REShow: Mike Florio - Hour 1

Ladies and gentlemen, let's go. This is the Rich Eisen Show. The Raiders quite a day of cuts.

They cut Derek Carr. Welcome to the Ball brotherhood, Mark Davis. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Patrick Mahomes' new BFF, the great Henry Winkler.

Listen, I think stardom has gone to this young man's head because he's never called for dinner. Today's guests, host of Peacock's Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio. Pro Football Hall of Famer, Warren Sapp. From the Starz Comedy, Party Down.

Actor, Ken Marino. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Yeah, it is.

Yes, it is. And everybody thought, everybody thought that we wouldn't be as good as ever back in April than we are now. Everybody, so I get it, I get it. Well, welcome to the Rich Eisen Show.

We're live on the Roku channel, channel 210. Everybody doubted us. Everyone doubted us.

Well, that's true, by the way. Everyone did doubt us. But we're here. We're here and, you know, even though we're not wearing goggles and day drinking, we feel we're champs. We have day drinking. And we are here on the Roku, well, Susie's, when she sits in, that's when you day drink. The Roku channel, channel 210, for those who are watching us on the Roku channel, yes, this is a beautiful green sweater. And for those who are listening on the radio, yes, it's a beautiful green zip that I'm wearing right now, a little quarter zip. It's my usual look. I'm feeling good about myself. Warren Sapp's making his way to the studio.

99, your program, number one in your heart. I have no idea what he's going to say. That's kind of the fun, though. That's usually, you know. That's how we roll whenever Warren walks in here. And then we're going to party down with Ken Marino. What a great show this is.

Way back in the day, 2009, 2010. And Starz is reviving it. And the cast is outstanding.

Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, Martin Starr, Megan Mullally. And this guy, Ken Marino, is joining us in hour number three. Mike Florio, first up, joining us in about 18 minutes time.

18 minutes time to talk about everything going on in the National Football League. 844204, which is the number to dial. As always here if you're listening on Terrestrial Radio, Sirius XM, Odyssey. Our podcast, 844204, which is the number to dial, when you hear something the next day, you call us. I think we were expecting someone to call us who's gone through darkness therapy, right?

Didn't you say that? The guy tweeted us and he said he was going to call us. I'll call in tomorrow. I'll tell you, you know. He was going to try to fit it into his work schedule.

It says somebody who's taken 10 days off to just stare at themselves. Is that basically how it works? I shouldn't make fun of it.

A lot of people use this stuff and they rely on it. Good to see you over there, Chris Brockman. Hey Ridge, we get to watch Tiger play golf.

Well, you do personally, right? You're going. I am personally going to RIV after the show today.

I cannot wait. And he tees off as soon as we're done, right? He tees off at noon with Rory and Justin Thomas. Three Eastern time with Rory and Justin Thomas.

What a group. You're not going to see them. It's going to be like 10 deep. I'm going to have to get a few holes ahead and then kind of wait for them to park. That's what you've got to do. You've got to park for Tiger Woods. Good to see you over there, DJ Mikey D. What's going on?

TJ, Jefferson, what's going on? We got to get you a candlelight. Yeah, I mean, I feel weird without the candles. It's OK, but we still had a good show, despite you not having it yesterday.

So we're not relying upon it. We went off the air yesterday knowing that the Chiefs were just about to start talking to the crowd that had amassed along their parade route and then gathered around the podium where the Chiefs were speaking from the heart. One thousand percent alcohol fueled from this long parade and all their double decker. But I didn't know that Kansas City had as many double decker buses as London, but I guess that's what you got to do. You can rent them.

I guess you can rent them. And what a parade it was. Everybody with their ski goggles on to try and keep the champagne or whatever bubbly or whatever beer was being sprayed in their direction.

I saw one great shot of Kelsey. Somebody flipped him. I guess a little small one of those small little alcohol bottles that you see, you know, on planes or whatever. I don't know what it was. He grabbed it with one with one elbow crease and just looked at it and fired it back. It's fun to watch the Chiefs.

It was like a mini fridge bottle. It's exactly. It's fun to watch these Chiefs, man. It's fun. We're showing this photograph also of Matt Nagy. You know, I mean, this can't be great for Bears fans. There's the former Bears coach who said, I'll take care of Trubisky, who you drafted instead of Mahomes is also on the screen right there. I'm sorry.

I don't mean to rub it in Bears fans, but I'm just thinking. But it's good to see him smile. He's a good dude. Kelsey's a great. I mean, they're all good.

They're good dudes. And I'm happy for him, even though it does appear. I am having some shade thrown at me now. I have an ego. There's an iron rich and eyes and I don't believe everything I say into this microphone is heard by players. And I'm not part of the landscape in this media world that just wants to be heard.

