REShow: Dan Wetzel - Hour 1

This is the Rich Eisen Show.

Let's go! Julio, how did you do that? Swinging. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. What did we tell you about this kid, Elie Dela Cruz? It's so hard! It looks like he was created by artificial intelligence.

Yes, 99 speed, 99 power, 6 foot 5. All of it. Today's gasps. Yahoo! Sports columnist Dan Wetzel. Reds play-by-play announcer John Sadak.

Baseball Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Ah, yes it is. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. We're live on the Roku channel, free on every damn Roku device known to man.

And we're also thrilled to be right here on this Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio network station, Sirius XM, Odyssey and more. On a day, the all-star Tuesday of the Major League Baseball season, day before the ESPYs. A lot of folks, a day after home run derby, a lot of folks are wondering what in the world is going on in the world of sports. Not much is going on in the world of sports. And then a day like today happens where a couple of members of the PGA Tour board is being grilled by the Senate subcommittee.

Right now on Capitol Hill of the U.S. Senate. Also, Victor Wambunyama has just been shut down for the rest of the summer league. Shut him down? It's not because he's hurt or it's not because they don't want him to run into Debbie Gibson. It's because they just don't want him to get hurt, I guess.

It's not because he is hurt or ineffectual. Two and done. So, hopefully everybody, honestly, I think, you know.

I don't think he was going to play the whole season. It's the shortest residency in the history of Las Vegas, Nevada. And it's over. It's now over for Big Vic in Las Vegas. So, that just happened. Also, Northwestern football is in complete shambles. They fired their coach, Pat Fitzgerald. It went from a two-week suspension to hold on a second.

You're out. Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports is going to join us to discuss that. You know, what else is happening?

Oh, yes, Shohei Ohtani says he's sick of losing. The feeling about wanting to win gets stronger every year. And the general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers, Joe Cronin, says, what urgency? You know, what do you mean we've got to get this trade done right now for Damian Lillard? That's all going on.

And that's all being discussed on this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. I feel that way about the Emmys each year. I'm sick of losing. I'm sick of losing?

And then the feeling about winning gets stronger every year. And just in case anybody's wondering, here on this program, that might be listening, OK? And we are a team here at the Rich Eisen Show.

We're a very tight team. But Mike Del Tufo just gave a look, like, what do you mean losing Emmys? Am I wrong, Mike? No, by the way, under his breath, Mike, I heard you.

Under his breath, he goes, I'm sick of winning. Wow. What a jabroom.

Because I ordered my World Cup Emmy yesterday. Wow. Yeah, it's a group effort, man. That's messed up.

That is messed up. That's a group effort. You're getting an Emmy and there's 13 of you.

You guys don't realize something. The name producer will be behind my name. I want to win. Wow. I want to win.

I thought we were friends. Should I, should I, should I just go out and say this on the air? Whatever your pick is. No, I'm not going to do it. Oh, you got to say it now.

Because if you're second guessing yourself. I love Mikey D. No, no, no. I love Mikey D's and D's nuts. I love you. I love you, Rick.

844-204-RICH is the number to dial today. John Sadak, the play-by-play announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, who has been absolutely meeting every moment that Elie De La Cruz has put out there for him to meet. He's going to be joining us on this program, excited to talk about the most exciting player in baseball with the announcer of the Cincinnati Reds here on All-Star Tuesday. And I, as you may know, a lot of you young kids out there may, may not, but I used to be on a show called Sports Center and on a network called ESPN. You know, way before I needed to stay in my lane just talking about football, talked about all sports. As a matter of fact, I was a baseball guy. Got to cover the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, several World Series.

You did all that? The best performance I ever saw, I'll say it, on a diamond. And that also includes a lot of those Yankee moments that clearly I'm biased for and about, like Derek Jeter's home run in November, if you will, in that 2001 World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Greatest performance I ever saw was Pedro Martinez in the 1999 All-Star Game, where he came out in Fenway Park. By the way, 34 years ago, this coming Thursday, and, and struck out four of the six batters that he faced.

And one of them after another, a future Hall of Famer or somebody that would have been in the Hall of Fame if it wasn't for the steroid scandal. And Pedro is joining us at the top of our number three. So we'll go down memory lane with Pedro and also ask him about Otani.

