REShow: Tom House - Hour 3

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This is The Rich Eisen Show. I got this. They wrote me off. I ain't right back, though.

That's the problem. I ain't right back. Let's go. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Gino steps up the pocket throw downfield, Parkinson. Touchdown!

All I have to say is, let's run. Earlier on the show, NFL on Fox analyst Mark Schleren, Michigan head coach, Gino Smith. Jim Harbaugh still to come. Eight year MLB veteran and throwing coach Tom House. And now it's Rich Eisen.

That is correct. Our number three, The Rich Eisen Show is on the air in this hour. We will talk about Russell Wilson's return to Seattle, what we saw and what we did not see.

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The list is 50 strong and more. And we say hello to our Odyssey listening audience as well. We had Jim Harbaugh, the head coach of the University of Michigan in hour number two, and I turn to my right here on this program. And I see for the first time our guest in studio, an eight year veteran of Major League Baseball, but the most respected in Major League Baseball and the NFL. Tom House is here on the Rich Eisen Show. Good to see you, Tom. It's a pleasure to be here. Pleasure to have you here before we get started. Brockman, go ahead. Lay on Tom House. What you told me earlier today.

Go for it. Oh man, when I was in Little League, so this was early 90s, I had the book that you had co-written with Nolan Ryan about how to how to pitch and all the exercises and stretches and things to do grips on certain pitches. And I was kind of my guide because I was a pitcher back in the day. I was not playing anymore. Yeah. How far did you go?

How far did you go? I mean, I played a year in college. There you go. Well, the really cool thing is, is that that book is the number one selling pitching a manual in the history of pitching books. And obviously it wasn't because of me, it was because it was Nolan Ryan's fastball is what we were talking about. So it was actually one of the better books. And it's from what I remember.

Nolan Ryan's book on hitting and that book on pitching are the one and two in baseball instruction. Fantastic. Fantastic. You got a good one in there. It was great.

I loved it. And so, but you don't have it for him? No, I don't have it with me. It's probably somewhere in an attic somewhere.

Somewhere in my mom's house. Okay, very good. Very good. So in your eight year career, I got to ask you about this moment before we get to the here and now what's going on with you and your career and the people that you have been counseling. Is it true you caught the Hank Aaron home run ball in Atlanta?

You've done your homework yet. Yes, sir. Um, you were in the bullpen warming up in the bullpen. Yeah, it was a, basically it took a year to get to that point cause he started chasing the record in 73 and it was a big to do that. Here we were sneaking up on, um, you know, a legend, uh, and it's seven 14 was the magic number. And as it turned out on that given day, uh, we drew straws to see where we would be in the bullpen.

The Atlanta Bray bullpen and Fulton County stadium was behind the left field fence. So I got the straw that put me out to left center. Um, Buzz Capra was one that had a dead center and as luck would have it, um, Henry hit it. I was standing there. Everybody talks about what a great catch it was. If I would have stood still, it would have hit me in the forehead. So there was nothing magic there. What do you mean you were drawing straws?

What do you talk? It was going to be worth a lot of money. Uh, and I think by game time, uh, the word I heard was 25 grand that, uh, I think Sammy Davis jr, uh, had come through the clubhouse before the game started and he wanted the ball and Henry to come out and do a show with him in Las Vegas.

And 25,000 was the number I heard. And remember in 1974 minimum big league salary was 12,000 and obviously I was way toward 25,000. I was way toward that number than the other guys on the team. But the bottom line was, uh, or the good news was that, uh, it was a highlight of my major league career. The bad news was that was the highlight of my major league career. I remember when we were on the road, I saw a ball player that couldn't ride the bus with the team and walk in to the hotel when we were on the road. Remember it was, there were death threats.

There was a lot of hoopla going around it. Um, but the bottom line is it was the right guy hit the home run and the right guy caught the home run. Well, you didn't sell it, did you? Did you really sell the ball?

No. And if you watched the film on it, I actually caught it and ran it as fast as my little fat legs would take me into home play. And there's pictures out there of me giving it to him while he was hugging his mother. And just to put a perspective on it, I said, here it is, Hank. And he said, thanks, kid. I don't even know if he knew who I was. But the bottom line was it was a big moment in my life and it was a friendship that lasted a long time. Henry always called me Tommy.

