REShow: Mike Tirico - Hour 1

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That's 877-ASK-DELL to save up to 48% on our latest technology. This is the Rich Eisen Show. It's insanity. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. New England Patriots. There's no question every single offensive player knows right now who's calling the plays. And apparently it's Matt Patricia, and his number two pencil will be calling the plays this year. Today's guests from NBC Sports. Mike Tirico. Tampa Bay Times Bucks writer Rick Stroud.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman. Plus, host and comedian Andy Richter. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Hey everybody, welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. I am your host, Rich Eisen. Thus, the name of the program here on NBC Sports on Peacock.

Sirius XM Channel 85, NBC Sports Audio. And for those on the radio, on our Terrestrial Radio Outfit, or the Odyssey app, or listening to us on our podcast, I just realized as we came on the air here on NBC Sports on Peacock that I do have a button on my shirt. I just said it to Mike.

Not yet buttoned. And it's showing off a little bit. I kind of dig it. I think you should leave it. I'm going to leave it.

I like it. Normally I'm not like a top button guy. I go all the way. You do the full rain man. Yeah, I am all the way all the way up. Coop does that.

My youngest son does that too. I actually am a couple buttons down. I think you should undo one more. No, no, no. Again, this isn't winning time.

This isn't winning time. Full Dr. Bus. I'm not doing the full Dr. Bus. You never go full Dr.

Bus. That's a good point. But at any rate, so you're welcome to the Peacock audience.

That's basically what I'm saying. And check it out later on YouTube if you're listening right now. I think I'm wearing a pretty damn nice sport coat today as well. Hey, good for you. Thank you. Good to see you over there, Christopher. How are you? Hey man, I'm great. Good to see you. DJ Mikey D's in D's Nuts.

Good morning, Rich. TJ Jeffersons, who's New York metropolitan, took care of my New York Yankees last night because Jordan Montgomery couldn't pitch and the Yankees made way too many mistakes in the Mets. Pete Alonso just wore the middle of that lineup. Marte, Lindor, and Alonso just wore out Yankee pitching last night. Buck made the right moves.

Joey Gallo can't hit. And welcome to the program, TJ Jefferson. How about that? Wow. Thank you. You haven't even lit the candle.

I haven't yet. But I was thinking about something. Yesterday during Jerry Jones' press conference, he said something that I found interesting. He said, I feel like we have one of the best people at that position when he's talking about Dak.

Yes. Now, let me ask you this. Why didn't he say, I feel like we have one of the best players at that position?

Why didn't he say that? Wow. Hey, welcome to the rest of us, TJ. What a very deep way to start the program. Oh, now you're doing the, you're going, are you going full wind horse with your fingertips right now? Okay.

Why did he say that? We'll hit that. I'll bite on that later on.

I'll bite on that later on. You want to light the candle? I mean, I don't have a light of the day, but you know. Whatever. So much for tradition. Wow. I told you, I'm waiting for the big shipment to come in.

We're just already off the rails. I am, I'm spending my time thinking about the football season and who I'm going to choose to win the Super Bowl and who's going to be my MVP because at some point in the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be asked that by my NFL network colleagues. And so I'm also thinking about the questions I'm asking everyone. I'm going to ask this of Mike Torrico, the voice of Sunday Night Football and NBC Sports. He's in Detroit, Michigan to call the action on the golf channel of the Rocket Mortgage Classic that begins on Thursday. Nice. And so I'll ask this of Mike as well.

I asked this of Mark Schlereth on Monday and Daniel Jeremiah and Peter King yesterday and it's all on our YouTube stream, youtube.com slash Rich Eyes and Show if you missed anything. Which team is the most intriguing team going into 2022? Which team is the most intriguing team going into this upcoming National Football League season?

You have many, many options. I'm kind of settling on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and it was sealed yesterday. Really?

Yeah. It was sealed yesterday by the fact that Julio Jones is now on the team. The 17th, the leader in 17th place all-time in yards, 25th all-time in receiving yards, a future Hall of Famer it appears. And he is now on this team. Maybe as Chris Godwin insurance, even though that top-notch receiver, Pro Bowl receiver who had his knee blown out at the top of January just on the eve of the playoffs, he did not start the training camp season on the physically unable to perform list, aka the pub list.

And maybe he's ready to go. Russell Gage, as we all know, is the Falcons receiver who I mentioned now on Tampa Bay as the number one under the radar offseason acquisition. Number one, Russell Gage is now a Tampa Bay Buccaneer. He was signed on, I would imagine, to fill the Antonio Brown slot as Chris Godwin was coming back. And now here comes Julio Jones as Godwin insurance or as Todd Bowles said today, somebody's got to make up for Gronk's catches is what he said about Julio Jones. And the fact that last year with Godwin going down and Antonio Brown removing his clothing and cutting himself from the Buccaneers last year, that they were left shorthanded at the end of the year in the wide receiver front, why not just stack the wide receiver room right now? And what a way to stack.

