REShow: Michael Irvin - Hour 1

This is the Rich Eisen Show.

You know what was another surprise to me? Lamar Jackson not showing up to the game last night. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. It's not like Derek Carr, like get him out, because we're done with him. I would think that Lamar being there would be additive. The Rich Eisen Show.

I do think we won't see him play another game in Baltimore. Today's guests. Pro Football Hall of Famer, Michael Irvin. Box Sports Rules Analyst, Mike Pereira.

Tampa Bay Times Bucks writer, Rick Stroud. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Ah yes, welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show.

Live from Los Angeles, California. Live on the Roku Channel and Sirius XM Odyssey. And most importantly, this Rich Eisen Show terrestrial affiliate smart enough to have us. We say hello to everybody listening later on on our podcast through the Cumulus Podcast Network. We just say hello to everybody because it's that type of day now that we've got a full super wildcard weekend in the books.

844-204-RICH is the number to dial here on this program. Good to see you over there, Chris Brockman. How are you, sir?

Rich. I'm great. Good to see you. DJ Mikey D is in These Nuts is back. How you doing, Rich? Terrific.

And TJ Jefferson is off today. Wait a minute. What about them cowboys? Yes! Yes! Yes, finally.

How about them cowboys? Finally, Rich. Yes. 30 years. 30 years it took to win a playoff game on the road.

That's correct. Del Truvo. Leling did 30 years in Attica, man. 30 years.

Leling, yeah. And it took 30 years. 30 years.

Today, as a matter of fact, for this to happen. Correct. Great Carlitos way. Congratulations, sir. Man. Your 20-year-old self is excited.

You ain't never lied. Let's talk about it. I will start this program appropriately in your direction, sir, with your how about them cowboys grease board.

Peep the shirt, too. Yes. Drew and Michael and Des and CD and, you know, fill in the blank. Carry on. Future 88 Clubber. Yeah. And we've got Michael Irvin joining us in about 20 minutes time. Think of it as his two cents, fresh back from Tampa, Florida, and partying with the Joneses and their suite. Looks like a good time. You noticed Irv wasn't there to start. He was there to finish. He's here for a good time.

Not a long time. I mean, the way it started, I'm sure he was like, I'm staying away from that suite tonight. But guess what? Guess what? I will start the show appropriately saying I was wrong about your Dallas Cowboys, sir.

They can flip a switch. They are that talented to be able to do that and look the way that they looked in Washington and look the way that they looked against Tennessee and looked what happened to them in Green Bay and all the ups and downs and playing down a competition and letting the competition skate. They went into Tampa last night and told Tom Brady, not today. And if there's a tomorrow for you, sir, congratulations.

You'll let us know what you're thinking about it when you know. Because tonight's the night we know we are the Dallas Cowboys that won 12 games this year. We are the Dallas Cowboys that does have talent damn near every spot. We are the Dallas Cowboys that can hit the home run ball. We're the Dallas Cowboys with a quarterback who can run and throw. We're the Dallas Cowboys with a lion in the pass rushing position. We are the Dallas Cowboys with a sniper in the back end. We're the Dallas Cowboys with linebackers who can cover. We are the Dallas Cowboys who can do it all except kick extra points. But other than that, we're the Dallas Cowboys. And yes, we know that Tom Brady came into this game last night with the exact number of career playoff wins as the Dallas Cowboys.

35, that is a fact. Somebody was going to emerge last night with a 36th all-time playoff win. It's either Tom Brady or the Cowboys organization as a whole. And it was the Dallas Cowboys, and not just the Dallas Cowboys, but decisively.

Yes, it didn't look pretty to begin with. But the defense showed up when Dak and the offense began by a sputter. And then down the field, Dallas and Dak went. Dalton Schultz caught the first of his two touchdowns, and Brett Maher missed the first of his four extra point temps to start the night. And each and every possession, it got worse for Tampa.

It did. And then when Tom Brady, through his first red zone interception, since his time with the Patriots, he had never done it with the Bucks. And it's a 6-0 game, and they're starting the second quarter. And at the very least, you think it's going to be a field goal game if the red zone problems that had been roosting in Tampa damn near the entire season, all year long, having trouble in the red zone. They're having trouble on third and long, having trouble in the red zone, having trouble running the football, having trouble all over the lot. But the one thing that they didn't have in the red zone was an interception from their quarterback, and Brady flipped it up in the air. Looks like he was throwing it away. Tried to, yeah. And to come away with no points, and the Cowboys then to start putting touchdown after touchdown on the board.

