REShow: John Ridley - Hour 3

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Boneheaded. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. We have to play better situational football. The Rich Eisen Show. What can you do to make that happen?

Work on it. Earlier on the show, two-time Super Bowl champion Chris Long, Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins. Coming up, writer and director John Ridley. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Yeah, hey. Hour number three here on the Rich Eisen Show. We say hello to all those listening to us on the terrestrial radio affiliate Smart Enough to Have Us. We just hung up the phone with Kirk Cousins of the Minnesota Vikings taking on the Giants this week.

The Giants have a playoff clinching scenario that involves a win over Minnesota. We went over those clinching scenarios. In hour number two, talked about Jalen Hurts and his injury. We talked with Chris Long. In hour number one, the two-time Super Bowl champ talked to him about everything that went down this weekend and also the Jalen Hurts injury. If you missed any of that, well, you're in luck.

On the Roku channel, we re-air as soon as this hour is over. An hour that includes the Academy Award-winning writer and director and author of GCPD The Blue Wall Number Three, which is the latest in a comic book series in the DC universe that John Ridley has written. He's going to be stopping by here. He's a Packer fan. Perfect timing after the Monday night win that has the Packers still alive. Say that again? I just said, go, Pat, go. Yeah, there we go. Good to see you, Chris Brockman and Jay Felley and your spots. TJ obviously just chimed in over there.

844-204, rich number to dial here on the program. And so the NFC playoff picture, can you put it up there if you have it, Mr. Hoskins? Thank you, sir. The Giants beating the commanders on Sunday night is just flat out huge. I mean, 8-5-1, sitting there in the sixth spot. How about Giants and Niners, maybe as a playoff game, right?

We'll be showing all those footage, all those. Trey Junkin. Trey Junkin, obviously, though, you know, Leonard Marshall blowing up Joe Montana. Ended Montana's San Francisco career.

That it did. And so that would be incredible. And then there's that seventh spot, the commanders sitting there at 7-6-1, a half game in front of the Seahawks and Lions, and then the Packers still alive. Who will make it in the playoffs in the six and seven seeds right there? Because the Cowboys have already clinched a spot. Now, normally in the NFL world, you ask that of any coach, they'll say, I don't have a crystal ball.

And that's one of our favorite coaching cliches. I don't have a crystal ball. How can I tell who's going to make the playoffs?

There's three games to go. And then somebody might even respond to me if I ask that question. Well, you don't have a crystal ball either. And then my answer will be, say what? Hell, I don't. I have a crystal ball. Here it is. Right here.

You got to get the Roku channel. Folks see it. It is just glorious. I mean, it's just, it's so damn heavy.

I broke, I nearly need to be in traction just taking it out of the box. It hurt watching. So we're going to use this crystal ball to tell you who's making the playoffs in the NFC with three games to go.

We even have some production value to go along with it. You know, I tell you, I don't have a crystal ball. I have no idea. There it is. Crystal ball it.

Crystal ball it. Very good music. I like that very, it's wonderful. We don't still have that music, do we?

Tape is off. Okay, go for it. Give me some NFL films music at least to go along with it.

Okay. First up, I look at the crystal ball and I see the Green Bay Packers. To go along with what I see in this crystal ball, there's three games left in the crystal ball in the Green Bay Packers schedule at Miami, home for Minnesota, home for Detroit. The Packers need to win all three and get some help. They got to win all three, get some help. They lose one of them. If you put it into any playoff generator, any, you know, the New York Times has that, how can this team make the playoffs and what their percentages is when you, when you put in wins and losses for everybody.

I got 538 up right now. You put any loss in for the Green Bay Packers and it's over. Pretty much the computers believe eight and nine ain't making it. I look in the crystal ball and what do I see? I see a loss in Miami this weekend.

That's what I see. I see a loss in Miami this weekend. I think the Miami, I do. I think the Miami Dolphins have lost, have lost three in a row and four in a row. They have an offense that I think the Packers are going to have a very difficult time stopping and an offense that I think the Packers are going to have a very difficult time keeping up with. You know, if you want, you know, I have them with a win against Minnesota at home just because these things, crazy things happen. And then that last one with Detroit, I'll revisit in a minute when I look in the crystal ball and I see the Detroit Lions. All right, Rich, so with the percentages. Yes. With a loss this weekend, Packers down to 1%.

I mean, it's milk. As it stands right now, they have an 8% chance. A win in Miami though, 19%. Very good. Do you have a crystal ball over there or just a computer?

I have a computer. Okay, very good. I have a crystal ball, sir, which trumps your computer. Next up, the Washington commanders. The Washington commanders have three games left at San Francisco, home for Cleveland, home for Dallas. Now, if the Packers went out, they need the commanders to lose two of their last three and wind up at 8-8-1. 9-8 beats 8-8-1. You don't need a computer or a crystal ball to know that.

