RE Show: Ken Rodgers - Hour 3 (8-7-2023)

This is the moment of the year. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Yo, buddy! What's up? We're getting football back. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

And I'm not talking about quarterback competitions. I'm talking about the frickin' New York Jets. Yeah, man, I'm loving my time here.

I mean, I've just embraced everything New York. It's mayor of New York. Earlier on the show, ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Billis, NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah. Coming up, executive producer of Hard Knocks, Ken Rogers. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

That is correct. Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network was on in hour number two. In hour number one, Jay Billis of ESPN talked about all the college realignment and all the hand wringing about it and everything going on. If you missed the first two hours of this program, we re-air after this hour on the Roku channel on channel 210. We re-air every day after our 12 to 3 Eastern live period.

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I'm sorry, Chris. Our Twitter page. Yes, our Twitter page. Tweet at us at Rich Eisen Show. Does that make you feel better?

Yes. This hour, we've got overreaction Monday. This show is all about Hard Knocks from Nate Diaz. To Tim Anderson. Or Jake Paul. And Jose Ramirez.

To Jose Ramirez. To the actual program Hard Knocks which debuts Tuesday night 10 Eastern on HBO and you can watch it on Max as well right here on the Roku platform. A great friend and I love working with this man at NFL Films. He does so much for that great outfit and production company.

And he's here as the executive producer of Hard Knocks. Our friend Ken Rogers back here on the program. How you doing, Ken? I'm doing great. How's my favorite Jets fan?

Did you say that to Mike Greenberg the other day? I did not. Hold on a second.

I don't get an invite there. I'm a Rich Eisen guy. Attaboy. Attaboy. What a time to be a Jets fan. I'm happy for you. I'll tell you what. I was always in on them doing it. I thought they should have done it from the very beginning.

How much was the arm twisted of the Jets? Listen, you know we have a relationship with these teams that exists on a daily basis. I wasn't asking some girl to the prom that you've never asked before. We talk about doing shows and wires and all kinds of access with them. I've been thinking about the storyline that people don't want to do the show. I really do relate it to, let's say, Thursday Night Football or playing a game in Europe or having to travel all the way across the country. If you ask a coach, do you want to do that?

The answer is no. I don't want to do that. I want to play home at 1 o'clock. I don't care if fans are there.

Turn the TV cameras off. They want to concentrate just on football. When they're selected to play on Thursday night or they're selected to play overseas, they're going to try to win the game.

They're going to cooperate, participate, and embrace it. I think that's what the Jets have done. It's really what every team has done in the past. All things being considered, we don't even want fans to watch us.

We want to just be by ourselves. That's just the way coaches are. But they've all embraced it, and the Jets have too. I've thought a lot about this too, Ken, because I adore you and Ross Ketover and everybody there at NFL Films. And Steve Sable wrote the forward to my book that sold about five copies.

It had nothing to do with him. But I love NFL Films, and I know how hard you and all the men and women there who keep the Sable flame alive work hard and are not at all intrusive. It's not like if the coach or the player is there that you're forcing your way in. You're literally elbowing your way in. But there is a general sense that if somebody does hard knocks, something's going to get out or you're going to reveal something.

Is there any part of that process you can lay out on the floor or this microphone or this platform for the listeners and viewers of this show how this works, Ken? Listen, you know them. You know the players. You know the coaches.

There is a paranoia about that, and that's why we let the coaches review the show and make sure secrets don't get out. The best example is we once had a play in the background running during a practice, and someone yelled out, refrigerator, in the background. And we had no idea that it was even said, but the team picked up on, hey, hey, you've got to get rid of that. We said, get rid of what? The person in the background saying refrigerator because that's our goal line plunge play named after the fridge. And we were like, what?

And sure enough, you play it over and you say, oh, yeah, someone's in the background saying refrigerator. That would have been a competitive balance issue that we would have been part of that we don't want to. So we definitely go over that. And in terms of the – I give a lot of credit to all our cinematographers and our directors out there. We're not as big a crew as you think, and we capture a lot, you know, 400 hours per week, and that's plenty.

We don't have to – look, there's 90 players. We can't capture everything, but we don't look to capture everything. We look to capture the essence of camp, the essence of everybody. So a lot of people feel like, oh, my gosh, if I have to go call my wife about her doctor's appointment, Hard Knocks is going to be listening to me in the hallway.

No, that's not the case. That's going to be something you're going to be able to do. But when it comes to the job, this is a workplace drama.

We're going to be all around and we're going to watch you doing your job. And, you know, what about the pushback from you on the content front where a coach or a player might be a little bit too protective or paranoid and you're like, come on, because, again, that's what's beautiful about this show is we feel like we're a fly on the wall and that we are behind the scenes. What can you share on any conversations you have on that front to make sure this isn't coming across in many people's minds as a whitewash or a greenwash, to use the Jets as an example here, Ken?