Because for me, this is the top story of the day. And I understand that Damian Lillard still hasn't been traded, and I understand what's going on with the live tour, and I understand everything else going on in the world of sports. But Shoei Otani is potentially, when it's all said and done, he's on a path, and I understand the on pace stuff back in my SportsCenter days was frowned upon being discussed that so-and-so is on pace. But Shoei Otani, what he is doing now is something we've never seen before. Something that's never happened on a baseball diamond. To the long-term success that he's been able to do of pitching and hitting, and he's going to sign a contract that starts with a six, if not a seven. Because the Los Angeles Angels are going to have to really put their money where their mouth is to get this guy to sign a contract, unless this has been the conversation we've been having about Otani for a couple of years. When he first came up, the Angels, it's like, okay, this is a nice novelty, but enjoy it while you're seeing it, a guy hitting and pitching. Because there's no way somebody's going to be able to keep this up or that the team will allow him to keep it up, because he'll be so good at one thing, he'll just have to stop doing the other to avoid a risk of injury. And yet he's continuing to do what he's doing, and he's continuing to do it at an all-star ace and slugger rate. But now the conversation is, why isn't it leading to wins?

And the answer for many people is simple. Los Angeles Angels. Trout's going to invariably get hurt, and the team is invariably not going to be able to surround them with enough stars, and the pitching's not going to be good, and so on and so forth. Even the great Joe Maddon succumbed last year.

And then this year, Phil Nevin, who took over last year, who's got the gig now, had the team in pretty good stead. Three weeks ago they were in the wildcard spots, one of the wildcard spots. Well then Trout gets hurt, Rendon gets banged up, Otani has to leave a game with a blister injury, and now here we are. The team one game under.500, Trout will definitely be out for the rest of this month, at the very least a large part of next month, and who the hell knows? And this team is one game under.500 and out of the playoff race.

Yeah, five back of the wildcard. There you go. Only to get worse, one would think. Now the question is to Otani, finally, let's get an answer. What do you think? What do you think? Are you going to demand a trade? Are you going to leave via free agency? What are you thinking? Because we don't know, speaking through an interpreter yesterday in his media availability, he shed only an inkling of a light on what he thinks about all this losing happening in Anaheim, which is near Los Angeles, and he was asked about his desire to win.

Here's his answer. Those feelings get stronger year by year, it sucks to lose, he wants to win, so it gets stronger every year. Well the difficulty again is it wasn't a straight up interpretation, he also said he wants to win is what his interpreter said, so I don't think Shohei Otani is referring to himself in the second person, that would be really weird. I think that's the first time I've ever heard his voice. Ever.

Bob Costa said he's never spoken to him, and if Bob's never spoken to him. So that's the issue here, he's the greatest player, maybe of our lifetimes, when we all grow up, as I said he's on pace, to potentially become the greatest player we've ever seen as human beings on planet earth. Imagine he keeps doing what he's doing, he keeps doing what he's doing. And then the question is, will he keep doing it for somebody else?

Because the issue about becoming the greatest player we've ever seen, and the greatest player we've ever seen to never make the playoffs, is something, if I was Shohei Otani, would kind of get under my skin. And so he's got to declare, and if he doesn't declare, and I'm Artie Moreno, I'm going to make myself one of the richest men on the planet. Thank you. Congratulations. Oh, please. You didn't say that, I had to say thank you first.

You got it, yeah. I was a little late. So I've hit the power ball for about a hundred times in a row. Nobody won last night. I know that.

I was 25. So what are the odds here? So let's just say I've hit the power ball, you know, multiple times, and I can just show Shohei Otani to his face, hey, I have directed my folks to draw up a contract for you to sign here, and it starts with a seven. Because I understand what we've done around here, and I understand it sucks to lose. I don't want to lose either, but I don't want to lose you. So I am telling you, it starts with a seven.

Yes. And if he says no to that, we are shipping him out of here. And then I am leaking it to somebody, you know, who either wears a bow tie or is stuck in an ice room calling The Rich Eisen Show like yesterday. And I'm telling that individual, I tried. That picture should be hung in the Louvre.

Bow tie or ice cream? Especially because Jeff Passan looks so good, and we don't know what those tubes were attached to. No idea. No, no, I mean, my God.

The flux capacitor. 1.21, take a lot. So I'm letting it known.

I tried. So don't get on me, Angels fans, those who show up when Otani pitches, because I'll tell you what, he goes to Citi Field, he goes to Yankee Stadium, he goes to Fenway Park. He goes to Busch Stadium. He goes to Dodger Stadium. Is it Safeco? No.

What was T-Mobile? He goes to Seattle. He goes to San Francisco. He goes to Houston. Name all these places. He goes to Atlanta.

Even Atlanta. Oh, please, no. Would show up. Please, God, no.

Every night, I remember when Dwight Gooden used to pitch in Shea Stadium, it was a circus every night. That would be exactly what would happen if Shoyo Otani wears Mets pinstripes, and he's got to know that in his heart of hearts. Del Tufa will move back and recreate the K-Corner. So the question is, what does he want? And this is coming home to roost in the next three weeks, because once this all-star break is over and the Angels get back at it, they are staring into the abyss of another lost season.

