REShow: Tyson McGuffin & Charles Davis - Hour 2 (5-3-2023)

This is the Rich Eisen Show.

With guest host Dan Helle. LeBron carries a three. Curry relocation three is up and gone. You care about talking of the legacy question with these two guys? From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

You got two all-time greats, they're two very different players. Earlier on the show, NFL writer Jason Cole. Coming up, professional pickleball player Tyson McGuffin. NFL network analyst Charles Davis. Senior writer for NBA.com Steve Ashburner.

And now sitting in for Rich, it's Dan Helle. What is up? Hour two is near and it is finally here. I'm doing a little bit of pickleball research because anybody out there who's ever picked up a pickleball paddle instantly falls in love. It's like your first girlfriend. Like only it lasts.

It's here to stay. Pickleball is not going to... Nobody's still with their first girlfriend. No, no, no. The difference is but like you're instantly in love.

Okay. When you play pickleball... And then it ends terribly again? It's over. No, but only it lasts. Like that's the difference.

The similarity is you fall in love instantly. The difference is that pickleball lasts. Tyson McGuffin, one of the most famous pickleball players in the world. You can listen to his podcasts.

He has some great content on Instagram and Twitter. Tyson, are you on? Yes, I am. What's going on, boys?

Hey man, thanks for coming on. These guys, you know, there's still people out there. Charles Barkley, one of them who made fun of pickleball the other day because... Did you see Michael Malone had a cut on his head, the Denver Nuggets head coach, like right on his forehead. And it came from a pickleball paddle because Tyson, he was going for a 50-50 ball and forgot to kind of call off his partner.

And he took a paddle across the head, which, you know, it happens. I've taken it off, you know, the fingers before. But Charles Barkley made fun of pickleball, calling it an old person sport. You shouldn't be playing that until you're in your 60s. And here you are, you know, a handsome dude in his 30s, family man, former college tennis player, just crushing it in pickleball. Tell everybody why we love pickleball so much.

Well, Charles is the man, but he needs to know that pickleball is for everyone, caters to all ages, caters to all demographics. You know, it's easy to play, it's super social, it's very embracing. One of the stories that I love telling is that if you're a beginner, like there's no way if you're like a beginner in golf or like a beginner in tennis where you could just show up to a country club or like you could show up to a tennis club and then ask members or ask people how to play, they would be like, get the heck out of here. But in pickleball, if there's local courts, it's super embracing, you could easily be a brand new person with no racket sport ability. You can go to your local courts, you can go to like your local rec center and you'll have people that are higher skill level than you and they will actually introduce the sport, they're super patient with you.

So, no man, it's a fun time to be in the sport. I've been playing professionally for the last eight years now. Like you mentioned, I have a podcast called The McGuffin Show. I have a very established YouTube channel with educational videos on there. We also do vlogs.

I also own a camp business called Tyson McGuffin's Miniature PD Camps. And as a player, I've been ranked as high as number one in the world in singles and in doubles and currently I'm top five in men's doubles, mixed doubles, and singles. But no man, it's a great sport. I met my wife playing pickleball and there's a lot of badass people that play us for sure. Well, and there's a lot of badass people that are getting involved.

Tom Brady, LeBron James, Mark Cuban. There's a couple of professional pickleball leagues. Two of them kind of merged.

What's the situation now? Because you see pickleball on TV quite often these days and yeah, so go ahead. I'm just gonna say doubles, unlike tennis, doubles is a little bit more prevalent or in the professional world than singles or no? Yeah, I would say doubles is more mainstream and probably more popular than singles. You take a look at other racquet sports like, you know, ping pong, racquetball, tennis. Seems like singles is the event that kind of takes over that is more mainstream. But I think just with how social pickleball doubles is, with how, you know, there's this huge flux of like 50 plus players coming in the sport. Also, you know, there's an established tour that I play on called the PPA Tour.

It just seems like doubles is number one in everybody's book. But yeah, so I've been playing on the PPA Tour now for the last couple years. It was bought by a gentleman by the name of Tom Dundon. Tom Dundon was one of the early investors in Topgolf. He also owns the Carolina Hurricanes. And there's a professional league called Major League Pickleball. They're celebrity team owners. Like you've mentioned, Drew Brees, Kevin Durant, LeBron James. I'm actually on King James's team.

So you know that I'm rooting for LA right now. But PPA actually had their own league called Vibe. When they came out with that, the owner of MLP, which is Steve Kuhn, got in touch with PPA and they actually joined forces.

And so Vibe and MLP joined together. So now the league is called Major League Pickleball. We have six events each year with Major League Pickleball. And it's a great time to be in the sport, man. So, like I said, I've seen it on TV a few times.

You guys, unlike some of these other sports, there's mixed doubles is a big part of it. To me, you're one of the more recognizable guys. You've got the loud outfits.

