REShow: Michael Kosta - Hour 1

This episode is brought to you by Zillow. You've probably spent hours Zillowing on Zillow, scrolling through beach houses, looking up the Zestimate of your boss's house, but Zillow is so much more than searching for homes. Now, Zillowing means finding a top agent who's with you all the way, working with a top-rated loan officer to find a mortgage with Zillow Home Loans and getting into the home of your dreams, whether it's on a beach or not. Zillow, let's get you home. Download the Zillow app today.

Zillow Home Loans, NMLS number 10287. Today's guests, comedian Michael Costa, PGA Tour golfer Luke Donald, NFL Network analyst Cynthia Freeland. And now, sitting in for Rich, Steve Weissman.

And welcome to the Rich Eisen Show. It's a Friday. We are finishing the weekend strong. Great to be with you, Steve Weissman here.

Back with the crew, we got TJ Brockman, Jason Feller. Hey, what's up? Feller Fridays!

We need an air horn for that for Feller Fridays. I'm trying to bring the music down. Let's go.

Can we have it? No. Come on.

I was just telling TJ, third time doing the show, and I believe in the rule of threes. So you do something once. All right. You put it on the resume. You did it.

Great. You do something two times. You did it a couple of times. But once you do something for a third time, you are doing it. You're doing it. You're doing it out here. So, you know, you go on a date with somebody.

Great. You went out once. Maybe you like them.

Maybe you didn't. So you say you're doing it? Maybe you came back for that second date. But once you decide to go out a third time, you're dating. So we're dating. We're officially dating. The point of that is we're dating now.

We're steady. Last night, the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, unveiled their rings. And these things are spectacular. Championship rings have gotten bigger, larger, more and more ostentatious. This bling is on a whole other level. And by the way, that's the ring right there. We're not even talking about the box. And all my watch lovers out there know when you get a watch, you need the box and the papers.

If you get this ring, you need the box. They open this thing up. Spectacular. Look at that. It's red.

It's shiny. And then once you open it inside, there is a video screen with the highlights of the team going on to win the Super Bowl. Turn that around, Travis. Turn it around for us. You can see the best part about this video.

Kelsey's like, what? There's a video playing in here? A video in the box. Let's break down the ring. Patrick Mahomes actually had a part in designing this apparently.

And we have the KC in the middle. 16 custom cut rubies. I love a good ruby. I wore the burgundy jacket today.

Ruby red. Representing the 16 division titles that the team has won. So there's that. Then there's 50 diamonds around that KC symbolizing the 50 years they've played at Arrowhead. I mean, no detail was missed in this ring. There are 16 baguette diamonds in the base of the Lombardi trophies for each player who scored a touchdown in the regular season. What? Right? 38 more diamonds around the ring representing the number of points scored in the Super Bowl.

So they were like, yes, we're going to do 38 exactly. Three marquee cut diamonds. Brockman, you've heard of the marquee cut, right? I'm all about the marquee cut. It's literally my preferred cut of diamonds. But TJ's more of a pear shape, right?

Yeah, I mean, it's my favorite. Those are for each Super Bowl won by the Chiefs. Then 54. 54 more diamonds on the perimeter of the ring top to symbolize, get this, the 54 point deficits that Kansas City overcame on their runs to the last two Super Bowl titles. That's preposterous. Like, what a thing.

It's just a weird flex. Like, hey, we have room for 54 more diamonds. What do you guys think? How about the number of points we came back from in the last two runs?

OK, why not? It is 10 other diamonds for the 10 consecutive winning seasons that they've had. And then as these championship rings go these days, the top comes off. It's not it's not just a ring. It's a multifaceted piece of jewelry. And when you take the top off, it reveals the inside of the stadium. There's a quote from the chief's founder, Lamar Hunt.

Arrowhead Stadium is my favorite place on earth. And then, by the way, underneath the ring and you saw this, Brockman, each player has their own signature, unique signature engraved. So if somebody buys this on the second hand market, you know exactly or you may not because the signature is kind of funky. But you know, you can figure out whose ring it was. Look at that.

So sick. So so here here's the final stats of this piece of jewelry. Six hundred and nine round diamond, six hundred and nine, 16 baguette diamonds, four marquee diamonds, 35 custom cut rubies, 35 custom cut rubies for a grand total of sixteen point one carats of Super Bowl glory, more than 16 carats in this ring. And everybody gets one.

By the way, this is three hundred and fifty five more diamonds than their twenty twenty ring. So they've they've stepped up there. So you thought that one was great. Right. And there you see both of them. That one had like three hundred.

That's a great photo. What happens in like two years when they win another one? How what's that ring going to look? That's going to have twelve hundred diamonds.

Let's be honest. They're getting more. This ain't going to be the last one they get. I mean, over under chief Super Bowls. I mean, they're getting another one. That's a dynasty. At some point that that may or may not retire him with only with only two. He said the same thing about Aaron Rodgers. I know we can always say, but I that I he passes the eye in the sniff test like this team is going to win another ring at some point. I'll take the under. Have rings gone too far?

