REShow: Wyatt Russell - Hour 3 (6-6-2022)

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That's 877-ASK-DELL to save up to 48% on our latest technology. Trash talk. This is the Rich Eisen Show.

Trash talk. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Pro football Hall of Famer Mike Singletary. Did you hear last year when Aaron Rodgers scored against the Bears, he told the fans, I own you.

I think if someone would have said that while we were playing, I would have thought something's wrong with this person. Earlier on the show, host of ESPN's First Take, Stephen A. Smith. Host of Peacock's Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio.

Still to come, actor Wyatt Russell. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Okay everybody, our number three of the Rich Eisen Show is live on the air here on NBC Sports on Peacock. NBC Sports Audio Sirius XM Channel 85. For those of you listening on the Rich Eisen Show Terrestrial Radio Network coast to coast, we say hello to all of you on our vast podcast system. We'd love to have you hit that subscribe button wherever podcasts are acquired. Please do that on the Cumulus Podcast Network is where our podcast is distributed.

Also, and where all podcasts can be acquired as well, YouTube.com slash Rich Eisen Show for anything that you may have missed. Mike Florio, our number two. Stephen A. Smith called in as he was getting onto a plane to Boston, Massachusetts. The NBA Finals all nodded at one game apiece. Game number three is set for Boston on Wednesday night. So two days off, an extra travel day.

It's a 2-2-1-1-1. So we're going to go back and forth between time zones and coasts because Boston is on the East Coast and San Francisco is on the West Coast and the rest of the country, including Altoona, Pennsylvania, is in between. That's how we say hello to TJ Jefferson here on the program. Chris Brockman and Mike Del Tufo is in their usual spots mixing geography with sports and entertainment. The actor Wyatt Russell of the FX show Under the Banner of Heaven is going to come out here shortly. You know, he played hockey.

He tried to play some hockey professionally. Well, yeah, that's right. I remember that from last time. We talked about that a little bit when he called in the last time for the terrific show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

He's coming out here in just a few short minutes right now. So we're going to do that hockey, to use that phrase. Let's do that hockey. How about the New York Rangers? I would say there's some hockey tonight, too. As they say in hockey, let's do that hockey.

That's right. The Rangers are putting the scare into lightning right now. Well, the lightning bounced back, Rich. The lightning won game three, so it's 2-1.

Exactly right. By the way, you know, if it goes seven games, if it goes seven games, game seven is slated for Madison Square Garden on the same night that Justin Bieber is slated to have a concert? At Madison Square Garden?

At Madison Square Garden? So Dolan, they double booked. They double booked. Well, I mean, I guess they figured that the Eastern Conference Finals, you know, the Rangers. Seriously?

You just got to always play it. I don't know, they double booked. Is Bieber going to do like the in between period like show? I don't know. Maybe Bieber could just do a couple songs from the Zamboni? Yeah.

Drive it around. I think that'd be hilarious. So we got to root for that series to go full seven. He's going to play the felt four.

Just to make Dolan not much more uncomfortable. That would be great. I'll tell you what series is probably not going seven, Rich. It's Colorado and Edmonton. We got a closeout game tonight in Edmonton. Man, the Avs are just killing it, right?

They're the favorite to win the cup right now. So that's that's our part of our hockey conversation. We'll have more with Wyatt Russell in a moment.

It's top of our number three. So much going on in the world of sports. It's time for Chris Brockman news. Chris, you've been very busy today.

We already did an overreaction Monday that was top notch. We actually even recycled a what's more likely question from last week. We asked it of Mike Florio. Well, we got a completely different answer. Well, I mean, you know, it's his prerogative to answer it however he wishes. You know, I'm forced to give you one or the other. Well, I make you decide.

That's the construct. That's the box I'm put in for what's more likely. You asked last Friday what's more likely. Tua Tungovailoa has had 33 total touchdowns in his career so far. Injury mark. And also he didn't start week one of his rookie season.

True. He's had 33 of those. You asked, will he have, what's more likely? He has 30 combined total touchdowns for the 2022 season. Or he struggles and Tom Brady is the quarterback for the Miami Dolphins in 2023. Mike Florio said, well, it's either I'll go with either Brady or Lamar Jackson. Whoa, whoa.

We're like, OK, hold the phone, which he was, in fact, doing at the time when he said it. So that was good. If you missed any of that, again, check out our Twitter feed at Rich Eisen Show and then, of course, YouTube.com slash Rich Eisen Show, our YouTube page. Please hit the subscribe button and be part of the now 422,000 subscribers and growing. Chris Brockman's news update right here on The Rich Eisen Show.

Hit it. And now, with a report of the day's news from the world of sports and entertainment, someone who is not a journalist or newsman by any definition of the word whatsoever. It's Chris Brockman. Christopher, what do you have over there, please?

A little known fact. I'm typing on that typewriter typewriter in that video exactly what Tom Brokaw said. OK, good. Yeah.

