REShow: Mike Sando/Brandon Sklenar - Hour 3

At the end of the day, Eric Binnum is a ball coach. This is The Rich Eisen Show.

He's a third person guy. He was point blank asked about why aren't you a head coach. Being a head coach, that's something, if that's to happen, it'll take care of itself. The Rich Eisen Show. Doug Peterson and Matt Nagy didn't call plays in Kansas City or under Reid and they got gigs. Earlier on the show, Apple TV lead MLS analyst Taylor Twellman, host of the Business of Sports Podcast, Andrew Brandt. Coming up, NFL writer for The Athletic, Mike Sandow, actor Brandon Sclenar. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

Andrew Brandt, who was the longtime front office executive and certainly salary cap guru for the Green Bay Packers back in the day when they drafted Aaron Rodgers and moved on from Brett Favre for Aaron. He was here in studio and chimed in on that subject matter and so much more. If you missed it, there's our podcast, Cumulus Podcast Network has our three hours of our entire show available for you to listen to whenever you want. And then we re-air here on the Roku channel, channel 210. We re-air all day, all weekend long, so you can't avoid us. And there's also the Rich Eisen Show collection of video on demand service, our YouTube page, youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram as well. We're live on Sirius XM, we're live on Odyssey, we're live on this Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate. And once again, just a fresh reminder, the Roku channel is free on all Roku devices.

Select Samsung Smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV, the Roku app and the rokuchannel.com. The man who plays Spencer Dutton in the hit show on Paramount Plus, which by the way, you can watch right here on the Roku channel, 1923. He plays Spencer Dutton. He is here in our green room right now.

And also, I know we're all big fans of The Offer. He played Burt Reynolds in the end of The Offer. Did he watch Smokey and the Bandit to get ready for that role?

I don't know. But actually, if you remember, it was about the longest yard, so we'll talk to Brandon about everything going on. And thankfully, Chris Brockman, that you have Jason Feller to your left, and not Mike Del Tufo, because Brandon Sclinar is from Dover, New Jersey. I mean, he could have gone, Where are you from New Jersey?

What exit are you from? So he's not here. Mr. New Jersey is not here.

And so he won't, Hector, our guest. TJ Jefferson, good to see you over there. TJ, good to see you. Hey, good to be seen. And joining us here on the program, as soon as I saw the deep dive come out this morning on The Athletic, it definitely almost made me late for work. It was a long read.

It was a fascinating read on what went down in Denver last year and what went down in Seattle, according to this report, before Russell Wilson left there. And joining us, one of the three writers for The Athletic who's on the byline of this story, Mike Sando, here on The Rich Eisen Show. Thanks for calling in, Mike. You know, Rich, it's great to be here. I feel like I grew up listening to you, except you're only 10 months older than me, so I don't know how that would be possible. Well, I mean, you're a child at heart, Mike. I think that's what that means.

I think that's what that means. All right, man. So let's just jump right in, because to me, I talked about it at length to start the program. And what I kind of latched on is what happened in Denver. But I know the rest of the sports world is already latched onto the way you started with a nice bang here in your piece that Russell Wilson asked to get both his coach and general manager fired for him to stay in Seattle. And obviously, the Seahawks went in the other direction.

I give you the floor on your reporting on that. Yeah, absolutely. So I think, you know, less surprising probably to people that are in Seattle and been watching this play out. But, you know, for years, we've known and written about that he and Pete Carroll were at least a little bit sideways. The whole let Russ Cook thing, right? He wanted the offense to be more quarterback-centric.

Pete, of course, being the longtime defensive coach, run the ball, all of that was going to play the game how he wanted to. So I think for multiple offseasons recently, there's always been stories or reports where you could feel these things were going on. And then, you know, the timeline really matched up this last offseason, meaning a year ago, where, you know, things come to a head at the end of the season.

There's the types of talks that you have. There's a, you know, you could see a stalemate type thing and Russell making his appeal to ownership. This would have been in February of 2022. So the owner has a decision to make. And the owner had re-upped and extended the head coach Pete Carroll and the GM John Schneider, I believe within a year or 18 months or so before this.

She ends up picking them. This would be in February. So then the combine happens last February. And that's where secretly John Schneider and the GM of the Broncos, George Payton, are kind of laying down the parameters after the decision has been made that the coach and GM are going to stay. And sure enough, then boom, I think as March 8th, the story breaks that the trade is happening and Russ goes on his way to Denver. And then that's where our story picks up with, you know, obviously didn't go the way anyone expected it would in Denver. Even if you were a rough skeptic, you thought that it was going to go better than it did in Denver the first year.

