REShow: Kevin Rahm - Hour 2

This is The Rich Eisen Show. I don't get this one. I don't get it. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

Ja Marant. What he's doing right now is he is flushing it down the toilet. I don't get it. I don't understand it. The Rich Eisen Show. It's a damn shame.

Like you can't tell your friend we've got to separate right now. Earlier on the show, ESPN NFL analyst Louis Riddick. Coming up, senior NBA writer for The Athletic, Sam Amick.

Plus, your phone calls, latest news and more. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Hour number two, The Rich Eisen Show is on the air. We had a great chat with Louis Riddick, talked a little bit of ball with him. Joe Burrows speaking today. He had some interesting things to say.

We'll get that to you as conditions warrant. Sam Amick of The Athletic will be joining us in hour number three. Doc Rivers got fired today and Monty Williams got fired over the weekend. And those are two good guys who know how to coach and know how to lead men and just could not get that win to move on this year. And in the case of both guys, two disappointing finishes in a row, despite making the playoffs and going in the case of Monty Williams, pretty damn deep in the playoffs. And in the case of Doc Rivers not being able to get to the conference finals, nine straight losses coaching a team trying to get to the conference final. Pretty wild, and Sam Amick will join us top of hour number three. Look, none of us want to relive the spring and summer of 2020.

They were dark times. Certainly for us here in this studio, when we're wondering our future as a show and where we're wondering about our future as humans on the planet, right? I mean, like bigger than what we were doing professionally.

But that was adding for me. And I know for all of us here, a lot of the angst also adds to the excitement and the appreciation of what we're going to do next week, which is go back to the Emmy Awards as a nominated show for Best Studio Show, Daily Studio Show. And and it gives us perspective and appreciation. But the reason why I bring this up is if you recall during that summer, during the early months of the pandemic, we would come in here and we all agree to each other.

Hey, we do our best to quarantine and not get each other sick. And we came in here and we talked about the last dance documentary as if it was an NBA playoff game, as if it wasn't. And we would react to it. We would have analysts on. We would try and get a player from those Bulls teams on.

And we talked about it, right? And and that's what we hung our hat on until the NBA figured out we're going to Disney World and we're going to all get back together and we will figure out how we can play a playoff season in what now has been referred to as the bubble. And as we were watching these games and seeing him in empty arenas, you know, and trying our best to forget about what's going on and lose ourselves in the competition, watching it. I know I was thinking at the time. Well, what what would it be like if these teams were playing each other in the other team's arena?

And will we ever get back to fans being in the stands watching them? I mean, this is what we were thinking about at the time. That's what I was thinking about. I'm sure this is where you or you're taking the show and by watching it or hearing we're thinking about.

As well. Especially since, you know, one team was technically the home team on that night, like they they were the higher seed. And it was just weird. So how crazy is it? That we were thinking, how would this stuff play out if there were fans in these matchups, how nuts is it? That the final four teams in that bubble. Are the exact final four teams that are about to start their conference finals tonight and tomorrow?

Pretty wild. How wild is it that the Western Conference finals in the bubble was Lakers nuggets and tonight is Lakers at Nuggets? And the Eastern Conference finals in that bubble was Heat and Celtics and the Eastern Conference finals begins Wednesday night at Heat and Celtics.

I mean, I just I get the goosebumps just thinking about it. And, you know, I know that Heat don't have Tyler Hero and it's different teams. Different teams. But it's pretty damn close. Pretty damn close coaches are different for the Celtics and and obviously the Lakers.

But this is it. And the Lakers roster, we all know has totally changed, but it's still LeBron and Anthony Davis. And now we'll see. We've got fans in other people's arenas. I'm guessing it's going to make a huge difference.

It was, as we all know, Lakers versus the Heat in the finals. Yeah, I'll take I'll take the opposite. No, I know we can take the opposite and you'd be right. You'd be right. You'd be right to take the opposite. I'm sure a town where Mo Green does not have a plaque or a signed poster, a placard to remember his creation of that city believes the same thing. Right.

