REShow: Mike Florio - Hour 1

Does your antiperspirant keep you dry all day? Dove Men Plus Care Dry Spray goes on instantly dry for a cleaner feel and offers 48 hours sweat and odor protection. Let me repeat that 48 hours of sweat and odor protection. Use it and don't even think about it. Also Dove Men Dry Spray contains Dove's unique one-quarter moisturizing cream that helps protect your skin.

Try Dove Men Plus Care Dry Spray goes on dry clean feel all day. 11 game suspension for Deshaun Watson. This is the Rich Eisen Show. What do you apologize for everyone that was affected about this situation? There was a lot of people that was triggered. Live from the Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles.

I hope he uses this 11 game suspension to find a better place for himself and deal with his clear issues. Today's guests, host of Peacock's Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio, Fox Sports College Football Analyst Bruce Feldman, plus your phone calls, latest news and more. And now it's Rich Eisen. Well hello to everybody here on the Rich Eisen Show on this Friday in August.

Welcome to this edition of the program. We do say hello to our NBC Sports on Peacock audience and NBC Sports Sirius XM 85 listeners. We also say hello to the Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio consumers on the Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio network Coast to Coast. We say hello to those listening on Odyssey and those listening whenever you darn well please on our podcast through the Cumulus Podcast Network that also stands us up terrestrially coast to coast. We also say hello to everybody on youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show for anything that you miss over the next three hours. Good to see you here on this Friday. Christopher Brockman, how are you? Good to see you and sitting in for Fish McWilliams here on this Friday program is none other than Jay Felley. How are you Jason? I was so ready to use that joke. It's all good. I beat you to the punch.

We got three hours. How are you TJ Jefferson? The candle's already lit. Look at you.

What do you got? I got to turn on your microphone. You're gonna oh my goodness.

My IFP is not working. I'm sorry. I can't hear anything but it's good to be here with y'all. It really is.

That's a that's a is that a YP? I mean well if Fish McWilliams was here my it would be working. Well okay.

I doubt that. Good to see you over there sir. It's good to see you but I can't hear you.

Okay very good. Well I'll speak up. I'll speak up a little louder. I'll speak up a little louder.

844-204-RICH is the number to dial here on this year program. We're going to start the show with the dumbest rumor I've heard in like 20 years of being in the NFL. Dumbest rumor I've ever heard and it's all over Twitter right now and I felt the need I felt the need to actually address it. It involves Tom Brady who is not in training camp. Not with the team. The team's playing the Tennessee Titans. They've been practicing with the Tennessee Titans and this game is going down in the preseason and Tom Brady's not playing in it and the reason why is he has taken a leave of absence from the team for personal reasons that the team says has nothing to do with the health of him or his family. Thank God for that but it's a personal departure from the team that the team said was planned which is kind of weird that you just wait for him to not appear on consecutive days and then you let it loose.

It's just it's not it's it's not normal. It's not normal that a player leaves training camp for planned personal reasons but then again Tom Brady is a unicorn. We've never seen anybody like him before. We most likely will never see anybody like him again. A 45 year old who comes back from retirement because he's still one of the best in the sport.

A 44 year old who retires and leaves people saying why are you doing that? It's it's so rare so if he did plan with the team hey I need 10 days off during training camp and I don't want to play in preseason action makes sense because there's no template. There is no precedence. There is nothing that we've ever seen before that some team can say okay you know we did it for so and so or yeah yeah we saw that happen before so that's why all of us in the NFL media community and all the fans can understand you know why it's happening. Don't know why it's happening. We have no idea why it is happening and Todd Bowles yesterday said that this is still open-ended. He doesn't know when Brady is going to return and that's again something that you don't normally hear at all. He was non-committal about his Brady's return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We'll see Bowles said on Thursday. We'll talk about it next week.

Not concerned about it right now. Trying to practice against Tennessee and play a game because he said earlier that it would be sometime after Tennessee so he repeated it. I told you Brady would return sometime after Tennessee.

There's no definitive date for me but we'll check on it. We'll keep in touch and we'll find out. Now there have been really some crazy rumors surrounding this and we don't traffic in that sort of stuff but there's one I have to mention here on this program that is out there. That is again the dumbest rumor I've ever heard. That's a bold statement. Since coming to this NFL only world with the NFL network I'm entering season 20 with them.