Yeah, a jet wash, greenwash. It's never been the case for years now, really more than a decade. I think the Jets probably helped change that in that the teams now know what the show is. They know that if there's, you know, a rookie singing or they know if someone gets yelled at in a meeting or if there's a conversation between the quarterbacks out on the field, like those things are going to make the show. They know what they're signing up for or what they're selected for, as were the case. So the team kind of gets it, and you'd be amazed at how much the young players get it. It makes me feel old, but you know, Hard Knocks have been on the air 20 years now, 21 years. They've all grown up watching the show. I mean, if you think back to the last Jets that was 13 years ago, well, you know, most of these kids were probably eight, nine, you know, playing Pop Warner, watching Hard Knocks, and they've watched it ever since in a world of social media. They're not freaked out by the cameras. They don't care about putting their world and their life out there. They are completely comfortable, and themselves, which makes the show even better.

So we don't really have to fight that fight anymore. Hard Knocks Executive Producer Ken Rogers here on the Rich Eisen Show. The history of Hard Knocks again, and I do remember the first time I saw a player get cut with the cameras watching, I was kind of jaw on the floor like, wow, that's the way this happens.

Turk comes to knock on the door, get your playbook. Is it true the Jets didn't want to show that stuff? They say that you're not showing any player getting cut. Ken, is that true? You know, we haven't even picked our players, so I know that's been reported, but that's not something we've gotten to in the show yet.

We're still working with the Jets. I think the cool thing about Hard Knocks is that the show has actually made the cuts more humane. There was a point where people started saying, wow, this is a rough business. But if you notice in recent years, the players are coming in and they're saying, listen, thank you for treating me like a man. Thank you for what you've taught me.

Thank you for being honest with me. They don't really have the cold Turk knocking on your door, give me your playbook, we're putting you on a plane thing anymore. I think the perception was, wow, this is a rough business. And to the NFL's credit, they changed the process and said, you know what, we need to have somebody from player personnel talk to the player. Make sure they're okay mentally. Make sure they're okay physically.

Make sure they're not just getting kicked out. And all that happens now, I think, because the show showed the truth. And now when we show cuts, it's certainly not a positive moment, but it's an extremely respectful moment. And I can't think of a recent coach or GM or anyone who's come off looking bad doing a cut.

They're doing their job. Ken Rogers of NFL Films, executive producer of Hard Knocks here on The Rich Eisen Show. And again, I'm assuming, what's the number of microphones you've put on Aaron Rodgers in his career, right? I mean, so it has to be in the, you know, hundreds of times that you've done that.

And again, I know he mentioned shoving it down the Jets throat when he mentioned Hard Knocks. But is everything cool? Because obviously he's got to provide access for this thing to work, Ken. Everything's beyond cool. He's been beyond cool.

He is beyond cool, period. I think people are going to see, even if you really have followed his career, people are going to see a different Aaron Rodgers. I think you saw that, you know, during the Hall of Fame game. You know, just from the sideline, how he was talking about how much fun he's having.

You know, we put a clip out earlier last week where he is in a huddle and he's talking to the quarterbacks and saying, you know, you got to appreciate it because you'll be old and gray and not have many years left. And I think he's in that spot where he understands this is a privilege to play the game. He enjoys his teammates. He enjoys his team. And he's really in a great spot. And it shows on the first episode of Hard Knocks. I think you'll see an Aaron that everyone is going to be fascinated by. I saw that clip, too, where he also said, hey, sit with somebody you don't know.

You know, be a leader at lunch. And I saw that clip and it was great. You know, it's also a privilege, sometimes you get privileges being on Hard Knocks and you being Aaron Rodgers. I couldn't help but notice Liev Schreiber was at the actual Jets practice. And I'm just wondering, you know, if you helped make that wish come true for Aaron. You know, someone like Aaron Rodgers comes out publicly and says the thing they like about Hard Knocks is the narrator.

And the narrator happens to be a Jets fan, happens to live in New York. You know, the production helped a little bit. It certainly helps that he wanted to go meet Aaron. And I think it's one of the highlights of the show. It'll be in the show of Liev meeting Aaron. And I think everyone's going to, like I said, love Aaron and I think everyone will love Liev, too. It's a great scene and it's one among many great scenes, I think, this week. All right, what else can we expect on the Tuesday premiere? What other breadcrumbs are you willing to drop right now?

Hey, listen, Aaron Rodgers will be on the show. How's that as a scoop? Okay, that's a good one. All right, you want to keep everything else close to the vest? I understand.

Okay. I can give you that. Look, you know, there's a lot of big stars on this team and we're going to take our time to get through all of them. There's definitely some surprises in terms of what happens at camp and some things that everyone sort of knows about. You know, everyone knows that Sauce and Garrett Wilson, you know, we're practicing hard against each other.

