REShow: Mike Jones - Hour 2

What's Right with Nick Wright is a rapidly growing podcast from the Fox Sports Podcast Network. You may know Nick Wright from co-hosting FS1's First Things First. This podcast gives Nick a chance to develop, deep dive, and defend his sharpest opinions.

During the show, Nick faces off against a ticking clock, a team of producers, and even his own family to try and get his points across. New episodes drop monday, thursday, and friday wherever you get your podcasts. Live from the Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles. Hello Rich Eisen. Rich Eisen.

Oh that's Susie Eisen. The Rich Eisen Show. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. It's another hour of the program. Great to have you with us on a jam-packed thursday, but I will do my best to make sure you can slide in a variety of ways you can be a part of the program.

Hit me up on twitter bw weber weber with two b's the phone number 1-844-204-rich 1-844-204-7424. Hour number one was exclusively focused on the NFL. Going to keep that going here, talking about the future of Tua Tunga Violoa in Miami, and more in the immediate future, realistic expectations for Teddy Bridgewater and a hugely significant game between the Dolphins and the Patriots coming up on Sunday. In 20 minutes we'll say hello to our first guest, Mike Jones.

Who? We keep doing that until somebody says, oh I get that reference as arcane as it may be. Mike, been covering the NFL for a long time, national football writer for the athletic, and then in 40 minutes just a little bit of NBA for these important reasons. I can't just do three hours of football, although justifiably, if I had an interim program director in the hallway telling me respect the clock, be more disciplined with your formatics, and just talk nothing but football, there are a lot of very intriguing developments across the NBA. Don't look now, the Nets have found their sink, they've won 10 in a row, LeBron suddenly is getting frustrated with losing.

Where did that come from? My goodness, is he paying attention? Feels like LeBron the player resents the personnel moves orchestrated by LeBron the GM. He'll be smiling when he breaks Kareem's record coming up, and that is just a massive achievement. I'm old enough to remember when Kareem broke Wilch's record, people forget that game played in Las Vegas with the skyhook over Mark Eaton as the Jazz and Lakers got together. The fact that LeBron's gonna break that record is a astounding achievement, and the reason he's playing, the downside is the Lakers are brutal and irrelevant.

Plus, last time we saw Luca, he had 60 points and a triple-double. What's he gonna do to follow that up tonight? All coming up in 40 minutes. We have a Thursday Night Football game to get to. I will address the Dallas point of view coming up in the final hour of the program. Dallas has demonstrated there are reasons to believe this is going to be a different playoff outcome than as recently as last year, with the obvious flaw connected to what happened last year. I still have major doubts in the game management acumen on a big word Thursday of Mike McCarthy. All you have to do is go back to last year when he drew up and called for one of the most idiotic plays based on what was left on the clock. I know Mike said we've practiced this.

We could do it in 13 seconds. How'd that look in real time? So it's Dallas tonight, 11-4, taking on the 7-8 Tennessee Titans, who I told you were approaching this game as a glorified scrimmage because, irrespective of the outcome, they were well aware that they'd still have to beat the Jaguars next week, winner take all, to win the division. So Mike Vrabel is shutting it down across his roster, including the news we got to wrap up the first hour of the program. No Malik Willis tonight. Josh Dobbs, the third string quarterback, as Ryan Tannehill was ruled out a couple weeks ago when he hurt the ankle against the Chargers. Amazing he was carted off the field and came back in the game.

You rarely see that. So it's Josh Dobbs. Nice story from the Tennessee geographic and fan base point of view. Josh was an outstanding player for the Tennessee Vols, so he'll make some personal history. First time starting in the league against a ferocious Dallas defense and that's part of the motivation in my opinion as to why Malik Willis is not playing tonight because Willis has been shaky.

I'm not coming up with alibis. He hasn't looked good especially considering where Tennessee took him and just contrasted to Kenny Pickett. Pickett, especially towards the end of that thrilling conclusion on Saturday night in the Franco Harris tribute game Steelers and Raiders, Pickett made the plays the Steelers needed and then on the other side of the field you saw Derek Carr wet the bed once more and that's why we got the news yesterday that Carr will not play for the Raiders for the remaining two games and that's just a precursor to the Raiders and the former franchise quarterback Derek Carr getting a divorce. I wanted to confirm how wobbly Malik Willis has been. Three starts this year, 234 passing yards as the total. Not one game, three games, no touchdowns, three picks. So from a standpoint of a young person's confidence you want to put him out there with no weapons because I don't think Derek Henry's gonna play tonight.

