REShow: Chris Long - Hour 3 (1-3-2023)

This is the Rich Eisen Show. Coming up, two-time Super Bowl Champion and Green Light Podcast host Chris Long. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number three of the Rich Eisen Show here on this Tuesday. First Tuesday of 2023 is on the air right here on the Roku channel. And this Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate Sirius XM Odyssey and more. We say hello to our podcast listeners on the Cumulus Podcast Network.

And wish everyone well wherever they may be. As you know, life can change in an instant. And we saw that last night on Monday Night Football. I don't think it's too dramatic to say or overly dramatic to say what we saw last night. As I mentioned at the top of the program, scariest thing I've ever seen.

Being a fan and I wasn't there, I can only imagine what's it been like for the players. We spoke to Tom Pelissero of NFL Media Group in hour number one. In hour number two, Eric Wood of the Buffalo Bills Radio Network joined us. If you missed any of that, the show re-airs at the top of the hour here on the Roku channel. And then everything I just mentioned here on the Roku channel as well as our podcast.

We will replay it for you there. And just at the top of this hour before we joined by Chris Long, our regular guest, each week here on the Rich Eisen Show. The commissioner of the NFL issued a memorandum to all club executives and owners and head coaches.

Pretty much everybody got it. Where he said in a statement that the league put out, this is basically summarizing the memo that I just read myself. Saying that the team, that the league has been in contact with the medical team caring for DeMar Hamlin, the Bills and Bengals organizations and the players associations. After speaking with both teams and NFLPA leadership, the commissioner informed the clubs today that the Bills-Bengals game will not be resumed this week. They've made no decision regarding the possible resumption of the game at a later date.

So they basically tabled that concept and conversation. And the league hasn't even made any changes to the week 18 regular season schedule will continue to provide additional information as it becomes available. The Bills tweeted out about an hour ago that DeMar Hamlin is still resting in intensive care and critical condition at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Grateful and thankful for the outpouring of support we've received thus far as for the outpouring of support that the family has received. The family put out a statement earlier today thanking anybody that has been reached out calling the generosity and compassion that the family has received on behalf of DeMar, quote unquote, means the world to us. Please keep DeMar in your prayers.

We'll release updates as soon as we have them. Thank you to the Hamlin family and in terms of generosity and compassion, people are inundating DeMar Hamlin's GoFundMe page for the charity that he has been supporting since 2020. 2020 is apparently is his mom's. I guess it's the toy drive for his mom's community center for kids.

Over four million dollars in donations there now. Joining us here on The Rich Eisen Show is our friend, two time Super Bowl champion and host of Green Light podcast, Chris Long, back here on The Rich Eisen Show on the Mercedes Benz Van's phone line. How are you doing, Chris? Sorry, I'm doing OK, man. I hope everybody there is doing all right. It's been it's been a long, you know, 18 hours or whatever. It's been a lot of refreshing the phone, trying to trying to hear some good news.

So hopefully we'll get some soon. Give me an idea what you think the players were thinking on the field last night, Chris. Well, I mean, you know, having played a long time and having seen big collisions and having seen guys immobilized and being put on backboards and stretchers and, you know, ambulances coming on the field, that's relatively a regular occurrence for an NFL player. I mean, just this weekend, you know, I saw two of my former teammates hurt pretty bad. You know, I saw Josh Swett, you know, leave on a cart with a head and neck injury. I saw Nick Foles riding on the ground in pain. And, you know, it's never easy, but it's it's like another level seeing somebody get CPR on the field.

And I don't care who you are, if you've seen somebody getting their chest pumped in person, it is something you never forget. And it's very hard to go back to doing whatever you were doing that day or that night, even if you didn't know the person. Now, imagine it's basically, you know, one of your family members, you know, during the season.

I think Ryan Clark pointed this out last night. You spend more time with these guys than you do your family. And watching Tredavious White cry and Stephon Diggs and Josh Allen with his hands clasped over his face. I couldn't possibly imagine. This is unprecedented and, you know, I really feel for his teammates and I feel for everybody that had to see it. You know, Rich, you never played ball, but you just said it.