We're going to show that. That's going to be an exciting thing for anyone who loves great football in that segment. Dalvin Cook's visit, as well?

Dalvin Cook's visit is still to be determined. You know, we're kind of in the ninth hour here, maybe eleventh hour of putting the show together. And it doesn't seem like anything's going to come of that right now.

It certainly hasn't yet. And so that story is sort of incomplete right now, I guess. Okay.

So we're sort of standing by. Got you. Got you on that. And last one for you, another reason why people sometimes push back at NFL films, you know, being embedded in coverage is because they don't want to make it seem like they're searching for the spotlight. Again, I, you know, take the approach because I know you guys and I know that you are, again, one thousand percent documentarians first, right? And also making sure that everyone knows that they're comfortable being miked up and that you're not the enemy. But you are you are providing everyone insight. And that's why I love it. But some people might think that, hey, I did an NFL films thing and I'm seeking the spotlight. And that seems to be the issue with season two of quarterback right now. I don't know if that's your bailiwick as well.

I'm just assuming where what is your you know, where are you on that front right now? It seems like some quarterbacks just say it's not the right time for me or anything like that on that remarkable series, by the way. Remarkable. I mean, it seems like it. I will admit I don't have I've been so wrapped up in hard knocks. I don't know where what the status is of the quarterbacks for season two. I do know that, you know, when when people push back, you know, we have the best argument you can have, which is, well, Patrick Mahomes did it and he won the Super Bowl. So what are you worried about?

You know, like I think I think you can use it or not use it how you want. It reminds me of the story when Steve Sable first went to shoot a training camp. It wasn't hard knocks. It was 1968. It was with Vince Lombardi. And he only had film for a day. So he shot Packers camp, you know, for one of our highlight films, doing a film on Vince Lombardi. And at the end of the day, Vince Lombardi said, Steve, I want you to come back tomorrow. And Steve said, I can. I shot all the film today. You know, I'm I'm heading back.

And Vince said, my team practiced harder today than they have all camp because that camera was running. I want you back tomorrow. I'll see you tomorrow. And of course, what's Steve going to say?

OK, I'll be there. So the next day he came and and just acted like he was filming with no film. Are you serious? Absolutely.

It's the truth. Just so Vince Lombardi could get his team a little more cognizant that eyes are watching. You know what? People are going to watch this.

And are you going to be slacking off or are you going to practice hard? And that's what I mean where I think people can use it or not use it in different ways for the Jets. And I think maybe quarterback, I'm not sure, but certainly for the Jets, you're going to have a season where you will be under the microscope. And if you get to the playoffs where you want to go, boy, there's going to be a lot of cameras. Yeah. So I think what they're doing is sort of embracing that and saying, OK, that's what it's going to be. Let's get used to it. Let's let's get used to those couple extra cameras at practice, because if we're going to be who we want to be, we need to learn to operate whether there's film in the camera or not, whether people are watching or not. We need to always feel like we're operating at our best. And, you know, I think of Vince Lombardi all the time when I think of that.

That's an amazing story. I thought, Ken, you were going to say, you know, the end of that story was like, well, Steve found a way to get film all the way to Packers camp, you know, and, you know, by horseback or, you know. And and the answer was he just pulled a he just pulled a gambit on on Vince Lombardi. Or did Vince, like, you know, I think it was in on the joke. Oh, he was OK. No film.

The players didn't know. And Vince said, I don't care whether there's film in the camera or not, just pointed at the practice better. So Steve stood there like a dope all practice, acting like the camera was going.

And, you know, he didn't have any film. And the players practiced harder. And Vince was smart enough to use that.

And I know plenty of coaches that play those sort of mind games of, hey, how can I get a little more out of the players? It's a good thing Bart started and asked to check the dailies, huh, Ken? He didn't have approval over the chat.

Vince had final cut, clearly. Thanks for the call, Ken. I greatly appreciate it. We'll chat again soon. And I look forward to working with you with MGM Plus again on icons. Looking forward to that this fall. Absolutely. Always a great time talking with you.

Right back at you. That's Ken Rogers, executive producer of NFL Films. Hard Knocks debuts Tuesday night on HBO at 10 Eastern.

And you can watch it on Roku on Max. What a story, huh? Rich, I thought he was going to say Vince said you have to come back tomorrow because I'm taking that tape. You know what I mean? I didn't think the answer was Steve just came back with no film in the camera, right?

That was not what I was expecting here. Again, it always goes back to pop culture with me. Do you guys ever see Apocalypse Now? Yeah, years ago. Say it again, Chris? Long time ago. Not recently.

What about it, though? Well, you know, the photographer at the end, who's whacked out on LSD, played by... Oh, God. You know one of the...

I started telling stories. He was the guy who played the drunk in Hoosiers. Why am I... He's one of the greatest of all time. Dennis Hopper? Yeah, Dennis Hopper.

