REShow: Rich Eisen (on the road) - Hour 1

This is the Rich Eisen Show with guest host, Tom Pelissero.

The greatest comeback! When they scored to make it 36 to 14, I turned to Scott Landy, who was my spotter, and said, they're going to win this game. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

Don't ask me for betting advice brought from priorities. I mean, Tom, that would have been super nice to get that text. Today's guest, Michigan quarterback, J.J. McCarthy, Illinois head coach, Brett Villema, Colts interim head coach, Jeff Saturday. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Tom Pelissero. Welcome inside to another Rich Eisen-less edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Though, fair to say, Rich wants to make an appearance today. Yeah. He will. It is Festivus. He's got some grievances to air.

Yeah, I've got a lot of problems with you people. Based upon what we saw last night. Thank you for watching us on Roku, listening on Sirius XM, listening on Odyssey, the app, Odyssey.com, following us on Instagram, following on YouTube, everywhere else. And thank you for making it through that game last night.

We talked yesterday about how about this. And Mike Garofolo was on, said, you know, you looked at the schedule and said, why in the world would anybody schedule this game three days before Christmas? And now it's suddenly, it's relevant and they're both in the playoff mix.

Then you tune in and, well, a Jets-Jaguars game broke out. Let's start on the positive. OK. All right. It's the holiday season. Yes.

Plenty of time to air the grievances later. Credit to the Jaguars. You are watching the cultural shift there, the belief with Doug Peterson. You watch Trevor Lawrence.

It's not just the long, flowing locks. Like he's so cool and collected on the sideline, enjoying himself. It's a driving, it's weird weather. It's in the 50s, but it's like sideways rain every time that you're watching.

And the guy just goes out and operates and makes things happen. The Jaguars now a half game back of a Titans team that will be starting a rookie third string quarterback this weekend against the Texans in Malik Willis. You may well be looking at a Jaguars team that is playing in the postseason for the first time in five years.

Wow. I was down there when they faced the Giants back in October, and it was one of those like every Giants game early in the season, just a complete cluster at the end. And somehow the Giants come out on top of it. And I talked to Doug Peterson before that game, and he was just saying, this is such a young team. All we're trying to do is just get them to finish. We've just got to be able to finish these games. I know that we've got talent. We got a lot of young players. We got a young quarterback.

There's a lot of positive signs here. We just got to find a way. And they've done that over the past month here to put themselves in in playoff position. And then you've got the Jets. When you've got we want Flacco chance breaking out, we want Flacco.

And then you don't even get Flacco. Nothing against Joe. This is not a good sign for the state of everything happening in New York. And I'm not going to jump on the train of this is it for Zach Wilson.

And it's a disaster as careers over, because I think that we can be prisoners of the moment in these things a lot of the time. He's a young quarterback. He's 23 years old.

He's he's trying to figure it out. I went back last night and read the quarterback piece that I always write before every draft. I write it usually before the combine before the draft about the questions about the quarterbacks.

Then just everything good and bad. What all the coaches and GM's are telling me prior to the draft. Here was one passage that stuck with me. Then there's Wilson's ability to connect with NFL teammates who surely can get on board with their new QB's edge boy band looks and swagger. As long as Wilson's dealing in their winning games.

One executive described it last month as a little bit of Baker Mayfield syndrome, where you like the edge to a point, it's just whether or not you can control it and toe the line. Others compare Zach Wilson to Russell Wilson, a seven time Pro Bowl pick and Super Bowl champion whose relationship with the Seahawks has become strained after nearly a decade in Seattle with his personal brand growing beyond football. There's no spotlight like New York where the Jets own the number two pick. If Zach Wilson stays healthy, he has the talent to be a superstar. And that is not based on my opinion.

I don't watch 10 seconds of tape. I just talked to the people who are in it. This was not Joe Douglas and Robert Sala and the Jets organization out on a limb on Zach Wilson to a man. When I talked to coaches and scouts within the league, everybody had in some order. Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson is one, two in that draft. There was a lot that Zach Wilson put on tape in his last year at BYU that you said we can work with this.

Mechanics were a little bit different. Everything's kind of a trick shot, but he had honed it to the point. And he was such has such high work ethic, still does.

He works, works his tail off, but sometimes that can be to your detriment. And when you watch Zach Wilson in that game last night, I don't know that I've seen any other quarterback this year who everything seems to happen late. Yeah, it's a check down.

He'll get to that. But there were a handful of balls last night where he's just standing in the pocket and then throwing up a prayer into coverage like you're playing a Thanksgiving Day game against your cousins. Just they're not they're not NFL plays. They're not within the structure of the offense. This is a rhythm timing tempo offense.