I'll get confirmation during the next break. Even if he does he's limited. You have a defense that's going to be makeshift with a bunch of backups meaning that Dallas should do whatever they want to offensively. This is a dire circumstance for a young quarterback against a very good Dallas defense. You want Micah Parsons, I know he's limited as well but even half of Micah Parsons is better than most pass rushers. You want Micah Parsons coming in to devour Malik Willis so from a cognitive and mental point of view I get it. Get the young guy out of the way plus you need him next week because it's all on the line. Now maybe Josh Dobbs balls out. I don't see it but did anybody see Brock Purdy turning into Joe Montana?

That's the beauty of this league. Now very different with Dobbs. We have a body of work as he bounced around from the Steelers. Remember he couldn't beat out Mason Rudolph to be the backup to Ben Roethlisberger.

Landed in Detroit. We have a sense of the skill set of Dobbs but I think this is more about protecting Willis not oh you got to rest him up for next week. You can't have him get abused again. You can't have him have even more of a confidence potential issue heading into a game with huge magnitude next week against the Jacksonville Jaguars who have come alive. Trevor Lawrence looks like something approximating the generational talent we thought he was in Clemson and it really is another indictment of just how terrible a job Urban Meyer did last year.

Arguably the worst performance we've seen from a quote unquote professional coach and you know all the other nonsensical creepy things Uncle Perv was doing when Buddy needed a night out. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich. It is the Rich Eisen Show. 1-8-4-4-2-0-4. Rich you can tweet at me.

Twitter is functioning. B.W. Weber.

Weber with two B's. Although it had the hiccups last night and I attributed that to the surge in traffic thanks to the greatness of the Liberty ball was Kansas outlasted or are Kansas outlasted Kansas and Kansas made the furious the furious comeback and forced that game to a third overtime. Today three more ball games with the history and the heritage of the bad boy mowers pinstripe ball. There will be a crowd there because Syracuse will be playing in Yankee Stadium against Minnesota. Later on Oklahoma-Florida State would be good.

It was 1997. It's the Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando. People will show up there obviously because Oklahoma travels and Florida State with the in-state connection and tonight Alamo Bowl actually a watchable game. Texas against a Washington team that exceeded expectations. Let's get you back to another quarterback situation in the NFL. It's been a good portion of Monday's program trying to wonder aloud what happened to Tuatunga Violoa. Now I was on the air before Mike McDaniel announced at the time that Tua had entered concussion protocol and I give his head coach a great deal of credit for reading his quarterback's body language and demeanor when they were chatting on Monday.

He just said Tua didn't feel like himself and seemed like himself and wasn't as outgoing as normal so they had a conversation. Tua I also give him credit for being forthright because he had to know the consequences of being honest that hey I'm kind of out of sync here something doesn't feel right and he's back in concussion protocol and the official diagnosis occurred. This is the second concussion however let's just tell like it is we know as observers something was profoundly wrong with Tua in the Buffalo game.