It's the scariest thing you've ever seen, you know. And I also think it's been interesting to see the outpouring of humanity and well wishes and, you know, people pulling for this kid. I can't remember the last time everybody waited with bated breath on the status of somebody who's an athlete overnight. I mean, I went to bed and I don't know the kid, but I'm waking up in the middle of the night and I'm checking my phone. And, you know, first thing in the morning, I'm checking my phone and I'm refreshing all day.

And I thought I'd be able to go on with my day, but I'm just sitting around. I sat in bed until 10 a.m. You know, it's one of those things that it touches everybody, whether you played the game or whether you're just watching. And I can only hope that, you know, people remember this feeling, you know, as we gratuitously kind of drag players when the performance isn't great or we trivialize an injury. You know, these guys are ultimately not only risking their livelihoods, but they're playing a game that's going to, you know, we all know it could end your life quicker than had you not played it in the long run. But when you see it in person and as somebody who had, you know, my mom would take the red eye to our games, you know, go to my brother's game in Oregon and go red eye to St. Louis and just my parents and everything. I talked to them while tomorrow was on the field and just thought about having that ride to the hospital with your son.

And he's not breathing on his own. It's just I just hope that all this humanity, we remember this and we treat each other better because, you know, if we just all the wonderful things this kid did, it's being highlighted. There are so many good men in this league. We don't have to wait until somebody is in an ambulance to celebrate each other and the things that we do and really just love each other. And I think that's been the only silver lining here is that, you know, no matter who your favorite team is, you stop what you're doing. And I don't mean to give people a cookie for being decent, but we have it in us, you know.

Hear, hear, man, hear, hear on everything you just said. And, you know, first thing my wife said to me this morning when I got out of bed because she knew I'd already probably looked at my phone. She says to me, how's the kid is what she said.

And so because we're all that, you know, waiting with bated breath, as you point out. And it's fascinating, Chris, that you mentioned you and your brother and your mom and your dad, because I literally thought of you guys last night because I'll never forget interviewing your dad one year at the Hall of Fame. And I think the Bears and the Rams were slated to play each other or the Bears and whichever team you were on at the time were slated to play each other. And I said to your dad, I'm like, hey, you know, are you and your wife going to go to that game like the Mannings and, you know, wear one jersey of one kid and another jersey of the other kid? And your dad said to me, you know, quite the opposite, like our hearts are going to be in our throats because I know every snap's a car crash in the NFL is what he said. And I swear to you, Chris, I thought of that last night when this was happening. Yeah. And, you know, pops called me and I think it's like an unspoken thing.

Like as soon as I saw the phone ring, I'm like, OK, it's worth thinking about our you know, how we would react in this situation. And it's unfathomable. But, you know, this is a dangerous game. We all sign up to play it.

You know, I think this is a freak thing. This hasn't happened before. I don't think we should stop playing football in the long run. I don't think, you know, I don't think we need to think about who's going to play this weekend or when they're going to reschedule this game.

Like, I don't care. You know, I don't think the players care either. You know, with everything that happened at Virginia this fall and those three players, the three young men being murdered. You know, those kids were given a choice whether they were going to play their game against Virginia Tech. And that's a whole different type of tragedy. Certainly I'm not drawing a close parallel, but, you know, these players are human. And, you know, those guys voted not to play the game.

And I completely respect that. And, you know, my thoughts turn to, you know, the Bills and the Bengals. And it just seems so trivial even considering, you know, when the game's going to be rescheduled and if it's rescheduled at all. And, you know, there are a lot of real issues that the NFL has to work through. But I don't think until you know the status of DeMar that you can make any of those decisions. And I don't envy that task.

Chris Long here on the Rich Eisen Show. And you just mentioned again the mental aspect of playing this game and what players have to do as humans to get ready to play it. And I do want to linger on that issue with you and the mental health part of it and the Commissioner's memo to all teams about the status of the game and how they're not going to play it this week.