In case you wanted to know what was written. Thanks for that sausage making update. For the third time today, the 49ers have excused Jimmy Garoppolo from this week's minicam. Jimmy G, of course, rehabbing shoulder surgery away from the facility as the Niners explore trade options that will continue. Yeah, they don't need him around there. Why do they need him around there when it's Trey Lance's job? Why do they need to have him even hanging out there when it's Trey Lance's job? If Trey Lance has taken every first team snap, why do you need Jimmy Garoppolo there, right? No, Jimmy could be there for support, team support, right? Unless they have no intention of having Jimmy Garoppolo on this team. So they're excusing him from just hanging out.

Can't even come and hang out? He's still on the team, he's getting paid. No, he can. They just told him you don't have to.

For a reason, people. It's Trey Lance's gig, OK? That is the writing on the wall. That is what everybody within the walls of San Francisco 49ers front office, they believe.

I'm telling you all, this is what's happening. Because again, if it was possible for him to need to be there to get ready for the season just in case Lance isn't ready. Isn't that the conversation that we've heard from other observers? Lance may not be ready, so Jimmy Garoppolo could be there. If he's not traded, it'd be good to have him there, right? I mean, it would be absolutely understandable to have him there, right? Guy's hurt, he's rehabbing, they basically tell him, you don't have to come.

For a reason. It's Lance's gig, folks. Now what about Deebo? Is Deebo showing up today? mandatory minicamp starts tomorrow. They moved it up, so Niners moved up mandatory minicamp to tomorrow through the ninth. Doesn't look like Deebo's not expected to be on the field for practices, but it is up in the air if he's going to show up at all.

He's going to hold in. Deebo, however, did show up to the Warriors game last night, and Kyle Shanahan, they're both in the building. Do you think they ran into each other? In the men's room?

In the beverage? I don't know. I don't know. Who had better seats?

Would it be awkward? Who had better seats? Who had shoulder? Eh, can't find that out. I don't know. I haven't looked. People were just tweeting, now they're both at the game last night.

I'm sure it's fine. Guys, he's going to play for the 49ers. He'll be there.

They're going to pay him. I don't know what's going on. Ooh, looks like Kyle Shanahan was right behind the Warriors bench. Oh, see, there you go. And where was Deebo? Eh, I don't know. I think Kyle had better seats.

Draymond was resting his feet on him? Here's a question. On a side note. Oh, Mike. Mike Dusufo is here. Floor seats, close up, or box.

What's more shoulder? See, I... Oh, sweet. I mean, it's sweet. Sweet, right? Basketball game?

Yeah. No, you want feet on the floor. Feet on the hardwood. That's more of a flex. Mike's a sweet guy.

Well, as someone who's recently had feet on the wood and in the swing. Ashton? No, not Ashton. It's Double-A. My boy Double-A hooked this up. I'd say, man, being on the floor is nice, but you got a suite. You get more people in the suite.

You can kind of move around. Dessert cart. Dessert cart. Dessert cart. We'll talk about that. I'm sorry, Chris. At crypto is... Third quarter, dessert cart. Yeah, I think you got... Top notch.

Second to none. Okay, I'm sorry, Chris. So I kind of feel like, you know, you're up in the suite. You got the TVs. You can roam. You can talk. We can hold this. Excellent. By the way, guys, excellent coverage of last night's Warriors Celtics game right there. Well done. You get your own personal waiter. Ah, sweet.

Give me the sweet. What else? All right, The Athletic is reporting that Cooper Cupp, you know, he wants a new deal. He is going to attend minicamp despite ongoing contract talks.

Cooper Cupp will be there, as expected, Aaron Donald this week. Okay, very good. Sign's pointing the right direction for both of those guys. So wait a minute. So McVeigh got married before mandatory minicamp? Yeah. Got married before. Well, he has to. So I guess it's a voluntary honeymoon?

Is that what it is? Well, you know, people... Honeymoon's voluntary? People do their own... People don't...

They just delay it? Do you leave for your honeymoon immediately after your wedding? We got married Saturday night. Sunday we had a brunch. And then you were off. I see you.

Nah, people don't do that anymore, I don't think. What are you talking about? I think they schedule... You wait a little time. He's right.

What are you talking about? You schedule it. No. Yeah, you schedule it.

You don't leave the next day. So you get married and then you've got mandatory... So it's mandatory marriage.

Yes. I guess that's voluntary. Voluntary marriage. Voluntary marriage. Voluntary marriage. There's voluntary. Mandatory minicamp.

Well, unless the shotgun's involved, then it's not. Yeah, exactly. Voluntary honeymoon. That's the schedule for Sean McVeigh?

By the way, great coverage of the Cooper Cup story. I mean, what do we do? We're on it. All right, TJ, here's another one for you. I'm going to broadside you again. Oh, here we go.

Uh-oh. What's going on with the Cowboys? Dalton Schultz, you've got to imagine Dalton. Dalton Schultz is an important part of that number one ranked offense in scoring from last year.