Now that got botched and there were changes implemented to the concussion protocol in the wake of that somehow we were told it was a back injury Tua wanted to get back on the field understandably so because this is what he does this is his identity he wants to be a high achiever he wants to be there for his teammates and he understands now with a third incident I'll just say the Buffalo development appeared to be head trauma as well three things have happened in the span of four months it's not three concussions I know two officially but we're talking in general terms here I'm not pretending to be a physician on the radio three incidents occurred in the span of four months we also have learned because we have far more knowledge now about the nature of concussions the impact is exponential it's not one plus one plus one it's one raised to the next level and there is real concern now about the future of Tua beyond his ability to get back on the field in the postseason just from a standpoint of optics how in the world can anybody let him play again this year because you got to think about a young person's brain cognition for the rest of their life so all of this will be decided in due time I think there are real questions now about how Tua approaches things moving forward because now every time he takes a major shot we're all going to think okay is this another incident and what was so baffling about what occurred and most of us agree or those of us who looked at the video he took a shot against the packards towards the end of the second quarter and you could see it hit his head in a very awkward and violent fashion that appears to have been the catalyst for this latest concussion well I guess after the fact Tua looking completely different between the lines in the second half is now understandable right because he was going through a brain injury a player who had cut down on his turnovers suddenly became a interception machine with back-to-back-to-back picks well I don't think he had full use of his faculties seems pretty clear if in fact there was a head related incident that it would be hard to be at your very best so let's try to come up with the right time horizons in the near term Teddy Bridgewater I think will be adequate that's why he's one of the best paid backups in all of football Tua injury prone in different areas before what's happened this year so the Dolphins knew it was a wise investment to write a bigger check to a veteran backup and effectively if Tua had just avoided all of those interceptions and a few of them just seemed baffling and perplexing if Teddy B can play with a clean sheet and minimize his miscues Dolphins should be just fine if he can get it to Waddle or Hill or Kiseki and run it just enough especially against a Patriot team that has gone through some of the weirdest developments we've seen in franchise history over the last few weeks I think Miami wins that game another step in the right direction to locking up the final wild card because the Chargers clinched on Monday night and the Ravens got it done over the weekend Teddy B should be serviceable and that's all Miami needs especially because I don't know what version of the Patriots are going to show up saw him a couple of weeks ago they did the Raiders one of the most bizarre conclusions we've seen in the history of the NFL and then last week Cincinnati is pounding New England they're up by a huge margin I went to the grocery store thinking that game was a done deal at 22 nothing I get home it's 22 18 Patriots are driving and they're inside the red zone they get inside the tent and then they fumbled again so the week before it was a donation through the air Jacoby Myers has lost his mind and through the Chandler Jones I just love the image of Chandler Jones with the stiff arm making Mac Jones look like a child and then they gave it away again last week so Cincinnati to me is just fine I know people were saying well how can you have that kind of lapse it happens do they win the game that's all that matters New England I have no idea what they're going to do week to week I think this is all aligning properly for Miami they get to the playoffs and I think at that point you have to stick with Teddy Bridgewater just out of abundance of caution and then we'll learn more about Tua's viability moving forward he's going to do everything he can to make sure he is in the end to make sure he is medically cleared and ready to go for the upcoming season but it's a fair conversation to wonder about how much of a runway he has moving forward and remember while this franchise has now done everything to support Tua the player they wanted tank for Tua seems like a long time ago right ancient history same franchise that flirted with Deshaun Watson now that was under the Brian Flores regime clearly Brian Flores did not believe in Tua at all and they were found guilty by the NFL of tampering with Tom Brady going back to his time in New England so the Dolphins have made it very clear they are interested in other quarterbacks they're dating Tua who's still on the rookie deal they got to make the option decision coming up they're not married to him now you factor in the questions about his availability due to the concussion problem I can understand why Tua is going to do everything he can to try to get back on the field because he knows he just saw it from Derek Carr vastly different circumstance hey Derek Carr as you kids say got the bag he got paid but his agent made it such a team-friendly deal a series of outs essentially voidable years and a series of one-year contracts now Derek's going to be hitting the bricks looking for a job as well tough business to be a quarterback in the NFL I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen coming up in 15 minutes or so I will call it 25 minutes I'm not great with clock management you got to stay with me because it's a floating clock here we will get to the NBA LeBron not happy that the Lakers are losing breaking news LeBron I don't know why he had that moment of clarity other than he was reflective last night going back to Miami Luca with the greatest triple double we've ever seen even Will Chamberlain didn't have one that included 60 points along with 20 and 10 how's he going to back that up tonight should we be believing in the Nets we'll talk NBA to wrap up the program but prior to that and this hour of the program it's a three-hour show we're not only doing two hours we have more NFL to get to I mentioned Derek Carr's run with the Raiders done who's going to be the quarterback in Vegas next year looking