That's impressive. And the Buccaneer team that could not show up last night was the team that relied on Tom Brady to throw it and throw it and throw it because they couldn't run it worth a lick. Or the score mandated or dictated the abandonment of the run game. Put it all together. You combine those two, and you find a losing formula for the Buccaneers.

And that's what happened last night as Tom Brady threw the ball an insane number of times. The exact number, if I'm not mistaken, was 67? 66. 66. Two shy of the playoff record.

There you go. Two shy of the playoff record. 66. I gave him one more. Think about it.

66 passing times. But the Cowboys dictated it. They went in last night, and they put it on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And it wasn't even close. I mean, when it was 12-0, you felt that was too much to overcome.

Well, I didn't. I understand that because your kicker kept missing and making it an 18-point game at halftime. But that was a wrap, man. And I know being a fan, and we saw what happened over the weekend. But the Cowboys did what the Chargers didn't do a single time, which is score a touchdown in the second half, certainly right after your opponent scored a touchdown to give some hope.

Some hope. 24-0. They scored a touchdown. They go for two. There was no pass interference called on that two-point conversion.

We're seeing that a lot. Mike Pereira is joining us at the top of our number two to talk about the officiating we saw on Super Wild Card Weekend. And so he's joining us shortly on this program. But when it's 24-6, just when you think, could this happen, Julio Jones with his first grab in the playoffs for a score since he was a member of the Atlanta Falcons five years ago in the wild card round against the Rams in the LA Coliseum predates SoFi. Great throw by Tom, too, on that. Yes.

And we'll talk about Tom's future later. But the Cowboys just marched right back down the field. Right back down the field. Yes, sir. And they put it away right in the freezer.

Done. As a famous announcer here in this town once said, the Jello is jiggling over. And the Cowboys said, we are going to San Francisco and we are going to try and exorcise the demons of our one and done last year. I would profit to say the San Francisco 49er team they're going to see, dare I say, is better than the team they saw last year. But that's for another day and another time. Like Thursday. We'll ask, I want to ask Michael Ervin about his thoughts on the prospects of that divisional weekend finale. By the way, you want to talk about a dynamite day of playoff football, Bengals at Bills, Cowboys at Niners, back to back. Go to the schedule. Oh yes. Go to the schedule, baby.

It is clear. But the Cowboys coming into that game hot and didn't back in. They didn't show up and hold on for dear life after taking the lead. They didn't let Brady off the mat. They actually picked him off. They actually put him on a turf. And the question that we will have is did they put him out to pasture? That's another day as well.

But what this Dallas Cowboy team did is shut people like me up and lift people like you up. What a W. Yes! Yes! Indeed. We do not have the Stephen A version of that today. Don't need it.

Nope. That was great. I mean, that's exactly what you wanted to see. Tony Pollard is so good. And Zeke, if they could just limit him to what they've limited him to, which is red zone and first down, you know, needing first down runs and leaning on the defense.

It's a great double barrel action. And kudos to you, man, for last year. You were the first one who kind of, I'm sure outside of the coaches, really put out there that Pollard should be getting more work.

You were 1000% correct. He is a home run hitter. Also with C.D. Lamb, T.Y. can hit some home runs, too. What a great addition. And Dalton Schultz.

Jeez. We never talk about him, but Dalton Schultz is... Vander Esch and Diggs and Micah Parsons. I mean, he wrecked the game, man.

The first nap of the game. They didn't block him. I don't know how that happened.

They didn't block him. Shouldn't that be the first thing? You get to the line and you're like, hey, where's 11? Where's 11? Got him.

Where's 11? Come on him. Come on.

He blew it up, didn't he? That's the Cowboy team you want to show up. So two solids, sir. Congratulations.

I said you weren't going to be in a rocking chair last night. The first couple of drives where neither team scored twice and then you got the ball back and then finally got a first down and then a touchdown. The first, you know, it's unbelievable, 10 minutes on the clock in the first quarter and both teams had already touched the ball twice. Then five coming up in minute 10 to go or minute five of the first quarter.