And they'll figure it out down the line. In there was a statement to remind all teams to avail themselves of the mental health services the league and the medical staffs of the league and each team can provide and to avail themselves of it. And I kind of just want to ask you about what you have to do to get ready to play a game and how, you know, tamping down the threat of violence and significant injury has to be tamped down. And how last night watching the CPR on the field kind of removed whatever veil every player has to create in their minds.

Is that an accurate assessment or description of it? I think we do have to do that. I think ultimately over a period of years and the repetition of it, you kind of build up this callous where you're not thinking about those things. You can't think about those things and take the field and do what we do. Because if you do, you're more likely to get hurt.

And you're out there 100 miles an hour. It is a bunch of car crashes, as my dad put it. And ultimately, it can't be in the forefront, which is why it's so inconceivable to think about, you know, after seeing that last night, that somebody, you know, that these guys might have to go back out on the field. And I was just so hopeful that they would suspend the game and give these guys the space to begin. And the healing hasn't begun because they don't know what's going on with their brother. But there will be a period of healing for these guys. I mean, this is real trauma to see something like that. You know, I don't know what was going on exactly inside that circle, but I'm glad I don't have to see that in person.

I don't think that would leave my consciousness. And for somebody like, you know, T Higgins, who bears no blame here, he's playing football. I think about his mental health and I think about, you know, what might be going through his head right now. And I don't think there's a single player on the field that's not, you know, you have to take care of your mental health in general. I think that's something that players, I think now in 2023 in this era, are more cognizant of. You know, I wish there were sports psychologists that I had access to when I played.

I wish that, you know, I took better care of my mental health. But certainly now I think players, whether they were on the field last night or not, are going to need to look out for themselves here over the coming weeks. And this is something that's certainly going to stick with the guys that were on the field. I just pray that it's a good, you know, it's as good an outcome as we can hope for.

And then that healing process is a bit easier. And I just, this kid, he was, and again, I say this, there are so many guys in the NFL who are great people. And it took this tragedy to learn more about this kid.

And I mean, just going back through all the things he said and done over the past couple of years, he just seems like a model citizen. And, you know, I think there's so many guys that we can learn a lot more about and the humanity, that aspect of it. I hope we gain an appreciation for that as a result of this. And yeah, I'm just hopeful he's okay. Yeah, all of us, man. Like I was texting you earlier today, you know, about how if he suffered what I think he suffered, if Hamlin did suffer from the same cardiac arrest that Chris Pronger suffered in 98, you know, and he got back on his skates, he got out of the hospital, he got back on his skates.

He made the Hall of Fame. Like this is the sort of hopefulness that I'd love to give out while we're waiting. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And I know Chris Pronger and, you know, he had an amazing career after that. And seeing that video last night kind of surfacing again, it's so scary. It's just the suddenness of it. And, you know, as a player, you have no idea what's happening on the ice or on the field when that happens, because we're not doctors, you know, like whatever people are throwing around as a diagnosis.

You know, we don't know that stuff. I'm just so hopeful that this kid, man, wakes up and he gets an opportunity to wake up and see the outpouring of love and support and gets to see that $3 million in his fund and gets to see all the positivity that's been tossed his way deservedly, because he's one of many great kids in the NFL. And, you know, there's not a lot of times you get this outpouring of love and support and get to wake up, you know, and I hope he gets to see that. I mean, that's all I care about. The next, you know, can he continue playing football? He's been an important player for them.

It's his career over that sort of thing. I just want him to wake up and see, you know, all the positivity that's transpired over the last 12 to 16 hours from strangers. And I think it's also, again, it's instructive. We all have that in us, you know, the outpouring of love and support. It doesn't have to take this to be better. And I hope that we can be better. I'm with you, man.

I'm so with you. And by the way, what's it up to now, Chris? What's it up to now? It's over $4.5 million.

$4.5 million, by the way, which is about $700,000 more than when we first came on the air a little over than two hours ago. Oh, I mean, I'm just so hopeful that he gets to see that. Me too. Me too. Love you, brother. Happy New Year otherwise. Thanks for doing this. Yeah, much love to you all, man.