He did a lot of that stuff at BYU. And yeah, the elements last night, you got no run game. You've got a lot of challenging factors, but this is not the guy right now that the Jets thought that they were getting. Robert Sala was already back on the podium this morning talking about his quarterback situation. Let's play a little bit of that right now. Robert, if Mike's not cleared, are you prepared to go to Zach in Seattle? Again, we got we got time, Al.

I'm I don't I don't have those answers for you yet. Is Zach's biggest problem physical or mental right now in your opinion? I think confidence, you know, for Zach once and it doesn't take long to flip. He just needs a string of a good string of consecutive games, quarters, plays of putting together good football.

And and once you get in a groove, it just everything just starts clicking and moving faster. And that goes back to what I wrote and what I was being told before the draft, like you look at Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield had some really good stretches. They're different guys, different personalities, different players. When Baker was hot in 2020 and the Browns are going to the playoffs and winning their first playoff game in decades, you got on board Baker Mayfield.

Then suddenly things go sideways a little bit and it seems like it all falls apart. When you are a lightning rod type of a player, it just changes the entire context of everything about you. And Zach Wilson, again, different personality. He's not salty.

He doesn't have that same chip on his shoulder like Baker. But you're playing in New York, you're playing on the biggest stage possible. And you've got a fan base that based on everything they've seen, especially at the quarterback position over the last decade or so, is just waiting for you to throw an incompletion and start booing you. And by the way, the crowd shots last night of everybody wearing like the garbage bags.

You have a group that is just asking, please let us be angry about the situation. Who is showing up at that point? I get it. I appreciate the fans who do it.

You would have to pay me a lot to show up in that weather and watch what took place last night. I also think that the Jets right now are a perfect example of what I always say, which is one of the most dangerous things that can happen to an NFL organization is winning before you're ready to win. Because if you pulled Jets fans going into this season and you said, Jets are going to end up like 9-8, 8-9, nobody's happy, I'm sure you want to go to the playoffs, but you're like, OK, that's growth.

That means our young guys were probably pretty good. Everything about how Joe Douglas and Robert Sola have built this thing has really been about a three year plan. It's been about 2023.

That's when this group is going to be ready to win. I talked to Robert Sola like a month ago and he was referring to him as the baby Jets. Look at the ages.

All right. If you're talking about your young core right on the Jets, like the guys you're going to build on, even set aside 23 year old Zach Wilson, Breece Hall, who's on injured reserve, and that injury was one of the biggest factors. Certainly, if you look at the timeline here in the Jets not being the same offensively, Breece Hall's 22, Sauce Gardner, who is probably going to be the runaway winner for Defensive Rookie of the Year.

He was in my poll of GMs this week. He's 22. Elijah Moore's 22 and still a Jet. Garrett Wilson might possibly be the Offensive Rookie of the Year. He's 22.

Elijah Vera Tucker, another really important player. Super versatile young offensive lineman. He's 23. Michael Carter's 23. Quinnen Williams is one of the dominant interior defensive linemen in the whole league and is going to get paid sooner than later.

He's 25. This was never about 2022, but when you start out 7 and 4, it's a lot different than if you just went win-loss, win-loss, win-loss, win-loss over the whole season and you get to the end and go, okay, we're building off of this. And that's where, whether it's the media, whether it's fans, whether it is, quite frankly, ownership that's assessing everything, where you can get yourself into trouble is when you start judging it off of, well, we're not improving.

We're not getting better. The Jets had a really hard schedule over the last month. They played the Vikings in Minnesota, took them to the brink. They played the Bills in Buffalo. That was a close game.

Obviously did not generate enough offensively. Mike White was getting the hell beat out of them, somehow stayed in the game. They faced the Lions team, one of the hottest teams in football. And then you face the Jaguars at probably the wrong time.

Last night was the first time you did not look at them as being a competitive team. And the quarterback was a huge part of that. They then roll in Tim Tebow Jr., Chris Strevler.

He looks like him. The offense kind of operates the same, which is don't let him throw the ball over four yards down the field here. If he hits CJ Uzama in stride, CJ Uzama has only been 20 yards of him. If Strevler just gets the ball out there, that's a touchdown and maybe it flips the whole game. Other than that, it was, okay, we're going to run quarterback draw left. We're going to run power right.

Just keep it on the ground, do whatever you can. He's even wearing the same number as Tebow? I don't think Tebow had a sleeve like that, right?

No. No tats. No ink for Tebow. I thought the same thing. It was nice to see Salah reach into the depths of the drawer in his office and find Rex Ryan's Tebow package that never got used. Remember when Tebow joined, Rex? I got a package for Tebow, do ya? Robert Salah found it, used it for this guy I'd never heard of. You'd never heard of this guy.