In terms of what? I guess it depends like what you want the purpose of the ring to be. You're not wearing that anywhere, right? You literally you really only wear your ring to the next ring ceremony. Or I guess if you go to the Met Gala or something, you might go to like a talk show. You'd wear the ring, you know, stuff like that. But you're it's it's not it's not an everyday ring. It's not functional. Like I would be afraid of losing the top.

The top screws off. I'd be afraid of losing that. Now, you wouldn't be afraid of losing. Let's be honest. You'd be afraid of getting one time jacked for.

Yes, that's that would be my concern. Is there a price tag on these things? Probably 50K at least. It's got to be more than that. It's got to be six figures.

16 carats with with 35 rubies with 609 more than 600 diamonds. Those are probably the players and coaches ones. Yes.

The front office gets a little bit of a downsized one. So you're looking at least like 75 rings times 100K. Yeah. No, guys, you remember there's a there's a picture we have million dollars. Yeah, there's a picture here of me with Jerry Jones from before the Super Bowl.

Right. He let me hold one of his Super Bowl rings. Now, I don't know if this still stands true. But at that point, when I took that picture and talked to Jerry Jones, he told me and like I said, I don't know if it still happens.

But essentially, all the owners have to pony up and they pay for the rings of the team that won the Super Bowl. No way. Yeah. I thought I told you that before. So this is according to him. Now, like I said, again, I don't know if that's still tradition.

I don't know if that's still what happens. But up to a certain point, that's that is what Jerry Jones told me. Wow. It's a lot of money. It's more incentive to win.

Yeah. Win a Super Bowl. By the way, guys do wear them. I mean, at NFL Network, guys have come in wearing the rings and it's the coolest thing. When Will Blackman brought in his Super Bowl ring, the first thing I was like, can I can I put that on?

Take a snap for, you know, for social media. TJ, remember, we were at the Hall of Fame and you put on Bernie Kosar's ring. He went with the Cowboys. I put on Torrey Smith. Michael Lombardi has been here when he was with the Patriots.

I put his on. Lombardi's ring was ridiculous. I've put on Super Bowl rings before. They take up literally two fingers and half your hand.

They're gigantic. I would probably wear it like Frodo, you know, Lord of the Rings. I would wear it on a necklace. My neck, I already have three herniated discs right now. I mean, it would be a disaster.

My head would just be drooped. I mean, these things are crazy. And by the way, compare this to their Super Bowl four ring and that'll show you how much things have changed. I like these comparisons. In the evolution of championship rings. That one had one round diamond in the middle. Ten small diamonds around it. There it is.

That's actually better than I thought it was going to be. A simple football. That maroon around. Is that Super Bowl four? That's Super Bowl four, yeah. 1969.

That's incredible. It's not rubies. It's some form of, I don't know, red jewelry.

Amethyst or something. But I literally saw that ring online, Brockman, being sold right now for $72,500. The Super Bowl four ring. Oh really?

Yeah. That's a good, that's a good investment if you're a diehard Chiefs fan with some extra cash to spend. Like TJ, what would you pay for the first Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl ring? I mean, if I had that type of discretionary income. Yeah, if you just had some extra money lying around. Let's just say, let's say, providing I win Powerball tonight. Yeah, I'd pay upwards of a hundred, you know, a hundred grand to have something like that.

Yeah, absolutely. Who would you be? Who would sell? I'd pay that much for like a lot of stuff, though. If I had that type of money. For a ring that I didn't earn, I don't know if I'm, I don't know if I'm paying for that. If it was gifted to me. Yeah, but you got a lot of money, dawg. And it's just like, you've got money. If you're a diehard fan, to be like, oh yeah, I bought so-and-so's backup lineman's Super Bowl ring on eBay. Like, that would be cool, I think.

Yeah, no, I get it. And fans would love to do that. Personally, if I didn't earn it, you know, I'm not, I'm also not the guy that's rocking a jersey. You're a purist, Steve. With somebody else's name. Steve, you're a purist. If I was broadcaster on the team, I would love that.

And I would be really bummed out. By the way, I hope all the Chiefs broadcast team gets one of those rings. Because the Rams did, by the way. Because MJD, where's his ring all the time? Did MJD get the super player version? I don't know. I don't think he got the super player version.

But maybe you're able to, like, pay more to get that upgrade? I mean, look, Stan Kroenke has some extra cash lying around. He just won another championship.

My goodness. He could splurge for the broadcast team. But is that, is it the same deal in the NBA where all the owners kind of pull their money for the rings?

I don't know. Because he's having to pay for the Nuggets rings. I'm curious to see what those are going to look like. The Lakers ring, back in 2020 when they won the NBA title, that's still kind of... The bubble championship. The gold standard, 804 white and yellow diamonds.

804 in that Lakers ring. Where are they finding all these diamonds? I don't believe they're lab created either. Because you know you can get the lab created as opposed to the natural cut.

