REShow: Pat Chun - Hour 1

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Try Dove Men Plus Care Dry Spray goes on dry clean feel all day. This is the Rich Eisen Show with guest host Ryan Leek. Touchdown Patriots! Do you know what one will call plays when the regular season arrives?

Yeah well don't worry about that we'll work it out. The Rich Eisen Show. The Browns are considering acquiring Jimmy Garoppolo if Deshaun Watson's six game suspension is extended. Today's guest is Washington State Athletic Director Pat Chun. Denver Post Broncos writer Ryan O'Halloran. ESPN NFL reporter Lindsey Theory.

Associated Press sports writer Josh DuBois. And now sitting in for Rich it's Ryan Leek. Welcome welcome welcome everybody to day four of the Ryan Leek experiment here on the Rich Eisen Show. Not experience.

Not experience experiment right still still in the formation phase of all this alongside T.J. Jefferson, Michael Del Tufo and Chris Brockman. Mike Hoskins in the back pulling all the strings here. Calling him Geppetto back there? Yeah he's kind of a bit of a Geppetto.

He pulls all the strings right. Don't forget Adam on the phones baby. Adam on the phones.

Oh also this. We gotta mention Liz too then. Liz kills it. Kristen and Erica all week long booking the greatest guest today you saw. We got Smitch and Jordan at home. And that's her whole crew. There's only 11 of us.

Sean Mitchell and Jordan. Yeah I mean this is a full-fledged operation. And some cats that the people at home don't know about. Me and Del Tufo have adopted some cats that run around the studio. So I like it. I like it.

I like doing this. I was saying though as we went on the air. I you know tipped my hat to Mr. Rich Eisen. I mean that hat there.

Yeah the hat right here. The dude shows up right five days a week three hour show right. I'm lucky I got you guys in the mix. I mean it's it takes a bit of a toll right. I mean it's a it's a long day of talking.

A lot of talking. Now I have to get on a plane right after this. My man Mike Del Tufo gonna run me to the airport right after this. Uber Mike.

Yep. And I gotta jump on a a jet to. Big old jet. To Salt Lake City. I got and speak to the Utah Utes football program. Picked in the top 10 to start the season the preseason poll uh tonight and then they have their scrimmage tomorrow. So I'm gonna get a first look at kind of what that team looks like. They play at Florida in week one in the swamp. Big opportunity for that team.

Big opportunity. Can you walk us through you do speaking engagements all over the country for all kinds of different organizations. You go to a lot of teams. You speak you know other functions. Can you just walk us through what one of those is for you? Like do you have it all laid out what you're going to talk about? Do you hit on the same kind of larger points overall with each one that you do? Just kind of walk us through one of those.

Okay uh thanks. It it comprises of really what my my main values are in terms of what I go about and speak and that's usually around accountability, choices, consequences, community, those types of things. And it usually fits in with what coaches want in their culture.

If our values match then we we get together. A lot of times too I'll go and sit with the head coach for half an hour an hour before I go speak to the team and if there's anything that they want specifically hit upon. Maybe a a point during camp this year that they're really emphasizing right. Something that that I can reinforce um with with what my speech looks like. And and I have a uh I have a about a three-minute introductory video that that Anna and I really kind of put together like five years six years ago and we've never changed it. And it uh because a lot of these kids I call them kids they they don't know who the hell I am.

They weren't even alive when I was playing. Right. So you know so this introductory video shows it all the good stuff the rise and then it doesn't hold back doesn't pull any punches. It shows the precipitous downfall like a really quick clipping montage of like Ryan Leaf arrested again mugshot here uh what about that Ryan Leaf you know all these news things that play out to it and then to where we are after the fact.

So just they can have an idea of who I am and then when I start the speech it usually is hey I was exactly where you were at 25 years ago. In fact I was probably in a better position right I was about to be the second pick in the NFL draft we were about to go on and play for a national championship. So right you know what I'm about to tell you isn't a story of what not to do or what to do.

It it's simply my story and um and then I try to make it the best I can every every time I'm there. I I just got back like I said from Florida State um I I don't know I felt like it was the most connected I had with a team. Oh okay. I don't know why.