forward to taking you across the NFL with Mike Jones national football writer for the athletic I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen this is it the putt to win the tournament if you sink it the championship is yours but on your backswing your hat falls over your eyes is this how you're running your business poor visibility because you're still relying on spreadsheets and outdated finance software to see the full picture you need to upgrade to NetSuite by Oracle NetSuite is the number one cloud financial system to power your growth with visibility and control of your financials inventory HR planning budgeting and much more NetSuite is everything you need to grow all in one place with NetSuite you can automate your processes and close your books in no time while staying well ahead of your competition 93% of surveyed businesses increase their visibility and control after upgrading to NetSuite over 32,000 businesses already use NetSuite for the new year NetSuite has a new financing program for those ready to upgrade at NetSuite.com rich radio head to NetSuite.com rich radio for this special one-of-a-kind financing offer on the number one financial system for growing businesses netsuite.com rich radio this is it the putt to win the tournament if you sink it the championship is yours but on your backswing your hat falls over your eyes is this how you're running your business poor visibility because you're relying on spreadsheets and outdated finance software to see the full picture you need to upgrade to NetSuite by Oracle NetSuite is 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 with NetSuite you can automate your processes and close your books in no time while staying well ahead of your competition 93% of surveyed businesses increase their visibility and control after upgrading to NetSuite over 28,000 businesses already use NetSuite for the new year NetSuite is a new financing program for those ready to upgrade at NetSuite.com rich pod head to NetSuite.com rich pod for this special one-of-a-kind financing offer on the number one financial system for growing businesses NetSuite.com rich pod What's Right with Nick Wright is a rapidly growing podcast from the Fox Sports Podcast Network you may know Nick Wright from co-hosting FS1's First Things First this podcast gives Nick a chance to develop deep dive and defend his sharpest opinions during the show Nick faces off against a ticking clock team of producers and even his own family to try and get his points across new episodes drop Monday Thursday and Friday wherever you get your podcasts I'm Brian Weber always a delight to be in for Rich and the guys on a Thursday Rich Eisen Show you can be a part of the program 1-844-204-RICH hit me up on Twitter B.W. Weber Weber with two B's let's keep the football conversation going always a pleasure to talk NFL with Mike Jones from the athletic Mike it's been a while since we've chatted how are you and happy holidays I'm doing well how are you doing happy holidays to you as well I'm doing well I appreciate the sentiment well as I started the program I didn't think I would be spending much time talking about Tennessee heading into tonight's Thursday night matchup given that we knew Mike Vrabel was resting a majority of starters understanding that next week's game against Jacksonville is winner take all for the division still I didn't think I'd be talking about Josh Dobbs what do you make of the report that surfaced about 30 minutes ago that we're not even going to see Malik Willis tonight Vrabel's going with his third string quarterback against the Cowboys yeah it's pretty crazy when you think about it but I think that also speaks to the readiness of Malik Willis and their level of confidence I mean we've seen him in a few cameos and you know it hasn't been a lot of success obviously when they drafted and they knew that he was going to be a project it looks like he is not quite there yet and you're going with a guy who hasn't played a whole lot of football in games but he has been a veteran he's been in the league for a while he's been in a number of different offenses and they feel like he's going to give them a chance to compete tonight it'll be interesting to see how this goes but I totally agree with you yes they know that next week against Jacksonville is for all the marbles and that they've got to be ready to compete there and you know we'll see how this how this does they don't know you know it looks kind of bleak for Ryan Tannehill so maybe you know getting Josh Dobbs some action right here against Dallas will help them to do well next week against Jacksonville where they have to win the division. Mike from the Dallas point of view we have seen them play down to level competition just a few weeks ago they nearly lost that game to Houston then you saw the resurgence last week against Philadelphia and I realize it was Gardner Minshew filling in for Jalen Hurts but Minshew wasn't playing defense so do you view Philadelphia any differently based on the fact that the Cowboys scored 40 points against a defense especially that secondary that most people consider to be one of the best in all of football? Yeah well you know whenever you have divisional opponents I feel like you got to throw records out the window because there's so much familiarity there you know they're going to play each other tough I still think that Philadelphia is the best team in the NFC one of the best teams in the NFL now it would have been interesting to see how they would have done with Jalen Hurts at quarterback you know that some of those drives ended prematurely Gardner Minshew didn't do badly but Jalen Hurts is a cut above and also they probably could have run a little bit more of the ground game controlling the time of possession and things like that so I still think that you know we're going to see the Eagles make a deep playoff run what I'm really curious about is how far Dallas goes because you're exactly right they can play really up and they can play really down and and underachieve as well. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich we're talking NFL with Mike Jones of the Athletic Mike the big news yesterday Derek Carr and the Raiders will be getting divorced felt like something had to give based on a year in which the Raiders have regressed you go back to last year they made the playoffs with interim head coach Rich Passaccio holding things together with all the hype surrounding Josh McDaniels this is a 6-9 football team do you think Carr is being cast in the role of the fall guy here is he getting a raw deal?