Give me the lab created. They don't hold their value. That's the difference. Nobody knows the difference. That's true. Well then just get cubic zirconium. That's what I'm saying.

Nobody can tell. What if Jerry Jones is like, look, I don't want to fork over 7 million to pay for these Chiefs rings. Or like Mike Brown, notoriously cheap owner. Thrifty. They beat us again in the AFC Championship game.

Maybe we should get some CZs for the offense. Bad color, bad clarity. He's like the worst quality ring possible. Smallest carrots. Just because he's bitter. I mean, when you talk about the amount of diamonds. The carrots.

That's what stood out to me. 16 carrots. Which, by the way, still 4 carrots less than the Rams Super Bowl 56 ring. That was 20 carrots.

20 carrots of diamonds. That's so insane. Look at this thing. That thing's pretty though. It's a gorgeous piece of jewelry.

The palm trees are so dope. My goodness. But you have to get insurance. You can't be walking around with one of these rings. No, absolutely not. Well done though. Patrick Mahomes. Well done.

All the Chiefs. Beautiful. Putting that together. I have a new name, Jason.

Jason of Beverly Hills. He didn't make this Chiefs one, but he made that Rams one. He makes a lot of the NBA and NFL Championship rings. I love that.

Those things are pretty, man. It's next level. And the Nuggets will be getting their rings. Yesterday, they had that parade.

Nikola Jokic. They changed his mind. He was not about the parade. He just wanted to go back home to Serbia.

We can go home now. And now he will go back to the horse racing. But he loved the parade yesterday. He stood up there.

Had his daughter there. Let's take a listen. I told that I don't want to stay on parade, but I f***ing want to stay on parade.

This is amazing. We're all going to remember this our whole lives. And when we see you guys that came out on the streets, and actually this one is for you. We love you Denver. This one is for you.

Thank you guys. Last year, they had the avalanche. This year, they've got the Nuggets. What is it about a parade that allows these superstars to not care anymore? I'll tell you what it is about the parade, Steve. It's very simple. It's a simple word. It has four letters, and that is beer.

Okay. Brew, champagne, alcohol. I was like, alcohol is more than four letters.

Cigars. Mike Malone was turnt up yesterday. I didn't quite know he had until last night. That was amazing. I need more of that. Jokic was like, remember after the game, he was so bummed to find out he had to wait three more days for the parade.

I just want to go home to my horses. And now he called it the best f***ing day of his life. It's because he's never had a parade like that.

And so he had nothing to weigh it against. And then he saw it and he's like, oh, no, I love parade. Easily the most fun. The guy was like, look, everybody hates their jobs, right? You know, this isn't me. This is just what I do.

I play basketball. And now he's like, this is the greatest day of my life. I love everybody. I love you. He's like your drunk buddy in Vegas who's never been before. And then he's just telling everybody he loves them and hugging.

And all of a sudden you're just like, dude, why are you hugging me so much? I love you, man. This is the greatest of all time. That's Jokic. And I'm here for it.

I love it. Taking the Jokic legend to just another level. I can't wait to see how he tops this. I'm going to call it right now. They're going back to back, TJ. Back to back. It's a little too early for me to say that. You weren't in on the Chiefs winning a whole bunch more, but now he's down. Now the new J. Easier to win a championship in the NBA than it is the NFL.

They're both difficult in my opinion. The Boston Celtics won 10 out of 11 years. Yeah, that was quite the dynasty.

In the sixties. But come on. Patriots had their own dynasty going in the NFL. There's been more repeat NFL champions in the last 15 years.

Not true. There's been zero repeat champions in the NFL. I don't mean back to back. I mean teams that have won.

How about this? Multiple champions. The Chiefs have just won, what, two and four years, right? The NBA has had five different champions in the last five seasons.

Which is the first time that's ever happened in the history of the league. Well, we're talking about present day and now. The evolution continues.

We're not talking about what happened in the sixties. More likely to repeat. Chiefs or Nuggets? I think you're right there. I go Nuggets. I go Nuggets over Chiefs because the NFL is a league where you could miss the playoffs one year and win the Super Bowl the next year. Exactly. I agree with you.

I agree with those sentiments. That said, I don't think, I don't know if the Nuggets are going to win next year, but they would have a better chance. I'm just calling it because I want another Jokic parade. This time he brings his horses. He flies the horses in from Syria and he rides them down Main Street in Denver. That was a no brainer.

If he ever wins again, that has to happen. But what I love about the parade is there's always some random, I won't even say random, but not the number one on the call sheet. As we like to say, not the superstar who has the mic who's doing everything.

Like for the Nuggets, it was KCP. He was catching beers like Stone Cold. He was doing interviews. He was running out in the street. Kristen Brown was like running around with his shirt off with the WWE belt.

That's like always fun to me to kind of watch and see these guys just have the best time of their life. Yeah. And it comes down to exactly what you said. Four letters. They found Aaron Gordon. Beer.