Happy New Year. And I appreciate you having me on as OA. Please, come on, man. I mean, and I appreciate you. I mean, you're so giving of your mind and your heart, man. You always are. You always have been. And it's one of your many amazing traits and why you're so good at, you know, media if this is, you know, the path that you are going to continue on.

And I hope it is. Truly. A lifelong Rich Eisen guest.

That's my career path. Salt. Salt. We accept it. Thank you, yes, TJ. We accept it. Take care of yourself, Chris. We'll chat next week. We'll chat next week.

Y'all take care. Oh, good. It's Chris Long. Do you remember that when we had his dad on? I do remember that. That was, were we at the Hall of Fame or was that- We was at the Hall. No, it was at the Hall.

So it was a Hall of Fame Rich Eisen podcast TV special back for the NFL Network. That's what it was, right? It might have been 2012 or 2013, but it was one of those. I don't know what, whatever it was. I do remember that. Or it could have been one of our radio shows recently or whatever. I remember where we were. We were in that sort of room, right? It was definitely about a decade ago. Okay.

Yeah. And I just remember, and I felt so silly after he gave his answer. Well, because you were excited. Well, because when two sons kind of square off, you're like, oh, you must be excited as parents to go see this. And yeah, I remember being in the edit and Howie was just like, no, I'm not looking forward to it whatsoever. He's like, no, as a matter of fact- Because there was the chance that maybe Chris would line up over Kyle.

Because that's what I said. I even situated the question by saying, you know, the Manning family, one guy plays quarterback, the other guy plays quarterback, then out on the field at the same time. This is one son lining up against the other, maybe. Like you're going to actually see him go against each other.

How cool was that going to be? Howie was not having it. He was not excited.

He was not? Yeah. He's like, actually, you know, my wife and I, Diane and I, our hearts are going to be on our throats every snap.

I do remember. And I'm like, huh, I didn't think of it that way. Maybe I should start thinking about it that way.

Because, yeah, it's a car crash in every play. Truly one of the first things I thought of last night. And I mentioned it when I went on the air with Westwood One, hopped on the air with Curtin and Kevin Harlan when they're calling a game and it's all of a sudden trying to make heads or tails of what the hell's going on. And I mentioned that, like Howie Long, Pro Football Hall of Famer, who made it through his career and looks great. Howie looks like he can give you snaps right now, right? Howie looks like he did the first day I worked with him in 1997.

Serious. And, you know, he still looks great. By the way, can't say that about me. That's because we hadn't worked until 2003 together.

That's what I meant. I look the same. What do you mean?

What are you aiming at? We all look great. You know, unbelievable. 844-204 Rich, number to dial. We'll take your phone calls. We'll be back here on The Rich Eyes and show in a moment.

What are you talking about here? So expect innovative safety features like crosswind assist and blind spot assist. Expect amazing performance and reliability with an MBUX voice command system, a five star dealer network and an available gas engine. It runs like, well, a dream.

So what do you say? Head to the Mercedes-Benz van dealership and get that sprinter. Tell them your dream sent you. The Rich Eyes and Show radio network powered by Grainger. With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger is the right product for you.

Call, click Grainger.com or just stop by. Let's go back to the phone lines. Appreciate people calling in on a day like this.

We're here for you. Nathan in LA, back here on The Rich Eyes and Show. Happy New Year, Nathan.

Happy New Year. Wish I was calling under brother's circumstances. Me too, brother. But what's on your mind?

Well, what's on my mind is people have been looking or asking or wondering if there's any sort of comparison to be made. Ironically, yesterday, during the Tulane USC game, they relayed the story, shared the story of Devon Walker, a player for Tulane in 2012 who suffered a vicious hit on the field. He had to receive CPR on the field.

He was at the game yesterday, the Tulane USC game. He is alive. He is wheelchair bound. He needs assistance with breathing. But he is alive.

He has his mind. And so that's the only comparable situation here. Obviously, you wish for at least as good, if not a better outcome for DeMar, but that's the comparison that there is. Well, again, and thanks for the call. Thanks for the call, Nathan.