Be honest, Tom. Chris Strevler? Never heard of him. CFL legend. Winnipeg Blue Bombers won the Grey Cup, was shirtless in the parade wearing like a fur vest.

You've never seen that video? That's why you're an NFL Network insider. He's a legend. He played well in the preseason too. They cut him, brought him back on the practice court. They've had this package of plays in for like two months for him.

They just hadn't really had the occasion to go to it. They actually elevated Strevler the first time they played the Patriots and then didn't use him at all. Didn't even have him active and at that time it looked like it was strictly to mess with Belichick and just make him think about something that they weren't actually going to do. This time, they bring him up, they end up having to put him in the game because you're just at that point trying to find something.

Trying to find some kind of spark. But when you, yeah, when you bench the number two pick again, it just raises all types of questions about where this thing is headed going forward. And I know that Robert Saul also said today, playoffs is far-fetched.

That's fair. They're not mathematically eliminated, but they need pretty much everything to go their way. And they've got to beat a Seahawks team next week that's in the thick of things in the NFC playoff race. I do anticipate that the NFL slate this weekend is going to improve. We've got a ton of other games to talk about here over the next three hours on this show. We got Saints-Browns. Doesn't sound like a great game on paper, but two teams that are in it. The Browns are hanging around. They're making incremental improvement with Deshaun Watson. The Saints are a game back in the weirdest division that I can remember in quite some time, the NFC South.

I have no idea. I have no idea what's going to happen there. I don't bet against Tom Brady if he gets into the playoffs, but you watch the Bucks the past few weeks. Are they showing up? Is that a team that you're even going to see in January? You got the Seahawks at Chiefs game. Again, Seattle in the thick of it. They've had their most recent slide. Another team. If you're evaluating the Seahawks right now, are you evaluating the fact that over the past month they have not been winning like they were early on? Or are you going, everyone predicted them to go 3 and 14, and here they are at Christmas time, still in the playoff chase. You got a Bengals at Patriots game. What's the line on that, Brockman? The Bengals are only three-point favorites in New England.

That's weird. They're betting on Bill Belichick to grind this thing to a halt, to complicate things offensively. The Bengals didn't run it really well last week either. They're kind of in and out on that.

That might be a factor in that one. Lions at Panthers. Again, games you didn't think would be relevant back in September.

Extremely relevant now. Lions are one of the hottest teams in football. You got Falcons at Ravens.

Commanders at 49ers. They have to win. Another quarterback situation to watch. Ron Rivera opened that door this week. Is it going to be Taylor Heineke the rest of the way? Could we see Carson Wentz potentially on the field again?

Eagles at Cowboys. Another backup quarterback situation there with Gardner Minshew going out, but is there ever a time that you're like, I don't want to watch Gardner Minshew? You're always kind of interested. Oh yeah. Don't really know what it's going to look like.

Ton of weapons around him. Best team Gardner Minshew's ever been on. You can beat the Cowboys with your backup quarterback. That's definitely one that Eagles fans are going to remember. And then obviously Steelers-Raiders. The game that Rich is going to be calling on Saturday night. Two teams that are on the brink. These are all elimination games.

A lot of the ones I just mentioned. Both teams. It's kind of an elimination type of a scenario right now.

I'm interested to see it. The Raiders are not a bad team. They're not. Whatever the record says, they're 6-8. You let that many big leads slip away, you're still building those leads. They're trying to figure out how are they going to win, doing things new with Josh McDaniels. You've got to leapfrog the Patriots. You've still got to leapfrog the Jets. You've got to hope the Chargers and or the Dolphins slip. Maybe the Ravens too? They're 9-5, but they're playing with Snoop Huntley, who solid backup quarterback.

They can function with him. He's not Lamar. And at this point, Lamar has missed nine consecutive practices. We don't know when he's going to be back. They thought he was going to have a good chance to be back this week against the Falcons. It didn't happen. We'll get into the entire week 16 slate when Rich joins us next.

And again, I would not recommend tuning away. I can only imagine, did Rich finish the game, what do you think, last night? Did he actually, it's later on the East Coast, or at some point is the laptop slammed shut and he is finished with the Jets? Did he see Triple Zero last night? No. No way.

Let's ask him. We're on the other side of this break. Also get the vibe in Pittsburgh.

Talk about the entire week 16 slate. Rich Eisen going to join us right after this on the Rich Eisen Show. Phone lines open as well. 844-204-RICH. 844-204-RICH. What do you say to Mike Hoskins in my ear?