You start, you see, you start drinking and you don't know what's going to happen next. And now you've got Jokic loving the parade. And he found his MVP trophy, by the way.

Thankfully, the MVP trophy is back when we come back. Comedian Michael Kosta joins the show. It is the Rich Eisen Show. I'm Steve Weisman filling in. It's a Friday.

Be right back after this. This episode is brought to you by Zillow. You've probably spent hours Zillowing on Zillow, scrolling through beach houses, looking up the zestimate of your boss's house. But Zillow is so much more than searching for homes. Now Zillowing means finding a top agent, someone who can answer all your home buying questions, even the ones you're embarrassed to ask. They'll take you on tours, offer expert local advice and help you get into the home of your dreams, whether it's on a beach or not. Zillow. Let's get you home.

Download the Zillow app today. This guy over there, Brockman with his Red Sox cap over there. Do you hear the David Price sound that when he was bitching about David Price after the Yankees beat him up in, what was that, Game 2?

Play it. Go for it for Bill Burke. I want him to quit. I want him to retire on the spot. He's not going to do that. I didn't go that hard.

That's what I want. He was terrible. Part of you, so furious at David Price.

I'm so furious. But you were kind of feeling good, though. Like, you're getting it off your chest. Like, you could have been- It was therapeutic, but like- See, that's what I'm saying. That's what, what's with, is there something about- Name another sports fan that sees that guy. I don't know. Just like, I'm, maybe I'm just a much more Sonny disposition type guy.

Were you screaming in marble? This is about him. This is about how great he is. Oh, now I see where this is going. I was confused. You know, Rich, I, okay, you spoon fed it to me.

I want to tell you something, Rich, out of all the sports shows I go on, I think you are the nicest, most even-keeled, pleasant, respectful to other fan base. No, I just think it goes back to, like, the tea party. You know, it goes all the way back to, like, you don't feel represented. You feel like you're taxed. You feel like a taxed sports fan.

Do you feel the jello? Don't you love that? You haven't been represented in the sports universe.

It's always great when I have another teammate come into studio, because I'm teamed up against two-on-one with the New Yorkers. Don't you hate anytime, like, there's a big Boston game, what they show? They always show, like, lighthouses, lobster fishermen, and Paul Revere, like, oh, yeah, that's Massachusetts. I didn't see, I never saw any of that. You know, who goes to a tourist attraction in your own city?

Exactly. You only do it when relatives come to town. Oh, do you want to go see? I want to go to the USS Constitution.

Oh, do you? Here's where Cheers is. You want to go stand in line down there? Well, have a great time. I'm going to go to a dive bar. Where do you want to go next? You want to go to Cheers? Just to let you know, it doesn't look like that when you go inside, so just take a picture outside. Oh, do you?

Oh, yeah. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. Steve Weisman sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger. With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger has the right product for you.

Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Speaking of stopping by, our next guest, we've got Michael Kosta, comedian, daily show correspondent, host of Warm and Fuzzy on Tennis Channel, host of the podcast Tennis Anyone, was also in Paris with me for a weekend with Tennis Channel. Michael, so great to have you, so much fun having you in Paris. How have you been since coming home? Oh, man, I had the best situation. I popped in for three days, watched some tennis, still got to watch the finals at home on my couch with DVR.

You were there for like 37 days. At least. I mean, that's so much butter. It's so much sauce. I mean, I had a steak. I think they boiled it. It's not my cuisine.

A boiled steak is not right. I mean, you didn't come. We talked about my favorite place, L'Avenue, yesterday. Next time you're in Paris, you got to come with me to my restaurant and then you'll like that cuisine a little better.

For those who don't know, Kosta is a former college tennis star, played at Illinois, was once ranked 864 in the world. So what was most memorable to you about your trip to the French Open, being a big tennis guy? Well, you know, it's it's like when I was starting out in comedy, you would watch the grape and it would almost be deflating.

It was more like when you watched mediocre comics or bad comics that you thought, oh, I think I could do that. But when I went to the French Open and I watched. World class tennis players, it just made me feel worse about it, made me feel like I was nowhere near there. I had so, so far to go. You know, I had a great serve, but that's it, Steve.

If you got my serve back, you probably won the point. So these guys have so many weapons. And it's just like team sports to the good teams. They have so many different ways to hurt you. And in a way, I watched tennis there and I walked away feeling mildly depressed.

You go all the way to Paris just to feel bad about yourself. Well, they're just so good and their movement is so good. And watching it live, you see it.

You know, I, I had the opportunity to follow D.A. points around once the professional golfer and watching how those guys get out of trouble. Well, they get in trouble and then it's like they're just back in it. And it was the same with tennis. They would just get on a defensive situation and they turn it offensive immediately.

And that's just not how I played tennis. If I was in a defensive situation, I lost the point, dude. No defense. Straight.

All offense. Paul Westfall, back in the day. At Tennis Channel, you host the warm and fuzzy segments, which are different.