And I want to know, Otani, is that cool with you? Are you really going to play it out? He says he's never been a free agent before, so he doesn't really even know what that feels like.

And he basically said, I'll get to it if that happens. I just want to win and play baseball. That's not a good enough answer right now if I'm the Angels. I try to sign him in the next two weeks to the richest contract in the history of American team sports.

And if he says, no, I'm not really sure I'm not sold on it, then you know, you got to get something for him. You're not going to get some sort of compensatory pick for potentially greatest player to ever lace it up in this great sport of ours. So I am trying to sign him now. I'm going to get him to declare and I'm going to get him to declare and sign that. And if he doesn't, I'm shipping him out and who wants him, and the answer is everybody. And I'm going to try and make the biggest killing ever.

And then I'm leaking it that I try to sign him to a large contract. That's what I'm doing if I'm the Angels. And if I'm Otani, I'm telling the Angels I want out because I want to see how the other half lives. You know, I want to see how the other half lives. I know that puts me out there a little bit more than me sitting in my Hamlet in Anaheim, California, where a couple of newspapers talk to me and then there's a regional sports network that covers me. And every now and then I'm all over the place because they do something spectacular instead. You know what I want?

I want to be the man in the town. That's all playing out. It starts now. I have to tonight when he gets second for the American League for a couple of at bats.

So this is what we're doing today. John Sadak, who's been calling Reds games and with Elie de la Cruz doing what he's doing. We're fascinated by that young player. So we're going to be talking to the the the voice of the Reds.

Excited about that. Pedro Martinez, I'll ask him what he thinks Otani should do. He was in Montreal sitting up there forever, right? Yeah, sure was. And then he went to Boston. And now look, he's a Hall of Famer and he's on TV. Worked out for Pedro. Bingo. Bingo.

I did. But coming up first is Dan Wetzel. And I want him to talk about the Northwestern football program. I'm reading about it. I'm shocked about it. It's one of those things like if these allegations are true, then Pat Fitzgerald should no longer be the coach of Northwestern football.

Speaking as an alum, by the way, as well. But you know, players say this isn't as bad as it is, it seems the Northwestern football players put out a letter saying that this didn't happen. But also the coach didn't know what was happening.

So if this didn't happen, how does the coach not know about something you say wasn't happening? It was a big this whole thing is a big mess. And it's tough to make heads or tails of it. So I want to before having an opinion, get a little more informed about it.

How does that sound? And I'll fully admit that. And I know I'm supposed to be a host informed about everything.

How about that, Rich? But I'm happy to say that. Like I'm reading about it. I need to know more about it before I speak on it. How does that sound?

You don't want to like take a stand before you know all the facts. It's amazing. Isn't that odd? It's amazing.

It's great. Just for instance, like unless I'm so sure of the facts, which I know Mike Del Tufo says I'm the only one who's won an Emmy around here with his look and under his breath. Even though I had a I had to personally call the Emmys to make sure his name was on our list. He's sick of winning, guys.

How about that? We love you, Mike. I love you is what I'm saying.

I love you, cousin. No comment. God. I'm here only so I won't get fired. Well, he's not going to comment because he wants his Emmy first. Mike's only here to get that thing. He's going to come. Mike's only here to get aggregated.

He's going to bring it in and mock us. All right. We'll take a break right here on the Rich Eisen Show 844204.

Which is the number to dial Dan Wetzel of Yahoo exclamation point sports coming up. Are you currently enjoying the show on the Stitcher app? Then you need to know Stitcher is going away on August twenty ninth.

Yep. Going away as in Kaput gone dead. Rest in peace, Stitcher. And thanks for 15 years of service to the podcast community. So switch to another podcast app and follow this show there.

Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. Man, are you reading some of this stuff happening in at the Senate right now? Oh, yeah.

Some of them bum rest it. No, no weighing up as a threat of everything that's happening right now. Senator Richard Blumenthal, you know, is the the chair of this committee.

Just how much money did PIF offer the PGA Tour? I mean, that is the that is it. That's the question, because it's multiple with the B, I think. The answer was, we know the Saudi government will have an equity dominance and ownership of this institution through its investment. Is what Senator Blumenthal said. He said that two PGA Tour witnesses at the hearing are bound by non-disclosure agreements. Man. What's happening?

