REShow: Jason Cole - Hour 3 (7-3-2023)

This OMG is the Rich Eisen Show. No other way to put it. With guest host Brian Weber.

Oh my gosh. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I'm not talking to you. I talk to anybody out there, the haters. Rich Eisen.

I talk to the haters right now. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Rolling into the final hour of the program, still plenty of time for you to get involved.

844-204-7424 to number the call. Twitter's always your best way of having your opinion be heard. B. W. Weber.

Weber with two B's. The platform is still working. I will be completely up front with you. I am a Luddite on a big word Monday. Technology is not my friend. I held onto the flip phone until my wireless provider said, if you want to have a functioning phone, turn that sucker in.

It ain't gonna work anymore. So I have no explanation nor even a basic comprehension as to what's going on with Twitter and the capping of tweets read. Now the good news is, unlike Rich who has better than a million followers, I have a healthy number. I don't know, 6,000 or so.

So I don't think I'm gonna have any issues with traffic. I don't think that, even though I pick up followers every time I'm in for Rich and we're 20 minutes away from an NFL conversation with Jason Cole, longtime football journalist. Check out his outstanding latest book, Elway A Relentless Life. He also contributes to Alkick.com, talking about big names looking for jobs like Dalvin Cook.

DeAndre Hopkins will take you around the league in 20 minutes. But since Twitter is still operational, if you want to lob some ideas my way, BW Weber, Weber with two Bs, understandably, Damian Lillard has been the focal point of the program. We'll get back to that coming up in just a few minutes. And hopefully, if you've been with me every step of the way, if you're joining the program, welcome.

I guess my pushback would be, where you been? You missed a terrific NBA conversation with Kurt Hieland, lead NBA writer for NBCSports.com in the previous hour of the program. A reminder, the podcast has you fully covered.

If you miss any portion of any program, check that out. Before we get back to Damian Lillard, and I'm trying to be creative, I don't want to just hammer away, okay, damn to Miami, what's next? I want to go through other scenarios, what are realistic returns for Portland, and try to put things in perspective. Because Rich was synonymous with ESPN for years, I just want to spend a brief amount of time talking about what was the biggest story in all of sports on Friday, and unfortunately a reflection of where we are as an industry with the layoffs of a variety of well-known on-air contributors at ESPN. My backstory, if you have any idea who I am, I'm glad that perhaps my voice resonates, or more than that, just my point of view. But among the reasons why I wanted to get into this profession was the great fortune of having an internship at ESPN, summer of my junior year of college. I'm originally from the East Coast, I'm sure you can't tell with my sensibility nor my delivery, so I was able to go home, commute to Bristol, Connecticut, 90 minutes each way, but I was happy to do it because it was a chance to work at ESPN for an entire summer.

And, for example, sit next to John Saunders on baseball tonight, write notes that he could not read because I have terrible handwriting, but he was such a kind and gracious gentleman, never said a word to me, and he figured it out because being a good person goes a long way in any walk of life. But ESPN made me want to pursue this because I saw high achievers in a collegial setting, and ESPN in 1990 wasn't nearly what it is today, didn't have the same luster as the networks, they were still the upstart, they were the underdog, but to be in there and to watch Chris Berman talk to interns, and to get to say hello to Dan Patrick, these figures were bigger than life. So if you think about Rich's trajectory, ESPN took him to national prominence, and then he took the next step when he went to NFL Network, bet on himself, and he continues to do so with this show. But the names you heard losing their jobs in no way was a reflection on any of them in terms of what they do on the air, it's just the stark reality.

Unfortunately, we've moved now beyond the 500 channel universe, I don't think 5,000 is accurate, you pick the number. There are an abundance of sports entertainment options, and unfortunately because cord cutting is a reality and only going to get more severe, big corporations aren't making what they used to make in this space. Now they still make a ton of money, but as a former boss of mine said recently when I asked him about what was happening to the industry, these companies based on Wall Street expectations were used to making obscene amounts of money on cable television. When ESPN was fully distributed into over 100 million homes, now it's in the high mid-60s, just do the math.