And, you know, look, we're all grasping at any straws. Can we compare it to this? Can we compare it to that? How's that person doing now? What happened to that person?

I keep mentioning Chris Pronger. You know, but as for Tulane, what a game that was yesterday. That Tulane USC game where, you know, I watched the end of that one yesterday.

I'll always shoot you straight. I'm like, how come TCU couldn't have a guy fumble the resulting kickoff of the Michigan Wolverines comeback attempt out of bounds at the two yard line? How come that couldn't happen for us? I mean, that moment, Tulane scores a touchdown, resulting kickoff, totally, unfortunately for that kid, botched, two plays later, safety. And then the touchdown that Tulane got initially ruled incomplete, then ruled a problem further review complete because the ball would have hit the ground if it wasn't for USC's defender's arm keeping the ball up for Tulane to grab.

I mean, is that one of the wildest sequences you've seen to end a game? It seems there's always these bowl games. USC had a 15, it was 45 to 30 with about four minutes left. And Talin came back and you saw what happened for Georgia. And I'm still waiting on Michigan's comeback. Can we get that? Who's going to be your head coach? Uh, right. Tough guy. A done deal if offered a job, according to the athletic. Bruce Feldman, baby, I can't wait to get him in here.

Really? A done deal? Just offer me a job and it's over. Here, the way it's written makes it seem like this is the conversation with Jim Harbaugh about leaving Michigan to go to the NFL. Chris, you are an NFL owner. I'm Jim Harbaugh. Hey, what's up, Jim?

No, no, no, no, no. I'm not ready for the scene yet. I'm laying it out.

According to the athletic, it's a done deal if he's offered an NFL job. So, start the scene. Hey, Jim, what's up, man?

You know we got a head coaching vacancy. Yes! Are you interested? Yes!

Here's a contract. Yes! Do you have a pen?

I got like four of them. Done! Which one?

I don't care. Give me a pen. Purple Roku pen. Done! I'll take the purple Roku pen.

Will your lawyer accept purple ink on the contract? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, sure.

Done deal! Let me call my wife. We're moving to... Charlotte, Indianapolis. Does it matter? Is it an NFL job? Yes. Oh, that's fine.

I don't care. New expansion team in Alaska. That's what it sounds like. Yeah, Alaskan expansion. Alaskan expansion.

This is what it sounds like. In Nome, West. Please. Stewart in Huntington Beach, California. You're here on The Rich Eisen Show. Thanks for calling in, Stewart.

Rich, thank you for taking my call. Like you, I'm an ex-New Yorker. I spent four years in Cincinnati in training. And I've been in Southern California since around 1983. I'm a cardiologist practicing here.

I was just wondering, a long time fan, whether I can help you with what kind of has been going on and what they're doing. Well, in this day and age, it's dangerous to just accept a phone call of somebody who says they are what they are, but I will do it. You sound like an up-and-standing citizen that will not call into a radio show and act like you... I have something in common with you. But I am a cardiologist since 1985.

Very briefly... Go for it. Obviously, what happened, when he stood up, he went down. He had a thinkable episode, probably due to a cardiac arrest. We have to do what's called a differential diagnosis to figure out, and this will be down the road, why it happened. Did he have ventricular fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, or did he have asystole?

You have to know all kudos to the people who took care of him on the field. They recognized that he was in cardiac arrest, meaning he wasn't perfusing his body because of something that happened. They did CPR for a prolonged period of time. The good news was, when they got him into the van, nobody was on his chest doing CPR, so they did reinstitute a rhythm by shocking him or whatever. He's intubated and he's taken to the hospital. Now we do what's called, as you guys have been talking about, he's cooled.

That's part of the protocol we use. He's cooled and he's intubated, and literally, you might do an EMG to see if there's any brain injury at all. But the point is, down the road, we'll look at what causes it. There is something called commodio cordis, meaning you can get a punch to the chest and it can happen at a certain time in the cardiac cycle that can cause an arrhythmia. There's data in the literature about young ball players, a pitcher, getting a ball hit back, hitting in the chest, and they actually have a cardiac arrest.