Unbelievable. This is why Yasser reportedly was like, yeah, no, we'll drop all litigation and let's come to an agreement because that guy does not want to be sitting in front of a Senate committee. Well, I mean, Jimmy Dunn said there is no merger. There is no deal. This is simply an agreement to try to get to an agreement. That's what my divorce sounded like in a nutshell for about two years. Oh, my gosh, what a what a poop show this whole thing is.

Oh, man, it's not just it's not just the sports aspect of it. Apparently, the initial WhatsApp messages between Jimmy Dunn and Yasser are out there now. What's that? That was the greatest moment in the history of the show. What I just did. Yes.

Yes. You're doing a 90s Budweiser commercial. It'll literally be a drop. Please clip that as a drop. That was incredible.

We can go home now. Hey, thanks for tuning in, everyone. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, 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. This Northwestern football program story and the fact that Pat Fitzgerald, a longtime Northwestern Wildcat of note, and of course, the former now former coach of Northwestern football being fired over a hazing scandal that is mushrooming and ballooning as we speak. And to make heads or tails of this and keep us more informed than we already are is a man we always reach out to for this sort of thing. Yahoo Sports columnist and one of the best in our business, Dan Wetzel, back here on the Rich Eisen Show. How are you, Dan? I'm well, Rich.

How are you? I'm I'm I'm I'm struggling to follow this story. I'm not going to lie. I'm I'm having a little bit of a struggle here. So let's start from the ground floor and what we know about what's going on at Northwestern and its football program, Dan. OK, I'll recap, if you want to recap it, please do it. Go forward.

It's like take three minutes because it's like not it's not easy to last November. They get a complaint. The university gets a complaint, anonymous complaint.

There's hazing inside the football program. So they immediately hire an outside law firm, independent investigation. And they announce in January they're doing the investigation.

No one really pays any attention, whatever. Seven month investigation. They interview over 50 people inside the program, formally with the program, including the original complaint. They go through text messages, e-mails, practice schedules, all this comprehensive investigation. Friday, the school announces that they are done with the investigation and they are suspending Pat Fitzgerald for two weeks here in the middle of summer. They do not release the the report. This is a public school. They would almost certainly have to release the report because it would be a public document.

It's a private school, the unusual major college sports. But so they do not release it. They release a little basically two page, not even two page executive summary that has almost no details. This was their first mistake. They say, hey, two weeks for Fitzgerald. They, you know, they dump it on a Friday in the summer, on July 4th week, hope no one will notice or something.

I don't know. The news dumps on Fridays actually are the exact opposite of what you want to do. It's like a red flag that there's something else there. Everyone's kind of in on the in on the deal. So that's their deal. They say, hey, we've got this whole report.

Two weeks. Well, the original complaint does not appear to be satisfied with this. So he goes to and speaks to the student newspaper at Northwestern, later speaks to ESPN and some other people. Quite predictably, he can say whatever he wants and should.

And he lays out the details of his complaint, which are, you know, pretty troubling. All of a sudden, President University says, well, maybe I heard now that the now the public is getting to hear some of the information he says, maybe I heard and only given a two week suspension. And by Monday, Fitzgerald's out. So the school didn't have any new information on Monday that it didn't have on Friday. It just changed its determination from two weeks at a time of the year when literally nothing is happening in college football to this guy who's coached 17 years is gone.

Maybe they should. I'm not saying Fitzgerald got wronged here. I don't know whether he should be fired or not. I don't think anybody does, because we don't have the full context of what this investigation entails. What are the different perspectives? What did the other 50 something people say?

All of that. We don't really have the information from the complainant. This is like a court case. It's just a court of public opinion. And what Northwestern allowed is basically and again, I'm not saying it's wrong. The guy's wrong.

But you basically let the accused the accuser make a statement and call no witnesses, no questioning, nothing. And that shapes the court of public opinion. So did they should they have fired Pat Fitzgerald back in on Friday? Maybe. Did they change their opinion based on public sentiment?

Maybe. We don't really know. All we know is that over a three day period, they went from a small punishment to a very serious punishment or the ultimate punishment in terms of termination. And that's where we're all wondering what happened.

That's exactly why I wanted you to start from the ground up and why I said I'm having trouble following this or forming an opinion on this. Because the other thing we do know, though, is a significant amount of pushback from a ton of players, including a document that was put out signed by the entire Northwestern football team with the word entire in all caps in which in which the statement was these alleged incidents didn't happen and the coach didn't know anything, which is odd because those sound like they're conflicting statements. Nothing happened.

Coach didn't know what happened, meaning something had to happen that the coach didn't know about that raised enough of of a red flag to get the coach suspended for a couple of weeks. You know what I mean? Like so that I honestly it's difficult to find the plot here. It's easy to lose it. Yeah. And that that statement, you know, first off, they got 100 people to sign something in a couple of hours and the wording of that sounds suspiciously suspiciously like a legal a lawyer wrote it.