Wow. It was just uh I was locked in the kids were locked in they were listening and in this day and age I always worry when I first started talking to these teams when I hear like just just silence like you could hear a a pin drop right and I'm like oh my god I'm bombing like this is there's I'm not getting through to anybody but kids these days like if they are attentive that means they're locked in like I mean if they're sitting there with their phones going through things like that that's normally their behavior right and so that's been good I don't know it felt it felt locked in there down at FSU with coach and that team. Do these kids know who you are know your story like how familiar are they with you do you think? I asked that question sometimes at the beginning like how many of you have any idea who who I I was and if so is what you heard like um bad right like there's a bad connotation to it and I think a lot of people assume that when I walk into a room like this it's a story of what not to do but up to the point where they're at in their careers I was an unbelievable success right right so everything was going great so you can't you can't go I'm going to show you what not to do in all these instances no I'm going to show you what to do to get to the highest level and then once you get there how not to blow it right and how not to do that so there's there you get both sides of the story you get uh uh you know a meteoric rise and how to go about that business because I think people and and uh TJ made the point yesterday TJ made the point yesterday people don't realize how hard I worked to get where I was at I was never supposed to get to the NFL I'm from Great Falls Montana like there's been one guy drafted in the first round the NFL draft and that was like 1953.

You're not like a western PA or a southern California or a Texas pipeline type kid. I mean it's just it's not it's not something that happens like and so I was never supposed to get there so I had to have done a ton of things right to get to that point and so it's important to to showcase that hey you can do all these things to get where you need to get to and when you when you reach that level there is a conscious evolution that has to come with it if you don't evolve if you are stuck in the idea that you are the end-all be-all that what everybody else is saying is wrong and you are right in all of it in all of it you are doomed to fail and so that's kind of how how it goes about and it's just from making relationships with coaches and I mean the first coach that ever had me out to speak was Nick Saban so I don't know if you could have a better referral than than the best college football coach of all time right I usually pick about five so the first five programs that reach out every fall okay are the five I go to and it doesn't matter the size of like I remember a few years back I had my five picked out and Clemson came in a little bit late and I said I said I can't I'm somewhere else that weekend they happened to ask me where I said I'm at Northern Arizona and and he's like well come to Clemson and then they wet your beak a little bit more and you're like you know what Northern Arizona we can do another time yeah nope I did coach ball you stayed there and you you kept your commitment oh yeah and uh was a part of that program you know it doesn't matter how big uh it matters about the the the young student athletes you know I never I never want anybody to experience what I had to experience I don't want anybody to ever feel as miserable as I did doing something I love to do right and it caused me so much pain because of of my actions and my choices so I don't want anybody like I think a lot of people think sometimes well just Steelers fans I told you about how pissed off Steelers fans are at me I made a comment yesterday around and I've made it before even before our comments I thought that seeing where the rest of the quarterbacks went in this year's draft I thought maybe going after Kenny Pickett in the first round may have been a bit of a reach you could have got him in the second it sounds like yeah maybe you couldn't have maybe another team felt felt good about him too but but I thought it might be a bit of a reach and Steelers fans uh yesterday just you know let me have it like one of the some of the comments were like he just wants somebody to be a bigger bus than him so people will stop talking about him and that's the furthest thing from the truth right stop reading the comments you guys I'm not I get this I'm not you you're just going through your twitter feed right and you just have you just happen to see it and it's so ridiculous one of the biggest points and I'll say this to the kids when I'm giving these speeches I'm like I don't want any of you to be uber successful and go to the NFL and just bomb and be the biggest bus there is because so it will replace me I said I am the number one guy I'm super competitive right I'll hold that mantle till the day I die um so I I don't need that I don't want that you know I enjoy what I get to do now it's uh to be back around the sport not only from the analyst perspective and sitting in this chair but then being a part of college programs all over the country I mean you you name a a university I've spoken to it probably right that's how that's how great it feels to be um welcomed in it's really cool yeah and I walk into these onto these campuses and they and I do something a little different um I ask their equipment staff if I can get their gear so when I even though it's you know I've been at Washington and I've worn Washington