Yep. But this Lakers team, man, let's hit this, too, because we didn't really hit it yesterday because of all the Suns firing their guy and the Sixers performing in a way that their guy got fired today and John Moran and everything else that happened over the weekend to discuss it. I can't believe the Lakers are in the Western Conference finals tonight. When we had Darvin Ham on this program, gents, back in the summer when he was hired. When we had him on. Much of the conversation we had with him was how is this roster going to work? And the main story about Darvin Ham's arrival in Los Angeles surrounded the fact that Russell Westbrook was in the room while he was introduced as the coach, and he was talking about Russ and his role. Don't you remember, like, Russ and his agent separated ways, longtime agent separated ways because he wanted.

What do you want? Did you want Russ to leave or you wanted Russ to stay? And the opposite was happening. One of those two things was going down. It was really weird. It had to do with the opt out because he was due.

It was weird. He had a 45 million dollar player. The whole thing was weird and Russ is standing there and Ham's talking about him and we're like, there's no way Russ is going to buy in. And as it turns out, it just doesn't matter because Russ is long gone. And the pieces that were there at the time, Austin Reeves and Lonnie Walker, the fourth, there's still pieces that they're depending on, I guess. And have created enough.

Of a support system. With Dennis Schroeder performing well at the point, along with the others that have been brought in, DeAngelo Russell. I mean, Malik Beasley really didn't get much time yet. I don't know, maybe he's going to come off the bench. Maybe you need to shoot threes, put the way the Nuggets shoot threes.

I don't know. You never know. Like every round of an NBA playoffs, as you know, is a different organism because the matchups are different. The defensive matchups that required somebody who's a good shooter but doesn't play good enough defense to sit in one series now actually has an opening to play in the next. We'll see how it does play out. Jared Vanderbilt. But and Rui Hachimura.

Rui. The way that this team has gelled and the way that Ham is coaching them, there's no way you can sit here and say the Lakers have no shot against the Nuggets and then no shot against the Lakers against the Celtics or the Heat, if that's the way it goes. Oh, the Lakers can win this title. Damn straight they can. I think we should all be afraid of that happening.

Damn straight they can. And when we had Ham on, I haven't listened back to that interview. It was 10 months ago.

It would probably feel like it's 10 years ago based on the at the time legit storyline questions posed to this coach about how are you going to, you know, coach LeBron and what about this team's roster that seems unworkable? Why did you take the job right? A lot of folks thought maybe this was a guy that was the only guy would accept a job that ordinarily would be a Tiffany's job, that everyone would jump at the chance. Yeah, remember that was the yeah.

These were all the storylines that we're talking about. Nobody wants to coach the Lakers. And look at him now.

Almost 11 months, June 16th, 2020. Dude, I think the biggest factor is he was a rookie head coach. Yeah. Oh, that's another one. Sure. You know, with LeBron, it's going to steamroll all over him anyway. He's been terrific. He's done a really good job.

Really good job. You know, their transition D could be buttoned up a little bit. You can say that about about everybody and the question will be how Jokic can be contained, whether the Nuggets three point shooters are too much for the Lakers shooting can be.

Can it be too much? But the fact is, they're there, they're there, they made it. They are in Denver tonight. And everybody thought. They'd be long gone, long gone to a 10 start. Got to give it up.

So. I can't believe we're replaying the bubble final four in front of fans. I'm not going to take that for granted. I'm going to enjoy watching these arenas. I'm taking it for granted already that that we're back like, you know. Yeah, we're back as a sports fan base and as a human race and as a society. But I'm not taking that for granted, because when these two teams played each other in Western Conference finals, it looked like the world was coming to an end and sports would never come back. I'm starting to get depressed thinking about that. I did, too.

I don't I don't mean to bring you down, but wow. That was I just can't believe that it is the same four teams as the bubble. And we do get to see it play out.

It'll be great, although not so much for you. I'm pulling for different results. I know you're pulling for different results, pal. And it does appear like maybe nuggets, Celtics will be the way to go. But.

That heat team wise that they didn't break up for you on it, I think. As it turns out, look who's out. Look who's in. I mean, heroes not playing.

Looking back, a guy who didn't want to give up, though, is not a factor. Street clothes looking like a SoundCloud rapper sitting on the bench. Oh, my gosh. Run out each day. All right, we'll take a break. We'll come back. I've got a top five list, but I got an axe to grind. Brockman wants to grind this axe, too.