And then it just, it was done. Dallas took like a whopping 12 seconds off the clock with their first drive. It was 13. You know why I know it was 13? Because I thought to myself when Dallas punted the ball back with 13 seconds, only 13 seconds off the clock in the first quarter, I thought that was the amount of time that as we all know the Chiefs needed to force overtime against the Bills last year and the Cowboys just went three and out in that amount of time. That's how quick 13 seconds can go.

True that. Or how long it can last if it's in the hands of the right team and the right offense. Also the play calls to start the game were just so bizarre for Dallas, like not one run. And I just thought, geez, they're going to give the ball right back to Tampa, Tampa gets the ball to start the half. It's bad news. And in terms of Tampa, you know, Rick Stroud will join us. Todd Bowles is meeting with the media a half hour after today's show ends.

So Rick will have some time before that to join us. And you know, what an insanely frustrating season it was for this team. It was a slog on offense pretty much 90% of the time. Yeah, they only scored more than 30 points in two games. And that was their MO and their championship year is that points were a cropper that year.

And they couldn't run it. You know, I'll ask Rick Stroud, why does this team go eight and ten this year? Eight and nine in the regular season, obviously one and done in the postseason.

Why do they go eight and ten? And I think here lies the 2022 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They couldn't run the ball.

They couldn't. And the games they won, you know, their best games of the year, they ran it against Dallas in week one. The unique game that I called, it was a 100 yard game for Rashad White. Leonard Fournette was also having a very good game. You know, and that's the amazing part about Tom Brady at age 45, slinging it.

I'm like, will we ever see somebody so successful? And yes, I mean, the wins weren't there and the third and longs weren't there, but third and longs are just not going to be there when you can't protect well enough upfront because you can't run. It doesn't matter who's firing the footballs back there.

It could be a goat, could be an actual goat, you know, like a literal animal on four feet. You're not going to win. You're just not going to win. But will we ever see somebody, you know, match their age in passing attempts with regularity like we saw Tom Brady do this year? Including the playoff game, he threw it 800 times this year.

By the way, when you say words like that, you use that as an exaggeration. What do you throw, like 800 times? And that's, that's the accurate number.

799. Crazy. You can't win football games like that. You just can't. You can't allow the defense to just pin its ears back. And the only reason why they've scored the points that they scored and had the modicum of success on offense that they had is because Brady is the ultimate trigger man. He gets rid of the football. He knows, he diagnoses the play like nobody else and he gets rid of it.

And if he holds onto it, that's when mistakes happen. That's when sacks occur and that's when games are lost. Here lies the 2022 Buccaneers. They couldn't run the ball because that affects the defense as well. You got Evans, who had like a three months slump of not catching a touchdown pass. Boy, the red zone problems. If this team, I mean, they miss Gronk.

That's as big as it gets right there. Or just that big other end zone instead of just Mike Evans, someone to throw the ball to in the red zone. Running it in the red zone would be helpful too. That's part of the reason why the Chargers were successful in the red zone is just give it to Eckler. He'll just lean on people or flip it out to Eckler.

Eckler's like one of the greatest red zone players that the league's seen in years. So if you could just start leaning on people inside the 20, they couldn't. And that's what they did with Fournette in the championship years. I think it's as simple as that. They couldn't run the football. They just couldn't.

And then they lost their Pro Bowl center in day two of training camp, didn't get him back to last night. Later on in this program, I'll give you my two cents on what Tom Brady's decision is going to be. And my best two cents on how he's probably going to think about it. Just being a Brady watcher as I've been for a while.

I mean, I'm no, you know, Lily Tomlin or anything, but I mean, I've been around. I mean, 53 for Brady. Coming up, that's 53.

Yeah. 53 for Brady later on in this program. Rick Stroud will join us to see what he'll tell us about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They've got a top five list, top five biggest storylines to emerge from Super Wildcard weekend. The Los Angeles Chargers have made a coaching move, and it's the one that I thought they'd make.

That's coming up. The University of Michigan, we still got our guy. Jim told the NFL, not today.

Not today. For a second straight year. How are the NFL? We're on a streak. We're on a streak. We're on a streak. We're on a streak. So there's that. You don't want that streak to continue.

You don't have to go through that. We'll talk about it. As you know, I'm always honest here on this program, I'll wear it on my sleeve. When we come back, though, it was on Saturday, Saturday, I said to Michael Irvin, what are you doing Tuesday? Because I want you as my first guest on the day after the Bucks versus the Cowboys. And sure enough, he's just like, catch me after I land in New York, make my way to inside the NFL. So we're going to attempt to shoehorn this in. I love it. Who knows where Michael's going to be?

