RE Show: Nate Boyer - Hour 3 (8-2-2023)

This is the Rich Eisen Show. Alright Mike, you did some fine work once again. Tiering Quarterback.

Live from the Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles. I don't know how Jalen Hurts after last year doesn't get Tier 1 status. First year he was in it he was 30th, then he was 20th, and now he's 6th.

I don't think there's any disrespect in being at the top of Tier 2. You had a great year. Earlier on the show, MLB Host and Content Creator, John Boy, Box Sports College Football Analyst, Bruce Feldman. Coming up, Host of Discoveries Survive the Reft, Nate Boyer.

And now, it's Rich Eisen. Hour number three of our show on the air on the Roku Channel. We are live every day between 12 and 3 Eastern Time. Check us out if you missed anything over the first two hours of this show or talking and chopping up what happened at the trade deadline yesterday and what did not. John Boy joined us in hour number one and hour number two. We had Bruce Feldman in studio for 45 minutes, a full-on podcast-type chat where we just chopped it up on so many other subject matters. The demise, it appears, of the Pac-12, although not yet. He had some interesting thoughts on how he thinks Dion's tenure in Colorado is going to go. Jim Harbaugh in Michigan and Northwestern and everything going on in the NIL world.

Some stories that'll just make your hair turn white or fall out of your head for some of us, or both. At any rate, if you missed any of that, stay tuned right here on the Roku Channel. There's also our podcast as well every single day, all three hours on the Cumulus Podcast Network.

844-204 Rich, number to dial. Nate Boyer, our longtime friend, is coming up on this program. He's in a new show called Survive the Raft. He is the host.

Singing a clip reminds me of my great escape days when I put on a bomber jacket and try to be mysterious. Didn't work for me. Hopefully it'll work better for Nate. Nate's got more hair. Is that what it is? I don't know. You don't see a lot of bald hosts. Like Steve Harvey and... Yeah.

That's about it. You think... Hold on a minute. You think I would have hosted a game show by now if I had hair?

Ooh. Yes or no? Yes or no? Just spit it out. I didn't think this would be the platform or the time to discuss this. What? Why?

Yes. You really think if I had hair... Howie Mandel. It's like those are the only two kind of... Brian Seacrest has great hair. Seacrest is not...

I was about to say, wait a minute. Seacrest is not out. He's not out. Not bald. Or maybe he's got, you know... Oh, you never know. Great. He's got the... He went to lengths to take care of that situation.

Lengths. Good news. If so... I'm just saying. Chuck Woolery, incredible head of hair. Yeah.

Amy Will, Fortune Dawson. What it came calling. So you think I... Would I be selling gold right now if I had hair?

I gotta be honest with you, I never thought about that. Whatever Chuck's up to these days. Back in two and two. But if you had Sam Howell's hair on your head right now, man... Hey, speaking of which... We here at the Rich Eisen Show, like every other, top-notch, national broadcasting media outlet, we receive from the NFL every single year, the new headshots for us to use. So if like so-and-so is on the phone or so-and-so is being discussed, we need to see somebody's face on a graphic, like say the tiered quarterback system that The Athletic put out earlier this week. If we need that headshot, we go to the latest. And apparently the new headshots for the upcoming NFL season arrived just last night. So everything that you're seeing from now on are the newest headshots.

Why am I bringing all of this up? Well, because yesterday when we were talking about the tiered quarterback system, and I just pointed out, because everything is about hair for me, Sam Howell had a huge head of lettuce that looked like bedhead. And we were told by we, I mean the Royal, I was just told by Mike Hoskins through Sean Mitchell, our digital... Those are the two coordinating producers of this program. One from digital and one for our everyday right here in studio. That was 2022 and we have a new Sam Howell for 2023. And I have not seen this yet, but here we go.

An unveiling. Does he still have bedhead? Hold on, before we see it, do you think it's the same? Better or worse? Well, it depends on your definition of worse.

Well worse is just crazier bedhead. I think it looks similar. Similar to what?

Chris, your guess? Buzz cut. You think it'd be better?

But not like you and I, Rich, but tight. I'm going to say it's more elite. I'm going to say it's more like I'm a starting quarterback in the NFL and it's more elite. I mean, it does make sense.

Better than the Supercuts? I think it's going to be... Reflect his current position? It's going to reflect his current position on the depth chart, that I'm more elite. QB one.

Yeah, I'm not just like waking up, rolling out of bed and trying to make some plays. He's been in the playbook early. That's my prediction. According to Ron, he's a possible backup. Who knows? He said don't sleep on Jacoby, which is again, fascinating that we're talking about bed head for one quarterback and don't sleep on the other.

And maybe Sam was sleeping on Jacoby, which is why his hair was like that. All right, now it's... What a setup. I have no idea. None of us have seen this picture. I have no idea what's about to happen. Here we go.

Three, two, and one. Put it up. Here we go. Like I said, it's just pretty much the same. That's worse. This is definitely worse.

Dude. I mean... He literally looked like he just woke up.

Just rolled out of bed. It's worse. That's worse. Can't be a starting quarterback.

Bust? Are you saying? It's worse. It was far better in the 22, the picture on the left. He's smiling on the left. On the right, it's just like, you know... You're not a starting quarterback, bro. The picture on the right, he just got done tucked in the run and he realized he might be QB two. Sam. You're not a starting quarterback. Sam's got to go.