Tell him the big lie. It's actually true. Tom House here on the Rich Eisen Show. What did you first hook up with Nolan Ryan? When did that happen? Um, when I was with the Texas Rangers, it was my third or fourth year as a pitching coach. And the Rangers were the kind of like the doormats of the American League at that time. And they brought together Bobby Valentine and Tom Greve where Bobby was a field manager and Tom Greve was the general manager.

And they were very aggressive with new ideas and asking for whatever it took. So they went to ownership when Nolan became a free agent with the Astros. And Bobby had played with Nolan when they were together in the Angels. Very similar to what Tom Brady is going through right now where, you know, at 45 he's got family issues that a 25 year old doesn't have. So as luck would have it, Nolan shows up for what was supposed to be one year.

And he ended up staying nine. And he was a better pitcher in that timeframe than any other time in his career. So now that you, you know, you're working with Major League Baseball pitchers for as long as you've worked with them and now NFL quarterbacks for as long as you've worked with them. Is there a similarity between Tom Brady and Nolan Ryan that you can put out there on the table?

Because we're seeing Brady do things in the NFL that we've never seen before. And Nolan in many ways was that guy in Major League Baseball as well. Rich, you're really setting me up perfectly here. Well, that's what I do for a living, Tom. I know what you do for a living, but I can I can I can I can pitch as well.

And I appreciate it. I'm just setting it up for you on a team. You know, I hit the crease between old school and new school, and Nolan was the first test baby with all the new research that we did with motion analysis, with ground force production, energy going into the arm, which we need to talk about shoulders with your guys over here. We'll leave Del Tufo on the side for a moment, but Tom Brady and Nolan Ryan on the floor.

If you follow four basic principles, biomechanics, functional strength, mental, emotional management and nutrition and sleep for recovery. There is no reason an athlete can't do at age 45 what he did at age 25. And we proved it with the Texas Rangers and six of the 10 pitchers I had in that time frame pitched in their mid 40s. By the time I got around to Tom Brady, walking by Belichick's office one time when we had been out on the field throwing the football, Belichick called us in and said, OK, tell me why I shouldn't trade Tom Brady. And at this time, I think Brady was 37, 36. And I just said, well, Bill, the research shows that if Tom does what he's supposed to do, all those four things I just mentioned, which he does to, you know, the tee, there's no reason he shouldn't play until he's 45. And here we are. So, Brady, what would you say? Listen to you all the way up until he was 42. And that was the end of that. He's still putting numbers up.

And I know that, but I'm just wondering. So so Belichick said, OK, what he really asked you, why shouldn't I trade Tom Brady? Because the prevailing in my generation, you were done as a pitcher at age 32, 33. We proved that that wasn't true because of what we had done with the Rangers. And the carryover was that when we got into football, I think George Blanda, there were only two quarterbacks that were even productive into their 40s. And so we just took what we learned in baseball and put it in front of the quarterbacks and quarterbacks, by the way, are a lot easier to work with than pitchers are.

Is that so? I think they just have to be because of the volume of information they have to process and the time frame that they have to do it in. They're quicker thinkers than most pitchers.

And if you're a quicker thinker, you're usually a quicker learner. When did Tom Brady first get on your radar screen, Tom House? When did that happen?

I think 10 years ago now. Drew Brees was our first elite quarterback where we actually helped him with his shoulder rehab and where he wasn't ever supposed to be able to throw again. We fixed him.

Charges going into the Saints pretty much back then. That's awesome. OK. And what we found out is that quarterback fraternity is really a small little fraternity. And we fixed Drew and he started spreading the word that we kind of knew what we were doing. You fixed him all right.

He's going to the Hall of Fame for his ballot. I remember I had the easy job. All I did was sock. He had to do all the work.

Of course. But the bottom line is credibility with him gave us credibility with other quarterbacks. And pretty soon it grew into one of one of the companies that I'm a part of called 3D QB and 3D QB right now probably deals with 25 or 30 of the collegiate quarterbacks. J.J. McCarthy from Michigan. Doing great work on him, Tom.

Great work. It was it was easy. It was very easy with him.

But that's kind of how we grew into it. What about Josh Allen? So much about him talked about coming out of Wyoming not so accurate and you can't teach accuracy in the league that you're throwing motion as you're throwing motion and so on and so forth.