How about this for intriguing? I don't know if we've ever seen this before, somebody who has as many catches, receiving yards and touchdowns as Julio Jones being acquired by the team against whom he has personally the most catches, receiving yards and touchdowns against any single team he's got in his entire career. Nobody has received more Julio Jones catches, receiving yards and touchdowns on the wrong business end than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

He habitually in his career in Atlanta torched this team. Now he's on it and he's on it with Thomas Edward Brady. He's on it with Tom Brady, who appeared today in a training camp session, one week shy of his 45th birthday. The exact age, if you recall Christopher, when he was in New England saying, I want to play till and everybody's like, yeah, okay, yeah, right. He's going to hit that age. He's going to play this season at that age, after he retired and then came back like he was a Brett Favre 2.0. Didn't actually retire.

He never said the word. I got it stepped away from the game, going to start, you know, shooting movies with Rita Moreno, which he did anyway. And so Brady's out there today, slinging it around at age 45, there he is in his popsicle creamsicle 12 uniform and the pewter helmet with a thumbs up. He looks amazing. And he looked amazing throwing the ball around today. No surprise here. Lavonte David says he's in the greatest shape.

Why not? He's on the TB12 system. He's got new golf clothing out. He's feeling good. He's hanging out with Jane Fonda, sending out birthday wishes to Giselle and he's got a team with Evans Godwin, we assume, Russell Gage. Don't forget him.

I'm telling you. And Julio Jones. Now then, Julio was asked when he knew he wanted to join Tampa and it was a very quick answer from Julio Jones. All along, once I got the call from Tennessee and they're saying I can, you know, go out and explore, Jimmy Sexton, my agent at CAA, we discussed some options, things like that.

And I already told them why I wanted to play, you know. So just being with a, you know, Hall of Fame quarterback, great quarterback, the coaching staff here is next door. I'm from Alabama.

I went to play in Georgia, right? So it's like, it's right here. My family can come see me.

I'm not going out the way, but just having the ability to come down here and just work, bring what I can to the team, whatever I can to the team to help, whether it's mentor, a play style, whatever the case may be, just come out here and work each and every day and just try to get better. It's a perfect fit. You know, it is a really good fit because they don't absolutely have to have them.

They don't need them, but they could use them. He's missed seven games in each of the last two seasons. That's a problem. And when Brady, a 45-year-old, hits a 33-year-old wide receiver, by the way, the last wide receiver to have a thousand yard season at this ripe old age or above was Julian Edelman in 2019. You know who his quarterback was that year. So Brady's used to throwing open and also throwing to somebody of this advanced age. I guess when a 45-year-old hits a 33-year-old wide receiver, turns Raymond James into the football version of the Villages, which is right nearby. I don't know if the Buccaneers are going to have a golf cart parade around Raymond James, but that's 78. That's easily the oldest combined age quarterback receiver, right? I would understand the skepticism if Julio Jones was there because Evans was gone. He's there as a three, a four, and he's ready to be that guy. And I would just imagine he's going to take some tips on Tom about staying healthy, maybe.

I don't know. It kind of helps. I think it works. And they're just as intriguing as they come is this Brady's last season. Todd Bowles is now the head coach there. He says Leonard Fournette came in in shape. I mean, even Fournette's weight is of interest. Is Gronk going to come out of retirement in the middle of the season anyway? What does this defense look like? Did I mention, is this Brady's last season every single time? Look at their schedule.

You tell me if this isn't the most intriguing team of 2022 coming in. It starts on Sunday night football. And again, Mike Torrico is going to join us in eight minutes time at Dallas.

Next up at New Orleans. We had Malcolm Jenkins in here last week. Great inside football talk about what they do against Brady and the matchups that the Saints have on defense that causes a problem for the Buccaneers offense. Then in comes Green Bay's 12.

Then comes Kansas City's 10. Atlanta, here comes Atlanta with Julio Jones on the team. A visit to Pittsburgh.

Brady's visit to Acresher. At Carolina, there's a division game. Home against Baltimore on a Thursday night.

How about that? Lamar Jackson coming in. Then they take on the Rams in Raymond James.

We all know what happened the last time. These two teams face there in the divisional round. It turned out to be at the time what might have been Brady's last game. Home against Seattle. But that game, you know, what's so interesting about that?

How does Germany sound to you? Then comes a bye week at Cleveland. Is Deshaun Watson going to be in that game? The second game, a Monday nighter against New Orleans at San Francisco. Home against Joey Burrow at Kyler Murray.

He will no doubt be ready for that game with his independent study time. Carolina and Atlanta to wrap it up. Every single game is must see.