RES Consulting has to step in here. Yeah. He's got to, first of all, smile like you mean it. Or at least give me a half a smirk or something.

All right, smile like you mean it. Something. And then on top, we got to get some product. Some pomade, something going on. Like, that's not elite. Did he literally just take his helmet off?

No, it just... It looks like he rolled... That's his sleeping shirt. It looks like his sleeping shirt. We need to fly Benny Blades to Washington. Benny Blades. Sam. Sam. We got to get Sam on the phone. Get him on the... Yeah. Let's call up the Let's call up the commanders and say, hey... Can we speak to your QB two?

Our top notch bookers are going to call up the commanders. Rich has to have Sam on. What do you want to talk about? Very important issues. His hair. And headshots. He's got to have to have shoulder. At least.

When he's in the team photos. Oh my God. It's worse. Right, Chris? Is it worse? It's worse. Can't be a starting quarterback. Okay, very good.

And have that be your headshot. Wow. Didn't expect that. Price is right terms. Who won that then?

I guess it would be me. No, you said it would be the same. This is going to be pretty much the same. That's pretty much the same. It's worse. It is worse.

I mean, it's in the same neighborhood, but it's worse. It's not a buzz cut, like Chris said. We have some nice parting gifts for you.

He's got a QB one reflection, like you said. Parting gift is a $10 gift certificate to Supercuts. Well, he already went there, obviously. That's a Supercut.

No, it's not. No, no, no, no. Oh, I go Supercuts. John Lott cut his hair. Did his strength coach cut his hair? Didn't John Lott do that to Herbert that one year? He gave Herbert a buzz cut. Herbert now has the elite quarterback hair.

Yeah. Tier one hair. He's got tier one hair. Tier one. That's tier four hair. Tier four. You're never going to get a tier four with that, Lidd.

Okay. Tier one hair. Top notch analysis here on the Rich Odds Show. Who else would you go for it, Rich? But here.

Maybe that's why Hertz is tier two. He needs a better haircut. I don't think so.

I don't have anything to do with hair. He's tight. It's got to do with people who still don't believe in Jalen Hertz. I don't understand that there's somebody out there who's like, he still has to prove it to me.

Prove what? Okay. That's just jacked up. Jacked up. Our poll question today at Rich Odds and Show on Twitter.

Twitter. Chris, you want to update our poll question? Yeah, guys. Talking about worst of firsts and which team in each conference has the best chance to go worst of first? AFC Jets, 61 percent. Over the Browns? Over Browns, 17 percent. Broncos, 14 percent. Texans, 8 percent. Let's stop.

Shout out to the Texans. Stop there. Stop there.

Stop there from when they get to the NFC. Guess who I voted for in that poll? I mean, you should have voted for the Jets. I did not.

I voted for the Browns. Look, they, as you know, have Burrow's number. Don't you know?

Right? Didn't Burrow beat them for the first time last year? Okay.

And Burrow might not. Who knows what's going on there? I mean, again, we're having this conversation on August the 2nd. We're several weeks away, right? It's several weeks? Several weeks.

I assume the injury happened within the last week. There's seven more to go. The Ravens, I think, are going to be improved and the Steelers may be improved, but the Browns have a clearer path. Look, man, the Bills still play in the American Football Conference Eastern Division. Yeah, but they're the only ones in that division who did not get any better this offseason. False.

False? How did they get better? What improvements did they make to the roster to get better? They took Damian Harris off your team and put him on theirs. They took Latavious Murray and put him on theirs. They're going to absolutely be better at the running back position. Tier 4 running backs. Bro, they are better at the running back position this year than last, and that kid, I keep telling you that they're drafted in Dalton Kincaid, is a difference maker. He is going to, with Dawson Knox and Damian Harris or Latavious Murray, give them red zone options for Josh Allen this year. They did not have last year. They absolutely fixed whatever problems they might have been having in the red zone last year. They did not have whatever problems they might have been having in the red zone last year to provide, at the very least, Josh Allen with more of a mental state that is attuned to, I don't have to do it all. I'm not the one who's going to be running it from the 10-yard line in.

I can still do it. I don't have to. Absolutely an improvement, 100%. And the other thing that will be improved, one will think, knock on wood, the stuff that went on off the field last year are not going to happen to them again.

And we all know, I don't need to go again, but I'll shoot from a shooting in the city to Mar Hamlin, damn near dropping dead, and then snow storms that caused them to have to go play in Detroit twice. Do the quarterbacks and number one receiver like each other? As you know, I'm going to take them at their word for it. I told you I haven't spoken about it since then, since the two of them came out and said we're good. Again, they don't necessarily need to like each other.

They just got to respect each other. I am pushing back that the bills have not improved. And I think the Jets still need to show it to me.

I'm still going to have an attitude of I need to see it to believe it. The first six games, man. I spoke to my brother last night.

But they got better. I am a Jet fan because of this man. I am not a Mets fan because I had also a brain as a kid.