But I have no doubt he has widespread support amongst the team. But this is why you need to release the full report and get out in front of the story. I don't know what happened. Nobody knows quite what happened.

So was it as bad as it says, is it slightly lesser? Is there other perspective applied? What are the other you want that comprehensive view? And that's what the president, Michael Schill, had on Friday. And presumably their board of trustees and everybody was in agreement on Friday.

All we have the full picture. It merits a two week suspension and now it's you're fired. And so and you may everyone else, Northwestern fans, anyone else that they're going, well, what changed? What's the full story here? Because when you have the full story on Friday, the two week suspension, now you're saying fired. Again, I don't know. And maybe they made a mistake by not firing Pat Fitzgerald.

I'm not saying he's getting mistreated. Maybe they blew it last Friday and now they're correcting and making the right decision on Monday. It's their decision.

It's not mine. All I know is what the heck changed so quickly and where is the information? So the team, Fitzgerald, everyone, even the university is on their heels because they mismanaged this thing. They could have come to the right decision at the end and still mismanaged this process. And if you put all the information out, maybe it's even worse. I don't know. But it also might have provided some context where you sit there and say, hey, look, this isn't good.

Solve this problem. Maybe two weeks suspension makes sense. But when you only hear the worst parts of the accusations, which again could be true and could merit a firing, though, you sit there and say, gosh, this is really bad. What the heck? How could this ever happen? We have no explanation of how this stuff could have happened or why it happened or if there's any context to it. So the whole thing has been a mess.

It's been very poorly handled and it's leaving everyone confused. Again, I have no idea whether Pat Fitzgerald should or shouldn't be fired. Maybe he should.

Maybe he shouldn't. I just know that they decided to after originally not deciding to. Did the complainant talk to the school president over the weekend? Did they have contact? Yeah. OK.

Talked on the phone to him. But, you know, his full statement would have been and his full information would have been in the he also spoke to the investigator. So maybe it was the personal part of the president talking to the complainant that changes opinion. But maybe that could have been done before.

I don't know. It could be that. It could be that that line from a few good men that he strenuously objected, you know, I mean, like not to make light of it, but but to basically talk to the school president. And then, you know, what fills the void here is is about a lot of the players saying this this complainant had an ax to grind and wanted Pat Fitzgerald to be fired and was that was the goal all along. Then you also I see on my Twitter feed that there's been rumors of hazing in this program that go back to the early aughts when when Fitzgerald was an assistant and potentially even when he was a player.

So he's just basically carrying this out to a different level, honestly. And I know it's it is rare, certainly in the Big Ten, to have a private school. But don't you think Northwestern needs to make this thing public at this point in time?

Well, I think I think it would solve a lot of it would it would allow people to come to to form a, you know, a more complete opinion. And that's you just stuck without knowing exactly all that went on. And I agree.

It seems like something that they have been doing for years and just wasn't stopped. And, you know, that's that that alone is a critical mistake. It's 2023. Pat Fitzgerald played in 1996.

He's been coaching there since the aughts, right? Times change. Standards change. Global behavior changes.

Everybody acts a little different, says things different. What might have been a probably shouldn't have been allowed in 20 years ago. You know, maybe people just accept it and now they don't. And that can be a part that's generally a positive thing.

So you have to change your program. I would think and I would have thought this was already done, particularly after Iowa went through this with a strength and conditioning coach, they had a fire and Kirk Ferenc kept his job there. But you can't tolerate abusive behavior within your program. And I would think every single college, even high school coach in the country or maybe even NFL would be like, is anything like this happening at our place? We need to root it out. You can't just say I didn't know about it.

You need to root it out. They look 30, 40 years ago, they didn't talk about, like, how to handle alcohol or or violence against women or things like that within a football program, maybe. Now they bring in people to discuss this stuff with, you know, educate, do all those types of things.

You need to do it with hazing and say, look, this is we're not allowing this anymore. I can't do it because look at Pat Fitzgerald, if only because I could lose my job, let alone it's the right thing or this isn't how we build communities anymore. So there's a lot there. And I certainly understand the perception of, well, Pat Fitzgerald says, well, I didn't know about it. Well, how didn't you know about it?

You're the head coach for 17 years. Nobody ever said a word about it. You know, what is the answer to that question? Again, that that answer might be in this report, but we don't know it. Pat Fitzgerald hasn't spoken really yet.

