REShow: Andy Holloway - 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 Leaf. We're speaking with head Baylor football coach Dave Aranda. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

You know football is a platform to show the world who you are as a person. Today's guests, host of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast Andy Holloway, two-time Super Bowl champion Max Starks, Tampa Bay Times Bucks beat writer Rick Stroud, plus Florida State head coach Mike Norvell. And now sitting in for Rich, it's Ryan Leaf. Welcome, welcome, welcome everybody to day three of the Ryan Leaf experiment here on the Rich Eisen Show. I am Ryan Leaf filling in for Rich alongside TJ Jefferson.

What it do? Michael Del Tufo and Chris Brockman. What up, what up, what up? A little retrospection from yesterday. It was a pretty powerful show of course, just fun and in general, but we had a couple callers that, you know, called and you guys surprised me a little bit with this, but they just happened to call and talk about some of the stuff that they had gone through, what they were going through and how that affected them and changed them and how powerful it is to have, you know, have me in this chair or Rich allow me to be in this chair and have this platform and stuff and I think that was kind of my biggest takeaway. I didn't really fully maybe sit in it until last night and you guys put out some through the Rich Eisen Show, one of the clips from when it happened.

So it was powerful, it was incredible to be around and to see and hear other people because that happens all the time, but I don't think anybody ever knows to have it really in a public forum like that was pretty cool and I appreciate you guys being a part of it with me. Speaking of personal, the breaking news this morning, Todd Bowles just announced during his press conference after their joint practice with the Miami Dolphins this morning that seven-time Super Bowl champion and future Hall of Famer Tom Brady, his quarterback, is going to be away from the team until after the Tennessee Titans preseason game, which is August 20th. Now this supposedly was in the works before the announcement was made today. This was known early in training camp by the staff and everybody. He is taking a leave for personal reasons.

Nothing was disclosed, of course, but I mean this is news. When you got arguably the best quarterback in the NFL, he's going to step away from the team for a little while and deal with some things that he's got to deal with. No need to speculate, it's just it is what it is, but the one comment that he did make that I thought was a little interesting, right, he said he was pretty, he had a pretty high confidence that he would be back for the opener. So I mean that throws into jeopardy the idea that, I don't know, you know, he must have gotten the question whether or not he'll be back for week one, but that was the answer he gave. Big Tom Brady fan over here, Mr. Chris Brockman. Yeah, really interesting situation.

It's kind of like comes out of nowhere. I know Todd Bowles did say that it's been discussed before camp started that Brady might miss some time from the team or be away from the team, but to miss a whole, so they're joint practice with Miami right now. We saw some clips earlier in the week of Brady, you know, throwing the Julio Jones look like they had a good wrap going, but he's going to miss over a week here and then Todd Bowles said had a pretty high level of confidence that Brady will be in the lineup week one, but two times didn't commit to definitely having Brady back week one. That seems like a pretty big deal. That seems like a pretty big deal. Well, it's a very big deal for a team that a lot of people expect to be in the Super Bowl run. Absolutely.

Right? I mean, you go to what their backup situation is in Tampa Bay, you know, Kyle Trask still coming along. Is it Blaine Gabbert who's the backup?

I think it's still Blaine Gabbert, right? I believe so. So, you know, it will be interesting. Their early schedule is going to be something that people are going to really take a long look at now for a little bit, right? At Dallas, at New Orleans. They have a really hard schedule.

Yeah. At Dallas, at New Orleans, Green Bay, Kansas City. Their first four games, you know, if Tom Brady can't go, right? That puts them behind the eight ball pretty significantly and really quickly. So, that's a brutal, brutal start to the season, right? Yeah, that's a tough, tough September, you know, first day in October.

Yeah. I mean, you got Dallas who gave them just a heck of a game a year ago in Tampa to start the season, if you recall. And then, New Orleans who's dominated them in the regular season. Tom Brady has in the... 0-4. 0-4 against them. And then, home against Green Bay and home against Kansas City. Two teams that, one of them was the number one overall seed in the NFC last year and the other one got to the AFC Championship once again, right? So, I mean, that's a significant September.

First four weeks a year season. And when your head coach is standing up there saying he's not, he's not, you know, he doesn't have definite confidence that Tom Brady will be your starting quarterback in week one. That's got to give some some Bucs fans out there some heart palpitations probably, right? Yeah, and obviously we hope everything's okay with Brady's family. We know his mom had been sick in the past and so we know later on that both his parents were dealing with COVID two years ago.

So, you know, hopefully everything's okay, obviously. But yeah, that's kind of a big, kind of a big deal. That's the big news that came out this morning. Another little tidbit of interesting fodder you and I were watching and had a very viscerally different reaction to.