No question. And we'll get deeper into that in a second, Mike Sandow. But, you know, you quoted a lawyer representing Russ in your story saying that the, your reporting of Russ trying to get Carroll and Schneider fired, quote unquote, entirely fabricated. I'm sure you saw Russell Wilson's tweet earlier today calling Pete a father figure and remarking how John believed in him and drafted him as well.

He never wanted him fired. And so what's your reaction to that? Absolutely. I believe those things are true from Russ about Pete having been a father figure, John Schneider having shown faith in him. I believe that that's totally factual. I mean, certainly there are father-son relationships that get sideways at different points.

I think when the book is written eventually on what happened in Seattle, there's going to be chapter on the love and the and the divorce. Right. And so, you know, I think it's understandable that that Russell would come out and say those things. And, you know, we certainly stand by the reporting. We wouldn't have reported it if we didn't stand by completely. One hundred and ten thousand percent. So we do.

And we realize that when things come out and, you know, people, maybe some don't want it to come out, there's going to be different types of reactions or or attempts to not have the story come out to influence it to not come out. All of that is just part of the business. And so, you know, that that's all that is. And we stand by it 100 percent. And and. You know that that's all there is to say about the story speaks for itself.

I would say that it's about our story and our reporting. Yes, Mike. I think that there has been a lot of criticism and mockery of Russell Wilson in recent years. His plays declined a little. Even some of his former teammates in Seattle have not supported him as much as they could have. He's been mocked for calling out runner pass on the sideline. He's been mocked for how many bathrooms his house has. He's been mocked for saying he stretched in the aisles.

He's become an easy target. And I think notably our story wasn't about any of that. This was right down the middle reporting on what how it ended at the very end in Denver, which explains why it was. So there wasn't Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson having any kind of a pregame conversation that you'd normally expect.

This stuff was fresh. And and so I think that I think that is a notable part of the story. There's been so much psychological profiling and piling on of Russell Wilson. This was now we had people on the record talking about the season.

There was no one in there making the comments disparaging really of Russ. It was more evaluating the situation. Right. And yeah, it probably was a little too much to have his his personal quarterback coach in there. Yeah. In retrospect, the office was probably too much. All of that.

So I'd say that about the piece. And then I think it's fascinating to see what happens now with Sean Payton, because Russell Wilson has played a lot of good ball. You know, if he just can he come back with Sean Payton? And that's sort of where we left it with Sean Payton saying all those things, the office, the distractions. We're not having that. It's about football. And so that obviously doesn't feel like it's about football today. But I think very quickly it's going to be about football for Denver with Russell Wilson, with Sean Payton. And probably his best chance in a couple of years to write the narrative of what his career is going to be, because this guy is on a Hall of Fame pace. And now we've got to stumble. But he's still got an opportunity. Well, again, before we move on to the Denver aspect of it, Mike Sandow, the reporting from you and your two other colleagues, Karen Kalin Kaler. Did I pronounce it correctly?

And Jason Jenks. What can you share with the reporting, the manner in which Russ asked for his coach and general manager to be fired? Was it a direct face-to-face with Jody Allen in an office somewhere? Or was it through a representative?

We put it in there as specific as we were comfortable going, based on the considerations of the sourcing. So, you know, that's what it is and that's what it says. But certainly she's the head of ownership.

Mike Sandow here on the Rich Eisen Show. Okay, so let's move on to the Denver. The one thing that I could not get past. No, seriously, man, is that, you know, the quote in this story, based on the, you know, the office that Russell Wilson had, and then obviously some other, you know, aspects that were unique for a quarterback to have his own people within the building and the office being on the second floor, that ultimately somebody said that there were too many cooks in the kitchen and the word cook just jumped off the phone at me, man. That all Russ wanted to do was just let him cook and being allowed to cook in the manner in which he wanted, there were too many cooks. I couldn't get through that. I couldn't get over that. You know, this is a great example of when you're so close to a story, like that's such an obvious thing to notice, but when you're so close in a story, you're always reading it the night before and, okay, like what is going to stand out as someone who's not in the middle of it?

I actually, as obvious as that is, hadn't thought of that with the cooks in the kitchen. I don't think the person who said it meant that at all. But the interesting thing about this, too, is like the people in Denver don't have the history of Russ. Remember all the, you know, there's almost a vitriol from some of the people on the defensive side and the relationship. None of that.

We didn't get any of that. I think there's a lot of people still with an open mind of Russ and Denver, but that is hilarious. Honestly, that just jumped, too many cooks said an unnamed coach about it. I'm like, well, that's the word that's been surrounding him and what was apparently wrong in Seattle. And then apparently what went wrong in Denver in his first year because, you know, and also in your story where there was an open door policy in his second floor office and somebody mentioned, well, the office should have been his locker instead of an actual office.

That also hit me too, man. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I should I get a text today from someone in a different teams for an officer said something like hot take.