We will spank that ass. That's coming up right here on this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Monster.com can help you tackle the job hunt and make your next career move. In football and in life, there's the regular season and then there's the playoffs. Monster.com knows that scoring your next job, that's a playoff moment. To bring your A game, you need monster.com. Looking to change positions and join a new team?

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Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Okay. Here we go. I knew this would be an important conversation, very important conversation.

That's a perfect word for it. Important conversation. Necessary. Necessary conversation.

Super necessary. And bless this man for saying yes to it. Well, why wouldn't he? Because he knows it could be a possibility of being the last thing he'd want to do is call into the show after the Cowboys got one and done again and Tom Brady moves on.

Why would he want to do that? He had faith, though. I think he did. He said, we want Tom. Michael Irvin said the words, we want Tom.

I did not say that. And I told him that that was the professional football version of we want Alabama. And his answer's like, well, he's not Alabama now. He said this stuff all on NFL Network.

It happened. And joining us now after the Cowboys victory that we saw him celebrating in the Jones Suite on the worldwide leader in sports is my buddy, the Hall of Famer, and my compadre from NFL Game Day Morning, Michael Irvin. How you doing, Irv? Man, I'm doing great, Rich. I'm getting out the car right now in New York. Okay.

Running across the street. Okay. Right.

Careful. I'm going to get my records. I just landed.

Okay. In New York from last night. So now I got to head over and shoot inside the NFL. But man, I'm just, hey, I feel great. I feel great. It was a great win yesterday, a great win. Great first battle to get that playoff pieces going, man, and to get that victory. It was just fun. It was a wonderful night. So what do you think clicked?

What do you got for me on that front? What do you think clicked? Well, first of all, we all knew.

Reality clicked. We all knew. And that's why I kept saying, I want Tom, we want Tom. We want to see something great, but it often has given us anything great all year. So I expected more of the same and on the other side, I know we focused. I know we put, beat it down on all of the interceptions that that trust got in there put up, but he had also been putting up 30 points. I kept telling people this again, I kept saying this now and it fell out just like I thought. We still got those 30 and if that Buccaneers didn't get many.

Well, I mean, in terms of that Irv, I do have to give you credit. I did at the top of the show as well. You said we want Tom and what you ended up getting was Tom Brady that we saw all this year and the Cowboys picked everyone apart. I mean, from the first snap when Micah Parsons wasn't blocked and jumped into the backfield and blew up the first snap of the game and then all the way through to, I guess, he was trying to throw it away in the end zone with that interception. I mean, the defense looked terrific last night, Michael, terrific. Yeah, they did and they put pressure on Tom.

You know, there were a couple of times you saw Tom and you saw Tom kind of just do a little ducking and chucking there to get rid of that ball. So I mean, they got in, they got in his comfort zone and it made him uncomfortable and that's what we needed to do. And remember, we hadn't been doing much of that lately. You know, we're complaining about that finger licking good pass rush that wasn't so finger licking good the last couple of weeks, but last night they got back on point and that was great to see.

So Michael Ervin here on the Rich Ives and show a few minutes with him as he runs to go do inside the NFL to no doubt talk about this and the rest of Super Wild Card weekend. And then so when you saw the Cowboys last night do what? That's when you knew it was all good. What was the first time you were like, okay, I think we got this.

When was that for you? When I saw the Cowboys do what? Just give me the moment last night in the game where you saw something, we were like, okay, I think we're good.

We're good tonight. Cause it was a slow start. Right, right, right. Cause at first I was, yeah, at first I was like, oh God, at first, oh no, oh no, not that.

Right. I said, not this, not this, but then bam, we came back. We came back and I saw it settling, settling in and I always go back to, I tell you this, always go back to when we were in that fatality and we were playing Washington and they were good. Cause that's where you were, I'll never forget Wilbur Marshall saying that we were playing them and we were playing them good early on in the game and everybody was panting and Wilbur Marshall was telling me, Wilbur Marshall told me, because everybody just calmed down.

They're really not this good. They're just hype. As soon as the hype goes down, we'll commit to whooping me, you know, and that's exactly what they did. I was there, I was just a rookie saying, how are you going to just call this hype?

What is that? But he was right. He was right.