But I look in the crystal ball, what do I see? I see them winning two of their last three. I see them losing in San Francisco.

I see them beating Cleveland at home. And I see them beating Dallas because I think Dallas is going to rest their starters. I don't think Dallas is going to play a damn person in that game. Yeah, you know Jerry plays. He's going to play. I know they play everybody, but there's no reason to risk a damn thing. They'll probably play them maybe a series or two and then take everybody out. Well, Rich, what you're saying makes sense. And sometimes Dallas doesn't do things that make sense. Okay, very good.

I don't know. I have the Washington commanders finishing up 9-7-1. Does that have them make the playoffs? That has them at 81%. I'm looking in the crystal ball, though, and I'm looking at the Seattle Seahawks. They're 7-7.

They're just a half game behind. I don't know why I'm making this hand motion. I think it just makes it seem like I could see the future better. It's way cooler. Actually, what it is, it's also I'm wiping some of the dust off.

You need to activate the ball, right? Seattle Seahawks have a game at Kansas City, home against the Jets, home against the Rams. Home against the Jets, home against the Rams. I have the Seahawks losing in Kansas City. I have the Jets winning in Seattle because I cannot put my head on the pillow having them get eliminated from the playoffs by Geno Smith.

I can't handle it. So I'm just going to put that, look in the crystal ball, see my own biases, and then have them beating the Rams at home. I have them finishing 9-8. I have them finishing 9-8.

No, no, pardon me. I have them finishing 8-9. I have them finishing 8-9, which takes them out of the playoffs.

You don't even give me the percentage of that. I have them winning and going 8-9. Next up, I have the New York Giants. They're 8-5-1. Basically, they got to win two of their last three, and it looks really good for them. I look in the crystal ball, and I see a loss against the Minnesota Vikings. I see a loss against the Vikings in Minnesota. I see a win at home against Indianapolis, and I see Philadelphia resting every last person.

They might even tell Jaws to go to sleep. That's however, they're going to rest anybody to do anything with the last 40 years of Eagles football. Sal Powell.

Sal Powell is the one administering the medicine, I think. The Rocky statue. Yeah, the Rocky statue is going to lay that on its side, and I have the Giants finishing 10-6-1. They're in. They're in the playoffs.

I have a check mark next to them. They are in. Last but not least, Dan Campbell. Oh, yeah. Coached Jared Goffed quarterback Aaron Hutchinson.

About it, Aiden Hutchinson's got that heartbeat going. You go. Detroit Lions. I'm looking in my crystal ball, and I see them playing Carolina and Carolina.

I see them at home against Chicago and then going to Green Bay, and I'm looking in my crystal ball, and I see the Detroit Lions. Wait a minute. Do I really see that? I'm going to act here. Wait a minute. What do I see? I see the Lions winning out. Yes. I see them winning out.

Do it. I see them winning nine of their last ten. I see them at ten and seven.

In. I see them at ten and seven as the seventh seed taken their wares maybe to Minnesota one more time to play a playoff game. I see Vikings Lions in the playoffs, don't I?

Yeah, you do. I crystal ball it, and I see the Giants as your sixth seed and the Detroit Lions as your seventh seed. Two ten-win teams telling the Washington commanders, thanks for playing. And the Packers and the Seahawks are out too.

That's my crystal ball view of the NFC playoff picture. Nice. Yeah. What do you think?

What do you guys think? I love it. I see them going into Green Bay and winning that game. I see them, you know, it's one of those, you know what, Lions, that's such a nice storyline that you guys are nine and seven and all. And I know for a fact they're gonna have to win that game in order to make the playoffs.

I just feel it. Especially if Green Bay loses next week in Miami, they're basically eliminated, so. Washington against Dallas and Green Bay and Detroit will be played at the same time because that means so much. That Washington needs to beat Dallas to get to nine seven and one and take care of their business if Detroit trips up and finishes at nine and eight. And Seattle might finish nine and eight too. If they beat the Jets, they might finish nine and eight. That's going to be a wild affair. I think those three games, Detroit and Green Bay, Seattle and Rams, Washington and Dallas will all be played at the same time because that's going to determine who's the seventh seed. See that in my crystal ball.

I even see some of them are on Fox and Fox might even call one of them America's game of the week, even though not all of America is seeing it at the same time. Yeah, I see that. I also see a very sad piece by Tom Rinaldi on some point. Can he do something happy? I think he does.

All right. That just might be a narrative. That's the same narrative that Kirk Cousins doesn't like. Benjamin in Ohio has been hanging on forever. What's up, Benjamin? We'll take your call here on the Rich Eisen Show. What's going on, sir? Oh, hey, Rich. Longtime listener. Second time caller. What's up, Benjamin? Yeah, no, I actually called in a few weeks ago asking a question about Justin Fields making the Pro Bowl and you guys passed on an opportunity to clown on me.