That's a 35% knock off your bottom line, but it's still very successful, it's just not as obscenely profitable as it's been in the past. So unfortunately, this is the new normal, and guys like Jeff Van Gundy and Susie Kolber, people like Jeff Van Gundy and Susie Kolber and all the other talented people I could list who lost their job on Friday, will land on their feet and work again if they want to, depending on where they are in life or their financial situation. But I know we always have to have hot takes to see people bashing Jeff Van Gundy, oh he deserved it, he never shut up, I want to watch the NBA Finals, he was too critical. That had nothing to do with his departure.

It was all about the bottom line, and Disney looking to clean up the books to look better from a Wall Street analysis perspective. And I have a great deal of empathy for anybody impacted by Friday's news. Unfortunately, more of this is going to happen, because the expectations of what the industry was able to generate in the past is not sustainable moving forward. And if you have a particular sports personality you enjoy, a program, a network, all I can say is, stay loyal. Keep watching. Keep listening. Listen to this program every day, because it's never been more competitive, never been more challenging, and loyalty matters.

And that's how you can cast your vote metaphorically, support the advertisers and listeners to the show. Okay, and Richard asked me to do that, I'm just sharing my perspective, someone who's been lucky to work on the air since I was 21 years, all a long time ago. Let's get back to Damien Lillard. If, and I agree with Kurt Heelan's perspective, and I'm Brian Weber, and for Rich Eisen, you can be a part of the show at 844-204-7424, or you can be part of the show at 844-204-2424.

We can have the conversation on Twitter, B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's, Kurt, lead NBA writer for nbcsports.com, join me in the last hour of the program, essentially saying, it's going to be lower to Miami, for reasons that are not that difficult to ascertain. Portland wants to do Dame a solid. Now, they're going to get what they can in return, and to make sure that they feel like they have maximized the possibilities, and gotten all the value they can for the face of the franchise, and one of the top 15 players in the league, however you want to slot it. They're going to have to take their time to a degree, and probably have to get a third team involved, and that's where you bump into what's been going on in Philadelphia, that James Harden wants out. And nobody has been better in forcing their way off a team than Harden, and Harden has become skilled in making it clear when he wants to go, he wants to go now. So we saw it end pretty badly in Houston, wasn't as bumpy in Brooklyn, although however you view Harden, you got to give him credit for figuring out how toxic the Nets were, and being the first out the door.

It did not take him a long time to look around and say, this is not going to work, show me the way to the exit. So Harden knows how to force his way off a team. But because of how things have lined up, I think there's a real possibility that the ultimate package, the construct that sends Lillard to Miami will also involve Harden winding up on the Clippers, and that's a big picture conversation we can have later this week, because I'm with you every step of the way. But in the short term, if you're a Blazer fan, I'm sure you feel like, all right, well, let's just rip off the Band-Aid, let's get this done with as much urgency as possible, but Kurt laid it out well that it might take another week or two, just because of the complexity of the deal. And the longer it takes Portland, if you're a Blazer fan, and my condolences, I know the challenges, and you're going to be even worse on the floor in the near term, but that's how it works.

You have to obliterate things, just blow it up to get better, although if you saw any of the highlights of Scoot Henderson, you know how skilled he is. This guy is the real deal, and the future is now. He's going to make an instant impact and going to be much better, obviously, three years, five years, than he is today. But if Portland can drag this out, get other teams involved, and make it clear to Miami, we're not just going to gift wrap Damon Lillard, and Pat Riley is as masterful as any basketball executive in getting this done, but this is as transparent as it gets. We know what Miami wants. They want Lillard. We know where Lillard wants to go. Miami.