Congratulations on that. It will be the 19th anniversary of the advent of NFL network coming up in November. Are you saying dumbest sports rumor or overall? The dumbest NFL rumor since I started doing this NFL network thing since I helped turn the freaking lights on for NFL network. The dumbest. And the rumor is and again we don't you're normally traffic we don't only swim in these waters but we we are going to go swimming here I'm going to go cannonball into this one.

Cannonball. That Brady has left camp. Says this rumor that's all over Twitter. He has left the team. He is not with the team. Let me repeat this.

He's not with the Buccaneers after coming back from retirement because according to this rumor Tom Brady is currently here in Los Angeles shooting the latest season of The Masked Singer. The dumbest rumor I have ever heard and I need to when I get home I need to sit down my children I need to sit Xander down Cooper and Taylor all three of them and say which one of you started this? Because they are the ones who are always thinking the most famous person of all time is the one who is about to have the mask revealed.

So this sounds like it was made up by one of my children. That's how out of insane this is. That Tom Brady would feel compelled to what?

Live up to a contractual obligation. There are so many crazy rumors around The Masked Singer that he's signed that deal he signed with Fox that there's some fine print that he's just he just he's just he he has to for his money that's coming in future years whenever that starts he must in what could be his final year as a quarterback in the NFL leave training camp not say why he's doing it and the reason why he says he's doing it is personal reasons and the reason why he's not talking about it is because he wants to make sure America is shocked when he takes a banana head off him. Right? He needs to do it for Nick Cannon not Mike Evans. Okay?

How insane is that? Nick Cannon's hilarious. It's nice. Hey man. It's pretty funny. Gotta make sure Ken Jeong is guessing so I'm gonna leave the Bucks and all my teammates when Brady is established as one of the greatest gamers within his own locker room on his own team period.

Yeah, Levante David, you're coming back from your injury. I'm just gonna go skate to Los Angeles to make sure Nicole Scherzinger is kept in the dark. How stupid can this possibly be? How much do we want this to be true, Chris? I want this to be true maybe more than anything right now in sports and Rich, just allow me to indulge for a second. Let's just assume all of this is true, right? So Brady's taking time off. Did you know what I just said to start this program?

Why would you go down this road now? It's the dumbest rumor ever. Okay, but what character is he going to be on The Masked Singer? Like you watch this show more than me so is he going to be like the parrot or the frog? Like Chris, obviously he's got to be the goat. He'll be the goat. Chris, if you really want to go down this road, I am so sure of this that even if the next season of The Masked Singer has a goat costumed singer, I still won't sweat it. Which by the way, they better have a goat on there. I still won't sweat it. Okay, so he's the goat, right?

What song is he going to sing? Stop. Here's the deal.

Baa Baa Black Sheep, Have You Any Wool. Excuse me. Like, guys, guys.

Is he going to sing like Margaritaville? Here's the deal, please, please, please, please, please stop, stop. Guys, I understand you're having fun here. That's what we do. I get it, you're having fun here. But not to rain on everybody's parade. Well, you're about to.

I'm going to. The reason why he's doing this must be so serious. Okay, I'm sorry to bring it all down. It has to be so serious for him to do this. I'm concerned for him. Whatever's going on in his world has to be that serious.

Now, hopefully, I am wrong. But this guy, I get it. Give him days off in training camp. He's 45. You want to make sure he still has every shot to be the Tom Brady that we all expect him to be. And that's one of the more remarkable aspects of him coming back is that he puts that on the line every day, every every day, every snap, every press conference. He's got a standard. And if he doesn't hit it, then he gets the dreaded.

Well, he shouldn't have done it, which he has navigated those waters to perfection this long. The fact that he is not playing in the game, understandable. Get it.

The absence, though, makes no sense. Masked singer, my ass. I'll be a donkey coming out singing. More likely to appear on Masked Singer, you or Tom Brady? I will add Tom Brady. I will add Tom Brady. I'll announce it.

Again, I'm best dad ever. I'll announce it. Oh, on this program. I will add Tom Brady to the list. Oh, of what? Of a list. Big time celebrities who will never appear on the Masked Singer that my children swear will be revealed when they take it off the mask that I told them if it is LeBron James, Beyonce, any Obama, any of them, even Sasha, name it on Obama.

Name them. The number of times that I heard from my children is he's about to take it off. It's Barack Obama.

