REShow: Amy Trask - Hour 2

Ladies and gentlemen, The Rich Eisen Show with guest host, Susie Shuster.

You know, I've seen enough of Zach Wilson. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. How can a coach say the locker room's together? The only advice you can give a young man like that is that you've got to block it out.

Why is he so positive about this guy when we're so miserable? The Rich Eisen Show, earlier on the show. From NBC Sports, Peter King. Coming up, CBS Sports analyst, Amy Trask.

Actor and director, Josh Duhamel. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Susie Shuster. Hey there, everybody. Our two of The Rich Eisen Show. Susie Shuster, happy to be with you as my husband sits in a robe somewhere in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I'm just saying. In front of a fire pit. In front of a fire pit. He's there for Roku. He's having the time of his life.

Loves this partner that he's with and having a great time. But here I am with you guys and we're going to break down everything that there is to talk about in the National Football League. The NBA, Chris Brockman, how are you today? Hey, what's up, Susie? Something happened?

Something happened? A trade, maybe? Big trade. You know, we mentioned Spencer Tracy last hour with Peter King. Spencer Tracy was born in Milwaukee. Come on.

And there was a huge trade involving Milwaukee. That's a segue. Amy, do you see how we are a full service here on The Rich Eisen Show? That is a segue. Amy, my co-host for What the Football?

What the Football? And every Tuesday, we're so happy to have you come in all the way down from Venice. And thank you for making your time and traffic. Well, thank you for having me. And I want to say something about the expression, thank you. Because I've been getting a lot of grief and being told I say thank you too often. Well, let me tell you something. I was raised to say please and I was raised to say thank you. And in fact, I wrote an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle on the lost art of saying thank you. It's just not hard.

It takes two seconds. You type it, you text it, you say it. So you know what, Susie? People can get mad at me for saying thank you.

Thank you for having me. Who gets mad at Amy Trask? People get testy. They say I say thank you too much. Well, you know what? I was raised to say thank you and it's not hard to say thank you. And as I said, I wrote an op-ed on saying thank you.

All right, Amy, thank you. That said, I want to talk to you about a couple things. We will talk a little bit about your Bill Belichick clairvoyance. Coming up here on The Rich Guys and Chopies, we talked about it on What the Football. And a lot of people are like, wait a minute, Bill Belichick could have been a raider.

We will talk about that coming up. But before we do that, I want to talk to you about your reaction to the Dallas loss with Arizona. Because a lot of people are saying, OK, Dallas lost 28-16, week three. Arizona is supposed to be tanking. What are they doing? What was your reaction to this? My reaction was that the game demonstrated fully two points I love to make.

One, you're absolutely right. People were talking about Arizona is going to tank. Arizona is tanking. They're going to tank.

Players don't tank. Now, NFL executives can hope for a higher pick in the draft. They can want a higher pick in the draft. Team owners can take a long view, not a short view. Players take the field to win. Never in my career did I interact with any player who did not step on that field wanting to win. So when I heard people talking all offseason, they're going to tank, they're going to tank, they're tanking.

I don't buy it. Players don't tank. So that game, to me, demonstrated my point.

Players take the field to win. The other point it demonstrated is one I make often as well. Parity. That's the way the league is designed.

It's not by accident. I sat in team league owners' meetings for decades. This was a topic of discussion. Parity. The concept that every fan of every team goes into every game believing his or her team can win and goes into every season believing his or her team can win it all. This game proved parity. On any given Sunday, any given team can win. So thank you, Cardinals, for proving me right in two regards. Also, by the way, Dallas was without three starting offensive linemen.

There is that, too. Amy Trask here on the Rich Eisen Show. Suzy Schuster in for Rich.

Amy, of course, the Princess of Darkness and former CEO of the Raiders, current CBS Sports analyst. Could you think of a time ever where Al Davis would have reacted to this? I mean, could there have ever been a time where Al would have said, I'm going to sacrifice this season to look forward? Never. Never.