gear in front of them that's why because when I'm talking about the things I'm talking about it's like walking in front of someone's line on the golf course it could it you know Cougar fans are a little upset but if they don't get it if you don't understand why I do it and try to be part of something especially when I'm talking about right mental health and suicide uh and all that stuff then it then it defeats the purpose I want them to believe that and I don't like to just go for a day like show up for an hour speak get out like these kids needs consistency they need to be able to trust somebody so I like to come in and spend two or three days like when I went to Florida State I was there for three full days ate meals with the team all day long went out to practice and met with them and you know I give my phone number at the end of the the talk I give my phone number to every player and coach in the room so if and when they are having a moment where they need help or if they're in a moment where they want to share something amazing that happened they can reach out I've had I have had players reach out when they've gone through a real difficult time or dealing with something I've had them reach out when when they've just done something completely amazing I threw four touchdowns today Ryan you know I mean it's so fun to be connected I think for somebody who was so disconnected for so long like when you're sitting in a prison cell guys I mean it is the furthest thing from feeling any sort of connection in this world at all I mean you've been warehoused and marginalized and those are two things that I never fully understood of course you've been given a number and said you have no value and you start to buy into that and believe in that and and not not understand fully what what your purpose could be ironically enough I was in New Orleans over the weekend before I got home here speaking at a corrections leadership conference corrections of the guy that helped me set up this opportunity to speak was my old warden wow in fact my old warden has been like a a super agent for me he's booked like six speaking events and things for me how crazy is that that's that's that's pretty wild I'm about to embark on some work with the DEA this year around their campaign called one pill can kill because of all the counterfeit pills that are out there and how many people are dying of overdoses because of the fentanyl 10 years ago the DEA was hunting me right essentially and now I'm about to work with them I mean it's I couldn't fathom the idea that what 10 years ago my life would look like now and it's a good lesson for those who are early in recovery or who are early on a path of anything to understand that it can get better but it's all about what you do with it today because I can't control what happens tomorrow five years from now or anything like that I don't want to even look 10 years down the line I believe that if I do what I did yesterday today I'll lay my head down tonight at peace and wake up and go about it again and sometimes we just make things incredibly difficult as human beings and that's a real simplistic way to look at it and one of my biggest supporters one of the guys Bill Moose was the former athletic director at Washington State and when I got out of prison it was a kind of a mandate keep Ryan Leaf away from Washington State we don't want we don't want any association with them he is he has tarnished our image so much to this point we don't we don't want any and that was the mandate that went out so I was not included in anything or any or any Pat Chun gets the job athletic director at Washington State currently first thing he does he's on a trip down working with some donors in LA asks if I will go to lunch with him sits down gets to know me gets to know what I'm doing trying to be and things have just just steamrolled from there he helped get me inducted into the Washington State Hall of Fame there you go he was first with our SID to get me nominated for the College Football Hall of Fame I love the fact that I'm a Washington State Cougar it's a decision I made when I was 18 years old and I will be that for the rest of my life and I think for the longest time and I know it wasn't the fan base they still wrapped their arms around me like anybody you know it was an administration thing at the time and I fully understand why I do I get it I'm not resentful I understand it and but instead now I'm just incredibly grateful that Pat Chun and Washington State have welcomed me back and may be a part of that great program their first game this year I'll be calling the Pac-12 Network versus Idaho and up next that athletic director Mr. Pat Chun, Washington State athletic director is going to join us here on the Rich Eisen Show. We'll be right back. Welcome back everybody to the Rich Eisen Show. Ryan Leaf here filling in for us. Ryan Leaf here filling in for Rich last day of the week alongside T.J. Jefferson, Michael DelTufo, Chris Brockman and we'd like to welcome to the show here on the Mercedes-Benz Vans phone line a man that has supported me a ton and I'm so happy we could get him on the show today athletic director from Washington State University Mr. Pat Chun. Pat, welcome to the show.

How you doing, bud? Good, Ryan. I'm thankful, appreciative of you having me on because your show's namesake took some shots at my alma mater at his hall of fame whatever hall of fame dais that he was hosting so I'm guessing this will be friendlier with a Washington State legend and all of them so glad to be on the show. Oh no, Pat Chun, the Ohio State. The Ohio State.