There you go. I'm sorry. Hey bro, I was growing up when the Mets were trading away Tom Seaver and Catfish Hunter and Reggie Jackson come to town and they win the World Series. I'm sorry, but you made the right choice. Don't get it twisted. Oh, I did. But I stayed a Jet fan.

Jeff said to me yesterday, he goes, you know what? I would take even two and four to start the season. And then and then the schedule gets better and easier. Buffalo at Dallas, home for New England, home for Kansas City at Denver, home for Philadelphia before their bye week. And then at the Giants, home for the Chargers isn't any any easier. And then at Vegas, crazy things always happen when the Jets play the Raiders in the home of the Raiders. At Buffalo, home for Miami. That's the first time they face Miami is week dozen on the Black Friday Amazon game.

And you know, that's and that's my brother points out. That's when the the schedule gets easier. Atlanta, Houston, Washington, Cleveland. And I'm like, well, you're also assuming last year's records will be ascribed to this year's teams. The Bills. That's why I thought Cleveland has a an easier chance to win the division. Go from worst to first in the Jets. No one in your fantasy draft is taking Latavious Murray or Damien Harris. I understand that. But as we know, it's reality football where running backs don't get paid because of how they are fantasy drafted. So Damien Harris is a nice pickup, bud.

And I went nice because that's a better adjective than solid. Damien Harris is a nice pick up. Latavious Murray is a solid pickup. Both good, but varying degrees of good. What's the poll results on our NFC? Where's the first possibilities, Chris? All right, we're going to see the NFC worst the first your options. Commanders, Bears, Falcons, Cardinals, Bears. Forty four percent. Falcons. Thirty nine percent.

And commanders. Fourteen in the Cardinals. Yeah. Three percent. Three percent.

I love the Red Sea people out there clicking. Good for them. This year. Oh, pardon me. Bird gang.

Yeah. By the way, you'll need to go over that before the season because I don't want all those out there on X being confused and using old Twitter hashtags. The Bears don't have one yet, dude. The Bears going from worst to first.

I guess chance. I guess they're all their owners now in the AFC East. So that's what they're thinking. And they don't believe the Vikings will be improved. Although I believe Brian Floor is coming in to coordinate the defense, will tighten the bolts there.

Yeah. The Lions. Even Bears fans are just like, nice try Lions. It's not your year. It's ours. OK, go pack go, man.

We're sleeping on Jordan. I clicked on the Falcons. I think they have the easiest chance, certainly, since they're certainly since their their their seven and 10 record. They were right. There was almost good enough to win the division last year.

A couple of fluky games went against them. Yeah. Yeah. Bijan. Do you see Bijan is rooming with Desmond Ritter? I think they are rooming together. Smart move.

And Ritter is quizzing Bijan on on plays. Oh, I think the Falcons. Who did you click on?

Falcons as well. What about you, TJ? Well, as you know, I know you're not clicking on the commanders.

I'm not on X, so I can't vote. Who would you have clicked on? Well, it wouldn't have been the commanders, you're right. I probably would have gone with the Falcons just because like you said the other day, that division, you just don't really know what you're going to get out of it. Don't really know what you're going to get out of this. I'd like the Lions to win that division. And I know I went a little high register, but I I think the Bears will be improved. But to win the division and everybody just assumes the Packers are going to be garbage. Because the owner of the Bears is playing in the AFC East right now.

I think do that at your own peril, I think. They have some really good players there now. Much improved. Obviously, a lot of it's on Jordan Love. But, you know, the preseason, you know, the training camp videos. Oh, please. Romeo Dobbs, Mossing, Jair Alexander.

Lit up my X feed yesterday. We can't take any of these videos seriously, though. We're still making plays. Do you see what Pickens did on Joey Porter? You can take George Pickens seriously. That's what I mean.

But I mean, we're just nitpicking. Like if you've got a bad throw, we're going to put like the ops of your team. We're going to put that out like, oh, you got one handed catch over the weekend. By the way, can we can we get that George Pickens video for the end of the program?

I'm actually ordering up something from our staff before if we can get it, because that was done by somebody's phone. It was ridiculous. I want to see that because it did look to me.

Was that Tomlin who went right up into Joey Porter Junior's face right after it was over? I mean, honestly, I want to hash that out. And I also want to be kind to our in-studio guest who's about to come out of the green room. Let's chop it up with Nate Boyer, one of our longtime friends of this program. Anytime he's got something going on in his career, he's got a place here to talk about it.

And we will do that next. The host of Discovery's Survive the Raft, Nate Boyer, when we come back. Are you currently enjoying the show on the Stitcher app? Then you need to know Stitcher is going away on August 29th.

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. All right, we're back here on the Roku channel, on our Roku platform, which is where you can catch on Max Survive the Raft that airs Sundays at 9 Eastern time in Pacific on the Discovery channel and Max. And the host of said program, Nate Boyer, is right here on The Rich Odyssey. Good to see you, Nate. Good to see you, Rich. How are you? I'm good. Great to see you. All right, let's take a look at your work. You're hosting work. Let's do a reality competition program. This is really cool, brother.

It's called Survive the Raft. And here's Nate at work. Hello, everyone. I'm Nate Boyer.