So there's just a lot of unknown and a lot and a really big switch on what's going on. And I think anybody who cares about Northwestern football and there are people who do, the more information they get, the better the school will be in the long run. They've tried to kind of just hide this and brush it aside, basically twice now, once trust us that he just deserves a two-week suspension and now trust us in there to get fired. I understand why a whole lot of people with Northwestern aren't trusting either of those.

Dan Wetzle of Yahoo, a few minutes left with him right here on The Rich Eisen Show. OK, so we're less than two months away from the Northwestern opener at Rutgers. That is, I'm seeing on my screen here, is scheduled to be nationally televised on CBS, the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.

So what's next here? I mean, and how plum is this job? It is in the Big Ten.

It isn't the third largest media market in the United States. And I understand there's always the provost that stands there in Northwestern with a hand up and talks about transcripts and the like that maybe other member schools don't have. How attractive is this job, do you think, with all of this hanging out there, Dan? Well, they'll definitely go interim for this season. I mean, this was not a good team in the last two years.

They went four games combined. So there's a lot of work to do. You know, Northwestern, you can make a case either way. But you know, historically, the academic requirements hinder recruiting. It's only, I think, 8,000 students at the school.

It's not really a large school that, you know, smaller private schools, it can be a struggle. And you know, so historically, it's never been a great program. Fitzgerald's done an amazing job. They started winning, basically, in fact, Fitzgerald showed up and have done pretty well since. But again, this is a team that won four games the last two years. Now, you're in the Big Ten, you've got a lot of money. I mean, they have one of the most beautiful practice facilities in the country. They're in the midst of trying to build an $800 million football stadium on campus that's kind of right-sized for them that I think would help.

But you're also in a 16-team league with a whole bunch of Sharks. And the divisions of the Big Ten West and East are going away. And the Big Ten West was always historically the weaker division. It offered a path for Northwestern both in schedule and then who they're competing against to twice win the Big Ten West.

That's no longer the case. They will play Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State regularly now, and then you also still have USC, UCLA coming in. So in many ways, they have a lot of money, but the job gets harder and harder as the Big Ten keeps expanding. Dan, appreciate the time, man. Let's talk as the season approaches. We appreciate it. Always ready for you. Thanks, Dan. You got it. That's Dan Wetzel.

Must follow at Dan Wetzel on Twitter and must read on Yahoo Sports right here on the Rich Eisen Show. I knew he would know. All right, here's the deal. If what was alleged is true, Pat Fitzgerald should never have been suspended for two weeks. He should have gotten what he eventually got.

If the court of public opinion made it worse than what merited just a two-week suspension, then he's getting hosed. We don't know. They're a private school in the Big Ten and they're like, okay, we don't have to do it. I guess do trustees force it? I don't know. Do you have to? Do you have to explain yourself if you're Northwestern to the United States of America and sports fans?

Maybe not. But if you're looking for another guy, I've got a name. I've got a name. I have no idea if this guy is interested, but he's available.

Who knows football? Who has an unimpeachable reputation? Who knows how to reach young men? Who knows how to tell a provost or hear the news from a provost that transcript's not good enough and still find somebody good enough? Who knows maybe how to beat USC and UCLA? Who knows how to do it in a major media market?

Who knows? I'll throw his name out there. I have no idea if he's interested or he'd want to do it, but if I'm Northwestern, once this all lands, I'm on the phone to David Shaw. He did it at Stanford.

This is like the Stanford of the Big Ten. Northwestern has some very stringent standards. I did a television piece for the Medill School of Journalism.

Chicago Quarter is what I did to help graduate. I did a piece on why it's so difficult to win in Northwestern. And so at the time, it was tough to win. Remember Gary Barnett? He was the coach of Northwestern. They had just gotten good when they were there. They eventually made the Rose Bowl after I left.

It was Adrian Autry was the ringback? And you know, he was, he was honest, he was tough. It's tough to find football players that an institution of higher learning of Northwestern standards is saying, bring it. Or we'll look the other way about that one class, that one transcript, that one thing. I imagine David Shaw's heard it all at Stanford.

And I understand it didn't work out at the end and what have you. But if you want to, and I think they have to, they have to go outside the program. They cannot get somebody who's been there or done that. And if some, whatever is alleged, they did find has roots in the program. Someone who turned a blind eye to all that. Root and branch must be pulled up.

It does appear. So go outside your program. Somebody who knows how to do it with a sterling reputation. I have no idea. I just threw it out there for him. You're big on David Shaw. Please. If I, again, I made myself the owner of the Angels in the first segment. I made myself the owner of an NFL team in the second segment. Oh, please. I'm hitting the Powerball every single sentence today.