It's a more relaxed setting. So, you got all the stars to come in there. Who stood out to you or surprised you? Yeah, I mean, you know, the number one player in the world at the time, Carlos Alcaraz, now it's Novak Djokovic. But I love talking to Carlos Alcaraz because he plays with such an animalistic hunger. But then he was just so chill talking to me. Iga was that way.

The number one female player in the world. Yeah, they just have such a hunger and an intensity to rip your heart out on the court. But then I was amazed at how kind of calm and zen and chill they were. I mean, Iga talked about the books she was reading. They're not self-help books.

They're not become better tennis player books. They're like fiction and adventure and mystery. For me, it's really fun to see that these world-class robots, so to speak, actually do have other things in their lives.

And it's fun for me to listen to that. That's awesome. Yeah, Iga, she has her own book club that she started. She's very, very introspective.

That's pretty cool. I mean, like what other sport? I don't think you're watching the NBA Finals this week. I wonder which one of these guys doesn't have a book club. They might, but that's just not my first thought. Who's into Pride and Prejudice right before Game 4?

I'm not sure. Speaking of Alcaraz, you left before that semi-final. We got it, though. We got Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz. What we've been waiting for for more than a year. What did you think of that match?

Yeah, that was a bummer. I mean, it was excellent tennis for the first two sets, but what I do like about what happened is when the average sports fan sees how physical tennis is, it always kind of makes me happy a little bit. Because I think it's easy to watch and go, oh yeah, you play five sets, or whatever the case may be. But when you really see that one of the most fit players on tour play a third set against Novak Djokovic because his body breaks down, it just shows the whole world how much conditioning is important. It's just so physical, my God.

I mean, I'm sitting on the couch, making coffee, eating popcorn, barely doing anything. And I'm watching this guy run around, and eventually his body broke down. It was really sad, but I think it gives him and his team the opportunity to fix this early on in his career, because he's only 20, Steve. And he talked about the nerves, because obviously, you look at Carlos Alcaraz, the guy's in shape. But the combination of those nerves, playing against Novak Djokovic three out of five Roland Garros, he couldn't handle that, and he cramped. And as you know, once the cramps creep in, you're done for hours.

You're not getting out of that. And it proved a point with Djokovic. Courier was talking on the commentary about how that creates this muscle tension, and I'm always curious in team sports if that's the same thing. Is a lineman feeling nervous and therefore cramps more often? Or does that not happen because it's more of a team environment where your teammate can cover for you? I don't know, but it's so interesting to think the more nervous you are, the crappier your muscles do. But that's essentially what happens.

Yeah, that's a great question. I would think that in an individual sport, it would be much more of a factor, because you're only relying on yourself. At least if you're in a team sport, somebody else can pick you up. Michael Costa here on the Rich Eisen Show.

Steve Weisman filling in for Rich today. If you were the commissioner of tennis, Costa, what changes would you make to improve the sport? I think the immediate first, I have two. I have one for the viewing public, and I have one for the actual players. The first one for the viewing public, when I'm watching a match on TV, I think it would be really beneficial to show the people at home how much money they're playing for. So look, we always put the Tennis Channel logo or the CBS logo, it should say plus or minus $68,000. It should say at a final, these guys are playing for 3 million euros right now. I think to the sports bettors, I think to the people that are sitting in Cesar's Sportsbook in Vegas who don't know the first thing about tennis and they see that number, they'll go, Oh, this is interesting. No wonder that person just double faulted.

They're playing for $3 million. The next thing I would change for players, we got to lose the lead. As a former college player, if your first or second serve hit the net, you had to play it.

It wasn't a redo. I think volleyball made that change years ago. It sped up the sport.

I think tennis would be really helpful. That's the first thing I would change. I love that. I'm totally on board with that. College tennis changed this year.

Women's as well. So if the ball hits the net and goes over, it counts. No lets anymore. I'm on board with that. You could be the commissioner of the sport of tennis.

What do you think about my money idea? That's fine. I don't think that's not the tour making that decision. That's Tennis Channel or the broadcast partner. I would like that in all sports. I don't know. But I guess you can't really do that with a team sport.

I just think it would help tennis show people that there's legit stakes here. I don't know. That's just me. I'm a money guy. I like money.

We all love the money. Brockman was just saying, in golf, how much is that putt worth? What are we playing for right now? What's this final hole? Go from one to five.

What's the difference in the amount of money? Obviously we talked a lot about tennis with you. How did you go from tennis player to comedian? Great question.

I think the answer, and I say I think. I have explored this with individual therapists. That's not a joke. I'm the youngest of four kids. Good family, great parents, but it was a competition to get mom and dad's attention.

So, there was always humor. That was kind of how you got mom and dad's attention. But I was kind of good at tennis.

A good junior. Wanted to go down that path. Wanted to try to win Grand Slams.

Obviously I got a long way away from that. But while I was waiting for my matches, and there was a lot of waiting in tennis. There was a lot of waiting too, like me. Because I would lose the first day of the week.