I think everybody, every quarterback should have their office. And I don't necessarily disagree. But I think, you know, what goes along with that, with your own staff in there and and open door policy of a player is probably a bit much. Now, I'll say this.

It's all solved if you play great ball. Right. I mean, if Russell Wilson had a typical Russell Wilson year this last year, these are all details. Right. Obviously.

So how did it all wind up? I mean, that's the interesting aspect, too, is the you said at one point, management in Denver went to Russ about the office and then Russ closed up shop and then went back into the locker room, essentially. Was that after Hackett got fired?

I believe that would be the last couple of weeks of the season. So that's it. So then that would be it. Yeah. So we'll see.

You know, yeah. You know, I think I think Hackett is a young coach coming in there. And Russell was such a big name and star with so much juice coming in there that, you know, what was Hackett going to do other than probably acquiesce, maybe overly so. And I think that was a component, too. He had been in Green Bay when Aaron Rodgers first got there and there was a little bit of growing pain. Not first got there, but when Matt LaFleur first got there. Right.

And there was some growing pain. But I think, you know, the red carpet was rolled out for Russell, you know, maybe to a fault in the end. So how how do you think it's going to work? So many folks think that Russ, you know, to use a pop culture phrase, jumped the shark last year. But ultimately, in your reporting, the guy who he wanted Seattle to hire, if he got his way due to your reporting with his coach and general manager is the guy who is now coaching him. So I think he's going to be better.

I think I think this was the worst case possible scenario of play. I think the one thing about Russell Wilson is I think he's always worked hard. And so if he's going to work hard, you would think with this offseason, my own personal opinion, I feel like he needs to lose about 10 pounds and just get that quickness back that he had. Right.

And just be really be dialed in in that component. And then Russ, then Sean Payton do the rest because Sean Payton always had a run game for for Drew Brees. Right.

Set that up. I think he can still be a good quarterback. I don't think he's going to be. I think we've seen the best of them, though. I don't think he's going to be a lead elite like he was. And I think it's going to be an uphill battle in that division.

But I do think he's definitely going to be better than he was this last season when just almost everything that could go wrong seemed like it did. And by the way, I mean, you're reporting on on what what happened at the end in Seattle for the league then to pop them on the same field week one. I mean, talk about zero chill. I mean, this thing is raw.

That had to have been raw, raw, raw. At least when Brady saw Belichick was a full season, he had one in the case for himself. You know, it was week four in the second year against. Wow. And so I know. Right. Everyone was noticing at the time.

Look, there's worse. There's no you know, we knew there was tension, but but there was Russell Wilson, as we said, was meeting all of these people on the field. You'd think the head coach would be the most natural one. And I think you just sort of like almost hope for everybody's legacies that time heals all right. Then in the end, Russell Wilson takes his rightful spot in the ring of honor. And, you know, that rawness of that and even whatever still percolating maybe goes away with time. And I've seen that I used to cover the Seahawks can easily hated this this franchise. He came back into the fold.

It took him 15 years, but they come back. And so that's probably the best case scenario for everyone, given all the Russell Wilson did contribute in Seattle, which was a lot. And they'll never do it because, again, I saw Pete in Munich and he in the meeting where, you know, things get said and meetings with broadcast teams, I didn't get a hint of a hint of a hint about Ross and him. It was all how great Gino is and how he felt like, you know, it was time for a new voice and with Bobby Wagner, too. But so, yeah, for for the for the season to play out the way that it did, where we were deep dove on what happened with Ross again.

Too many cooks wound up being had. And again, that that word leapt off the screen at me. And Gino Smith is the comeback player of the year, even though what he was he coming back from the bench. But I mean, like, you know, had to have been and they they they they made the playoffs and and threatened the 49ers and that wildcard round that had to that has to be something that they they would love to crow about.

But don't Mike. Yeah. Yeah. I think it speaks for itself. Right. I mean, they don't even have to because everyone knows.

I mean, you couldn't have had a more extreme juxtaposition. I just think longer term, Jody Allen's going to sell the term the team long term per Paul Allen, the late pile and the former owner's estate planning. And Pete Carroll's whatever, 70, 71. He's not going to be coaching in the team in 10 years from now. I mean, I don't want to speak for Pete, but I would guess he's probably not. So the time will come is what I mean.

The time will come for the people. There will be different and what Russell Wilson contributed to Seattle will be fully appreciated on the merits, which is just playing great ball for a long time, no matter how it ended. Mike Sando, thanks again. Greatly appreciate it.

Let's get you on throughout this non playing season is as conditions warrant. Thanks again. And a and a fascinating read. So thank you for the time.

So thank you. That's Mike Sando, a senior NFL writer of the athletic. One. What was the number?