What work did you do with the guy who right now is the odds on MVP favorite, even though it's just one game in the season? Well, we have these metrics that are results of all the data and the research we've done. And he fit all the metrics. What metrics can you think?

Mechanical efficiency, functional strength, his ability to accelerate and decelerate muscles efficiently, his capacity to make decisions. The zone that everybody talks about. I'm sure you've been in the zone in your job. I was in the zone maybe once or twice in nine years. But it's when thinking is inversely proportionate to the stimulus of the environment. Josh was one of those guys that the crazier things got, the calmer he became. How do you measure that, Tom?

How does one measure something like that? Oh, that's really cool about it. Like I said, I hit the crease between old school and new school, where in the old days you just kind of had to guess and an experienced coach could have a feel. We actually have the instruments now, star profile, whatever it might be, to where we can tell you how a kid thinks, how he processes. You learn to learn, you learn and you learn to relearn, how he processes that type of stuff, what his personality is. Is he a guy that can move a room? Is he not going to be able to help somebody in the huddle? All the pieces that we had on Josh indicated, even though he came from a small school, that he would adjust not only physically but mentally to the game, which he's proven.

And again, I didn't have personal hands on with him. John Beck and Adam Data with 3D QB had the initial goal with him. But again, we've touched a whole lot of quarterbacks in the last 10 years. Tom House here on the Rich Ozzenshow throwing guru, and we'll get to the mustard app in a second because I know that's a new venture for you.

You want to get out there in front of the Rich Ozzenshow audience and I'm thrilled that you are here. So which young quarterback in mid 20s right now do you think, I guess, would you say all of them, if they follow your principles, can play as long as Brady? Or is he really an outlier, Tom? I mean, you got Mahomes, you got all these guys who are just lighting it up. Loro, Herbert, so on. Allen's one of them. Lamar's another. It may take a unique personality to want to play until they're 45. Right. One of the things, when you've got 350 million guaranteed, your motivation to play the game until you're 45 might not be what it was for either a Nolan Ryan or a Tom Brady.

But just pure numbers, there's a bunch of them out there. The kid down with the Chargers, he's one of those kids that Herbert could, his physical makeup and his mental emotional makeup. He's one of those guys who should have no trouble if he wants to, to play until he's 45. What about Mahomes?

What are you making? Because if he can learn to stay in the pocket a little bit more, the more you run around, I mean, think about someone the size of TJ, your gatekeeper here. 6'3", right, TJ? 6'3", coming at you? 6'3", that's it. Add 100 pounds to him and that's chasing you around, trying to tear your head off. It's a little different physically. But if he could stay upright, there's no reason at all that Mahomes couldn't play until he was 45.

So what are the four principles, once again, hit it for me once again? Okay, if you were a scout or a coach looking at a quarterback or any athlete for that matter, it's his biomechanical efficiency. How well does he move doing his skill? It's his functional strength. Does he have the accelerator, accelerator, decelerator capacity to be balanced with large throwing totals or pitching totals? What is his mental-emotional makeup?

Can he handle the stress and anxieties of being a profile guy? Does it bother him when he gets booed by 40,000 people or what? It didn't bother me. I didn't hear my last name in Boston for three years. For all you Boston fans. Our house became a four-letter word. Okay, very good.

Basically went, now pitching for the Sox, number 29, Tom. Boo. Boo. Fantastic. And then again, we've learned more about recovery and the value.

Sure. That's what Brady, he counsels that all the time. Everything you read about him, he lives to the nth degree. So if you want to pay that price, that's what he does. And it's a price to pay, there's no question about it. It is, especially when you've got family and kids growing up and all the pressures. So yes, it can be done, but it takes dedication. And the one thing I see, if I don't allow me to share.

Please. The one thing I've seen with the superstars that I've run across, they have this inherent genetic predisposition to get better every day. Every day of their life, they're looking to get better by 1%, 2%.

Not the 20% that people think you need, but 1% better every day. Their dedication to excellence is off the charts. What's the Mustard app? The Mustard app is telling everything we just talked about, everything we would just put on the table for your listeners to hear, costs about $30,000 a weekend for the elite guys. What we are trying to do with Mustard is to democratize all that the elite get, put a cell phone in the hands of a mom or a dad that has a 12-year-old son or daughter, have then been able to film their movements or their skills, send it to the cloud and come back and get virtually the same analysis that the big boys get when they come to work with us over a weekend. And it's turning out to be one of the best things I've ever done. I say me, but we're surrounded with, I really got some great people I'm working with. We've actually got an app that is free for a mom or a dad of a 12-year-old or 13-year-old can get the same efficacy of information and instruction that our elite athletes do.