It's fine. We're going to grind axes of axes grinding. And by the way, I'm looking at you. I'm focused on you. I'm wondering what's over here.

I'm looking over to Brockman and I'm able to still focus on what you're doing. And I'm legit. I'm straight up.

I'm straight up. Someone's what? What?

You want to do what? All because of three glances last night. Alan Judge's record breaking season has been destroyed. He might as well wear it wearing a buzzer. Oh, what is wrong? That's next. Bang the drums slowly.

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Buy new and improved Dove Men Plus Care Antiperspirant wherever personal care products are sold. So I'm at Cooper's Little League playoff game, turned out to be the last playoff game and last game of his Little League career. Yeah, bummer.

And my phone's going nuts. The Aaron Judge is a two home run game, isn't that great? Which is great because Cooper and I have Aaron Judge on our fantasy team.

They were bombs. And and we also have Alec Manoa of the Blue Jays, who has been terrible this year. Like he went from just he's doing the Sparky Lyle, which is Cy Young to Sayonara, the reverse Del Tufo.

Right. So I mean, at any rate, I didn't get home and I looked down at my Twitter feed and Aaron Judge is now a cheater. I'm like, wait a minute. What do you mean he's a cheater? The hell's going on? What are you the hell going on? So I start diving into the feed here. Of course, John Boy's all over it.

And. He in his second home run, second at bat against Jay Jackson of the Toronto Blue Jays. There he is peeking. From the batter's box, and it's not like he's looking down to see where the catcher is located.

He's looking off to the side. And he's looking in clearly to his dugout. And sure enough, the announcers of the game for the Blue Jays to I mean, you want to talk about two of the most highly respected individuals and humans. Dan Schulman, who is the voice of Sunday Night Baseball for a long time on ESPN and somebody who I work with. That's how long ago. That's how long he's been in the game as an announcer, his former players, well, Buck Martinez, who is.

To this day, one of my favorite people I've ever worked with. And they're saying basically, as Judge is standing at the plate, they catch him three different times in this final at bat, looking into the Yankee dugout. I mean, they they they came as close as they could to basically saying, what's up with that?

What's he looking at? Can't be anything legitimate is what it seemed like. They were saying you were hinting and as they were talking about it, Judge Parks won. It was so he might have hit Niagara Falls if there wasn't, you know, the rest of the stands blocking it.

Such a bomb set into the dead center bomb. This was Judge after the game talking about what he was looking at. Yeah, I was kind of a lot of chirping from our our dugout, which I really didn't like in the situation where it's a six nothing game and nobody got to us like I was trying to save Boonie by calling time out, like, hey, hold up here, like, let me let me work here. So I was kind of trying to see who was who was chirping in the dugout. So it's six nothing.

I was when he got to us. Let's just go to work now. All right.

Two things. First off, whoever's choosing Boogie Wonderlust in the Yankee locker room, kudos, kudos to you, sir. Is it Boogie Wonderland?

Boogie Wonderland, kudos, kudos to the disco. I mean, I don't know who's it was that set a Rizzo thing. It's probably somebody who's a veteran who's in control. It's it's not a young kid thing. Could be Judge.

Could be Judge himself. Yeah, I like the disco. 1979. Yeah. By the way, you thought the White Sox killed it, right? They didn't. Yankees are bringing disco back, baby.

Oh, they're bringing something back. Let me just say this shenanigans. Aaron Judge talking about Booney getting tossed. Aaron Boone got tossed during that at bat by the home plate umpire. Because of, as usual, strikes being called on Judge that appear to be low just because he's nine feet tall. OK, so he was complaining about the strikes and Yankees complaining at the strike zone all night long. Which, by the way, would be another great song for for the clubhouse to play after a win. This was the backdrop. So Judge looking in the dugout to see who's talking because, you know, yanks up six, nothing. You can kind of hear a pin drop inside Toronto. Because all I know is this.

All I know is this. They're using the pitch com system because of the cheating scandals of years past of pitching catchers, putting down signs and. Maybe television cameras are picking it up and somebody's watching the TV set they shouldn't be watching or somebody's on an Apple Watch they shouldn't be on or somebody. As you know, the Red Sox Yankees as well were in this mix in the blender that caught the Astros up. So I understand that people are saying that, but there's a system now where the catcher is calling the pitches by. Pressing buttons on his. He literally has like a remote on his arm. On his arm or most of the catchers are putting it on their thigh and covering it with their glove hand.