Well, I just flew out of my head. Dennis Hopper was taking pictures with no film in the camera. He was just doing it to make Colonel Kurtz feel like he was documenting things. So... That's a funny story. Steve Sable was the Dennis Hopper of the situation.

Unbelievable. Vince Lombardi tells you to come back the next day, you come back the next day. The point of it is, it's interesting that he says it's what you make of it. But I don't think the players like Justin Fields or Trevor Lawrence or the young players are saying, yeah, I think it's too much of a distraction. You heard Justin Herbert, I think he said it on Pat's show, that it's what you make it.

It's either a distraction or it's not. Justin Herbert might be one who is agreeing to do it or thinking about doing it, because he said that it's just a... But some kid like Justin Fields, like, you know, when people... He's just coming off of an off-season where conversation was, do you keep him or do you take Bryce Young and trade Justin Fields for a whole bunch of picks?

Or do you trade Bryce Young for a whole bunch of picks? And he's going to come and say, yeah, I agree to have an NFL Films cameras walk around. And then it'll be like, well, what's your priority, being famous or being good?

As if you can't do both. And again, it's not like you're trying to be famous. Every single time you watch one of these shows that NFL Films produces, right? Hard Knocks, Inside the NFL, the show that I'm voicing, Icons, name it.

Name all of it, okay? And you see Belichick mic'd up and the coaches mic'd up and the players mic'd up. It's not like, yeah, mic me up, I want to be famous.

I want you to document me. You know, NFL Films says, would you mind wearing it? And the player basically goes, sure, because I know you're not going to clown me.

So I don't understand why. I guess players are like, no problem. Mic me up week four, week five, 2019 season or whatever. I'm cool with that. Mic me up for the Super Bowl. Mic me up for the championship game. Go ahead. And we as fans aren't going to view that as you're just trying to be famous.

But the players are like, yeah, I can't have camera crews follow me specifically for a documentary about my experience, full season. You understand what I'm saying? Yeah, I mean, I get it.

I don't know if it's apples to oranges or apples to apples here. I think years ago that's probably how it was looked at, right? But we're in a whole new world now where social media, where you're documenting everything on your phone.

I'm sure there is some still some old school thought that that's the case. But these kids, like you said, you're 22 years old, Chris. You've never not recorded yourself doing something, doing everything, everything. So but I guess in this day and age that we all want to know, are you doing it this year? Last year, we didn't even know that they were doing it until it came out. Right. Also, I think some of these players should recognize how popular this series is. And it's also a chance to kind of elevate themselves a little bit.

They do have a great year. I mean, Josh Allen is the biggest name right now. He's not committed, but he is reportedly thinking about it. Or he has committed and we just don't know.

You want to keep it, keep it tight. And also, like I think Ken just said, if you do this, quarterbacks, you've got a one in three chance to win in the Super Bowl. I think I would take that.

I would take that. He's got the ultimate pushback. Mahomes did it. He won the Super Bowl. And then the ultimate pushback to that is, he's Mahomes.

Not true, but. Let's take a break. 844-204 Rich, number to dial here on the program. Overreaction Monday, people. Here we go. Don't go anywhere.

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See store for details. Can you tell me the story, the famous story, of you noticing John Candy in the crowd before that two-minute drill at the Bengals? Harris Barton was a people person, so we were free for dinner during the week, but, you know, practice in meetings and then come back after dinner and more meetings. So when he would come back from dinner, he was like a little kid.

He could not wait to tell you about all the celebrities he saw while he was at dinner. And so we were just standing there in between the tight end, and his shoulder was a friend, John Candy. In the crowd? He was on the sideline. Oh, he's on the sideline. And so I was, and I sat there, and I looked, and I go, dang, I don't remember Harris saying he saw John Candy.

This is what you're thinking in the Super Bowl with minutes to go and needing to drive down the field. Yeah, so I walked over and said, hey, hey, John Candy. And Harris stood like this for eight minutes, perfectly still. He was a little bit angled that way.

He would not move. I didn't do it to unwind him. I just thought he would appreciate John Candy. Did you ever meet Candy, or that was the only time? Yeah, no, I had met John a few years before that. Contract was up. Okay.

And he was one of the owners of the Toronto Argonauts. Okay. He was trying to get me to go to Canada. Come on.

Yeah. They just didn't have enough money. But if the price was right, you'd have... I might have been wearing an Argonaut for him.

Yeah, you'd have a 55-yard line. He'd be like, I'll do that. So he legitimately said, hey... Yeah, we had a couple meetings about that. You did. So this is real.

It wasn't just like, oh, by the way. No, no, no, no. Wow. I love that. All in our YouTube archives, youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show. Please go check it out at Rich Eisen Show. Also, all of our social media handles. The Rich Eisen Show desk I'm sitting at right now, furnished by Grainger. It supplies and solutions for every industry.