I definitely believe that he's a scapegoat now and if you talk to people there they will say hey look it's not completely over we'll see what happens but he's definitely the fall guy here because look he has played at a pretty high level not elite but a good high level for the bulk of his career last year he really carried that team when they had an interim head coach they dealt with a lot of turmoil and he played well and put them a good position as the season ended and then now you have a guy who's supposed to be an offensive guru and he's not having success with him and he seems there's been criticisms Josh McDaniel has underperformed as a head coach he has not gotten out of that offense what he should considering the resources when you have a pro bowl quarterback like Carr you have Devante Adams Josh Jacobs he has not had any type of consistency really with those guys now look they've got issues on defense and the defense is not provided the support they need but you know we've seen Josh McDaniel say hey we've got to throw the ball better well a lot of that has to do with your offensive play design and things like that I'm not saying that Derek Carr is immune of any criticism but I feel like he is definitely the scapegoat here Mike Jones from the athletic is our guest on the Rich Eisen show so Mike as we look ahead with openings potentially at the quarterback position in Tennessee we'll see what the Jets do do they truly believe in Mike White and now Las Vegas the names that come to mind will be Baker Mayfield Jimmy Garoppolo but if we're just looking for that Patriot connection do you then buy Tom Brady potentially reunited with McDaniel's and go into Vegas I mean that's if he wants to play it does make a lot of sense for him to go there because the familiarity but at the same time Brady is not going to go somewhere just because he knows somebody if he looks at the rest of that roster and feels like they don't give him the best chance to compete for a Super Bowl they've got a lot of work they've got to do on their defensive side of the ball they've got to find some consistency on offense as well so I wouldn't say you know it's a sure you know a lock that Brady would be an option there but obviously definitely you would think he would have to consider that I mentioned Jimmy Garoppolo good news for Jimmy from the health perspective that the walking boot that he's needed with a broken foot has come off so we're all speculating but I appreciate your informed opinion if Brock Purdy continues to play at a high level even if he regresses a bit and just consistent what do you think Kyle Shanahan does at the quarterback position in the playoffs if Jimmy Garoppolo is fully healthy and available it's a really tough call um I think though if Brock Purdy is continuing to play well and they have momentum with him you stick with him but you have Jimmy Garoppolo who you know can be ready on a minute's notice and can be uh thrust into that role um you know but again we'll see like you said speculation um but they really have a lot of confidence in Purdy uh they didn't go out and get a veteran to try to fill in um for Jimmy Garoppolo they felt like okay let's roll with this kid he's worked really hard uh we like uh what he's able to do in our system and so I think that you know momentum is a big thing uh they've got great defensive support they've got a lot of weapons around him and if they feel like uh they will be able to continue what they're rolling with they'll do that I'm Brian Weber in for rich we're taking you across the NFL with Mike Jones of the athletic Mike Nathaniel Hackett was relieved of his duties earlier this week so that's a marquee opening with a new ownership group that paid 4.6 billion dollars and has Walmart money so they can write big checks whomever gets that job obviously Sean Payton's name has been linked to the opening has to then take the responsibility of trying to jump start Russell Wilson's career do you view what we've seen from Russell this year and a bit towards the end of his run in Seattle as an aberration some slippage do you think he's fixable what do you think the next few years look like for Russell Wilson well you know I mean he's not done yet he's definitely slower he's definitely older so there has to be some type of modification in his approach he needs to find a coach that one has a lot of creativity a lot of innovation but also can command his respect and trust but figure out how to help him get the best out of what he's got left you know he doesn't want to be running around a whole lot the times he has run around he got the concussion or whatever um he's not a pure drop back passer either um so you know in the in the stay in the pocket type of guy so whoever it is has got to be able to figure out how to to bridge what he has done and what he wants to do um you know it's going to be really interesting Sean Payton's name gets thrown around but the the Saints aren't just going to let him out of his contract they are going to have to come up with some compensation to give him and they don't have any draft sticks to give because they gave them all up for Russell Wilson so they've kind of made a mess with themselves um that's why I kind of think Sean Payton would be a long shot uh but you know it'll be interesting to see who else they go after. Wrap it up with I think the best game coming up this weekend we gotta wait until Monday night but it's a marquee matchup with Buffalo and Cincinnati I think the Bills have the most complete roster in all the football Philadelphia right there as well do you see Cincinnati right on that tier as well they've won seven straight and I think we overlook the fact that traditionally the team that loses the Super Bowl takes a step back well obviously this year it was the reigning champs the Rams have been awful and here's Cincinnati playing at a very high level again. You know I think that Cincinnati has probably a little more complete of our officers than Buffalo does and you look at you know obviously Josh Allen amazing Stephon Diggs fantastic they've got a lot of injuries on defense and they don't have a whole lot of consistent playmakers on offense Josh Allen really puts that team on his back and elevates everybody's level of play if you look at what Joe uh with Joe Burrow is working with he's got Joe mixing he's got some G.P.