So judge is not picking up on that. So what is possibly being picked up in the Yankee dugout that could be signaled to him in a manner? By the way, the other times he looked into the dugout supposedly for a sign. He swung and missed at a ball. OK, I had everything I unless you're cheating.

Unless you're cheating. And then another one he didn't offer at. Now, you could say, well, he knew the pitch was going to be an off speech pitch coming, so spit on it way low and outside. But how about the one that he didn't offer at was called a strike, I believe on the or was called a ball. He spat on it. He didn't offer at it.

But here's the interesting thing, too, since we're talking about looking aside and what you should be looking straight at, you know, it's straight down the middle. The pitch that he hit for a home run, it was a breaking ball, dude. It was a breaking ball that was essentially middle middle because it didn't break very much and he murdered it. But if you know a breaking ball is coming, great, because your argument against the Astros, dude, dude, my argument against the Astros is sure they knew what was coming in.

But. Even if he knew it was coming. How does he know it's coming? That's the whole thing I'm trying to tell you, I'm one in the dugout and I don't, but someone in the dugout is what I don't think that happens. All I'm saying is they notice maybe he's tipping his pitch and they're relaying to judge that, hey, we noticed on a breaking ball. He does this. So then so then that's illegal if he's tipping his pitches.

I thought, I don't know. You tell me you were the anti Astros scandal a few years ago. If somebody's tipping their pitches based on their body language or doing something with their glove or doing something that I guess judge couldn't pick up himself by looking directly at the pitcher and somebody in the dugout is telling him he did the pitch. He did that tip thing or somebody in the field is doing it. The judge can't see.

And he's looking in the dugout. Well, then that's that's a YP. That's your problem. I agree with you. Correct. That's always been the case. But if somebody is using technology to steal a sign, that's a problem.

That needs to be eradicated. That is not cool. That is cheating. But how are they stealing it?

How are they stealing? Like, that's the point is like if you think he's looking in for something extrapolated out for me because I'll keep extrapolating out what you're insinuating for everyone. You're saying he's cheating and you're saying buy all that.

Now we have an explanation for last year's home run barrage, don't we? That is the implication about all of this, and I don't like it. Clearly, I am biased.

Admittedly, but you better, if you are doing this, come. Correct. How is he stealing something? Well, he's just looking in the dugout.

Well, the reason why it might be is. Oh, so he's looking at the dugout, somebody goes like this, oh, it's an off speed pitch, see ya, see ya. Is that really how it works?

Is that how it works? It did not help his case that he hit an absolute bomb after looking into the dugout, but he also swung and missed it. One. Oh, he missed it. That one, he didn't miss. You can still know because the one that he missed wasn't in a better location than the one he murdered. Look at the pitch he murdered.

You can still know what's coming and miss. OK, I get it. Again, I don't think that's what happened.

OK, so clearly the Blue Jays broadcast team did. Let's see. Let's see how it plays out. I want a full investigation.

Give it because I bet you he will be cleared as clear as dead. Yeah, I would say so. It just looked weird. Will you admit that it was weird? I don't normally see. By the way, I've never seen anybody do that. I watched, which means maybe he's incredibly talented.

Hey, shut up, guys. I need to murder this baseball when he's when he spins it middle middle. I don't think we can sit here and say we've never seen that done. There's one hundred sixty two baseball games. There's how many teams, how many ever noticed that though before? Think about how much baseball we don't see, but how much baseball we don't see because we're not watching it right now. Even if you're watching, you're watching a lot of baseball. But you're not watching that much baseball that you can see every.

No, but it's something like that would happen. The Internet's watching everything. The Internet's watching everything. That's how I found out about it. I saw John Boy Bart. I told you I did it.

I told you how I found out about it. I'm watching my son's Little League game. Was anyone looking in the dugout on the other team?

No, I need an investigation. That's the whole point is that we may not be seeing it in real. Somebody's going to pick up on it.

It'll be out there and they'll pick up on it if it's judge. Oh, for sure. I didn't see it in any of his sixty two home runs last year. No, that's what I mean.