Oh no. Pat, it took him 10 years to get those those jabs in so yeah you know Michigan is only going to win once every 15 years just let him have that moment. It's been a long century for those Wolverines so I enjoy it. Well we're kind of experiencing the same thing in Pullman right after beating up on those dogs in the apple cup right? Absolutely yes yes and I have vivid memories of being with you on the field before this last apple cup and and I tell you guys you could feel Ryan's intensity against our rivals which is this school on the west side of our state and thankfully we're able to beat them last November. Yeah, it was the last time I'd been to Husky Stadium since we won it and so it was a little bit of good luck. I called the game for Westwood won that day and it was fun to call that game. It really was. They played an interesting game. I think it was it was fun to call that game.

It really was. They played an incredible game and I think it solidified something that I think a lot of us had seen up to that point. Interim head coach Jake Dickert wasn't going to be the interim for much longer after that as you named the next head coach at Washington State pretty quickly after. Yeah and it was one of those deals and you guys you've been around coaches and been around winning teams but just to watch this team just go from really fractured and broken to just start every single day just get a little bit better a little bit more healed a little bit more focused and then you know in our in our atmosphere here you know beating our rivals is always a little bit more important. We're fortunate to be in be a part of a rivalry in which there's there's a long long history and tradition with it but it was really a culmination of just just a phenomenal you know extraordinary piece of work by Jake Dickert and he earned the opportunity to be our head football coach and I think we're all you know where we're at on I think let's say August 12th I think we're really excited about the prospects of what could happen this fall. Yeah I want you to speak a little bit more about Jake Dickert because I was there in the spring call in the spring game and I brought my family with me and my wife has been around the program now with me for the last you know five years or so or really ever since you took over and she made a comment to me as we were driving back to Spokane about the optimism that was in the air that there was there were more people smiling and I mean she'd been around at you know at the end of Mike Leach era and of course during the Nick Rolovich era and and I found Jake Dickert to be a guy that is never at any point going to put himself in front of the team or or make him self more important than what the the process is and what the team is and she just simply said like there's an optimism there that hasn't been seen.