You know how I feel. That's my hire, David Shaw. Boom. You're back in the NFL, which by the way, you know, he has roots there too. Ravens just to name an organization. Boy, I'd stick him there and I'll be like, OK, come play us Notre Dame. We'll go toe to toe for the hearts and minds of the Illinois, Indiana market.

Let's go. That's what I mean. He's not worried about all that other nonsense going on, right? So that's my opinion right now, because it's the only thing I can form.

With so much gray area amongst the purple and the white. We'll take a break right here on the Rich Eisen Show. What in the world? Was the live and PGA tours up to talking about having an agreement to have an agreement? I'll tell you what, one thing in my life I would love to have just when I'm shooting my shot, an Augusta membership, one of the Del Tufo here in Washington, D.C. for MLB All-Star Weekend. Mike, this is a huge one, biggest week of the year for the MLB.

We figured, hey, look, we're a couple of celebrities. Let's have ourselves a home run derby now with a little twist. I'm going to pitch, you're going to hit, you get five outs. Can you get one home run off of me, yes or no? I'm going to go yard at least once.

At least once? Yeah. No chance, Mikey. All right, Mike, here we go.

We're going to soft toss. Let's get you to practice, OK? Just level swing, level swing. Take a full swing, Mike. Really hit the ball. Well, you're supposed to hit it. All right, Mikey, that was your warm up.

Now the competition is for real. Anything that's not a home run is an out. You get five outs. You got to get it in the air past me. That counts as a home run.

Anything else? Swing and a miss. Ground ball, foul ball, out.

Oh, that's one. That's two outs. That's three outs, Mike. Two left, big boy.

Oh, down to his final out. I want you to get at least one. Let's try to get one here. We'll get one. All right, let's go.

Going yard. I think he just called a shot. He called a shot. Oh, my God, I can't believe he did it. I guess he won this one. So Oporteo or whatever he says.

He's a Don Carlo in Del Tufo. That's how it all goes to Fibo. No wonder they kicked us off the air. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show.

We almost kicked out of that park. Good stuff, guys. 844-204-rich. No, I'm not looking down at my phone to see if David Shaw's texting like, why do you have my name in your mouth? Keep my name out your mouth. Let's go to the phone lines here. Let's go to Jeff in Detroit. Hey, we were talking about Jeff the other day. Jeff, how are you? Hey, fellas, fellas. Jeffrey.

I miss you guys. What's going on, man? You've been there. Let me ask you a question, Jeffrey.

I'm going to ask you a question. How are you and everyone there in that wonderful city where I will be coming next year for the draft handling the bandwagon jumping? I wouldn't say it's a bandwagon jumping. This is a bandwagon complete hijacking of fans saying it's the lion's time right now. How are you handling that sort of conversation in Detroit, Jeff?

Well, you know, from many conversations that we have, come and lay on your couch all year long. I'm one of those that drinks the Kool-Aid regardless. But I notice that there is a lot of Kool-Aid stands around the city, man, and everybody is drinking it up. Listen, the coach, first of all, is taking over the city.

If he ran for whatever right now in the city of Detroit, he's your guy. You know what I'm saying? Dan Campbell is the man.

And it's wonderful to see now me being you know who I am and how I've been done in the past. I'm kind of waiting to see, but I'm feeling good because Jared Goff was an unexpected surprise for us. You know, we thought we were going to have to go looking for a quarterback in the draft. We had our quarterback all along. I know.

I'll be honest. Everybody, you know, because you link quarterbacks together when they're drafted one-two, I think everybody thought, you know, the Rams screwed up when they took Goff over Wentz. And I think everybody thinks that Goff is just going to go the way of Wentz. And you know, Wentz is not on a team. And Goff is going to be one of two quarterbacks to start the season for the NFL. And as a matter of fact, the last time he took on Mahomes was in that famous fifty four fifty one game on a Monday night where the Rams beat the Kansas City Chiefs. And you know, Goff is still standing and he is the quarterback of a team that finished like the proverbial house of fire.

You know, I don't mean to hijack what you wanted to talk about, but I mean, listen, that's why I call it the ticket, which you're so right. And it's so sad because people honestly forget the man went to a Super Bowl. So let's not forget, it's almost oh, by the way, he did get a chance to go to the Super Bowl. But I needed to use your baseball mind on a on this one. You know, me and the homies was kicking it. And I said, who do I know that knows baseball a little bit that can put this in perspective? So what we have is that, you know, the Detroit Tigers last week threw a no hitter, but it was three combined players.

Oh, don't you're in you're in Brockman's, you know, wheelhouse here. He is he is not happy. He says it doesn't count.