One hundred ten thousand percent. I think that's what it was. But I guess if he sourced it, I mean, I didn't I don't want to out any of his sources, but it's just like, what was it face to face? What do we got here when he said this about I want the coach and the GM gone?

I don't know. But he got the guy I wanted. He did in a different spot. I know what happened and a new contract. He got the guy a lot of people wanted.

So two hundred forty five million. Let Sean cook. And then you in turn shall cook. You eat what he cooks because I'm sure it's delicious. You could serve it up. You can get in the kitchen to just you can look at the cookbook. Sure. Let's take a break. Very excited for our next guest in studio, Brandon Sclinar, who plays Spencer Dutton.

And for those watching on the Roku channel, this is what I mean by a tough to shot that's about to come up for the kid. Men, do you get distracted during the day thinking about your underarm sweating, itching or emitting an odor? Do those thoughts keep you from showing care when it counts? New and improved dove men plus care antiperspirant with seventy two hours sweat and odor protection and one quarter moisturizing cream helps you forget about your underarm so you can be present for the moments that matter. Don't let underarm insecurities keep you at arm's distance from the ones you care about by new and improved dove men plus care antiperspirant wherever personal care products are sold. In the United States, Rolling Stone has set the bar for entertainment publications. Today, Rolling Stone Music Now takes over in podcast form. You seem like a person with a pretty high level of anxiety, but you also seem fearless artistically. It does have more power than identity, like the excitement overrides insecurity.

That is the only way that I'm ever able to accomplish anything. Rolling Stone Music Now, wherever you listen. We're back here with Brandon Sclinar on our Terrestrial Radio, Sirius XM Odyssey back here, 1923 on Paramount Plus available on the Roku channel again. Brandon is the one who plays Spencer Dutton right here on the Rich Eisen Show. I just can't get enough of this show and the thing that really takes me back, Brandon, is that when it's Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, I'm thinking they're going to be the most interesting characters. Yours is the most interesting character on this program. Absolutely. When you first got a script and they're like, guess what?

You're not in Montana. What would you say when you saw that? Yeah, it was a little overwhelming. You're thinking, okay, Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren will be on the ranch and continuing where we left off at 83. And then Taylor's like, no, man, you're going to Africa. You're going to Kenya, you're going to Africa, you're going to Malta. Yeah, so it was definitely a little intimidating at first, but we settled into it and I'm just excited to get back to Montana, honestly. So I guess let's take it one step at a time here because you did shoot in Africa in the show, right? Yeah.

Was that your first time in Africa? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Okay. And I'm assuming the animals that you're surrounded by, are they CGI or are some of them real? Some of them, it's a combination of real cats on the day and real elephants on the day and then stuffies and animatronics and then CGI.

So it's like the movie magic blend of the three of them. Okay, so you had a meeting with Taylor Sheridan before taking this role? Not so much a meeting, no. I mean, you do your audition, your tape, and then he flew me to Jackson Hole to test and read with him. Yeah.

And that was the first time I had met him. And then, yeah, in the room, it was kind of, I got the vibe that it was going to go my way. So 1883 was out at this time or was it not? Yeah, yeah, 1883 had been fully released and was out. Now, were you up to speed on the Yellowstone universe by the time you took this? Yeah, yeah.

My pops and my mom are huge Yellowstone fans and I thought 1883 was a masterpiece. A masterpiece? You're currently seven episodes into that. Seven and I got three left. Yes.

I got three left. It's amazing. Yeah. Sam Elliott, you can't. You just can't. You can't?

Yeah, you can't. I know. Yeah, yeah.

What do you even say to that? I know. He's incredible. Exactly.

And his character's incredible in that. So you were up to speed on the whole thing. Yeah. And your character, if I'm not mistaken, we've only seen once before 1923 and it was in a flashback.

Yes. In Yellowstone season four. As a really little boy.

As a little boy on horseback. And I don't want to spoil too much because you're not there yet either. It's okay. I'm not there.

It's all right. You know, you could tell I'm a big nut about this. My wife and I are totally locked in on all this. Good. And the beautiful part about it is, you know, like Yellowstone is, for the lack of a better phrase, and I know I'm probably dating myself, it's like a 21st century Dallas. Yeah, yeah. You know, there's a little bit of a soapy aspect to it, but it's also a real life current present day aspect. Definitely, yeah. It's a slightly different tone than 83 and 23.

Well, 83 and 1923 are essentially about the fragility of humanity. Yeah. You know, like that your character basically, you know, coming, so I don't want to keep going too deep here, but I will. Your character is a World War I veteran in 1923, right?

Yeah. What were you told about Spencer Dutton coming into this whole business? I knew that he was a veteran, and I knew that he was a big game hunter, and I knew that he was sort of coping with his PTSD by chasing danger and putting himself in harm's way. I kind of almost, you know, trying to kill himself. He's drinking himself to death. He's putting himself in these circumstances because it's the only way he knows how to feel anything.