Now don't get me wrong it's a results-based business he's got to go out and win but I mean going into the season and going to win this off season it's it's it's felt like there's a positivity and there's a positivity that hasn't been there in a long time. Well and I think both both of you are pretty keen on reading people and Jake is a servant leader first and foremost and how he manages his student-athletes and I think that's what you that that's probably what you guys felt and on top of that I mean you've been in Pullman more than most people you know Jake and his wife Candace I label them I'm from the midwest I labeled them Wisconsin Nice and Wisconsin Nice is a mirror image of Pullman Nice so as you know they're they're just really thoughtful caring people that's just in their DNA and and we were in a program we're in a we're in a space last year which we just needed more care and and in today's day and age I would also I would also say young people need you know in my opinion to get the experience they're supposed to have and I always got the sense your your teams when you guys won at the highest levels here at Washington State they were so connected with each other and so connected with the program and really that that is just a byproduct of time and we live in we live in a world now where people in a hurry and people in a rush but Jake is willing and his coaching staff for that matter to put in the time to get to know our team and to be connected with each other and to care and I think that's that that's probably what you felt percolating in spring ball and I can tell you after you know even in the following months because you know a part of his DNA is bringing a team together and the importance of being together and like I said where we're supposed to be in early August I think we all feel pretty good about it just because you know that that's just part of who he is he wants to be connected to his team and you know and and for us we we've always been a school that has to win in the margins and one of those margins is is you know we got to be a little bit better team we got to have a little bit better leadership we got to be a little bit more together and if we can if we an easier said than done but if we can get that that's typically where Washington state has kind of gained some ground on teams that on paper may have recruited better against us in the past but man you know our teams that have won at the highest level they've out team teams and that's kind of been the recipe here for decades. We're speaking with Pat Chun, Washington state athletic director of athletics. You've seen it all since you've taken over there right you you came in with a deficit and in your athletic budget you've watched NIL become a part of the conversation and then of course the transfer portal and now USC and UCLA deciding to embark and go someplace else outside the Pac-12 footprint to the Big Ten. Just kind of talk about what that journey's been like the evolution and and where Washington state fits in the conversation piece now when we're talking about the 10 remaining teams in this conference. Well when you take a step back I mean nothing's really changed for Washington state we've always been a program that does isn't as resources of other schools so we've always you know we've always had to be a little bit different and and really be more dialed in on who we bring in here and coach as coaches and the staff they built up and that that's a recipe that will probably have to be a part of Washington state DNA till the end of time. With that being said there have been you know transformative changes in college athletics just with you know one just with the continued amount of money that gets poured into our system through these tv contracts on top of that we deregulated transfers last year for football on top of that we have this unregulated name image and likeness environment and and we still operate out of a historical model where we're you know we need to figure out ways to put more in our student athletes pockets and and without sacrificing the educational experience because at the end of the day it's still the most important piece of of the entire experience and it's the one thing that really remains undebatable is is the best pathway to changing your your socioeconomic status to to raise your sight lines on what a future could look like is is still through through education specifically college education so our system is in a period of dynamic change what usc and ucla did um i guess a month and a half ago it's just a byproduct of where where of where this thing unfortunately is headed and and and and and how tb is impacting a lot of decisions um you know for you know a lot of short-term decisions relative to you know what history and tradition and what what those two schools have meant to the pac pac-10 pac-12 but it's where we're at and like in any any any era that we've ever had in college athletics it's incumbent on us to try to uh you know take what we have and try to make the most out of it and where we sit today you know i'm comfortable uh with with the commitment of our nine other schools in the pac-10 or pac-12 and uh our willingness to stay together and move forward and and you don't know what what you don't know but you know all of our conversations have been forward thinking and i think everybody here on the west coast knows what that state and how important it is for us to stay together as a conference uh the the that conversation right a lot of you sat in those meetings over the last year with ucla and and usc where you had martin jarmon and and mike bone and and and and i assume president schultz and those presidents president meetings and stuff like that and you know what was said to their face wasn't necessarily what was going on behind the scenes um what what gives you uh a confidence that what you're experiencing together right now the 10 of you uh makes you feel like that's a more solid foundation than than clearly it was just over a month and a half ago i i would just say the level of candor uh in all of our meetings and the the types of questions that are being asked um i mean they're everybody understands what's at stake everybody understands you know our you know i i've i've said this multiple times our our biggest threat is the multiple conferences our biggest threat is one conference making a decision if they want to expand more into the west coast uh and that's the conference of my alma mater so um we recognize that so i would just i i guess the comfort comes in it's not it's you know these meetings have been intense they've been uh highly communicative uh but the fact that there's been pander in all of our meetings is is