Wright he's got three talented wide receivers got a really good defense so I say that the Bengals have a little bit better roster I think they have a chance to win this game and right now they're one of the hottest teams in the NFL as a whole not just AFC I think they've won seven straight and looking to make it eight now. Mike as always we appreciate the information I know it's a very busy time of the year for you so thanks for taking the time enjoy the rest of the holidays. Thanks Brian you have a good one happy new year to you. You too Mike Jones one of the best in the business national NFL writer for the athletic and you actually heard me do the real time hmm things that make you go hmm let me process that and I respect Mike's opinion yeah look you can go category by category who has the edge Buffalo versus Cincinnati and people overlook some of the veterans on that Cincinnati defense now they did lose Lyle Collins and remember it was the Cincinnati offensive line that they spent a bunch of money upgrading in the off season and what was hard to fathom early on was that Joe Burrow got beat up once more first couple games go back to that Dallas game I didn't think he was going to survive now some of that came down to a matter of coalescing and finding the rhythm up front but if you're going through the skill positions yeah I'd go advantage Jamar Chase running back Joe Mixon's been in and out of the lineup but P Ryan's there and that's really the flaw on Buffalo's roster that they rely way too much on the athletic ability of Josh Allen remember he's their second leading rusher still I know it was against the lousy opponent and you probably didn't spend much time because hopefully you have meaningful relationships on Christmas Eve I'm a lonely man and this is my job after all but riding the red zone all day on Saturday what was most promising in Buffalo's win over Chicago the bills pile up 250 rushing yards and we saw more from Devin Singletary and more from James Cook that to me is the key element moving forward not just in this postseason but long term Josh Allen's got to run less I know it's a huge part of why he's so effective and right there with Mahomes shortlist the best quarterbacks in the league but I'm just worried about his longevity he takes far too many hits since we're talking NFL a reminder you can listen to the NFL with the NFL app on the Odyssey app and on westwoodonesports.com also via Westwood One Station streams or by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports sponsored by AutoZone it's time to say good night to that check engine light with the free AutoZone fix finder service it'll help troubleshoot the likely cause of your light for free restrictions apply get in the zone AutoZone I'm Brian Weber as we plow forward deeper into the second hour of the program just one more guest along the way coming up roughly an hour from now we will talk college football not the three bowl games today I am not breaking down the minutia of the bad boy mowers pinstripe bowl although the orange will be out in force Syracuse playing in the state of New York against Minnesota no we're spinning it forward to the national semifinals coming up on Saturday looking forward to our conversation one hour from now when we say hello to Pete Futek and collegefootballnews.com I've done nothing but football so far that's probably why I've been retained remember like Derek Carr has that series of voidable years on his contract I'm in an hour by hour renewable I was allowed to come back for this next hour although I didn't tell anybody I was talking NBA so why did LeBron suddenly have a moment of clarity last night hmm losing is terrible I'm getting tired doing this can we really believe in the red hot nets of all teams they've won 10 straight and after Luca went for 60 and a triple double last time we saw him what's he going to do for an encore tonight talking NBA as we continue I'm Brian Weber in for Rich on the Rich Eisen Show did you know that driving high is considered driving under the influence that's right driving under the influence of marijuana is against the law in every state even in states where marijuana is legal that means driving high could get you a DUI and if you think law enforcement officers can't tell when you're driving high you're wrong your friends can tell your co-workers can tell even your parents can tell everyone can tell so what makes you think that law enforcement officers don't know when you're driving high driving under the influence of marijuana can slow your response time and change how you perceive time and speed so even if you think you're fine to drive when you're high you're not because the bottom line is if you feel different you drive different and driving high is driving under the influence so remember drive high get a DUI paid for by NHTSA so I'm Brian Weber and for Rich it's the Rich Eisen Show. Rich enjoying a much-deserved