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Tom Pellicero in for Rich Eisen, Rich joins us from Pittsburgh, next. 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. Nah, 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. Tom Pilacero back on the Rich Eisen Show and what do you know? We have the namesake of this show, Rich Eisen calling in.

Rich, we couldn't let this go. I know you're in Pittsburgh. You're going to be calling that Steelers Raiders game on Saturday night on NFL Network. But I wanted to start you off with a game.

You might have seen some of it last night. We were actually having a friendly wager in here on whether or not you made it to the end. How, as a noted Jets fan, are you feeling this morning? I made it to the end because Cooper, my youngest son, has Evan Ingram and also Trevor Lawrence in his fantasy playoff. And I wanted to see it to the end and see as many yards for Evan Ingram at the end for him. So I stayed to the end. Plus, you know, the Jets were struggle at Torrey and their offensive approach in the fourth quarter.

And I wanted to see how that was working, too. So it was it was quite something last night, Tom. And it's just. You know, I try, as you know, all year long, the guys know you guys know that I've been I've been saying it's not the same old Jets and the coach is different and the situation is different. And and how they have a bunch of lion hearted kids on the team who don't know the same old Jets mentality. But it's just so difficult to watch a four game losing streak materialize with a season looking so promising and and not think that it's very difficult to go there.

And I still don't want to go there because I see so many positives there. And once again, this is now a Jets season that we can do a postmortem on seven and eight. Sure, nine and eight is something that could put them in the mix. But the problem is the reality is that when you're seven and eight and there are two eight and six teams in front of you, along with a seven and 17, that's already swept you in front of you.

It's way too steep a climb. So it's now time for a postmortem. And and and the number one fact of this postmortem will be. And it's something that, Tom, I'm sure your ear will be to the ground on the minute the season ends, if not already, is what do the Jets do with Zach Wilson? How do you discard a number two overall selection?

Just what? Twenty two, twenty three starts into his career. How do you not let him develop? How do you not stick with him? How do you how do you admit if you want to cut your losses that you do that? What do you do with him? Where does he go? These are all questions that the Jets are going to face the minute the season ended.

And if not already. And and I have my own answers to those questions, obviously. I think that the biggest thing to me, Rich, is you evaluated Zach Wilson a certain way for a reason. And the Jets were not alone in that evaluation. There were a lot of coaches, a lot of scouts who loved the player.

They loved the tape. They had questions about the person and how his entire persona was going to work in New York. But I read an anonymous quote from my story before the draft earlier in the show just talking about if, in fact, he takes advantage of how good he is, he's got the opportunity to completely embrace that type of a spotlight.

The issue is when it goes the other way, it can go really hard the other way. And that's where I don't think that by any stretch you can discard his entire career at this point. But in terms of him having a path forward in New York and listen, Robert Solis said we haven't seen the last of him. You do have to wonder, is it so toxic surrounding him in that market that the Jets really don't even have a choice in terms of how they decide to proceed in 2023?

Well, I mean, the real answer is obviously it's toxic within the market. I mean, look, nothing is more difficult to swallow than the Jets on a Thursday night in their home closer on national television lose a game in the manner in which they lost it. By that I mean getting Quinnen Williams back, him immediately providing a takeaway and the Jets going for it out, losing three yards and kicking a field goal. And that's their only points of the night while the Jacksonville Jaguars come in with all their arrows pointing up. And the quarterback who is leading that charge is the guy that every single human in that building wanted the Jets to tank for two years ago. And the win for the Jaguars last night with Trevor Lawrence comes what? Brockman, you pointed out two days ago was the two year anniversary of that win in Los Angeles against the Rams that the Jets didn't need and shocked everyone coming up with.

Right. Was that it two days ago? So it's that's the difficult part to really swallow is that not only did Zach flop and you do have to point out the offense as a whole flopped that Lawrence was helped by a run game that Travis ETN led and also had some others supplying some rushing yards. And the Jets dynamite running back got cut down by an ACL injury back in week five.

And Elijah Vera Tucker alongside him as well. And so that's part of the evaluation here is that as a whole, but just offensive line in a crucial third quarter drive with Zach. The first running play was a loss of two and they got cold for holding. And from that deep hole, Zach Wilson got sacked.

So you got to put it all together. And so in terms of the fan base toxic in the market, that's asked and answered. I mean, for the Jets to throw Zach Wilson out there as their starting quarterback next year, they're going to have to be really confident that he has the skill set and the thick skin to handle it. And also that they've got the weaponry around him to go ahead and do that, because if he does start performing well, they're like, we're going to go into next year with the guys and gals. We're going in there. So get ready. And he performs well.

It'll be great. Then he's finally doing what he's supposed to do, which he could have done it last year when it did appear we had a championship defense all ready to go. But the question, the really the 60,000 million, whatever you want to call it, question is, is is he toxic within that locker room?