Welcome. I'm sure you're all eager to hear about the journey ahead. But before I get to that, let me tell you a bit about myself. I served in the army as a Green Beret and also was very fortunate to play football in the NFL. On the battlefield to the ball field, I've seen people come together from all walks of life and accomplish the seemingly impossible. But I've also seen teams turn on one another and fail.

The question is, what kind of team are you going to be? Well done. All right, let's be honest here. Let's please be honest.

Straight up. All right. How many takes? Oh, that was one take. Come on. You hear I was a damn Green Beret.

There's only one take in that, too. OK. All right. I see you. Well, yeah, I mean, that was you didn't get to see what the show was about.

That was when we marched to Nate. All we've got. Well, first of all, you're the host and hosts of programs.

Host respects hosts. OK. But also, we can only show the clips that we get. So that's the only one.

So that's when we showed. And again, Survive the Raft airs Sundays 9 Eastern and Pacific on the Discovery Channel and Max. And then you can watch it right here on Roku on Max, right here on the Roku platform back here on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, part of the Rich Eisen Show live stream on Roku. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry.

Grainger is the right product for you. Call click Grainger dot com or just stop by for those listening. We just saw a clip of Survive the Raft, the host of Discoveries to Survive the Raft, Sundays at 9 Eastern and Pacific.

Nate Boyer here on the program. So what is this show all about? So it was it's based on a social experiment from 50 years ago.

This anthropologist named Santiago Genovese. He put 10 people on a raft from all walks of life, right? Race, religion, politics, you name it. Couldn't be more different.

They were, they were literally handpicked to disagree. Okay. And they floated from the Canary Islands in Spain to Mexico. That's a long trip. It's 101 days.

It was 101 days across the Atlantic. And this is, you know, it's 1973, very divisive times. You've got, you know, coming out of the Vietnam War, Watergate, Roe versus Wade. Oh my gosh.

And then now it's 2023. And, you know, still, I'd say relatively divisive times, you know, and a lot of, some of these similar subjects are coming back up, topics coming back up. And essentially what, you know, what he wanted to see was like, can these people put aside their differences and work together to survive this trip? Yes.

And they ultimately did, but not without a lot of struggle and, and sex. They actually on the raft. Oh my gosh. Not on our show. Back in the day.

It is the seventies. So the tabloids got a hold of them and they called it the sex raft. Oh really? Yeah. It was like this thing. I didn't know that.

And people didn't really know what the, what the whole journey was actually about. So. So is that where the phrase get a room was born? So you can't, I mean, if we're all on the same raft, I mean, get a room. Okay. I'm sorry. Yeah. So go ahead. I mean, it's a pretty big raft, but there's still not really rooms.

It's 60 by 40 foot. Yeah. It's metal on your current program. Well, we, we, we actually rebuilt the original to spec. Oh really? So that one was called the Akali. We built the Akali too. And we didn't float across the Atlantic.

You were sure it wasn't called the E. coli. And now you're just changing it to a different. We just misheard. We misheard what it was actually called.

We need to change the pronunciation from the seventies. I'm sorry. Don't mean to interrupt.

So now I love a good dad joke. I mean, come on, I'm full of them are in camp. I know. And so I got to get all the E. coli jokes out before they come home. All right. So, so now you've recreated the, the the whole experience experiment. Really. I mean, we rebuilt the raft. We were down in, in Panama, in the Pearl islands.

So we're not floating across the Atlantic, but we are set adrift in the Pacific ocean. Okay. And there's a set of challenges that, you know, come up throughout the series where, you know, these, these people have to work together to, and they're trying to earn money, you know, I mean, there is, there is, there's money at stake and all that, but at the same time it's really about, at least for me, and I think a lot of people, it's really about like, can people, can, can people get over their, their, their stuff, you know what I mean?

And just move forward as a group, listen to one another, not always have to be the one with all the answers. And so is there a performing of tasks that there, and then, and then I imagine a voting off process of. Exactly. Yeah. And all of that. And, and, and we gave them as much autonomy as we could, so they kind of make their own rules.

It's almost a little Lord of the Flies element to it where, you know. Well, I hope we did that stops at a water's edge to use the phrase as well. Okay. Yeah. Understood. Okay. We'll see.

Tune in Sundays at 9 Eastern Pacific. That is called discovery for a reason. Yeah, exactly.

All right. But yeah, I mean that's, and, and yes, there is, there's new crew members introduced as we go and they've, they've got to decide like how I need to build the strongest team possible. But I also want to keep in mind that, you know, as we go along, I could, I could be on the chopping block at any moment. So I've got to carry myself in a certain way. I've got to pull my weight.

It's hard to do. It's hard to in life, I think, to figure out like, where do I fit in the best? Do I need to be a leader right now? Do we need to be a follower right now? Am I being too much the gray man? Am I too big of a personality? Do people like me?

Do they not? All these things are going through these people's heads and then the discussions, the conversations that come up, the, the other stuff that comes up is, it's, it's, it's pretty interesting. Okay.

And you're the host of this thing. Yeah. That's awesome, brother. It was awesome. It is awesome. I'm excited. Great. That's pretty cool.

Nate Boyer here on the Rich Eisen Show. So were you like on a, on a boat following the boat and then you would, you know, like, cause I, again, I've done the reality competition hosting thing before, and I know you have to sort of be stationed nearby to pop in every now and then, right? Exactly. Is that what you were doing?