vacation back with you on Monday that's going to be a stacked program but Rich is more generous than yours truly in a variety of ways namely he does take your phone calls and I'm not anti-phone call however and I'm Brian Weber if you hit me up on Twitter we can have the dialogue B.W. Weber Weber with two b's few reasons as to how I've arrived at this philosophy phone calls taken selectively I am the fill-in heck if you are a regular listener you're not going to waste your time with me on the phone lines I understand that I am the substitute teacher now the corollary as we're getting deep with the vocab today would be if you normally can't get through at one eight four four two oh four seven four two four this is a chance but Rich is back on Monday so save your best perspectives for the host getting closer to the final hour of the program we're going to talk NBA here and then all football the final hour of the show in just under an hour from now 55 minutes to be precise we're going to talk college football with Pete Futak from collegefootballnews.com I am not bogged down in the particulars of the Cheez-It bowl coming up later today in Orlando Oklahoma against Florida State I am very motivated to talk about Georgia Ohio State Michigan TCU national semifinals on Saturday and then the majority of the traditional January 1 games being played on January 2nd because college football does not want to compete with the NFL on Sunday so we'll talk about the games that matter straight ahead NBA is in a very interesting place right now and I realize and I did this strategically many of you just want all football all the time I get it numbers bear it out I don't have to go through the actual details of the beat down the NFL applied to the NBA head to head with ratings but as you might imagine we're talking over 20 million people for the early games and then things got a little bit less robust for that final game on Christmas night that was largely unwatchable until Arizona made the ghastly turnover late and here comes Tom Brady one more time but as you were thinking about what happened between the Dolphins and Packers just as viewers not the two-a situation we'll talk more too we're coming up to start the final out of the program more than 20 million people watch that game a lot of people hung around for the beginning of the Broncos and Rams and then saw Russ throw those picks early on and said yeah I don't need to watch the rest of this game the NBA has now a dilemma on Christmas day because the NFL crushes everything in its past and you know the NFL is going to continue I think in my estimation depending on where Christmas lands always to have a game or two just to have even more of a capital advantage when it comes to advertising and ratings but if we're just looking at the depth of quality in the NBA even if you're a casual as NBA twitter describes people who aren't that all in it is a phenomenal time in basketball I mentioned in passing the nets I can't avoid them they've won 10 straight Durant is putting up some of the best numbers of his career Kyrie hasn't said anything stupid myopic offensive or connected to anti-semitism in a while now he's Kyrie you are what you consistently do he's overdue to come up with something disruptive but just from a basketball standpoint another victory last night and Ben Simmons looks like a functioning NBA player based on how low he had sunk in Philadelphia and the back surgery in the off season that's a major step forward now at any moment given how combustible that roster is in Brooklyn it could all fall apart but that's a good watch and let's jump to the west let me do the Lakers just to get them out of the way because I really want to spend more time glorifying Luca who does not get enough credit I'm going to address that currently but I thought the timing of the latest public soul searching from LeBron last night was not coincidental now it's rare he plays the second game of a back-to-back but he was in Miami Lakers actually won the game night before taking on Orlando so maybe he was feeling a little more rejuvenated Lakers lose again and then he's holding court post game probably I think because he was back in Miami and was asked to reflect on that run with the big three that he came together the form with Baj and Wade and the championships speculation he might want to end his career there again remember he's hanging on for a few things one goal will be achieved this year and it's not going to be championships obviously championships with the Lakers just being in the play in conversation would be a victory but the first accomplishment that will be secured will be moving past Kareem as the all-time leading scorer and then if you're pro LeBron I'm going to have one less argument on my Michael Jordan is king since I'm beat up in my early 50s hard to argue against the greatest scorer in the history of the NBA when he gets there now my pushback