You admit that it's weird, right? Right, which means he was looking in his dugout because people are chirping because the umpire tossed the manager and it's like six nothing. Let's get out of Dodge here.

And he said he spoke to his teammates like pipe down when I'm at the plate so I can murder more baseballs. But thanks for telling me what picture is coming. How's last place, pal? You tell me.

All rise. How's Kenley Jansen doing? Not greatly.

Yeah, not great after a weekend sweep. So. My two cents on judge, you can call tell me, you know, eight, four, four, two or four. Rich, happy to do it. OK. Now, if I break top, I'm not taking a break.

We can do one thing to another. Let's go to Lonnie in Los Angeles. How are you doing, Lonnie? What's going on, brother? How are you doing?

How are you, sir? Man, I'm upset. Oh, oh. They fired my dude, Doc Rivers, man, I'm upset. You know, I put up with a lot of Doc Rivers bashing over the years. Mm hmm.

You're not long. I know this dude. I tried to get him to come to DePaul University to this day. I do not know why he chose Marquette instead when I spent the day with him at DePaul. I put up with Billy Packer bashing him before the NBA draft.

Doc, you know, kind of human being, Doc. He's amazing. He's amazing. Wonderful.

I know he was raised right. He works hard and you can't give effort in game seven. You would have to kill me. And I'm playing game seven. I'm shooting into my arms. I'm playing me.

I'm getting rebounds. You would have to kill me. I don't understand.

I don't either. You make it millions of dollars. You're making more money than Michael Jordan put in some effort. I love it, Lonnie. Lonnie in Los Angeles, man, bringing the passion. And he's giving voice. Thank you for the call, Lonnie.

He's giving voice to what I said at the top. Anybody who knows Doc Rivers. Loves him, roots for him and is saying, man, I just wish you had these wins to get him to a conference championship. And I know again, you are the fan in the case here, too. Two teams. I know both of them. I know.

Multiple times, multiple years, like I love Lonnie's enthusiasm. But yeah, man, I like like I said, I don't even know if the Sixers were running play. I'm getting upset because I don't care anymore.

No, you do like you do my God, bro, like run some plays. And I don't understand. I just don't get it.

I don't understand how it's like Groundhog Day with me. And I get crapped on for having two teams. And yet the most ridiculous things happen to both of these franchises.

It's just it's ridiculous. And there's a common denominator there. And yeah, he might be great. I met him.

Cool, dude. But sometimes things don't work. And I understand that. I think his point as well, as you heard you, you make the valid and highly.

Intelligent, critical point about the X's and O's. And how. The Groundhog Day part of it keeps showing up in heartbreaking fashion again. And like I said, that can't really be him. You know, Chris Paul's injuries. No, I know.

So that's not his fault. But tenths game seven loss, fifth in a row, nine straight losses with a chance to reach the conference finals. I mean, that's that that that that's.

The numbers that lead to your voice inflection and exasperation right now. Lonnie's talking about the beard strolling up the court. Yep. That's what he's talking about. No sense of urgency. He he's he's talking about. Quitting time. Now, you could say that's on the coach, but I think his point is it's on the players, because if they know Doc like the way he knows Doc and they must, because he's there, he's he's around them.

But a coach player, you know, relationships are frayed all over the place. I think that's what you just heard right there. Lonnie in Los Angeles bringing it. Yeah. And like I said, I didn't see James Harden walk up the court because I was watching A.J. Stiles hit Shinsuke Nakamura with a Stiles clash. Gentlemen, Wrestle Kingdom, Wrestle Kingdom, Wrestle Kingdom, another.

That's what I was doing. Another mention here. All right, Mike, I need NFL Films music. Sorry, T.J. Top five. I got a top five list, gents. I got a top five list. As you know, we talked at length yesterday and earlier with Lewis Riddick.

I kind of dig doing this in the middle of May. Yeah. From now on. Because again, the schedules are out. The draft is done. The evaluations for free agents are are virtually complete. I mean, there are there are still people like Zeke Elliott, for some reason, still looking for a job or or come on, a landing spot.