I don't know the answer to that. All I know is that Garrett Wilson's body language certainly indicates he'd like this guy to get the hell away from him. Elijah Moore, honestly like that.

Look at the body language. I mean, Elijah Moore wanted a trade. Wasn't being targeted. And then Mike White came and showed that you can be successful or efficient. Didn't come up with wins, but he was pretty damn good in Minnesota when they lost on the goal line. And then in Buffalo, him coming back, even though he got sawed in half, as I've been saying by Matt Milano, shows you that the locker room loves him.

I don't know. That's something for Thala and Joe Douglas to look at, certainly if Jimmy G pops free. And he is, as we all know, perfectly suited to run this offense and perfectly suited to take a team to the Super Bowl and perfectly suited to go into New England. So these are the questions for the Jets to answer. I mean, I'm not going to come in and gear and torch the joint, but it's a difficult pill to swallow against that team and that quarterback under these circumstances. Watching them leave with all the arrows pointing up and the Jets heading off to Seattle to face Geno Smith, more ghosts from the past, with their season.

I mean, you could say it's on the brink, but I think it's over. You also lead us right into what's going to be a fascinating quarterback offseason again here, Rich. You mentioned Jimmy Garoppolo, who is set to become a free agent, had another injury, played, of course, in that very similar system.

So it would be a natural fit. Tom Brady, we don't know. One hundred percent. As of a couple of weeks ago, all options were still on the table in terms of playing, going back to Tampa, going elsewhere, maybe retiring. Lamar is unsigned in Baltimore, second consecutive year. He is not available down the stretch as the Ravens see a once promising season, has not fully slipped away.

But it is beginning to. If you can't get a win this weekend against the Falcons, you've got the Daniel Jones situation with the Giants. Does he get tagged?

Is it a short term type of an extension? Baker Mayfield is a free agent. Gino Smith is a free agent. Taylor Heinecky is a free agent.

Andy Dalton, who, according to Pro Football Focus, is one of the highest rated passers in the NFL. He's also set to become a free agent. Ryan Tannehill has no guarantees left on his contract. Neither does Jared Goff, who's playing at a high level.

What happens? What do the Broncos do to fix Russell Wilson? There's so many questions and there's so many teams with unsettled situations. And obviously this, unlike this past year, is regarded as a stronger quarterback class in the draft. There are a lot of moving pieces here, Rich.

It's one thing to say and I understand where fans say it. Well, you just you've got to move on from Zach Wilson. OK, to what?

What are you bringing in? What are you going to do to actually solidify the situation on a team that, and I read off the ages earlier, the Jets have a really nice young core. It just appears at this point the guy that you're after number two overall to play the most important position is not playing like a number two overall pick.

No, I know. And there's more draft choices to come. And, you know, and you've talked about some fascinating situations, especially since Seattle has a very high draft choice, especially since Detroit will have a very high draft choice that these are teams that have questions right in front of them. Do they stick with their veteran or do they go young? And the Jets question is, do we stay with our young and see if he can develop or do we go better? And and that's the question. I don't know the answer to it. Mike, my immediate choice would be for the Jets to go get that generationally talented kid in the draft and have lightning strike and get a lottery ticket, just like Kansas City got, just like New England got years ago with Brady, just like the Chargers appear to have with Justin Herbert, if they can get their rest of their team together.

Like that's the preference. And I don't think that's going to be bestowed upon the Jets in this year's draft, although one never knows if the Niners are showing with the right system. All you need is the last pick in the draft.

So I the short answer is, I don't know. The concept of Derek Carr being available is fascinating to me, although we spoke to Josh McDaniels on a Zoom last night. And, you know, I mean, coaches will definitely in these production meetings give you a sense, give you a general sense of how they feel about something without saying the words. He really does like Derek Carr. I mean, he really does like what he says, his aggressiveness, that when he plays aggressive is when they perform very well. And he's also talking about how excited he is that Carr, you know, has this connection with Adams, who, by the way, I mean, talk about gushing. When he talked about Devante Adams, he went off the charts about him, you know, saying, you know, I've been with Moss, I've been with Gronk, this is exactly the same guy and Brady. So I think they kind of dig that they got Carr and Adams together and Waller. And, you know, now that Renfro is back, they do dig what they have there. I'm not so sure they're going to just pop him free. And let's go with 46 year old Tom Brady.

I didn't get that sense. You know, obviously there's so much between now and the moments we're talking about, combine and draft. But you do have to, for some teams, start putting these pieces together. And the Jets are, unfortunately, after having such a promising first half of the season, they're now in that position of how do they put the pieces together and sensing what's going to go on out there. And you do have to factor in as well that Jimmy G doesn't finish these on occasion.