I'm kind of settling in on them. I know that we could go through Dallas' schedule and say that they're intriguing. Trey Lance in San Francisco. What we did learn about Kyler Murray's contract makes them fascinating. The Buffalo Bills, my gosh. Josh Allen and the expectations on that team. Every team in the AFC West is fascinating. But only one GOAT who's turning 45 one week from today with Julio Jones now on the team and Godwin apparently healthy and Leonard Fournette apparently in shape and the rest of this team with Todd Bowles at the controls, I don't know, you'd be hard pressed to find a more interesting team than that one. Rick Stroud's going to join us at the top of our number two. He covers this team. Man, did I miss any of those storylines going on?

I don't know. There's so much to talk about about this team. We had Shaquille Barrett last week, he's getting a pedicure on the phone.

That's interesting. Marcus Freeman, the head coach of Notre Dame football will join us in the middle of our number two. You want to say hello to him when he calls in, Mike? You'd say, hey, I'm a guy from New Jersey who grew up with no college football team. Because he doesn't have like a fake accent when he goes to a team. I'm over him now. Did you see his acting?

The Notre Dame football Twitter site tweeted out a video of Marcus Freeman, a couple of his players in the Golex announcing a game in Las Vegas in October. You going to go to that game, Mike? I'm probably doing a different game that day. You're too busy. I mean, it stinks. I would go.

You work too much. Is Urban Meyer back yet or what for Fox? Because Urban's in the news today.

Well, I mean, they're not mentioning him in Jacksonville, but they kind of are. Oh, God, that's great. If you missed those sound bites from yesterday, we've got them for you. We've got them for you. In hour number three, Andy Richter will be here beside the desk here.

If I had a head of hair like Conan, I'd say I'd play that role. But Andy's got a new podcast called Three Questions with Andy Richter. That'll be in hour number three. We're keeping an eye out for any news on the Deshaun Watson front. Still waiting.

I mean, training camps are open and Sue Robinson is just like. No rush. I don't know. No rush. No rush. Does Sue L. Robinson have an Instagram account to see if she's on like a yacht somewhere in the Tyrrhenian Sea, looking through the binders?

Let me just check real quick. Where is the Tyrrhenian Sea? That's off of Italy, Mike. It's off of Italy. I call it the coast of Italy.

Rich took a vacation to Italy recently. Did you know that? As a matter of fact. I had no idea. I was in the Tyrrhenian Sea where I bought this hat. By the way, Rich, somebody pointed out yesterday you put the hat on backwards. So at one point. I did not.

Somebody tweeted that. Everybody's noticing things. So just wanted to make sure you put it on right. Anybody back off? The hat's rakish either way. Is that off of Murphy?

Front or back? It is. I should have known that.

From back to side to side. It's OK, Mike. You're only Italian. I'm just Jewish.

There's a lot of Sue Robinson on Instagram. I'm Sicilian. Are you Sicilian?

I didn't know that. Oh, yes. That's a good job. You're not 100 percent. Are you? Yes.

I have a little trace roots to Naples. Are you? Excuse me. Excuse me.

The man loves his pizza square. OK. I do.

I love square pizza. All right. Let's take a break here on the Rich Eisen Show.

Mike Torrico will join us. You know, I have to ask. I got to ask him what in the world was it like watching Cameron Smith do what he did? Right. I know. I know the Open Championship was two weeks ago, but.

Who cares? It was still awesome. Come on. It was still amazing.

It was unbelievable. So Mike Torrico will join us next. Rick Stroud after him. Marcus Freeman of Notre Dame football after him.

Andy Richter after those three. And you threw out at 844-204-RICH. Does your antiperspirant keep you dry all day? Dove Men PlusCare Dry Spray goes on instantly dry for a cleaner feel and offers 48 hours sweat and odor protection.

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Goes on dry, clean feel all day. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, Terrestrial Radio Network on NBC Sports on Peacock and NBC Sports Audio, Sirius XM Channel 85. This is the man who is all over NBC Sports. My old SportsCenter colleague and Suzy Schuster's colleague from ABC Sports Days back in the day. He is calling the PGA Tour's Rocket Mortgage Classic starting on Thursday through Sunday on Golf Channel.

And then of course he and Chris Collinsworth will be in Canton, Ohio calling the Hall of Fame game that could be seen a week from this Thursday on NBC and Peacock. My good friend Mike Torrico on the Mercedes-Benz Vans phone line. How you doing there Michael?

I mean there's a million things to cover. First off, greetings from your college stomping grounds of Ann Arbor. Yes sir, thank you. Greatly appreciate that. Second, I wasn't planning on being there for the first time tomorrow, but I will be now if I can watch the not Rich Eisen bag tee off on me. Well Mike, you know, here's what you gotta do. I think, you know, I don't need you to wake up that early, but at some point, here's what you do. You tell the crew at the Golf Channel, keep an eye on Mark Hubbard's bag. That's what I need you to do. You know? I understand.