Well, I'm downloading the app. Literally, as soon as you would leave the studio, I've got an 11-year-old son that just started playing a little travel ball. When he picked up a ball with his left hand, I'm like, jackpot. Because I'm like, you know, Jamie Moore pitched to what, 49s?

Forty-nine, yeah. Everybody talks about the Nolan Ryan, but you can do it with the average athlete, too. And it's funny, he came home last night. One of his colleagues on the Fall Ball team, I guess as a catcher, asked him to throw a curve, and he said he threw a curve. And I just said, hold on a second now. Hold on a second.

And I explained to him who you are, and I'm like, I've got Tom House on the show tomorrow. You want to throw it out there for any parents who have kids that are throwing right now, boys, girls, what have you? What do you counsel for them prior to getting the Mustard app or after getting the Mustard app?

Before or after. We know in today's world that kids pitch too much, they don't throw enough. So let your son throw anything, anytime, anywhere. A curve ball was taboo when I was coming through the system. But we now know that throwing properly a curve ball is the easiest pitch on the arm.

Get out of here. It's contraindicated, but that's what science is all about. When you can look at a delivery at 1,000 frames a second, and you can wireless EMG the stresses that go on in the arm when he does. But let me tell you about a left-hander that can throw a curve ball. They pitch till they can't walk. No, I'm telling you, if you're left-handed and you can throw a curve ball, velocity is nice, but it's not necessary. So I think it was Sandy Koufax told me there's good curve ball hitters, but nobody can hit a good curve ball. And that's what carried me. My fastball sucked, but I did have a good curve ball, and I could hit an at-sass with it.

Anywhere, anytime you want it. And what it did was buy me the chance to have one good year, which I did. And that one good year bought me seven more.

So you just had my story, my life story in a nutshell right there. Tom House here on The Rich Isaac Show. I'll let you go. I would be remiss if I did not give you the floor on Shohei Ohtani and what we're seeing and your two cents on his throwing motion. How long do you think he can keep up what he is doing at the major league level? Well, he's the only one in the history that did what Babe Ruth did, and he's doing it better.

He's a top ten pitcher and a top five hitter. I don't know how he does it. He's a gifted athlete, but his makeup also says that he'll be able to sustain it. He's surrounded by a group that really takes care of him, and he's a good kid. So there's no reason physically that he can't do it.

It's just how long does he want to do it, but he's special. He sure is. There's no doubt. Are you working with Arch Manning as well? Have you seen him yet? Oh, the grandson?

Yeah. I think Adam and Adam Dato and John Beck with 3DQB are. I have not had hands-on with him personally, but I'm trying to retire.

I'm trying to back off and leave what I've done and have the kids that are following me standing on my shoulders, not only with 3DQB, but with the National Pitching Association. But all things that I've heard about him is that he's the real deal. He's got the gene pool and all the advantage of how to and why from all the relatives.

So a special case. Well, I asked about him not only because he is a Manning and so many people are paying attention, but the aforementioned T.J. Jefferson plans to retire on the rookie cards he's already bought, even though he's still in high school. You've got to stay ahead of the curve, Tom. I think it's a good investment, T.J. He's a very projectable kid, and you realize that they start showing up at age 14 or 15, which is another thing that we have to deal with in today's world.

These kids are projected to be college prospects or baseball prospects at 12 and 13, which is another thing that messes not only the athletes' heads up a little bit, but the moms and dads. A whole other story. Oh, yeah. That's what we'll have you back. We'll talk about it. I appreciate the Mustard app.

I'm literally going to download it during a commercial break as you walk out, sir. TeamMustard.com. TeamMustard.com.

And Mustard is spelled M-S-T-R-D. Okay. Very good. And I appreciate that for all those out there. I follow you on Twitter at Tom House, and I appreciate you coming in here, Tom, first of hopefully many times, any time you want to come in. I had a great time.

I'll pal around with you any time you want. I love it. That's Tom House, everybody, who can hit a curve ball on an ant's ass. Write that one down, Chris, please. I already tweeted that out. Okay. You already did that. Very good.