That's it. I just I'm thrilled to be heard. Don't care if I'm right or wrong.

I prefer to be right, but I do care if I'm wrong. I what I'm not one of those people in this business. Trust me. Anybody who's watched this show heard this show knows that. You guys know that in here. And I don't sit here saying everything I say. The players who were involved in the takes that I have absolutely hear everything that I'm saying. But this I'm pretty damn confident the Chiefs Kingdom heard over and over again that I had said that. Oh, God, I can't believe I said this. The Raiders were going to win the AFC West this year.

It truly is. And I've since said it's the worst take I've had in the history of the show. And I once upon a time said that Yana shouldn't be acquired by the Miami.

Miami shouldn't break up their team after finishing second place in the bubble. TJ can't even look me in the face when I say these things because he knows how bad that take was. You might even think that's still worse than the take that I had just football take was. But I think it is OK. All right. I'm saying you should let you should let yourself off the hook on this. The worst football take I've ever had in the eight year history of the show. But again, I appreciate the fact that you wound up because many of your contemporaries do not.

Good Lord, if I owned it. Yeah. So I'm definitely part of the crew that doubted the Chiefs last spring. We're going to be as good as they have been since Mahomes has taken the reins as starting quarterback there. So here's Travis Kelsey hyping it up. Hype man numero uno at the podium yesterday post parade.

Let me take you back to 2022 in the month of maybe April. Maybe guys were getting signed left and right. The haters were saying that the Chiefs would never make the playoffs. The haters were saying the Chiefs were done. If you knew the Chiefs were going to win the division, let me hear you say, hell, yeah.

If you knew the Chiefs were going to get the number one seed, let me hear you say, hell, yeah. I knew it. You knew it, but they ain't know it. All right.

So let me take this one at a time. Did I know that the Chiefs were in the division? He said, if you knew that, say hell, yeah. Can't say hell, yeah.

Can't because I was one of those types trying to zig when everyone else was zagging or everyone's been zagging for year after year after year after year. And that was the accurate four straight AFC Championship game appearances in a row that when they lost Tyreek Hill, I thought to myself, who are they going to replace him with? Before I even heard that I'm like Davante Adams is joining his old college teammate. Let's go. Chandler Jones is joining Max Crosby.

Let's go. The Condor has another guy on the other end who can rush the passer, maybe make the Hall of Fame already. I thought, OK, here we go. Josh McDaniel is going to come in.

What a total moron I was. I took that cheese before I even found out who they were going to replace him with. And then I heard, you know, MVS, Marquez Valdez-Scantling was joining and Juju Smith-Schuster was joining. And I'm like, together, are they going to make up the issues with Tyreek Hill not being there? And part of the reason why, just since we're turning back the clock, I was saying this is because of how it appeared to everyone.

Everyone dependent on the chunk play, the field flipping chunk play that the Chiefs seem to be so dependent on Tyreek Hill. And I thought, well, they're going to have to put the pieces together, struggle to figure it out to the point where they wouldn't win the division. I said all along that they'd be a wildcard team. So I can't sit there and go be part of the I can.

What's that noise? I can't be part of that noise when I'm saying they missed the playoffs. I never said they were going to miss the playoffs.

I'm just talking about me personally here because that's all I care about. But in terms of do can if you thought we'd be the one seed, say hell yeah. On Thanksgiving, when I finally got off the Bills bandwagon and said the Chiefs were going to win the AFC period, when I switched and I saw the way that the Bills were suddenly flagging and I saw the way that the Chiefs had played over the first dozen weeks of the season from their, by the way, first game in Arizona this year, boat racing. Kyler Murray in the Arizona Cardinals just smoking them.

So you want to talk about bookends in Arizona for this team? That first one was quite eye opening. And despite that mind bending loss to the Colts, they were really consistent and consistently good. I hopped on. So in terms of did I see them as the one seed as of Thanksgiving? Hell yeah. And then as I watched them play football and get into the one seed and start to make the playoffs and the playoff run as of game day morning AFC championship game, standing next to Andy Reid's buddy choosing the Bengals, who I, as you know, caped for when they were 0-2, talking about how I'm not getting off that bandwagon, how terrific they are and how great Burrow is and how the Bengals can win it again. Pounding that table when it came to choosing who wins the AFC championship game next to Andy Reid's buddy taking the Bengals. Lone Wolfing the Kansas City Chiefs. Hell yeah.

And then it comes to NFL game day morning, Sunday morning, sitting next to Andy Reid's buddy Steve Maricci choosing the Eagles. I do. So hell yeah.

And that's the issue people are having with this tape. Is that, yes. Did we doubt that they would be this good when they lost Tyreek Hill and everybody else was signing everybody in April of 2022? In April. In April of 2022?