Yeah. So I was, I stayed, I was on one of the islands for a good amount of it, but we'd come out on sometimes on Panga boats, sometimes on this old military aircraft, aircraft, a military ship. And I would come join them and, you know, and kind of meet up with them. And it was, it became funny because every time I'm heading in and they see me from off the raft, cause it's not like I just pop in. They're like, Oh God, like, what's, you know, now what? Here comes Nate.

They're like, guys, Nate's coming. Oh, and everyone's like, Oh, P's and Q's, you know, let's stop arguing. And you know, like, I'm like, I have any say in who stays and who goes. It's all up to them, but pretty funny.

Do you have any say in your wardrobe? Next question. What do you mean? What do you mean? Well, I mean, here's what I mean is that I, I, I, I had to, I did have a little bit.

Well, they, they wanted to dress me in like, like a bomber jacket at one point. What's wrong with that? Well, cause I don't, I don't, I'm not, I'm there. I am an Alcatraz. Okay. There I am an Alcatraz.

I might still have that zip. Okay. You look like you belong in that photo. But here I am. I'm trying to look really mysterious. You do look mysterious. That's the, that's like the last word you can use to describe me is mysterious.

That was a dozen years ago. Do you think I could be more mysterious now? Make it a little more gray in the beard, the scruff. I think you're more mysterious. Furl the brow a bit more. Cause again, I saw your, I saw your, you know, your clip where you're coming out and you're, you know, and these contestants are all wide-eyed and trying to figure out what's going on.

And they're, they're excited. There you are. So now did you choose, did you, well, no, but did you choose the slicker?

I mean, like, does that's your choice right there? Okay. So the shirt underneath, first of all, I'll give a little plug here. Go for it.

Trinidad jeans, veteran-owned company. Very good. Yeah. Awesome.

Love it. And then it was raining before we went out there. And then of course, right when cameras roll, it stops, the sun comes out. So did some intern have to run out and get you one of these slickers like last second? I mean, well, actually kind of, how did you know this? I used to do this. So it's going to get, snakes going to get wet.

It wasn't an intern. It was like, one of the producers ran because we're in, we're in Panama city there and they just ran to whatever sporting goods store. And we're just like, what's a jacket without a huge logo on it, you know, and they found it and just ramp it seriously. And we put it on cause it was pouring and they're like, we have to, we can't wait. It's, it might not stop raining. We're just going to shoot. Yeah. So then as soon as I walk out there, it stops raining and the sun comes out. And they're like, you can't take it off now.

We already started rolling. So like the local Ricardo's sporting goods. So it is Panama. I'm just starting to, how do you say that, you know, whatever the Spanish nickname for Dick is, you know, for, that's where I was going. Nice.

Rico's maybe. See, I'm just out of options right now, but that's, that's basically what I just need to come home. Dad, stop. Dad, stop. Oh my gosh. But that was what I, the Alcatraz episode, we would shoot stuff at like four or five in the morning too. Oh wow.

Did you do that sort of stuff like four or five in the morning? I, not really. Okay.

They shot stuff, but I didn't have to be there that, a couple of times. You're the star. You're the star.

Is that in your rider name? Wait, well, why four or five in the morning? Because this is when the game would be played.

Oh. And, and the game you had to escape from Alcatraz. And so you never knew, like if it, if the game was culminating at like four or five in the morning, you had to be ready. I, yeah, I pulled an all night. Those are my first all nighters since college.

Wow. Was that night in Alcatraz. Was it sober? Was it definitely sober? The college one most certainly was not. That was, that was a, the, the annual tradition in, in Ann Arbor on St. Patrick's day, sleep out overnight.

Oh man. But at any rate, so you must have had a blast though, right? I did. I had a really good time.

That is so cool. I didn't know what to expect. And I learned a lot. I learned a lot from the experiment itself, from these people, honestly. I think I going into it, I was like, oh, I would crush this.

I'd be fine. And then to have to see like stuff that was introduced to them and the way that they had to cope with it. And they got cameras in their face and they're trying to be honest about their feelings and opinions about things. In this day and age, that sometimes that's tough, you know, no matter which way you, because somebody's going to attack you, you know, if you have a, and it was just, it was cool to see, but it was also cool to see a lot of these people honestly kind of put aside their preconceived notions about one another. And maybe it took some time, but after a while they're like, all right, I actually understand where this person's coming from.

And, you know, maybe, maybe I'm not, maybe I don't, maybe I don't got it all figured out. I got Nate Boyer here in studios again, Survive the Raft, airing Sunday night Eastern and Pacific on the Discovery Channel. And Max, what was your training camp experience like Nate back in the day? It was good. It was, I mean, it was a long snapper, so it was a little, it was, it's easier for the specialist. I'm sure it is. I mean, I did go out.

I would be one of the scout team, you know, receivers or DBs when they're doing the walkthrough stuff or the jog through stuff, if it's full speed, I'm not, why would I be out there? I'm not keeping up with anybody. But no, it was great. I mean, yeah, it was Seattle. The best time to be in Seattle was from May to September. And that's when I was there.