Grainger is the right product for you. Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. Let's take a quick phone call before getting to overreaction Monday. Jim in Port Charlotte, Florida has been hanging on for well over an hour. What's up, Jim? You there, Jim? I'm here.

What's up, Jim? I just have to pass on a thought process here on all this college thing. The SEC, I think, will end up with 20 teams. They're going to have four. And the four teams they'll add, they're going to bring with them seven national championships.

So you're looking at a very close-knit region. It'll be four different regions broken down, five teams in each region. There'll be the west where you got Texas, Oklahoma. You're going to have Texas A&M, Arkansas and LSU, then the south.

And this is the biggest change, the south region. They're going to add Miami University. They'll have Florida, Florida State, Clemson and Georgia.

One heck of a region, isn't it? So you're saying, okay, so just the four teams you say they're going to add is Miami, Florida State and Clemson. And North Carolina. And North Carolina. Will be the fourth team. They'll bring four teams in from the ACC. Thank you for the call, Jim.

I greatly appreciate it. Could you imagine if there is a southern region, Georgia, Florida, Miami, Florida State. And who's the fifth one that he threw in there? UNC, right? No, but in the south region. Oh, in that all... Because you got to keep Ole Miss and Mississippi State together, right? And you put Alabama in that one and then... Yeah, so that's the east and then... And then Clemson goes in with Carolina and Vanderbilt. They get Vanderbilt, right? And Tennessee. So Alabama would be in the west then. No, Alabama would probably be in whatever, I don't know, east. I have no idea what he's breaking it down as. Because there's Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M. That's the whole point. But again, ACC, they better figure out whatever their situation is.

Because he's not wrong. The fourth one in, if it's Carolina, it will be a battle for that last life raft on the ACC Titanic. Everyone will be reaching for it. So can you imagine you put Miami, Florida, and Florida State in the same conference? You know, that's the win.

Florida, Georgia, Tennessee. Can you imagine TJ if that happens? I can imagine anything at this point. Yep.

Just the jack reaching up to Rose and then just sinks off into the sea. Because there wasn't enough room even though there was. Even though there wasn't enough, yeah. Syracuse? We're not good enough at football. Pittsburgh?

Man, I don't know. That's crazy. 844-204, Rich. Number to dial. It's a Monday.

You ready? You need to hit it right here. Overreaction Monday.

Hit it, please. That was terrible. That was crap.

That was garbage. This place sucks. Overreaction Monday. Mondays. All righty then, let's go for it, Christopher. What's up, guys? Everybody good? Hey, Chris.

Hi, Chris. So this is like the last one where I'm not really reacting to any games being played. That's right. So we're just kind of still pulling stuff out of the air based on- But we're so close to pre-season games.

That's what I mean. We're learning who's playing, who might not be. We know who's struggling, maybe, perhaps, in some of these camps with reports down in Tampa that Baker's throwing picks left and right. How trask is starting week one for the Bucks? That's an overreaction. Bucks are going to start Baker Mayfield. End of story.

He has seven picks and nine practices, Rich. Okay, great. Just to do a quick math. That percentage is what, 77%? Not good.

Not good. So what it's all about in things like this is if you're a head coach, which is easiest to go with one and then pull the plug on? Which is easiest? Which makes sense? The guy who drafted.

Or the guy who's in waiting. Baker Mayfield is the one to start as opposed to passing over because he had such a poor training camp with picks. Got it? Yeah. Even Drew Bledsoe started over Brady despite Brady apparently having the best camp out of all quarterbacks. Come on.

Not to say. One guy was the number one overall pick that you drafted and gave $100 million to. So it's easier to go with that guy and then maybe not. I'm trying my best to plug these two in together in a way that you would understand that to start with Kyle Trask and then have him not work and go, oh, we'll go with the veteran Baker. We didn't go with you because you lost the preseason competition and we were all about making sure those who compete better get the opportunity to start.

No, this one is a thumb on a scale. It's Baker Mayfield. And then if he doesn't perform well, a one and three, then you pull the plug, you go with Kyle Trask. And if that doesn't work, you got to better shop at Caleb Williams. That's what, that's the path. You're overreacting. What else, Chris?

What else? Hall of Fame this past weekend, another great job by you and everyone involved at the hall. I saw some comments from Micah Parsons saying he doesn't just want to be a Hall of Famer. He wants to be the top of the top Hall of Famers. He's going to have a Hall of Fame season behind his 20 plus sacks this year. Cowboys win the NFC. Let me tell you something about Micah Parsons and the numbers you just put up there.

I like where your head's at. What you just said about Micah Parsons. There is no overreacting to Micah Parsons. He is incredible.

He is generationally brilliant. He's game wrecking practices right now. I'm telling you, Andrew Whitworth is on tomorrow's program.