You're tatted up. You've got the great teeth, the long hair. You're recognizable, right?

And you're also outspoken. Who else is that in the pickleball world? You know, I hear the name Ben Johns because he's been the another former tennis player who's been the number one player for a long time.

I think it's Annalee Waters, who's a young teenager who's also very, very good. Who's going to take pickleball to the next level so people like Charles Barkley aren't making fun of us anymore? Well, you know, something that Charles should know is that if Charles plays tennis, there's a gentleman by the name of Jack Sock. And I'm actually playing with Jack Sock this weekend in North Carolina. And Jack Sock was top 10 in the world in tennis, has won Grand Slams, and doubles, played Davis Cup for USA. Sam Curry is also a very established tennis player, was top 10 in the world in singles, also played Davis Cup.

He just came over. Yeah, I think there's just a wide range of tennis players that are starting to make their way over. There's a much younger generation that's starting to make their way through the rankings as well. It seems like, you know, male pickleball may be a little deeper than female pickleball.

But I would say, you know, there's a lot of ex-college tennis players, ex-pro tennis players that really dominated the scene. Yeah, hey Tyson, this is Chris Brockman. How you doing, man?

Thanks for coming on. Rich is a big pickleball guy. I kind of am in the Charles Barkley camp. I kind of poke fun a little bit. What can you attest to the popularity? Why do you think this has taken off as much as it has? Yeah, I think COVID gave pickleball a nice little kick in the ass and kind of got it going, right? Everything else was shut down, but there was local pickleball courts that was primarily open to, primarily open to, you know, players. Also too, I think a lot of people over COVID started building pickleball courts in their backyard. But I contribute the popularity of pickleball, yeah, to COVID, how easy it is to play. There's so many other racquet sports, or there's so many other players in racquet sports that just can't play their racquet sport anymore. Whether it's racquetball, badminton, ping pong, you know, tennis, golf, whatever, they're starting to make their way over.

And I think what wins them over is that it's soulful, it's easy to play, you can talk a little trash, you can go on a family vacation, and everybody in your family can pick up the game and play within five minutes. The learning curve in pickleball is night and day from tennis or golf, right? I mean, for you to actually have fun in tennis, it takes months and months of lessons and countless dollars to actually get to a level where like you could rally and hit 10 balls in a row. That same thing in pickleball, like I teach pickleball camps nationwide, I also have people that lead camps for me. I can pick Dorothy, who's 70 years old, who can barely walk and chew gum, and within five minutes Dorothy can hit 10 balls in a row and she loves this sport, right?

So I think that's one of the huge contributing factors is that it's easy to play, it's super social, you're 14 feet away, it's nice and loud, and there's not a whole lot of status right now. So like, you know, I think there's a lot of tennis and golfers that have been humbled with coming over to the pickleball space, if you know what I mean. We gotta have you down, Tyson, to my buddy's place in Hermosa Beach. He has a court in his yard, front row on the beach, and it is epic.

It is an unbelievable pickleball court. So if you're ever down in the LA area, get a hold of us, we'll have you there, man. I really appreciate you coming on, and I saw that you're living in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho right now, is that right? Who doesn't want to come to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, huh? I'm in freaking God's country up there. You know, we live on five acres, super mountainous, green as could be. I'm married to a lovely lady called Megan.

I have four beautiful children, and life is good, brother. But yeah, if anybody ever gets a chance, get your ass up to Coeur d'Alene or subscribe to my YouTube channel called Tyson McGuffin Pickleball or find me on socials at Tyson McGuffin. I love it.

I love it. Jake Plummer living up in Coeur d'Alene too, right? You guys play pickleball together? You know what, I did not know that.

I played some pickleball with Hank Haney. There's a discovery property in Coeur d'Alene called Gaza Ranch. You know it, brother. But yeah, I've done some teaching out there.

I've also done some teaching at various properties nationwide, and they're all very nice properties, and they're definitely not dumps, that's for sure. No, no doubt. I'm sure you've been down in Toronto Bay and Cabo too, another discovery place.

Oh yeah. Yeah, funny story before we let you go. I was down there over New Year's and playing next to Larry David, John McEnroe, and Billy Bush.

No way. That was quite a group, and John McEnroe, not shockingly, took great pleasure in just spiking it on Billy Bush repeatedly, which I actually kind of enjoyed too. That was fun to watch. All right, Tyson McGuffin, thanks man. Good luck with everything.

I enjoy all the content. Check out Tyson on Instagram and YouTube. Good stuff if you're in the pickleball world, even if you're not. See you, buddy. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thanks, man. All right, see, to me, that was a lot of fun. I don't know if you don't play pickleball, if you found that someone entertaining, but listen, it is... We talk about pickleball a lot here. It's the fastest growing sport in America. And the best thing about pickleball, Tyson alluded to it, is it's really easy to pick up.