Got to have him. He's the tight end. I got to say, my man is frustrated at the stalled long-term contract negotiations. My buddy Tom Pelissaro saying today that Schultz informed the team. He is not going to attend the rest of voluntary OTAs until his situation is resolved. There is less pie. There is less pie because he signed his franchise. He signed the $11 million franchise tender, but he wants a long-term deal to keep him in Dallas after this season. You have until July 25th.

Oh, it started July 15th. As you all know, franchise tags are either applied when the player does not have a problem with it or slapped if they do. Currently, this franchise tag has been slapped on Dalton Schultz. Will Smith style. Slap that. Dude, I'm telling you.

Number three on the items that I've talked myself into is the Cowboys have taken a step back for 2022. But are you forgetting that we also have Blake Jarwin? We have two tight ends. Oh, that's right.

One guy. I forgot about Blake Jarwin. So Blake's getting all the first team reps.

I guess so. But Jarwin who had 70 catches and eight touchdowns last year. Come on.

You're not concerned about this at all? Not the tight end position. Tight end? Tight end? No.

Two tight ends. Okay. So. Get your damn act together. Give me another position. Yeah. I'd be worried about it.

I'm not stressing that one. How about wide receiver? Your best wide receivers on the Cleveland Browns?

No. Our best wide receiver. The other best wide receivers. Another best wide receivers hurt?

Or the two. Or the best wide receiver, CD Lamb. Two of the three best that we had are still on the team. More touchdowns this year, Jamar Chase or CD Lamb? Where does he come into play for this? More touchdowns this year. Justin Jefferson or CD Lamb? What again does any of this... More touchdowns this year. Stefan Diggs or CD Lamb? How about Amari Cooper? This isn't even more touchdowns this year. I'll take CD Lamb over Amari Cooper.

This is like pineapple pizza to a falafel. Like these two things don't even... What are we talking about? I'm talking about... Yeah, that's my question.

Why? You went from talking Dallas receivers to now every other receiver in the league against CD Lamb. Ah, exactly. Because you're saying that the Cowboys haven't taken a step back and that CD Lamb's going to take a step forward. That wasn't how the conversation went. Like that wasn't what we were talking about, but sure.

Okay. Hey, the Broncos are going to have a new owner. Looks like it's going to be Rob Walton barring another outrageous bid. Yeah, but can he afford it? Can he afford it?

The rich keep getting it. Can he afford it? Well, we looked it up. Did the Waltons get a HELOC to close it?

Mike and I looked this up this morning. Rob Walton worth $58.8 billion. You can afford it. You can break off something proper. He can snap off the four and a half bill and he's got cushions to buy the Broncos.

Mike Cliss though, our buddy is... Wait a minute, he's just... You just sprayed his tea over there. I just said something dumb.

Break him off something proper. Like Rich hasn't dropped in hip hop. Like, I mean, it's been going on since the nineties. Let's be honest. Exactly.

I mean, I had a front row seat to all of them. You took a little bit of a break for a few decades. Broke off something something. That's what's up. That's what's up. There's a couple of folks in Denver reporting that all four bidders for the Broncos, I would assume including Rob Walton. Is that what you're going to say?

I have spoken to Peyton Manning to gauge his interest in joining their ownership group as a minority partner or advisor. And? So he's having an auction of his own?

It seems like it. So there's a big auction. There's the big... The big auction. There's a big auction. The big. And then a mini auction. A mini. An Omaha auction.

Can Peyton still do Manning cast if he's a minority owner of a team? An Omaha auction. I think so. A Omaha. A Omaha auction.

Omaha. Yes he can. He can? Yeah.

Like what? So what happens when the Broncos get a Monday night game? They just take that day off. No you don't take the day off.

They don't have to take it off. You can't. You can't. Like I'm going to say. He's not going to be objective that day. Dude, do you sit there and watch the Manning cast thinking, oh Peyton's got an agenda? Seriously. Yeah, but this is different though. It's just, he's talking about slapping Jeff Saturday on the ass.

Twice. And you're sitting there going, well, wait a minute. I don't know if I really believe what he's saying because he does own a piece of the Broncos, which we would understand. Of course we understand. I'm just giving you what the people on social media are going to say. Then you could clap back. Oh, thank you. You're giving me permission.

I'm giving you permission to clap back. Hey, LeBron's been pretty active tweeting during out there in the NBA playoffs. He's got nothing else to do. He's got nothing else to do.

He wasn't playing basketball. He tweeted out this yesterday and man, jumping on someone's podcast soon, maybe my own? Would you be interested in a LeBron James podcast podcast podcast podcast podcast podcast? See I'd like to read between the lines. This is the R.E.S.

consultant. We're on it. Hey, LeBron, I understand you have your own people. Let us handle it. This is what we do. He's a billionaire now.

It's no big deal. A podcast podcast podcast podcast podcast podcast podcast podcast podcast podcast podcast first. LeBron James, LeBron James, LeBron James, there you go. That's it.