I wanted to say thank you for being here. Why would we clown on you for that? Look, we all know he's going to make the Pro Bowl because five other quarterbacks who made the playoffs aren't going to want to go. Oh, yeah, sure, but like they're all going to be nursing something now, right?

And this was five or six weeks ago. But I got a new question for you because I'm taking bets from friends and family tonight on if Justin Fields is taking the single season rushing record for a quarterback and if so, what quarter it's going to happen. And I want your take. He's got 270 yards to own the record, 206 to tie. He's got three games to do it where we host Buffalo, then we're in Detroit and then we end the season hosting Minnesota.

So I want to hear your take. What quarter of which game should people bet on Fields taking the record? Well, I was putting my crystal ball away.

All right, I have the crystal ball right here. So I see Justin Fields running into a bunch of Buffalo. I see that. I see Justin Fields needing to get 120 yards in his second game to try and get it. And I see him missing that. And I see him getting it in the first quarter of the final game for the Chicago Bears against the Minnesota Vikings.

That's what I see in my crystal ball on January 7th or 8th. That's what I got for you. Oh, that's good. That's good.

First quarter last weekend, first quarter last weekend. That's what I got for you. Thanks for calling. Thank you, Rich. Don't be a stranger.

I agree with you. Did he say he's betting his family? He's taking bets amongst his family. What bet does one take amongst their family?

Well, this Justin Fields rushing. Is it money? Is that what it is? For sure. Come on. You take money from a family member? Yeah.

No, stop it. He'd take money. He just wouldn't pay the family member. Have you been paid? What?

No, I gave up on it. Hold on a second. Hold on a second. I thought we were rolling this over.

No. Hold on a second. Let's go to the past. I know I have something in front of me that would see the future and I should take that opportunity because who gets to see the future? Who has a crystal ball?

Well, right now you... We do. You bet this man... I did. That Kenny Pickett would not be a top 10 pick in the draft. Because I had already, in my mind, said the Steelers were going to draft him the whole year.

I called that. You said Kenny Pickett is not a top 10 quarterback in the 2022 draft. He would not be. That the 11th overall pick would happen and they would have an opportunity to choose Kenny Pickett.

You said that and he says no. He's going to be... And you guys bet $20, right? Hard earned American cash.

$20. Andrew Jackson. Yeah. On this day. On this day. A long time ago.

Mike Tomlin named Kenny Pickett a starter for a week 16 contest. He's back. And you still haven't been paid by him?

Is it literally what's happened? I haven't been paid. Dude, you know electronically you can hit a button and pay him in the commercial break, right? I know and I offered to do that.

Like even if you don't have cash, there is a cash machine across the way here in the Rich Eisen Show complex, which we'll call that now. Yeah, we all know. Somebody is actually doing some work. He literally just sat on a can. He's like, if all the places, sir.

Come on. Is he bucket drumming out there? I don't know, but he is. I hope that's just a regular squat. He's popping right behind there.

Because my first thought was... I mean, honestly, there's a three foot space in which he can place his canister to sit on and he just did. But you haven't paid him? You could pass this man to an ATM right now.

You could tell him to please move his can and the can he's sitting on and get money. I mean, I could. I'm waiting for the Harriet Tubman 20. That's what I want.

When that comes out, then you give it to me. He's now moving his can. Can we roll this into something else? Great job, sir.

I love that guy. I just did play by play of a man sitting on a can. And that's why we're Emmy nominated. Put that on the tape.

And I didn't see that happening in my crystal ball. There he goes. Off camera, where he should be.

I mean, just the fact that you're right, Rich, of all the space out there. This is all open. I know.

The one spot that he's on camera. All right. I'm going to put my crystal ball away. The hell is going on? What if the Giants and the Lions make it? And the Lions make it because they went all three. What if this crystal ball is right?

I think that's... There we go, baby. Guard the crystal ball with our lives. I am now officially on the Honolulu Blue Bandwagon. Much to the dismay of our next guest, John Ridley is a diehard Green Bay Packer fan.

He is joining us next right here on The Rich Eisen Show, deep now in the comic book world. That's coming up next. This is it. The punt to win the tournament. If you sink it, the championship is yours.

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NetSuite.com slash rich pod. You're hanging out with some friends and putting back a few drinks. A few becomes a few too many. As the evening comes to an end and people start to head out, you think of calling for a ride. Ah, you live nearby. You can make it home okay.

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It only takes one mistake to change your life or someone else's forever. Drive sober or get pulled over. Paid for by NHTSA.

John Ridley here on the Rich Eisen Show. Welcome to come to the house. If you call in advance and I don't happen to be there, then you're welcome to come. Careful. Careful people.