Never. And, in fact, he received a lot of criticism. We received a lot of criticism towards the end of his life. The last years of his life about taking too much of a short view, win now, win now. And the criticism was, you're not building for the future. You're not taking a long-term view.

And I thought to myself at the time, but of course couldn't say it all out. I never would. When you know that you have a limited amount of years to live, you're not looking at the long view the same way you would look at it years before.

Long-term has a different meaning when you're towards the end of your life. But he would never sacrifice winning at any time. Never.

Never. What are your thoughts, Amy, as we look at the Jets' conundrum right now? We've got Aaron Rodgers opining from afar, who's telling Joe Nemeth to stop talking negatively about his team, Robert Sala. People are wondering why he's not. What is Robert Sala supposed to do? He has to keep Zach Wilson healthy intellectually, mentally, physically. So I'm curious, as a former CEO, what are your thoughts on how things are going down in New York?

Well, first of all, my thought is for you because you live with Rich and you're confronting this every day. So when I think of the Jets and all of the angst, I think of you and my thoughts are with you. Thank you. Thank you.

You're welcome. I see what you did there. That was very clever. Clever. When Robert says that, my immediate thought was how much of that input is from management and how much of that input is from ownership or ownership slash management because at the end of the day, owners have ultimate authority and ultimate responsibility, even if that's delegated to management because what you delegate, you can undelegate.

I think I just made that word up. But when Robert gives his absolute unequivocal endorsement to Zach, yes, you're absolutely right. He's trying to give Zach confidence.

He's trying to put the wind beneath his wings, if we will. But I don't know how much of that is based on input from management and or ownership, which is, look, we're not doing anything else. Maybe we'll bring in a free agent here or there, but there's not going to be more trades. We're not going to acquire a big ticket free agent. This is our guy and we're sticking with it.

That said, he is being very, very, very unequivocal. And I think where I him, I'd leave myself a little bit of room because, look, they kept saying it's Zach, it's Zach, it's Zach. And they went out and signed a free agent. Of course, the idea may be for the practice squad as a backup. If Goshford bids something happens to Zach. But leave yourself a little bit of wiggle room. Give him the endorsement that you believe he needs to help your team. But maybe leave yourself a little wiggle.

Amy Trask here on the Rich Eisen Show. And as you mentioned on what the football and do what? And I think that was a really good way to kind of punt this and do what? Like, what can they possibly do? Well, and the issues are they've got draft pick issues as relates to the Aaron Rodgers trade. And draft picks used and committed with respect there to. A query whether they would want to give up additional draft picks for another player. Signing a free agent, well, there's cap issues. There's cash issues.

Never forget the cash. That matters to teams a lot more to some teams than others. But yes, and do what? And by the way, Suzy, I don't just ask that with respect to football issues. And do what is a great and an important question to ask whenever you're making a decision.

Because if your answer to and do what isn't better than the status quo or at a minimum as good as the status quo, then what are you doing? What teams are we not talking about? Because we're all so Jets heavy and so Devante heavy and what have you. What teams? Is it the 0-3 Vikings? Is it the Chargers?

What aren't we talking about? Well, you know, you mentioned the Chargers and here we're sitting in Los Angeles and they're just down the road. Their facility is another big injury. You know, Mike Williams out for the season.

I don't recall any time throughout my career or since I left the National Football League and in my current career. A team sustaining as many significant injuries to as many significant players as the Chargers have over the last three years. I did the math. Always scary.

I did the math. And if you add up the significant injuries to significant players over the last three years, that number is astonishing. So I don't know what they need to do. They did let their long-term trainer go. He'd been with the team many, many years. We'll see if and to what extent that may make a difference.

But another injury. I want to play you a sound bite. I'd love to hear your reaction to it as a member of ownership or of management. I'd like to hear what you have to say about this sound bite from Lamar Jackson. Lamar, I know you guys are focused on your own team.