It's the only way he knows how to feel alive. That's all that I knew. That's it. I didn't know the journey. I didn't know it was going to be this sort of Homer's Odyssey.

I didn't know anything. I think we got the first two episodes, and I had no idea. You mean the first two episodes in a script form?

Yeah, yeah. When I initially read for the role, that's all we got, and then we were six weeks into cowboy camp before we got any other episodes. Right. So the whole cast is kind of learning where this is going as we were getting into pre-production and prepping to shoot the thing. So we were like fans waiting to know where it was going and what was happening.

Correct. So did you know at the time you would wind up with a love interest at some point in time? Did you know that going into this thing? Well, I knew in episode two when they met that it was going to be significant, but I had no idea the journey they would go on and the challenges they would face and just sort of this sweeping epic nature of their journey. I had no idea. Right.

I mean, I don't know what's happening next season. That's what I'm about to say because the aspect of your character, we know, again, your brother on the program, who is the young, by the way, Chris, his brother is the young boy you see in 1883. Got it.

And so we know your brother eventually is going to be part of the lineage of the Kevin Costner character in Yellowstone. Right. You, we have no idea what's going to happen to you. Like there's no actual, if I imagine the Yellowstone universe, evidence of you having a life or having kids or having anything like that. There's nothing. Yeah, there's nothing. And I mean, I don't even know, to be honest with you. You don't. No, I don't.

And I get asked that question all the time because everyone's wondering who is the descendant of Kevin's character in Yellowstone. Right. I don't know.

Anybody knows. So it could technically still be you is what you're saying. Could be.

Could be. And only Taylor Sheridan knows. And I don't even know if he does. That's what I was about to say. No, he's a mad genius, man.

He just kind of, he gets inspired in one way and the story will shift and I don't know where that comes from and how he does it. But he's up there in Texas in his cave. Is he on the four sixes? Is that where he is? He's in Weatherford.

He's got a spot out there. But yeah, he's just a wildly interesting man. The man who plays Spencer Dutton. Brandon Sclinar is here on The Rich Eisen Show from, Spencer Dutton is right here on The Rich Eisen Show.

Paramount Plus is where you can catch the season finale of 1923. So I was going to ask you this question, but I'm going to do it anyway. You're not in any scenes with Harrison Ford at all.

Have you met him? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

What do you got for me? Come on. I mean, he's just the coolest. He's the coolest guy.

I mean, can you put more, what meat on the bones you got for me on that when you've met Harrison Ford? I mean, he just got such a great sense of humor. So dry.

Okay. Just such a dry wit, that guy. And he's sweet. I mean, when I met him, it was during cowboy camp and we were in a rodeo arena doing drills and loping and doing barrel races and stuff.

And my horse, Spanky, was pretty temperamental and I'd be loping pretty fast and he would just decide to make a hard right at any given moment. And he made one of those hard rights. And as he made that hard right towards the gate of the rodeo arena, this gentleman was walking up and walking up kind of slow. And I figured I'd just say, I don't know who it was. He had a baseball cap on and he got to get himself up on the fence of the rodeo arena. And he looks up at me and me, I was like, oh, damn, that's Harrison Ford.

He's like, hey, how's it going? Are you one of the star wranglers? I was like, no, no, I'm an actor. I'm an actor. And he's like, oh, yeah. How are the actors doing?

The horses. And I was like, no, no, I'm an actor. I play Spencer Dutton. And then he kind of did a double take and he looked at me and he goes, ah, very cool. Very cool. And by the way, I don't need to hear anymore. It is. Yeah. Yeah. It's just like there doesn't need to be a laugh line.

It doesn't need no. No. Yeah. He's just. And he's just a nice guy. So who is he to you? Is he Indiana Jones? Is he Han Solo? Or is he Dr. Richard Kimball?

Like, who is he to you? I mean, probably the one thing that I most cling to for my childhood is Indy. Yeah. I mean, we all grew up on those films. Yeah.

All of us. I mean, that's the strongest thing for me is Indy. I watched those films a dozen times with my grandfather. He was a big Western guy and we had those on constantly. So there was definitely the first few minutes with him. You just kind of every scene flashes before your eyes. You're looking at him and you kind of have to delete that so you can.

Yeah. He doesn't like snakes. You got to get rid of that. I hate snakes. He hates snakes.

Do you like that? And you went to cowboy camp together? What do you mean by cowboy camp? What does that mean? You get up every day and you ride horses for six, seven hours.