Yes. And back in training camp, I was believing it, man. As late as the playing season until the Raiders started doing what they did.

Couldn't win, couldn't protect leads. They started 0-3 and I'm getting texts from Stonestreet, tweets from all the Kansas City Chiefs kingdom pointing out how wrong I was. I hated being wrong. And I was wrong. But at some point we realized that they were just as good as before.

Oh yeah. And that's where people are having issues with the no one believed in his card being played by somebody and a team as great as these Chiefs are. Fronted by a quarterback who's as great as Mahomes is and coached by someone who's as great as Reid is and frontmanned by somebody who's as great as Travis Kelce is.

That's where people are having some issues with this. But you do have to admit back in the spring, Mea Culpa, as I've said over and over again, here was Mahomes on this very subject matter himself. Before we started this season, the AFC West said we were rebuilding. I'll be honest with you, I don't know what rebuilding means. In our rebuilding year we're world champs. We're world champs. I just want to let y'all know that this is just the beginning.

We ain't done yet. So I'll make sure to hit y'all back next year and I hope the crowd's the same. Appreciate y'all. Let's go baby.

Love him. And he's not wrong. That's the scary part about it. It is just beginning because what this championship meant and represents is the championship, their first one without Tyreek Hill, the first one without the Chiefs being that track meet, boat race, big chunk play team. They switched it up. They switched it up. And they switched it up on the Eagles in that bye week. They switched it up week to week, whatever they needed to do.

And most week, obviously it was Mahomes doing his MVP magic. They have switched it up and at some point down the road. They're going to have to switch it up again. And as long as it's Mahomes and assume Reed or somebody who is a Reed acolyte, they're going to have to do it again. They'll be doubted again.

And I don't doubt that they'll do it again because of that kid. Number 15, the face of the NFL, Patrick Mahomes. That's what this championship means is they switched it up the same way that Brady was winning three of his first four with Belichick. And take a look at the rosters he won three of his first four with on offense.

Just take a look. Obviously, Dion Branch was an MVP. Brandon LaFell caught big passes. David Patton, right?

You know the names, Chris. Yeah, LaFell was later on. David Givens, David Patton, Jermaine Wiggins, Antoine Smith, Kevin Faulk. Not exactly Hall of Famers on offense. And then later on, Welker, Gronk, Edelman. Never won with Welker, actually.

Oh, you never won with Welker, right? Oh, that's right. Yeah. He threw that one my bad.

I do remember that one being thrown. I mean, I guess championship years. Yeah.

At some point, even though I got some of these names wrong, I think the general gist is accurate. It's that this is the first switch up. Without Hill, MVS, in comes Juju and his Twitter game and they win it. But they do retool on defense. They retooled from 2020 and they won it again. It is just the beginning.

That's the scary part. They won tough games. They didn't blow anybody out. They played close games all year. Brother, they beat the Jacksonville Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence playing at the top of their game, coming off of a huge comeback with Mahomes thoroughly compromised with his ankle, won that game and beat Joe Burrow and then beat Jalen Hurts and the Eagles. That is maybe the toughest crucible a team could have gone on, other than, with all due respect to Jacksonville, if they saw Josh Allen in the divisional round and then Burrow and then Jalen Hurts. It's a heck of a row that they just hoed in Kansas City.

So that's the entirety of me saying mea culpa. But, you know, at some point we did realize that I realized their greatness in the middle of the season and I'm also acknowledging their greatness moving on. So it'll be really tough to play that card that no one's going to believe in him again.

But they will. Every championship team does it. Brady did it when he was trying for his, what, fifth or sixth Lombardi Trophy. He did it saying nobody believes in us. Georgia, after putting 60 on TCU, who said that people thought they couldn't even win seven games?

Like, on what planet are you living? It's weird when teams do that. It happens all the time. But I'm part of it. I didn't think they'd win the division.

How dumb was I? Don't answer that. Let's take a break. Mike Florio. I heard you were about to say something. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk's going to join us on this subject and everything else as we're turning the page to the draft and the combine. I told you Justin Field's trade rumors would start. I honestly didn't think it would be before President's Day weekend.

But they are. 844204 rich number to dial. Warren Sapp in studio and the actor Ken Marino, hour three.

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The regular season is history and we all know the playoffs are no time for messing around. It's time to get off the sidelines and go to Monster.com and win the job hunt. Monster.com. The Rich Eisen Show radio network has returned to the Roku channel live stream. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry.

Grainger has the right product for you. Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Thankful this man is stopping by. Once again, it was great to see him in radio row at the Super Bowl. He is the man who created Pro Football Talk and is on PFT Live and so many other terrific shows coming off of his creation of ProFootballTalk.com.