I told him any Obama, LeBron James, Beyonce, they get a crisp $100 bill from me. Now you can add Tom Brady to that. But Dad Gronk did it. Yeah, Gronk did it after a playing season. They weren't in the Super Bowl. He flew back with me from the Chiefs. Oh, that's right. Yes. He flew back with me from the Chiefs versus 49ers Super Bowl.

1B or 1A? I forget. We were definitely, he's a big man. He was big chair.

Right next to me. And even then he wouldn't tell me what he was there for, but I knew it. Certainly when some guy who had no singing ability, 16 feet tall, showed up on the Masked Singer. Brady won't. Give him his time.

He'll be back. Why are you going to crush your kids' dreams, though? Nothing to believe. Sorry. Sometimes you got to tell them the hard truth.

It's called tough love. All right, I got that off my chest. You feel better? I do actually. Because you was heated this morning about it. Dumbest rumor. Period. In the two decades, I have been doing the NFL only thing on NFL Network.

So then, today's program, let's get a little bit more in the world. I will ask Mike Florio what he thinks is up. And on top of all that, how did the Deshaun Watson settlement occur? And does it stick, does the settlement stick, if the guy who said yes to the counseling and yes to the release of his statement, saying he takes responsibility and apologizes for it. If that guy then comes out and says, yeah, I'm completely innocent. I didn't even disrespect anybody.

The only reason why I'm apologizing is because people got triggered. So does that mean, can the NFL add more games? So what does all this mean? Bruce Feldman's here in studio. College football's right around the corner.

He'll be here in studio hour number two. A what's more likely going down here today. Chris Brockman, you've got a what's more likely with a full slate of pre-season contests with a lot of roster implicating action going down. Everything has to do with this weekend's games, week two pre-season.

TJ Jefferson, you've got a big ass grab bag. I do, and I think this is going to create some controversy. Okay.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it will. That's what you're known for. That's your brand. I don't like to be Mr.

Controversy, do you though? I got it. I'm wearing a new shirt. I'm looking at you.

Oh. Yeah, I'm wearing a new shirt. A little lighter blue than the other one, familiar on the week.

Yeah, it's the same Orlebar Brown. That's lovely. I like the other one better. That's highfalutin though, just saying. No it's not.

Yeah, I mean, I've never heard that word before. Well, actually. Matches the rakish hat. We need some type of music to play when that hat comes on. That'd be great. Let's take a break here on the Rich Eisen Show.

Let's take a break. Mike Florio, pro football talk live. He starts the NBC Sports on Peacock lineup every day when he comes back.

Mike Florio will join us. 844-204 Rich. Number to dial in the Rich Eisen Show Terrestrial Radio Network. A great friend of the program. Thrilled to have back here on the Mercedes-Benz phone line to talk about everything going on in the world of the National Football League that he so expertly covers on profootballtalk.com and Pro Football Talk live right here on NBC Sports on Peacock on the Rich Eisen Show. Back again on the Mercedes-Benz Vance phone line.

Mike Florio. How you doing Mike? Rich, doing great buddy. How are you?

I am doing great. Let's jump right into it with both feet. How did the, best you can tell, the resolution between the League Players Association and Deshaun Watson come out? Well, it was a week ago right now that I was anticipating that Appeals Officer Peter Harvey would potentially drop the hammer on a four-year suspension keeping Deshaun Watson from playing last Friday night in Jacksonville in the preseason opener and it was right around this time maybe an hour or two from now that someone said to me, hey they're talking settlement. Peter Harvey isn't going to rule, doesn't want to rule until the two sides have had a chance to work this out and that was the first tangible sense we had that even at a time when the NFL had everything it needed, it had exactly the ammunition from Judge Robinson's ruling to impose whatever suspension it wanted to impose, that was when we backed off from thinking that a suspension was coming, something more than six games, much more than six games, and then it trickled into Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Now along the way we had the Friday night interview of Deshaun Watson with the Dee Dee Kinkleballa from the team hotel in Jacksonville where he apologized to the women he impacted with his behavior and it felt like an effort to throw an olive branch to the NFL to show that he was ready to concede, he was ready to accept responsibility, he was abandoning the talking points of I didn't harass anyone, I didn't disrespect anyone, I didn't assault anyone, and his lawyers saying all along that all the women who were accusing him of wrongdoing were lying, that they were backing off from that in the hopes of reaching some sort of an agreement so that he wouldn't be out for the entire year. And as the week went on they finally got to a point where they they found an acceptable middle ground.