Imagine never going skiing before and how daunting that is to try to learn how to ski. Even tennis is tough, and golf, you know, if you haven't played golf, you know, until you're an adult, it's very difficult to pick up. But pickleball, you play two times and you can be competitive. And the best thing about it is when you're playing with your buddies, I mean, the intent is to... You can hit it as hard as you want, right at them.

And, sorry, my bad, my bad, but you win the point. Like, that's one of the most fun things about pickleball. I mean, it's... It's just like everyone who talks about it and who talks about playing, it does seem like they really enjoy it and they have a lot of fun. All I want to do is play golf, and it's not fun, even though, you know, I'm okay at it, but I don't really have fun out there because one bad shot, you tanked your whole round.

Yeah. You play golf, you get it, Dan. It's a hard sport.

I mean, I can't... If you don't have a good front nine or you don't have a good couple of holes and you know you're not going to shoot a good score, there's very little motivation once you make the turn to go out there for the back nine. Because you want to spend four hours sucking at something?

Like, who wants to do that? Golf is not fun when you suck. Golf, also not fun when you're mediocre. You just... You need to score well early because it just kind of sucks you in. Yeah, because you can be so excited about your round.

Oh, we're playing a nice course, my buddies are here, we got the cooler, and we're out, and then you triple the first hole and you're like, I just want to go home. Yeah. The other thing that keeps you in it is if you're gambling a little bit, right? Because then one bad hole, hey, we're playing skins, you can come back.

Hey, we'll get it back as skins carries over. Yeah. It's like gambling rules the world.

It's relatively unbelievable. Gambling makes everything better. We have Charles Davis coming up, talking a little NFL in a minute. Have you guys all played pickle ball in here, by the way? No. You've never played? Never played.

No. I watched. Rich is the only one who's played.

But Rich is also, we hadn't really got a chance to talk about it. He's been hobbling around for about three weeks, and I, you know, you see him limp in, you're like, what's the matter? He looks at me and just goes, pickleball injury. I'm like, oh geez.

Yeah, that's kind of like Barkley. It's for men of a certain age. Eh, I don't know.

I think it's changed a little bit, but I will tell you like anything else, we talked about this earlier. I stopped playing pickup basketball post COVID because I'm so scared to rupture an Achilles or tear an ACL. I don't have a year to rehab.

That just sounds miserable. I mean, I'm kind of done doing that stuff. Yeah, you do until you, until you have one major injury. I crashed skiing, blew out my shoulder, took six months to, you know, to get back to normal. And as you get older, you don't, you don't really want to do that anymore. You just want to be able to sleep, not in a chair. I totally understand why pickleball it's, it seems totally low impact.

So, you know, you're not really at risk to kind of blow something out. Well, I'll be curious to see where it goes with all these big time investors, you know, Brady and Katie and LeBron and Mark Cuban and new leagues. I don't know if it has to be good on TV. Is it a good TV watch? I've watched a little bit of it.

Some people don't believe that it translates as well as, as it should or could in TV, but it's like anything else, man. You need big personalities. You need some influencers. You need some people that are going to attract eyeballs, you know, for whatever the case may be. I think one thing the world doesn't need more of Dan or influencers.

Well, pickleball influencers are different than the influencers that are, that are littering your discovery page, TJ. Charles Davis coming up, I watched him on, so this is, and I know it's kind of the bane of their existence, right? All these guys that do the draft for NFL network, they have a show called path to the draft and they have to come back on after the draft to kind of wrap it up a little bit. And Charles and DJ were on path to the draft yesterday. I don't know if it was the first or second show after the draft, but you could just see in both of their faces, like, all right, can we put a bow in this freaking draft already? I mean, they're getting ready for it for two months about it.

Oh yeah. So we'll we'll, we'll make it even more painful for Charles as we ask a few more draft questions coming up here in just a few minutes. But the Aaron Rogers situation is interesting. The Jets signed Randall Cobb, the Lakers look phenomenal last night. Joel Embiid wins his first MVP.

He will be playing tonight against the Celtics. In terms of NBA watching, how did you guys get settled in last night? Like what, what was the, what was the situation? What, how many screens were on?

Were you, uh, what, walk me through it, bro. Rotation of, uh, Braves and Sox games. Those are always on in my house. And then, uh, heat, uh, heat. Nix was on the second TV.

And then, uh, once the Laker warriors game started that went to the big TV. Okay. And then just locked in on the couch. Del two five. Should I just skip over your, you're probably in the DJ booth. Yes.

Yeah. Uh, you know, I, these guys know I've been having ballon migraines the last couple of days. So I was laying on the couch. I was, I had the game on one TV. I was trying to watch the Tupac documentary on Hulu on the other TV, because we have Alan Hughes who directed it coming in on Friday.