This is for your role? Yeah. You get up every day. For, I guess, eventually when you get to Montana? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

You'll be riding lots of horses. So you sign on the dotted line. You're playing Spencer Dutton and now you got to go to cowboy camp. Is that the way it works? Yeah, pretty much immediately. Does everyone in the Yellowstone universe have to do that? Everybody does it. Yeah.

Everybody's out there for a month every day. So you were watching Harrison Ford trying to rope cattle and stuff like that. Is that what you're saying? You know, Harrison kind of, he came in pretty knowledgeable.

He came in with his own saddle. Of course. You know. Wow. B-Y-O-S? Yeah, B-Y-O-S. Wow.

Bring your own saddle? Yeah. He knows what he's doing on a horse. What a flex. What other movies he'd be? Oh, I mean, he's done everything. He, by the way, I think he is the most beat up actor of all time. Like, his characters have the absolute crap beaten out of them. That guy's tough as nails.

I mean, he was a negative 15 in Montana. And he's out there on a horse. Never forgets a line.

Knows all of his... I mean, the guy's just like, he's a legend. In terms of being a professional working actor in that sense. I mean, he's an actor first and foremost.

And Helen Mirren as well. I mean, you got two... Just the sweetest, just a sweetheart. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. And again, it's the finale of season one. Congrats on season two being picked up. Is there any shot of a season three or one? You know, I think it's going to be the 16 episodes. That's it.

Yeah, that's it. We're book-ended. I can't get enough of it. I cannot get enough of it. It's just as good as 1883.

It is just as good as Yellowstone. And it is... I can't wait to see what happens to your character and what's going on there. And I hope it winds up good for you, man. Me too. Before I let you go, the offer. You were in the offer as well as Burt Reynolds.

I was. How does one prepare for Burt Reynolds, Brandon Sclenar? Well, you know, you grow a decent mustache. Well, I mean, you got that check.

I think that's step one is grow a mustache. Yeah. And then, yes, you're watching Smokey and the Bandit.

You're watching The Longest Yard. You are. You're doing that. Yeah. Okay.

Did you watch Norm Macdonald's imitation of him from Saturday Night Live? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Turd Ferguson. Yeah. That's funny. Yeah. You watch Turd Ferguson to get ready for the offer? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That was my biggest inspiration.

Was Turd Ferguson? Yeah. That was a great show as well.

That was a fantastic show, the offer. Oh, yeah. I thought they nailed it. I really did. And Miles was great. I mean, the whole cast is phenomenal.

Oh, my God. Yeah. It was great. And that got completely snubbed. I thought that was an outrage. You know.

The offer was terrific too. Yeah. When I was on the set, I was thinking, this is good.

This is good. This is special. Yeah. Exactly right. Yeah. And you must be thinking that right here too, right? Yeah.

1923. Yeah. I mean, just reading the first. You know it's good when you're emotional just reading the pages. We'd get these scripts and you're on a plane and you're crying on a plane reading these things. It's like, well, if I'm getting that from the page, then hopefully when we put this thing together, it'll affect people. Exactly.

That's about it, man. And so congratulations on this. I appreciate you coming in here as well. And I look forward to seeing the second season come back to promote that, if you don't mind as well. Yeah.

I mean, I can't wait for Sunday night. You know? It is true. It is truly.

So you're seeing it for the first time on Paramount Plus as well? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because he's real secretive, right?

Taylor Sheridan's really secretive. Yeah. It's a really unique creative process. How so? Interesting.

Can you give me a good idea on that? No one knows what's happening until you get that script. And he also, by the way, writes first drafts. So it's not where the script changes. Once he sends those scripts out, it's done.

It's your Bible. He's not changing anything. He doesn't.

No. And he's the only writer doing it. So it's just all from his brain to the page. He sends you the script.

It's done. You don't get any rewrites or anything like that? No.

Nothing. I mean, the opposite of that, because again, we've been on the air eight years here and we talk about this sort of stuff all the time, despite being known as a so-called sports show. Right. David Milch would hand Deadwood Actors new iambic pentameter type lines the day of, and you'd have to remember a new... We've had Ian McShane on here and Timothy Oliphant. You'd have to remember the most profane Shakespearean type prose on the spot. That's not the same one for you.

No. There's no ad-libbing, there's no... So I mean, everything you see is on the page as it's written.

There's no... It's word for word as it is. Which as an actor, you couldn't ask for anything better because everything's specific. Every line's specific, every word is specific. It's all... Such as a play, it's all there for a reason. So there's no changing it. You don't need to change it.

You don't need anything. It is kind of... Again, there's some times where my wife and I will just look at you and say, how do you think of that? We just don't know where that comes. It is truly amazing. He's a genius. He is that.