It makes sense on every level. Now you just got to work out the particulars, and that's got to be more than Tyler Hero. Tyler Hero plus Duncan Robinson better be backed up from the Portland point of view with a boatload of picks. Now I don't know if you're getting the Rudy Gobert haul, because that still is mind-boggling, that four first-round picks and a first-round swap was involved in that Utah-Minnesota deal. That also reflects just how brilliant Danny Ainge is in doing his job.

But whatever the terms are, it's got to be in that neighborhood. Portland also has not only the need to save face, they got a lot of needs. When Damon goes, he's taking the heart and soul of the franchise with him.

So if we're wondering about the TikTok, about how things are going to play out, that's why this is going to be more of a of a tedious slog than it feels like it has to be, because you're going to throw in a third team. And that third team, I think, as you now factor how does Harden wind up in LA, if you just take a step back and scan through the rosters, don't do it if you're driving, but trust me, nobody has more assets than the Clippers. Clippers got a lot of dudes, and I know they lost Eric Gordon to the Suns. That's a nice pickup on the margins, because Phoenix, while they have a big three plus DeAndre Ayton, if you still care about the old school traditional big man, like Ayton plays that role in the paint for Phoenix, biggest problem for the Suns, you'll recall, last year was a complete lack of depth because they went all in to get KD. Well, they gave up more assets to get Beal, but to fill in the margins with a player like Gordon, I think Phoenix is going to be just fine. But if you're looking for the deepest team out there, look to the Clippers.

They got a lot of cats that they could put in play and mix and match, and we'll find out the final analysis when we get there, but the destination seems clear. Lillard is going to wind up in Miami. I think the Harden to Clippers has less certainty to it, but it makes sense.

You don't want to disgruntled James Harden hanging around your facility, plus he's got the relationship with Daryl Morey going back to their time in Houston. So let's just focus on the Miami piece here. Lillard on the Heat means what? Well, if you're going through the balance of power in the East, I'm still going to ride with the notion Milwaukee is the team to beat, and I know they gagged in the first round of the playoffs, but Miami was not your typical play-in team. Miami team that was the top seed in the East last year, and we saw just how well-formed the roster was with their dynamic run all the way to the NBA Finals. But if Giannis doesn't have the back injury, Milwaukee's not losing that series. So Milwaukee going to be right there, and these are not hot takes, but I'm just telling you how I see things developing if Lillard in fact winds up in Miami. I put Miami right behind him. Boston is still baffling to me. Now I think there is strategic value in adding Porzingis based on what he can do with his skill set, but tell me the big moments that Porzingis has shined in throughout his career.

Also tell me he's going to be healthier more consistently because he's been banged up, and I'm surprised unless there's a notion that Smart just was not fitting in in that locker room because something was obviously amiss. And yeah, a big piece of that was Joe Mazzulla was over his skis and over match with no head coaching experience, but just felt like a standpoint of cohesion was the obstacle. It's a team, we're just talking about depth, and I mentioned the Clippers, but Boston's got the best roster in the entire NBA.

Clearly it didn't work. We watched this team after they did all of the hard yards to rally from the 3-0 deficit, to earn a game seven on their home floor at the Garden, and to not show up and get battered, something is wrong. And I'm not in that building, I'm not an NBA insider, but it is fair to wonder do Tatum and Brown work moving forward. But if I'm just going through objective analysis, Boston is right there on that same tier. So we got Milwaukee, we got Miami, we got Boston. Philadelphia is a work in progress because I don't know what they're getting for Harden, but you still have Embiid and you still have Maxey.

And then there's a big jump down to the rest of the East. In the West, or if you just want to have a broader conversation across the NBA, even with Lillard in Miami, I still think Denver's the best team in hoops. And I know they lost Green, I know they lost Bruce Brown, but they still have Nikola Jokic, and you still have to come up with an explanation if you think there's a better team out there who's going to slow the Joker down. Because in the playoffs, he did things that no center has done since Wilt Chamberlain. And I know the three points gimmick alters the stats, but I'm just talking about impact on the floor and game control. Jokic is a once in a generation talent.