Tom House right here on The Rich Eyes and Show. We're back with your phone calls. Some more from Russell Wilson. Look at that photograph. There it is right there. You're giving him a ball. Here it is, Hammer.

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Unlock your potential inside a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. How delightful was that shot, right? I mean, I was hanging on his every word. That was really interesting.

Hanging on his every word. They can measure anything right now. They can measure whether you think properly. Unbelievable. Yeah, it's crazy. The amount of data that's just collected now.

It is, and basically, it's like either you've got it or you don't, and they can measure if you've got it. And if you follow four basic principles to the nth degree, like Tom Brady is, like you don't, zero cheat days. Right. Man, that was awesome with Tom House right there. That was just absolutely awesome.

Okay, I've been promising this. I need NFL Films music, please. Four downs right here on The Rich Eyes. Every Tuesday, four thoughts on the NFL campaign, the week that just finished up. Hit it, Mike Del Tufo. Four downs with Rich. Here we go.

All right, here's my first down. So much conversation about rookies. As we all know, on the offensive side of the ball, the offensive rookie of the year.

And, you know, again, we're just one week in, and that's where you can kind of see who may have it, who doesn't. If you know they were banged up during the preseason, how do they look? If they play in week number one, you know, the Jets have Garrett Wilson, the Saints have Chris Olave.

That's just throwing it out there, and then you want to go in the second round. I mean, Christian Watson had one right in his hands and dropped it on Aaron Rodgers. Not the way you want to start off with Aaron Rodgers, but there's still many more games to come. But I'll just say, first down, Drake London looks the part, folks. Number five in your program for the Atlanta Falcons.

He had just five catches, 74 yards, seven targets for Marcus Mariota. He just looked the part. He looks big. He looks strong.

He presents the target. He runs after the catch. He's going to be a problem, and next up for him, the USC Trojan comes right to his old backyard against the Rams, and I think he's going to have a nice Sunday. He's throwing it out there, and oh, Jalen Ramsey wants to bounce back significantly, but first in, first looks, I liked what I saw out of Drake London for the Atlanta Falcons, and I think the offense was humming against the Saints.

I don't think that's an outlier, either, for Arthur Smith's team. Second down right here on my post-week one. Second down.

Four downs. It's a simple question, and after just one week of him with his new team, I'll just ask it. Why in the world would you ever trade A.J. Brown?

Right? We were sure it wasn't going to happen. Dude, I couldn't be happier that he's on my fantasy team. Why in the world would you ever trade A.J. Brown? I guess they didn't want to pay him, and they got the same height, weight guy in Tralen Burks, and good luck to him, and I hope he does blossom for the Tennessee Titans, who were points challenged against the Giants, and A.J. Brown, 10 for $1.55, 13 targets.

Okay, thank you. Philadelphia Eagles fans, so when are we going to get somebody who's a game changer at wide receiver? I know Alshon Jeffery had a minute there. I'm just talking a big, tall, strong wide receiver that Jalen Hurts, your quarterback, can look for and find. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's a rhetorical question. Okay.

Okay. All right, that's second down. Here's third down right here.

Third down. Sneaky good attacks. Sneaky good attacks.

You're not thinking about them. They're sneaky good. So far, one weekend, the sneakiest good pass attack in the league may just be the Baltimore Ravens.

Everybody overlooking what they're doing, and okay, and it's not just market. Hey, look, the Jets on defense looked faster than I have seen them in a while. It got Sauce Gardner slated to be on Wednesday, our next Rich Eisen show. You know, Kwon Alexander's flying around. The pass rush is significant. That first half of the Jets' season defensively was a nice check mark. I liked what I saw out of them, and then Lamar starts flinging around. He, by the way, had a no-look touchdown pass that I think if Mahomes threw it, would have been on every highlight show top of mind. I mean, Lamar found Rashad Bateman for a touchdown, two scores for Texas Longhorn Devin DuVernay.

It almost was a great weekend for the Longhorns in current and, you know, alumni form. Three touchdowns in the air for Lamar. And I know Michael Irvin was saying he should have run the football more.

Not when you can throw it in the air. I'll take the throw in Lamar over the run in Lamar. The run in Lamar can happen any time.