So you've got to take those all into account. And maybe Mike White is the guy. I don't know. But it's going to be a fascinating off season, unfortunately, for the Jets and studs now the Friday before Christmas. Rich Eisen joining us on the Mercedes Benz Vans phone line from Pittsburgh. I believe you got some time around the Steelers as well.

Rich, how are we? It's obviously the 50th anniversary of the immaculate reception. Franco Harris just passing away. What's the just the mood and the vibe and then what you're hearing from the Steelers right now? Well, I got to I got to tell you, you know, after I hung up a phone with you guys yesterday, we met with the Steelers. And man, I'm telling you, Mike Tomlin is just my favorite. I love this guy. And any Steeler fan that has an issue with him, I remember I say it all the time on the show, if the Steelers ever. And it would be they're not going to ever cut ties with him.

He will be hired within 60 seconds. This guy is so attuned to his roster and his players and and how to coach them that they're, you know, they're. And his way of talking, you know, as well, I wrote a couple of his quotes down talking about how these guys, they're young. And, you know, it's been a challenging season about how young this team is, that there's a certain amount of hero. I wrote this down. He said there's a certain amount of misery developing young talent and units. Sometimes they've got to step in it to know that it stinks.

It's worth it. And I just, you know, and the way he says it to guys, he delivers it and he just looks at everyone in the eye as he says it. You know, in his philosophy about coaching, he's like, there's no secret sauce.

Just keep winning and then you don't put a real estate sign on your front lawn, you know, and it's just. At any rate, the reason why I bring this up is he told a story about Najee and Franco Harris having a very close relationship and how Najee. Last year in his rookie year, held a fundraiser and asked Tomlin to come with him because he's new to the fundraisers. You know, he's new to fundraising and being the guy in the room and making sure he's available to everybody. You know, I mean, it's a rookie campaign for everything on and off the field. But he reached out to Tomlin and asked Tomlin to come and be at his hip that night to basically help him.

You know, navigate the room and meet people and whatever and be there for him and just help him out. And Tomlin said, of course. And he goes. And he says about 15 minutes into the night, unannounced, Franco Harris and his wife walked in the room. And Franco wanted to be there for Najee on this night and was at his hip. Tomlin was on one hip that night and Franco was on the other hip that night to be there for Najee and walk around. And he stayed.

Till the very end. And the thing that he said about Franco, he said Franco was one of the sweetest guys and he was never in a hurry. He was always there for everyone in the room, wanted to meet everyone in the room, took pictures of everyone in the room, was there for everybody.

And was never in a hurry, which is obviously an interesting way to describe him, since he certainly was always in a hurry when he was running. It's just going to be a really emotional night, a moving night that that, you know, they showed the immaculate reception to the young players to let them know what it is. And by the way, McDaniel's did the same thing for the Raiders. So it's kind of a history lesson and a historic night and a celebration and a morning and a memorial all at once. Truly, nobody knows how it's going to go.

Nobody. And that's tomorrow night. It'll be on NFL Network and I'm looking at the updated weather forecast here, Rich, before we let you go. Currently calling for game time temperature 13 degrees, winds west-southwest at 15 mph, foggy until morning, starting again in the evening. So to add to your trying to stay warm, let's add a little bit of can you see the numbers through the fog tomorrow night? That'd be fun. Yeah, I know.

It'll be great. I have my own weather update. I'm looking at my phone right now for tomorrow night and it says just three words.

Cold ass night is what it says. You know, I think I need to update my phone. I don't know.

But different IOS than you maybe. Yeah, it is. It's one of those can't feel your face. It's all good.

It's all good. Irv's got a little bit of a back neck issue. He's questionable for the broadcast tomorrow night.

What happened to Irv? I don't know. I don't know.

The same thing happened in Munich. We're like, are you allergic to doing the games with us? Is that what it is?

Because I don't know. And Kurt's got the puffy jacket. He's got it working. Just don't go full Coughlin, Rich. You never go full Coughlin. Well, I mean, you know, first of all, I'm Jewish, so I don't know how my face looks.

I don't have the Coughlin in me. I don't have it. I don't know. But I'm going to be, oh, by the way, I'm reaching out to Primanti Brothers later on today. Oh, is that happening? I want to get this sandwich next.

Let's go. I don't know. It's all fluid. It's all fluid. But the Rich Eisen Show sandwich, right?

Which is, what is it again? Chicken parm and slaw and fries? Yeah, slaw, fries, chicken parm, some spice, you know, sauce, all the good stuff. Alright, I'll let you know. DJ, you going to make it? DJ, you going to make it tomorrow?