where everybody's asking the right questions and the fact that we're all asking the right questions uh it gives you a little bit of comfort that everyone everyone is is trying to you know work together to move forward have you had um have you had many uh calls uh or or interactions with alumni of washington state university uh kind of panicking because of of all this or has there been a pretty like i i've tried to come from an optimistic side of this regardless of what anything looks like whatever the landscape looks like the tradition in history of washington state football is never going to be go away it's it's always going to be there football is going to be played there it's going to be played at a very high level and and be very competitive i i think there's some fear from people that that that for some reason washington state football uh in this you know new look of what college football could be no longer exists and that's that's the furthest thing from the truth well i think there's two things one we have a president who actually was over a decade ago the president at kansas state and sat through kind of the same quicksand with the big 12 and they were able to survive so one just having a president i you know i say this in all seriousness i think kurt's done more to calm me down than vice versa uh with all just just with just how um you know just how uncertain the environment is and was i guess especially at the beginning parts of july i i i think the nice outcome of all this is all these all these um you know the athletic ego right down the list all these these these sports writers that cover college football um as they as they try to you know follow the data on why you know behind all you know behind all these decisions which is basically tv ratings you know lo and behold washington state actually turns on tv sets and i think that's been the most comforting thing that that is that has been very very public especially in recent weeks that um you know just from a value standpoint what washington state brings to the table and what the nine other schools in the pack 12 bring to the table is the reason why the 10 schools have to you know need to stay together and want to stay together but our story is a little bit unique and and when you try to do the math on why does little old washington state turn on tv sets you know you know you could date it back to the guy who designed our logo because it's our belief it's one of the most recognizable logos uh in all the college athletics and you just build up from jack thompson dennis erickson mike price i know this is the 25 year anniversary of your rose bowl team and that was uh what seemed like a mount everest at one point that you and your teammates got us over and you know you fast forward another rose bowl and the mike leach years and game day coming here and gardner menshew and maybe it's because we've always you know thrown the ball around because you know uh for your for your crew there i actually our sid gave me some trivia if you want me to grill ryan about his uh about his his rose ball year uh but you look back and it's like maybe it's because we're through the through the ball around and we've been easy to watch maybe people like turn watching us because we're always david to someone else the liars but bottom line washington state turns on tv sets and i i when it's all said and done uh our our footprint specifically to us does include seattle and i think people forget that like yeah we're in eastern washington there's there's wheat fields all around us uh but for whatever reason washington state turns on tv sets in this corner of the world and uh and throughout the country so that's the most comforting thing that i remind people that it's the data that's driving this it's tv ratings uh obviously we have uh you know from our from our regions to our president chancellor everybody on campus here recognizes the importance and value of intercollegiate athletics so uh wherever this thing heads um which our belief is it's going to be with the pac-12 staying together you know i feel really confident that hey washington state brings so much to the table and the numbers show it it's we're too valuable to be left out of any conversation well i agree i'm a little biased but i i completely agree uh we're speaking with pat shun uh director of athletics at washington state university before i get you out of here uh you just made reference that you you sent that in a text i had completely forgot this is the 25th anniversary of our rose bowl uh it really makes me feel old but is there anything uh planned or in store for that this this fall uh that i should be made aware of well we'll honor that team but my guess is unfortunately in your in your new life you're working on saturday so uh so uh so we'll have to figure that piece out but uh that is a historic moment in washington state and uh um you know it's one that really you could argue put us on the map and the fact that you know our one of our great alums keep jackson at that time was was the voice of college football and uh that that year just reestablished us and just looking back i mean bill stevens you may know this off the top of your head but you know how many guys in total uh from that 97 team uh ended up getting drafted or signed free agent contracts the next year 98 i i think there was four of us that were drafted and i would suspect i don't know 10 or so got uh got free agent contracts nine so it's still the most in school history so it's 13 actually uh from that that 97 team ended up on at least in a training camp in the fall which says a lot about the talent on that football team yeah it was an incredibly talented football team i had an amazing teammates and coaching staff and um finally being able to walk on that field and see washington state in the end zone was was something really special hey one quick question before you kick me off the radio who the heck did you have a 21-yard run against um in 97 yeah that's your longest run of the year it kind of sticks out on your stat sheet here i i i don't know i don't know who it would have been against i'm trying to think i i had a touchdown run against boise state i had a long run in the rose bowl that that 21's not not not anything to look like i mean that's considered a big play by some stats like the year before the year before at ucla i had a 48-yard run so that that i that trounces that one yeah yeah well thanks thanks for the little boost yeah yeah so um i'll see you in uh i'll see you in a few weeks in week one versus uh versus idaho you're here for the opener yes sir all right go cougs appreciate appreciate you having me on pat shawn everybody washington state director of athletics