There's a lot of conspiracy theories about how they got to 11. I think it's very simple, the union was dug in at 10, the league was dug in at 12, and it's not like you can negotiate half of games, it's not like he shows up third quarter of the week 13 game against the Texans, I mean you just have to pick a number. And they settled on 11 and I think he acknowledged yesterday and his willingness to pay the fine was part of the way to get him back on the field more quickly. Higher fine, less games.

More games, lower fine. He was willing to pay basically half of what he made last year by not playing to get back after 11 games. So I think it was that simple and for whatever reason the league didn't want to issue a ruling, didn't want to invite a federal court battle, just wanted it to be over and move on.

So this is not my first rodeo nor it is yours, sir. So normally when this happens, when the league and a player come to a settlement like this and the league gets sterner discipline than originally scheduled or announced, the player involved must admit wrongdoing, must say something along the lines of I am sorry for what I did, I will address it, I will come back a better person and I accept what I did. And Watson did accept responsibility in a written statement and did say he's going to come back a better person in a written statement and did say the exact opposite when a live microphone was put in front of him mere minutes later. What does the league do about that, do you think, Mike?

That's a great question and for now the league has said nothing about it. I would suspect that there were some four-letter words uttered at 345 Park Avenue yesterday. Not park, frankly. Not park, although it could have ended in a K. Not park, not the address.

A K still involved is the last letter, but that's about it. I can't imagine they're happy with this and I've seen people push the notion on behalf of Deshaun Watson's representative that this is like any other settlement. Nobody admits to wrongdoing in a settlement. Well, this isn't your standard civil settlement. Your standard civil settlement doesn't include an obligation to have an evaluation and treatment. How in the world is evaluation and treatment going to mean anything to Deshaun Watson?

I've been trying to play out how this looks. He shows up to the evaluation and he says, I didn't know anything wrong. Why am I even here? Treatment? What do you treat me for? I stand on my innocence.

I don't need any treatment. I don't know how you even begin to comply with that aspect of disagreement if he refuses to abandon the notion that he did nothing wrong. That's very troubling to me. Look, I'm all for people getting second chances, but you've got to want your second chance. You've got to acknowledge that you screwed up your first chance to qualify for a second chance. He's still stuck on.

I didn't do anything. Well, then why did he agree to it? He agreed to it because he knew he was in checkmate and this was his only way out. I just wonder if that's what the NFL anticipated when they agreed to this and if they knew before yesterday at noon that this is how he was going to deal with it, would they have just pulled the offer, imposed the suspension and told him, feel free if you want to continue to profess your innocence. We've found that you're not innocent, Judge Robinson.

And that's what's weird about this, Rich. The union wanted the league to accept Judge Robinson's ruling. She found that he did it. She found that he did it. So how can they reject that now?

That's what's amazing to me. So can they up his suspension at some point? Like, is it possible that, you know, you come on this show late October, early November and I ask you, what's the update on this? And you're like, your sources say therapy didn't go very well and the league's thinking of keeping them out longer. I mean, is that possible?

I think it is possible. And that's something that your guy Shefti, my guy too, tweeted yesterday, that if he doesn't comply, he doesn't get reinstated. He's got to comply. And will we ever know? I don't know. You know, when he comes back, press conference, Mary Kate Cabot, the Cleveland Plain dealer, who was very quick to pounce on his failure to accept responsibility yesterday, great follow-up question from her. She hit the press conference. I think one of the first questions she asked is, do you still stand on your innocence after going through evaluation and treatment?

Do you still stand on your innocence? And if he says yes, what was it all for? What was the point of it? And it will imply at that point, pretty clearly, the league didn't care.

The league just wanted to get this over with, get him back on the field and move forward. And if, when he does come back instead, and he asked that question, he says, I regret what I said. I learned a lot. I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about how to interact with others. And I'm now equipped with the tools to avoid these kinds of problems in the future.

Then it worked. So that'll be the ultimate litmus test. Well, and the one litmus test before that is, does he even come back? Do they allow him to come back? And if they mean what they say, and he fails to accept responsibility and thus gets nothing out of evaluation and treatment, why would he be back at all? So this story isn't over yet, Rich.

And it's entirely possible. We get to December and we find out that the league has not agreed to reinstate Deshaun Watson. I don't know what happens at that point. I don't know what standing the union would have to create a federal case literally out of it, but it would probably be backed up by some records from whoever they hired to do this evaluation and treatment, that it was pointless because he just sat there over and over again saying, I never harassed anyone. I never assaulted anyone.