I recorded the top 10 reveal of the top 100 list that debuts on NFL plus tonight and airs on NFL network on Thursday. Andrew had Micah Parsons over to his house for dinner. We're going to leave the rest of the story to Andrew to tell on tomorrow's program. The thing he told me is that he was at Cowboys practice and heard as well. They had to pull Micah Parsons off the field so the offense could practice. Did you hear what Daniel Jeremiah said earlier on how he's wrecking things?

They basically had to say, Micah, Hey, calm down. We got to get our reps in here on offense. It's just as important.

We get our reps in on offense as well. So 20 plus sacks to salute, sir. That is a proper reaction. I am. What am I going to sit here and say? No way. Get out of here.

That guy's congrats, dude. You got on defense, the type of player that you want to get drafted in your quarterback. But good enough quarterback. Your defense. I remember for the draft, I predicted the Cowboys were going to. Yes, you did. Man, he's so good. Well, it was a little bit of your Penn State bias too. You also saw him, hey, look, the guy didn't even play in his last year in college. So maybe that's why he fell. Good job out of you and your Cowboys.

And that is a proper reaction. What else you got over there, Chris? Thinking about the NFC, Rich, and who had the best record last year? The Eagles, the Vikings were a surprise. Talent wins out. This team has so much talent, it doesn't matter who's at quarterback, the 49ers best record NFC.

Yeah, I can't discount it. How are you going to say that's an overreaction? Purdy, Darnold, Lance. Dude, they make the NFC championship game starting Lance and then needing Garoppolo. Montana right now at age 60.

You know? He's fourth on the depth chart. They make an NFC championship game with Garoppolo when you don't expect them having Garoppolo.

Much talent. They make it with Purdy when Garoppolo goes down. I mean, get out of here. So basically it doesn't matter who their quarterback is? Well, I mean, they're going to end up paying Bosa and he'll get out there. And that defense is, I mean, Dallas and San Francisco, you heard again, DJ saying Dallas is a shot to have the best defense in the league. Dallas and San Francisco is a Sunday night or week five. Now there's a lot of people sitting there saying, you know, you're allowed to flex out of the Sunday night games as early as week five and Jet's Broncos with what Sean Payton had to say about Nathaniel Hackett. NBC is like, yeah, you know what we're going to do flex into the Nathaniel Hackett blood sport rivalry game by flexing out of San Francisco and Dallas. Nah, that one's going to be great. Can't wait.

So I, I totally hear you. The Eagles are obviously in the mix for having the best record in the, in the conference. So you could say that about Dallas too, and maybe there's, there'll be a surprise team.

So you can't discount San Francisco. What else, Chris? Speaking of defense, my pats have a good defense. Matthew Judon got his contract taken care of.

He is a happy, happy man. Top five defense pats are winning at least 10 games. Come on guys. All right. Now that's an overreaction. Let me ask you this. Get on board. Why, why didn't Bill O'Brien say Mac Jones is a starting quarterback no matter what. He starts talking about how good Bailey Zappi is what, what, what, what, what happened there? I was out of the chair last Friday.

Does it matter? You and I crossed like two ships last week. You wanted to give me crap for my, my, my, my hamburger buying coach. And I wanted to give you crap for your offensive coordinator. Who's finally got the title refusing to give Matt Jones like, he's not the starting quarterback of this. Cause what are we doing?

Watch the videos and what are we doing? It's obvious who the starter is. So what does it matter? Titles matter. Titles matter to people, to people who receive the titles.

He knows he's a starter. Got it. Rich. I don't want to be the kind of person who gets stitches and end up in ditches, but there was a lot. And I mean a lot of jet slander in the studio on Friday. I'm sure. I'm not the person sitting over in that desk, by the way. Like I said, I don't want to be the... Oh, well then Suzy and him are like two assholes in the same pod.

I'll just say it. Suzy may have kicked off most of the jets. I live with her. I don't want to start none. I was just cleaning up with the shovel.

The crazy thing is I leave her to go hang out with him and then I leave him to go hang out with her. You don't get a break, bro. He doesn't deserve a break.

He runs for the jets. Overreaction pal. Overreaction. You might get it, but as of this moment, 10 wins now.

Okay. Top five defense though. They're going to be good.

What else? It's already bad in Las Vegas, guys. You see what Devante Adams said? Not happy that Josh Jacobs isn't here. If Jacobs doesn't come back, it's gonna get ugly real fast for the Raiders.

Devante Adams' trade, top five pick next year, real bad. I can't overreact to that, except to say it's still first week of August. Tomorrow's the second week.

Ask me tomorrow. But right now, no seriously, we're right on the edge. We're right there.

We're right there. You know, hold out, let's see how long he holds out. See if he holds out into the season.