OK. It's got to be strive for greatness podcast. That's kind of his slogan. It's the guys. It's clearly going to be called a kid from Akron.

We also we also. Oh, is that what? That wouldn't be bad. And I just make it up.

We just know it won't drop on Tuesdays. Now that's for tacos taco. So so it does look like maybe my own, huh? Maybe my own. And then he did the see, Chris, I ran into that unless if someone doesn't bring me on their podcast, I'll just start my own. So Rich Eyes and Hoops Basketball Podcast. We'd love to have one. We're on LeBron.

LeBron would immediately. It's just another thing. Come on. He's working on his second billion. You know, yeah, LaPod James on the podcast.

What is it? I'm going to go strive for greatness, but TJ, like yours kid from Akron. I've just been told that the announcement is coming. Jim Gray is hosting.

You're going to wear that terrible shirt. Jim Gray is LeBron will announce which podcast he's three minutes into either his own or which other people are somebody else's podcast. And it's going to be announced in 58 minutes and he is going to announce which one it's going to be.

We got almost 100,000 likes. I'm going to take my talents to the Rich Eyes and Show Basketball Podcast. I mean, it's honestly whatever he wants to do. He probably saw what Conan just sold his podcast company for, right?

Simmons, like all these guys, Brogan, obviously. And as expected, Quinn Snyder is planning to step down. Oh, really?

As head coach of the Utah Jazz. Huh? After eight seasons.

Take some time. Is that who said that the other day? Was that Windhorst who mentioned the other day that you might take some time off? Yeah, maybe take kind of a one year off recharge and he feels, according to Woge, that time for a new voice in Utah. They haven't quite been able to get over the hump there.

Okay. That's a that's a pretty good plum position right there. They don't churn through too many coaches there. They do not.

They do not. Oh, and Darvin Ham is hired an assistant coach, according to Shams, Rashid Wallace. She is going to be on the Lakers bench. Ball don't lie.

We talked about that with Stephen A. earlier on in the program, so check that one out on our YouTube page. And Mike D'Antoni is going to meet with Michael Jordan this week to talk about the Hornets coach. Mike D'Antoni. You don't think LaMelo would shine on Mike D'Antoni? Mike D'Antoni. You know, I kind of like the Darvin Ham thing where you like all these old recycled, regurgitated, let's get some new younger coaches in there, maybe different point of views. I'm kind of into that.

I don't know. You know, you can catch the Tory Lightning with the Mike Keenan. Remember him? Mike Keenan. Or you can catch Sean McVay. That's the one.

That's the best lightning of all. All right. Let's take a break. Let's take a break right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Wyatt Russell is here in studio. Can't wait to chat with him.

He's been on the phone before, but we get to shake his hand and chat with him face to face when we come back. Does your antiperspirant keep you dry all day? Dove Men Plus Care Dry Spray goes on instantly dry for a cleaner feel and offers 48 hours sweat and odor protection. Let me repeat that, 48 hours of sweat and odor protection.

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Goes on dry, clean feel all day. Wyatt Russell here on the Rich Eisen Show under the banner of heaven and this FX show that's now available for streaming on Hulu. Andrew Garfield and you in this program, Sam Worthington as well. Daisy Edgar Jones.

I see the billboards all over this town fort. So when you say that you're glad it's over, you had to go anywhere pretty much for this role too, huh? It's just, Andrew, everybody's awesome. Andrew Garfield, as incredible of an actor as he is, he's also that great of a person.

He's just the best. Sam, same thing, great guy, great to work with. Daisy, that made it fun. That made it okay to go and after I had to do some of the stuff I had to do, come home from work and just forget about the day, hopefully turn on hockey or football, we were filming this past winter, and just forget about it. That made it a lot easier. But it was, yeah, it was how to do some stuff and be a certain way that just leaves a bad taste in your mouth after the day's over.

Sports was what totally just ended the day, reset it for me. So that helps out? Oh yeah. It'd be huge. And again, that's available for streaming on Hulu right here starting right now.

All episodes of under the banner of heaven, Wyatt Russell here on the Rich Eisen Show. You're a longtime hockey player, correct? Yeah.

You tried it. So is this the playoff beard that you got working right now? This is just my attempt at making my wife annoyed and then her being like, I don't know, I kind of like it. And I was like, all right, well, I'll keep it.

Because it's a very Lebowski type look you've got going on right here. Have you heard that? Yeah. You're right, it is. You kind of got that going. I know. I was the big Lebowski for Halloween in college one year.

Of course. I mean, everybody felt like at some point it was the big Lebowski, the dude at some point in college. And I had like a white Russian in a robe and I did the whole thing.

It was a hit. I was like, you know, I always make the joke that I look more like Jeff Bridges than I was like my dad sometimes, you know? And so like... You do have a real Jeff Bridges Lebowski look about you right now, man. I know. I know. And look, it's a compliment. So thank you.