He is Mike Florio back here in the program. How you doing, Michael? Doing great, Rich. Great to see you in Arizona. It was great to be out there. Even better to be home.

Nine long days travel and everything that goes along with it, but it was a fruitful and productive week. Your takeaway from Super Bowl 57 is what, Mike Florio? The Chiefs are going to be back here more than a few times over the course of Patrick Mahomes' career, as long as Andy Reid is there, as long as they're continuing to draft and develop young players they can put around Patrick Mahomes, as long as he continues to operate under a very team-friendly contract that's going to get more and more team-friendly as the cap goes up and the market continues to skew toward quarterbacks and Mahomes. As he said yesterday, this is just the beginning. I quoted Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in the post after the game on Sunday night that he's just getting warmed up.

Same thing. Two Super Bowl wins in five years as a starter could have had more, may have more going forward. Tom Brady once went ten years between Super Bowl wins. I don't think Mahomes is going to do that. He's only going to get better. They're only going to get better. And Tom may want to come back and play for the 49ers next year to get to eight, just make it a little bit harder for Mahomes to catch him. I know.

You know what I mean? It is stupid when you look at Brady's numbers. All of them.

All of them. I mean, the fact that he had a Hall of Fame career just as a 40-year-old, right? I mean, they are stupid. But you can't help but think if there are footsteps possible to be laid down by Mahomes. With him being 27, he'll be 28. If he does play 18 more years, let's just say he does want to play to 45 like Brady, he really does have a shot to get in the area code.

For sure, Mike. There's no doubt about it in my mind. They're going to be in contention every single year. Now, look, it's hard to thread that needle to get to the Super Bowl and win it, but they've been there three times. It would be four if D. Ford hadn't jumped offside in the 2018 game. It would be five if they didn't feel compelled to force-feed the ball to a receiver that we learned after the fact is extremely needy and was unhappy and disgruntled the entire retail when they threw that little backward pass to him to try to get the score to 28-10 instead of 21-10 at halftime and it got shut down. They would have maybe gone to six if Andy Reid had flipped from Alex Smith to Patrick Mahomes when the offense was stagnant in November of 2017 and Andy Reid kept his word to Alex Smith instead.

So we keep going forward. Mahomes has more reps, more games, more looks, more reasons to understand what the defense is going to give him and get rid of the ball before he has to run around with his hair on fire to make something magical happen. That's bad for us when he stops doing that, when he starts seeing the field the way Tom Brady does and just gets rid of the football. We love those moments where he's got no feet on the ground and his arm is in crazy positions and he makes these things happen, but it's just that passage of time and he acquires more knowledge and understanding. He's just going to get better and better. I don't know how long he's going to play, but when you look at the accomplishments, the total wins, he just won the Super Bowl win behind Brady at age 27. But total wins, he's ahead of the curve stat, he's ahead of the curve and I just think that it's going to continue to hit more yards than anyone in NFL history between his passing and his rushing in 2022.

It's just incredible to watch and it's going to continue as long as he wants to and barring some sort of catastrophic injury that ends his career prematurely. Well, we know last year after losing to the Bengals, Brett Veitch hit hard the defense in the secondary, right? And then the year before that when they lost to Brady, he hit and hit hard that offensive line. The year before that when they won the Super Bowl, he got Mahomes signed long term.

What is Brett Veitch's first order of business now, do you think? I think that they need to look at the cap numbers for some of the players on defense like Frank Clark and Chris Jones and figure out what to do there. You know, this team is going to have more big name players exit over the years and then have to replace them around Mahomes. And, you know, it's not just drafting, we're in draft season and we know that there is a significant bust rate round one, round two, every round. It's a scratch off lottery ticket, summer winners, summer losers, but it's not just drafting, it's draft and develop. The Chiefs know how to draft and develop. The best teams know how to draft and develop.

You get the right players in that system, you're patient with them, you teach them, you bring them along. Kedarius Toney is a long term play. Kedarius Toney can end up being dominant in the NFL once he has a full season to get properly ensconced in the velvet of the offense. That was just on the fly that they got as much out of him. You know, that last touchdown, the one this guy wore to put the Chiefs up eight, that was a messed up formation and I saw something somewhere that that was meant for Kedarius Toney.

If he has two touchdown catches and that 65 yard, but return, maybe he's the MVP of Super Bowl 57. So, the arrow's pointing up and there isn't that same sense of urgency as there was last year or the year before. It's all luxury at this point. They enter the off season as the Super Bowl favorites, not the Bills. It's the Chiefs again and I think we appreciate where they are. We're still understanding how hard it is to get there and win it. They could have lost to the Bengals. They were down 10 points to the Eagles. You know, once we get to the finish and they're holding the trophy, we act like it was easy.