Come on back home. But we we have we have we have over 90 percent of the information I think we need barring injury to go way early and tell you which teams that missed the playoffs last year are going to crash the party and make the playoffs this year. On average, half the playoff field in the NFL the last three years is new every year. So I've got a top five list, top five likeliest new playoff teams in 2023. And I start with a team that I'm I've now officially begun talking myself into winning their division. That's the Atlanta Falcons.

Oh, in the NFC South. Hello, Mitch Eisen. I like Bijan Robinson. It's time for Kyle Pitts, man. Mr. Pitts has been cutting his Snickers with a knife and fork for too damn long. OK, in the football world, it's time. It's time for Kyle.

By the way, Kyle, if you're watching, it's a Seinfeld reference. Ask your coach because Arthur Smith has got a sense of humor. So we all know I like the moves they made defensively. Jesse Bates is a nice free agent pickup. Kalaus Campbell is going to teach these guys in that locker room what it means to win football games.

It's all really all on Desmond Ritter's shoulders, right? Positionless football is what Terry Fonten of the general manager called their philosophy when he said they drafted Bijan Robinson is more than a running back. And honestly, where does the player who represents positionless football at the running back position reside the last couple of years in Atlanta with Cordell Patterson, right?

So let's see Drake London year two kind of dig it. They protect up front, rush the passer in the trenches, the NFC South being winnable. I'll take Atlanta number five on this list. Number four on this list is a team that finished strong. And normally those teams that finish strong can get out of the gate strong and perform well and actually make the playoffs, which this team and franchise is used to. I love their draft, too. I like the Pittsburgh Steelers to make the playoffs this year after missing it last year, and they're a nine and eight team from last year.

As we all know, the fame stat of. Their head coach not having a losing record. That's impressive in year to year to year to year, I think Tom and coaches these guys up, I really do like their draft gents.

I like it. I like what they did in the draft. I like how they got better in the draft. I like how they have built this team.

And I think Kenny Pickett showed some Moxie and I think Alan Robinson will find a home here in a way that he hasn't since his Jacksonville days. You know, and oh, yeah, on top of it, there's got to be some some momentum coming out of the fact that they brought the ketchup bottles back in. That most importantly. Oh, by the way, it's part of Acrisure.

My bad. So number three on this list is going to be controversial. I know somebody is going to roll their eyes and Aaron Judge, like I'm looking right at him. The Los Angeles Rams are making the playoffs again this year, guys.

They're doing it. I don't care what you think. I don't care what you think. I've got a feeling. Just call me flash dance. Will you be the Black Eyed Peas if you had a feeling? What is it? I'm hooked on a feeling. What is that feeling? Oh, what a feeling. Oh, yeah. I got I've got a feeling.

It's both. Luca shot. I mean, he's hooked on a feeling. Guess what? Stafford's back, cups back, Donald's back. Let's roll. What about the other 19? I don't care.

That's good enough for me. Sean McVeigh's renewed energy. Let's go. Last year was a total disaster. Total complete disaster. I think the Rams can come back and and make some noise. Their schedule is terrible, though.

Very difficult. First two on the road. Last two on the road.

Come on. They play for four, four teams coming off of a bye. But I'm still going to I'm still going to think that the Rams make it back in this mix. Number two on this list.

I think you can guess these in the final two teams. I'm on it. I'm on this bandwagon.

I hope you can understand. I feel like I'm I'm I'm a driver of this bandwagon. I helped create the bandwagon. The Lions you were on early. I mentioned the Lions in March. Lewis Redick said earlier, he mentioned him in January when he said they mopped the floor with the the Packers and they did.

They did. And and the and the league saw them win eight of their last ten. They see this coach who is the right kind of crazy. And they see Aiden Hutch. You know, they see Aiden Hutchinson and they see this offense.

I'm on Ross St. Brown. Remember, I said he was a top ten receiver league. I like what they're I like what they've done. I like I like Jameer Gibbs. There's going to be a lot of people who are going to be shocked at how much of a matchup nightmare he is. Can we can we make his 12th?

Sorry, can we say his name in the whisper? Because my fantasy guys might be watching. I don't know about Jameer Jibbs.

Everyone's going to be shocked about how a 12th overall might be a proper spot for him to be picked. Number one on the list. You know what it is. It's your show. Let me guess my show.

What do you mean it's my show? They have the offensive and defensive rookie of the year. They've got Quinnen Williams. I don't care. He's removed jets from his team, from his bio on Twitter.

