REShow: Hour 1

This is the Rich Eisen Show. Perfection wears red and black. The dogs have done it.

65 to 7. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I think Jameson Williams asked Aaron Rodgers for his jersey and Aaron said, I'm going to hold on to this one. I'm going to hold on to this one. That's what he said. I'm going to hold on to this one.

And Tarico heard that and goes, well that's something. The Rich Eisen Show. Today's guests. Senior Writer for the MMQB. Albert Brier. Super Bowl Champion and NFL on Prime Video Analyst, Andrew Whitworth. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

Well, hey everybody. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show here on the Roku channel. Which is free on all Roku devices and select Samsung Smart TVs and Amazon Fire TVs. It is free on the Roku app. It is free on the internet tubes. The Roku channel dot com is how you can watch us every single day live here. And if you're watching right now, you're seeing in honor of our third hour guest, the long time terrific offensive lineman in the National Football League and Super Bowl Champion from the Los Angeles Rams, LSU Tiger, Cincinnati Bengal.

Now from Amazon Prime, Andrew Whitworth. I'm wearing a hoodie. You need the sport coat over it. I know, but you know what?

I just kind of like this look just like this. And I figure it's just enough for me to do today to honor our third hour guest in studio. Albert Brier will be here in hour number two. Lots going on in the NFL. General managers and head coaches who are still on the 18 teams that didn't make the playoffs are all meeting with the media and either having mea culpas or inspirational messages that they're going to turn pages and turn things around and things like that. And then, of course, there's Jerry Jones, who's talking about his head coach, who's taking the team into the playoffs. So there's all of that to talk about with Albert Brier and with you at 844-204-RICH. Number to dial here on this edition of the Rich Eisen Show here in Los Angeles, California, where we're collecting, it's raining so hard, we're collecting animals by twos. And speaking of which, we say hello to both Chris Brockman and Mike Del Tufo in their spots. What's up, you filthy animals? Georgia just scored again, Rich.

Thank you very much. Good to see you guys. TJ Jefferson, light the candle, sir.

Light the candle. Look, man, I'm just saying this. I feel bad for you guys who took, you know, an hour to travel to SoFi yesterday and had to sit through that debacle in the rain.

Holy cow. Well, we didn't get wet. I mean, the roof didn't leak a little. Excuse me. Excuse me. Hold on a minute.

Somebody would dispute that. But it was awesome. I mean, debacle for who? Let's talk about this.

Let's talk about this. Let's talk about the national championship game that just went down here in Los Angeles, California, just up the road in SoFi Stadium. And it sure looks like that kick by Noah Ruggles as the ball dropped in Times Square, Toe met Ball while Ball met, I guess, 2023 light up sign in Times Square at the same time. It sure looks like that was for the national championship that had Ohio State split the uprights, had Noah Ruggles made that kick.

They'd have been the ones administering the boat race amongst the raindrops, the torrential downpour here in Los Angeles, California. But that would take away, obviously, from Georgia football and what they have built and what Kirby Smart has built in Georgia. And what he has built is a juggernaut. What Georgia did was take somebody from Nick Saban's staff and say, here, you come here between the hedges and build what Nick's done in Alabama. And I prefer to say he's not only built what Nick's done in Alabama, it kind of looks like he's one-upped it. And when you kiss the trophy two years in a row without losing a game, I mean, that's pretty what we call, certainly in the college football playoff era, unprecedented.

And this is truly unbelievable what he is building. And the kids that are playing in the National Football League playoffs this coming weekend, or those are on their bye weeks this weekend, is another testament to what they're doing, just churning out one after another after another, top-notch professional football players. And then there are others that would be drafted in the top 10, top 15 if they were old enough or out of high school long enough to be drafted. That Brock Bowers guy, I draft him now. I mean, that kid is unbelievable, number 19 in your program. I went to the game last night with my 11-year-old coop, and I said to him, that's a tight end. That's a tight end. When you got to look at a pass catcher and remind, because he's Mossin people, he is unguardable.

They ran an end around with him. He's unguardable. He is versatile, he is dangerous. And I'm just mentioning him as just one, right?

As just one. But when James Cook runs the football this weekend for the Bills, when Jordan Davis stops the run for the Eagles, when he comes back, I mean, I could go on and on and on and on and on. Jalen Carter has already said he's turning pro. I mean, Georgia football is all that and a biscuit. And they also have won back-to-back championships with the only college football quarterback to have an AARP card.

Actually, Stetson Bennett IV is halfway to that AARP card. I got it. Mike, you've got one. I've got one. T.J. won a mid if he has one.