So I was trying to get familiar with that, but yeah, it was just, I was watching it, but I was watching it, you know, kind of like in the dark because too much light was just making my head pound, but yeah, so it wasn't a pleasant evening. I was watching it in the, uh, I was watching it in the living room, had to take my son out for some Ramen. He shamed me a wife out of town, daughter, uh, had a lacrosse game. Um, she's injured.

So I was, I was not there. Uh, and my son's like gets home from school. He's like, dad, what are we doing for dinner? Oh, got a bunch of stuff, bud. You know, there's all kinds of stuff here. Like, yeah, what do you want?

We'll figure it out. I want to go out to eat. Why do we need to go out to eat dinner?

Like we have food here, dude. You don't want to spend time with me? Oh, what a jerk. You see that? I mean, it's unbelievable.

Of course I want to spend, I can spend time with you here. He sucked me in Silver Lake Ramen. Oh wow. Yeah, it was good. Yeah. So you had to drive the Silver Lake from your crib. They opened one down in my head. Okay.

Uh, so, but you know, it's easy kind of fast casual ish. Um, but it was, uh, anyway, so I got back a little bit late. So just before halftime and I feel like I'm playing catch up and then I'll get to watch the halftime show and then I'm going, but I was, uh, you know, I was locked in, man.

I was locked in. Plus when Lakers got up 14, you're thinking, Oh, blow out. And then bam, it's just three, three, three. And then, Oh, cause the thing, Chris, though, the thing with golden state is no lead is safe with this team. Like they can be down 16 with say four minutes left.

You're not, you're never going to turn the game off. Cause you know, that's five shots. Yeah. They can come back with the quickness. So there's a leads never safe with them down by 14. They go into 14, no run.

They tie it up. Steph hits a couple of threes. Um, you know, they, they came out at halftime and, uh, Wiggins had that great put back.

He had a three, you know, it's, it was, it was really fun game. Uh, all right, more NBA talk coming up in just a few minutes, but right after this break, our man, Charles Davis from CBS and NFL network to talk a little draft. Men, do you get distracted during the day thinking about your underarms, 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 72 hours, sweat and odor protection and one quarter moisturizing cream helps you forget about your underarms.

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Just search B L E A V podcast wherever you listen. And it always my pleasure to have Charles Davis stopping by been, uh, working with Charles for a long time. I remember when the first time I saw Charles on TV way back in the day in Orlando, we're talking like, uh, what, what, what was that Charles?

What were the sunshine network days? Was that early two thousands? Yeah, we've been early two thousands, two thousands, something like that. Boy, we're going, we're going back now.

The way back machine. We are. We're up there. We're up there.

My button, my man, you've been, uh, you've been around as a vibe for quite some time. And I do have to say, I was thinking about you when I'm watching the draft, um, because I remember when not long ago, there wasn't a single one of our Tennessee vols drafted in an entire seven round draft. We had five vols drafted in the first 80 picks.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. It's a lot more fun than having our mutual friend, Daniel Jeremiah seeing us because Appalachian state has more guys than us. So luckily now he had to get off of us and he turned his denim on red, red Lewis the other day for Indiana to Appalachian state guys got drafted none from Indiana. So reds taking the beating now and it feels a whole lot better. Oh, it always does.

It always does. I was wondering, I know you're right back at work, by the way, on path to the draft for NFL network. Do you get any time at all to decompress after the draft? Not yet.

Not yet. I think, um, after tonight, tonight's last path to the draft after tonight, things will start to ease out a little bit, even out a little bit, but Dan, let's, you know, look, you've been doing this for a long time, but doing it quite successfully, quite well. And it is, you know, you're 24 seven on it, multiple sports going on the whole deal, sitting in for rich today, all that. Right. And yes, it can be grueling.

It can be tiring. There's times when you just sit there and say to yourself, my goodness, but everyone that we know thinks that we are at the toy store or the candy store every day, right? To, to people we know, this is FAO Schwartz at a Tay day.

This is their favorite candy store in town. And the idea that we would complain about anything, they'd punch us dead in our face. And I totally get it. And you get it too.

It doesn't mean that you haven't had to stay up until God does one hour to put it in the work, or you had to catch a late flight after a show to get somewhere to do another show. Like all things happen. These things are real. This is, this is your life. And you're preparing on the plane.

You know, you're waking up early to prepare before the kids go, all of those things. Yeah. No one wants to hear it. No one cares. And when, and when truth, when truth comes into it and when this comes to show, push comes to show, we feel the same way. We're not complaining. We know how lucky we are, but there are days. Yeah.

We get tired like anyone else. There's no doubt about it. I have to share with the guys here in studio. One of my favorite Charles Davis stories, it was early on, maybe the first or second year we were doing Titans preseason games together. And I'm always asking Charles if he wants to go out and grab a bite or grab a drink. And you know, he's in Nashville. He has, he knows a bunch of people there. And, and Charles is usually very mellow and you know, hanging out prepping for the game, you know, on his own.