Hear that on the ropes of General and Miss Terrestrial Radio, Philip. Again, I want to limit that. They might want to see your Academy Award.

They might want to see everything that you've done. But here's the thing, Rich. If you came to my house, you would not see an Oscar. You would not see film posters.

You would not see any awards. I really, and I sincerely believe whatever I did yesterday was yesterday. You got to look forward. You got to look to the future. What you would see, though, is you would see this. And I came in and I was kind of kidding on the square when I said that's sort of my Super Bowl trophy. That's sort of everything to me.

And again, for the Terrestrial Radio audience that just joined us here again, you brought us what? You brought us a character that you have created in the DC universe, correct? This is a character that I would say co-created because you certainly work with the artist. And this is based on an artist I work with, Olivier Coppell, who's one of the best.

And he is based on a character that existed in the DC universe, but not as he is. By the way, can I just say, as I speak to you and I see the best dad ever, while you're putting a toy together for me, I just feel like it's Christmas morning. I love it. Okay, so here we go. So that's Jace Fox. Jace Fox. He's leaping down from a window being heroic, a character I had the opportunity to work with and create.

And there he is. I think you might want to flip the base. Flip the base? Well, lift him out. Okay. Lift Jace out.

You have the base behind. No, be very careful, Rich. There are only about 500 of those in existence. No kidding. No kidding. So it's like this? Like that. And there we go.

Jace Fox, DC universe, leaping down on the Rich Eisen show. This is great. This may be, I may be retiring right here. This is going to be, I'm just going to leave it right here for the rest of this conversation. That's really good. What does it mean that you've created? I mean, honestly, let's start into it. What got you into comics at the beginning?

Graphic novels and things of that nature? My father was a doctor. My parents are both still with us.

God bless them. My father was a doctor, US military, Air Force, guy growing up, civil rights era, accomplished, accomplished, accomplished. Mother's a teacher. I didn't like to read. My grades, Rich, no kidding.

I mean, were garbage. And one day there's this thing lying there. It's a comic book.

I pick it up. I start going, oh my God, people flying around, got powers doing things. I said, I want to read this.

And my parents were like, we'll buy you every comic book you want. You got to read it. And if you find a word that you don't understand, don't ask us.

You go look that word up. From there on, that was, you know, I don't want to be flipping, but that was my, that was my thing. That was, you know, that's what allowed your coin to drop my coin to drop pretty much.

My head to blow up. And the late great John Singleton, director of boys in the hood, many, many great films. I had the opportunity to know him. And we had a similar experience. One of the things about comic books, it's the sequential art. So it's panel to panel to panel to panel. And when you become a director, that's basically what you're doing.

It's panel to panel to panel to panel. So not only was it literally helped my education. It also prepared me for another career that I didn't even know that I was going to have to how to communicate, how to create, how to explain things to folks and how to put images together in a way that an audience will go, okay, I get it. I get it. I get it. I get it. So that was really, so that's when you first got into it again. John Ridley here on the Rich Eisen Show.

We'll talk about your Packers in a second. You know, you've got an Oscar for best writing, adapted screenplay, 12 years of slave and you know, Emmy nominations for that great American crime show that you came on a few years ago to promote. So why get back into that world? Why get into this world at your stage of your career to start writing and creating characters like this and stories like the ones that you're creating right now? Two reasons. One, and I don't want to bag on the things that I do in Hollywood, but there's a lot of, there's a lot of things between what you want to accomplish. You know, it's always, it's about the money. It's about who do you attract? It's about is this an idea?

Does it seem viable? All those kinds of things. It's a lot of work to get to the point where it's just a yes. And I appreciate that. I understand that that's where you're going. There's not much John, thank you for coming in. We're going to clock and we're going to get back to you on that.

It's always great to see you. You should just terrific. You should write a movie or show called we'll get back to you. We'll get back to you on that.

Oh man, I could go on and can I take one little tributary really quickly just because you brought a pitch meeting and I got to give a shout out there. There's a guy on the internet, Ryan George. I actually, this was not planned. Okay, great. But his, there's one reason to have the internet in existence at all. He does a thing called Hollywood pitch meeting.

Okay. And he goes through, he'll take a film that just came out, like, whatever, pick something, you know, black Adam or whatever, or avatars coming out. And he will basically go through what that pitch meeting must've been like to get it on the air. And he's got this catchphrase, you know, super easy, barely an inconvenience. So when you get to that big moment in a film where you know, it's supposed to be, this is the buildup and it's going to be so hard for the hero.