I've had one. You get it when you turn 50, T.J. It's coming. It's coming.

Yeah, it's easy. You're going to be Magic Johnson when the mailman comes with your AARP card. What's this?

I'm not going to be there. He's halfway to it. Stetson Bennett IV.

Ahoy, boy. He can ball, man. He can ball? He can ball, dude. He puts the ball where it needs to be, and when he needs to pick it up, he scored the first touchdown of the night.

And just when you thought this could be a game, and it's 10-7, no. Because not only can he run it in, he can put the ball right where it needs to be, and his guys get open. His guys, he's got windows.

He's got windows, and he puts it where it needs to be, and he did that last night over and over and over again. And he is, by the way, how about this stat? He is older than Jalen Hurts, Brock Purdy, Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, and Tuatunga Vailoa. As we're showing a photograph of him being the latest national championship quarterback to Lita Segara, aka Joe Burrow.

He's holding up the championship belt. And he's got more accolades than all those guys combined. And he's got, what do you mean by accolades?

Back-to-back champ, back-to-back MVP of the tournament. And those five guys are all quarterbacks that just led their teams to the playoffs in varying degrees. He's also older than Carla Murray, Sam Darnold, Matt Jones, Daniel Jones, and Justin Fields.

And Lamar. He is older than all of them. Would you rather have him than any of those other guys?

No, I don't know. And that's one of the questions I'm going to ask Albert, what sort of prospect is Stetson Bennett? Because when he started playing, obviously, as we all know, whatever Jimmy G was on the depth chart this summer, when he was not going to play for the Niners, it's like, hold my beer on that. What was he like, sixth or seventh or eighth? He's a two-star, he walked on, he had to transfer, he came back, they keep recruiting his replacement. And we were all joking.

It's an amazing story. We were all joking as well, and some people still do that. He sounds like he's going to run your hedge fund.

Yeah. Well, actually, he's upgraded. When he first started winning football games, it was like, hey, come on down to Stetson Bennett Ford.

We'll put the title in your car. But now he's either a hedge fund manager or is he an NFL quarterback? I mean, you see what Brock Purdy's doing, why can't Stetson Bennett do that?

Correct. He made NFL throws last night. He can run the ball. He's throwing to NFL players. He's throwing to NFL players. Brock Bowers would be a top 10 pick right now.

I would agree. So, you know, why can't this guy go out? Look, is he small? Yeah. He's like maybe six feet. He's maybe 200 pounds.

Yes. But so is the number one pick in the draft this year. So why isn't he just as good as Bryce Young? Why isn't he just as good? I mean, there's one back to back title.

There's different skill sets. And obviously, I mean, no, look, look, look, this is all this is all something that will be discussed over the next few weeks. And you know, when he comes to the combine and he's older than most of the scouts that are there, you know, I'll ask Albert Breer this when he joins us at the top of our number two. Now then, let's talk about TCU. And of course, since I'm a Michigan man, this one's about me. So what's the name of the show? It's your show.

Thank you. As I'm settling into my chair at SoFi Stadium last night and realizing that I'm watching the national championship game being played between the two teams that knocked Michigan out over the last two years, it struck me to say, you know what? And it was kind of helpful that I was surrounded by purple clad individuals.

Oh, you're in the TCU side. Oh, was I. Oh, was I. Shout out to them for showing up. They were everywhere. They came, they were loud. And I could have told you that in advance because they were loud at the Fiesta Bowl and had every reason to be.

Every reason to be. Because they showed up in that Fiesta Bowl and made every play. They hardly made any mistakes. The only mistakes were like a tip drill interception, maybe a couple of turnovers, a penalty here and there, obviously a breakdown on defense. They made mistakes, but they made all the plays.

And they were a tough opponent that knocked my team out because my team made more mistakes for sure. And so I'm sitting there thinking, you know, one of the axioms I always espouse on this program in addition to got to play better than the refs ref, right? I'm kind of consistent on that front. Certainly when Michigan had a touchdown taken away and then given to Michigan on the one half inch line and they fumbled it, got to play better than the refs ref, got to play better than the refs ref. So when there is a clear targeting penalty that should be called and then isn't, it doesn't cost you your season.

Don't put yourself in that position. So I'm being consistent. The other one that I always say is if my team loses to somebody, I would like that team to win it all. Because that lets you think you could have won it all had you actually beaten that team.

That's it, right? And that's born out of, you know, many different times my team's having, you know, lost more than not. And that includes me and my personal life. I tell this story all the time. When I was an intern at the Staten Island Advanced College Intern, I really liked a fellow intern quite a bit. And it was the first, one of the first Heismann's I ever received.