So more often than not, it's, it's a no. Yeah. I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, oh yeah, I'm going to be inside, uh, getting prepping for the game. And, you know, here I am social butterfly. I want to go out and have a brew and, and chat a little bit. And, uh, anyway, so I remember one morning I asked you, Charles, if you wanted to go grab some breakfast and you couldn't, cause you had to go meet a friend and you were being a little initially a little obtuse about it. And I'm like, gosh, I don't know. I was going to meet a friend.

I guess he doesn't want to tell me who it is. And then you share with me that it was one of your favorite authors. Yeah.

And you were giddy. Like I would be if I was going to meet like Halle Berry or, uh, Clint Eastwood or, or Denzel. And this is what type of, uh, you are such a voracious reader and you read all the time that this is leading to my question. I'm imagining when this is over and you do your last path to the draft today, are you, are you just going to dive into a couple of books? Absolutely.

Absolutely. And you're so right about that. I was lucky enough to be authors of my rock stars and there are a good number of them and I could name a bunch, but that day I was lucky enough. And then, and Brad four, that's right.

Every July 4th, he puts out his new book and I just love reading them, you know, his hero Scott Hossa, right. And Lisa Scott Alini in Philadelphia. And there was another time we were together in Nashville and I couldn't hang with you because I had read in the paper that Lisa Scott Alini was going to be in Nashville for a book signing and I'd never met her, but I read her stuff all the time. You know, you don't turn me onto her reading with my back. So this is back when I was still on social media and I caught a Twitter stalked her, you know what I mean? Now she's a sports fan and a huge Eagles fan. So she was cool with the whole thing, right? So we'd never met. And I rolled over to this deal and she sees me before she starts her deal and comes over and says, hello, nice to meet you. The whole deal. That was awesome.

Right. So I pick up the phone, they are doing a preseason game. I don't even know where he was. And I didn't even know it. And I pick up the phone and I call and he answers and I go, Hey, Mike goes, Hey, I'm kicking off in 10 minutes. Got a preseason game.

What do you want? I said, Hey Mike, you're not gonna believe this. I'm at a book signing with Lisa Scott Alini. And I just met her and she was so cool. And he goes, you met Lisa Scott Alini, Philadelphia's Lisa Scott Alini. The one I turned you on to. Yeah. I've never met Lisa Scott Alini.

Bleep you and hangs up. How Mayock is that? That's amazing. Is that not Mike Mayock?

That is Mike Mayock to a T. Oh my goodness. So yeah. And just to close the loop, I did sit and have some beers with you, even though I don't drink beer, but we did have drinks post-game stuff like that. Occasionally, occasionally I came out of my little case.

Well, I, I always in a, I always enjoy those moments. Well, I listen, I guess we do have to talk a little bit of draft. Yeah. I heard you guys talking about this on the show yesterday. Jim Mersey basically said he wants Anthony Richardson to play. We had Jason Cole, NFL writer on a little bit earlier and you know, he's like, I don't know how much he sees the field first year, maybe a little bit, maybe a lot. And I tend to agree with you.

If the owner says he wants him to play, I wouldn't be surprised to see him out there for 17 games. Yeah. Listen, you've been around the block a few times, right?

It doesn't matter what profession you're in. When the person who's in charge speaks and you, and you are smart enough to speak what they speak or at least parse what they've said, it's usually a good idea to listen. And when the man goes out in front of all of us and says, you know, you get better by playing because now Shane's going to, you know, Shane's going to have the plan to do whatever he wants. Shane's psych and head coach, you know, but, uh, I think that you get better by playing and the more he plays and he hasn't had a chance. He was telling his fans these last six years when we've done rent a quarterback, we expected those quarterbacks to get us to the playoffs and give us a chance to go to the Superbowl. That's what he would, because what he comes with this time was patience.

First time I've ever heard him talk about patients. That means they are rebuilding. Okay. So he wants his young quarterback to play. He wants his team to grow with him the whole deal. I'm not worried about getting to the playoffs next year. I'm not worried about any of that.

He would punch me in my face right now himself because that's not what I'm saying. Yes, it is what he's saying. And there's no way that stands or but that's what you're saying.

And that's cool. As long as that's the plan for your team, that's the plan for your organization. Now you have to build around them and you have to be there for him for all the tough moments, because for every Troy Aikman who went through a horrific, horrific rookie season as a starter, or what, they went one game, Dan here and bounced back and become a hall of Famer. How many others have we seen go through seasons like that? And they are never the same. So they have to be very careful with this youngster.

Sure. Play him a lot, the whole deal, but check his confidence, check where he is, make sure that you don't lose him. Just think about the Titans last year. We were together when they pretty much force that Greek Willis and made the number two quarterback. And by the end of the year, when Ryan Tannehill was hurt, they signed Josh Dobbs from our alma mater, Tennessee off the street, started him on a Thursday night game against the Cowboys.