And he goes, no, actually it'd be super easy, barely an inconvenience. And you go through why that never should, you know, whatever the hero did, even in Hollywood, that should not have happened. So I actually, I'm glad I got to actually give this dude a shout out because he's the funniest, most charming dude on the internet and takes the piss out of what we do in Hollywood on a daily basis. But I will say this back to your question about why do this. When you go to the cons, when you go out in public and you see the fans of all stripes, when you say cons, you mean comic cons, when you're out there, you know, when the fan gatherings and those kinds of things, all of them are terrific fans and their passion, whether they love it or they hate it, it just, it energizes you. But I will say this to be able to go out to kids of color.

You know, when I was growing up, I hate to say, well, I don't hate to say, it's the truth. It's not like you saw a lot of people of varying backgrounds doing the heroic things, having the opportunity to inject that wish fulfillment to everybody irrespective of what your background is, where you come from and what you're about. So to be able to bring characters of color, and I have to do something really quick because I work for several corporate masters. We're finishing up our Black Panther run, which you want to talk about your head exploding, to be able to write a series like Black Panther with T'Challa about black excellence and spend the last year and a half.

So this is the second collection of our 15 issue arc that's coming out and that's wrapping up this year. You know, you ask a very, a very good question. Why, you know, people would look at, oh, you get to do movies and you get to do TV and hang out with real stars. Why would you do comic books?

Why would you not? These are the stories that we tell. This is our mythology.

This is what people want to see. And to even occupy that much real estate in this space and then have people say, you know what, we need to create toys. We need to have objects. You know, it doesn't do anything.

There's no electronics. You look at it and I look at it from a distance and I go, I made it. You certainly have.

I've made it. And it's great to be here and to share, you know, and I know Kirk Cousins was on and he wanted to have comic books. And I just want to say to Kirk, keep keep batting, man.

Keep going out there and doing it. And you'll get a plastic toy. Careful. He's coming to Lambeau Field in week 17, John. We'll talk and I'll talk as a fan about the Packers and then I'll talk as a real person. As a fan, I'm looking forward to that Super Bowl celebration. It's going to be amazing. The Packers Super Bowl celebration.

This year's Packers Super Bowl celebration. Yeah. And I'll tell you why.

And I'll tell you what the difference is. Yes, sir. You have years with, you know, we had the relax, you had run the table. Yes. They did that. They get into the playoffs with a red hot team. Yes. Firing on all cylinders.

Right. And then San Francisco comes in and says, you know what, we're just going to bring our special teams. We're not going to bring offense. We're not going to bring defense. We're just going to block some kicks, return some punts.

Yes. Score 12 points and then and then move on. Or you have a year like the Seattle where Seattle decided we're not even gonna play by the rules of football. We're not going to do anything that anybody has seen before.

And we're going to walk away with it. So I think sometimes if you're not tested. Yes. Do you know what I mean? I do.

So you say all of that experience will come into to bear. Now what about the human being outside of the fandom? Oh, we'll be done next week.

Tula's got the fastest release in the game. I know, right? They got guys. You can't even, you know, you're still looking at this into the field and they're doing their end zone dances. That's my concern is that even if you defense them, even even if you come close to, you know, def, defencing them well enough and they, they could still put up what, 28. And I don't know the last time the Packers put up 28. I mean, it was against the Eagles a few weeks ago, but, um, if you go into Buffalo on a cold snowy day and people are literally, you know, they're throwing snowballs and I'm like, where's security? And it comes down to, you know, whatever, a kick or, or a last second, amazing throw from one of the best quarterbacks in the game right now.

Yes. Certainly this is the year that we've seen anything can happen. No team is out of it. Um, it's ridiculous.

All the narratives this year, every one of them, the good ones and some of the ones that are painful in the NFL. This has been a year. I mean, you, you've, you know, this game better than I do. I've never seen anything. It's been amazing in this place.

It's been amazing in this past weekend was truly remarkable. John Ridley here on the rich eyes and show. So let's combine the two conversations we just had. If you could write a comic book character based on an NFL quarterback, who would it be? You can start an existing current NFL quarterback right now in 2022, you could write a comic book based on their abilities, character, you know, traits.

Who would it be? Patrick Holmes, hands down, hands down, no disrespect to the pack. I love the Packers. Yes. Um, but he, to me, everything about that, that young man and everything, his personal narrative, what he does that no look pass. He did last week or a couple of weekends ago where he's the, where I, he, he does, you know, he, to me is the, is the magic Johnson of, of football. And there are a lot of great, uh, you know, technicians that, you know, Tom Brady to me, and this is not a dig at Tom Brady, obviously one of the greats, but you know, he's a great pocket pastor.

Yes. You know, it, it, it, he's great and he wins, but it's not necessarily maybe the most exciting, uh, highlight tape. You have guys like Lamar Jackson, whose highlight tapes are amazing.

And this guy is like, Lamar is probably like the total quarterback running, passing and all that. I just think Patrick, he's magical. He's delightful.