But that young lass then went on to meet somebody else at the newspaper, it's tough to watch, but they eventually got married. So if I'm going to lose out, I want to lose to somebody that goes the whole route. Goes the whole way. You know what I mean? I've been that way for however long, I've been consistent. My whole life. Sports, personal life, you know what I mean?

So I'm thinking that as I settle in. And then the first snap of the game is a false start. Now I say to Cooper, where was that at the Fiesta Bowl? Where was that team that just jumped?

But he couldn't hear me because it was so damn loud in SoFi Stadium anyway. And then a three and out. And I thought to myself, where was that team? Well, Michigan did after not scoring in the first drive, despite getting it down to the two yard line and pulling some Ann Arbor special that I hope they rip out of the playbook and then torch, never to be seen again. They did get the ball out. They did stop TCU.

So I'm like, oh, okay, here we go. But then Georgia did what Michigan didn't, which was go down the field and just hot knife through butter score. Immediate touchdown. And then Michigan threw a pick six on their next possession in response to TCU giving them the ball back and Georgia scored with it. Georgia then picked off Max Duggan and it was a 10 nothing game just like that.

And I'm like, oh, okay, so maybe TCU is going to, it's improving. You give up seven. You give up three. Now just give up nothing.

Right. And then while I'm thinking that TCU gets a broken coverage and goes up top, Duggan goes up top. Nice play. And they wind up scoring. It's 10-7. 10-7. We got a game. We got a game. We got a game. We got a game. Little did I know Georgia was about to score the next 55 unanswered.

65 to 7. I got one of those kiddos who, Coop is one of those guys, he will watch a pre-season NBA game. He'll watch a summer league game and there's a minute and a half left on the clock and one summer league team is up by 45 and I'm like, that's it.

We got to change the talent. He'll be like, it's not over. I turn to him when it was 35-7, right, at half. I turn to him and I'm like, what do you think?

You want to leave? And he's like, before halftime? I struck a deal as it was raining so hard in Los Angeles, hey, he's been great to the NFL network.

He's kind of technically in a way maybe part of our landlord for some of our office space. Stan Kroenke, so I say this to you, sir, as a friend. Your billion dollar roof leaks when it's really raining.

It does. They made it worse on some of the TCU fans because sometimes, as you know, when things don't go your way for your sports team, it's like, okay, it's not going well and maybe they're still going up there and they're doing the horn frog. Nothing's more sad. They're such diehard fans. Nothing's sadder than watching somebody do the horn frog thing when they're down by 40, but we saw that and the phrase is, don't pee on me and tell me it's raining. That said, I sat there and I thought to myself, how did my team lose to that team?

How do we do it? Oh, I thought you sat there and thought, man, Michigan would have lost by 80 to Georgia tonight. No. Wow. No, Chris, because in all honesty, Georgia was lucky to be there.

There were things that go their way at the end of that game. But they're clearly the best team in the country. Here's the thing.

Wow. You won't even admit that? No, I will admit that, but in the same way that you can't sit here and say that, well, first of all, I just gave them a 10-minute long kudos that they are the best team in college football and the best program in college football. Even, Chris, what are you... I said that they've surpassed Alabama.

What more can you possibly say to give somebody a nod and a tip of the cap? I just asked you if they were the best team in the country. Well, I'm just saying that I did say that, the 10-minute long yes at the top of the program.

Okay. But my point is this, is every you and Sarah and every Georgia fan that I know- It's always about Michigan. You wouldn't have been on the field last night. You would have got routed like TCU did. And I think you should admit that. Or Michigan curb stomped the team that almost beat Georgia, and then Georgia curb stomped the team that beat Michigan, and Michigan beat the team that almost beat Georgia.

I mean, we can keep going on and on and on and on, can't we? I mean, the Ohio State team that played against Georgia would have curb stomped Michigan in the Final Four too. Really? Because I saw that team in their own home stadium with everything going for them lose by three scores. That's not the team that showed up against Georgia though, no? Well, then the Michigan team that showed up against TCU might not have shown up against Georgia either, Chris. Man, I just... Congratulations on your unique ability to make this always all about Michigan and how they would have done in the game.

They would have got absolutely destroyed last night. I don't know, Chris. This just in, and I'll go there since you are right now. This just in, I talk about what is on my mind and in my heart and in my gut. I totally understand that. So that's why I- It's just like, that was not a game last night, and it wouldn't have been a game against the Houston Texans probably. Like- They showed up really well, and the fact that I'm actually saying these things, I can think all these things at the same time, and the fact that you can also love the Patriots so much and want your all-time great coach either fired or completely sat down and have a conversation to, you can have those two things in your own head and your heart, right?