But maybe, oh I just thought, it's a four and a half hour, 4.5 to play. So maybe when I get to the golf course late morning, I'll catch him on 18 and I'll see if he's stayed with the not Rich Eisen or if it wasn't working, maybe change sponsors after 12 or so. Yes he can. He can do that. It's his bag. It's his drive. But I, we kind of, you know, loved following him because he's the one who got in at the greater Hartford Open, as it used to be called, now the Travelers, because Brooks left for the live tour, and we thought, like how great would it be, what a sports story would be if he takes this opportunity and he runs with it? He's been playing pretty well, actually, this fella.

That happens way too often on tour. And more importantly, you know what this weekend is? What is that? This is the last weekend, or week if you will, without football until mid-February.

Isn't that his best? I just love it. We go, we are in Canton, as you said, in eight days. I just spent my night and morning going through all 92 Jaguars on the roster. We're about halfway through the Raiders, so looking forward to that late night, early morning tomorrow. That's impressive. Let's go. I'm ready for game one, and 184 players, 100 of whom will not play.

I know that. And many of them won't even be out there when you call the season opener here in Los Angeles in a few weeks' time. So I'll start with you, Mike, by asking you a question. I'm asking all the luminaries that come on this program with a football bent.

Which is the team that is the most intriguing team for you entering 2022 to choose one, Mike Tirico? You know what? I did not realize I am an LWSP. A luminary with a football bent. That's new. Nice.

Maybe I'll put that on my golf bag, LWSP, for anybody who knows what I'm talking about. Most intriguing team to me, Rich, I'm so heavy to the AFC because I think there's so many interesting teams there. And I'm going to give you two, and I'm going to give you the teams that played that memorable game, Kansas City and Buffalo.

I want to know, without Tyreek Hill, without one of those five star megawatt coming off the end pass rushers, will the Chiefs have enough to be at the top of a conference that they've been at the top of really for four or five years here with so many good teams there? And on the flip side of that, Buffalo is one of those teams that plays the entire season to get back to that point and those 13 seconds. That's a long way between here and there, but let's face it, everybody in Buffalo thinks they should have been in the Super Bowl last year. They think the game we're going to see to open up the NFL season on kickoff game on September 8th should have been the game we saw in SoFi for Super Bowl 56. And I'm intrigued to see how strong, how confident, how good can this team be trying to get back there?

Because as we know, every year is different. Every team's different. It's really hard to continue success in the league, those are my two right now. And those are obviously two terrific teams right there. And I'd be hard pressed to find anybody who doesn't believe Buffalo is the team to beat in the AFC, even with the AFC West as deep as it is. But that's part of the reason why I think everyone thinks that people are going to beat each other up in that division. And thus, I mean, to emerge from that division with a shot at the one seed would really be a remarkable achievement for anybody that wins that one.

And that's the only seed that puts you into the second round of the playoffs that Buffalo reached last year. How do you see the AFC West sussing out in your mind, Mike Tirico? And just starting, knowing that we have the raiders to start, just starting with the discovery phase and you start looking at teams, you start looking at players. I spent, I think about an hour convincing myself each of the four teams could be the best team in the AFC West. You really can go, okay, even the Chiefs aren't as good here.

Wow. All these pieces that the Chargers now have, obviously, with the Raiders, you start to look, oh, Chandler Jones is here now. You see Jones and Crosby coming off the edge, Devonta Adams is here, and all of that stuff. And you pull back and you go, any of these teams can be the team in the AFC West. So yeah, I agree with you, it's going to be hard to be the one seed out of the AFC West. How good will Miami be thus giving Buffalo, Miami, and New England as difficult teams in the division? And let's not forget the Jets, that Jets offense, I think, is going to hit a good patch here during the season.

And I think Salah will get the defense, get healthy in the right place. And it's that stupid time of the year. It's what is it, July 25th? Yeah, we don't know. Yeah. It's the time of the year that you can legitimately say, hey, everybody really can have a good season.

And it's not the case. So I can't see which team is going to be really bad right now in the AFC. So which team that you think, Mike Tirico, that you think, not on people's radars, will wind up getting flexed into your schedule? And say like Cincinnati is a perfect example of that. At this point last year, everyone's looking at the back end of their schedule and saying, oh, we got Cincinnati in December. That's a win until Joe Burrow showed up in December. So which team do you think has the shot to get flexed into your schedule because nobody saw him coming?

Mike Tirico. Yeah, yeah, it's a good one, Rich, because we have so many teams on the schedule this year because so many teams were pretty good. I'm just running through my mind.

I don't want to let somebody escape. What if what if Jamis plays as well as he played before getting hurt? And what if Michael Thomas, who I saw was out there today running drills and we haven't seen him in a year.