Oh, man, it's not looking like it, bro. I got a flight canceled, so I don't know. I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing.

I might be spending Christmas here solo. We got to find it out. Well, let me know.

I'll hit you up. You know, DJ, if you're in town, if you're in town, you got to come get this sandwich with me. You have to do it.

Oh, that would be probably my 350,000th Primanti sandwich in my life. DJ, just leave right now. There's like 11 o'clock. Just bring me a flight right here. Well, they booked me on an 11 o'clock flight today.

I was like, I'm a little busy at 11, guys. I can't make that flight. Well, we got to figure it out then. But if you're in, just let me know. Will do. Otherwise, have a good rest. Oh, by the way, JJ McCarthy, I spoke with him yesterday. I guess you guys are running it now or two. Yeah. Just a delightful kid.

A delightful kid. And then I'm talking to Jeff Saturday in an hour, and then you guys are going to run that in the third hour. Alright, let's go.

Allow myself to promote myself. Appreciate you joining. Appreciating you letting me host this show again, Rich, and I appreciate you doing most of the work for me. This is going to be, this is going to be a breach. Sit back and enjoy the run. Sit back and enjoy the run. Thanks, Rich.

Rich, Rich. I'm going to be calling the game, the Steelers and Raiders, on the 50th anniversary of the MacLit reception. That is a 5.15 Pacific, 8.15 Eastern Time kickoff tomorrow night on NFL Network. I'm still just, in my head, I'm struggling to wrap my mind around the fact that all these games are on Saturday. Right. There's a tripleheader on Sunday. Sunday. The NFL can't help itself, so let's take 11 hours of a holiday.

Let's wiggle in the basketball's territory. Right. Exactly. Well, yeah, you'll see the ratings, I'm sure. They'll tell the tale. No doubt. It's also Festivus, guys. I believe we've all got some NFL grievances we'd like to air coming up right on the other side of this break.

It's Tom Pelissero in on the Rich Eisen show. You can listen to the NFL and the NFL app on the Odyssey app on westwoodonesports.com via Westwood One Station streams, or by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports, sponsored by AutoZone. What makes AutoZone America's number one battery destination?

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Get in the zone, AutoZone. Nailed it. It is Festivus. Happy Festivus to everyone here, December 23rd. I thought this would be the appropriate time to air a few grievances. TJ, I come to you. We're off to bed?

Any grievances to air? Man, I got a bunch. Let me see. Okay, here's one. Here's one. Oh, gosh.

This is a grease board, right? Four words. Can we throw that out?

Can we not? Oh, gosh. Before you hear what my grievance is, you might agree with this.

That's a grievance. Let me get my point out. Four words. How about them cowboys, Tom?

That's it. I don't ever have to say anything more than these four words or just show this sign. And people on YouTube and Twitter just lose their minds with hatred towards me and the cowboy nation, right?

I don't understand it. I don't understand how people allow four words to have such a such a hold on them that it just ruins their day and makes them think I'm the worst person in the world and call me salty all the time because of these four words. And Brockman brought up a point earlier today. Sometimes when I go, I don't always want to talk about the cowboys. It's because sometimes I feel shows. I realize cowboys move the needle, Tom, but a lot of times I feel like we don't need to always talk about the cowboys.

And yet we always do. And it comes out when I speak on them and then people think I'm being salty. I'm not being salty. I'm like the people at home.

I'm like, give another team a chance. But I get it. I get a little grievance with your uneven star that you drew there.

So, yeah, if I had a grievance, it would be like, don't let these four words set you off, people. It's all fun and games. All right. Have a good time with it. It's football. I got a beautiful.

What do you got? You got a grievance for me? Yeah, I have a big grievance. Well, I know my grievances. I think football should be played later in the day for me because I have to wake up early in the morning on Sundays and do football every week. And I just think they should move all night games. It's my grievance. You could move. Leave the Pacific time zone where it's true. Starts at 10 a.m.. I like the weather out here.

I got a boat and stuff. My my grievances and I say that's a kidding aside. All kidding aside, I have no grievances with football because football is amazing. And I say this sincerely. We are blessed with a sport that's really, really amazing to watch. And this season, you know, it makes even better. The Patriots aren't going to be anywhere near the Super Bowl.

And that's why I have to take a stretch. I just like you, Brockman and I. I mean, I have to give you and the Cowboys. I just can't wait to see them lose in the playoffs. But those I have no grievances. I love football. I have no no grievances. I didn't see the ray of positivity coming from. I'll bring it back down.

Oh, geez. We all love football. We do pays for everything. We love it.