We had a different opinion. So, the start of the FedEx playoffs started today at the St. Jude, FedEx St. Jude Classic and Cam Smith, who's been rumored to be leaving for the Live Tour and it seems like most likely after the FedEx playoffs are done so he can have a chance at it, I guess. Another 15 million dollar payday if he's able to win it. He's the second number two ranked player in the world right now behind a guy named Scotty Scheffler, who's the number one player in the world right now. Well, they're playing together. Cam Smith knocks in an eagle from about 170 yards today to start his round and then this footage came out of Cam Smith, you know, crouched down looking at his putt, sizing up his putt and Scotty Scheffler walks directly in front of him through his line and Cam Smith is just down there and he just kind of looks up like, bro, what are you doing? I mean, what are you doing? And you and I had very different reactions to this, right?

Yeah. So, how did you respond to watching this play out? I think it's awesome because F those guys who are leaving the tour for Live and if you're Scotty Scheffler and you're the number one player and this group of Live players, you know, sues the PGA Tour, they're suing you, your member of the tour.

They're suing to get back into your league when they voluntarily left for a massive payday from a terrible, you know, terrible country, terrible regime, whatever. And so, yeah, if they're going to do that and we're playing partners, then why should I respect you? You have no respect for me whatsoever. You have no respect for the tour. You have no respect for where you're playing and what we all stand for and what you used to stand for. So, if we're playing golf, yeah, golf's a gentleman's game.

There are a lot of unwritten rules in golf. One of them is you don't walk in someone's line, but you have already taken a blowtorch to the unwritten rule book and the courtesies and the gentleman-like behaviors that we all, you know, kind of implicitly agree to dating back hundreds of years. So, why should I care about you and your line? You're not going to be here. You don't want to be here. Why are you here?

Well, he probably wants to win 15 million dollars. Great, great. Go take, you're going to get that in spades from these other people. Okay, so I, of course, had a different reaction. I thought that this was an act of a petulant child. If you got a problem with them, address them in the locker room. Maybe they have.

Yeah, and maybe that wasn't good enough for them. I just, I don't like, if you're going to be, you know, an a-hole like Cam Smith is to the tour, don't respond by being an a-hole back to them. That's just my, that's just the way I, the way I view it. Like, that's super high road, obviously, and you know, you're a better person than me, clearly, but like, I just don't see, wow, that gets anything, you know, I mean, it's, I think it's awesome. It's a really funny moment. If he did it on purpose, it seems like he did. Of course he did it on purpose. It looks like he was kind of like, kind of smirking the whole time, and Cam Smith gives him a WTF, bro.

I'll tweet out the video so you guys can see it, but yeah, I mean, this is great. This is what it's come to now. It's the good guys and the bad guys. And what makes me, makes me just, what I've thought about all along, and when it comes to golfers, right, I, like, I've met movie stars and, you know, hall of famers and everything like that, and I'm never in awe. I'm just, you know, it's really, but when I meet golfers, like, when I meet golfers, I am like a little, little child. Like, I am starstruck. Like, the one time I met Jordan Spieth, I was just, the kid's like 20 years younger than me.

I'm just like, oh my God, Jordan, hi, I'm Ryan. Nice to meet you. Of course.

I am. I'm in awe because I love golf. I know how, I know how damn hard it is. And they are so good at it.

Like, I mean, so good at it. So I'm starstruck by them. But what I'm, when we watched the Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka a few, a year ago, and now this stuff, like, the, like the petty nature of it all makes me go, these are just a bunch of just adult children who get to play a child's game for millions and millions of dollars just, you know, being absolutely petty with one another. And I'm starting to kind of fall on your side. It's hilarious. It's hilarious. It's hilarious. Like, petty is fun when it comes to this type of stuff. And I'm just like, Scotty, come on, man.

You're a, just, just, you know, throw them up against the locker, in the locker room and tell them. Also, it'd be one thing if, like, so Cam Smith is the number two ranked player in the world. And Scheffler's obviously been number one. He's had an amazing season all year, kind of dating back to the beginning of the season and what he did at the Masters. But it'd be one thing if Scheffler was like the 58th ranked player in the world. No one would care. Scheffler's number one.

There's nobody better than him on tour right now. So it's literally like, what? What are you going to do? What are you going to say to me? I'd love to see the 58th ranked player on the tour do it too. Because, like, we think you're so low, Cam Smith. I don't care if you're the number two golfer out there.

I'll walk through your line, you know? What's the worst thing that could happen to the PGA Tour through the FedEx playoffs? Well, the worst thing is one of these guys winning. Patrick Reed winning or something, you know what I mean? By the way, the 58th ranked player is JT Poston who's playing in this event.

So he could really do it because he's been playing well lately as well. But yeah, if one of these guys wins, like if Cam Smith wins and then just bolts like he's rumored to, I think it's just going to be a major bummer if you love golf. Major bummer, man. Sounds like the big Lebowski there a little bit. Yeah, it was very interesting. It was funny to see both of our reactions in real time. Like, oh, come on, Scotty.