This is all posturing. The Jets will sign him. They didn't spend a gajillion dollars on Rogers just to make their other difference maker disappear. This will get done the same way I knew Rogers's trade was going to get done.

Quinnen Williams will get done and he will be hunting. And the rest of this team, as constituted, if they stay healthy, all they were missing last year was a quarterback who could give them another touchdown or 10 points a game. And they got a guy who can do that and more. And a coaching staff that's ready to roll.

They are making the play. They they are the likeliest team out of all those that missed the playoffs last year to make them make it this year. And and seven and 10 isn't too terrible a record to improve from. Because last year, the new teams that made the playoffs last year were eight, nine, two of them, one, nine and eight, two, nine and eight.

Pardon me, two, nine and eight, two, eight and nine, a four and 13 and three and 14, a seven and 10 team that's as loaded as the Jets are can make the playoffs. That's it. There isn't even a one more. I don't even I don't even I didn't even, you know. I was waiting for like, I don't know, no, no, not like John Adams is going to come back to be in the Verizon commercial with Einstein for something. But of course, as you know, one of the biggest mysteries of the NFL now entering the season is. Will Verizon sign Einstein to his fifth bar option? We pick up his fifth bar off one of my favorite lines I've said in this microphone in a while, so thank you.

Thank you very much. Here's an interesting question. What historical figure, if they don't go with Einstein, might they pull out? I don't know.

Good question. Did you start Ben Franklin? Let's take a break. Let's take a break about fun stuff on the other side.

I would not move if I were you. Sam Amick of the athletic on the NBA nuttiness still come as well. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, otherwise again known as the inside the Actors Studio, Chris Brockman has been termed as he was termed an actor actor on the on the home page of the Kevin Rom Celebrity Golf Tournament that's going down this weekend that you're going to play in as a celebrity slash actor.

Correct. And joining us now live on the phone line is none other than Kevin Rom himself. How are you, Kevin?

I'm great, gentlemen. I just pounded one off number one on the valley course at TPC Sawgrass. Oh, two forty five right down the middle. OK, we're playing the bat.

We played the back nine first. Well, you know what, Kevin, I appreciate you wanting to talk golf. But at this point in time, you know, I get it. I get what we're going to talk about here, right here, because, you know, I could have introduced you as legitimately an actor, Kevin Rom. But can you walk us through how and why Chris was initially identified on your website for your St. Jude, by the way, raising money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Bless you. Why? Why Chris was identified as an actor.

Kevin? Well, first of all, Rich, you know, as you know, all the great work you do for St. Jude, when you're doing that kind of work for St. Jude, you want to try to keep the costs low. Right. So so the first thing is you don't pay your people. OK, volunteers understood.

I found out earlier today that the woman fought that he was Michael Chiklis from The Shield. Wow. Yes. So originally that was the problem. Just a problem. If you check the Web page now, I believe it's been fixed.

Yes. Go up there and check it now. We have done that.

We have done it. See what it says now. What does it say? It says actor in quotes and Nair model. Nair. Yes. As in the stuff that takes your hair off. That's correct.

I just want to make sure they got the right Nair or Nair. I just want to make sure. There's going to be there's going to be some changes this week. I reached out to Richard Kind and first of all, Rich Eisen, I don't look I know that in your world there at the studio, it all revolves around you.

And that's fair. It's your name's on the show. Yes, Kevin.

But, you know, for a guy with less than 30 credits and one of them one of the credits is you playing Stuart Scott. Yep. Yep.

Yep. I'm just saying that may be the biggest range that that in a little bit of itself gives you the credit of calling yourself an actor. I appreciate that, because, again, I wasn't offended as Chris being termed an actor as a celebrity. I was offended as an actor, as a thespian. Right. Right. You know, yeah, myself.

And by the way, I get it. So I talked to Richard Kind. I asked him what he thought after watching the clip from yesterday. He said, and I quote, Yes, I saw Chris Brockman's Willy Loman, and he's no celebrity. Did you were you in Death of a Salesman ever? Were you ever a salesman?

Let's just keep going. Oh, no. Well, I worked in retail one summer, and I don't think so. Wait, were you like the guy that sprays the cologne at Macy's?