We forget he caught about 150 balls from Brees a couple of years ago, right? And what if Dennis Allen all of a sudden wakes New Orleans up with, you know, guys, we can win like 16 to 10 games and 19 to 13 games. Maybe they're the team that kind of sneaks up on people. That might be the one I'll throw out there right now that's not on the schedule. It's funny. We're here in Detroit.

I live in this area and we're with some folks hanging out during the summer. And they said, hey, when do you think the Lions will be on Sunday Night Football? Kind of a half joke, of course. Yeah. Right.

You know what? Anybody can play their way onto Sunday Night Football. Just look at the Bengals last year. So you're right.

There's one every year that you have no expectation, but they do it. So I'll give you New Orleans for now. From your mouth to the football God's ears, Detroit at the Jets week 15 gets flexed in. There you go. There's that. I think we just identified it. You know, even though we got New England at Vegas, Belichick at McDaniel's, it would take quite a bit to flex out of that one, I'd imagine.

But there you go. Denver, Detroit at the Jets, week 15, flexed. I saw on the Lions social media this morning that Dan Campbell was doing up downs with the team.

He taped his... They're doing drills this morning. I can't wait for hard knocks.

I cannot wait. I think it's going to be entertaining and exciting and good on the Lions, by the way, for kind of making a push to change the narrative because, look, the attendance was down last year in Detroit. This is a great football city, but even the fans have worn a little bit of it. So they were just trying to reintroduce players, team, and culture.

I think hard knocks will do a little bit of that. And that's a team, I'm not saying they're going to play their way onto Sunday Night Football. That's a team that can, in an NFC North, that if Green Bay is not as great as they have been, it's not going to overwhelm you like the AFC West, let's say. I think they could be in line for a significantly improved season from last year. That could be seven wins or eight wins, but I think they're going in the right direction right now with Campbell. An important detail to add to Dan Campbell doing up downs with the team is he taped his wrists to do that. He taped his wrists before doing that with the team. I think it may be as good as the Rex Ryan addressing the team meeting that were a part of the Jets hard knocks.

I thought that set the bar, right? Let's go eat and snacks and all that stuff. I think some of the Dan Campbellisms in the team meetings and the passion and the fury and the cower-esque spit flying from the head coach, I think that could be right up there with some of the best stuff we've seen on hard knocks.

It doesn't win you a damn game, but it'll be entertaining at least going in. Mike Tirico, my buddy here on the Rich Eisen Show from NBC Sports. Okay, so you're in town as well. It's the Rocket Mortgage Classic on Golf Channel that starts on Thursday. You and I have not spoken since this, but please tell me, what was it like to be there at St. Andrews and watch Cameron Smith do what he did with pretty much most every human there wanting to see it for Rory?

What in the world was that like for you to witness, Mike Tirico? Rich, I was talking to a few tour players at an event yesterday about this also. It's one of the best back nines in a major championship that you'll ever see, and it's given all of that. It was Rory's got to win this for all the reasons that people talked about. The holes were really put in very tricky spots because it wasn't wind.

If you don't have wind in St. Andrews, it loses one of its two defenses. The other one are hole locations, so it wasn't like guys were making a ton of birdies later on in the round for him to shoot 30 on the back nine of a major championship with Rory on top of the board at the home of golf without the holes being an easy spot. He played rich holes 10 through 14 in 15 strokes.

I don't know how good your game has gotten in the last few years, but I played two holes in 15 strokes. For him to do that in that situation, that's one of the best back nines ever at a major on Sunday, and I don't think we really were ready for it because it just snuck up on everybody because of all the tension being on Rory. So good for him.

Great for him. Yeah, I mean, that back nine, we were talking about it here, Mike. It's the only back nine for a major championship that could even be in the same area code or zip code or or universe is Augusta National, where you have holes that you can make eagle on. You have holes where you can completely blow up on. And then there's an iconic hole that, you know, is a bucket list hole for everybody wanting to play.

And then the finish as well. There's nothing like that. That was unbelievable to watch. And I just couldn't believe what I was watching. I agree with you.

It kind of snuck up on us, too. I really think because you thought it was the two guys, Rory and Hovland in the last group, and then he was in position. But just look, he did it the players championship when he makes putts, he makes him in bunches and he's as good a putter as maybe anybody on tour.

And he proved that. Have you done the Scotland golf? I have not.

I have not. I so I so I so want to I mean, that's what's doing it here. All right.

You seriously? Well, let's get like a group of fun guys. OK, let's let's go do that. That would be a blast.

How about how about I know Brock when you're pointing at you, but how about like a Sports Center reunion? How about that? Let's get DP. Let's get DP.

Really funny. You know, help would do it. I'm serious. Like, let's let's let's do that sort of thing.