But when the NFL team scores 70 in a game, what comes to mind? What do you think about – does it make you think about where offenses are going? Does it make you think of a bar that you kind of want this offense to get to? What do you think about that?

To be honest, no. I believe our offense can do the same thing. We just have to dial in, you know, stay locked in within the game and put points on the board. Because like I said, I feel like we stopped ourselves against the Colts. Turnovers, little mishaps. We wasn't putting points on the board, but I believe we could.

All right, so I know everyone's excited about Miami putting up the numbers that they did. But as someone in management, what's your reaction to having a quarterback going out there this publicly, this vocally with bulletin board material? Well, you nailed it, bulletin board material. My reaction as a team executive to a comment like that would be, I love his confidence.

But oh no, why did you say that aloud? People hear the expression bulletin board material, and a lot of people who've not been deeply involved with the NFL don't realize that's not simply a term of art. It's real. And yes, there still are bulletin boards, or at least there were real bulletin boards when I left the league. Now they may be digital bulletin boards. But the fact is, bulletin board material is a real thing. Suzy, I used to clip things out and run them down to the equipment guys and say, put this on the bulletin board, put this on the bulletin board. I remember sitting at breakfast game day morning in Kansas City.

We were there to play the Chiefs, and I saw something in the paper, and I don't remember what the something was, but it just got my dander up. And I ripped it out of the newspaper. Yeah, I did that.

You're such a cap person. I said, got my dander up. But I ripped it out of the newspaper, and I ran to our equipment guys.

They were loading the equipment on our team buses to get it to the stadium. I said, put this on the bulletin board, put this on the bulletin board. That's a real thing. So as a team executive, would I love his confidence? Absolutely. Would I want him to say that out loud?

Absolutely not. Was there ever a time you had to tell a player, zip it? I don't recall an instance right now, but you know the way my brain works. I may recall it when we're on break, and I'll let you know if I do. But right now, I don't recall one.

What about Al? Was there ever? Oh, see, this is the thing, and again, this is what you get with working together. It's usually going to be about a 30-second delay, and then suddenly, your brain explodes, and you think of five great stories that I've never heard, and I just sit there listening to every single one of them. I love that. Suzy just coined a phrase I am going to use the rest of my life.

My brain works on delay. Okay, and I did just remember something, and it was Al. When, you know, at the outset of my career, there weren't suites at every stadium.

There certainly weren't a lot of suites at every stadium, and most often, the visiting team was assigned an area in the press box, and that's where we sat, and at the old Mile High Stadium in Denver, which was a phenomenal stadium, you know, not the moneymaker the new stadium is, but just amazing home field advantage for the Broncos. We're sitting in our assigned staff area, and I'm right in front of Al, and he's talking aloud in a very conversational voice, and the media, the press are all around us, and everything he says, they're writing down. So I walk up to him. I'm like, you know, everything you say is fair game for the press that's here. They're writing down every word you say.

Didn't faze him. Kept talking out loud. Everything he said out loud.

Everything is being written down by the media. Again, I walked up to him, and I said, look, just be aware that everything you're saying is fair game for every member of the press here, and everything you say is being written down. Very dismissive again. I did that, I think, three times during the game. The next morning, everything Al said is now in every newspaper article about the game, and he called me and expressed surprise. And your reaction was? I laughed. I said, yeah, go figure. Did he tell you to fix it?

No. He just, he was a little, he wasn't angry. He was like, just sort of genuinely surprised that what he said was in the papers. So I just laughed. But to see what happened, that was a great story. And you just needed that little kind of quick second to like recharge the engine, and off you went. It's like a little bit like percolating, like coffee has to percolate.

Things need to percolate in my brain a little bit. I love that old Mile High stadium. I went there for a Chris Miller piece on concussions when I was there for rail sports, and it was his last game. In fact, I went there with an NFL Films crew, because real sports would send you with like the money. It was great.