You're welcome. Dude! Yeah, but I couldn't ever, the reason I grew a beard is because I was 18, no, 17, 18, I was going to be the captain of my hockey team, or one of the captains, one of the leaders of the team. And I had a baby face, like no one would, you know, respect me, I thought. So I was like, I'm going to grow a beard, like I'm going to really try and grow a beard. So I went, I grew a beard, I put Just For Men in it to color it brown, and then it went out, and then shaved the rest, so I was like, okay, the beard's not really, but maybe I'll do like a handlebar mustache, and then so I shaved into this horrible handlebar mustache, so it was like peach fuzz handlebar with, you know, Just For Men. But it like kind of worked.

It did. Yeah, it was like, I don't know, it was just maybe, it's totally psychosomatic and completely born from insecurity. But then I never, I never didn't have a beard, because it was like, oh, people, you know, think I'm wise.

But why, why do you go, JFM is for, you know, people my age, you know. Because I didn't, you couldn't see it, unless I put Just For Men in there, you couldn't see the beard. Funny thing is, one year, when I was on SportsCenter, back in the late 90s, they didn't want their anchors to wear facial hair.

Really? Yeah, I went on vacation and I didn't shave. So I came back and I shaved it into a goatee, but my problem was, Wyatt, is that my mustache and the beard wouldn't connect. So I had to draw, I had to draw it in.

Oh, wow. You did. And you went for it. And then I got back to my desk after the SportsCenter and I got a few voicemails from fans and people that I know saying like, why did you go on the air with S all over your face? And that was the end of my goatee, I had one and done facial hair of SportsCenter. That was the end of that.

So dig that up. So I can totally understand that. You were a goalie? Is that what you were? I was a goalie. So why did you need facial hair with the mask on?

I don't understand. It was for my own team. It was for my own team. You were stuck within the locker room? Yes, I was young.

Okay, okay. When you're playing junior hockey, you play, you know, there's 15 to 21, depending on who's like aging out. So like when you're 17, 16, 17 year old to 21 age gap is a really big age gap. You know, there's 21 year olds are men, okay, me as a 17 year old was still a boy, right? So you had to be able to, you know, like, I don't know, I find some sort of edge to be able to get the respect of some of your teammates or the younger guys.

I don't know. It was a stupid thing to do, but it seemed to help me and we had a great season and finished second in Canada. So it worked.

Wow. So what was more realistic of for hockey? You with the just for men beard within your locker room or your dad is Herb Brooks. What was more realistic? Yes. My dad is Herb Brooks.

What's more than more than? Well, my dad is Herb Brooks was really interesting thing because they want a lot. They filmed it in Vancouver when I was playing junior hockey there. So they would come to sometimes after games like an Abbotsford game and they would they were shooting there after we'd play. So there was the crews there and whatever, and watching our games, some of the players, one of the players from our team left to go be like a extra in the movie for Russian or something like that. So like team like, you know, Sweden, Finland or for the fans fill out the other teams. So and they wanted me to go to be one of the goalies to help out. You couldn't do it unless you quit the team.

So it was like, there's no way that's going to happen. But the director Gavin and my goalie coach Paul and my dad all, you know, did a really great job of basically saying, if you don't, if you haven't played college hockey, don't come out for the tryout. Like if you haven't played college hockey, don't, don't, don't try out for the movie you're talking about. Try for the movie.

Okay. So they started at a point which I think every movie should start with sports movie, but specifically hockey. If you can't play, don't, you're not going to, no matter how great of an actor you are, don't worry.

You're not going to make it. So all those players in the movie could really play like they were real, really good hockey players, all of them for the most part, I think everyone. And so the realistic aspect you feel in that movie is because they're all hockey players, all of them.

They all played either professional hockey or division one college hockey. And and so realistic realism in that movie is like very high. And my dad was a professional sport, the athlete Gavin would come to our practices and games and you know, they really understood the sport. Like it wasn't just people trying to go make a movie because they thought it was fun and cool and Disney.

It was like they really, really got it right. Well, I mean the movie's spectacular, but so hold on a minute. So Wyatt Russell is between the pipes in this barn in Canada playing an actual Abbey hockey game, professional hockey game, junior hockey, junior hockey game. Okay.

So Wyatt Russell's in between the pipes in this barn in a junior hockey game, after which Kurt Russell would get on that same ice as Herb Brooks to shoot the movie Miracle. Yes. That didn't happen every night. No, but that happened.

A couple times. Yeah. Damn. Yeah. It was kind of fun and weird. I know.

What are the odds, right? I mean, I know, you know, that was part of him doing the movie, I think, was I was playing a lot of, you know, I was living in Vancouver playing hockey. And so that when they said, well, do you want to do this movie, it was going to be done in Vancouver.