You'd be better than that. And you're like, I love it. Yeah, it's awesome. I love it. This is awesome. We're looking into that pettiness.

Next thing, Shelford's going to be clapping or talking in his backseat or something. I mean, realistically, if the guys wanted to, the PGA Tour guys wanted to, it would be just like, hey, we don't want you here. You don't want to be here.

So we're not going to make anything easy for you. Well, that's kind of what Rory said too, when he was just like, it's nice to not have to deal with the distraction this week because the live guys had sued to get into this event and it got denied and they're not there. And Rory was kind of saying, look, it's nice to not really have to talk about that. And then somehow, in some way, shape or form, they have to bring it into it with Cam Smith now. He's a pretty darn good golfer.

Yeah, he's amazing. Cage went for him as him for Halloween, TJ. That's the most disappointing part. Because you're a big golf guy now. That's what I mean. I mean, I got to be honest, man, just if I'm going to keep it real. Listen, you two argued this morning was the most interest I've had in this live thing. And I'm not going to lie to people. I'm going to try to keep it real.

It's just like, I can't, I don't even have it. You know, whether it's you and Rich or you and Ryan going back and forth, I just don't know what my opinion is. I don't know where I stand on this little thing. So I pretty much tend to stay quiet because I'm not really sure.

It had to be funny. I didn't even think about that. Like everybody else was in the studio this morning, listened to him and I argue about it.

Right. I didn't even like, I didn't even like take into consideration anybody was around us. We were just like, I was like, this is awesome. You're like, what, what are you talking about? Now, if you guys want to talk about like Monday Night Raw or AW Dynamite, then I'll definitely chime in on that. But as far as I would like to be educated on that last night, what happened?

What's that? What happened to Dynamite? Was it awesome last night? CM Punk came back last night, bro.

Let's go. Has he been out for a while? He got hurt.

He got hurt. You know, they had a little interim champion situation with Jon Moxley. Jon Moxley be their guy, Chris Jericho in a match last night. And then CM Punk came out.

They're going to meet for the Chris Jericho still around. Chris Jericho is still doing his thing. Wow.

Impressive. I know that name. Chris Jericho has been around since 90. I think I started watching him in 96, 95.

Guy's still putting on like the names, the names that I remember. I know the Miz simply because everybody knows the Miz. Well, well, we're, we're friends. We, we, we do birthday parties together for our kids are the same age. Okay.

So that's pretty cool. But that's the only reason I know him. I don't know him as the wrestler. I just know. You don't remember from real world or anything?

No. Anna does. Anna's, Anna's told me all about him from that aspect of things. But no, he just became a friend of ours, him and his wife while we were training at a gym together a couple, you know, a few years back, right, right when the kids were being born.

And now we've, we've become friends. Like we just went up to his, his unbelievable home in the Palisades, not the Palisades. I forget what the name of the, the, the place to live up in north of Malibu, kind of inland. Calabasas. Oh, okay. There we go.

Calabasas, everybody. And we went there for their daughter's little birthday or like, I don't even know if it was a birthday. Imagine it's been like a celebration party. MacGyver had a blast.

That's all that matters. MacGyver got to go walk into his office where he's got all his championship belts ever won. And he let MacGyver hold one of them. And so we got a cool picture of it. So that's cool. But my, my, my remembrance of wrestling goes back to Ricky the Dragonstein boat.

Okay. Macho Man, Randy Savage. You see the Sherdom Rock in the day, by the way, just randomly, the Macho Man.

The Macho Man, Randy Savage, the Ultimate Warrior. Yeah. All those things.

Well, speaking of education, our next guest, I'm going to need some education on, because I've never participated in any sort of fantasy football league, game, anything. Yeah. You mentioned that yesterday.

That's crazy. Never. That's going to change. Are we going to change that this year for you?

That's changing this year. And our next guest, Mr. Andy Holloway from the Fantasy Footballers podcast is going to join us and fill us all in with it all here on The Rich Eisen Show. You're listening to Ryan Leaf 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 today.

Great show. A lot of football. But this one, I was really interested in when we booked him as a guest, because as I told you guys, I have never participated in any fantasy football league or game or anything in my life.

So I need to be educated a little bit here. How, Swain? And who better to educate me and give you guys the insight, the Mr. Andy Holloway, right? The Fantasy Footballers podcast host joins us now here on the Mercedes-Benz Vans phone line. Welcome to the show, Andy. How are you doing? Hey, Ryan.

Appreciate you having me on. That blows my mind. I heard you telling your story about the softball, home run derby, the competitive juices that you had going. How in the world have you not channeled that into fantasy football? You know, when I was in the locker room in San Diego, they tried to get me in a NBA basketball fantasy football league, or fantasy league.

And I just paid no attention to it. And I just looked every week to see how my players that I had picked, it just didn't interest me. And I think maybe I was turned off by it when I was leaving the stadium one time and a guy like berated me up and down about how I destroyed his fantasy football day because of how poorly I played because he started me. And so I think that ultimately put me in the wrong direction.