Um, I will say with a little bias and, and I just point to Sylvia, my publicist is I only know people because my wife knows everybody. Welcome to the club. Welcome to the club, sir. Last year when they played the game, when it was a chief's Packers, uh, and Aaron wasn't able to play because he had his, uh, the, the COVID issue.

Yes. I find myself sitting in, um, the, uh, the, the coach's house, Kansas city and Andy Reed, Andy Reed's house with Mrs. Reed, who is one of the most lovely human beings you will ever meet before the game because of my wife and Mrs. Reed very nicely scolding me. Now, John, you're not going to be cheering for the Packers today.

I know Mrs. Reed, I will not be cheering for the Packers today, but I'm sitting there like, what? So I just knowing the organization, knowing people around it, I don't, I've never met Patrick Holmes, but he seems like a wonderful guy and just how he plays and how he represents. And to me, representation is really, just like, how does you look at that and not just smile?

Right. The other thing, and I will say this, he looks like my kids. He looks like my two incredibly handsome young men. I would love, I mean, look, I, I would, I would tons of people out there. I'd love for my, my kids to meet, but there's something about that guy that you just go, if I were going to write a, a story, if I were going to take a character, if it was a dude, I was going to spend a, dude, I was going to spend a day with right now. I mean, you know, I very seriously, I loved listening to Kirk cousins and his humility, talking about the game, talking about the tough times don't last, but the tough people do you love hearing things like that. Well, your timing may be off because I think our one shit to meet Patrick Holmes for our guests, which is used by Henry Winkler, uh, this, the last couple of weeks, you know, that we made that happen.

But I mean, I mean, Patrick might give us one more shot at it. Well, when we Winkler is the other nicest guy, you know, so you've got the two nicest guys creating, you know, super power, wonder twin power activated. Yes. Form of happiness. The nicest person ever. So I, but you know what I have a feeling sometimes that's funny.

You put the, listen to me, you know, sitting in Andy Reid's house before a game. Yes. Do you know what I mean? I'm happy being the dude who's like a one step removed from, you know, the actual good stuff that's happening in the world. I love it.

I love it. So you were at that Packer chiefs game. So I imagine you had better seats than Jordan Love's family on that day. Cause I don't know if you saw they were in the last row of the stadium.

That's sad. Cause we, we were not, we certainly went on the first row, but we weren't in the last row. You're John Ridley. I'm Mr. Gail Ridley. Gail Ridley's plus one.

Gail Ridley's plus one. You were on that day. You were on that day. Before I let you go, I know you handed TJ a special gift, right? It's here for you. Okay.

Right there. The Black Panther. But TJ, in honor of you being here, what, what t-shirt are you wearing? I just broke out of Martin. Well, let me move the hair out.

You want to explain to people why TJ would break out a Martin t-shirt? That right there is, that was my break into Hollywood. That was the first show that I ever worked on.

I have to give a shout out. The showrunner on that show. One of the greatest guys. And I will say very sadly, he passed this year, John Bowman. People talk about being progressive in Hollywood. I will say there's a lot of lip service to being progressive in Hollywood.

It annoys me sometimes. John Bowman, he, he, he walked the walk and he gave me not just an opportunity, he gave me a lot of opportunities. He was a great, great man. And not only did it give me an opportunity to work, he introduced me to my wife, which is the reason I get to say, I got to sit in Andy Reid's house. So you met your wife on Martin. I met my wife on the Martin show.

And let me tell you something. I was the, I was the geek. I was the guy, you know, standing in the corner. My wife who you met, you may not remember one of the most handsome, sweetest individuals in the world. I'm on the show.

She, she decided she wants to like me. I mean, I go figure, go figure. But yeah, we're in that shirt. That's my entire life. The interesting thing between your shirt there and that there, that's the, the complete continuum from this very moment to that moment. This is, this is like a mini doc on John. Slice this up. It's like a three for three, you know, 30 minutes. But, um, but you got a good Martin story.

What do you got for me? Well, I mean, again, I mean, a lot of what you've done is, uh, very serious. I mean, you have some very serious credits and about some very serious subjects.

Yes. Um, so you were a comedy writer at the very beginning. I was a comedy writer. I was actually a standup comedian for, for a little bit.

Here's my one thing that's going to bring it all together on the Martin show. When we first scripts I wrote, I got to write a joke. There was a, uh, an athlete. Do you remember a guy Randall Cunningham? He guessed it on the show and it was a show. I was, it was an episode that I was writing and in the secret of Hollywood and especially in comedies, there are a lot of writers in the room, but your name goes on it.

But I got to write a joke for Randall Cunningham. Do you remember what it was? Something about he was coming in, he was entering a party that Martin was having and there was something about him moving. It was like, oh, Randall Cunningham, he moves great, but he like couldn't dance. He was bumping into furniture when he was dancing or something. So the guy was at that time, you know, one of the great mobile quarterbacks probably began that era of truly great mobile quarterback.