And that was part of what was cool. And so he actually trained, he couldn't skate very well, but he just needed to skate like a coach, you know. So he would come out while we were practicing on Saturdays at Great Pacific Forum, GPF, my goalie coach, a couple other goalies, we practiced like 7 a.m. on Saturday at just goalie practice. Yes. And he would come out and skate around and like, you know, we'd kind of like be like, no, when you make a tight turn, like you got to make a tight turn, just a quick little tight turn.

You got to make it look like it's nothing, you know, and feed somebody a puck, like, you know, nonchalantly. So he was working on stuff like that while we were, I was actually practicing like my real person. That's amazing. Yeah. That had to be great.

That had to be great for you. It was so much fun because he was very involved in my hockey as a, you know, he was with sports mentally, like he played professional baseball, whole family played pro ball. I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. He played for the Angels and the Padres. My dad's an unbelievable athlete. My cousin, Matt Franco, he played for the Cubs and the Mets and the, you know, Matt. Of course. He's your cousin?

Yeah. He's my cousin, greatest dude in the world. My, you know, my cousin, Franzie, has like NCAA soccer records.

My aunt, Jill, was the first, I think one of the first women ever asked to race Indycar. You know, they both, they have like Indycar, they have racing world championships and stuff in their mind. They're a big sports family. Everybody loves sports.

Right. And had success in athletics. So I was supposed to be a baseball player. I'm much, much, much, much more genetically inclined to play baseball than I am hockey. I just didn't like hockey quite, baseball quite as much. It wasn't, it didn't fit my personality quite as much as hockey did. So I went that direction and had a lot of success and built, you know, made me totally who I am.

Still some of my best friends in the world from when I played hockey and keep in touch with a lot of the guys and got really cool things I was able to do. And at first, I was like, this is going to suck. I'm not going to do this.

I'm going to get destroyed. What's that? Cam Talbot was playing the All-Star game. Cam and I were goalie partners in University of Alabama in Huntsville. And you know, I haven't seen him in a while. And I've been following his career.

It's so awesome to see how unbelievably great his career has been. And they asked me to come do this like celebrity goalie thing against Trevor Zegras. I'm the goalie. Remember, I mean, I don't know if you guys remember the Zegras play with one hand at the All-Star game. It went like viral. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, it was an insane, I mean, it's unbelievable what that guy can do with the puck. And so I got, like, I'm the guy in net. I was like a celebrity goalie. So I got to go do that and be on the same ice as Cam again. So you're like the Washington General to his Globetrotter right there?

Exactly. Even so much so, I'm going to blow him up right now. But even so much so that in the day, in the three hours before, there he is, they had a couple of guys trying to figure out what he's going to do and, you know, how's he going to, he was like, you got to let me score. I'm like, you're an NHL All-Star. I played hockey 14 years ago wearing all of Bill Ranford's gear because he was my goalie coach. I called Bill and I was like, I don't have any gear.

Can you lend me gear? So he was like, yeah. So I'm wearing all Bill Ranford's gear in that picture. Fantastic. Yeah.

That is fantastic. Wyatt Russell here on The Rich Eisen Show. So you sat down and you were in the green room hearing us talk about the Broncos. So did you grow up here in LA?

Yeah, but they didn't have a team. Right. So Broncos were my team because we grew up in between here and in Colorado. Okay. So when, when you were in Colorado, was that was Elway?

John Elway. Yeah. Yeah. Ninety-eight, ninety-nine. That was right around the time. I was 12. You know, I was like, oh, the Broncos are my team.

You know? So. So winning championships, Terrell Davis. Yeah, they were awesome. And then they went through a time period of just like, you know, it was a hellscape.

You're like, it was an awful, desolate, you know, horrible time. Until Peyton Manning arrives. This is my big hot take that everyone always laughs at me for.

Wyatt Russell hot take, everybody. Here we go. Get the sizzle ready.

Get the sizzle ready. I've said it before, so it's not new. Okay. Oh, okay. Without Tim Tebow, the Broncos do not have a winning team the next season.

They don't have it. Okay. Because, and here's, here's, here's why, what I wholeheartedly believe after playing sports for a long time. Yes, sir. If you don't have a magic factor person on your team, somebody with a magic factor, all the great, all the great players have a magic factor about who they are as a human being. Okay. Right.

All of them. Tim Tebow literally only had magic factor. He didn't have anything else, but his will to win was really contagious, obviously. And I know that feeling of someone who you're, you might be laughing at in the locker room and being like, this guy's insane. Like, but we're winning and he's going to will us to win.

And that energy, no matter how maybe annoying sometimes it is, it's the positivity of it is infectious. So they're going, you know, they were, they were like one in four or whatever with Kyle Orton and somebody else was there and it's like, nobody who else, you know, they could have brought any mediocre quarterback in there. They would have done the same exact thing. They were literally down to no other options, no other options going to Tim Tebow based on everything that happened. And I have been Wyatt Russell in that stadium when Tebow was starting and playing and he was terrible for three quarters. It was against the Jets on a Thursday night football game, terrible, terrible against the Jets. Like it looked like the ball was floating five feet over the head of Damarius Thomas, may he rest in peace, fluttering as if Tebow threw the ball with his feet, as opposed to his hands. I have seen that and then six minutes to go in the game, Tim Tebow time hand to football gods was absolutely real.