He's a unicorn. And it wasn't just Nikola, obviously. It was a deep team, a well-coached team by Michael Malone. So I would still have Denver as the overall best team as reigning champs.

And then what do you do with the Suns? With their quote-unquote big three, with Beal running with Durant and Booker, and presumably a more engaged Aitken. And I haven't even gotten to the Warriors or the Lakers, but we're going to pause on that momentarily. We'll get back to it to wrap up the program.

And as mentioned, I'm with you all week long, so I'm trying to parcel out the NBA analysis because I don't want to bludgeon you with, okay, then the third best team in the West, that gets tiresome. But I do want to reframe things as we move forward, and much more NBA on the way tomorrow because I do say with conviction, we're not going to have clarity on Lillard, I think, this week. So if you're already full, just step away from the table and I will make sure you are not having Lillard shove down your gullet too much.

And I know about gullets. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. We'll get to the NFL coming up. Where is DeAndre Hopkins going to land? What's the best destination for an aging playmaker?

But a few years ago, he was still one of the best wideouts in all of football. Looking forward to our latest NFL conversation with Jason Cole, author of Elway, A Relentless Life, and he also contributes to outkick.com. Thank you for hanging out with us on this Monday edition of the program. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich.

It's The Rich Eisen Show. The average on farm income in the United States was a loss of $1,100. 60% of US pork comes from one company wholly owned by the Chinese. And farmers are more likely to commit suicide than veterans.

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Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. Ryan Weber with you. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. Let's talk football with an old friend. Jason Cole has been covering the league for decades. Author of his latest book, Elway, A Relentless Life. You can read his work as well on outkick.com. Jason, we've not chatted for a few months.

How are you? Yeah, in fact, I have a more recent. Oh, update. Hang on, Tiffany. What's the new book? It is called, and you'll love the title, Shut Up. This kid's not that great. All right, I'm having flashbacks to my childhood.

Yeah. Yeah, but it's really not for kids. It's for their parents. It's a direct message to parents. I love it. Just back off.

Jason, for years I thought my name was Shut the Blank Up, but that was a long time ago when parents were more direct. Okay, we have some big names looking for jobs. So let's start with DeAndre Hopkins. He's met with the Titans.

He's met with the Patriots. Do you have a sense of where he's going and where is he at at this stage of his career? Well, at this stage of his career, I still think he's a, I guess I could call him a quasi number one because he's not the same kind of deep threat that he used to be, right? Like he's not the guy who's going to get over the top of people.

Not that he ever was a super speed guy, but he could hurt people over the top. What he is is a number one receiver in terms of when you need a throw completed, right? In other words, you need a third and eight. You need something in the red zone. You need to get your offense moving.

You have a quarterback who's jittery early in the game, needs to get things under control. DeAndre Hopkins is still your guy. So he's just not, he's not the number one in the way of a Justin Jefferson, right? Or a Stefan Diggs kind of guy.

There's a little difference there. Age is caught up with him in that respect. But in every other respect, I think he's still got it. The huge concern is injuries at this point in time of his career.

Although the biggest gap of timeliness was because of a suspension. Talking to NFL with Jason Cole. Jason, if in fact DeAndre Hopkins winds up in New England, clearly an upgrade because they've had a paucity and a big word Monday of playmaking wide receivers. But even if Hopkins plays for the Patriots, do you see an outcome in which New England has a better showing than finishing last in that division, which has the complete upgrade now obviously with Aaron Rodgers going to the Jets? Yeah, I mean, I think that's the most competitive division top to bottom because all four of those teams can beat you some way somehow, right? I mean, they can beat each other. Now, is it a longer shot to see Buffalo lose to New England?