Yeah, it has to be a little bit more complicated for players. I mean, we just talked to Austin Eckler on the show a couple days ago and he was saying how much he enjoyed the fantasy attention, but I was like, your 20 touchdowns probably had something to do with it. Yeah, right?

Right? Okay, so speak to me like I'm a child right now and talk to me about what goes into your fantasy football lineup. How do you set it? How does the draft happen? Just talk to me like I'm a newborn that you're teaching how to walk a little bit, all right? Fantasy for dummies. Sure. Yeah, I mean, I think the thing that people connect with so much on fantasy is how it just makes you a fan of every single team in the league. I mean, you can have a matchup on a Monday night football game between a couple of teams that are out of contention and you can still have the 12 guys from your league, guys and gals from your league, just going absolutely bonkers rooting for one player that has a huge impact on your fantasy league. So, you know, the gist is you throw yourself into that pretend general manager role. You go and you have a draft that, you know, if your league is worth anything, it's probably over the top and you're mocking one another throughout the year and ultimately one person gets to pretend they're the king of the world and the rest of them live in their shame for another year and, you know, it's just one of those things that makes football fun. I've been asked a few times on the website Cameo to read off draft order. Also, I've been told many times that, like, the loser of many of these leagues get like a Ryan Leaf trophy.

So, I've been involved many, many years in this way. Tell me about the difference, the differential between the leagues because my dad and his best friend have been doing this for years, but they just go by, like, their league is only about, like, touchdowns. Like, if a guy gets touchdown points, it's not about how many receptions somebody has or carries or attempts or things like that. What are the differences between the leagues that have different kind of point systems when it comes down to it? Yeah, I mean, that's a pretty old school league and that is how fantasy football really got started. But with the adaptation of so much technology and having your team in your pocket and the ability to not have to sit there and go through box scores in the newspaper and add everything up, we've seen the fantasy world grow quite a bit. You know, now a lot of people play in leagues that are point per reception. So, if you catch a pass, you're getting a point. And we've seen a lot of variations of scoring in the years past, you know, leagues where, you know, you have quarterbacks that get six points or four points per touchdown.

You get points taken away for fumbles and interceptions. And so, the intricacy has grown and the types of leagues have changed a lot over the years. There's a lot of leagues now that are called dynasty leagues where, you know, you're keeping your roster for multiple years. You're not just doing one fresh draft at the beginning of every year.

And it's kind of just different preferences for different people. Wow. I mean, it seems like it's so intricate and it's so important and exciting and rolling with it. You're about to kick off your year two of your podcast and talk to us a little bit about what you're doing with Spotify there on August 24th. Yeah, yeah, we're really excited about it. Our podcast has been going for a while. We do that every day, but the live show on Spotify Live, the Fantasy Footballers Party Room, is an opportunity to get together once a week. We do it on Wednesdays at 6 Eastern and we chat with the fans and we answer every question possible, talk about every waiver wire pickup, every upcoming matchup. And, you know, the passion is real. You know, everybody in fantasy, I think, wants to make the prediction that turns out right so that they can tell everybody they did that. So, you know, we have the opportunity to connect on Spotify Live. Fans can ask questions and it's just a good time.

That's why we call it the party room. All right, all right. So, you're gonna be my guru this year, all right? We're gonna stay connected.

I'm gonna make sure I get your number. Who, if I were drafting, who are the top five players in fantasy right now that is a must-have? Yeah, yeah, I think Jonathan Taylor sits at the very top of that list, you know, running back for the Colts. Just a fantasy football force. I think Chris McCaffrey's still up there.

Fantasy players have been bummed out with the injuries, but when he plays, he's great. You've got a couple wide outs, Justin Jefferson, Cooper Cupp, who absolutely dominated last year that should be near the top of drafts. And then one of the more interesting names will be, does Derrick Henry still have that same Derrick Henry inside of him as he piles up all of these touches over the past few years because he is a fantasy force as well? So, that's some of the names I think you'll see at the top of drafts.

So, interesting, right? From an analyst perspective and what the running back has become in terms of, you know, salary cap allocation and importance on a team, seemingly is different with the fantasy side of it because of why. The amount of touches they get, why are they so, because they can get receptions as well as rushes. I mean, why are they so important on the fantasy side in comparison to maybe the game planning aspect of a real game?

Yeah, no, that's a good question. And I think a lot of people that are brand new to fantasy, they, you know, their default answer of who they think would be drafted first is the quarterback. Right. But in fantasy football, you end up starting multiple running backs and there are so few running backs that have consistent workloads. And so, they get prioritized a lot in fantasy because, you know, beyond a handful of players like the aforementioned Jonathan Taylor, Derek Henry, Joe Mix, and those guys, you have a lot of committee backfield. And that's really become the norm in the NFL is to see, you know, two or three backs make an impact. You just talked about like, you know, teams are willing to move on instead of paying the big contract because they can form committee backfields with younger players or less expensive players.