It's never easy, but they're in great position to continue to be knocking on the door every single year. Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk, joining me here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk about quarterbacks now.

That's what we always focus on. Derek Carr is a free agent. At some point, Aaron Rodgers will emerge with a decision for Green Bay and then this is the time where Burrow gets paid and Herbert gets paid. Those teams are now going to have to figure out how to win championships with their contracts being of market value and the quarterback market. Hertz is due for a contract and then there's always what's going on with Lamar Jackson.

Which domino do you see tumbling first here, Mike? Well, I mean, Derek Carr gets a head start on the open market. He's available to sign with anyone right now. Aaron Rodgers can't be traded until the league year begins, how they could work it all out ahead of time.

And none of the free agents are available. Lamar Jackson can't be in a position to even discuss anything with another team until free agency. First, we have to see whether or not the Ravens apply the franchise tag. I assume they will. I don't think they'll work out a long-term deal.

And then the question is, will it be the exclusive tag or the non-exclusive tag? Non-exclusive lets him go out and shop himself to other teams and look for that five-year, fully-guaranteed Deshaun Watson-type structure. But Rich, one thing that I continue to advocate and I feel like the time for it has come, and maybe Joe Burrow is the one to get it because maybe Mike Brown, the owner of the Bengals, is sufficiently willing to go against what the league wants teams to do. I think one of these quarterback contracts needs to be tied to a percentage of the salary cap. Long-term, X percent, 13, 14, 15, 16 percent.

You have certainty not in dollars, but you have certainty in percentage of dollars. The cents on the dollar that go to your quarterback and the rest that's available for the rest of your team. Because there's a balance to be struck, and Jalen Hurts I think is going to be the next big test of this, because he could push for $45 million or more. Will he do that? Will he put the team in a position where they've got less money available to put talent around him? Will he take the Peyton Manning approach, which was basically, it's my job to maximize my income, it's your job to manage the salary cap.

Players get put in this very difficult position, and Simms and I were talking about this today on PFT Live. The owners love it, because the fans never say, hey owner, you're doing just fine. Hey owner, you need to figure this out. Hey owner, you need to take care of these highly talented players that we're showing up to watch and tuning in to watch, and deserve to get more.

While you all get plenty, and you're riding around in your $300 million yachts, you guys need to pony up and pay. Mahomes is the one who should be the highest paid player in football, and he'll never ask for it, but he should be. I think the best way to get toward that path is to tie it to a percentage of the cap, and the best quarterbacks get that percentage, and if the cap goes up, their pay goes up.

And however high the cap goes, that's how high their pay goes. And I think Burrow, I'm not saying he will, but Burrow may be in the best position to pull it off of any of the great quarterbacks we've seen. Some have tried, Darryl Reedus tried, couldn't do it, Kirk Cousins tried, couldn't do it. One of these days someone's going to do it, and once we cross that bridge, hopefully it won't be an aberration like the Watson deal. Hopefully it'll be a sign of things to come, because of all players on the field, the quarterback deserves that percentage. Well, I'm glad you mentioned the Watson deal, because as of right now, in lieu of your theory there, what players are going to go for, it's the Watson let's get every dollar guaranteed that, as we all know, has held up whatever's going on in Baltimore from being a long-time relationship with Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. Anybody else? Do you see the Watson deal roosting again this year in a way that it did not for Kyler in Arizona and Russ in Denver?

What are you thinking? What are you hearing on that front? I think the fact that neither Russell Wilson nor Kyler Murray got five years fully guaranteed draws a circle around Watson as an outlier. And the way Watson pulled it off, and this is one of the benefits of having an agent if you're Lamar Jackson, it's not just go negotiate the best possible contract. An agent explains to Lamar how Deshaun Watson got his five-year fully guaranteed contract, how he was able to convince the Texans to trade him, how he was able to lure four teams to the table to try to persuade him to choose them, how he was able to shrug the Browns to the side at the perfect time after they pissed off Baker Mayfield and they got desperate. And they felt like they had to make a big move to get Deshaun Watson's attention again and swung back around with that five-year fully guaranteed contract. There's a lot of planning to get a lineup to get yourself in that spot, and it worked for Deshaun Watson. It's going to be hard for Lamar Jackson to do it, and what he's basically going to have to do if the Ravens use that non-exclusive franchise tax, he's just got to say, hey, anybody out there, if you're interested, this is what I want, let's see if somebody shows up.

And I don't know that somebody's going to show up. All it takes is one team. But after the blowback the Browns got last year, it's going to take a lot, I think, to get a team to give up five years fully guaranteed and two first-round draft picks, what would be required if you make Lamar Jackson an offer that he accepts and the Ravens don't match it. And I'll be fascinated to see if somebody does it, because the league, the powers that be, management council, other owners, they were pissed off at the Browns for doing it. It'll be interesting to see if somebody else breaks ranks on that again this year. Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, a few more minutes left with him.