go cougs uh when we come back uh we'll recap a little bit what he had to say talk about what you know college football is looking like here on the rich eisen show we'll be right back welcome back everybody to the rich eisen show ryan leaf here filling in for rich eisen alongside tj jefferson michael diltufo chris brockman what's up mike hoskins back there pulling the strings again um had meant to kind of get into this in the open but again thank you to pat shun athletic director for washington state university for joining us talking about all things uh college football in particular the pac-12 pac-10 currently we'll see where that where that leads um this this news story um was kind of buried and it has been for some time and i think it it lends itself to just the absolute teflonness that's a word to the nfl right and this this is fitting for somebody who who played for four years uh has residual has residual effects from playing football but a while back the nfl settled a concussion settlement lawsuit and in the observations or in the appointments with former players getting diagnosed with issues that come that stem from from concussions and head trauma and everything like that there was a essentially like an algorithm or a way they went about deciphering people's needs and for the longest time there was a bias against african-american players in that they were denied health care claims because of this bias that was in it and it finally got rectified the lawyer for the plaintiffs finally figured it out and stood up for it and the nfl now is you know finally correcting that wrong you know it's saying hundreds of black nfl retirees who were denied payouts in the one billion dollar concussion settlement now qualify for awards after their tests were rescored to eliminate the racial bias changes to the settlement made last year are meant to make the test race blind the use of race norming in the dementia testing made it more difficult for former black players to prove that they had the kind of cognitive decline that qualifies retired players for awards that average up to five hundred thousand dollars or more because of of the issues they're having and it's not a large number who have played in the nfl guys i think there's upwards i think it's around 27 28 thousand players ever in the history of the nfl 100 years or so history of the nfl that played so it's not a huge number it's not hundreds of thousands of individuals who are who are seeking these types of things nearly 650 men have had their dementia tests automatically rescored according to a report released friday by the law firm handling claims against the nfl the retirees had met the other criteria for a successful claim which includes the hours of validity testing to show that their daily lives are significantly impaired and they are not malingering all of this was done and it's the nfl was contacted an approach to comment and of course i think they've they've made their statement but this is something that affects all of us in particular players that are of color right they were being denied because of that and i think just the biggest fear for all former players is that they're going to be in a place where they're going to need that help whenever that may be and it and it was essentially being a boundary was being placed up by the nfl in helping their former players because of their the color of their skin and it's that's an atrocity it's absolutely awful it's amazing that this is something that the nfl has again been able to sidestep and you know say hey i you know we messed it up and now we're correcting it and we're moving forward the reason i bring it up simply because of the obvious right is the atrocity of it but also just the fear that many of us former players have um i i've never i've never said this publicly um it's something that uh started happening a year ago we all know and i've talked about having a brain tumor 10 years ago that was was trauma related luckily for me that that was was corrected i had i had a surgery and i had i dealt with radiation to correct it and stuff like that but that was from trauma from from the concussions and from from playing the game but recently this last year i started developing a a tremor in my in my hands uh more more often when i'm doing exercises like when i'm doing planks and i'm holding my own body weight up i've i've lost a lot of weight and i've become a lot stronger but when i'm doing it my arms shake kind of uncontrollably and i was i didn't know what that was and so i was really fearful and and uh and and you can see it sometimes when i'm holding up like a i'm drinking a glass of water if you're really paying attention you can see my heart my hand starting to shake and it's becoming more obvious and so um you know i've i've had to address it with with some people and i went to my neurologist who um luckily for me it was a what they call a an essential tremor which is genetic and it's in my family but she did ask me to go get an mri on my brain to make sure where the the tumor is and the result came back pretty positive but she said one thing she said that that my brain was starting to kind of sag in the back and it's a result from the surgery that i had in some instances but these types of things are exactly what we fear us as former players and when you read stuff like this stuff like this because i'm not a big conspiracy guy i i don't buy into that i feel like when the nfl talked about not knowing the trauma that comes from it i could buy into that and i don't expect anything like i don't i don't think i don't need a big payout or anything i chose willingly to go into this profession and play this game and i don't think i would do anything different because i think it gave me a lot and it gives a lot of guys a lot i just am in the same way around the opioid epidemic if a doctor would have told me years ago when he prescribed me my opiates for the first time that hey you know if you take these and and there's there's a chance of dependency you know 10 15 years from now you may be you know going into people's house to burgulize the house to take i mean i might have a different right mindset on whether or not i take it sure if the nfl you know who knew the results of these things that have happened over the years watching the situations with mike webster with andre waters with junior seo all of these things if they had a better grip on what was happening and were honest with people saying hey this is what you have in front of you you can play this sport and make millions of dollars and set your family up for life especially coming from places of abstract poverty right things of that nature but you also may be limited in your