Jalen Hurts is just only carrying the mantle that he first started. Yes. Yes. So to write a joke for the, and people turn into you go, oh, you got to write a joke for Randall Cunningham at that time. I think that predated. So my introduction to really football was, you know, the, the, the, the Brett Favre era. So that was the late nineties.

I was writing on the Martin show in the early nineties. So at that time I didn't really know football. So they turned to me, you got to write a joke for Randall Cunningham.

I'm going to get on that. They didn't have Google back then. So I'm like Randall Cunningham, Randall, he would be anybody here. Like I said, I was a geek. So fortunately, you know, my wife, she filled in for God bless her. Do you know who Randall Cunningham is? Yes. Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh. I know I'm feeling the, what was the name of the episode? Can you look that up? I just remember there was a party and Randall was talking to the Jerome.

Yeah. Cause Jerome, Romy Rome came up and he asked Randall a question, which I can't remember, but I do remember that it was in the episode as well. It was a party at Pam's house. I remember that's a hell of a part. Oh, well don't mess with him.

Don't mess with him. So seriously, I know Martin, you know, well, you don't want more than that. I mean, episode was called no love lost from 1994. 1994 is the weight. Is that the right, is that the opposite of 1994? I was in the business in 94. It aired May 1st, 1994.

There you go. So you must've written it like maybe late 93 season two of Martin. Yeah, that was the season I was on most definitely season two, 94. That's when things were kicking off that young man that there was something waiting for him.

So the one line here, description at IMDb Martin and Gina are so busy arguing that they miss Pam's engagement party for them. And wildness ensues by John Ridley. And when you get to, when you're intelligent too, it's sort of, that's your pitch. Like, oh, you got to do a party thing and make some wildness ensue. Okay, I guess I'll go right there.

Snoop Dogg was on it and John Grease from, we just saw on White Lotus. How about that? Oh yeah, cause he's Sean. So. Well, congratulations on the latest iteration of your comic book series. GCPD The Blue Wall number three available today wherever you get your comic books.

John Ridley, it's been way too long. Let's do this more often. Thank you for bringing gifts.

This is now going to have a very special place in our studio. One quick question. Should the Packers win the Superbowl? Am I allowed to come back? You're allowed to come back. You're allowed to come back whenever, but in that particular instance, especially so.

I cannot wait to see you all. Especially. I love that the fan says we're going to, it's this, this Superbowl party is going to be amazing. And then the realist isn't like, we're, we're, we're done in about six weeks. I love that. You got to act, the fan has to believe your team always is going to win or else why are we wasting time watching these games? People get mad about me cheering for the Cowboys, but it's like, you got to love your team. You got to be fanatical.

Fan is exactly the root of fanatic. That is correct. That is, that is correct. John Ridley, thanks for coming in here. My pleasure. Thank you. And thanks to everybody.

John Ridley, everyone here on The Rich Eisen Show, we will be back to wrap up this show in a moment. Back here on The Rich Eisen Show, our friends at NetSuite want to make sure you get your numbers in front of you, that you have the visibility over the numbers for your business in front of you. Because if you have poor visibility, because you are relying on spreadsheets and outdated finance software, you are not seeing the full picture to do that. You need to upgrade to NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud financial system to power your growth with visibility and control of your financials, inventory, HR, planning, budgeting, and more. NetSuite is everything you need to grow all in one place. 93% of survey businesses increase their visibility and control after upgrading to NetSuite. That's why over 32,000 businesses already use NetSuite. For the new year, NetSuite is a new financing program for those ready to upgrade at netsuite.com slash rich radio head to netsuite.com slash rich radio for this special one of a kind financing offer on the number one financial system for growing businesses.

netsuite.com slash rich radio. What a fun chat right there, huh? Yeah, that was awesome. John Ridley, this is a beautiful piece of comic art, don't you think? Yeah. Right there. I love the cape just like just flowing. It is great.

So we're going to put it over by TJ because your spot. Stuff breaks. How many, like, we've had like two bobbleheads break, right? Yeah, the, um, the shooter McGavin bobblehead is, has been broken into a thousand pieces, right? Um, didn't we also had his own bobblehead get knocked off and broke? When did he have his own bobblehead? He got it from NFL back in the day, but that broke. The NFL did not give Del Tufo his own bobblehead. Are you sure? When you say the NFL gave Del Tufo his own bobblehead, made the NFL network took money from its budget to make a bobblehead doll for Mike Del Tufo.

There was a planet earth we're talking about. It was like an awards program. And if you were like, whatever you won, they made a bobblehead of you. Oh, okay.