The Thursday after Super Bowl 57 right here on the Rich Eisen Show. What do the Jets do with quarterback? What are you hearing there? Because, you know, Rogers, Peter King, your colleague at NBC Sports came on yesterday to say if the Jets don't get Rogers, Lamar could be another big swing opportunity for them as well.

Do they stick with Zach? Honestly, what are you hearing? I think Derek Carr's one to watch.

Todd Downing's now the passing game coordinator there, and he was quarterback's coach for the Raiders 2015-2016, offensive coordinator 2017 when Derek Carr was there. I agree completely with what Tiki Barber said yesterday on his WFAN show about Rogers and the delicate genius not being able to handle the scrutiny of the New York media market. He just doesn't like, he's one of these guys, and there are people like this, who become big celebrities. They want the attention on their own terms. Hey everybody, look at me. Pause. What the hell are you all looking at? You don't want to be scrutinized.

You don't want to be criticized. Rich, you know, you can envision as a Jets fan what that introductory press conference is going to look like. Of all the teams in the NFL, the people covering the Jets are going to show up, and one of them would say to Aaron Rogers, Aaron, you were on Pat McAfee's show several weeks ago, and you suggested that all the people in the media who are making you a villain are doing so at the behest of Big Pharma. Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, how can you justifiably accept a paycheck from the Johnson & Johnson air, not to be confused with the O. Henry heiress, the Johnson & Johnson air, Woody Johnson?

How can you do it? That's hypocritical. Explain yourself. Packers media is never going to ask them a question like that. No other team's media is ever going to ask them that question.

That's just a sliver of what life would be like for them in New York. And we should want that, because it would be great for them, but I don't think it's great for Rogers, and I don't think he's, if he understands what he's walking into, and supposedly he's really smart, I've heard that before, if he's that smart, he wouldn't do it. So somebody in the Wisconsin media is not going to ask him about shooting down Chinese balloons to keep an eye away from Jeffrey Epstein list?

How does he act on Hunter Biden's laptop? Was that the thing that he said the other day? That said, though, the guy walks into New York, despite that press conference awkwardness, and starts throwing touchdowns, and he gets the canyon, a hero's treatment, he'll never be asked a question like that again.

But what do you think? Hey, Rich, you better throw touchdowns to no interceptions. You better not have a game like you had that Thursday night against the Titans when he misses wide open.

Sammy Watkins misses wide open. Allen Lazard, and he's getting booed by Lambeau. Lambeau field?

Booing? Aaron Rodgers? Imagine what it would be like in New York if that happened.

You know what it would be? He gets banged up, he misses the game, and then they put in some slappy third stringer who throws for 300 yards, and that's the new canyon of heroes guy, and they want to get rid of Aaron Rodgers. Isn't that the Jets' formula? Sims rants about that all the time, how Jets fans so quickly turn on the hero and embrace some guy who just happens to stumble into a good game. That would eventually happen, Aaron Rodgers. If I'm him, I'd want no part of that. If I'm him, what I'd want to do is go to San Francisco and try to prove that I can win another Super Bowl.

Yeah, I don't think so. But Green Bay will never let that happen. That's why I like Vegas for him. He gets to connect with Devante Adams again. Adams can't wait to get him, why not? He goes there, he's living out his days like, I wouldn't say Mo Green because that didn't finish up very well for him in Vegas. No, that did not go well for Mo.

Spoiler alert. You finish your football career in Vegas, I don't know, I guess he was a Niner guy living up there in Chico, California, but tons of Northern California fans would be thrilled to have him as the Raiders quarterback. I mean, I asked that of Damian Lillard, he didn't stutter on game day morning on Sunday, he wants Rodgers. That would be perfect for him, I think. Don't you think?

Here's the one wrinkle. McDaniel's? I don't know that Josh McDaniel's would be capable of adjusting his style to account for the delicate genius. And not tell him hard. Not call him out. Not tell him, you know the first thing McDaniel's would say to him, Rich? Hey Aaron, here's what we have to do. Well, more importantly, here's what we have to stop doing. You can't go on Pat McAfee Show over Tuesday, you just can't do it.