And at first, you know, Tampa was hype, so they were battling that thing for a minute, but then the talent took over and they committed to whooping it on them. So what, what breakfast are you getting right now, Michael? Can we help you order? I mean, what do we got here? What I'm thinking when I pick up is just some chicken noodle soup, egg sandwich, and some chicken noodle soup. Hey, baby, I'm ready.

I'm ready to go straight from the game, early flight this morning, land in New York after hanging out. I just posted a picture hanging out with the family, you know, the Jones family. Yes. We saw that.

We saw that the ESPN cameras caught up. First of all, you know what they call chicken soup in my household, Michael? It's called Jewish penicillin. Jewish penicillin. That's what it's called.

Chicken noodle soup is some Jewish penicillin. It's the best stuff in the world. Oh, please. And plus it did sound like you were screaming and celebrating and hooting and hollering with the Jones family last night, Michael. You gotta believe it. I gotta warm it all back up and get ready to go shoot inside the NFL.

So yeah, absolutely. We had a great time. What was that like? What was that like in the walk, put me in your shoes when you walk in the Jones suite in a playoff win? By the way, the first road playoff win for the Cowboys since your 1992 NFC championship game win on the way to your first of three Super Bowls.

That was the last time that you won on the road. What was that like, Michael? Yeah, Rich.

Rich. He brought all that up. We talked about all of that because they were talking about how they had watched us shoot first take over there. You know what I'm saying? Yes. So first of all, I go to the Queen's, when I see her, I go in, see everybody, go straight to the Queen's.

You're not talking about obviously of England, she's passed, you're talking about Mrs. Jones is what you're talking about. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You go straight to the Queen's. Okay, very good. That's how you do it. Because she's the most beautiful person in the world. I mean, really. Understood. Most beautiful person in the world.

Yes. And then I look up, I say, wait a minute, it's too quiet in here. You know, we are too quiet, and everybody goes crazy, you know? So we had so much fun, man, it's just fun.

Because they told about it. We watched the show all day, and you know the Queen, Mrs. Jones, said, baby, thank you for us. They're battling for us. We got a battle for you to actually get you through the mall, just to right there like that. You know what I'm saying? Because I love it like that. I love it. All right. And a couple minutes have left with you here, Michael Irvin.

You're on the page here. Do you think the Cowboys, that that was such a pressure-packed week, and the way that they've played the last month or so, that they came in and put that spanking on the books, that this is a house money situation now, going into San Francisco? Or the fact that they haven't been in the NFC Championship game since you and Troy and Emmett went in your last Super Bowl? That there's still that pressure cooker that we're talking about here? Or something has been relieved? What do you think, Michael?

What do you got? Well, it's a little bit of both. Little bit of both, Rich. Okay. Something has been relieved, because as you just mentioned, you hadn't won a playoff game in 30 years. Well, come on, man.

Come on, Brady, you had as many playoff wins as you had. You know? Come on, man. You know, every time I go on a show and somebody want to talk about something you hadn't done in 30 years, 30 years, aw, so yeah, you put some of that on the back burner. You put some of that on the back burner, but you also know that you got plenty of business still ahead of you.

Plenty of business still ahead of you, and plenty of things to get accomplished, especially what you're facing right now and that beef they got going in San Francisco. So what's your key? Just your first blush keys are crossing the street in New York, Michael.

What do you got for me? Well, my first blush key of that game, that champagne game, is I'm skater. All that mess y'all was saying on the show Sunday, man, you're scared, you're nervous, you're nervous. I wasn't scared or nervous about Tampa. This time, this week, it's applicable.

Yeah, so what scares you the most? Is it Deebo? Is it Deebo? Because he could just flip a field and he's so physical, and I know you love physical. Is it McCaffrey?

What do you got? Right, right, right. Defense? Deebo, the whole thing that they bring now, especially, especially Deebo being back, because it brings a certain physicalness to both, to that office, and without Deebo and Chris McCaffrey, you know, you still do some winning and everything, but Deebo brings a physicalness to it, a physicalness to it, that you should, and remember, when I hear, I got Michael Parsons on my podcast after that San Francisco game, I'm telling you, he told me he was sore for two weeks after that game, and it taught him something. I can't wait to see how he responds to what it taught him last year, now facing this team again.