I never disrespected anyone. I guess it depends on whatever the appointed Dr. Melfi has to say, you know, I mean, we have no idea that that's down the road. Is it possible? Last one for you on the subject matter. Do you want Dr. Melfi? I did.

I did. I want a little Sopranos on you. So what put your legal hat on here, counselor? Is it possible he still has some sort of exposure? He's been told he's had some sort of, I guess it's the wrong word, that he has some sort of legal problem if he accepts responsibility through his verbal response yesterday, because there's one last lawsuit hanging out there.

Is that possible? Hey, Rich, if that's the case, great point. Excellent observation because he still has one case left and anything you say can and will be used against you. The admissions of a party opponent are always admissible in court.

It's not hearsay if it's said by the person who's either doing the suing or who has been sued. Excellent point. Then just don't say anything. Just don't say anything.

Why are you saying anything? See, they're trying to thread this needle where he says enough to placate the NFL and get them to do the settlement, but then he reserves the right to say, I didn't do anything. There was no reason to talk yesterday, and I'm not entirely sure the Browns knew he was going to say what he said when they put him in front of a microphone, but sometimes the best PR is no PR. Why not just let the press release and the statement that was tweeted by the Browns from Deshaun Watson, why not let that stand? And let's see how it goes over.

Let's see if people are clamoring. We need to hear from Deshaun Watson. Maybe we wouldn't have said we need to hear from him.

Maybe we would have understood as a reason why he's not talking. Instead, they put him out there and Andrew Berry, the GM, and the Haslams, and I just think that whole exercise made everyone look worse, made the situation worse, and it would have been far better to just say nothing and rely on the written document. Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk here on the Rich Eisen Show. What's your thoughts on what's happening with Tom Brady in Tampa and his absence there, Mike? I'm conflicted about this, Rich, because on one hand, I want to respect the fact that there's apparently some real personal issue that is causing him to be on this hiatus that is now at eight days with no definite end in sight. Todd Bowles yesterday, I feel bad for him. He's caught in the middle of this, and he can't commit to a day when Tom Brady's going to come back. It's just strange. Everything about Tom Brady right now is unprecedented.

Everything. He's 45 years old. He's a starting quarterback. He had over 5,000 passing yards last year.

He's as good as ever. He's deeper into his life than any high-end quarterback he's ever been. His family's getting to the point where you've got a kid in high school.

He's juggling all sorts of stuff. I balance the idea that he's entitled to his privacy with the fact that he lives a very public life. He embraces his public life. He actively utilizes social media to capitalize on that publicity and sell crypto and underwear and anything else he's pushing at any given moment, and he's become more and more active in leaning into a public life. How do you just ghost everyone for a week and a half?

Why not post something on social media? Just to give people an idea, because the curiosity continues to get more and more out of control. It is a situation that invites speculation because we don't know what's happening. Speaking of bad PR, the Buccaneers have bungled this thing from the get-go.

They have done Brady no favors with how they've handled it, and now we just sit back and wait and see if he shows up next week. So it's a weird situation, and it leads to math singer conspiracy theories. That's so stupid. Believe it or not- The vacuum has to be filled with something. Right.

I actually started my show with that, because to me it's just so off the charts ridiculous that Brady, even if it was contractually obligated for him to do it, because that Fox contract he signed to basically say, yeah, I'm in training camp, guys. You understand? So that'll be it. Go find somebody else. Go find Tom Jones. Go find another Tom. I know I'm really dating myself just there, but Marcia Brady. Go find another Brady.

Go find somebody else. I mean, it makes no sense that he would do that, but I guess with each passing day that we're filling the void comes the concept of, I guess somebody other than Brady, Kyle Trask, starting game one against the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. I don't see that happening unless the personal reason is so significant that it lingers that long, then I hope that everybody's healthy.

That's the way you got to go. Our friend Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reported over the weekend that it's not a health issue, and this whole idea that it's a pre-planned absence for personal reasons with no firm date for returning. Like, what in the world could it be? Would it be? And is there a reason to think he's not going to be back for week one?