My question is this, which is harder for one starter to continuously go through the game and throw a no hitter or three players combined for a no hitter? Because I mean, you really do have to have your boys back in order to come in and everybody finishes with a no no. It's a heck of an accomplishment, but it's something that, you know, putting it on somebody else's shoulders or trying to trust that this guy is going to come through for me.

I'd have been sick. But I mean, at the end, you know, they they all got the no no. I'll put it. I appreciate that. Thanks for the call, Jeff.

Appreciate it. Oh, that's a simple answer. It's the one guy. It's the one guy. And I understand him saying, you know, the one guy does six innings and another guy does two. And then, you know, the last guy blows it because the last guy wasn't ready or it wasn't his day in the same way that it was the day of the other two. But in this day and age where we're parsing out statistics of somebody third time through the order and heaven forbid that picture is out there because the stats show third time through the order, you know, somebody hits 300 off you as opposed to the first or second time through the order. Imagine going through for a fourth time and then you got the pressure in the back of your head.

You've gone this far. You're the one who can't blow it. And I know that you can kind of control what you can control, not two other guys who come in. So I think that's a no brainer, right? Agreed.

Okay. Also, every reliever throws 128 miles an hour now, so it's kind of easy to blow guys away. I understand your point and yeah, it's probably better when one guy does it. But you have to look at the fact that when you're bringing multiple pictures in, like Jeff said, they all got to be on their stuff that day. They all got to be locked in.

They all got to be focused. So I'm not saying it's more impressive, but I'm not going to... This is what's more difficult is what he said. Yeah. He said it's the singular achievement. You're right.

The one guy is, one guy is more difficult, but I'm thinking when you've got multiple pictures, man, you've got three, four guys who've all got to be locked in and ready to get busy. His name is Ellie Dela Cruz at the plate. That's all he needs to know. Jamie in Columbus, Ohio. You're here in the Rich Eyes. So what's up, Jamie? You there, Jamie?

Nice to talk to you guys. What's going on? I'm... And by the way, hello Brockman, TJ, and DJ. What's up, bro? Mike, I'm sorry.

He answered by DJ. I was trying to say D's nuts at the same time. Not easy.

Rich does it every day. But I am a Lifetime Tiger fan mainly because of Sparky Anderson and I was born in the middle of Big Red Machine. And then when Sparky went to the Tigers, I followed and fell in love with Kirk Gibson. But nowadays I'm watching these Reds because they are so fun. They are. And it's just not Ellie. They were fun before Ellie showed up, but he is highlighting everything else from Steer to McClain, who by the way, John Sadak had a great call on referencing Die Hard, like his second game when he broke out. Okay, I like it.

He's coming back. Benson, Abbott, Friedl, and Fraley. They're all great. India. Don't forget India here.

Yeah, India, the what was it, the rookie of the year a couple of years ago. Okay, brother. Look at you. And John Sadak guy, he's great. He is like this pop culture, nerdy, a super well-informed sports guy. He's just great. He's coming on next and I appreciate the call. Stay tuned right there. Sorry, Jamie.

We're at the end of the hour. I gotta... Yeah, that's why we're getting him on. I didn't know he did a Die Hard reference for McClain. Matt McClain. So do we reopen to the whole Die Hard thing?

I think he's on the right side here, which is the only side. Oh, so John Sadak, the voice of the Reds coming up next and then we'll talk about what's going on with the live tour and the PGA Tour, we're just learning. Also speaking of Columbus, did you see, I believe this happened while we were gone. Or just before we left, the Columbus Blue Jackets drafted Adam Fantilli with the number three overall pick. Why am I talking about that? Yeah, why?

Well, because they did what they should do, which is choose the best player with the best resume and the best heart and the best brain. TJ, take a guess where that kid went to college. So I'm gonna say Michigan State, no, Michigan?

Yes. They drafted a Wolverine to go to Columbus. And I just think he is the Manchurian candidate going there, and I just don't know, do the Blue Jackets play in Columbus when the big game happens in Ann Arbor this year?

Good question. I just, because that'll be great. So go blue to you, Adam, enjoy it. And just because again, they do know in Columbus, Michigan players are worth it. They do know it. You know the Blue Jackets aren't associated with Ohio State, right? I'm aware of that. Okay. They're in Columbus.

It just seems like- Well, what do you think? There's not any crossover Blue Jacket Buckeye fans? I'm sorry, I messed up that story.

My bad. It's the Columbus Blue Jackets. How wrestling really works and how you get the ratings. Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson explain on 83 weeks. religion has been struggling a little bit out of the gate with these ticket sales. A little bit out of the gate. This was a major show announced on a major network with what everybody thought was this huge star, CM Punk. 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. 83 weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.