I saw it in my own with my own two eyes. However, I need you to now make the connective tissue here, the turn that makes this a hot take that without him, there would have been no championship. So because you make the playoffs that year, which I think is attributed to the energy that Tim Tebow, you as a football organization and a team feel like, and you win a playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. They won in the first, in the first game of the new overtime rules, where if you score a touchdown, it's done. And then there was one snap and done, right? Yes, correct. So I remember so well, cause I was like, Oh my God, it's how it happened.

It's unbelievable. So when you get that as a player, you feel like we can really win. And we won with that guy.

Yes. But you need somebody who's going to bring the energy of that guy as a human being, but also be able to deliver as an athlete. But because that vessel was Peyton Manning, but because now Peyton Manning had walked into a locker room that wasn't one and 15, they had won a playoff game. And he is taking over a team that had some sense of what winning was like and how to shift energy and like how to follow somebody who's a leader. And Tim Tebow, he's a leader and he does it his own way.

So if you just had like Kyle Orton back, no offense to Kyle Orton or the Kyle Ortons of the world, amazing athletes and quarterbacks, you have to say that before you denigrate him. Yeah, I know. I know. By the way, I always say to any athlete, professional athlete, I'm like, whenever anybody like me like Shmo, like me talks about like a professional athlete, they're all unbelievable between the pipes. And I felt that I felt what it feels like to win championships and do and have to fight through things on small scales. But it's all relative in certain ways. And and if you're aware of what's going on, then you can translate it to all other aspects of your life. Right. And, you know, the the Kyle Ortons and the Jay Cutlers and all those people of the world are unbelievable, incredible athletes that everybody should wish that they want to be.

But in order to be great in the NHL, if you want to be Connor McDavid or Peyton Manning or Russell Wilson or these guys, you have to be able to be something special in that category. That's a different thing. And we love to talk about it. And it's we're here because it's fun to talk about. I hear you. You know, I got to tell you, yeah, I could poke a hole or two.

And your theory, I'd love to know. But you're kind enough to all right, fine. Look, Elway watched all of that happen. Right. And I think Elway was thrilled. He was on the sideline when Damarius Thomas ran 75 yards for that touchdown.

And he couldn't believe that they were, you know, had the right to go to New England and get their asses handed to him. But deep down that entire time, he knew Tebow was not sustainable for sure. And but Manning might not have gone to Denver had he not thought that they were ready to take another step. Right. And the fact that the next step was a divisional playoff game to win definitely might have made it more attractive.

Right. And so and so what I'd say to you in following this line of questioning is with another quarterback that was like Kyle Orton or Jay Cutler or pick up quarterback of that time, that was like Baker Mayfield's kind of in that category right now, or like, can he get over the hump? You know, he's unbelievably so athletic, like, would he have gotten them to that place? Or did you need like, Tim Tebow, Tebow time, like shirts and things and bringing the Broncos back to it? It was incredible.

It was incredible. So I guess the last thing for you then is what's more believable as a football miracle Tebow time, or your mom and Wildcats? As a football miracle?

Yes, a football miracle. Wildcats is a good movie. Wildcats.

You know that? It's the sport of the king, better than diamond rings. Woody Harrelson is in it. Wesley Snipes is in it. It's an excellent team.

I would say that honest Tim Tebow, Tebow time, like, you know, Tim Tebow time is more of a miracle. But yeah. Well, even to put some respect on Molly McGrath's name, we didn't even talk about the hockey playoff. Okay. You know, I know you don't have time.

What do you think is going to happen tonight? Does Edmondson get one? Do you have to run out? No. Okay. Let's take a look.

I'm trying to make a wager about tonight and I want some insight. Oh my God. Oh, really? Hold on a minute.

Do you want to give your insight or do you want to, or do we hold off on that because we don't want to, I guess, reward his, your deviant behavior, clearly. What's your game? It's legal.

Okay, screw it. Wyatt Russell under the banner of heaven FX is under the banner of heaven available on Hulu right now. Having too good of a time to say goodbye back with more in a moment. Junior hockey vet.

Now actor Wyatt Russell here on the Rich Eisen show. We're back here on our terrestrial radio outfit. All right. You said as we were going to break, I was going to send you on and the rest of your day and you're like, we didn't even talk about the hockey playoffs.

I know. So now we've got the runway to do it. I guess you were actually thinking of gambling on tonight's Edmonton Oilers avalanche game. It seems unlikely that the Avs just sweep through this whole playoff, right? So I'm thinking the Oilers get one tonight and if they get one tonight, Connor McDavid has to score. Yes. So I'm thinking about a little parlay action right there. Oilers to win with a McDavid goal.

