already's there, isn't he? Ooh, already there? What? Whoa, chill. Um We're gaming this out, right?
Jim Brown. Walter Payton. Damn it. Emmett Derrick Henry? No Barry Sanders?
Stop. Chris, there is not a person I think on the planet earth. No Emmett? There are people. There are far more people who would not put Emmett on their hall in favor of Barry than there are of anyone leaving Barry.
They're wrong, by the way. But of leaving Barry off. Obviously, Mount Rushmore is a. I'll never take it. It's a subjective thing.
It's a subjective thing. Of course.
Okay. Jim Brown. But Derrick Henry as you know, is gonna He's going to take Emmett's record of most Russian touchdowns. He's gonna do that maybe maybe this season. Uh well that would be a tall order.
Very tall art. He's going to pass LaDanian Tomlinson very soon. Um He's going to finish, you know, if he stays healthy and keeps doing what he's doing. Sixth on the all-time rushing list. And if he has a 2,000-yard season, just if he.
Really goes crazy. Fifth. Oh, sorry. He'll pass Tomlinson this season. Right, maybe.
Fifth. So And then he keeps going? I'm just saying. It's gonna be close. I can't, you know how I feel about him, so it's not an overreaction.
What else, Chris? Last one. If either the Rams or Chargers lose this week. They're out, not making the playoffs. That's so silly.
Shall I come back to you? That's silly. In the history of the NFL, only three teams who have started 0-2 have won the Super Bowl.
Okay, so if one of them loses this week, kiss the Super Bowl goodbye. I still think that's crazy. It's crazy, man. Come on then. Owen two teams.
And 0-2 started two of the hardest divisions in the NFL. It's the 17th regular season game.
Now listen, if if the Chargers go to Owen two By losing at home to Arizona and Vegas? Then I'll I'll sit here and say we're gonna hit the panic button finally? Um I'll I'll sit here and say that They're in massive trouble, but You can pull it together, and then all of a sudden, out of 15 games, you win 10 of them. You know, you're 10 and 7, you got a shot. Ah.
Out of 15 games, you won 11 of them. You know, I mean, seriously. Um The Rams They're too damn talented. I'm never going to jump off them.
Well, we know that. You do know that. I do, I do. Yeah, I'm just, I'm not going to do that.
Okay. It's just still too early. The Bears, in particular, again, I know they didn't make the Super Bowl. But they made the playoffs. And they made some hay in it, too.
The Bears made the playoffs a lot of one-score games that went their way. They had to pull a lot of rabbits out of hats. But they had the hats and the rabbits, and they pulled it. Uh So Is that all you got on it? All right, that's a big finish you had right there.
Overreaction Monday on a Tuesday presented by Marriott Bonvoy. If you're an NFL fan, you're probably in a long-distance relationship with your team, and that hurts your heart. Luckily, Marriott Bonvoy has hotels close to nearly every NFL stadium, which. Helps your heart. Check in for Game Day with Marriott Bonboy, the official sponsor.
Of the NfL You didn't answer that question. I answered it. What do you got? I'm really deep in this running back, Mount Russell. I know.
We were talking about it yesterday. I was kind of like adding up stats, so I didn't really even. Who's your four right now? Right now, uh Jim Brown. Walter Payton.
Emmett Smith. Barry Sanders. And who would come off if Derrick Henry gets the all-time rushing record. I'm not taking Emmett off my list, so it would bury. Yeah.
Man. But again, I'm obviously because I've been fighting this fight since I was 11 years old about Emmett Smith and so like I've made. Yeah, I I just And it's my guy.
So, but Cam Hayward's coming up next hour. Joe Coy in studio as well. 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. Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax, and let go of whatever you're carrying today.
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