I don't think so yet, but who knows? And hey, Rich, for the same reason that if Tyler Murray doesn't play well this year, we're all going to say, oh, he's not studying, man. He should have been 10 hours in that contract instead of four. If Tom Brady struggles, what are we going to say the longer he's gone? Well, that's what happens when you take a hiatus from training camp and you are gone for two weeks and you're not getting ready for week one. So it puts more pressure on him for that first game of the season to come out and look like Tom Brady. If he comes out and looks like Tom Brady that night, the training camp absence will be completely forgotten. Mike Florio here on the Rich Eisen Show. So I guess we are, let me do this right in my head, I guess 12 days from the Jimmy Garoppolo witching hour, you know, like this is going to happen.

Is that a good fantasy name? Jimmy Garoppolo witching hour? Because I guess the next three days of games, if all the quarterbacks that play, the starters that play emerge unscathed, it looks like Garoppolo will just have to be released on the 30th, right? Is that the way we're currently looking at things entering the biggest preseason week of preseason?

Here's the question. August 30 is the day the roster is cut to 53. However, Jimmy Garoppolo's $24.2 million base salary does not become guaranteed as a practical matter until 4 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, September 10. So do they carry him on the 53-man roster while waiting for lightning to strike somewhere else between August 30 and September 10? I think it was in that window when Teddy Bridgewater's ACL and knee imploded six years ago. And consider this, this is a regular season game on Saturday, September 8. And I don't want to jinx anybody.

I'm not going to name names, but there's only two starting quarterbacks in that game. If something happens to one of those two guys, you got Friday, September 9 to work out a trade. And for Jimmy Garoppolo, who has every reason to wait for lightning to strike as well, because he gets closer to $25 million than the league minimum if someone develops an urgent need for his services, I don't know why they wouldn't wait until September 10. And then the question becomes, would they be desperate enough to get draft pick compensation for Garoppolo that they would actually carry him beyond September 10 and owe him $24.2 million guaranteed for the year, no matter how long they keep him, and just hold on to him through the trade deadline and hope that they could maybe unload him and get something before then. I can't imagine they would do that, but we'll see.

We'll see. I mean, it's clear what they're doing. The question is, how committed are they to it?

It's like the drive to the fake house out on Manhattan with Snoopy and Prickly Pete as Costanza's two horses and the solarium and the second solarium. How committed are they to pushing this thing to the limit? Mike Florio here on the Rich Eisen Show. I'll just open your notebook. What else is of interest to you before I let you go into your preseason weekend?

I mean, what is sticking in your craw, something that we should know about, something that's on the radar screen, make us smarter, anything like that? I mean, Watson and Brady have kind of sucked all the oxygen out of the room, but we've got a bunch of preseason games, and you circle the spots where quarterback is either new, and the other thing, too, is this new preseason approach. I don't know who's going to play. Like, we used to understand cameo appearance week one, a little bit longer week two, half of the game week three, and then all the starters are gone for week four.

Now we never know. It's a news item for every team. Is your starter going to play? Is he not going to play? I'm fascinated by the Chiefs. I'm fascinated by the post Tyreek Hill, Kansas City offense. The starters are playing a half tomorrow, and the game is going to be on NFL Network against the commanders, and it's a good game to have on because you can see Patrick Mahomes and company for a half. When you remove the guy who commands extra attention everywhere he goes, how does your offense operate when you're not devoting added resources to trying to neutralize Tyreek Hill?

And is Patrick Mahomes getting to point his career where when he walks up to the line, he knows just by looking at the defense which guy is going to be open. You already start through your progression before you even have the ball. You can tell based on this look, my first read's not going to be there. Better think about my second.

Better think about my third. At some point, he's going to get to that point where you've got a supercomputer in his brain from everything he's seen, and his physical skills will still be good enough that you have the best of both worlds. That accelerates when you don't have a guy like Tyreek Hill, and it's going to be a good test to see where they are because, yeah, they're going to spread the ball around, but you know what? You're not going to have that one guy that's making it easier for guys to pop open because that extra safety isn't going to be lurking to maybe pick the pass off. Well, he will be lurking because he's not going to be chasing Tyreek Hill around. Well, maybe Sky Moore could be that guy, takes the top off every now and then. Obviously, no one's Tyreek Hill.

I get it, but I kind of dig the idea that the diversification, that there's many different guys. I mean, MVS and Juju are no slouches, right? And then you've got this Justin Watson kid that's getting a lot of attention.

I don't know. I'm thinking the Chiefs are going to wind up being all right. And MVS has the speed as well. And then there's the possibility, the old addition by subtraction, that Tyreek Hill was being enough of a pain in the butt behind the scenes, as evidenced by his own comments from his It Needed to Be Said podcast about how he was complaining about his lack of touches. I think a lot of receivers were looking at what Cooper Cup was doing last year, and they were thinking, why don't I get the ball more?