I think as we wrap up here, Michael, you just hit on something that I love about this matchup. It's not only because of what San Francisco did this year and what's going on with Purdy and what's going on with this team all year long, and the same thing, the journey this year, but obviously, these are the two teams that faced each other last year, one and done, the Cowboys and the whole business of spotting the football and not knowing to give it to the umpire to spot and to lose without even getting off a snap and having that lead to this moment, and then there's also the history that you have with the 49ers and the Cowboys and 49ers. I mean, I was there, Michael, in that championship game that the 49ers finally got past you, and I'm wondering what your memories are, what flows on you when you think of your days in Candlestick or they in Texas Stadium?

The first thing that you just brought up, they hadn't won a whole road playoff game in 30 years, and they won that game to go back to where the last game was played 30 years ago. You see what I'm saying, going back to San Francisco, so I'm okay with this, man. I wanted another route. I really did.

I wanted another route. I don't know if I could have played it out well and saw one of them, but obviously, I might have to go through two of them, and maybe not two of them. I'm talking about San Fran and Philly, because if Daniel Jones, if Daniel Jones do that Daniel Boone thing again, like he did last week, oh my God, maybe we have a championship game in Dallas, and Dallas can pull off this miracle.

Well, I thought, again, I was there that championship day in San Candlestick, and I guess we're going to have to bring up whether Deion interfered with you or not on that day, or we have to bridge that one up one more time, I think, this week. Well, that's 94. That's 94. That's right. That was the last one. That's right. That was the last one there.

I was there that day. Yeah. And what we're talking about was 92 the first one.

Right, exactly. But 94, he interfered with you? That happened? The coach of Colorado? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Of course. I should have been undefeated up there.

Because Deion didn't get away with that basket of fear. He swears that that was just excellent coverage, Michael. That's what he swears to this day. And, you know, they had their own trick. And I would imagine they were still doing it, where they went down the field, really muddied up the field is what they were doing in San Francisco. Now you heard that Dallas didn't do well on natural surfaces. Somebody tried to get me to say, oh, man, did you like playing on the stuff that we called it?

I said, but I'm not saying that. I don't like. I like playing on natural surfaces, but I'm not going to say I like playing at all. You know what I mean? You won't say the words, I like playing on grass? Is that what you're saying, Michael? You won't do it?

Because somebody's going to pull that out and put that somewhere else and some meme or something, so I was like, no, I like playing on natural surfaces, I'm not going to. I love you, Michael Ervin. Thanks for doing this.

I know I got your in between one thing to the other, to the other, to the other. And I will see you this weekend when we do nine hours of television together. It's just so much fun. Great being Superman. Great being Superman, Michael.

Well done. That thing was funny, man. Oh, yes. I saw that style like that in Superman. I'm talking about, I put some brotherology on Superman, Superman was a brother, he'll be doing every slide all night this year. You know how brothers do all crazy things?

You're facing just stupid stuff. You take a gun and you start twitching the sideways and let anyone help you or anything, but that's what brothers do. So, right. That's what we do. So, you know, Superman way to be the coolest flying brother in the world.

It's best shoes Superman's ever worn, that's for sure. I know that. I saw that.

That was true. That was funny. All right. Love you, Irv. Take care. Thank you, man.

You be well. That's Michael Irvin, Pro Football Hall of Famer, my buddy, right here on The Rich Eyes and Show. Brotherology. And I appreciate him doing what he just did for many reasons, especially since I know it's, you don't want to get between Michael Irvin and his breakfast ever. Never. Yeah, there've been some funny social media pictures of that.

You've posted that Colleen Wolfe has posted of Irv just going in. Hang on, one of my favorite moments of meetings is when Irv, whenever there was a buffet on Thursday Night Football, and Irv would come in and you definitely know he didn't order room service at all. It's his first meal of the day. He knew he was going to get it at the buffet and he's going for it. And he would always say, how many siblings does he have? He said he was like 13 or something like that. And he basically said when the food was in front of you, it was like you had to get it. And he still is now in his mid fifties still, that's his default.

Like it's food or you go get it. I'm sorry, he's the 15th of 17. There you go. Wow.

I thought it was three. That's what he said. So when there was food for the family, like you had to go get yours. Yeah, or you don't eat.

Certainly. So that's the mentality he always has. And he probably eats fast. And so he does.

He gets the plate and so you would hear you'd hear him eat at these meetings. And every now and then Dion would give me this look and I'd give him that look and whatever. So yeah, I love how he said he was fun. He put brotherology on Superman.