And then started him in the biggest game of the year that would determine their playoff fate rather than the guy that they had drafted. What do you think they've had to do this off season in terms of talking to Malik Willis? Yeah. I mean, that's hard to bounce back from. Okay. I don't care who you are. So those are the, that's the only thing I think about with Anthony Richardson, Dan, is that for this organization, okay, you want to play him.

That's cool. But he's had 13 starts. If it goes poorly, what's the support system? How do you keep his confidence going and, and, and allow him to ascend and possibly a later date now who knows he may come in and light it up and everything goes just great.

Who knows? Right. But that's kind of what I'm worried about a little bit with him only because we've seen it happen many times before with some really talented quarterbacks. Well, and even though the talent is, is obvious, the experience or lack thereof is, is obvious as well with him. Trey Lance, the only guy with fewer college throws according to Jason Cole, then Richardson coming into the NFL. Let me ask you about the other quarterback that ends up in Nashville with the Titans. What a wild ride that was from the Reddit post from a friend of a friend or whoever that was that changed the odds of Levis being potentially pick number one overall. And then we're seeing him, you know, in the green room, the entire draft, the slide happening, doesn't get picked on the first day, ends up in Nashville with the Titans.

Was that one of the bigger surprises for you? I mean, we see the slides every year, right? But the fact that it was Levis and the fact that it was all the way out of the first round made me wonder, Dan, about just how much, because, you know, you and I straddle the media slash evaluation side. Right. So in other words, we are media. You know, I always love when we work with people who go, you know, you know, I'm really not media. Yeah, yeah, you are because you're doing it right.

I mean, especially with, you know, ex coaches who come over to our side, really not media coach. I'm about to break this to you. Yeah, you are.

Okay. But we're also evaluating these kids and how much of that did I miss in terms of the true evaluation of Will Levis versus the media hype that went with it, what we were talking about with him to elevate him to where on mock drafts, it was not outlandish to see him go number two to Houston. You know, it was not outlandish to see him go forward to Indianapolis.

I had him going 12 to Houston in my final mock draft. So did I miss something? Did I miss evaluate?

Did I do, you know, who knows with all that. So yeah, it was a, it was a slide for him. It kind of reminded me of Brady Quinn, unfortunately, you know, when Brady didn't go at nine to Miami and the slide started.

Right. But I remember that year, the commissioner went and got Brady Quinn and took him out of the green room, but put it back behind closed doors because we were showing him every other second. And that was one of the coolest things I had seen the compassion by the commissioner get him out of the firing line.

And by the way, Brady went 22 to Cleveland, but I'll never forget him coming out and just not seeing joy, but you just see in relief and anguish, you know, to go number 22 in the draft. That didn't happen for Will Levis. He had to sit there and eat it.

He had to sit there and own it the entire time. Why didn't somebody come rescue him Charles? I said, why didn't the commissioner come rescue Will Levis? Yeah, I, I, I can't answer that one. I kind of thought it might happen, but it did not, but it's just, you know, and then of course he went home and then the next day it was a short deal and maybe to give him a little extra fuel and the whole deal, but also told us about evaluations too, because he nor handed Hooker who also was popularly mocked to possibly get into the first round.

Neither one of them went. And then the next day, Will Levis came off board early and headed Hooker to come on board to the third round. So the evaluations and where people had them, they had Will Levis ahead of handed Hooker, which surprised a lot of conversations by many of us be included to have Hooker ahead of Will Levis. That, that did surprise me a little bit. I know you have a show to get ready for.

So getaway question here. You've watched so much tape, did so much studying a player that might be somewhat under the radar. I'm not talking super sleeper, but you know, not a first round guy, a player that you just kind of fell in love with and you think could have an immediate impact wherever he lands.

I'm going to give you one, a defensive tackle out of Boise state named Scott Matlock. Okay. Charge took him in the sixth round and what are the chargers had trouble doing over the last couple of years, Dan stopping people running the football.

Okay. So I think that he's going to get a chance to get into rotation and be one of those guys. I'm not saying he comes out and he's an all pro or even a pro bowl or what have you, but would not surprise me if he becomes like a great game type member, great game coming out to talk about his short arms and this, that and everything. Heck he played pretty well for the Rams and now he's moved on and he's a valued member in the NFL.

I wonder if Scott Matlock could be that kind of guy. Plus always like when a defensive tackle shows up on, you know, extra point field goal and goes out and catches a two point pass for, for, for a conversion. Oh, heck yeah.

Athletic ability to him. I love it. I love it. Well, you brought up another one that I really liked yesterday on the show and a Rashee Rice out of SMU.