Yeah, there's a talent gap between the two. But I still think there's more than a given Sunday where you say not just because of locker bounces the ball, but because of strategy, because of the way that they play that you can see New England winning those games, all right? Especially if they have a better ball control offense and they can really move downhill on Buffalo, which Buffalo is still not great at stopping. So I think Buffalo is clearly the class of that division and they should win it, but you put the other three teams, kind of jumble them up in a bag. And yeah, I favor the Jets to be in playoff contention because they have Rodgers, but we're all going to see how this Rodgers thing plays out because there's still something about, I think Aaron Rodgers loves the attention and loves the pressure, but New York ain't Green Bay and it's not California. And he's not, I don't think he's ever been under the kind of watch and pressure that he's going to experience now that he's in New York.

I'm Brian Weber aimed for Rich. We are taking you across the NFL on the Rich Eisen Show with Jason Cole. Since you provided the analysis of the Bills, what did you make of the Stefan Diggs situation and do you think this is going to have any lingering impact moving forward? No, I think the Stefan Diggs is going to show up and play hard. I do wonder if this is him against Josh Allen and some concern about how the offense is being operated, that could linger.

If this is just about money, then it's just about money, right? And that's between him and the front office and that will solve itself. But I get the feeling this is mostly about money and it was about holding some people's feet to the fire and the talk about him having problems with Josh Allen will get solved because he's smart enough to take a look around and go, well, I could still be in Minnesota with Kirk Cousins.

This is better than that by a long way. So I expect Stefan Diggs to be okay during the season. And Dalvin Cook could find a better situation, although probably going to have to play at a degree of a discount.

Four consecutive thousand yard seasons, four consecutive Pro Bowls. Which offense do you think would benefit the most if they could get Cook at the right price? Well, I think that the Dolphins benefit the most because he gives them a competent, consistent receiver out of the backfield. And then the Jets become next because, you know, they're going to play briefs all most of the time. Anyways, assuming that he is healthy, I think Dalvin Cook walks in as a starter right from the bat in Miami and the guy who controls the whole situation.

With the Jets, it's more of a time split. And I don't know that Dalvin Cook is best. There are certain running backs that you kind of look at and you go, this guy's better when he gets the ball 18 to 20 times, if not more, because he tends to break down defenses. I think he's better in that situation.

Spotlight in the NFL with Jason Cole. Since we are focusing on running backs, how about Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley? Like most players who get hit with the tag, predictably, neither is happy. Do you see either one of them having a better chance of getting a long-term deal before the deadline coming up in a couple weeks, or are they both or are they both going to play for the tag?

I see that Barkley's got a better chance because the Giants have invested so much in Barkley from a draft point standpoint and from the way that they designed their offense purely. The way that they want to run things and keep pressure off of Daniel Jones, they're invested in him for the next three to four seasons. The question is, what kind of number can you arrive at that he'll be happy with over those three to four seasons? Even if it's constructed as a five or six-year deal, is there enough money up front that he's going to be happy? I think that the Giants generally take care of their guys. In the case of Jacobs, the Raiders, Josh McDaniel just doesn't believe in paying running backs. He believes that they're interchangeable. That's how he's conducted his business from the time he's been an offensive coordinator.

So why change now? Maybe I'm wrong about that, but I think he's just going to sit there and he's going to squat on Jacobs' rights. This is one where you could say, okay, they could go and get Dalvin Cook later on at a discount and just cut Jacobs loose, and the difference is not that great. Now, they're going to have to get Cook to agree to taking that kind of money that's less than the tag, but I think that that's more possible than Jacobs being able to take less than the tag at this point in time.

Jason Cole is our guest on the Rich Eisen Show. You were talking about the depth of the AFC East, and I'm with you with that analysis. I also think the AFC North is fascinating. So if we're going to target Baltimore, and the Lamar Jackson situation now has been clarified, he got the money he was looking for, what are realistic expectations for Odell Beckham Jr. after missing all of last year with a torn ACL? How good do you think he's going to be? Is this a fancy football question? No, no, no. I have hobbies. I don't need my sleeper pick here, okay, pal?