And I think he was like the commissioner's award or something like that, either that or like an employee of the month type thing. And like, he got it. I mean, that sounds believable.

That's believable, but just like, Hey Mike, here's a bobblehead. We made you. That's not what happened. I think you won something. That broke once.

And then there was Brock Meyer, Jim Brock Meyer, I think has fallen. Okay. So we're going to bottom line. It's, it's established that side of the room is safe danger. We're crowded.

As you can tell, TJ has a more civilized portion of the Rich Eisen show. It's just stable. You know, nothing gets knocked over. Okay.

So that's not true. I mean, I've, I've, I've started the show many times and I've heard stuff falling all over the place. Like literally I jumped. That was one time. But we're gonna, we're gonna place our newest bobble in your area. As soon as I said that I knew he was going to bring that up. The one time everything fell. Am I that predictable?

Am I really that predictable? Well, I mean, you know, Rich, if you had to pick one right now, who comes out of the AFC bills? 34%. Is that right? Chiefs 31%. Bengals 24%. The field 10%.

10% just the field, huh? So nobody believes in Jaguars, Titans, or any of the wildcard teams. Dolphins. None of the wildcard teams. Ravens. Nope.

Huh. Big three. 90% big three. I mean, we would say, I would even put out a poll like which, you know, who's coming out of the wildcard, out of the NFC.

But you already know the answer. It would be Eagles, Niners, Vikings, and then the field. So taking the top three in the field, you throw the Cowboys in the field. I mean, we are in the field.

We're not going to win the division. Tom Brady might be in the field, Chris. Oh, I was just going to do Niners, Eagles.

Let me tell you something. The rest of the NFC, I'm going to say this. Niners, Eagles. I'm going to say this.

Hold on a second. I'm going to say this. Rest of the NFC, best hope that Carolina wins that division.

Wins that division. I'm just saying, man. What, what? You think the Bucks have some magic left? The Bucks have some magic left.

Yes. Stop it. Come on, man. The Bucks, if they make it, will show up on a home, excuse me. And lose by 17. On the day it happens, the it being the Bucks host a playoff game. And get run off the field. The host a playoff game.

And let's just say lead it after one quarter and they're in it in the second quarter. You think, you think they're going to get run off, right? I do.

I do. They're not, they're not. They're problems.

They're not very good. That they're problems that they went through all year long and still by the grace of the football gods to place them in the ultimate real estate ultimate real estate of location, location, location, location. This year's NFC South. You're still fine with it. Dallas is so much better than them.

Let me now turn to the man whose heart will be in his throat. You're rooting for the Carolina Panthers, aren't you? I mean, you gotta be. Yeah. I don't want to see Tom Brady. Period. Period.

End of story. I don't want to see Tom Brady. This isn't even like last year, Tom Brady.

Yeah. But you know, ask, ask, ask the Rams in the last seconds of their game. If that was less, it's not even last year's Tom Brady.

What do you mean? Ask the Rams who lost to last year's Tom Brady in the final seconds of that game, right? This year's New Orleans saints.

If it was last year's Tom Brady, they would have swept him. Look, I love sleeping. Keep sleeping. I love the Cowboys obviously. And my job here is to hype up the Cowboys and be super fan, which annoys people. But if I'm going to be John Ridley, the fan is going to tell you, yeah, Dallas is going to win.

The human being is going to be like, I don't want to see them. I love Tom Brady. The Bucks stink. I saw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with my own two eyes in Germany. And that team that showed up to Allianz arena on that day might have, might not have passed through customs. I agree. I agree with the exception of the final drive against the Rams and then drives against the saints. That team has not shown up or the first half against the Bengals.

They have not shown up in a full, complete 60 minute contest. I agree with you, but the team's still there. This team is still in that locker room and that team I'm, I'm not keeping the faith. I'm just spitting truth that we could say as much as we want about Brady's future and this team, this and that team, that and Todd Bowles is not this and he should be that. And all of that, that if the Bucks win the division and host the playoff game and the Cowboys come to town, the whole country sitting in front of the television sets, and you can't tell me and you can't tell me that the Bucks can't show up like Munich and win that game. You can't.

And you know what? Deep down in your, in your bones, you can't say it. You can't say it. Well, I bet against Tom Brady.

No, but I think that's why I'm saying the rest of the NFC, especially the Dallas Cowboys should be rooting for the Carolina Panthers. All I'm saying, all I'm saying, and that's how we wrap up this Tuesday show. Oh, baby. How wrestling really works and how you get the ratings. Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson explain on 83 weeks. You're either growing or you're dying. I think it'd be hard to recreate the this audio should be growing. The character should be coming more and they're not. Everybody's gradually losing audience. Not that people will say, well, but AEW is 15% ahead of where they were last year, but there's variables there. Let's see where we're at year from now. 83 weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.