I could get those headlines too. I could be on track to break Calvin Johnson's records. And Tyreek Hill got the ball a lot and wanted it more than he was getting it. At a certain point, it skews your offense. If your quarterback is looking too long and too hard at one guy instead of going through his reads, you really do keep the quarterback from being as good as he can be. So maybe the offense will be better. As weird as that is to even think about saying, maybe the overall offense will be better without Tyreek Hill in it.

That's a good one to ask you out the door. Mike Florio, we just mentioned Cooper Cup, the Rams, the defending Super Bowl champs opening up on September 8th. And what's your level of concern or how much we should be paying attention to Matthew Stafford's throwing arm?

What do you think? Well, it's weird. Right when it reached a fever pitch a couple of weeks ago and they were bringing in baseball experts to try to figure it out, there was a real sense they didn't know what was going on. He didn't throw it all in the offseason, had an anti-inflammatory injection, and he still was having issues.

And all of a sudden, he's fine. So whatever they did, it seems to have worked. But with the Rams, I'm really wondering. Because you get to the end of the season and you get defense coordinators who look at the things that embarrass them. And Cooper Cup's performance embarrassed a lot of people last year. How aggressive will defenses be in taking away Cooper Cup? And what will the Rams have to pivot to?

Is it Allen Robinson? Is it the running game? You know, in the Super Bowl, Cooper Cup early on wasn't doing much. It was going to be Odell Beckham Jr. Day for the LA Rams until the ACL went. And the Bengals were doing a good job of keeping Cooper Cup from destroying them. I just wonder how much of that playbook translates to this year and what can the Rams pivot to if Cup is kept in check and doesn't have the kind of year he had. And a lot of that pressure is going to be on Stafford, just like without Tyree killing Kansas City.

If Cooper Cup is covered, where's the opening for Matthew Stafford to get the football? Okay, you got a question for him, Chris? All right, so Mike, so if you were going to be on The Masked Singer, what would your costume be and what song would you sing?

Oh my god. I am proud to say I don't know anything about The Masked Singer. I've never watched it. Because you don't have kids that age watching it, right?

Your kids are older now, right? Right. But even then, even then, I hope that it would not be Family Bonding Time watching The Masked Singer. I've just seen clips about it and some of the clips I've seen were horrifying.

So I'm glad that I don't know. And I would be stunned if Tom Brady ever shows up on The Masked Singer. He's an hour in the future. Please. I can't believe you traffic in that sort of stuff, Chris. I mean, you waste this man's time.

He's kind enough to handle the program. One more minute. It was an extra minute. You know what? It's good publicity for The Masked Singer, because now I'm thinking, you know, it's FOMO.

What am I missing? I can't have an intelligent conversation with people about The Masked Singer if I don't watch it. So maybe I should show up.

You know, Chris, just for you, maybe Brady will show up and his costume is Matt Patricia, so you Patriots fans know that somebody's in charge of the offense that you trust, Chris. How about that? How about that one?

See? There you go, Mike. Thanks for the call.

Right back at you. Mike Florio, everybody. Pro Football Talks.

Mike Florio. All right. Oh, my God. He's in the Matt Patricia costume.

What's this? Oh, take it off. Oh, it's Brady. Hey, Patriots fans.

Well, like it's Men in Black, like he's wearing that. Yeah, yeah. Hey, Patriots fans, it's all good, man.

Brady's calling your plays this fall. You really like that? It's amazing. I would take that. It's amazing.

That would be amazing. An odd way for Brady to get back to New England. Come on home, Tom. 844-204 Rich is the number to dial. Your phone calls. Bruce Feldman's making his way to the studio to talk some big time college football. It's their NC double A's breaking up over football. We'll be chatting with him shortly. Brett in California. Let's get Brett on the Rich Eisen Show. What's up, Brett? How you doing? Thank you for taking my call.

Thanks for making it. What's going on? Yeah. So I got a comment on the Deshaun Watson thing.

I had been exploding the last three weeks. I'm a domestic violence counselor in Northern California. I facilitate a batters intervention program. And Deshaun, absolutely accountability is the number one thing he needs to owe. And my experience with men who have been sent to the program who need to be there takes sometimes 8 to 20 weeks for these guys to even have an aha moment to realize they've been functioning this way because we train them this way.