But in fantasy, it's just about scarcity. It's about how many of this elite player at this position exists and running backs, it's hard to find them. Hey, Andy, Chris Brockman here. Let's talk about who we're staying away from and who are sleepers. Who do we not want on our team? And then who can we get later in drafts that are going to help us win?

Sure, sure. Yeah, I think one of the big names in terms of a breakout slash sleeper candidate this year is Gervonta Williams in Denver, because, you know, I heard the Rich Eisen with Justin Herbert discussion before I came on. Like that division has some flamethrowers in it now. You know, you've got offenses that are going to put up big points. Russell Wilson arrives in Denver, and here's Gervonta Williams at 22 years old with the whole world in front of him. Melvin Gordon is there for one more year, but, you know, every fantasy player wants to know when Gervonta Williams is going to kind of take over. And so he's a big name that I think will be polarizing for fantasy football players. And then on the other side, I think people are really, I think they're really afraid to mess around with the wide receivers in Seattle.

I think DK Metcalf, you know what a physical force he is. Tyler Lockett, he's been great for years, but here you have the departure of Russell Wilson. And I don't know if it's a, we place our trust in Geno Smith or Drew Lockett is going to get it done for fantasy. How are you guys monitoring and gauging the Deshaun Watson situation in Cleveland and how that affects the rest of the Browns? Because they do have some relevant fantasy players with like Nick Chubb and now Amari Cooper.

Yeah, no question. It's one of the hardest situations that we deal with, you know, in the off season when you have these ambiguous suspension situations. You know, everybody's trying to get an edge in fantasy, so you'd love to see a situation where you can trust quarterback play in Cleveland. But right now, you know, we're going into the year with the expectation that it's going to be Jacoby Brissett and then trusting those running backs to get it done. And it's really hard to take a chance on Amari Cooper. It's hard to take a chance on David Bell, the rookie wide receiver, because you just don't know what that passing offense is going to look like.

And right now it looks like it's going to be a mystery for a while. Hey Andy, TJ here. How you doing, man?

What's up? So here's just something we don't really talk about a lot in terms of fantasy, but in my league in particular, the last few years our fantasy champion has been decided by their defense. Our league, we reward defenses pretty nicely in terms of points. And I know one year when Jacksonville caught fire, I rode them to a championship. And then two years ago with the Patriots defense was extremely stingy and the team that had them won the title in our league. So are there any defenses right there out there right now that you have your eye on to kind of be like, yo, look for them in fantasy. They could be sneaky good.

Yeah. I mean, that that's one of those things that it's so hard for fantasy players. And I think our general advice when it comes to like kickers and defense is if you're not spending your whole off season researching that position and they're the last players taken in drafts, you might not want to have them have a heavy proportion of your points because there's a little bit, you know, defense that there's so much turnover. You know, you talked about Jacksonville, you know, we've seen them in days gone by, bounce back and forth.

You know, from dominating to all of a sudden being a waste of draft pick. You know, it's some of the staples that you know at the top, Buffalo and in Tampa and the Rams. You know, the Chargers could be very sneaky this year, but, you know, fantasy players probably don't spend a lot of their time focusing on defense. So you got to be careful with how much emphasis you give them in scoring.

All right, Andy, I got one more question. So like, as you were talking with Ryan earlier, I'm in one of those dynasty leagues and we do keep a lot of our players focused on the leagues and we do keepers in my league. We cycle through the keepers, so we kind of rotate every three years. We have a max on how long you can keep a guy. So I'm going to just, I'm just going to put it out there right now. I need you to help me pick my keepers, essentially.

I can keep two of this list I'm going to give you. Cam Akers, Travis Atn, Courtland Sutton or Chris Godwin. We are a full PPR league, one point per reception with six points for every touchdown.

Okay, okay. Yeah, I think I'm going to lock Courtland Sutton in there right now, I think, in a keeper dynasty situation. We know wide receivers are, they have more longevity. And so I think your opportunity there with Courtland Sutton having that season that, you know, the Cooper Cup-esque breakout type of year with Russell Wilson is a real possibility. And then I guess I'd have more confidence in Travis Atn over Cam Akers coming off the Achilles. You know, he got the workload late in the season, didn't look great, but should be better this year. But I think Travis Atn, you said a full PPR league to catch a ton of passes. And so I think I'm going to lock those two guys in. It might be a bit of a shock with how good Chris Godwin has been, but I'm looking to win my league, not finish third or fourth, and I think Sutton might be that guy for you.

That is amazing. I wasn't even really considering him, but he was kind of my fourth go, but thank you. I was kind of leaning, running back heavy. I was just going to go Akers and Atn and then try to fill out the wide receiver throughout the draft.