That is exactly what I would do. I would love that. That that would be a lot of fun. But they are they're great trips, they're great towns.

And I will tell everybody who's listening. If you ever do get the chance to go to the open, it's always good when it's in the UK. Any time it's played, it's really good when it's in Scotland. And when it is at St. Andrews, when it's in Scotland, when it's at St. Andrews, it's the absolute best. This was the fifth one I've been lucky enough to cover and everyone just delivers. There's no place that if you love golf that compares to the town of St. Andrews. So if you can do it, go do it.

And Cam Smith's got something to be remembered for forever, no matter what tour he ends up on in the next few months or years. No, I know. Good one.

But I'm serious. So we like we could we could get all of us. We could FaceTime killer from there. Kilborn. You know, we could just FaceTime him from a pub, right?

See what he's up to. He can lift his martini glass in his mahogany, you know, walled living room from here in Los Angeles. We'll raise a pint. We could do that, right?

Oh, we could. Who was the first guy you did SportsCenter with? I don't think I've ever asked you that. Who was the first or was it was it L.C.? Who was the first anchor?

No, I'm going to give you one now. The first SportsCenter I did was at two thirty in the morning on July. I want to say 14th, a Friday night, 13th or 14th. It was with Jim Bergamo. Jim Bergamo. Was Jimmy still there when you were there? No, he was gone. OK, first, by the way, the first day I walked into to work at SportsCenter was when was when they shot the Don't Walk commercial.

Oh, no, he's there. Yes. Like the Hands Across America type commercial where where everybody sang, you know, like We Are the World, Don't Walk. Like that was my first day. I'm traveling, right? That's exactly right.

Yeah, exactly. That was my first one. Jim Bergamo, huh? Jim Bergamo and then Ann Montgomery were the first couple of people I did SportsCenter with.

And then I would do a bunch of a bunch of Friday, Saturdays in the fall with Tommy's God rest his soul. And then and then right after I started a few months later, Carl Ravitch and Linda Cohen. But they did the bulk of the sports centers I did. Probably 40 percent of sports as I did with Chris Myers. And we did a lot of 2 30 a.m. half hour 11 Pacific Sports Centers.

And when they started airing SportsCenter on a loop in the morning every half hour, that helped both both of our careers because management and other people would see it in the morning when they'd wake up. And Chris and I had a wonderful thing going. And I love those times and always laugh when Chris is doing NFL games and NASCAR and all great stuff for Fox and when our paths cross every once in a while, just need to reflect on doing basketball highlights and hockey. Chris loved the NBA.

He wasn't as big a hockey fan. So he would he would trade he would trade an NBA highlight block with me or an NHL highlight block. I'll give you a couple NHL highlights in the in the C-section, give me a couple NBA games. We would trade highlights. Fun times.

Oh, my gosh. So Chris, Chris Myers was one of the first SportsCenter anchors I ever crossed paths with after leaving ESPN, although it wasn't him. We use the old Hollywood Hotel booth for our for our Hall of Fame coverage at NFL Network. We would put it right next to the interstate and it's we needed to have sort of an enclosed booth where you could see the hall behind us, but not hear the trucks zipping by I-77.

So we use the Hollywood Hotel that Fox used for NASCAR. And I turned to my right and looked next to the host chair and there was Chris Meyers Paul Mitchell hairspray bottle. So that's the way I ran into that's the way I ran into Chris.

You know, I didn't, you know, that's the way I read. That's the way I ran into Chris back in the day. That is so funny, man. I love doing shows with him. He was so good. He was he was a great reporter, would work the story. You think about somebody like Chris, a terrific bureau reporter for so many years. And crushed it on SportsCenter, baseball tonight, up close after Roy Firestone. And then then this career, calling NFL games on Fox and hosting the NASCAR and doing a whole bunch of other stuff. He's done everything in his career, has been on network TV for over 30 years and has just been awesome.

And everything he does. What a great guy. And what a what a pleasure was to work with. I kid because I kid because I care.

That's right. Me here. I'm doing business. You're no good. I remember all that. What a time. You, you, you're no good. Got replaced with baseball.

You, you're not safe. That's right. I was tagged out. Man, I can think of like 100 Chris Meyers-isms doing shows with him, but good days and fun times. And what I love, Rich, about that is so many people from that era that we were all together are all still doing this 25 years later. It's it's fun every time you turn on TV and see somebody from that era, that family. So it's good memories. And every once in a while you just stumble into a conversation like this about those times. Me too. That's why I rarely bring that up when, when I get to chat with you, Mike, thanks for the time.

Drive safe wherever you're going. I hope to run into you in Canton next week. That would be great. Hope to see you. I look forward to that. I am off to check on your golf bag. I'm off to the golf course.