That might have happened to this gentleman, but you have to figure it out. The key point is he's alive, and that's what you're so happy for. He's alive. And now, in the next 24 to 48 hours, they're watching him, obviously, hopefully his rhythm is stable. Then they'll start weaning him off the cooling, and then also weaning them off the fact he is sedated.

That's part of the protocol. They'll try and wake him up and see, and then down the road, they'll try and figure out why this happened. Was it commodio cordis? Does he have some underlying cardiac abnormality that causes it? But I think you need to stop and say thank you to the people who took care of him. He had what's called bystander CPR, and they did a fabulous job. They saved his life.

I think everyone needs to wait. It's 24, 48 hours, and see what they say about when he wakes up. And once he wakes up, then they'll start figuring out why this happened. And to be perfectly honest, God willing, if he lives, he'll get what's called a defibrillator, meaning he can never have this happen again and go on from there.

But the key point is when they got him into the ambulance, he was alive, had a rhythm, all because of the fabulous job that the people did doing what's called bystander CPR. So I have a couple questions for you. If the report is correct, let me get your name right, I'll call you Dr. Stewart.

That's fine. If Stewart is fine. So if the report is correct, the initial report that we received from a reporter in Cincinnati that works for Fox, that he had a pulse but not breathing on his own, what does that mean? That's probably false. If he had a pulse, they would not be doing CPR. You only do CPR if you do not have a pulse. Now, and obviously if you don't have a pulse, you're not breathing. So the point is you can shock someone, get them back, and they still may not be breathing but they'll have a pulse.

Then you need to intubate and breathe for them. The key point was getting the rhythm back. At the point where they came, he had no rhythm.

Forget about breathing. The key point is he had no pulse, and if they probably put the pads on him, they either saw asystole, meaning no heart activity, or some rhythm they can shock him out of, which was probably ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation. Once they shocked him back into rhythm, you need to intubate him, obviously they did, and breathe for him. And now, once he gets to the hospital, they do a whole protocol where they cool him, they keep him sedated, they let the brain rest, everything, and that is part of the protocol.

They're obviously doing tests like echocardiograms to just take a look and see how the heart's squeezing, but this is way too early. The point was save him, make sure you're supporting him, and then down the road, you'll figure out what happened. But the key is just save him and support him. And then just quick hitters here, so we're in a no news is good news portion of the... Exactly. You shouldn't hear anything for at least another 24 hours, making sure that he's not having any crazy arrhythmias while he's in the hospital.

I don't think he will. And then literally in another 24, 48 hours, you start warming him and you start weaning him off the sedation to see how he'll wake up. Okay.

And then what do you...is it possible that he wakes up and he's just like, hey everybody, what happened? Is that... Yes.

In fact, I remember none of this. Right. And the point is, just like the gentleman you were talking about in 1997 had a cardiac arrest, if this was some sort of primary arrhythmogenic arrest and they did CPR so fast and it was good bystander CPR and they got him back, then you hope that he'll have no... there's what's called anoxic encephalopathy or brain damage from that. Remember, it wasn't...remember, he stood up. He looked fine for a second. Right. So he was moving everything. So the question was, did he have a primary arrhythmia or did he have what I mentioned before, the commedia cordis from the hit that put him into the ventricular tachycardia fibrillation?

And then he went down because he couldn't perfuse his brain and that's why he went down. Stuart, I appreciate you calling in. Thank you. Appreciate that.

Okay. You take care. You don't take insurance, do you?

Do you take insurance? I take everything, Rick. All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it, Stuart. Thank you. Okay.

That's an amazing call, man. I mean, I honestly think a lot of the words he was saying... Oh, yeah. ...you know, is what I was getting on my text from professionals last night.

Yeah. You know, the diagnosis that he was delivering. And okay, so I think that answers the question so many people are having is like, if he's okay, why aren't we hearing he's okay? It's because he's in a state that they need to keep him in as part of the protocol to make sure he's okay. And the fact that he had a pulse when he got put in the ambulance and he's alive today is good. And the fact that we're not hearing that he's not good is good.