Those are independent of past performance. At any rate, this is all I was thinking last night is how great Georgia is and is better than Alabama and have all these players that they're going to go to the NFL, and it's going to be tough for anybody to beat them. As I've said in the first 10 minutes of this show that you have now conveniently forgotten because you are now going to come back at me and say, Michigan absolutely against that Georgia team last night would have had a very difficult time winning and it might have been a very tough time for me last night. In the same way, I watched two teams that beat my team in the last two years to end it. I'm like, how did Michigan lose to this TCU team?

How did they do it? It's what I sat there and I thought last night. Should Alabama have been in the Final Four now watching the game last night? We can't say that because TCU, I don't know if you could say that because in the same way that you said that... But that was a big conversation last night on Twitter, Alabama should have been here. If you think Georgia would have beat the Houston Texans, which is absolutely the all-time way of saying the worst team in the NFL could lose to the best team in college football. Right. I'm just saying. Exactly. So in that respect too, they should have beaten the crap out of Alabama as well.

And I would have loved to have seen them play them this year, but they didn't because they're not forced to play each other every single year, wait for it, like my team is everybody else in there. You understand how decisions work, right? I'm not setting them off on purpose. You're just doing... Man, you're just getting me going. Purposely. I'm expressing to you last night, congratulations to your team. Don't congratulate him. It's not my team. Don't congratulate him? Why? It's not his team.

Oh boy. I just said it's not my team. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. By default. It's a team of my household. But did you really just say that Georgia could beat the Texans?

No, they wouldn't, but that's hyperbole. It's tough to sometimes get the wheat from the chaff about what he's doing for effect and whatnot. So I'm trying to figure that out in real time right now on the show. I'm just telling you how I feel about it. And obviously my team was one in the final four and they did lose to the team that lost by 65 to seven. Look all three of my teams were in the bowl game. The final numbers are so freaking lopsided, it's ridiculous. And it was unwatchable and it was very difficult. And I feel for the TCU fans that flew all the way out here and got to the game in one of the worst weather days in the history of this city. Yeah, it's crazy out there. So at any rate, yes, Georgia would have won against anybody last night, including my team, Chris, but I am allowed to sit here and also say that and then come on the show and talk about what's in my heart and my stomach.

I'm not stopping you from doing that. I just 844-204-RICH is the number to dial here on this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. The Dallas Cowboys are getting, well, I mean, Jerry Jones talked today about his coach and said what one would want to hear. Jerry's always got something to say.

He does. 844-204-RICH number to dial. That's coming up next on the Rich Eisen Show. Welcome to Talkville, the ultimate Smallville rewatch podcast, where each week we watch every episode of Smallville, a show that changed our lives forever, and perhaps your lives too. I'm Michael Rosenbaum. Hello.

I am Tom Welling. What was the sign off now? Always remembers Talkville. That's it. Always hold on to Smallville, folks. We love you.

Can do without you. We've got a great season two coming up. Catch up with season one or start season two on YouTube or wherever you listen. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network, powered by Grainger. With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger is the right product for you.

Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. There's a pass and bomb, Chris. Is that what you said? What's going on?

Yeah, a pass and bomb. I mean, don't normally get some late-breaking MLB news, but apologies, TJ. Carlos Correa is going back to the Twins.

What the hell is happening here? Minimizing a six-year, $200 million deal. A vesting option can max out of 270, obviously pending physical. Oh, my goodness.

You know, look, that was your set anyway. That's a lot of money in a lot of years. But I don't understand. So he signs with the Giants for all that money in all those years, and they're like, wait a minute, there's something going on with the physical. And then the Mets swoop in and say, here's money. And they said, we don't care. And those years were like, we don't care.

Like the whole Magic Johnson, you know, or Stephen A. Smith, like, we don't care. Apparently something happened. And then the Mets pull back. And now he's staying. And they're staying in Minnesota, and again. For half the years. But they, out of all the teams, must not be surprised by whatever's come up on this physical.

You would assume. I mean, he's been there. One year, right? But his training staff has been with him for all that time. That's wild. You don't need him.

You don't need him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know about that. I mean, it was a luxury item. It's like, Mike, I have two cars, let me buy a boat.

But still, this is quite the luxury item. This kid is the real deal. I don't know. I don't know how to feel about that right now. TJ. I guess we dodged a proverbial bullet, perhaps.

No one seems to know what the physical, what's showing up. But again, that was a lot of money. And that was a lot of time. So maybe it's a good thing. So now the Twins are like, yeah, okay, you got to go around and seek out other teams and... You can't even sell this house. Could you imagine if you did all that? Looks like you could afford a new one. Just the inconvenience.