He was, Irv wasn't Clark Kent, he was Cordell Kent. Let's hit this real quick. Let's hit this fact. So the NFC East represents 75% of the remaining field in the National Football Conference. Pretty shocking.

It's crazy. The San Francisco 49ers are the only non-NFC East team playing this weekend for the right to play for the conference championship and make the Super Bowl. Hey, it was bound to happen. The last time that happened, where the final four of a conference was represented by three teams from the same division, or three teams from the same division were part of the final four of a conference, was 1997. When the Vikings, Packers, and Buccaneers all made it from the, wait for it, NFC Central. And what about Tampa?

That's the last time that happened. And I would say this, the Cowboys and the Niners will be tuning into Saturday night rooting for the New York football Giants. The Cowboys, you sir, will be rooting for the Giants this weekend.

And Irv just touched on it. Talk about strange bedfellows. Big blue nation will be joined by Cowboys country and nation, whatever you want to call it. Because if the Giants win, that would mean the final game of the divisional weekend is for the right to host the NFC championship game. And the Niners would also be eliminated. If the Cowboys obviously win that game, the Giants could eliminate the Eagles, I mean, would be eliminated. So the top seed would be out and you would host the NFC championship game. You're rooting for the Giants in the biggest, baddest way. However, I mean our home field sometimes it's like, however, what it, what's more of a worst nightmare for Eagles fans than being the last remaining undefeated team on the year, being the one seed, having all this happen and getting one and done by the Giants only to watch the Cowboys and the Giants play for the NFC championship game. Oh, gosh, I mean, I'm just glad the East is back.

I mean, I don't mean to put the Fed mojo out there, but that is entirely possible to happen. Or the flip side is the Eagles win this game. They eliminate the Giants and then eliminate the Cowboys. I mean, right, there's the high of we make the Super Bowl and we beat the Giants and the Cowboys in the process.

Or we're one and done at home by the Giants and watch the Giants and Cowboys play for the championship to make the Super Bowl that we thought we should have had. And in between, in between forum is the San Francisco 49ers coming to their house. It's going to be fun.

This weekend. It's going to be fun. The possibilities are fun. Now that we know the NFC possibilities. Yesterday we talked about the AFC possibilities. There's four different possible sites for the AFC championship game to be hosted at. Kansas City, if the Bengals make it and the Chiefs make it, Bengals at Kansas City, Jaguars at Bills, Jaguars at Cincinnati, or Bills versus Chiefs in Atlanta. I mean, it's a wild divisional weekend to lead up to a very fun championship and obviously for the Super Bowl.

844-204, rich number to dial. We come back four words. I'd love to say, I told you so. I thought you were saying how about them Cowboys?

The largest, the decision the Los Angeles Chargers have made at coaching. I told you so it's coming up. 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.

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844-204, rich number to dial here on the Rich Ozzenshire. You can listen to the NFL and the NFL app on the Odyssey app on westwoodonesports.com via Westwood One Station streams or by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports sponsored by AutoZone. Just yesterday, I told you, hey, you know, the Chargers, you think they're going to zag when all they do is zig.

You think you think all, you know, you Chargers fans out there and I know you're out there are or observers who think they know best for the Chargers. Sean Payton sitting out there, he just chatted with the Texans. He's on he's on his tour, right? He is on a tour. He's on his tour. He's talking to teams.

All right. His sabbatical is over. Whatever batteries he needed recharged, he did with, you know, the Fox crew and everything. He's ready to go.

It seems like. And and here are the Chargers having lost. To the Raiders on the last second kick in the last game, a defacto playoff game to end the twenty twenty one regular season in their twenty twenty two season ends by blowing the largest lead in the history of their franchise. And so Justin Herbert is going to hit year four of his rookie contract, no doubt spending the next few weeks talking to the Chargers general manager Tom Tolesco and the owner of the Spanish family saying, hey, it's it's time for me to get paid. You know, that kid who put in his his homework assignment back in grade school, I want to be the Chargers quarterback.

That's a grown ass man now. And I I'm I'm ready to be paid. And the way it goes in this business is this is the time you pay that kid.

You know, and if you don't, you create a problem. So does it make sense for the team to say, OK, we're going to spend all that money on Justin Herbert? We might as well set it set it all up with the best possible staff around him. Folks think that's got to be Sean Payton, right?