You can't go on there and answer questions about the things we're doing here. I mean, it's a patriot way, and these guys who leave Belichick, they say they're going to be their own person. They don't realize how deeply ingrained that patriot way has become in them. They think they're doing their own thing, and maybe it's a little modification, variation on the patriot way, but they still, at their core, via osmosis, have picked up many of Belichick's tendencies, and Josh McDaniel's knows what Tom Brady does, what he tolerates by way of hard coaching, or at least did, while he was with the patrons until he had his lifetime limit of it. Aaron Rodgers has already had his lifetime limit of that. He doesn't want to be called out in meetings. He doesn't want video to be shown of his bad decision and how he freelanced, and even if the play worked out, he stepped away from the script. So, again, they tell me Aaron Rodgers is really smart. If that's the case, I don't see him giving in to the McDaniel system. I don't see him believe it. Yeah, so stay put. I don't think he's going to want to change everything at this point of his career.

I think it's play for the Packers or retire, and I don't think he's going to walk away from $60 million and be the special guest star to the Tom Brady enshrinement class. Dude, you always spit truth, but I think you put truth serum in your coffee today, Matt. I mean, you're in Fuego to use the DP phrase already.

Some days I roll out of bed, Rich, and I just know it's going to be one of those days. And I wonder, is this going to be good or is it going to be bad when it's time to talk into a microphone or a telephone on a radio show? So, hopefully I didn't say anything that's going to get me in any trouble. I don't believe everything I said. I don't think you did, Mike.

Thanks for the time. It was great to see you in Arizona. Look for my call because, you know, the Justin Fields Bears stuff is heating up right now. I guess let me ask you that before I let you go.

What are you hearing about the Bears' thought process on the draft as we're presidents of the game? I get ludicrous. I mentioned lottery ticket.

You scratch off a lottery ticket, it's a winner. You don't get rid of it. You embrace it. You get the most out of Justin Fields. He's just talking with our guys, pardon my take, about how he wants to play in a dome.

By the time they get a dome build, I think he's done. So, I don't know, maybe he's the one that needs to be thinking about going somewhere else, but the Bears, I think, would be foolish to trade him and take a shot on another quarterback and look at the top quarterbacks taken over the past five years. It is a flip of a coin as to whether or not they work out or not.

Why would you want to take that chance again? You've just got a guy who's working out, work on making him better, and work on adjusting your offense to get more out of him like the Eagles did with Jalen Hurst. Don't get rid of him. I can't believe that there's even a conversation about moving on from Justin Fields. He would want to move on and play for a team that's in a dome.

But you know how it works, too. The lottery ticket the Bears are also holding is anybody who falls head over heels in love with Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud. They're holding that ticket saying, come cash it in right here because you know the Texans are taking somebody. And cash it in right here because if they make it seem like they're taking one of them and they're not enamored with Justin Fields, that's the way that that lottery ticket gets scratched off.

That's the way they're playing that game. Well, and Rich, you've got the Texans at two and the Colts at three. You can work division rivals against each other and hope that they both fall in love with Bryce Young.

And we know that Uncle Jim came out and said it the other day to the chagrin of Chris Ballard that they really like that Alabama quarterback. You get the Texans and the Colts at the table and you drive up the price and you drive up the price and they're holding up the paddles and it's going higher and higher and you get a great bounty. And you get multiple lottery tickets. You get a whole room full of lottery tickets.

You start scratching them off, you're bound to find some winners. Or maybe Ursay ran into Namath at NFL Honors and that's what he's referring to. Take care of yourself, Mike. You're the best. Thanks for the call. That's Mike Flory, everybody, at Pro Football Talk. Follow him. I do.

You should. Great stuff. There's one entry that Mike had yesterday caught my eye about a rule change that's being made in football.

Not professional National Football League football yet, but professional football in other places. Oh, baby. Once again, I'm on the cutting edge and you should tune in to hear me talk about that. Next, before Warren Sapp joins us on the Rich Eisen Show. We'll be right back. Back here with our radio feed, along with the Roku stream.

Ninety-nine in your program, number one in your heart is in our green room right now. Warren Sapp will be joining us in 11 minutes time. Sapp not fishing. No, he's actually a movie festival fishing. We'll talk about that.

With him when he joins us next hour. I know what I'm talking about. That's the headline. I know what I'm talking about.

Very humble. When it comes to rules in the NFL, I should be on the competition committee. I've said it over and over again.

I'm telling you, folks, you're 20. Me and the NFL Network, when I first joined the Tuck rule, I had to get it out of there. I'm like, that made no sense to me. It was properly called, Chris. It was. It was in the rule book. It was.

And I had, excuse me, I'm going to get there. In the rule book, I told Mike Pereira, the head of NFL refs at the time, when he said that the Tuck rule removed the gray area. He literally said those words to me. And I'm like, what do you mean?

It's the entirety of the gray area. When you take a football from up here by your head and then move it down to your body. That shouldn't be the process of throwing the ball like that's still in the process of like moving your arm forward. You're moving your hand down, your arms being moved down, but you're talking it. That is the clearest indication of you no longer intend to throw.