Yeah, just the inconvenience. Moving down the blocks, man. Wow. Forget... Max out of 207. It is pending physical. Oh, you didn't tell me those last four words. I did. No, I did. You did? I did. It is pending physical. Pending physical. Passing those... What's he going to wind up doing?

Why don't you FaceTime him real quick? Is he going to want to play for those, what, the banana splits? If not, what are those names of that team? The Savannah Bananas or something like that? Savannah Bananas. If these don't work, is that what he's going to end up doing?

He could always go to the Altuva Curves. Yeah, the Savannah Bananas. So what are you going to play for them?

It's a fun team. I don't know. Maybe they got a physical process that's really stringent too. Do we know what the physical limitation is down here right now? I have no idea.

Why is this always a hard spot? That's nuts. I don't know. That's why we should FaceTime passing right now.

Is that what we should do? No, he knows. I'm sure his hair looks great.

Of course. That's a given, Chris. All right, let's go to Sideline Mike. Sideline Mike, congratulations. You're living your best life in Atlanta. What's going on, Sideline Mike? Hey, brother.

How good day is this? I've been a Georgia fan since 1977. The last time before last year that they won a national championship, gentlemen, I was 19 years old. I won't be 60 years old.

I'm going to be 61 in July, so I am the epitome of patience and waiting. And the best part about the game last night, my wife would say, this game is not exciting. I'm like, no, it's not. I'm glad it's not.

I want to see Chris Tyler and Kirk Hurdstreet trying to figure out what to talk about, but let's have what I have. Okay? That's it.

Yep. We wanted that maze in blue because we wanted to show everybody that last year was not a fluke. I don't think anybody thought last year, Sideline Mike, I don't think anybody thought last year it was a fluke in any way, shape or form. You know, Georgia was clearly the better team and Michigan, I thought this year had the better quarterback than the previous year. You got robbed, Rich.

You got robbed. Michigan's team was upgraded at key positions, and then the running back gets, who was kind enough to call in yesterday that, you know, saying that he's going to come back and use this show's platform as his to announce he's coming back. I thought that that might be a difference, but when it's all said and done, I mean, Georgia's the best team and has the best program and they're the team to beat next year and we'll see what happens with their new quarterback.

I proffer to say they won't have any issues and they'll make the college football play offs and we'll see which one of the three teams that makes it has a chance to take them on. We'll see what happens. Yes, sir. And like I said, guys, I'll be a regular and it's great to be a Georgia Bulldog. You guys have a great day. Right back at you. Congrats, Sideline Mike.

There he goes. That's a long time to go without championships, man. Yeah, tell me about it.

Who are you talking to over here? I've been with Michigan since 86 and there was one year and Nebraska took half of it. Oh, that is true. Yeah. Because Tom Osborne was retiring.

Here's a gold watch. Take half of Michigan's title. And I know that there's an argument that Nebraska deserved it and Nebraska would have beat Michigan. By the way, I think that Nebraska-Michigan debate in 97 is what really sparked the idea of we got to get a BCS going. We got to get something going and they came up with BCS with the slide rules and all that stuff.

Remember they used to come out, I remember because I would do some of those shows. It was like a formula, right? It was a formula and like, oh gosh, they've got 0.86 in this category that nobody understands. It was like every category was so completely strange, it made NFL passer rating easy to figure out.

You had no idea. And then they finally, after all of that said, well, what about the two other ones? And somebody might come out from like a seed three, seed four and beat the one or a two team.

And now we're got one more year of just four. And that's the whole thing is just like, you know, so if TCU makes it and beats a team like Michigan and gets to a national title game and takes on a team that has so much more talent at every position and that won't make the mistakes and you make the mistakes and you get 65 to seven as the final score, what happens? I don't know. We'll figure out if there's a 12 team race that somebody like TCU will get weeded out before championship game.

I don't know. And Alabama would make it, USC would have been playing, right? I imagine Penn State would have been playing, you know, these things would have all happened this year. So anyway, congrats to Georgia. The Dallas Cowboys are playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night football.

I don't know if you've heard that. It's the first Monday night football playoff game ever. And I think the league, you know, did they have to mess with me? No, I think the league was, is genuinely excited about a Monday night football playoff game.

And I don't know, I'll find out if this had anything to do with it. You know, whatever happened in Cincinnati about the five minute get back on the field situation and ESPN reported what they reported and the NFL, you know, chief football operations executive is saying, this is ridiculous, that never happened. And it's not pretty. You know, ESPN had to put out a statement.