I think that's actually a good bet. I'd bet that because I think the Connor McDavid is to hockey now what Wayne Gretzky was to hockey back then. If you're a hockey fan, it's unbelievable what he can do. And I'd never really seen it because he plays for Edmonton and you don't really watch.

You don't get a lot of Edmonton hockey games here. And so this playoffs for the first time really watching him a lot has been seeing the best players in the world. They're all the best players in the world. They're all stars.

Now we're down to the best players in the NHL, the best teams. He can make the entire ice have no idea what they're going to do next, like no clue. He can shift directions at the same speed that he's going forward laterally. He can do things that nobody else can do and turns everybody else into bantam hockey players. And I would bet that this dude does not want to go down tonight like this. He's a savant, he's a savant person.

He's going to do everything he can to make this extended. The ads have spanked him, though. Well, the only other player who's as incredible to me is Nathan McKinnon. Nathan McKinnon is the player who if you have a kid and they play hockey, or I had a kid or I was a coach, watch Nathan McKinnon and do what he does. Play hockey like Nathan McKinnon. You can't look at Connor McDavid and say, play hockey like Connor McDavid.

It's too alien. It's like he's an alien from outer space. But Nathan McKinnon, he can do things like that picture right there. Like the way that he, his forward momentum, the way he squares the ice when he's looking, his vision is unbelievable, his grit, everything about Nathan McKinnon, play like Nathan McKinnon.

Do everything you can to play like Nathan McKinnon. He's my favorite hockey player. So it's so much fun to watch this series because this one in particular, Rangers and Tampa's fun too. Tampa's the best coach team in the NHL. John Cooper is the difference between a great coach and a good coach. He can truly, they have a plan and they go execute the plan, and they don't know what the plan is.

It's not just like, go get them boys. So who hoists the Cup? Colorado. They're unbelievable. They are stacked, and McKinnon is as driven as a Connor McDavid to win it. He's been in the season.

He had that last year, it was like, I've been in this league for six or nine seasons or whatever and I've got nothing to show for it. So when you, so I'm just trying to do the age thing here. So when you were in Denver, or you were spending time between Colorado and- I never played really hockey in Denver. No, I'm just saying though, but if you were an ABS fan, that's the Patrick Waugh years. Never an ABS fan. Never?

Never an ABS fan. Because Kings had hockey. Like Kings, I played for the junior Kings, it was like everything, like Kings was literally right there. Like right, you could throw a baseball and hit my, where I practiced like for most of my life.

Okay. So did you know Gretzky? Did that happen? Yeah, we, I met him when we were younger. I also, like he used to go on the ice in the middle of the, you know, the arena.

I'm sure you had some Hollywood privileges back in the day? No, it was more, it was more the junior Kings aspect, you'd go on the ice to like play in between the periods, and then like Rudy would be there, you'd go to see the games, like all that kind of stuff. You know, it was really fun. The Kings used to practice at, where I started playing, which was Culver City, the ranks no longer, but like they had the worst facilities in professional sports. It was like, it was the worst, you could stand on the boards and just sit, like just stand there like this for the Zamboni door was and just, you just glide down to the center dot.

Like you wouldn't have to, it was all sloped and angled, like it was the worst facility. So we got to meet some of the players that way and it was really fun and you know, Gretzky, interesting thing, Gretzky, people always think Gretzky came and hockey exploded. Gretzky came, hockey explodes. People realize how expensive hockey is in Southern California. And it's super expensive, you have to travel everywhere to play hockey, cooling an ice rink is very expensive, so hockey is expensive here. Everybody realized how great street hockey and roller hockey was and that went, and ice hockey didn't move very much. It didn't actually like explode that way until later on when some of the Kings players, and we had some great coaching, a lot of the Russian people who had family here when the wall fell, all those Russian coaches and people from the Eastern block, they came over defected and they became coaches for these kids in California and now California is, you know, I wouldn't call it a hockey hotbed, but there's a lot of players who are from California that play in the NHL, you know, a good amount, or they go play college hockey or professional hockey because we had amazing coaching during that time, like around 2000, you know, 98, 99, 2000. Well, it was the combination of Gretzky and Emilio Estevez, I think, together, you know, combined for the entirety of Southern California hockey boom.

Yes. I can't believe I forgot Emilio. It's just, that's my hockey contribution, Wyatt, you know, that's my contribution. Good to have you here, sir. Thanks for having me. Under the Banner of Heaven, available now for streaming on Hulu.

Make sure the kids are in bed when you start streaming that. Great to see you. You're welcome here anytime, sir. Thanks.

It was awesome. Thanks for having me. You got it. You got it.

Absolutely. Wyatt Russell here on the Rich Eisen Show. That'll wrap it up for this program. We will see you tomorrow. O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Michael Chiklis will be in the chair. Wyatt currently occupies. No, you can stay there.

They're not coming right now. I'm like, I gotta get out. The dude! Back here on the Rich Eisen Show on Peacock to wrap things 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 gotta 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 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.