I think he could do some things in Kansas city. Charles always, you are, you are one of those guys who have worked with, who always makes me better. Just wanted to say thank you. Always appreciate the time. And hopefully you get some time. I know it's the job, but I know it's a grind too. And you deserve a few days to just read a few books and chill out down there in Orlando, my friend.

Yeah. From having the cops come get me, that's for sure. But Dan, those are very kind of words. I appreciate it. Trust me. It's right back at you. It's a mutual deal. You make me better.

And it's just a blast to be around you. So all the best keep knocking them dead and keep, keep holding it down for Richard there. Thanks man. Say hi to all the boys for me, DJ and Rhett and all those guys and Bucky. I'll, I'll talk to you soon, man. All right. Look forward to it. All the best to you and your crew. Be good.

Thank you. Charles Davis, one of the best in the business, moved over from Fox a couple of years ago to CBS with iron eagle and they have meshed so well together. What a great, uh, great team they are. And of course, long time in NFL network. A lot of people don't know about Charles Davis is he was, um, in the athletic department at Stanford. At one point in time, he ran a golf tournament in Orlando for, I believe, I don't know if it was a PGA tour or Disney, but he's been an executive and he, this guy has one of the most well rounded resumes that you will ever see. Somebody would be wise whenever he decides to do it, he can broadcast forever.

He could run a company, he could run an athletic department, he could run a team. Uh, he's, he's definitely when you walk into a room, I always say, if I'm the smartest guy in the room, I'm in the wrong room. But generally when I'm in a room with Charles Davis, he's the smartest guy in the room. He'll be the last guy to ever tell you that.

What about UTAD? Well, that's, listen, many a times, many a times I've asked him about that when we weren't in as good of a situation as we, as we are now. But, uh, he, Charles has the ability to think five, 10 years down the road, not just a couple of years down the road, but he does have a big time passion for our university at Tennessee volunteers.

There's no doubt about that. Charles Davis, uh, weighing in on the NFL draft. Uh, always a pleasure to have him on. Dan Helle filling in for Rich Eisen on The Rich Eisen Show. And it is once again, time to take a short break, but remember, you can listen to us on Sirius XM, Sirius Channel 218, or XM Channel 202.

Back after this. Dan Helle sitting in for Rich on The Rich Eisen Show. Breaking news here on The Rich Eisen Show, the latest match pairings have been announced. Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce to face off against Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson at the win in the match on June 29th in Las Vegas.

It will be televised by TNT with Bleacher Report providing the lead coverage. All right. Here's my, I, I love the match. First of all, I think it's a great concept.

They might guys up, great. They have a good time. They only played 12 holes and there's a lot of, there's, they do some fun gimmicks where it's like, you know, you can only use one club, sometimes alternating shot. It's, it's a really fun, it's a fun event. I love it. Well, they're going to need to figure out a way to level the playing field because you were looking up some handicaps here.

I think my homes is a seven. Uh, I can't imagine Kelsey's much better than that. Steph, Steph could play on the mini tours. I'm not going to say the PGA tour, but he's, he's a scratch golfer. And by the way, he plays year round. He plays all the time.

Yeah. You know, if, if they don't have a practice and they have an off day up there in the Bay area, he's out there on the golf course. Looks like he plays about a 15 legit. He's anywhere from a scratch golfer to a plus two.

So, you know, they're going to have to, uh, maybe he can, he'll have to play a couple of holes with just a pitching wedge or have to putt with a driver. But it is fun. It's, it's, it's a fun concept. And I love the fact you're pitting.

I mean, you know, we've seen Brady and Peyton, we've seen Aaron Rogers. I like the crossover sports. I like having two teammates play two teammates from two different sports. I think it's great. I love it.

I love the teammate idea. I love that they're, these guys are fun personalities. We know these guys, we know Steph Curry, he's in commercials. We've seen him everywhere. We definitely know Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey hosted Saturday night live.

Uh, we've seen clay Thompson go on Instagram with his boat. Like we know these, these guys are big personalities are going to have a good time. There's definitely going to be some, some beers flowing out there. And I think it's going to be a lot of fun. You know, Charles Barkley gets on the mic. He gives these guys a hard time. Uh, the banter is up and, um, I love the match.

I can't wait to see this. So Curry debuted in the match in 2020, teamed up with Peyton Manning against Charles Barkley and Phil Mickelson, Phil Mickelson and Barkley beat, uh, Curry and Manning four and three, which is a pretty, what's pretty healthy. Got a professional call for, I mean, you got one of the top five players maybe ever. Yeah, but you're still playing with Barkley.

He was like the biggest handicap on the golf course in the world. That's true. I do wish there was maybe a pro element involved, like get some of the young faces out there. Uh, maybe they can have a threesome, but, um, this is fun too.