But Courtland Sutton could have a big year with Russell Wilson, I see. Okay, let's do it. There you go, yeah.

Interesting. That's why we have people like Andy Holloway on, co-host of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Before we get you out of here, Andy, and thank you so much. My interest has been peaked enough listening to these guys whenever I host a show that I think I may get into a league this year. It might be time, but get your royalties on those last place trophies, too, though. I should. I should, yeah.

There's some pretty funny ones out there. Andy, one more. Who's the quarterback that's going to have the Joe Burrow-type breakout this year? We all know Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady and Justin Herbert. Those guys are going to be the first kind of quarterbacks probably taken to most drafts, but who's going to have that Burrow-type leap this season, you think?

Well, yeah. I mean, I think the name that my co-host would appreciate me mentioning is Trey Lance in San Francisco, because even if he is not a world beater by NFL standards, you know, in fantasy, when you run the football, it's a cheat code, and Trey Lance is going to run the ball a ton, and so he's that player that sits later in drafts that has the highest up-slide to do that, to have that breakout system, all the confidence we have in Kyle Shanahan. You know, I don't know if Trey Lance is going to be the passer everybody wants him to be this year, but it might not matter for fantasy. What about Jaywin Hertz?

I'm scouring lists and rankings heading in. I mean, I see him in the top five and a lot of people ahead of Tom Brady, ahead of Aaron Rodgers. What could Jaywin Hertz do this year? You mentioned the rushing with Trey Lance. He certainly adds that element, too. Yeah, that's the secret weapon for Jaywin Hertz, and I think people are willing to move him up this year in the rankings because of the addition of A.J.

Brown, because of Devante Smith coming into year two, and Hertz has the ability to do a lot for your fantasy team, even if he's, you know, only throwing a couple of touchdowns in a game. So, I think people are really excited about what he can do. I mean, you look at the top of draft boards, you see rushing quarterbacks, you see Kyler Murray, you see Jaywin Hertz, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen.

These are guys that have that ability to give you a baseline and not bury you if they don't, you know, throw two or three touchdowns in a game. Well, before I let you go here, Andy, you are doing something pretty cool. And you're releasing a children's book here soon called The Football Family. And my wife and I were talking last night about what fall means to us, what kind of things we like to do in the fall. And my son is starting to be old enough now where, you know, football is becoming a part of the fall form, you know, and understanding that. What's this book about and tell everybody how they can get it and start something like this with their family when your kids are young. Yeah, I think that's always, it kind of got, it was born out of what our show is all about, which is, you know, we believe that fantasy football, NFL fandom, all those things are, it's a family affair. You know, I've got three kids and I've seen them grow up, you know, and just started to get involved in fantasy football and being fans of, we're Cardinals fans out here. And so I wanted to make something that kind of captured that story of how the family can get, whether you're rooting for the same side or not and how it brings people together. And so that's what I did.

It's called My Football Family. You can find it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble or anywhere you get books. And it'll be coming out the end of the month. And I think anybody that has kids or knows kids that are, you know, into sports or you want to get started on that journey is going to be a fun book for them. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to be looking for that to start reading it with my boy.

He loves reading books before bed, so I think that would be a good night time for this fall. Andy, thanks for taking the time today. You've been very informative and we've had a lot of fun. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Andy Holloway, everybody. The Fantasy Footballers Podcast. You can check out their live event with Spotify on August 24th to get the insight that you need for your leagues. I'm just going to get his number.

And if I'm going to adventure into this world this year, I'm going to do it the highest level. Absolutely. I'm going to have the guy that can, I mean, because he just gave you some solid info around Portland Sutton. I wasn't even thinking about it. I would never even have thought of Travis Atn. Oh yeah, I actually scooped him up late because he was on IRL last year and about week eight, week nine, I picked him up and stashed him because I was thinking about him as a potential keeper this year because, look, Jacksonville is going to be, let's be honest, probably behind in a lot of games this year. Garbage points. Fantasy, TJ, you can attest to this. Garbage points helps you win championships.

Garbage points. So that keeps your interest piqued in maybe some bad teams because of that, right? Absolutely. Absolutely.

Okay, learning. Like Andy said, it gives you interesting, like we all have favorite teams. We love that one team.

TJ loves Dallas. I love watching the Patriots. But now suddenly I have interest in a Ravens-Browns game that normally I wouldn't even think about.

Cardinals-Seahawks, you know. Suddenly I'm into it because I have DeAndre Hopkins or DK Metcalf or Kyler Murray. Kyler Murray is my quarterback. For Kyler Murray, Kyler Murray is my quarterback last year. Was Kyler Murray pretty good for you last year?

Kyler Murray was pretty good until he got injured, just like every other Kyler Murray season. Right. All right. I can't believe you've never done fantasy. That is insane. I know, right? I mean, I don't know. I don't know what. I'm not a big gambler, right? I never have been. You know, I've had some, you know, crazy story nights in Vegas.