I don't know if this is another way of just saying, we're all good. Here's the greatest game ESPN's ever put on its air. Here's like the biggest ratings bonanza ESPN will ever have. And they got ESPN too.

They got the Manning cast and they got, they got Deportes. They got plus, they got, I mean, it's going to be in a million platforms and the whole country is going to see it on their phones or on their television sets or in bars or whatever. And it's going to be lit.

Westwood One's got it on the radio. I'll be part of that on Monday night. It's going to be amazing. I hope you're right.

No, it's, it's going to be great. I know you're nervous about the outcome as well you should because of the way that Dallas has been playing. So Tampa hasn't lit any fires with the exception of that final, final, you know, home game for them where they finally connected Brady and Evans to the tune of 200 some odd yards and Brady had a great game and they clinched the division. The Bucks haven't lit any fires at either, but the Cowboys and Brady and maybe his last game as a pro, certainly his last game as Tampa with that on the line against the Dallas Cowboys team that has captured the fancy of the country for so many years and then this team in particular. With Mike McCarthy having been one and done last year and Dak, you know, not giving the ball to an official properly in time and not getting a final snap off. I mean, all of that has been hanging over this team all year long with Dak and the Cowboys playing down to their level of competition almost every single time that they can and then surprising everybody when they're taking on a team that's higher seeded than them, you know, inconsistent.

Which is the case on Monday, so. So, and hanging all over this is everybody thinking that Jerry's going to make a move certainly with Sean Payton ready to come back to coaching clearly and that has been the apple of the Cowboys eye reportedly rumored to be. Here was Jerry today when asked if Monday night's game with everything I just put on the line for you. What is at stake in front of his many eyeballs that will be taking it in and ear gates taking it in? Is this a must win for Mike McCarthy to keep his gig?

This is Jerry on one on five three. The fan in the Metroplex could anything happen in this playoff game Monday that could put Mike McCarthy's job status in question for next year? No. Just I don't even want to know that I don't need to go into all the pluses or minuses, but we're not seeing any. We're not basing. I've got a lot more to evaluate Mike McCarthy on than this playoff game. There you go.

I'm shocked that it was such a short and succinct answer. Well, because he knows, I mean, this is the man who told Cooper Rush, please make a quarterback controversy out of your stint and he did, but I, as you know, at the time interpreted that to say, you know, win as many games as possible. You know, I'd love to have that controversy conversation that I know would come even though I have no intention of replacing Dak with Cooper Rush and I guess he feels the same way with Mike McCarthy, but I'll tell you what, man.

There's always circumstances that happen in playoff games you never know, but you can also have to sit here and say as well, hey, the other way, any sort of inkling of doubt. He did say minuses, didn't he? Wait a minute. There was not going to be one of the pluses and minuses.

There must be minuses. Oh, he said, wait a minute. I've got a lot of other things to evaluate Mike McCarthy on than just a playoff game. Does he mean the way that they just played last week?

I mean, he knows that we're going to make mountains out of molehills no matter what, so why give him a mountain at all or a molehill at all like he did for the Cooper Rush thing? That's the way I'm interpreting that, but did anybody see the end game of last year's 49ers game coming? Anybody see that one coming? Nope. By the way, anybody see 65-7 coming other than Las Vegas and everybody who roots for Georgia? I don't think Georgia fans saw that coming. Anyway.

I don't know. Also, Rich, this Monday night game has got to be better than last year's Monday night game. Remember Rams Cardinals was Monday night. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought, that's right. I forgot. I was actually better. Yeah. Well, no, you forgot about it because it was so bad. Duh.

34-11 last year. Thank you. Oof. I appreciate that very velvety correction on your part. Vast improvement from the way the first segment ended.

Hey, look, Rich, I want to improve segment by segment. I appreciate that. Just hope for the best. Just hope for the best. And the year goes on and hope for the best. And that's all we can do here is get better.

That's all we can do, right? Minute to minute. Day by day. Day by day.

Week by week. Oh, we lost our signal. That's how hard it's raining. Is that right?

It's nuts what the hell's going on here. The fog was so thick coming over. How thick was it? Oh, dang. I missed it.

About 1,000 feet visibility. No joke. It was pretty bad. It's crazy here. And again, like I said, I feel for all those fans who came in from Texas probably because they probably had those plans in their back pocket for all of like five days.

You know? But still, coming to Southern California for something like this, expecting some sunshine. I don't know how they did this because at the Fiesta Bowl, there was a TCU side and a Michigan side, but it was completely mixed up every now and then. You'd look at the Maize and Blue side and see a lot of purple in it, and then you'd look at the purple side and see a lot of Maize and Blue in it. Last night, it was like a wall of purple. It was. It was split. And then a wall of red.