So it was gorgeous. The training camp, the facilities there. And then obviously like the team, I mean, that was right after they came off back to back Superbowl. So like the personalities from, from Marshawn and Richard Sherman to, you know, Doug Baldwin and Jimmy Graham had just signed with the team.

And obviously, you know, Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner, endless, you know, Michael Bennett. It was a, it was cool. It was a really cool experience. I was very lucky. And again, I'm sure they must've known your story coming in.

Like you weren't just any ordinary regular long snapper coming in. Did any of them come up to you and start talking to you about your experience in your life, you know, with what you did in Texas and obviously serving our country at the same time? Yeah, no, they, they did.

They did. The uh, the coolest moment though was actually, I only played in one preseason game and then I got cut like three days later. But the coolest moment for me was before the game. So first of all, I was warming. I remember warming up at, at a, you know, a midfield snap in and I'm nervous in Seattle in Seattle.

Yeah. I was in Seattle. We were playing the Broncos and it was Peyton Manning's last season. So they went on to win the Superbowl that year and Peyton's standing right next to me warming up.

And I didn't know it cause I was just in my own head and in my zone trying to, you know, just prepare. And I like stop and kind of look up and take the stadium in and it was raining there too, of course. But the sun was up and I look over and I see Peyton standing there throwing the ball and I just like took a breath and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is crazy.

It's really cool. And then we, we, we, uh, we get in the locker room. The equipment manager asked me if I want to lead the team out of the tunnel with the flag before the game, which I got to do in college. And I was like, yes, of course.

It's almost like he knew I was getting cut in three days, you know, he was like, yeah, this is going to be your one chance, bud. Enjoy it. So I did that.

And I went out and then, you know, and then they, they played the Anthem and, um, you know, for me being in the military and all that, and I carried my best friend's casket draped in an American flag. So those symbols, you know, they just mean something very special to me. And sure.

They're more than symbols. Yeah. Obviously. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.

Definitely. And, uh, the song starts playing, I started crying and, uh, I didn't know if anybody was picking caught that, uh, unfortunately a camera caught it and I'm not, I'm an ugly crier. So that was pretty bad. But after it was over, you know, I like turn around and all those guys I mentioned and a bunch of others from the team just came up and like hugged me and were like, they all like recognize it, noticed the moment. It was really, it was really special. How many tours did you do? I did three, three. I went to Iraq once in Afghanistan twice. And each time you would come back and go play football at Texas. Is that what you were doing?

Yeah. The last, my last two deployments were while I was in college at Texas. So I would take my finals early and leave in, you know, uh, like late April and then come back the first week of August, right before training camp, uh, Admiral McCraven, uh, who was the SOCOM commander who planned the bin Laden mission, you know, he was, he was a Navy seal, uh, and, and then eventually became the chancellor at UT. But when he was still the SOCOM commander, he had played or he had ran track at Texas back in the day. And he knew I was in the, in the national guard at the time, but still in the special forces.

And he made sure that he thought it was important that I still got to, you know, live out my American dream of playing football, that I would make sure I would get back in time for training camp, which was really cool. Was it ever a time where you are in, uh, on a serious mission for the lack of a better phrase in theater and then the following weekend, you're, you're long snappin' like that, that happened? Literally my last deployment, which is in 2014, where that that's, you know, it's late in the, in the war. Um, and I was in Afghanistan and not long after, I think October was when we went in purely to a train, advise, assist mission, at least with the special forces. But this was in late July and, you know, we had to, we had a mission with the, with the, uh, Afghan special forces. Um, and we went out with them into this place where we knew there was a lot of, um, uh, you know, the enemy were kind of bedded down because no one had gone in this valley for quite some time.

And so we, we, we had a good idea that we were probably going to get into it a little bit that day. And we roll in, as soon as we roll in, like mortars were like full on attacked. And I was on the tailgate of one of the, uh, uh, Humvees on the, on the, uh, you know, on one of the machine guns and just laying down suppressive fire.

So the other, like mostly the Afghan special forces who were leading this, um, raid essentially could go, excuse me, could go into these buildings and, uh, you know, try to find these people. And I just remember, like, there was sniper fire from across from pretty far away that I could see the muzzle flashes. And then those rounds started hitting the vehicle I was in. And my first thought was like, I got to get back and long snap. Like if you're going to just wing me, you know, if I'm gonna get hit just a little raise, I can handle that, but don't, I really want to play football, which is so weird. And maybe even a little like selfish, but that's just where my, of course, that's where my head first thought was. It wasn't like, Oh, I'm going to die. Or it was just like football was like, Oh no, I got to get back in long snap. Right.

Right. Um, and unfortunately I did not get hit. We did lose. We lost one of our, the Afghan captain that day. Uh, yeah, he, he was awesome too.

He was such a great leader. Um, he passed and the two first two people that were on the scene trying to treat him were our team Sergeant and our medic. Uh, so Scotty and Tommy, if they're listening somehow, uh, they knew who they are. And that was, uh, you know, just to see that even though they, they weren't able to ultimately save his life, the fact that they were trying and they were putting themselves in great danger to do that.