This is hard to know. Now, the one thing with Beckham is he's a pretty sophisticated route runner, and that he recognizes what the defense tends to be doing, and he'll break things off and run his own route. He's a little bit like Antonio Brown in that respect. That requires that your quarterback do the same thing, and I'm not sure how good Lamar Jackson is at that.

I'm not saying he's bad. I don't know, because they haven't really run a designed offense that way during his career. They run their read option stuff, which gives the tight end some big shots in the middle, because you're vacating the middle a lot, and if the middle gets covered, you're vacating the outside, which gives your one-on-one matchups from the outside. They're talking about updating their offense a little bit, and I don't know, again, how does Lamar do in having to go through those progressions and reads when it isn't the offense they played? All this is to say, look, they paid Odell Beckham some serious money, so I would say on the minimum side, you're talking about a guy who gets 65 catches in over 1,000 yards. That's not spectacular, but that's a baseline, and I think you work up from that to topping out at probably 80 to 85 catches and maybe 12 or 1,300 yards.

The touchdowns will probably be there somewhere in the area minimum of six upwards of 12, so I think he has a chance to have a really great season, assuming that his knee is back in shape and that he's something close to what he was when he was with the Rams. Fantasy alert, fantasy alert. Jason, always a pleasure. No, I don't care, but the audience is into it. Jason, hey, do you think I have enough friends to be in a fantasy football league? Come on, you know me metaphorically well enough for the radio. The two of us. The two of us might stop at a two-person lead, so there you go.

Finally, because I'm a radio guy, I want to execute the plug more skillfully. What is the name of the new book in its entirety? It is called Shut Up, Your Kid Is Not That Great, with a foreword done by Tom Brady Sr., giving him a nice little story about how he raised his children, including the great Tom, the goat, and his three daughters, who were all spectacular athletes as well, Tom's older sisters. Tom Brady Sr. loved the book. He also recommends it to every parent out there, and I recommend that you buy it as well.

Amazon, any of your favorite booksellers, BarnesandNoble.com as well, but it's called Shut Up, Your Kid Is Not That Great. And that, my friend, is how we do business. Thank you, Jason. We'll chat with you as soon as we get closer to training camps. All right, thanks, Brian.

Take care. Jason Cole, and you got the full description of his latest book, and yes, I was not being facetious when I was growing up. Now, different time, also location matters, like Rich. I'm from the New York Tri-State area. Rich is from Staten Island with a high school in the Bronx. Grew up in the first town north of New York City. Let's just say our parents were more direct, and there was a long time when I was a kid. I thought my name was Shut the Blank Up.

I know, stunning, that I might have been talkative as a child with a lot of opinions. We got more to get to, and I'm going to mix it up a little bit in the final block. Now, I'm not talking golf in terms of details on the course. Although, from a media perspective, because, candidly, there wasn't a lot on yesterday, if you were flipping around looking for the conclusion of the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, you had a look in an arcane place. You probably missed Rickie Fowler winning for the first time since 2019 live, but from a bigger point of view, there was another live golf weekend event that wrapped up yesterday.

I think seven people watched it on the great CW network. Is the live concept really dead with the PGA merger, and what's the next target for sports washing? We'll do that next. I'm Brian Weber. I appreciate you spending time with us on July 3rd. We continue on the Rich Eisen Show. Brian Weber back with you, kicking off a big week.

Always a delight to be in for Rich and the fellas, and really pumped that I'm with you all week long. Jot down the number. Don't have time for a call here, but we can do it tomorrow.

844-204-7424. I'll check the tweets after the program. B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's, winding down today. That means we're warming up for tomorrow. Also, want to thank Rich for having the sports journalistic integrity to bring us in on a holiday. Now, since I gave you my views of the state of the industry, I can understand the economic imperative as we get deeper.

Some programs play best of on a holiday with the mindset that the audience might be smaller. Rich has his own business, and I appreciate the fact that he realizes news happens. Between the end of this program and when I'm back with him tomorrow, noon Eastern, Damian Lillard could be, unofficially, a member of the Heat.