I worked at Home Depot one summer. Kevin, you're an actor of note, sir. Yes, sir.

Your credits are I could you know, in the minutes we have remaining here, I could take them up by listing your credits. Did you are you hearing from anybody in SAG-AFTRA at all for for looping Chris into your profession? They are so worried about the writer's strike right now. This is going to fly under the radar. OK, you should laugh. Fran Drescher has reached out and she said, if we can get him three stand in jobs, he might be able to get in the union.

OK, I have some friends, but we have to wait for everybody to get back to work. Right. So essentially, that's why we put the quotes around it. He's a quote unquote actor for now.

Yes. You know, the boys of the boys will gather this weekend. We'll watch him.

He may or may not be a golfer by the end of the weekend. We don't know. So we'll see.

It'll be a day by day determination. OK, we'll keep you posted. OK, so your people are now on it. OK, very good.

People are on it. And they thought that he was chickless because all massholes look alike. Right. OK, very good.

They look alike. I get it. Yeah.

So all right. How's Sawgrass looking? Amazing, right? It looks gorgeous. It's no rain today. Eighty three degrees, mild humidity, three to five mile an hour winds. It's gorgeous.

Dude, getting sawgrass on a weekend. That is no easy feat. So how can people donate to St. Jude? You go to go to the ROM golf dot org, the ROM golf dot org. We we just put up some auction items. You can there's a direct link donation page. You can just give money if you want, or you can check out some of the things we have for auction items if you're in and around the area. We still have a few tickets for the songwriter's night on Thursday and maybe some tickets left for the jam session on Friday and Saturday. Fantastic.

The ROM golf. We did one point seven million for the kids of St. Jude last year, and we're hoping to top that this year. God bless you, because as we all know, every dime goes to every penny goes to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where sick kids get better and they find cures for the kids that come in and families don't see a bill.

They could just focus right on the care of one dime of the children. Beautiful man. No better charity out there. Well, thank you. That that is the best charity out there. Right after that is Chris Brockman's acting career.

That is we're calling him an actor. That's very charitable. That's very charitable.

We'll send you some ROM balls back with him. OK, very good. Have a great weekend, Kevin. And thanks for thanks for playing along. Keep it straight. There you go.

There's Kevin Rom. Appreciate it. So they thought you were checklist, which obviously I will take. And you're both you're both you're root for the same teams. It's handsome. You love dogs, bald men sometimes. What do you mean sometimes you love your you love Maverick? He got me up at 4 a.m. this morning. That's what dogs do, brother. I'm aware I couldn't go back to sleep. Dylan, our white golden is a freakin rooster. Exactly why I don't have kids and dogs.

I sleep at 4 a.m. There you go, bud. Well, there you go. All right. Good for you. You know, just like proud of you, Jay. You went out of here.

He feels me. OK, and right now, two forty five straight kill for that this weekend. Have you ever played TPC at soccer? No.

Only on a video game. I played one year for Thursday Night Football. Oh yeah. They had it was Mooch, Kurt. Dion and yours truly with Jim Furyk on the T. Jackson Deville. No, Jackson, you know, he can golf. We were in Thursday Night Football. We were in Jacksonville and they got they got the 17th green for an hour and we shot.

You know, he went into a shot, don't lie. None for me. I don't believe any of mine went to water. Wow. Oh, look at that. That's that's not us.

Oh, that was great. They got a photo without all the grandstands of the island green. You know, they used to see. Oh, by the way, if you ever if you drive through the Wilshire corridor right now, you peek through the you peek through the trees and the bushes of the LCC. They're setting up for the U.S. Open. Yeah.

Month away in a month. Yeah. PGA Championship coming up this week. OK, and that's that's our golf coverage today. Great. That's check my Instagram all weekend. I'll be. Oh, great. Live, you know, acting stories.

Yeah, you do this weekend. As gosh, everybody should just seek that out on our social media, on our Twitter account, us learning on the air live that Brockman was labeled, labeled are identified as an actor in this celebrity golf tournament. As it dawned on us. I really watched that last night that I really text these guys. I just sat there and just laughed because that's what we do. The live stuff coming up in the next hour. Sam Amick of the Athletic on what's gone down in the NBA.