My gambit, back in the day. And then we'll see, we'll see. What a big game at Denver to start the season. I don't blame Devante Adams. I come here for my college roommate, he gone. And now I'm here watching Rogers living his best life in New York City, talking about his new number 17.

He's got a great chance to win the Super Bowl. I'm out here trying to bust my ass. And one of our best players is not coming in from the cold. So right there, though, I'll just go, it's a veraction right now.

It's an overreaction, but it's a veraction. What else, Chris? You got one more?

Last one, last one. Jamar Chase is like, look, I understand, Joe. We need you healthy for the end of the season. He says, it's fine if you come back week five.

I think that's cool, because even if Joe Burrow sits the first four weeks, Bengals are still winning the AFC North. You know what? That's not an overreaction. And let me just say this, you know what the overreaction was? I'm sorry.

I'll use this platform. I'm going to take a little page from you and you'll have to let me know where on the petty scale this ranks. Okay, gotcha, gotcha.

The Rich Eisen Show petty scale where this ranks. Remember, I took a screen grab of the first four weeks of the Bengals schedule two weekends ago when this happened, and I'm like, if several weeks somehow bleeds into the first month of the season, this is the way the season starts for Cincinnati. And I got the pushback from Bengals fans, like, do the math. Six weeks from now is several weeks. It's week one. Oh, okay. So now the number one receiver is telling the quarterback several weeks should bleed into the first four weeks of the season. And we got it from here.

Oh, okay. So Jamar Chase thinks at Cleveland home for Baltimore home for Rams at Tennessee. They got this. And he should take ten weeks to come back from this thing. And by the way, he's not wrong. I mean, they're two and two at work. So I say thumbs up, Jamar Chase. I get it. We're marathoning because this guy sure shouldn't be sprinting right now. So you know, it was overreacting with the Bengals fans coming at me on X.

And by that, I mean Twitter. Thank you. I don't think that was petty at all. You don't think so? Fantastic. That's just petty for me to respond to tweets. That's not even Lori or Kyle. I'm sure they're like people with, like, 40 followers who say that they're really religious but use the worst language. Right.

844-204-rich number to dial. Good job on overreaction Monday to everyone here in the studio. When we come back, TJ has a fun list for one of our new radio affiliates. Just welcome them. Yeah.

And then, of course, we'll talk about the hard knocks that happened in Dallas in the ring and then in Chicago in the middle of a diamond. Weird crew. That's next.

That's the most energizing show. 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.

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Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. It's time for kickoff and the Believe podcast will get you ready for the new season. How do you live through this as a Detroit sports fan? Believe has podcasts covering all 32 professional teams and many of your favorite college teams too. You solidify your defense.

You got better. Sideline to sideline. End zone to end zone.

If you don't do those things, then you're not even trying your hardest to win at football and I don't know what we're doing. There was a lot of great players on those teams that I was fortunate to be part of. Search BLEAV podcasts wherever you listen. So Nick, before our radio audience returns, what was your impressions of the fight that you went to? It was such a great event. Zach Rosenfield, obviously our guy, helped put it on along with Jake Paul's promotion team and it was awesome. Sold out arena in Dallas. The pay-per-view buys were through the roof and the energy inside there was nothing I've seen in a long time of an indoor event like that. And the fight was great.

Jake kind of dominated from the start, which the better the line was that way, kind of expected it. And it seems like there's going to be a rematch with some sort of MMA element. This was Nate Diaz's first professional boxing experience. He's a legendary MMA guy, UFC.

But the Jake Paul stuff is real. The guy really knows how to promote. He entered the arena on a tank. Yeah, I saw that. And he had some giant robot that looked like the Fox robot with him and it was just a wild scene. There were some fights on the floor and in the hallway and just the energy in the building was...

It was there. And it kind of met the moment. The women's matches beforehand were awesome. The undercard was well done and we had a great time. It was really cool to see. Okay. You concur?

Yeah, it was awesome. The weird crew. The weird crew. You should send us everywhere. Just cover events for you. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the rich guys in the family. I have a family, man. I can't be going to all these... She's about to say. I can't be going to these weird places. It's for work though.

Chris, you want to provide for that family. If you want to do it, just look at the ceiling and see there's mold everywhere and you pay for it. Yeah.

Is that why I mold to you? But it was cool to be there for Zach and really support him. This is his first time putting on a big time event like this. They all crushed it. It was wild. Oh, great. Terrific. Weird crew. Glad to hear it.

All right. So that's the latest on that big fight over the weekend. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, Jake Paul and Nate Diaz fought. Chris just gave an interesting breakdown as he went along with Feli and Adam Chudwin of our show. And I honestly didn't think that the biggest first fight of the day that would take over social media would occur at a baseball game.