I think this is going to be great. Yeah, no, it's, listen, I think like it's, it's the week before 4th of July, there's nothing going on. We're in the middle of just the daily baseball grind. So to have this kind of event with some football and basketball stars out there, uh, and who knows, maybe the warriors are coming off of another title. And so that would make that let's not, let's not get crazy here. I mean, come on. I'm just saying game one, maybe, I don't know. Gosh, my goodness.

How quickly we forget about the dominance of Anthony Davis. No, it is fun. I like what golf's, I like what golf's doing. Of course, you know, their, their hand has been forced somewhat by the live tour in terms of jacking up the pots, but you know, the, I'm, I'm blanking on the name of, I'm thinking breakpoint, which is the tennis show, but the Netflix show, the golf full swing full swing. I mean, it was great.

It was great. I mean, you learned about some of these guys you didn't know a lot about, and now suddenly you're, you're rooting for them. You know, in tournaments, you're looking, uh, on the scores to see where they are and if they made the cut.

And, um, man, I was going to say it is not John Dahmer, but who's the Joel Damon, Damon, Damon, what a likable hat. Yeah. You just see these guys, you just kind of, you pull back the curtain and you see a side of these guys. You don't see, you know, when Damon says I go into most tournaments, not thinking I can win essentially, uh, especially from there in certain courses or certain guys are in the field. You're like, how does professional athlete lack, lack that kind of confidence?

Even though he knows that he's, you know, top 50, top 60, you know, he's one of the elite of the elites in the world at something. Yeah. It's just, uh, I love that Netflix series. I love any of these types of documentaries where you, you get these guys a chance to show some personality and then you can actually see the grind that these guys put themselves through to be at the top of their craft. It's a, it was a really fascinating, uh, they're doing a second season again.

Can't wait. Well, you know, it's, it started obviously with the, uh, with the F1 series drive to survive and the same production people did the golf, did the tennis. Yeah, they do such a good job. Yeah. I would love to see it for an NBA team in season. We're starting to see it now in the NFL. Obviously it started with hard knocks, which was just training camp. Um, but I think Amazon was the first one to do a season with the Cardinals. And now we're seeing in season shows with teams, but, uh, whether it's baseball or whether it's basketball, listen, the ratings for baseball haven't exactly been on a rocket ship the last decade. Why not follow a baseball team around for a season? It would be great. I actually love the idea of the in season hard knocks.

I don't know how the, I don't know how, how well that rated at all, but there was a way to do it for like maybe two weeks at a time. Just, it feels like one week isn't enough with the turnaround to kind of throw that out there. Like they do hard knocks for training camp, but any types of these shows where you can get these guys, you're just looking for access, right?

And so it's, it's way, it's too bad. The Patriots would never do something like this. You get, you want your favorite teams that do it because you want to know what goes on behind the curtain without having to be a beat writer. And that's why the beat writers are so important because they kind of give you a little glimpse, but these shows are just so well done. Now it's incredible.

It's, it's incredible. Well, and I think you have to find a league. The NFL doesn't need it. The NBA probably doesn't need it. That's why F1 got so popular in America the last couple of years.

Yeah. Well, I can't tell you how many guys I talked to that literally follow the sport now have their favorite teams, have their favorite drivers. I've never become that entrenched in, in F1. It's just not that interesting to me, but they're as interested in what goes on during the week and outside of the car as they are on the racetrack.

And that's what you have to have. And I think God, baseball would benefit so much from having a show like this. And there's so many great personalities in the sport. I think they've obviously done good things in terms of speeding up the game from a baseball standpoint. I do find it interesting that you, so you, you have baseball on almost every night of your house. We have everyone.

Well, yeah. My wife, Sarah is a great big, huge Braves fan. And you know, I love the Sox. So we have, you know, we're watching two, three games a day. You throw on the Dodgers and Padres on late night. If there's nothing else on we're, we're big baseball house. We're actually, we're kind of one of the only national shows TJ, you know, that kind of talks a lot of baseball with rich being a huge Yankee fan, TJ being a huge Mets guy. Like we do talk more baseball, I think than most Mike, you don't count. You couldn't name three Yankees. Exactly.

Mike's a baseball historian, Dan, you know, he created the K-corner at Shea, you know, so that's a lot of people don't know that. You know what I enjoy most when I get to come in here and sit in the seat and fill in for rich is when Del Tufo is just a punching bag. Oh, wait a second. I do. I enjoy it. And I don't, I love Del Tufo.

I love it, but I'm so used to being the punching bag myself, but I'm glad to deflect my way. You love Lala Kent on Vanderpump Rules. Now get to know her on Give Them Lala with her assistant, Jess. What you did not see is when Raquel arrives and she wants to talk to me, I made her sit in a corner, explain, sat in a corner booth all by herself in the dark, waiting for to talk to you, waiting for me to finish dancing to 50 Cent. It's my birthday. Stay in the corner. Give Them Lala wherever you listen.