I mean, I'm one of those. And you spend how much money, whatever it costs for Payton, it's an investment. It's expensive, but it's an investment in Herbert, who you've made the biggest investment in in the history of your franchise.

Just come in. But you're saying that's that's the wisdom. I think that's a very smart move.

Yeah, that's the conventional or otherwise. But to the Chargers, I said that's unconventional. Because they like Brandon Staley and they think they've gotten close to Brandon Staley and that they're ready to bust through with Brandon Staley.

And what they're going to do is stick with Brandon Staley and basically say. The guys you currently have attached to the hip of Herbert, that's not Doug Peterson with Trevor Lawrence. That's not Reed and the enemy with Mahomes. You know, that's not Zach Taylor with the Bengals. And your answer would be, well, those are the head coaches you're hooking up with your quarterback.

Yeah, exactly. You might as well hook your head coach up with a quarterback. And their answer might be, well, we love Brandon Staley and he's a former quarterback.

So, you know, he does it all. I told you they were going to stick with Staley and they were going to change some of the staff. Well, the Chargers tweeted out, we have parted ways with OC Joe Lombardi and passing game coordinator slash QB's Shane Day. Not doing that and then coming around saying, you know, we might as well just then fire the coach to.

I'm telling you, they're going to hold on to Staley and this job. Who wants it? Everyone.

Good job. Who wants to be the guy attached at the hip of Justin Herbert? That's a fast track to being a head coach. One would think.

One would think. And this is a huge hire for Brandon Staley and the rest of that staff. They better get this one right, because if they don't, then it'll be like, why are we sticking with you? And then of course, everyone would say, well, you had Sean Payton.

Now is it fill in the blank? Now is it organization not named the Chargers? But that's just, it's just again, it's just not the Chargers to say, we're going to create dead money. We're going to spend insanely on the coach. And by the way, I mean, Sean Payton said yesterday, it's a mid first rounder.

You're going to call for your first round pick for the guy, pay him an insane amount of money and then pay your quarterback all that money. I mean, that is, that is a high rolling situation that I don't think is in the Chargers DNA. Has never been. Hasn't been.

For the next 10, 12 years though? And your answer would be, it's time of any organization after what we just saw over the last two years, the way it ended last year and certainly way it ended this year. For any organization to go full Costanza, this is the one. Whatever your thought is, whatever your first thought is, do the opposite. Whatever your impulse is, do the exact opposite.

Try that one out. Every day I come in here and I order tuna on toast. What they should do is literally go up to Sean Payton, who's the hot girl sitting at the, at the counter and just say, hi, hi, I'm a Los Angeles chargers. We can't win in the playoffs.

And I live with my parents. Hi, I'm Victoria, right? The opposite. They're not going to do it.

I don't think they're doing it. Justin Herbert has 14,000 yards in three years and that Joe Lombardi's answer could be, look what I did. It's just, you know, this happened, that happened, that happened, this happened. My coach played my wide receiver when he shouldn't have. Wow. Mike Pereira with everything going on with the clear sky judge that's happening in the playoffs and more coming up. I mean the first three year numbers for Herbert are insane.

67% completion, 14,000 yards, 94 touchdowns, 35 picks. Yeah. So obviously somebody is going to want to coach him unless they're concerned that the guy who hires him gets bounced the next year if it doesn't work out. I mean, why wouldn't it work out?

Why wouldn't it work out? You've got somebody as talented as him in Herbert. I mean, Herbert is him, right?

Yeah. And you know who's a beast? Who is Eckler? I know he's, you know, not tall in stature, but his stats sure as hell are. Eckler's that dude.

He is that dude. And you know who is too? Is Keenan Allen. And if Mike Williams can stay healthy, he is too.

There are a lot of F's still in this one. Eckler, 25 touchdowns. Parham is, looks like he's one of the Navi from Avatar, right? Is he like seven feet tall?

Parham is the future. I mean, they got some, they got some players now, which is why Sean Payton might've been interested in the job if it was made available to him. Is it possible that they, they fire the OC, they part ways.

Nobody uses the word fire anymore. They part ways with the OC and they didn't even give him the mutually decided to. That's where you know it's a firing when they don't use the word mutually. It's not mutually agreed to, it's a firing. Yes, ESPN and I mutually agreed to part ways back in 2003. AT&T and I agreed to mutually part ways too.

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