lifespan right there's cognitive issues that can come from it and you know you may only live to let's say 50 years old or something like that and then you and then the choice is laid at your feet right you you get to make that choice you feel like something was withheld from you now don't get me wrong i knew it was a violent sport i'm not naive to the fact that there was you know it was it was a physical violent sport but i think that's the biggest thing in all this so having said that not a big conspiracy theorist but then you watch and listen to the avenues in which the nfl would go to limit their former players that built the league to receive benefits that they they direly need that's concerning and for somebody who is starting to have and feel like there's cognitive issues that are going to come into play over the next i'm 46 right i hope to live till i'm 95 my grandfather's 95 years old i hope i get to live that long especially with having a child and being in a great relationship and all of that i want to live that long and so if at some point i need treatment and i need that to continue my life i don't want to be denied and those african-american players want the same thing and for the fact that they were denied those how many years have they been denied that and now finally having it corrected is a is a huge relief in in my mind and i can only imagine in everybody else's mind you know it's it's something i continue to say is nfl has got to do better i think people look at the nfl and see that we don't have lifetime health insurance players wish and hope they had that people from the outside world say any any job you stop working like if you get benefits at at an insurance job right and you quit that job your benefits go away they don't stick with you for the rest of life but i don't ever want anybody to like associate what an nfl player does in comparison to somebody who maybe works in an office and yeah and and and i understand that so um i just kind of wanted to talk about that a little bit i was i was kind of planning on opening the show but we got on a tangent around what we do and uh on my speaking and i think it's important that the nfl continues to try to be better right and because it you know when you do stuff like this and then you try to take the high or the moral high ground in in situations like the dashaun watson scenario and and not being uh in the same place with let's say dan snyder and robert craft over some of their allegations over the last few years right you just don't know where the nfl lands and it confuses people the product on the field is the product on the field i love it everybody consumes it it's never not going to be consumed it's never not going to be worth billions of dollars they can just be better just like anybody else and i fully understand that the nfl like is is like any other human being we're flawed incredibly flawed it's just a matter of whether or not you choose to be better today and i think they've fallen short in many many many different categories just like i have let's try to be better together for our brothers who who are no longer with us and who are struggling right now who need that help so all right there's my soapbox i'm off it um uh we have a great show the rest of the way when we come back chris is gonna jump in with his uh what's more likely segment it's more likely it's friday baby i love that it's friday i love that it's friday it's the middle of august i can't believe 2022 is almost i mean it's literally almost done football season is about to start uh when we come back we'll get to that with chris uh brockman what's more likely um with i think there's gonna be some football things in there probably um when we come back uh here on the rich eisen show i'm ryan lee filling it for rich uh and we'll be right back all right um two two nfl preseason games last night right two last night right haven't even talked about yet but pats giant anything crazy happened right past giants yep and then tennessee ravens yeah titans raven the ravens uh continued their crazy streak if they haven't lost a preseason game in like five years 24 straight games i think it is 21 straight games now so they could they could get to 24 if they they run through this this no gonna play three so 23 then get through 23 right um malik willis right was a conversation piece last night looked pretty good we'll look into that um you know the pats um we'll have a little uh um press conference from uh from bill billy check a little bit later a lot going on about the play calling uh matt patricia was calling plays at one point then joe joe they like split play calling what's the pre-season for everybody it's it's for practice it's for ones didn't play so i'm not really looking too deep into it no it's a good opportunity saquon barkley i thought he looked pretty good in the uh limited action that he well so much so that pre-show you kind of talked about maybe being influenced i think i'm fantasy football i don't want that out there yet oh well it's out there he also likes travis atn i love travis that is very out there yes i was very out there i didn't say that and and only people watching peacock see it luckily no one on the radio heard it where i think most most of this show is consumed yeah oh about my saquon yes let's keep that on the down low down low i think saquon's gonna be good the strategic well he better be for the giant's sake for brian dabel for uh for daniel jones right um that's that's going to be imperative um i'm anxious on the giant side of things to see uh kavon tibbato i think that was a great fit there have you seen the battle so far this year in camp with evan neil and cave on yeah i mean that is that is iron sharpening iron situations what a cool thing so huge so big cave on so fast and physical that's going to be fun to watch uh in new york this year you know the nfc east for me is just kind of a crap shoot we talked about it a little bit the other day i'd like to talk a little bit more about it where the giants if brian dabel is able to do something special catch lightning in a bottle do something different with daniel jones what does that look like are they able to compete we have not had a repeat champion in the nfc east since the early aughts of the philadelphia eagles so we'll see what that looks like when we come back here on the rich eisen show ryan lee filling in for rich we'll be right back 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 oatman was a babyface hulk and andre were able to go in and headline at the new orleans superdome at shay stadium in japan wherever they went that was an attraction something to wrestle with bruce prichard listen wherever you get your podcasts