Throw in Lamar, I want to see them win games like that, and they did against the Jets defense that came out humming. That's third down and fourth down. Would you believe?

Fourth down. Would you believe? I looked it up. Mike Tomlin has never won Coach of the Year. Wow. Did you know that? AP Coach of the Year never been handed to Mike Tomlin.

Really? Bill Cowher won it once. Mike Tomlin has never won Coach of the Year.

Now you could knock me over with a feather on that one. Maybe this is a year. It could be set up for him. That week one W was not expected, to say the least. Mitchell Trubisky did look pretty good.

I know I'm going high register with him at some point. Maybe I'll have to go regular register on Trubisky, but for the moment I'm just going to go. Mitchell Trubisky looked pretty good on that offense. And defensively, my God, did they get after it. And they are angry. They are feeling overlooked. Mike Tomlin has the troops salty. The Michigan guy played well, Devin Bush. Salty.

A salty bunch. And if they can win the division this year, let's say they come up with 12-13 wins, and winning one on the road against the Bengals, you're defending division champs and AFC champs, is a good way to start it. Let's just say everyone thinks that, you know what, Mike Tomlin's never had a losing year. And not only does he not have a losing year, he has a two or three seed year in a conference that's got the Bills and the Chiefs. Is this the season Mike Tomlin finally wins Coach of the Year? And those are my four downs post week one of the 2022 season. You need to look at the Steelers schedule.

Let's do it. Next up are your Pats. That's a win.

They could be three and one. Then they're at Cleveland. Before they have a nice little tough stretch before the bye. Then in comes the Jets. The Jets could be Zach Wilson's unwrapping.

That's a rough four and one. But they're three and one before they really hit it with Buffalo, Tampa, Miami. What if they hit Buffalo in the mouth in the same way that they did week one last year? What if they come out with that win that nobody expected? What if the Mitchell Trubisky revenge factor nobody's talking about comes home to roost? In Buffalo, though. That's what happened last year. They beat them in Buffalo last year with Big Ben on one half a leg. If they can get one of those tough games, suddenly they're four and three going into the bye when that was totally unexpected. And TJ Watt, it looks like will avoid surgery.

So just throwing that all out there. Yeah, he could be back in six weeks. Did not tear the tender. Who's back first? TJ Watt or Dak Prescott?

I'll go TJ Watt. That's a legit question. I know. That's why I asked it. I only ask those.

Sometimes you ask stuff that kind of poked me a little bit. I kind of think Dak is back first. No way. A torn cock puts guys out for the year.

I know. A broken, repaired throwing hand. No, a thumb. It's an important part of the hand. A thumb?

You couldn't grip the ball. It's very important. Come on now.

I'm not saying it's not. I'm going to say Dak's back first. I'll go TJ Watt. I just want that on the record. I would put a hard-earned American dollars on it, but you haven't paid off the Kenny Pickett wasn't a top ten pick bet.

He sure has. Top five? Was it top five? Top ten.

Top ten? Yeah. But you know, Rich, I should get double that bet because I predicted Kenny would get drafted by the Steelers that whole time, and then that happened. Never say never, but never. Oh, stop it. Not everybody did. No, not at the time we made the bet.

No, it didn't. I was saying it during the season. Come on. All right, when we come back, we go out the door with the way Russell Wilson was greeted walking in the door, and the latest head-scratching decision from Cleveland Browns management. Got to talk about it.

Three words I didn't know existed that I would never say on TV either. That's coming up next. Expect innovative safety features like crosswind assist and blind spot assist. Expect amazing performance and reliability with an MBUX voice command system, a five-star dealer network, and an available gas engine. It runs like, well, a dream. So what do you say? Head to the Mercedes-Benz van dealership and get that Sprinter.

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Okay. Are we still on 2-10? We are still on channel 2-10 on the Roku channel, baby.

Just making sure. You can listen to the NFL and the NFL app on westwoodonesports.com via Westwood One station. Streams are by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports. If it's the NFL, it's on Westwood One. I did the Monday Night Football last night on Westwood One. I'm there next week for Vikings and Eagles. We're going to have Dalvin Cook and Jalen Hurts scheduled to appear on the show later this week. Nice.

Fantastic. So the conversation about Russell Wilson has been all over the map ever since he came into the league. Our first television podcast version of the audio podcast that this show is born out of.