Thus, the minute you move your arm down, that makes you a runner. Thus, that should be a fumble. Get that out of the rule book. What ended up happening out of the rule book?

It's gone. Poof. Then your catch, the Dez Bryant catch, totally was a catch. One million percent a catch in the rule book, though, at the time, not a catch that was properly called at the time. And the reason why we had to really take a look at that rule is because there were beasts like Dez Bryant who could, in the process of catching the ball, take two strides and pick up 10 yards in that process while going down to the ground. The process of going down to the ground with somebody like Dez Bryant takes the entirety of a first down chain. So it was weird to see the process of going down to the ground not only include that much real estate being acquired by a player, but also the act of reaching the ball out.

You could do that, but no, that's still technically part of the process of catching the ball. Stupid, dumb, get it out of there. What ended up happening?

Not out of there. Yes, I'm taking credit for the removal of the tuck rule and the changing of the catch rule. I'm doing that. Thank you. Was I solely responsible for it?

No. Uh-uh. I just kept talking about it on NFL Network and then when this show existed, part of the hum, sort of the Costanza. You leave the room and you're still humming.

The stanza. That's right. The catch rule. The tuck rule. Get it out. Wow.

Now I have been pounding this desk over and over and over again. This stupid cockamamie rule that you fumble the ball into the end zone, you lose possession and the defense gets it. Instead of you getting it if you fumble it through the end zone in the same way you'd get it if you fumbled it and it was on the one inch side of the pylon in the field of play. Not in the end zone.

That two inches of real estate. Difference between keeping the ball and not. Now I understand, Chris, you say it's a special spot, that end zone, that's why it's called a touchdown. When you score in there, you're touching down. That's where you get the points.

Don't fumble. Correct. I understand that. Do you?

I do. But you should also get the ball back if you fumble it through the end zone in the same way you'd get it if you just fumbled it out of bounds on the field side of the pylon. Footballs take weird bounces. Guess who's changing the rule?

The XFL and USFL. Now in those sports, in those leagues, the professional football, you fumble through the end zone, you get the ball back on offense at the spot of where you fumbled it. Huzzah. I'm telling everybody, just wait. And the NFL's like, we're not changing the rule. This is the way it's always been.

And we take a look at it. It only happens like three, four, five times a year. Wait till it happens in the Super Bowl.

Then you'll change it. The flank, the rear flank of the NFL is wide open for this to be a major problem. You think this defensive holding call is a problem?

Imagine one of the chiefs fumbling through the end zone or an eagle fumbling through the end zone and the other team gets the ball back, takes a knee and wins the Super Bowl. People will be like, half the people who tuned in to just watch Rihanna will be like, what? Huh? All the people that were, yeah, maybe putting a little something, something on it will be like, what?

Huh? And they'll be like, that's the rule. I'm saying to everyone, you know the rule or not, doesn't matter.

Because to the naked eye, to the so-called 10 people in a bar, it doesn't compute. Oh, so you get the ball back if you fumble it on the one inch line. But if you fumble it one inch into the end zone, you don't?

Correct. The XFL and the USFL says, done with that. The NFL is now the outlier. And college football.

Get rid of it. I'm telling you, it's coming. You may not like it, but it's coming. And it's coming to the NFL right now.

You mean the two leagues that matter have it the right way and then the two upstarts are trying something different? How dare you say that? Would you say that if Dwayne Johnson was sitting here right now, Warren's college teammate? Yeah, I would tell him how it's kind of dumb. He's like, don't fumble. You would tell the Rock that's what you're cooking? Get out of here.

It stinks. Saying don't fumble is, yeah, of course you don't want to fumble. Look, the Patriots never reach for the pylon. They've been taught not to do it and they've been coached not to do it and they don't do it. It never happens to them, is what I'm saying. And also, how many times did it happen this year? But it never happens to them.

But that same team that's so usually buttoned up, let's have Jacoby Myers just fling it back directly to a Las Vegas writer. It's going to happen. It's going to happen to you. It is the dumbest rule in football. It makes no sense. There are way dumber rules than this. And all I'm saying is, we have argued about this. You have taken the status quo part of this argument since day one.

I'm telling you that at the end of the day, it's full Willy Wonka. This rule will not change in our lifetime. You lose. Good day, sir. It's coming. I'll take that bet.

Okay. Because the USFL and the XFL is going to show the NFL how it's going to do it. And then one day it's going to happen in a big game. And the NFL and the competition committee are going, where have we heard this before? And I'll say, give me a spot in your room.

I'll save you the trouble. These leagues may not exist in a year. They will. They will.

We're on XFL version 3. You know why they're going to work? You know why it's going to survive? Because they have good rules. And great mixers. Like me. This is what I've been dealing with for 14 months. XFL, wherever you listen.