Maybe we'll do a, maybe we'll do a Ryan story time here later about that. But I've never been like big into, you know, I just, I've watched the game. I watch them as like a player. I'm watching it from an analytics aspect.

I'm just like, I'm immersed in it. I'm not thinking about, you know, Travis Etienne getting the ball late in the fourth quarter to get in the end zone. I just want him to get in the end zone, right? I want Trevor Lawrence and them to run a great play that gets them in the end zone to win the game type of mentality. No, I want a 15-yard reception that he takes to the end zone because that's eight points. It definitely changes the way you watch football, right?

One thousand percent. It's going to change the way you watch football. But also it is going to make you more interested in football too. Well, I think that, I mean, the gambling aspect and the legalization of that in a lot of states, the fan duel, the, you know, draft kings, all the things, the points bet, all of those things are the future.

Yeah. Every state's going to be, every state's going to be, it's the present, but it's going to, it's, and the NFL figured that out because the NFL knows how to make money. I mean, for all their faults, they know how to make money, right? And so once they got in bed with the gambling aspect of things, you knew, I mean, it was a completely, a complete 180 too, right? I mean, it was so foreign that Tony Romo couldn't go do some sort of fantasy football convention to now they're a sponsor for the NFL, right? I mean, it's flipped completely. They knew it.

They saw the writing on the wall and everybody else did. So get your feet in here on the ground floor, everybody, because this is the way it's going. When it's talking about fantasy, when it's talking about gambling, and it's all about live betting, right? It's in the moment. It's in the game, whether it's through fantasy, that's where this is going. And people who don't like it, you know, you know, get off my lawn, people, get over it. Like, this is where it's going, everybody.

Oh yeah, no, it's here. And it makes, to your point, for a very exciting thing. I would like to maybe be a little more invested this year. And also, Ryan, you know, you mentioned there a gambling aspect and you play for money.

That is true, right? But, you know, my league, I started this league that I'm in right now in the, so the 2000 season. We've been together since then. And the money's nice, but it's never one time ever been about the money. It's always about, once that season's over and you have six months to just text a group of guys or calm in the middle of the night, just let them know that you're better at fantasy football than they are. And that, to me and our group of friends, that means more than anything else. Just be able to say, I'm better than you at this.

And you know, the money thing is cool, but that's not really why we're playing. I think that my wife and I have done some fun things around, you know, games, week one, week two, week three games and the lines and how she would bet. And, you know, just from the peripheral, from maybe watching me a few times, but just hearing some things, listening to how she bets on games or would bet on games. I think she'd be a lot of fun doing something like this. I'll bring this up to her. Maybe her and I can join a league together or something like that. There you go.

That sounds like fun. All right. When we come back, we'll put a button on this first hour of the show here on The Rich Eisen Show. I'm Ryan Leaf filling in for Rich. We'll be right back. Welcome back everybody to The Rich Eisen Show.

Ryan Leaf here filling in for Rich alongside TJ Jefferson, Michael Del Tufo, Chris Brockman, Mike Hoskins here producing, running everything, pulling all the strings for us here back there. I love that. Love that with Andy Holloway.

Andy Holloway, you know, we'll see. I mean, I have said things like this before, like, yeah, that's interesting. Maybe I'll get into it. And then I'm just, you know, it's so, football season is so darn busy for me, right? Yeah. You have to set a line up each week, right? And things like that. Oh yeah. And you have to pay attention to waiver wire, you got to know if you've got injuries.

You got to be a general manager. Right. It's not a game. It's not a game. By the way, if that seems daunting to you, don't play fantasy baseball. Yeah, definitely don't do that, bro. Because it's legit every single day and you can't stop. Do you do it?

Yeah, I do. No, fantasy baseball is the hardest thing on earth. Fantasy baseball is impossible.

It's impossible, man. Oh boy, you guys. You do this show, you got a kid, you're a single dad right now with Sarah running around the country. Yep.

And you're setting lineups. Yeah, that's what the bathroom is for. My wife would kill me if I was sitting on that toilet. She already got me a clock.

Like one of these clocks that you turn upside down, it's like the sand through an hourglass. When that runs out, it's time for you to... You cannot spend that much time in the bathroom. Wait, what? So you got like a five minute limit in there? There is a... Yeah, she got me a... That's preposterous.

Yeah, that wouldn't work, man. That is your time. It takes me five minutes to get comfortable in there.

That is Ryan time. Hey, you know what's pretty cool? The new house we just bought, the new house we're moving into. The one with the castle? The one with the castle.

It's got a... Bedet. Men's and women's master bathrooms. That's amazing.

Oh, nice. So she has her own entire bathroom with shower, closet, bath. Mine has a shower, closet and toilet.