And let's all just wait for him to be brought out of the state that he's currently in as part of the protocol to deal with whatever he suffered. Did that make sense? Yeah. Okay. All right. So, okay.

Glad to hear that. And I'm glad that there are paid professionals out there in the Rich Eisen Show viewing and listening audience that have the time to call in. And like he said, no news, good news right now. Do you think there was somebody in his waiting room saying, why am I five minutes late for the... I've been on hold for 20 minutes.

I need a cardiology. I mean, we're trying to all get through the day together. We'll take a break, more phone calls, and then we'll set up best we can the rest of the week.

844-204-RICH number to dial here on the Rich Eisen Show. We're all kind of sitting here and going, you can't imagine what it was like. Oh, I can imagine it to be there.

The thing is, like, I don't have to imagine because I was there once and I saw it happen. And it was my nephew. His name was Ishmael.

I don't know if anyone watches the show. They see I wear this wristband every day with his name on it. And I have his name tatted on my arm. And two days after Christmas in 2007, he had a severe asthma attack and he passed out. He was a young football player as well. How old was he?

He was nine. And the night before we were playing Nintendo Wii, you know, and it was 11 o'clock at night. I finally went home.

My sister lived next door to my mom. He had knocked me out in this game, like five games in a row. And I was like, all right, I can't beat this guy. And I left him that night and I went to bed and I woke up the next morning at six in the morning to screaming and crying. And I went back to the house and five feet from where I had last seen him. He was laying on the ground and my brother in law is doing CPR on him and he couldn't breathe. And so we call 911 and the ambulance came in and they did all of that stuff that you saw yesterday. And I watched this nine year old kid who six hours before he was standing next to me. And now he's on the ground and he's getting worked on. And I kind of just had to go sit outside because I couldn't because it's real. Like watching that happen is just something that you don't want to see. And I went and I sat on the steps and I watched them work on him a little bit more in the ambulance. And I can remember just going, why aren't you leaving?

Why aren't you leaving? And, you know, the outcome for Ishmael was not a great outcome. He ended up passing away on New Year's Day. So it was 15 years ago. And I am so sorry.

Yeah, it was 15 years ago on New Year's Day. So I kind of have this feeling every New Year's that that, you know, my buddy is gone. And so halfway through that yesterday, you know, it's kind of a memory I've tried to like repress after so many years. You try not to think of course. And it kind of, man, it just it hit me, you know, that that feeling.

So when people say, I wonder how his family feels or his mom feels like, I can tell you because I can still see my sisters and I can still see my mom. And I, I know who I felt watching that process. And it was terrible.

And to this day, I would say that I'm not the same person today that I was on December 26, 2007. And you guys might not know this, but I, I carried my father and my nephew out of churches in coffins 15 days apart. When that happened, I did not know that. Yeah, it's not something, you know, so watching that. Yeah, man, it kind of brought up this memory and this feeling. And I'm just praying for his family that they have a better result, a better outcome. You know, I have a good friend in Pittsburgh who knows him and he knows the family.

And he told me this morning how great of a kid he was and how great the family they were. So just, you know, my prayers and go out to them. But yeah, I kind of understand what it's like to have to sit there and watch that. So I know what those players were feeling like and going through. And it's just it's just the worst feeling in the world, man, when you're hopeless.

I know the exact feeling, TJ. You know, I mean, I haven't spoken about it, but I'll share it since you just shared as well. You know, my my dad passed away in December of 2019. And the incident that started it all off was he had difficulty swallowing because he had Parkinson's. And it was at the day after Thanksgiving dinner, the whole family. And what you just said, that happened to me with my dad. And it was frightening. And I'll never forget it.

And it's difficult to bring up for various reasons. And so I did think of that last night as well, watching the faces of these players on the field. Because, you know, we couldn't really see what was going on, but their faces told that story. If you've seen this happen and you're shocked and you'd like have no idea like what the hell just happened. The difference is, is, you know, you and I were able to go right to the hospital. And, you know, Diggs apparently took an Uber.