There you go. I will give you a full report later in the broadcast. Please, if you do run into Hubbard in his golf bag, text me a photograph.

I would love to see it. Mike, please. I'm here for you as a cup reporter on the tour.

Bless you. I appreciate Mike Tirico. You'd be well. We'll chat soon.

Drive safe. You got it. That's Mike Tirico, everybody right here on the Rich Eisen Show. I got the most exposure of my career ever. I think outside of the Katy Perry video that I did with Bill Walton, which has been seen almost as what a half billion times on YouTube. But the most television exposure I think I've ever gotten in my career is when I was asleep. The reruns. I would do the 2 a.m. with Stuart or the 1 a.m. and then the 1 a.m. with Stu and then it would re-air at 2 a.m. and then because Steve Bornstein, I think he told me this, my rabbi smart enough to have hired me twice, the longtime president of ESPN or CEO of ESPN, whatever his title was there. I think the re-airs that started at 6 in the morning Eastern, he pushed it to 5 in the morning Eastern so he could have something to watch when he was running on the treadmill in the morning.

He didn't want to watch The World's Strongest Man, I guess. All those workout shows. And then they started the re-airs an hour earlier. And so I'm dead asleep 4 in the morning, 4.30 in the morning is when I'd finally drop off. And then my show that I did with Stu or whoever overnight, 5 a.m., 6 a.m., 7 a.m., 8 a.m., 9 a.m., 10 a.m. And I'd wake up at like 10.30 in the morning and there was no Twitter at the time.

If there was, I'd see the reaction to it. I had no idea if people were watching it or not. I watched it, Rich. I appreciate that.

I got in from the bar. I always have to. The Swish Swish video is at 665 million views. There you go. There you go. Oh, with the mountain. That's right.

Swish. And Katy Perry. And Katy Perry. She's there too. But I think the first person you see might be me, right?

And Bill Walton. I think they're calling the action for us. I'm playing it right now, stand by. As well, it should be in the Katy Perry video. Well, I know. She's first up. Oh, that's right. She's the star of that. My bad.

She's sitting on a big diamond. All right. I didn't really want to do this, to be very honest with you. But I'm gonna, when we come back, I'm gonna talk about my future with NFL Network since everybody's so interested in it, apparently. That's coming up next. Don't miss it, please. 844-204-RICH, number to dial.

Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, Terrestrial Network, 844-204-RICH, number to dial. There's a live Panther quarterback competition tweeting going on right now. That's as you know, it's a tradition unlike any other now that Twitter is as great as it is over the last several years. The burgeoning presence of Twitter in training camp. What do we got? Donald Throw hit the ground of Baker Mayfield off a tip, tip, tip drill interception. What do we got?

From David Newton, who covers the team for ESPN. Baker Mayfield throws the first pick in the competition against Sam Darnold. Boy.

Yes. Oh, no. As you know, I think Baker's getting it. If Baker doesn't get this gig after they acquire him in the middle of the summer because clearly they're not sold on Sam Darnold. If Baker doesn't get this gig. Then what?

I don't know. I think it's worse than him sitting at home and not doing anything. Like it's sitting at home, at least it's a bit of a mystery, right? That he was got screwed over by the Browns and the rest of the league couldn't acquire him because the Browns held on to him and he didn't want to eat salary and you can't blame him. I mean, if he doesn't get this gig. Now that's the proper reaction to a live tweeting of the first day of training camp, first interception of a quarterback battle. Right? That was the proper reaction to that, right?

Is to take it to the nth degree that he's not getting the job and it's worse off for him than had he just not even taken the trade to Carolina, right? Snap reaction. That's why I'm here with one button, too many unbuttoned. I think you need to go one more. No, dude. I don't have the chain for it. Yeah. You need a chain. I don't have the bus come over for it.

Yeah, you need a chain. M'Kai Becton's going to right tackle. I saw that, which is- There's a lot happening right now. You know, we'll talk about that later on here on the Rich Eisen Show. Look, I do talk about my life here quite a bit.

I got my best dad ever signed, right? Susie sits in this chair later on this Friday, Chris, when you take a day off, Susie will be in yours. I share my life with you on this program and I'm greatly appreciative of you taking whatever I will share with you and listening to it and watching it. But I don't really talk about my business very much here, but I have to now because it's seemingly in a lot of places on Twitter and I'm getting texts from people and I greatly appreciate their well wishes and things like that.