It was just like that partnership. And I think that's, this is, I'm not trying to plug the show again, but like, this is why it makes sense to, for me to host this show, I think because those experiences with the American soldiers and the Afghan Iraqi soldiers and the bonds that we develop, even though we have nothing in common, except for we're fighting a common enemy from a culture and custom and religion, all that stuff, very different, you know? Uh, but we get past it because we have, we, if we find all these other things in common and at the end of the day, you know, what we all want, I think as human beings is we want to feel safe. We want, what's best for our family. We want to make a difference.

We want to belong, you know, we, we want to matter. And, and they were the same, it was the same, you know? And, and so seeing that and being a part of that as, as much as that day was, um, I mean, we did a lot of really good stuff and, and it was a successful day by and large, but you never want to lose anybody, you know?

Of course. So within days of that happening, you're, you're in Austin, Texas as a college kid back in the dorms. This was only because my, before my senior year, uh, I came back, I didn't have an apartment at the time. I had my stuff in storage and in train, in that, that training camp, that was the first year Charlie Strong was there. Coach Strong wanted all the players, regardless during training camp, we're all staying in the dorms. I'd never lived in the dorm before. So I was 32 at the time, 33 at the time. And I was in the dorm.

You're a 33 year old man in a dorm, fresh back from a mission in Afghanistan, ready to snap for Texas, for Texas. I mean, and, and prior to Charlie Strong, it was Mac Brown, right? Yep.

Mac Brown. Yep. He's still, still a great friend and he's been so supportive of everything. He really was supportive of the MVP movie and of MVP, which thank you again for being part of that. No problem. I think we should probably not talk about a movie, make sure that you and I are cool with, you know, with all the strike and all that sort of stuff that's going on right now.

It was well before the strike. Yes, you're, you're not wrong. I just want to, you know, I've got your back basically. I know that's what. Well, we can talk about MVP, Merging Vets and Players. Thank you for supporting that. Of course, about Merging Vets and Players before we go here. What is the latest on that? You and Stray and obviously Glaze, Jay Glazer.

So what do you got for me on that? It was great. It's been great.

We had our first, first gala in Dallas, which is our, one of our newer chapters, one of our biggest chapters. We got eight now and, you know, Jay went up there and absolutely crushed it, you know, brought the house down to kind of talking about it. That's what he does. Yeah.

He only knows one speed. Yeah. Exactly. No, but it's been great. Yeah. So we've got our most recent chapters in Phoenix. And so that was, that was cool during Super Bowl week this last year to be able to do some stuff and it's been going really well. So we're, we're, we're poised to open some more and it, you know, it's tough, it's tough times right now, like economically, you know, it's been hard.

So that nonprofits take a lot of that hit because these companies that are laying people off because they have to, or it's just a matter of bottom line things sometimes it's like, they can't justify giving to a charity if this is also happening at the time. So it's been, that's been hard, but MVP has been super strong. That's awesome. And so folks again, it's, it's, I keep forgetting the, the it's mergingvetsandplayers.org, vetsandplayers.org. I knew that.

Okay. And by the way, Denver and AJ, who you had sitting right here, they love you, man. And they said, they said, hello. Will you please tell them I said hi to them? They can come back. They're listening. Excellent.

Well, you know, come back. Those, I know they sat in on a, on a show a couple of years ago, so they can come back anytime. So vetsandplayers.org. And these are sort of people who come back, who come back home or have left the sporting world together, getting together, working out and having support group conversations together. Exactly. And pulling each other through whatever needs to be done. Combat vets and former pro athletes and pretty wild, you know, just, yeah, finding that, that purpose again, when they lose a uniform, you know, obviously it's a different uniform, but different stakes, you know, war and, and, and playing sports a hundred percent different things, but the locker room, camaraderie, the structure, all those things, very similar.

And typically that ending at a pretty young age is very similar as well. Nate, you're the man at Nate Boyer, 37 on Instagram and Twitter, right? Chris on Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. Very good. We're gonna make sure you guys survived the raft available on the discovery channel and max nine Eastern and Pacific on Sunday nights.

And right here on Roku, as well through the max stream. Great to see you anytime. Right back at you, Nate Boyer, right here on the rich eyes and show. We'll be back to wrap up this show in a sec. What's great, man, are these, you know, we do a lot of NFL NBA shows on Family Feud for celebrity.

It's great, man. When regular people discover that celebrities don't know nothing, they don't. You think cause a person is famous. They know more, they actually know less. They know less than anybody else. Cause they're exposed to less. Rich people don't know how much milk costs. You get out of touch, man. And when they come on Celebrity Family Feud, you find out how out of touch they are.

They don't know anything, man. Like one of the questions for the NFL team was, and we were asking the guy running back for the Packers. Can't think of his name, but the question was complete the sentence strip. And you spoke, you know, like strip mall strips, strip poker, strip sack, strip sack. I said, name, complete the word strip. He said, per strip per I went, hold on, man. I quit breathing.

How is that your point of reference to complete the word strip per PR. That was it. I was done. That was one of my great moments.

And again, you just walk away and you just, you realize that in the moment, like, okay, this is it. And I'm going to let this thing go. He asked me, he said, Steve, is there any way we can edit that out? I said, sir, we're not editing that out. Matter of fact, we're going to embellish it.

You're going to say per so loud. I love Steve Harvey, youtube.com slash rich eyes and show for all of our archive fun stuff with Nate Boyer right there. What a story, right? I mean, stories. Wow. I know stories always great to look at him.