An Uber, yeah, they almost didn't let him in. And so I could not imagine them seeing that. And just the first indication, you know, I got after they took the second commercial break was like, OK, this is really serious. And then they come back and they show Josh Allen with his hands over his mouth. And then just again, just to, I guess, bring it to a football analogy to make my point here is I've never seen Joe Burrow have a different face other than the one that he has on the football field. You know, we spoke to Josh Allen this week and he says he's all about ball and he couldn't be distracted even when he was having fun with with Burrow and Sam Donald and Kyle Allen. They throw together in the off season that Burrow would just be unflappable. And then just to see Burrow totally blown away with what he was seeing and then the look on his face, looking at whatever the camera wasn't showing. I'm like, oh, yeah, no. And then I just kind of flashback to my experience in the same way that you have yours. And I'm sure there's many others out there who are watching and listening have had similar experiences and then would absolutely know there's no way they were going to play a football game at that point in time.

And then, you know, the confusion as to why it took so long. And I think, you know, the inclination was for football players. It's, you know, Tom Brady said earlier this week, you know, you can sit out this game. We play football. We're football players. It's football season.

We play football. And that's the general sense that a lot of these guys have. And certainly as we talk to Chris Long about what it takes to sort of place the concept of getting hurt in a violent sport to the recesses of your mind, to have that happen right in front of everybody. Whatever analogy you want to use, a veil, a mental block, a haze, whatever you want to use for that, seeing their comrade have first aid administered like that, removed it immediately.

And they saw with clear eyes maybe what their greatest fear is in the recesses of their minds, not to get too deep, to see all that. And then the NFL and the protocols are just generally, okay, we play five, ten minutes, next man up. It took a while, I guess, for everyone to realize, yeah, next man's not coming up tonight. There's no next man up tonight.

Actually, it's next hug up, next cry up. That was what last night was about. And it was jarring to watch and see and live and try and make heads or tails of. And the good news, based on this three-hour journey we've all just taken together, and I really appreciate you sharing what you just shared, TJ, because I know that's not what you normally come to work to do. Yeah, I had to make sure I could get through it.

No, and I totally appreciate that and why you haven't said very much today, and I totally understand what you're saying. But the good news here is, based on what we've just all gleaned, is the reason why we're not hearing any news is that he's been placed in a state to help him get through this and that he didn't die on the field last night. There wasn't the end of the story on the field last night, that the first aid that he received on the field last night and the protocols that have been set up to address moments like this, the emergency measures that have never really been needed that I can remember.

Again, I'm 53 years old, I was two years old when Chuck Hughes died on the field in Tiger Stadium in Detroit, that it worked. And the reason why we're not hearing any update yet is they like to keep him medically in this state, DeMar Hamlin, in this state of cooling and brain resting for 24 to 48 hours. And that's entirely possible when they take him out of this state, he'll be like, what's the score? Yeah, that's what you can hope.

Why am I here? And we can explain to him, you're here because this is what happened and not only are you still with us, we love you, but guess how much money's in the account of your charity? Absolutely. I'm hoping that that is the way it all works out for this young man, the Chasing M's Foundation Community Toy Drive raised over $600,000 during the three hours of this show, it's up to four and a half million bucks. That's amazing. So our thoughts and prayers are with the Hamlin family, once again, I can't say it enough, we're hoping to get that good news and that we come on the air tomorrow with that good news already for this 24 year old young man. And that if not, we'll keep the light on for that good news right here on this edition of The Rich Eisen Show, we're done for the day here on the Roku channel, I want to thank Tom Pelissaro, Eric Wood, and I want to thank Chris Long, Dr. Stewart down in Southern California to help us suss out what might have happened, the cardiologist who called in. I think he was legit. I hope so. And everyone else who called in.

We'll be here for you tomorrow, right 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 that WCW experienced between 95 and 98. This audience should be growing.

The character should be coming more. And they're not. Everybody's gradually losing audience. People will say, well, but AW is 15 percent ahead of where they were last year. But there's variables there. Let's see where we're at year from now. Eighty three weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.