Right? But Tim Anderson apparently has a penchant for slapping hard tags on anybody coming into second base. And Jose Ramirez had had enough. Appears that Ramirez had told Tim Anderson to quit that. Apparently he was barking at one of their rookies as well earlier in the game. And Ramirez goes in head first and Anderson hits tagged him and I guess it hit him in the head. And Ramirez didn't like it. And then Anderson took the attack posture, put up his dukes, right? And the second base umpire realized he didn't have the Mills Lane in MC, he got out. He was like, ah, no, this isn't hockey, I'm not, you know, I'm out. That was the best part. Protect yourself at all times.

And usually these things are all like, ah, I'm threatening to hit you and then I'll back off and then not really hit you. Nobody gets hit, Rich. Tim Anderson threw. He did. Twice. And then Jose Ramirez seeming to be separated at the moment that he just threw a right hand that hit Anderson directly in the jaw. On the button. And knocked him out.

Well, I put him to sleep, the ground will come up when down goes Frasier. Well, I mean, the call, you know, down goes Anderson on the radio call is amazing, right? I mean, just I believe it's Tom Hamilton who calls the the action locally for the Guardians. Right.

Hamilton. And he screams down goes Anderson down going to and that goes viral. Video of him wobbling, getting carried off.

He looked like Tom Brady at the Super Bowl Parade. And then, you know, bench is clear. But you know, even it's amazing with the rare instance, I guess this was the biggest fight since Rugnito d'Or and went at it with Joey Batts, Jose Bautista.

And this is like a real one, even with a real one. You see. Coming out of the pen. I'm coming. Here I am. I'm running.

That should get those players suspended on the spot just for the fact that they are now running 300 feet to add more human beings to this morass. OK. And even worse, they're not even running fast. What are you doing? Why are you going out there?

What are you doing? I'm like, if you're not running, like honestly, they ran out to this fight like it was Giancarlo Stanton trying to score from second. Oh, come on, don't get me started. I'm mistaken, too. I saw a shot.

Do not get me started. They had to run down stairs. Is the is the bullpen elevated or something because I saw a shot of guys running down some stairs. I saw that. Go downstairs and then try. And then and then. Here I come. Hold on a minute. Wait a minute. Oh, gosh. Oh, I just saw it.

My guy got just knocked out. But I'm almost there. Hold on a minute. Oh, you're separated. Hold on. I'm almost there.

Here I come. You got knocked out. Just don't even try. Don't even try. It's like Brockman reaching for the check. Don't even try. I'm a celebrity.

He didn't have a chance to believe it was already taken care of. So there's going to be suspensions coming out, but you should just spend every single person that that ran like half speed out of the pen. I'm almost there. Keep fighting. I'll be there. All right. In honor of our new affiliate, one oh one nine FM and twelve sixty a.m. the horn in Austin, Texas. You've you've put a little list together.

Yeah, well, I want to welcome them to the family and just show them some love. So I decided to come up with a T.J.'s top 10 list. What do you got? My all time favorite, Austin's. OK.

Since they're in Austin, Texas. OK. Do you got something you can you can you whip through it? Let's go real quick. Jay Felly hit my music.

All right. So, you know, at number 10, we got a singer songwriter, Austin Mahomes, you know, I don't know much about him, but I know he's got two and a half million Spotify listeners. He's got nine million on X and twelve million Instagram, so I'm going to put him at 10. Number nine, we got the Lakers shooting guard point guard Austin region. We just got a four year fifty six million dollar contract for his thirteen, three and three season.

Not bad. Austin Eckler charges running back sixteen hundred total yards and eighteen touchdowns last year. Number seven, we got Austin Theory, WWE U.S. champion. We got Austin Butler.

You might know him as Elvis. Yes. Denise, Denise, Austin, yes, yes, yes, yes. That's back when I was on the on ESPN.

That was the fitness. Yeah. Yeah. Music producer Dallas Austin.

So if you like TLC, Pink, Monica and Brandy Boyz II Men, Dion Sanders, even Michael Jackson or Gwen Stefani, then Dallas Austin has produced or written songs for all of them. You can thank him for that. OK. Number three, gentlemen, he was an astronaut, a man barely alive. But gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first pionic man. That is Colonel Steve Austin, the six million dollar man.

He deserves to be on the list. And number two, this guy was frozen for 30 years before he got thawed out and put the grr and swinger, baby. Yeah. Do I make you Randy, baby?

That's Austin Powers. OK. And number one. And number one, come on. I'm trying to figure out who number one is when it comes to me.

Number one. Stone Cold. He's been stomping mud holes and walking them dry for years. He's a friend of the show. He's the Texas rattlesnake. Stone Cold Steve Austin.

And that's the bottom line because Stone Cold said so. This is what happens when this is what happens when you hop on the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network chat on Tuesday. 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's this dinosaur taste like? It ain't chicken. It's like biting into a sinewy charcoal briquette, but chewy. It's disgusting. It sure is. It's going to burn every week, wherever you listen.