I have six days to wait around. As a way to kind of deal with some nerves. As a way to get my head out of the sport. I would jot down funny things that happened at the airport. I would jot down funny ideas. I always liked comedy. And by the time I was done playing tennis, and when I say being done, I mean I ran out of money. I had four notebooks of jokes.

Things that I thought were funny. So, I was coaching at University of Michigan for two years. I signed up for an open mic at a German bar. And 21 years later, I'm talking to Steve Weissman, filling in for Rich Eisen.

And it's a big success film. It all comes full circle from Ann Arbor, Michigan. That's incredible. So, what was the process of getting on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Michael? Yeah, it was a really fun one. It was a hard one. There was an opening in their past. And they said, can you send us an original piece in the commentary on Today's Society that you write? So, I wrote a little piece about gun control.

Set that in. Didn't hear anything for three weeks, four weeks. Thought they didn't even get it. Double checked that the link was clicked. Eventually, I got another email that said, can you come to New York and write another piece, a social commentary on our society?

I did a piece about the polarization of the United States politically. Of course, trying to be funny. Not all serious. And I knew, you know, Steve, I knew something was up because I was living in LA at the time and I went to the Comedy Store to do a set one Saturday night. And I'm on stage performing. And I look over and I go, is that Trevor Noah in the back watching me?

You know, like, that's not the kind of thing I normally see. And I didn't know Trevor personally, but I knew he was the host of The Daily Show. And when you're kind of vying for a position, when the guy who hosts the show randomly shows up at your standup, I go, he might be interested in having me.

So that was a good sign. And eventually he asked me to be on it. And man, am I thankful he did. What's he like?

What's Trevor like? Oh, man, he's chill. He's a great boss. He was always so supportive of me. And this is what I loved about it.

He wasn't always in agreement with me, but he loved comedy and he loved when comics would share their point of view. Now, to bring it back to tennis, he loves him and Roger Federer are boys. That's right. They're in a commercial for Switzerland. They're in this commercial together and he had Roger on and he said, come down, come meet Roger. So now I'm chatting with Roger Federer, me, Trevor and Roger.

It's a dream come true. The three amigos. Yeah.

Yeah. We went to the U.S. Open final. The year Nadal beat Medvedev. We actually sat in the tennis channel box. Thank you, tennis channel. Medvedev went down two steps to love, fought his way back to a fifth set.

That was really where I fell in love with and was introduced to how good of a fighter Daniel Medvedev was. But Trevor's great, man. I've worked with a lot of people in showbiz. They're not all chill. They don't all text you, hey, that was a funny segment you did last night.

A lot of them don't want you to look them in the eye. Trevor's the complete opposite. We miss them. We also miss the Daily Show right now because the writers are on strike, but hopefully that will be resolved soon. You do such a great job with your segments on the Daily Show.

I love watching them. And you do a lot of these man on the street pieces that put you in potentially some precarious situations. What's the strangest situation that you've been in doing one of those bits? Yeah, that's a good question. Actually, you know what?

I wasn't sure what the answer was and now I have it. I've done Trump rallies. I've done Times Square. We've had a lot of shootings in America and they sent me out to Times Square to interview from other countries in America about gun control and gun violence. That's always so interesting to hear what Venezuelans have to think, what the Polish have to think.

So that's always fascinating. But my favorite that comes to mind is we went to a Trump rally in El Paso, but they dressed me as The Wall. So I was Ricky The Wall.

I'm in costume. I look like a wall. And we're kind of there to make fun of The Wall. We're kind of there to make fun of Trump supporters. I mean, that wasn't the goal, but you're dressed as The Wall.

And this is Trump's big talking point. And man, did they love it. They loved me. Pictures with me, arms around the wall, you know, and it turned into this odd piece where it was more just everyone's infatuation for The Wall.

And then, of course, there was a lot of protesters to The Wall. And it was just a very funny scene. And what was nice about it is that I was protected. I was in this costume, so no one really knew it was me.

You became a mascot. And in fact, Fallon picked up on it. They didn't know it was me. They didn't know it was The Daily Show. And they were like, look at this crazy Trump supporter dressed as The Wall.

And it just kind of took off a life of its own. Of course, there's real consequences and real ramifications for The Wall. And The Border is not a joke, of course. I truly believe that.

But it was fun to watch things unfold from the protection of a costume. Michael Kosta with us, Rich Eisen Show, Steve Weisman filling in today. Kosta, if you could play in the U.S. Open final in front of 22,000 screaming fans, Arthur Ashe Stadium, or do a solo comedy show at a sold-out Madison Square Garden, which would be the bigger thrill? I mean, that's not even a debate.

100 percent U.S. Open. That was my first choice of a career. Anyone who's young and listening, I hope your first choice works out. It may not. Your second may not.

Your third, your fourth, your fifth. No, I really, really, really love tennis. It has a family component for me. There's six members in my family.