And again, 1923 is genius. I look forward to Sunday night when it airs Sunday exclusively on Paramount Plus. You can catch that again right here on the Roku channel. Brandon Sclenar, thank you for coming here, brother. Congrats on everything going on and say hi to Harrison for me, will you please? Say hi to Harrison for me. That's Brandon Sclenar here on The Rich Eisen Show. We will wrap up this Friday show in a moment. Back here on The Rich Eisen Show radio network, sitting at The Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger is the right product for you.

Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. He gave you... What vibes did he give you? He gave me a little Gardner Minshew vibes. He's got that look. He's got the hair and the mustache, and the dude was tall. He's a big dude. Not one of those that's shorter than you think, right? No, no, no. I mean, his bio says 6'2", but you know, we all kind of... I don't know, I'm six foot flat and I was looking up.

We all kind of embellished those, but he had the boots on and big guy. Can't wait to get to it. I'll finish 1883 this weekend. You'll get through it.

On to 23. And again, your first inclination had you not met him when you watched 1923 is you're like, why is this show that is based in Montana and based in the mountains of the United States? And about the open plains and the open big sky country. Why is this character in Africa? How is this going to connect? What's going on? Oh, okay. Who is this guy?

Why do we care about him? What's going on? Got it. When you first meet, right? Yeah. And then there's the third storyline, too, with the girl in school, too.

Yes. So, I mean, there's three different things going on. I don't want to give the spoil away about that.

There is a third character line about a native American girl in a, basically enslaved in a religious school. And Susie and I, we spent five episodes, six episodes wondering why are we following her? And then the reveal comes there, too. See, I haven't seen the reveal yet.

I'm like one behind. Okay. I see where it's headed. Yeah.

It's, it's, and then his character turns into the most interesting character on the show. Right. Yeah. Definitely.

He's that good at it. How'd I survive the two shot? Thanks for taking the shot down. Thank you for taking TJ when you take the photograph.

Thank you for angling it down. And that's been your thing lately. That's not my thing lately. Not my thing lately.

I learned it from somebody else in my household. That's true. Because I get yelled at every time that person- Yelled at. Don't say yelled at.

Don't say yelled at. That's true. That's true.

That's true. She just reminds me- Sternly spoken to. Suzy does not sternly speak to you. She adores you, TJ. And I love her, but she reminds me to get up high when I take the picture. So- I understand. She will be here next Wednesday sitting in this chair when I'm at the Combine.

No offense. And then Thursday and Friday of next week, Bobby Bones will be sitting in this chair. He's been Instagramming about that as well. He's been putting it out there on his show.

And I greatly appreciate it. Chatted with him. Very, very nice chat with him yesterday. I told him about your demands, Chris. Which were? Steep.

The list is long and distinguished. I told him your demands. I told him you don't have any demands, TJ. I'm just happy to be here, yo.

And Jason, I don't know. How many- are you here next week, too? Are you here the whole time? No.

I'm here Monday, Tuesday. Oh. That he knows.

That I'm aware of. I'm not gonna see Mike all next week, then? No.

Because I'm here Monday, Tuesday. Oh. And then you're not gonna see him after, right?

Then I'm going to the Combine. The World Baseball Classic? Yeah. He's got some plans.

You might not see Mike for a while. Why are we even covering the World Baseball Classic, since it's, what, the Dominican Republic team is gonna win it all, right? Didn't you say that? That team is strong.

They're gonna beat everybody 38-0. The World Series MVP is batting seventh? Right? Yeah. Jeremy Peña? I think so. He's batting seventh. Didn't you say that, everyone is? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Monster.com, check it out. Okay, Clippers, Kings tonight. Yeah. I'm holding my breath to see that game time decision next to some of these stars on my app tonight. Last thing I want to tell my kids is, oh yeah, Mason Plumlee's getting 35 minutes tonight.

No offense. Well, if that's the case, I want to see Kawhi, I want to see Paul George, I want to see D'Aaron Fox. Is he out?

Zubach is out tonight. Why? I don't know, but I have him in fantasy and I got the O. Why? Tell me what the O is.

Give me the O. I don't know what the O is. Hold on. Strain right calf. Why not?

What are you straining? Like getting out of his chair when Mack McClung made that dunk? He was seen running on the treadmill during practice Thursday with a sleeve and he's going to miss one game.

Hi. So they are going to see 35 minutes out of Mason Plumlee tonight. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They are.

Yeah, we are. But I want to see Kawhi, I want to see Paul George, I want to see D'Aaron Fox. You want to see Russ?

New look clips? I want to see Russ. Oh, report Russ is going to start tonight.

This is a new look Clippers. Right here you get to see Rich. Russ is going to start tonight, guys. Let me tell you something about Russell Westbrook.

Talk to me. Why do people think he's just going to blow stuff up? I have no idea. Well, because he's on his fifth team in five years. Yeah, but- Wait a minute.