That deal could get done. So, tomorrow, much more NBA. I'm going to continue to do my best.

Let me reach over and pat myself on the back. Hopefully, if you've been hanging with me, it's clear I don't want to go over and over and over and over the same content. I try to mix it up, come up with creative angles, but Lillard is going to drive the conversation. So, we'll get back to the fundamental thoughts about fit in Miami.

It makes sense on so many obvious levels. Lillard and Butler becomes your complementary star. Let's not overlook the fact that Jimmy's been playing for a long time.

He's in his mid-30s, plays a ton of minutes. Now, injuries creeping in with more regularity, understandably so. But we'll get back to the NBA tomorrow. Wanted to wrap things up, talking just a little bit of golf and never breaking down whose putter is working. I find the live PGA Tour, quote, unquote, merger, first of all, that is a misnomer. The PGA Tour is being purchased by the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund. They're the only investor.

So, if you want to get into the semantic game, you can say it's a, quote, unquote, merger. The Saudis are buying professional golf around the world. And, we live in a capitalistic society and everything's for sale. What was the insight of Ted DiBiase when he was the million dollar man before he started fleecing the state of Mississippi as a preacher, allegedly?

Everybody's got a price. Well, we don't know the actual price of the PGA Tour, but to me, the decision to come together with Liv just reeked of hypocrisy because of Jay Monahan. Jay Monahan had just been more forthright and said, this is all about the money, because life is all about the money.

I think a lot of us would have understood it better. Plus, don't go down the 9-11 road and say the PGA Tour members are never going to have to apologize for being a part of his organization when it's clear after the fact that these conversations, while I've read reporting in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, they accelerated. But Jay had to have known this was the end game because litigation is expensive.

Had things continued in the courtroom, PGA would have burned through millions of dollars and they were not going to outspend the Saudis. So, on some level, I find the business of sports just as appealing as the games themselves. Hopefully, if you've been listening, it's clear I still watch games. I use some big words.

I'm not that bright. I like to watch sports. I'll be watching the hot dog eating contest tomorrow. In fact, as I start thinking about how I want to frame things tomorrow, did you know there are oyster eating competitions? Did you know there are mayonnaise shoveling down your throat competitions? We're going to take you inside the world of competitive eating tomorrow with the greatness of Joey Chestnut on display at Coney Island.

I get a little sick to my stomach just thinking about it. A couple thoughts on golf to cap the program. First of all, because I do have TV on, a real television supporting linear networks because they pay my bills, I also have the second screen experience. I'm looking on Twitter and they're talking about, here comes Rickie Fowler getting ready for a playoff. I'm thinking, well, wait, the golf doesn't come on here in Southern California until noon local time. How can that be?

Then I'm reading, and this is another reason why television is less relevant. Storms in the area in Michigan. Rocket Mortgage Classic has to wrap up. They don't want a Monday finish. They move the tee times up to get it done before the storms got there.

Okay. Makes total sense. And the reason I was intrigued in what Rickie Fowler was going to do was like, I think many of you, even if you don't care about golf, if Tiger's not involved, you pay attention to the majors. And the U.S. Open was based here in LA. And I had empathy for Rickie Fowler being unable to hang on to the lead as he was going after his first major win. Although I thought he handled it with so much class and so much integrity.

And the Wyndham-Clark story is phenomenal in its own right. So Fowler wins yesterday, first time since 2019. But I'm guessing even if you love golf, the vast majority of you listening, hopefully hanging on every word, didn't see it live because it was streamed. Here's what happened. CBS is going to protect the integrity of the broadcast window. They have to run those commercials. So they were not going to air it live on CBS, even though my local affiliate was showing a PGA Tour profile, history of golf, something like that. They could have broken into that to show us live what was happening in Detroit. They decided not to. They decided not to put it on their cable network. Instead, it was streaming. Well, nothing wrong with that. And it was free.