Doesn't have a bath, but I'm not a bath guy, so I'm not... Well, you probably don't fit in a lot of bathtubs. Probably. Good point. Good point. But how cool is that? Right? Right?

So now you can, like, Jimmy with this hourglass a little bit. Well, I don't think the hour... Maybe the hour... Well, I don't know if that has anything to do with that. I think she's... She wants you out of the bathroom. She just wants me present. Okay.

Right? She doesn't want me on my phone, looking at Twitter, figuring out how if I got to set my line up, who's gonna put a quarterback this way. That's what I mean. You got to set your line up. Okay, Ryan, let me be honest with you, then.

Fantasy football might not be the best idea. Well, maybe if I get her involved in it. Yeah, that's true.

That's what I mean. Now, are you going to co-own, or are you going to go... No, I think she... Own team. No, I think she gets her own team. Okay.

Yeah. I want to... Because then we're competitive. I mean, she was an unbelievable volleyball player, incredibly competitive, and she competes at everything with me.

So this would be a good opportunity to do that. We went and did mini golf a little while back. She was talking a whole bunch of trash about how she could beat me in mini golf. Did she?

That did not work out well for her. It did not. Did you bring your own putter? I didn't. I didn't. I used the one that I thought I would... I knew. I mean, I figured I would, you know, wreck it.

So I thought maybe I would give her a leg up if I used... Yeah, just a fighting chance. A putter that, you know, has been used by 200,000 people over the last 20 years or something like that. We're talking about fantasy football, Ryan. We got this tweet from a listener, Nick Molinaro.

I thought this was hilarious. He said the first time he ever played fantasy was when he was 10 years old and 98. His 20-year-old brother let him play with him and his friends. He picked you as your sleeper early in the draft, and the guy right in front of him picked Peyton Manning. Well... That didn't work out for the kid picking Peyton.

Well, it didn't work out for either, you know, either one of them. Because Peyton had 28... Was that the rookie you're right? Yeah, but he also threw the most touchdowns ever for a rookie, too. It's true, but he threw 30 picks. Right, 28 picks. I mean, he had 26 touchdowns. Yeah, but you get minus two for a pick.

Oh, you do? Yeah, so you lost a lot of points. Well, I had 15 and only two touchdowns, so I'm not much better, right? At least I didn't have as many minus points for the interceptions, but I certainly didn't have enough plus points for the touchdowns, right?

Yeah, that was one of those things. Ryan, I was trying to help you out there, bro. I appreciate it. I appreciate it.

I appreciate it. Oh boy, fantasy football. It's gonna be great. When we come back, Max Starks is gonna join us from the Pittsburgh Steelers, two-time Super Bowl champion, to talk about Mitchell Trubisky, that football team. All right, so I'll give you the story, right? I'm walking out of I'm walking out of Qualcomm Stadium, and I believe it was after the Giants game, okay? So the week before was the Kansas City game, where I went one for 15 for four yards, blew up at the reporter. It was a whole thing the whole week. Don't talk to me, all right?

Just yeah, don't talk to me. Knock it off. You know, we go in to play the Giants. The next week, the Giants aren't very good.

They come to Qualcomm. It's at home, but like I've told you guys many times, when you're battling the best defenses in the world, and now you're just against the media, teammates are looking at you like, what? This is our leader. What a nut job.

You know, you can't function. I went out and threw four interceptions in that game against the Giants. Got pulled late in the game. They ran a Make-A-Wish commercial that I did with a bunch of Make-A-Wish kids that got booed. Like, I know they weren't booing the kids. They were booing my ass, right, on the screen. So I'm walking out of that stadium, and there's these, I mean, people are already, you know, yelling at me and stuff like that, but there's this one dude, like he's following me down the fence line, going to get into my car like, you know, you know, you screwed me.

You screwed me. I started you today, and I think my response ultimately to him when I looked up at him, I was like, hey, I mean, I don't, you might want to get on me, but you were the dumb ass that chose to start me today, right? You saw, I mean, if you were a real general manager, you saw what the week was leading up to. Like, this dude can't compartmentalize.

This dude can't function in this league, it looks like. Why did you start me? You know, I think that's on you, sir. All right, that's on you. And maybe that kind of turned me off from the fantasy football aspect. I mean, the more that comes to light, Chris, you know, the more that comes to light, you know, with new information comes new thoughts, right?

You know, new past trauma and past trauma and how that affects you. Yeah. I mean, I totally, I totally get that. You screwed me. Yeah, that was it.

That was it. You screwed me. I started you today. That's, that's amateur. You never start rookie quarterbacks, right? What are we doing? You should be like, that's 1997, 1998. Yeah.

That's in the early days of, uh, fantasy football. Yeah. All right.

All right. A little more football here. Max Starks from the Pittsburgh Steelers, former Steelers, Superbowl champion sideline reporter is going to join us next.

Talk about that here on the Rich Eisen Show. 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 gotta 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 baby face, 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.