He's a reality show host now. Is there anything worse than being in your mid thirties and living in a dorm room? That's why some of these players don't want to go to training camp. Yeah.

Right. Sounds pretty terrible. You're 33 years old and you're in the dorm room. Imagine doing what Nate did to the highest level of what he did his service in.

And then you're going to come back and you have somebody yell at you for not running. Oh, it's like, bro, you don't understand the amount of training I just know, which is probably what I imagine, you know? Yeah. Someone cut him a little bit of a break. Hold on. Maybe he's training. He would be running fast to begin with. That's a good point.

Okay. We always make fun of training camp videos and people reading into them. Something that doesn't need to be read into until it's time to read something into it. A perfect example, all right, last year was the Dolphins showing two at a Tyree kill and the ball was like fluttering. And it was under thrown. And that led to Salty Tua, right? That led to the birth of Salty Tua.

And then the birth of Salty Tua showing, hey, if I stay healthy. I don't know about you, but that looked like money. Damn straight. That was a good example. I don't know about you, but that looked like money.

Damn straight. That was a Salty Tua. When they showed another pass and it looked great. He's like, I don't know about you, that looked like money. Remember that?

Okay. So we read stuff into it and maybe it wasn't appropriate to read into it. So what to make of this video of George Pickens, last year's sensation. He was, I mean, he came on a little strong at the end. He had that touchdown game winning grab that I was fortunate enough to call on Christmas Eve night to beat the Raiders and Derek Carr's Raiders career, unfortunately. Known for putting DBs on their back. Last year, well, he had a preseason catch, right? Didn't he have one of them?

One-hander, I believe. He's very physical, yeah. So they're hoping that that will translate into a big season. Here he is on this year's first pick of the second round. Remember the Steelers held on to that choice and chose Joey Porter Jr.

Check out this video. They're going at it. And he just hands him the ball. And one of the coaches just gets right in Joey Porter's face as he just stuck the ball in Joey's hand and flipped it back at George. And that's it.

Now I'm wondering, what would the coach get on Joey Porter Jr. for? I have a guess. I have a guess. Okay. Throwing the ball back at him? Yeah. Yeah.

Let the 15 yards be on the receiver. Right. Because this is offensive. What was it? The rest of it. Yeah. I mean, what is it? The rest of it is technique? I guess. Don't let him undercut you.

There's nothing you can... I mean, look, that's great coverage. This man just made a phenomenal catch. He's so good, isn't he?

He comes back to the ball, makes a one-handed grab. Stupid. Do I need to revise my top five under the radar, underrated difference makers in the NFL this year? Candy picket season.

It's the other way. Oh, George Pickens' season. They got a lot of weapons, man. Deontay, Friar Muth, Najee. Allen Robinson. Allen Robinson's there.

Well, I mean, he's just on the old milk carton of the National Football League for about three, four years. He's back in Pennsylvania. No, I got it. Oh, I understand. We are...

The West Coast. You didn't mention we are for the kid who just got beat, did you? Well, I wouldn't want to bring that up because he didn't really get beat.

I mean, it was kind of pass interference offense. All right, so what do we glean out of this? Because everybody's gleaning. Go ahead and glean. Oh, a top five season coming from George Pickens. Okay, glean.

Oh, Joey Porter Jr. That's apparently been very good. I must say, I don't gleam anything from that. I glean that the lesson there is if somebody taunts you, do not give them anything back. Do we have time for the Belichick soundbite? Okay, Scott Pioli got Bill Belichick on NFL Plus today.

And he asked Bill the burning question. So training camp, another thing that happens is sometimes you have speakers, sometimes you have movies. This summer's two big movies. Barbie? That wouldn't be one of them. Wouldn't be one of them. Okay, Oppenheimer's out. I haven't seen that.

That'd be interesting. Well done, Scott. Barbie. Barbie's out. Bill strikes me as a History Channel, you know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's probably in it. Yeah, he's just Oppenheimer. Barbie, what's up? Bill's not living in the Barbie world.

We all live in the Barbie world, Chris. We just have to either realize it or not. I'm not realizing it.

I don't know. So I guess cross Bill off of a possible Ken list, right? I could see Bill having the screening of Oppenheimer at the facility. What if somebody told him that the movie was about Barber, Ronde and Tiki?

What about that? Bill strikes me more as a Ronde guy. Ronde?

Yeah, I'm sure. He's a Ronde guy. He's a Ronde guy. Okay, well done. Scott Pioli using the rare Bill Belichick real estate with a microphone and a one-on-one situation for the question we needed an answer to.

No Barbie. Thinking about Oppenheimer. Thinking about Oppenheimer. It's interesting.

Interesting. It's three hours, Bill, so... I know. Hey, the Patriots about to blow this thing up. Hey. Too soon? For over three decades, nobody has had a wrestling career like Arn Anderson.

Conrad Thompson gets all the stories with Arn. After watching AEW's Double or Nothing, Amy wants to know, what does Dinosaur taste like? It ain't chicken. It's like biting into a scented charcoal briquette, but chewy. That's disgusting. Yeah, it's a little bit of chicken. But chewy. It's disgusting. It sure is. Check out Arn every week, wherever you listen.