And media outlets are calling my agent and I'm not saying that just to make a bigger deal of it because trust me, I don't want to talk about this sort of stuff. When I started at NFL Network in 2003, I was told by Jeff Mason, one of the legendary producers in this business after I left ESPN, parted ways with them and I went from 110 million homes to 11 million homes and you know, I'm sitting around and we're starting something up and he turns to me and he says to me, the greatest, the greatest feeling you'll ever have in this business is you start something from scratch and you grow it into something. It's an incredible experience and you're going to get that opportunity here at NFL Network and here I am in year 19 and I'm, my contract is up at the end of next month and I see a story on July 20th, I wake up and I'm getting texts and it's tweets and all this stuff from front office sports saying that I'm going to hit free agency. I'm close to hitting free agency, I'm on the verge of hitting free agency from NFL Network and the only thing I'm going to say about this, was it 59 seconds, has this been my preamble to this because I want one second for every minute it took LeBron to actually say something years ago.

It takes you a little bit longer to get to the point sometimes but that's your personality. So the story comes out July 20th, I agree to terms with NFL Network on June 17th. If you called me, I'd have told you that. Nobody called me and the last thing I wanted to do was give any more life to something that I don't really think should be in public, you know, and I just, you know, I'm waiting on the paperwork, T's crossed, I's dotted, I'll be there. I want to be there for a long time, you know, next year will be year, this is season 20 for me, next year is the 20th anniversary, I love working there, I love working with the people who work there, so I'm going to be there.

I don't know how this stuff kind of gets out and gets its new life, you know, and I just didn't say anything because I didn't want to give a new cycle to it. They spelled my name right at Front Office Sports and they used a great photograph, I really approved it, very nice photograph that they put on there. Susie approved the photograph, she's like, I even kind of got like a whoa, you know, like a nice picture, yeah, a little high register for my wife, which is, you know, that's a win, high praise. My wife.

My wife. Well, congratulations. Thank you. Yes, Rich. Thank you. I appreciate it. We've built this from the ground up too, Rich, something we're proud of.

Well, we built this city on rock and roll. Yes. So.

Don't you remember? So, I just wanted to address that and by the way, thank you to all the people who were texting me saying, you know, I hope you get what you want, hope you get what you get, you know, and it was very nice. I greatly appreciate that, but, hey, Mike McCarthy, you know, just, you could call.

Reach out. That's all. So, I don't know if that gets put to bed, but that puts the first hour to bed on this program. We'll see if the aggregators pick it up.

The aggregators. I apologize for not texting you about it either, that was my bad. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. Rich, you've heard me talking about it around here. Yeah. Were you guys the sources?

You never know. Wait a minute. Woodward.

Bernstein. Rich, how does this help me, to be honest? How does it help you is a good question.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's all I really want to ask. How does it help me? Well, I mean, we get to talk about you. Here's how it helps you is that I'm on game day morning on Sundays. Oh, great. I love that show. I host the draft, the combine. Oh, yes. Big fans. We still do Monday Night Football for Westwood One.

We get good guests based on that, too. I'm actually going to be with you at the draft and the combine next year. I know he's there. It's not about you. Is that right?

I am back. Was that in front office sports, too? No, that's not in front of them.

They're not saying that. Will you let front office sports know when you're not going to be here? Because that's the way I'll learn from it sometimes.

I'll learn back. You not being here in the media. HR has to know. Well, Rich, he has notified HR. Mike not here tomorrow or Friday. You see? I tell HR.

Oh, you're not here tomorrow either. No, no, no. Oh, I should have Googled it. Sources say. HR was notified. I see. I have to tell HR to clear the vacation day.

It's been cleared day off. I love it, Rich, because the more exposure you get, it's just better for us. It cascades. Yeah, it's a trickle down thing. You know what I am? It's a trickle down effect. You know what I am?

I'm a cascader. Rising tides raise all boats. They do.

They do, actually. I'm not going to lie. My association will grow a little bit. And by the way, in case you're wondering, there is a clause in the NFL Network agreement that says I am allowed to wear my shirt with one button unbuttoned to make you as uncomfortable as possible. It's so funny. I come on the air and I realize it. I realize it. We saw it.

We saw it right away. And I know exactly what you're talking about. I know exactly what you're talking about. No, I like it. We like it. I want to say, but I like it for you. Italian horns.

We got to get Italian horn, a little chain with the Italian. He needs the star of David, dude. I mean, I'm not like Elliott Gould in Ocean's 11. You know what I mean? I mean, come on. We'll get you a little bronzer. What do you mean? What are you talking about?

I want him to look Jersey. Sure. Definitely not. Rich. I got a question. Is there an independent study clause in your new contract?

I need to look that up. You have to spend X amount of time watching the product. I'm waiting on the paperwork and we'll see. We're still waiting on our tablets too, by the way, because I can't get a study without source material. We shall see when the contract comes. We'll see in the language. If there is, they'll use the word tablet.

That's for damn sure, not iPad. Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, Marcus Freeman of Notre Dame Football coming up. 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 Hulk Hogan was a babyface, Hulk and Andre were able to go in and headline at the New Orleans Superdome, at Shea Stadium in Japan. Wherever they went, that was an attraction. Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.