Did I say that right, Chris? A last minute guest ad for the season opening television podcast version on NFL Network. Yeah, we did a 2012 season kickoff. The young kid out of Wisconsin that we kept on asking for because it looked like he was going to start for the Seattle Seahawks. But we kept being told he was in the film room the whole time except for this 10 minute window that we were able to hit. It was Russell Wilson.

Correct. And then, you know, Russ became the darling of Seattle and why not? He was the personification of the Pete Carroll always compete mantra. That it doesn't matter where you've been drafted or if you were drafted at all. If you're on the team and you get to compete, which everyone does, and you compete well enough, you can start. You can star.

You can be the guy. And then we all know. And we all know what happened as things went forward.

And then came the word that that they were starting. They were like Russ rules. They're like certain rules for Russ that didn't apply to other people that that, you know, they didn't rumor. They didn't give it to Marshawn Lynch on the goal line, not because they thought it was wise to throw it. They didn't want Marshawn to be the MVP of the game. Let's get Russ the MVP of the game by allowing him to throw. I mean, that's the sort of conversation that based on all the chatter beneath the surface. In Seattle, right, that there was always the erring on the side of making sure Russ is OK.

Happy and happy. And he's our guy to the detriment of everyone else. Or, you know, even though you're the stars as well of this team. And then the beneath the surface conversation about Russ flipped. Where suddenly before the 2018 draft, we heard that in Dallas.

We were ear to the ground. We heard the Seahawks might be out on Russ. That they've had enough of Russ. That there's parts of Russ that we don't see that creates too much of an issue. And we're like, what are those issues?

Guy goes to children's hospitals when he's not playing. And good luck winning games without him, because you were winning games because you won't even let Russ cook. Remember we even mentioned that to Pete Carroll last year and he bristled. Like, what do you mean we don't let him cook?

You know, and then suddenly it flipped. And then Russell Wilson just last week confirmed they tried yet. The Seahawks did in fact try to trade him prior to the 2018 draft to Cleveland for the first overall pick. And we're going to take Josh Allen with him.

Cleveland held on to that pick, as we all know, and did not choose Josh Allen. So I think the way that everything played out last night shows you there's a lot of beneath the surface stuff about Russell Wilson and the Seahawks. Because KJ Wright was the retiree who was raising the banner for the 12s last night. They gave him a tribute video. No tribute video for Russell Wilson. Don't you think it's just like, hey, thanks for the memories and so petty?

I don't know. I just think there's some water under that bridge, man. And I think the fans pick up on it. I know we had a caller earlier saying the fans weren't booing Russ. They were booing the quarterback of the Denver Broncos, I think our caller from Salt Lake City said. And they're booing the Broncos, which is what they do.

I didn't get that sense. This was Russ after the game about the boos. I think that, you know, more than anything else, though, for me personally, I didn't waver, you know. They may cheer for you. They may boo you.

They may love you one day and they'll hate you the next. And that's sports. At the end of the day, I'm going to keep competing.

I'm going to keep battling. I know who I am. First of all, I think for me, I'm just grateful God's given me the chance to play this game to sit here in front of you guys and say, you know, it's all for his glory and his glory alone.

It's not for anybody else's. I play for an audience of one and that's just for him. And so I'm just grateful that I get to be with these guys, you know, in this locker room, too, as well. I've been around some amazing teammates in the past and I got some amazing teammates currently. And I'm going to remember every single moment of that. So tonight was special.

You know, it was on the other side, you know, than than I used to. But it was it was still a special environment. So a place that I've always loved.

A place he's always loved. I don't know if the feeling is currently mutual. I'm just wondering if water can get under the bridge at some point and it's all over that he does deserve to be fed it in that stadium.

Yeah, I kind of feel like price. So still soon, you know, it's still too soon. And I also heard people are saying, well, he left, he wanted out, he left and left them with Drew Locke and Geno Smith, not in a spot, you know, where at least Colts fans got Andrew Luck after they lost after they lost Peyton Manning.

And things might have been different for Tom Brady's return last year if Matt Jones hadn't already shown and flashed. Right. I don't know. Something's beneath the surface. And I also I just think that Russ clearly thought he was going to win last night when he brought an outfit worthy of the Met Gala. Like that's that looks like somebody because Dion taught me a long time ago that when people come dressed like this to a game, that's their we're going to win today suit.