And I love all my Boston teams. Mike, we had an amazing run. You did. You were guys. You ruled the world. How many parades and how many parades in 18 years? Duck boat made it count for after like two years.

Duck boats and the Bruins and the seas and the Sox won a bunch of times. It was great. I loved it.

You had a lot of fun. You know what sucks now? Being just like every other team. Middling and mediocrity and boringness.

You want to take a great nap on a Sunday? Watch the Patriots offense. Try to go first and 10 from their own 28.

Three and out punt. I hate it. I hate sucking.

This appears to be genuine anger. Our teams are terrible. It's bad. We're going into what week is it? Is it week 16?

16. There's still time for Bill to fire Matt Patricia and Joe Judge and fix this offense. He can still make the playoffs. Well you want Bill gone though. I don't want to. Who calling it?

I don't want to. Who cares? Bill knows more football than anything. Why can't he call the plays? Don't you think he has a pretty big influence right now?

No. I don't. I think he's just letting it go. I think he just hired these two bozos. Guys got more power in an organization than anyone in the NFL and you think he just shows up and is like, so Matt, what are we doing today?

I kind of think that's what's happening. And if it's not what's happening, Tom, are you telling me that's not what's happening? Then Bill has to go.

I don't care that he brought us six rings and all the duck boat parades and all the great do your jobs and all those dumb slogans. If Bill is saying, hey guys, this is the plan. Matt and Joe, I want you to execute it.

Vaya con Dios. We're on the beach in Australia at a hundred year storm and I'm going to Patrick Swayze and I'm running out. Bill's got to run out. I don't even know what I'm saying right now.

I have no explanation for what happened. Then it's over. He's not coming back. Kraft, Bob Kraft has to be sitting up there going, what am I paying for? To watch the Jets have a playoff chance?

To watch, well they're over now. To watch the Chargers who can't do anything right ever? They're going to make the playoffs? The Ravens don't even have a quarterback right now. They're going to make the playoffs?

Maybe not. We're the Patriots. We're excellence, Mike. We win Super Bowl. We go to Super Bowls and we win them and we're not doing Jack right now. I'll tell you what Bob needs to do. Bob needs to get Bill out.

He needs to call Sean Payton. Let's get Brady back and let's run it back. Let's go. Gas up the duck boat. This guy won.

Gas up the duck boat. Super Bowl back on 2023. Brady, Payton, let's go. This guy won 16 championships in like a 20 year time span and he has the audacity to just. I'm not living in the past.

That has all escalated very quickly right there. People get paid for past performance. What are you doing for me right now? Right for the future? Bill's not the future of the Patriots. He's 70.

We went from upset watching the Patriots offense to fire Bill Belichick, hire Sean Payton, bring back Tom Brady. He's out of his mind. And he's, look at the face. That is a serious man.

And I believe all the serious grievance. His team won seven Super Bowls, Tom. Seven Tom. Well six. Brady won the seven for Tampa. But I was Rudy's for him.

I count Brady as your guy. Exactly. We need to revisit this later. I've got plenty more to add on my own front to the list of grievances.

I'll give you one right now. Here's what we need to do. We need to convince the Cardinals.

Here we go. We need to convince the Cardinals. Bill needs to call Cliff and be like, Cliff, just resign right now. Remember when McDaniels got fired and then he was with the Rams for like a week and then Bill was like, come on back.

Made the Super Bowl that year. Get Cliff to just resign out of the blue right before the game. Bring him in.

Cliff who was on the team as a quarterback like 15 years ago for a hot second. Bring him back and just let him pick it up. Bring him back to run the offense. Are we running the air raid?

Absolutely. Matt Jones wants to throw it down field. He does. Let him throw the ball down field. Let's just see what Matt Jones can do.

If you watch the Cardinals offense, it's not exactly, you know, Air Coryell out there. Bill Belichick, did you see him in DeAndre Hopkins Mutual Admiration Society? Let's trade for DHOP. We got the running backs. We got the tight ends. We just need the right offense and the right receiver.

DHOP's the guy. Bring in Cliff. Let's go. Come on.

Let me ask you this. Mack Jones, are you in or are you out? I have no choice but to be in. You have a choice.

You just ran off the greatest coach in NFL history because you're mad about not winning the Super Bowl in a few years. You're saying you don't have a choice on the quarterback who's been there for two years? Who can I get instead?

There's some cognitive dissonance happening here that I'd like to get to the bottom of. Who can I get instead? Zach Wilson's available.

I just listed all of them. Zach Wilson will be available. Zach Wilson's available. It would be the most jets thing ever if Bill Belichick gets Zach Wilson and turns him into a Super Bowl champion. Yes. We'll be back. We'll be back.