And you could see where it split. That sounds like segregation and I ain't with it. No. All right.

What the hell's happening here on this program? I thought it was 50-50, though, last night. Didn't you? It was.

No question. Yeah. And it was really loud for everybody.

It was really loud. All right. 844-204-rich-number-of-dials. Still to come on this show, I've got the top five non-playoff teams I would buy stock in for 2023. I've got that list. That's a good one. Oh, yeah.

Captain. Man, this dude, hell, he's on his list stuff. I am on my list. We're on this show. I'm on my A-plus list game. 844-204-rich is the number for you to dial here as well.

844-204-rich is the number to dial. Sorry to our terrestrial radio audience and our listening radio audience when you hear us laughing so hard coming back, but we were just talking about, you know, I said that you knew you made the right decision not to go to a game when the winning team hit the over on its own. And TJ's like, how'd you know that? And I'm like, well, the guys next to me knew it. And I'm like, well, yeah, no, my son knew it.

My 11-year-old knew it. That's what broke us. Although, like, again, Coop, we made a decision that we could leave by the third, if the third quarter was out of hand by the end of the third.

And then when they went up, I think it was 40-something, well, I think, or we might've seen him hit 50. Yeah. And that's where, like, we're out.

We're gone. So then Coop was fine with it, too. Although at halftime, he said, maybe we should stay to see if Georgia scores 100.

I couldn't sit there and tell him, come on. They scored on every possession. They should have done it. There were guys open everywhere. And then when there was just even a slight window, Stetson Bennett hit it.

He hit that window every time. The running plays were getting 8, 9, 10, 11 yards of pop. Yeah, at one point, they were averaging nine yards of play. 254 rush yards to 36, 589 total yards to 188. They didn't even have two football fields of total yards in a national championship game. Man.

Go figure that. I'm a captain. 844-204-rich. I don't know why that line just popped in my head, but it did.

844-204-rich number to dial here on the program. One of the teams digging out from underneath the wreckage of the 2022 National Football League campaign is number three on my list of top five most disappointing teams of the season yesterday. When you come in with a kid that had a revelatory season at running back and can be MVP, certainly behind an offensive line that we said over and over and over again would be the best one that Matt Ryan was playing behind maybe his entire career, and this is a guy who was playing behind an offensive line, that he was an MVP behind one year. Took him to a Super Bowl in Atlanta. But boy did it fall apart and it fell apart fast for the Indianapolis Colts. When they tied to Houston Texans to start the season, it's kind of like, what was that?

What was that? And then the Colts just began to sputter and they got Matt Ryan destroyed. He was an iron deer in the front lawn to begin with, at the Jaguars, home for the Chiefs. How the hell did they win that game? They were 1-1-1 at one point, right? How'd the Bears beat the 49ers? They got swept by the Tennessee Titans by week seven, it was over. And the Titans, as we all know, lost every game pretty much in the last two months of the season. That game at the Denver Broncos, I think, turned us all back into cavemen. That's how it was stone agey, that game was. Remember that one? Oh yeah, the Thursday night. What a horrible game that was.

And then they started, they turned to Sam Ellinger just in time to feed him to the Belichick Wolves. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? What are we going to do? We're going to take a kid who's never played before, let's throw him out there against the Patriots.

On the road, by the way. And that was Frank Reich's hotios, farewell. They're going to bounce him. This may be a top 10 moment in the history of this show, Chris. And you are looking at your laptop and you're like, oh man. I'm like, what? And you're like, the Colts just hired Jeff Saturday. And I'm like, what?

Literally nobody could have seen that. You're like, what? Because it was like they fired Frank Reich, oh man, did they really pull the trigger on Frank in the middle of the season like that? That is pretty damn cold after they clearly told him you got to start the kid over Nick Foles.

I mean, Nick Foles is the reason why Frank Reich was a head coach for the Indianapolis Colts in the first place. Isn't that weird? Right?

So weird. Yeah, no, no. Don't go to Nick. Don't go to Nick with the season on line.

Let's not go. Let's see what we've got in the kid and feed him to the Belichick Wolves. And when the result that we could all see coming, like it's one of those horror movies you're watching through your fingers, you know, happens and when that result occurs, let's fire the guy and then hire Jeff Saturday.

Who then, by the way, because the Colts had already fired the offensive coordinator before firing Frank Reich, has got to turn to a kid who's never called a play before to be his offensive coordinator. And unbelievably, they went to Vegas and won that game. Jeff Saturday, once upon a time, was 1-0. Just like the national championship game was once upon a time 10-7. Can you at some point, maybe this week, maybe next week, can you do a top five of the strangest results of the 20-20 season? The top five did that really happen results of 20-22?