So I'm not trying to come across as cheap here. But a lot of people, especially the demographic of golf, have a hard time making the adjustment to streaming and factor in. I don't think they were prepared for it. Twitter, while it was still functioning, was ablaze with angry golf Twitter. Now, I know that sounds like a weird demo, but these people were miffed.

And I don't blame them. If you're invested in golf and you build your weekends around it. My late father did it for years. You don't want to watch something on tape. You want to see it live.

We'll do it live. So that was certainly a miscue by all parties involved. And then there was a live golf event again over the weekend. The particulars don't matter.

I'm sure you had Taylor Gooch in your fantasy league since my pal Jason Cole threw fantasy talk out there. But there was a report over the weekend for all the speculation that live is going to go away once this quote unquote merger goes through. One of the key figures of the Saudi sovereign fund saying, quote, Live is my blank baby. You can guess what that word is. And this significant person doesn't seem like he wants it to go anywhere.

And if the Saudis are right in the check, would you want to hazard a guess as to what's going to happen? So live is unwatchable. Fifty four holes is not golf. Team concept doesn't work.

The graphics are distracting. It's on the CW. If I work for the CW, I have my pom poms out. Seven people watched that event from Spain and the greatness of Taylor Gooch. But it did create the thought in my mind about sports washing. And the Saudis have achieved their goal. And when you have those kind of unlimited resources, you can do effectively whatever you want. So what's the next sport that the Saudis are going to go after?

Because remember, if you've been paying attention, it's not just Saudi Arabia, Qatar, their sovereign wealth fund bought a small piece of the Washington Wizards. I think the clear next target will be tennis. I realize most of you don't care about that sport.

I'm not telling you what to watch. I've been lucky to be a part of tennis channel for 20 years. I'm passionate about it, but I'm also realistic about its mainstream appeal, even with Wimbledon underway.

Tennis will be the next sport that will have a lot more funding from the Saudis, a lot more events in the Persian Gulf. But what if they decide they want in on the National Football League? And I'm not saying they don't have that right nor ability. It's a free market economy.

You know their influence if you follow sports carefully in international soccer and the EPL. So I'm just having a conversation here. I'm not making moral equivalency. I'm not passing long judgment. But whatever the next sport is, they should learn the lesson from Jay Monahan and be careful what sentiment they articulate.

Because when they take the money like everybody else has or will, they're going to look even more sanctimonious than Monahan. That's going to be tough to do if they say things as absurd as the PGA commissioner said a year ago, and now he probably has enough money to buy his own island. I'm aware he's dealing with health issues. We all wish him the best.

But prior to that, he certainly did not cover himself in glory with some of the most hypocritical statements we've ever seen to go from remember 9-11 to well this is good for golf. Oh by the way, wire me the money to the Grand Cayman Islands. Reportedly, allegedly, everything is going to be just fine. I appreciate you spending time with us on this Monday. Back with you tomorrow. Just one guest.

I've gone with the skinny rundown because I'm going to pack away too many brats this afternoon. Also, heads up, be careful out there. Do not mess around with fireworks. I'm not being the guy telling you how to live your life on the radio. But just think about your own well-being and others as well.

Also, don't do it near my apartment building. I need the sleep. So maybe Uncle Brian's going to hit the Advil PM and make no sense tomorrow.

Another reason why you have to join me at that time. Thanks to our guest Jason Cole talking NFL NBA conversation with Curt Heelan. Always want to thank Rich, all the good people at Westwood One led by Bruce Gilbert, our phenomenal technical producer Art Martinez. My name is Brian Weber. We can have the conversation after the show on Twitter. B.W.

Weber, Weber with two B's. Enjoy your Monday. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Stay safe as we will do it again here on the Rich Eisen Show. I said he was going to be the biggest financial flop in wrestling history, and I think I'm being proven right every minute of the day. Eighty three weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.