We always played family doubles, singles. I just connect to the sport on so many different levels, emotionally, athletically. I love the mental toughness you have to have. That is my favorite thing. So I would play the U.S. Open final. Humor is important.

I love it. The gratification you can feel when you make a room full of people laugh is tremendous. But I've played big stadiums. I've played big theaters.

I've also played 11 people in a tiny room in New York City. And I can tell you, making a group of people laugh, thousands is nice. But a group of people laughing, it's all so rewarding.

The thighs, in a weird way, it doesn't matter as much, if that makes sense. I made you laugh. I changed your face. That makes me happy. That's awesome. That's really cool to hear.

I mean, 11 people, as long as a few of them are laughing, that's all that matters, affecting somebody's life. With the writer's strike going on, you alluded to it earlier, what has that given you the opportunity to do? Well, I wouldn't have been able to go to the French Open with a tennis channel. I love watching tennis.

I always do watch it. I have my podcast that talks about tennis. But it gave me the opportunity to go do something totally different that was a lot of fun. I'm writing more. You know, actually, you just reminded me, I did a show once, Upper Peninsula, Michigan, at a casino. Okay, which city? I forget what it was.

I forget. Sault Ste. Marie?

It might have been. Yeah, because Sault Ste. Marie. And that's always annoying, Sault Ste. Marie, because your cell phone keeps pulling the Canadian Rogers signal.

Totally. So then I get home and I got like $1,000 of roaming charges, you know? But I was in Michigan. I did a show there in front of nobody.

There was nobody in the audience. And the casino manager was like, for you to get paid, you have to go perform. And I stood up.

This is not my proudest moment. I stood up on stage and performed 20 minutes of jokes to an absolutely empty room. Zero. That was tough. Zero humans.

I don't even think there was a waiter or waitress there, because who would they wait on? You? I mean, so that's, you know, yeah, that's a memory that comes to mind. What was the other question you had? What led me to the other question? Well, it was about the, you know, what you've been able to do with the Rider Strike. What new things you've been able to kind of do in the time that you've had now. Yeah. More stand-up, for sure. I live in New York City. It's a great, great city to do stand-up comedy in.

And tennis. And so it's been fun. And God forbid I say it, but it's true, also spend more time with my family. Ugh, yuck. Now it was an eight-week-old, so now it's probably like 10 or 11 weeks old. Yeah, now it's like a nine- or 10-year-old.

Okay. Excuse me, nine- or 10-year-old. They grow up fast, Kosta. So helping with the baby is always fun, of course. She's very cute. I have to admit, as a man, I don't really get baby, you know. I'm better with a three-, four-, five-year-old that wants to kick the soccer ball, play catch, go hunting for dinosaurs. The baby, I just kind of hold it, and it's really cute, but I'm just kind of waiting for her to get bigger.

For her to want to go hunt dinosaurs as well. Where can the fans find you next? MichaelKosta.com. All dates. I'll be in Phoenix. I'll be in Las Vegas. Please listen to my tennis anyone podcast. We usually talk about tennis, not always. But I really appreciate you having me on, and it was fun to reconnect with you at the French Open. Yeah, I am very grateful for our new friendship. Appreciate you taking the time to come on the show today.

And hopefully get to see you do your thing, whether it's Phoenix, Florida, Vegas, something like that. But look forward to having you back at Tennis Channel as well, Michael Kosta. Appreciate the time today. Thanks, Steve. Appreciate it. Kosta, awesome.

So cool. What we did is called a fill segment, obviously, in TV terms. So there was a big gap in between the end of one match and the start of another. And we had about 25 minutes, and it was just me and Kosta on our Tennis Channel set. And there's no better person to do a fill segment with than a comedian. You literally throw anything out there, and he's got something great to say. So it was awesome to have him in Paris.

Glad he got to have that experience. You can check out some of that content on Tennis Channel social media as well. The warm and fuzzy segments. Much more still to come here. Rich Eisen Show. Steve Weisman filling in. Give us a call.

844-204-RICH. Back after this. It happens inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum, wherever you listen. Rolling Stone music now, wherever you listen.

What does this Swami want to drink? You know, 1981 thing. What?

But that's more incremental. 1983, you will laugh. The America's Cup race that we lost off Newport, the seventh race.

The wing keeled land down under. Okay, sailboat racing, right? But it was like a Tuesday afternoon.

Don't quote me on that. And one of the Providence stations had a helicopter that they were televising in Rhode Island. And some sort of commentary. And we picked up the feed at two o'clock when it was on. The big seventh race of Australia against the United States. The sailboat race, two in the afternoon. I want to say a Tuesday. With no, we didn't tell anybody. I think they arranged it at 1.45.

You know, typical. The rating we got, or the amount of people that saw this, who just, well, if it's on, it'll be there. But that's 1983. We only started in 79, Rich. So a sailboat race in the middle of a day, of a week, and people were looking for us.