This is complete gender role training stuff. And I know that you've interviewed him and said he's a really nice guy. He is a nice guy, but he's been trained some egregious behavior and he can unlearn it, but he's got to accept it. And I don't get any of that in his statement yesterday at all.

I know. And I don't know, Brett, if he's still saying what he's saying because there's still one civil lawsuit out there and somebody's telling him you cannot, when you get in front of a microphone, say at all that you accept responsibility for this sort of thing. I don't know because that's the only, you know, reasonable explanation. But you can tell me if you said in your experience 8 to 20 weeks before there's an aha moment. So maybe he's not.

I don't know. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, absolutely. And again, he might really think that I really believe he thinks he did nothing wrong. But the thing is he has to be held accountable. I think he needs to be suspended for a year and he needs to be in a program absolutely right now. And by next year, he could be playing in the NFL. And the NFL needs to get out of the unification of this. They need to get qualified people, victims, people who have a background, to have a say in what the penalty should be. It's been a joke, the NFL, how they've handled these situations.

I appreciate it. And one more thing to that fan yesterday, the Cleveland fan who called in tears, absolutely have empathy for that, his daughter. And one of the things that I really thought about was what about if Deshaun Watson wasn't able to take accountability, get the help that he needs and really take ownership and come out. And then two years from now, he is a model citizen for speaking out against this. That fan and his daughter can be proud of the redemption story. That to me is hope. Thanks for the call, Brett.

Greatly appreciate it. That's Brett in California here on The Rich Eisen Show. Look, just to spend a couple of minutes here on the subject matter, because obviously I've done a lot of ruminating about it overnight. Maybe just you want to give the guy benefit of the doubt anymore. He's still not taking full responsibility in a camera on him with a microphone in front of him because he still has legal exposure and somebody's telling him he can't say out loud what he had written for him, I guess, in a statement that he accepts responsibility. Because somebody saying I didn't disrespect anybody and I didn't assault anybody after what Sue L. Robinson in the six-game suspension found that he did do, he did in fact do that and called his behavior egregious and said he wasn't remorseful at all. Somebody who accepts an 11-game suspension and a five million dollar fine with the money going towards to prevent sexual misconduct can't then say I'm innocent. Somebody who accepts a ruling that says as a grown man on the planet he may no longer choose who can massage him.

It must be approved by the team. That person can't turn around and say I'm innocent. When you accept that guardrail placed on your life as a generationally enriched member of the community walking around human being. You can't choose who can massage you anymore. You accept that. But I'm innocent.

I never did that. I'm only doing this because people got triggered. I can't say that and think that we should all believe you or say you deserve a second chance.

Maybe he's saying it because he has legal exposure. Then wrap that thing up and come out and take ownership because you have to in order to get the second chance from everyone, all NFL fans that you think you deserve. Hour two coming up. I thought about that last night. Think about it. 26 year old man on the planet can no longer choose professionally in his job as an athlete who works on him. Can't do it anymore.

That person's now designated for you. But he didn't do anything wrong. I'm totally innocent. I never for him to say he never disrespected anybody. Are you out of your mind? Read those articles.

At the very least, remove all the other stuff, which obviously you can't do. His behavior beyond disrespectful for people. Beyond. Most of the time. Who are just trying to work and make a living. Who come out of, you know, the room that they've placed themselves in while he gets himself ready for the table and they come out and they see a washcloth there. What?

That's not disrespectful behavior. Again, read the material. That's all I ask. Read the the depositions. Read the articles. Read Sue L. Robinson's opinion. Educate yourself fully on this.

If you are somebody who's tweeting at me, what I see you're tweeting at me, or putting on our YouTube stream, what I see you put on our YouTube stream, what I see you put on our YouTube stream. Please read all of that. And if you've got a problem that the NFL didn't throw him completely out of the league, take that up with the authorities in Houston. And people do deserve a second chance in the world. I know Jimmy Haslam said, you know, people are saying he doesn't deserve, you know, to have a career.

I'm not one of them. And I don't know a lot of people who are in my circle saying he should be out forever. But to earn the second chance from the NFL fan, writ large, with nobody who's got a dog pound in the fight. For those people to understand your second chance is deserving, you cannot have a statement put out with your name on it written and then come out and say the exact opposite in front of a microphone and a camera. And everybody else saying what they're saying, putting their reputations on the line to say what you should be saying and think you deserve the second chance. 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.