will be I can already see this conversation coming at an Italian restaurant I like to go to here in Southern California I will call LeBron a stat compiler at that point because I'm never going to see the Michael Jordan higher ground that I've hold on to for a long time LeBron riffing last night I'm paraphrasing but the quote that got a lot of play was he said I'm a winner you can't dispute that with all the rings and you know I'll play as long as my mind is right but the losing isn't acceptable well we all know who's calling the shots when it comes to Lakers now for years they've had dysfunction with the friction within the bus family and then Jeannie winning that Game of Thrones battle thankfully after Jimmy's reign of terror but the relationships with the Rambis family anybody else that seems to have a way to have input with Jeannie Buss now I guess it's Jay Moore good for Jay that's that's certainly a shrewd decision beyond whatever personal dynamics going on I think obviously if you're getting engaged there hopefully is affection there but if you're going to get married that's the family they get married into but LeBron is calling the shots it's not Rob Polica it's LeBron we've known he's the shadow GM Anthony Davis wound up in LA because he wanted out his team wanted him out in New Orleans and LeBron wanted him on the Lakers well they did get the championship we overlook what happened in the bubble but remember the circumstances surrounding that after the COVID crisis that dominated our attention basketball seemed fairly inconsequential but also led to the long layoff Anthony Davis was finally healthy and then you put him in the climate-controlled bubble with no travel and he did have the ability to stay healthy unfortunately he's just made of glass you can't rely on him Russell Westbrook has played better I'm not gonna kick him while he's down last year was an aberration couldn't be worse than last year this year he's had some meaningful impactful games but if you watch this team if you can still bear to watch but you can't avoid them they're still on TV so much it just doesn't work and then beyond the marquee names you know it's a horribly flawed roster so if LeBron's got issues with it should look in the mirror because they should never have made the move to get Russ but LeBron thought it would fit somehow he had not paid attention to Russ becoming a basketball vagabond so if LeBron is getting frustrated that's LeBron the player who needs to have a conversation with LeBron the GM Lakers are fundamentally broken and nothing is going to change for the foreseeable future now LeBron does at least have some assistance when Anthony Davis is actually able to play in contrast Luka Doncic is the very definition of a one-man franchise making what he did the last time he played got a lot of help from the Knicks because if there's going to be a historic gag job that got that game to overtime it's going to involve the Knicks they invent ways to lose but you throw in the extra session Luka 60 points 20 rebounds 10 assists he'll be back on the court tonight against the Rockets it's another lousy team Houston only 10 wins all year long they've been rebuilding for a long time my observation on Luka is this imagine how good he would be if he had any assistance because remember last year during that playoff run my takeaway along with a lot of people who follow the NBA as more than just a bystander if Jalen Brunson was the second best player on that team how are they going to win anything well Jalen Brunson's gone who's now the second complimentary player in Dallas Spencer Dimwitty if Mark Cuban was pitched this roster on Shark Tank he would say I'm gonna pass for that reason it's horrendous this guy is doing it all on his own and he's doing magical things but if the goal is to win a championship last time I checked that's what it's all about and I know Cuban has got the ring it was nice to see the statue to Nowitzki being authentic with the perfect alignment of him falling away knocking down a jump shot those are all feel-good stories but it's about winning and losing and Dallas is 19 and 16 in a western conference that now has Zion Williamson looking phenomenal in great shape Zion went off last night new career i-43 paulkins have the best record in the west so Luka a remarkable talent and a tremendous story but it's gonna be largely a regular season story because he just has no help i like your assistance namely on twitter bw weber weber with 2b's final hour coming up much more football to get things rolling i'm brian weber always having a good time in for rich eisen here on the rich eisen show 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 kind of growth at wcw experience between 95 and 98 this audience should be growing the characters should be coming more and they're not everybody's gradually losing audience other 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