You look back and you're like, wait, what? Done. Next, tomorrow. I got it. Fantastic. Got you covered, Chris.

So here we go. The Colts now have to dig out of all this and Jeff Saturday, as we all know, after winning that game in Vegas, lost every single one after that. And it wasn't all blowouts, by the way. I mean, he almost beat the Eagles the week after, right?

Dude, I'm telling you, he nearly handed the Eagles a second consecutive loss. They were coming off of their first loss of the season against Washington at home and they go to Indianapolis and they had that game in their hands, couldn't finish that one. Then a Monday nighter against the Steelers, they were in in that one.

Then they go to Dallas. It was just 21-19 going into the fourth quarter and then the roof caved in. They gave up 33 unanswered. Then the next week after their bye, next game after their bye, they scored 33 unanswered to start the game and then blew it and then not only added on top of taking Frank Reich's job, they took Frank Reich's record and gave it to Kirk Cousins, biggest comeback in the history of the NFL by a quarterback in any game, regular or post. Then came the Monday nighter against the Chargers, as we all know. That was the one where they looked listless out of any of them. At the Giants, too, that wasn't great and then the home against the Texans, they had it all wrapped up.

They had it all wrapped up. Ferris fans are like, okay, the Davis Mills Hail Mary. It would have been nice to have the first overall pick and Lovey Smith spits in the eye of the Texans as he goes out the door by going for two. We're not playing for overtime in week 18.

I'm going to win this game and stick you with the second overall pick when you stick me with the pink slip that I know is coming. What a season. Chris Ballard, the general manager today, was facing the music. And he said, I failed. What I love about this guy, he just puts it all out there.

He minces no words. This is what he had to say about Jeff Saturday potentially getting the gig. He is going to be a candidate, tough. And I told Mr. Arce this, when he made the decision and we talked through Jeff, I voiced my concerns, which were, look, this is unprecedented. And we're putting him into a really tough situation here, taking a team over mid-season.

It's going to be tough. And I wanted to make sure he understood that. And I had the same talk with Jeff. He'll go through the process just like everybody else, be interested to hear his vision, how he wants to build it. I mean, he'll go through the whole interview process. So there you go.

There you go. Chris Ballard, that's the very nice way of saying, I love Jeff. Jeff's great. Is that what he meant by tough?

Was that like tough? Jeff's going to be a candidate or Jeff is tough? Jeff is tough. And Jeff, hey, Saturday did show under some insanely adverse situations, a team that was playing hard for him. He also had some really quizzical decisions on timeouts and challenges, which is what's going to happen when you've never done it before and it comes at an NFL speed. It doesn't matter how many times you've won championships and had Pro Bowl seasons snapping to Peyton Manning.

This is a totally different endeavor and one that he definitely, I think relishes the challenge. It would be a tough sell to the fan base to say he's coming back and then who's the quarterback and then who's the coach? If not Saturday, is it my guy Harbaugh or somebody else? I can't believe the cult season went the way it did, but it sure did.

Albert Pierre coming up. This is what Chris Ballard had to say about the responsibility of his roster building in the way the season went with Matt Ryan behind that offensive line and Jonathan Taylor having a dreadful follow-up season to his relevatory 2021. Look, I failed. I'm not going to sit up here and make excuses.

I failed a lot of people. Highly disappointed about where we're at, how the season went. I never take lightly what's at stake here. It's not the wins and losses, but people's lives are on the line.

Players, families, coaches, families, front office, people in this building, and I don't ever take that lightly. I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed where we're at and ultimately it falls on my shoulders. I know there's doubt. There should be.

Absolutely there should be. The criticism, it's warranted. Criticism regarding my job and what I've done, it's warranted, but I'm still, I've not lost any confidence in what we can build here.

I love it. I mean, I know cults fans might be like that and in a token, for the lack of a better phrase, got me on a bus, but I mean, it's what you want to hear. And he has built teams before just who's the quarterback, who's the coach, lots of huge decisions for the Colts in the coming weeks. For over 40 years, Jim Ross has been the voice of wrestling.

Nobody has stories like Jim Ross, and he shares his tales with cohost Conrad Thompson on Grilling JR. The Bismick man was the top heel in the Attitude Era. It was a fresh character. It was new. It was material that we had not seen or heard to that date and we could have created a bigger or better heel. Now we wanted to make more heels and we tried to make more heels and we did, but nothing compared to Vince. The Grilling JR podcast. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.