That you don't dress like that thinking you're going to lose. Yeah. You know, he didn't fumble it twice on the goal line. That's true.

I mean, he played well enough to win. One other item before we go. We like to again, I know we're kind of new to the Roku Channel audience, so we're going to keep you up to speed every now and then in our first week here. We like breaking news. We like breaking news and we like, you know, setting trends here on the program. So in light of both of those breaking news and setting a trend, Cleveland Browns management can sometimes get it wrong.

Understatement. This one I don't get. Fans will get it. I don't get it.

Here are three words I never thought I would know existed. Did you know they have multiple mascots there? And they've placed one of their mascots at the center of their field.

When the Jets visit this weekend to open the home schedule for the 1-0 Cleveland Browns, they have placed one of their mascots on center of the field. And it's not one of the dogs. It's a mascot called Brownie the Elf. And it is like some like old Disney looking drawing like from the 40s.

And it is a monstrously sized sort of Vulcan eared elf in a Heisman like pose with big old, you know, Disney dwarf shoes. And to anybody who doesn't know the history of this mascot or doesn't know the Browns organization intimately, you are going to be thinking, what the hell is that? But apparently this logo goes back to the 40s to the point where apparently Paul Brown even thought about putting it on the side of the helmet. And then he saw a mock up.

He goes, yeah, we're not doing that. And the mascot was around until Art Modell, get this, in 1961, bought the team, said we're the elves gone out. He de-elfed the Browns and then he de-browns to Cleveland. But there's a history of it. And I guess Randy Lerner, when he bought the team back to life, brought the elf back to life. It was the training cam patch logo of 2006, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the franchise.

And now it is back and it is on the center of the field, out of the blue. I guarantee you most of the diehard NFL fan base is going to be like, who the hell is Brownie the elf? And apparently it's born out of like a children's book where, you know, a Brownie was the name of an elf that would come out in the middle of the night and do household chores.

And you'd leave a Brownie for the elf as a thank you. Like, I looked this up. And I'm like, really? Is that where that's where we're going? OK, it's a choice.

It's a choice in the middle of everything. Figuratively for their team and literally on the field, they are putting a monster sized Brownie the elf on that field. Remember that Christmas thing, Hard Rock Coco and Joe? You ever see that? I do not know, sir, what you were talking about.

Like, literally that sounded like gibberish from the corner of the room. It's definitely it's a cartoon that comes on and it's these three elves and it's in black and white start in the 50s. And that's what this looks like.

It's Hard Rock Coco and Joe. It's an elf. And that's exactly.

I don't know what the hell it is. That's a choice. That is a choice. Too bad Baker Mayfield's not coming back to plant the flag right in the belt. That could be 2-0 football team. That's true.

So who cares? Whatever you want in the middle of the field. Curse of the Elf? Is it the Curse of the Elf?

Curse of the Elf? Can I tell you what the Browns did do right, though? What? I just want to give a shout out to a friend of mine, my guy Nathan Zagura, who's called on the show. We used to do a fantasy football show 12 years ago. Followed his dream. He worked. And he's now the color guy for the Browns radio, man. So I want to give him a shout out.

I'm glad you did. He's going to be staring down at a huge ass elf. I mean, there's team logos. There's the shield.

And then there's Brownie the elf. Am I the only one who doesn't hate this as much? Yes. Yes. Yes. I really don't. I don't hate it.

In the middle of the field? I mean, that's huge, too. It goes beyond both hash marks. It's huge.

I mean, I know sometimes I look at stuff and I go, ooh, I look at that. I mean, there's intentional grounding inside the box. Wow. You got to break the box. No. Otherwise, it's intentional grounding.

You get free cookies. Thanks to Jim Harbaugh, Tom House and Mark's Larrith House. Tomorrow's show, Nate Boyer in studio. Marcus Smart of your Celtics, Chris.

Yeah. And sauce gardener of my jets. For the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments, it's something to wrestle with Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson, too. All-time Hogan opponents, Macho Man's got to be in the conversation. Where's Andre for you? I've always said Andre was number one. Wow. Because even going back before, you know, Hulk Hogan was a babyface, Hulk and Andre were able to go in and headline at the New Orleans Superdome at Shea Stadium in Japan. Wherever they went, that was an attraction. Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.