Because if they don't have it, nobody will. And so this isn't what, oh, now I know we're going to be big time. But this is what I knew, that people knew who we were, what we stood for, and what potentially we could give them.

Even without any promotion. I hadn't thought about that one in a long time. You dug it out of me. What an interviewer, man. Just don't make me cry on the set. Stream for free on the Audacity app, or Audacity.com.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram as well. We've got some breaking news here on the Rich Eisen Show. Ja Morant, the Grizzlies star player, has been suspended for a minimum of 25 games this season. He will have to meet certain requirements to come back. He will not be able to participate in any team activities during the suspension. Now, this all comes from the fact that he was suspended eight games back in March, when he was holding a handgun on Instagram Live.

And then he did it again. In May, he appeared to be holding another gun in an Instagram Live video. This is what Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, had to say. He said, Ja Morant's decision to once again wield a firearm on social media is alarming and disconcerting, giving his similar conduct in March, for which he was already suspended eight games. The potential for other young people to emulate Ja's conduct is particularly concerning. Under these circumstances, we believe a suspension of 25 games is appropriate, and makes clear that engaging in reckless and irresponsible behavior with guns will not be tolerated. For Ja, basketball needs to take a back seat at this time. Prior to his return to play, he will be required to formulate and fulfill a program with the league that directly addresses the circumstances that led him to repeat this destructive behavior. Here's what I have to say about this.

Get off social media. I mean, seriously, I understand not breaking laws, but I also understand you're representing a billion-dollar brand. And so that league needs to do what it needs to do, and Adam Silver has come down with his punishment. After once, suspended for eight games for doing this, okay, that's your warning. That's your warning shot. You do it again. Now it's 25 games.

Could have been more. And by the way, this is a guy that has a five-year, $194 million max contract set to begin next season. There is no need to be on social media doing anything. He's got 9.8 million followers on Instagram. He's got 2.7 million more on Twitter. And I said this yesterday, believe what people put out on social media. The subtweeting is real.

Whether it was Stefan Diggs or whoever, if you're going to keep it real, it's fine. Just don't share it. Don't share it. There's no need to press the send button on Twitter. There's no need to ever go on Instagram Live. No need to ever do it. I don't think anything good or great has ever come from being on Instagram Live.

I think it's a fantastic tool and people can use it, but why do it? What was your reaction, Brockman? Yeah, lucky it's not more.

We're also thankful that no one was injured in any of these things that he kind of threw out there on the lives. It just seems like he needs to get his head on straight and kind of grow up and mature a little bit. As you said, he's the representation. He's the face of these multi-billion dollar teams and the league itself. You're representative of that. You are a public figure. You can say, set an example. Are they role models or not, TJ?

In the end, they are, no matter if you feel that way or not. Hopefully, he figures this out and comes back a better man. Yeah, we certainly want the best for Ja. He is such an incredible talent. An incredible talent. He's fun, he's exciting. Kids are drawn to him and I think that's kind of the biggest thing here. He's got a best-selling shoe.

He's in commercials. We have to do better. We have to do better and set a better example. And when you do something once and you get punished for it, just don't do it again. I think that's another thing you can take out of this. He tweeted on May 5th, who am I?

Who was I? We're not sure exactly what that means, but he's going through some things. He tweeted May 10th, the emojis, back on top soon.

May 13th, seem to go my hardest when I'm going through it. And I have a lot of empathy for whatever Ja is going through. Rich Eyes and Show, Steve Weisman filling in on a Friday.

We've got a big show still to come here on this day. And when I see these tweets, you know, I believe them. And I never want to judge somebody that I haven't spoken to one on one. And you never know what anybody is going through at any time. And I truly believe we need to lead life with that sort of empathy and that sort of grace.

But I think, you know, now if it happens again, it's a third strike situation. And that could be the end for somebody who I believe has so much great to offer this world. What are your thoughts, TJ? I just kind of feel like, despite what you think about your pro gun, your anti gun, you know, some people are all for the Second Amendment. Some are against it where you stand. The bottom line is this like.

He's standing for something a little bit bigger than just Ja, like you are the face of this franchise, which makes you a face of, like we said, a billion dollar NBA corporation. So whether you like it or you don't like it, they're going to treat you a little different than most people would get treated. They're going to handle it differently because of the position you're in. So you just he should I would my advice would be to like act accordingly. You know, you can go in the backyard and pop off and shoot skeet if you want to. Don't have it on social media. Like you said, there's no reason to go live.

And then just understand that, you know, you're living by different rules when you're John Marin and you are the face of this franchise and one of the NBA. Rich Eisen show Steve Weisman filling in back after this. Conspiracy theories, paranormal UFOs, science teacher Andrew Greenwood stated that a child ran into his classroom and was hysterically screaming and talking about the flying saucer outside. Hundreds of children ran out of their classrooms to go outside and see this unidentified flying object that was just above the school. Just imagine a bunch of kids running out of school. Most of them just ran home. Theories of the third kind on YouTube or wherever you listen.