Go back, go back, go back, go back. So the Lakers, he didn't fit. He didn't fit and people were wondering, how does he fit? Okay.

How does he fit? That wasn't his fault either. No. You know, they need to have shooters around the broad.

That's right. Mo Bamba's raining in threes. Look at what Malik- Bamba. By the way, look at what Malik Beasley did last night.

That was impressive. How many threes did he have? Six? Seven? How many did he have last night? Look it up. That's what the Lakers need. That's what they need.

And so go back. I mean, Russ's contract was just bounced around with people thinking, you know, that he was making starters- Which is seven. Seven threes. Seven threes.

He was making, you know, A++ list starters money and his game, I guess he's not an A++ starter anymore in the league, but he's incredibly talented and an incredible energy guy. What if he can just start distributing? Sounds like a winner to me. Thank you.

For what I understood. Bruce Arians. What if he starts distributing to Kawhi? PG-13 makes his shots.

Plus they need somebody to play on all those back to backs when Kawhi and Paul George sit. He plays. Russ plays.

Every game. He goes all out. Like effort is one thing that you can never question with Russell Westbrook and the fact that he can still get to the hole with ease. So all he's got to do is like just kind of stop shooting so many bad threes, work the mid range game, drive to the bucket, kick out to the shooters.

Let's go. I don't understand. Everyone's like, okay, John Wall's going to do it and then he gets hurt. He got hurt. Yeah.

We never really got a chance to see. Reggie Jackson. Okay. Mr. May. And then Terrence Mann. Right. And he's just like, okay.

And then he was kind of like high register. He's like, hey, he's not too bad. You got Russell Westbrook.

I don't blame him for starting him. Go for it. See how it works. But what's the sign of that it doesn't work? That he takes the open looks and misses him instead of distributing it to Paul George? I think that could be. Is that it? Like what is it?

That's a great question. That's the side of the backboard. Big time bricks. That everybody sags, leaves them wide open and he takes the bait and he takes the shot instead of creating for the other two stars.

Again, what is the method that we should front load for our viewers and listeners as to this is quote unquote not working? I like the move, man. So he's going to start tonight, huh? That's the report.

Nothing confirmed. Number zero on the clipper. Is he zero? We're number zero. What was the last clipper to wear number zero? We could do a list of clippers who turned out to be zero. Oh man.

Where did we start? Sorry. Now the clips throughout the last 20 years have had some really good basketball players. I agree. I agree. Wasn't Pooh Richardson zero? Two live Pooh? Two live Pooh. Pooh. Okay.

That was a total guess. I'll report back to you, sir. Alright. So as we go, take Coop and some of his basketball friends. Enjoy that dessert cart, baby.

Chicken tenders for everyone. Yeah. Chris, real quick. What'd you think of the Bobby Wagner news yesterday? I wasn't surprised.

I mean, at some point you got to pay the bills, right? Yeah. My eyes focused on Jalen Ramsey. I think they got to keep him. You got to keep him. Trade him and get some assets back. I guess, but it was a bummer. That guy could still play.

He was all pro second team, all pro. He should go join the Jets. Go to the Jets. You want to be one of the Cowboys?

Well, here's the deal. You know, back when he came out, Rich, I did like my own little mock draft. And I said that the Cowboys would take Jalen in the first round.

Yes, sir. And then in the second round, pick up Derrick Henry. Well, we picked up Zeke before they took Jalen and Derrick Henry got picked up right where I thought he could buy the Cowboys in the second round.

But we didn't take what a sliding door if they had done that. I sometimes want to think about like how the Cowboys would be different. But also, as Brockman knows, I was doing a side by side statistical breakdown of Zeke and Derrick Henry.

What were you doing this the other day? Just because it seems like Zeke gets Zeke. There's a lot of trash gets talked about Ezekiel. I don't think people understand how good this guy really was. I don't know, just turned it into Zeke, you know, because we were talking about Derrick Henry. We're not paying attention.

We were talking about what they would take. Bobby Wagner. He made it about himself.

It's rare. Just let him go. He very rarely makes it about himself. When we talk about Jalen Ramsey, anyway, I'm going to the Clippers game tonight. What's going on? How did we get to Zeke? Side of fries and ketchup for everybody. Literally, if you are in crypto.com tonight, you're like, what happened to all the chicken tenders? No, no, no, no, no.

My son's turned 12. Wrap up the show on the Roku channel in a moment. You love Lala Kent on Vanderpump Rules.

Now get to know her on Give Them Lala with her assistant Jess L.A. It can become suffocating. Did something happen where you felt like I have to get out of here or do you just think it just happens sometimes? I think it just happens, but also just everything going on in my personal life. I want to get on this mic and be like, this is what I've been dealing with for 14 months. Give Them Lala wherever you listen.