And we actually caught Chris Miller's last ding, which was nothing, and that's what put him out of the league. But my memory of Mile High was that it was so damn cold that I went to go put my hands in my mittens by the Broncos flamethrower, because I was that cold, and my mittens burned off. Oh my gosh. Yeah, and I think it was Shannon Sharpe. Did he save you? Gave me some new mittens.

Wow. That stadium shook. When those fans were cheering, they shook. And the thing, those Bronco fans, whenever the visiting team, and that's what we were, had an incomplete pass, the entire stadium at once, incomplete. And it just got to the point as a visiting team where you just were groaning, because you knew every time there was an incomplete pass you were going to get that.

What was your favorite old school stadium? Well, I've got to let my brain percolate again. So many of them. Mile High would be one. I'll think about some more. Chris, what did you like?

Wake up, Chris. About Mile High Stadium? No, what was your favorite? Oh, see? Were you shopping online again?

No, I was reading something. I knew it. What was your favorite old school stadium? I mean, it doesn't get any better than Fenway Park. Fenway Park? No, but give me a football team. Give me an old... You know, I've never been to a lot of football games.

Really? Yeah, I've only ever really been to Gillette and the new stadium in Minnesota. It was the first-ever Super Bowl I went to. Oh, that's great.

And then so far I haven't really been to a lot of football stadiums. Mikey, what do you got? I can give you my worst.

Okay. The vet. Mike, you've been to a lot of stadiums. I've been to almost every one, and the vet's terrible. Is the vet the one with the jail underneath? The old one.

Yeah, it was gone. The clink, right? The link now is the... but literally the vet was the worst. The coolest one I ever went to, and TJ and I talk about this all the time, was I got to go in the Three Rivers in... Oh, wow. ...93 when Seton Hall played Pitt.

And when you walk in there and you're like, the history? That was... Three Rivers was insane. Well, and the old Eagles stadium. And Eagles fans, I got to give it up to you guys. Passionate, passionate fans.

I think it was week two. They're booing their team in the first quarter. Team went on to... You know, you guys, it's the first quarter.

You're booing already. But Eagles fans, my mom and dad were in Philadelphia for a game. They flew... they were on their way somewhere else.

They stopped in Philadelphia to go to a Raiders-Eagles game. They're sitting in the third deck, because that's where I had seats for them, and they're not wearing one thing that says Raiders on it. But they're in all black. Because I told them, don't wear anything that says Raiders. They're in the third deck in the stadium.

They're just nicely dressed in black. They're getting booed and booed and booed. And I went up to the third deck at halftime to visit them, and I looked at the fans.

I'm like, you guys, come on. It's my mom and dad. And I told them my mom and dad's age at the time.

And you know what? Those fans from that point on could not have been any nicer to my mom and dad. They bought them beers. They took care of them. They embraced my mom and dad. So thank you, Eagles fans.

That is so nice. I have to tell you, though, you are asking for it a little bit. When you go into a stadium wearing some oppositional gear. And then people always are like, God, I wonder why they were so tough with me. It's like dum-dums. I mean, you're basically giving you a middle finger, right?

And you know what? Booing is fine. Good-natured teasing is fine. Good-natured taunting is fine.

Physical aggression is not. And be respectful when you see people in a visiting team gear and they've got kids with them. Just be a decent human.

Go ahead. Boo the opposite team fans, but be a decent human. It's really troublesome, too, Amy. Seeing all these videos that inevitably come out on Sundays and Mondays, like people fighting in the stands. You know, someone just died in Foxborough because after suffering a heart attack, after getting into a fist fight with, I think, a Dolphins fan. I mean, at the risk of sounding like a super old man, like, what are we doing? You just get blacked out drunk and then you fight at football games? Like, come on. You don't sound like a super old man. You sound like a decent and reasoned and reasonable human being.

Same. And the fact is, fans of every team are, for the most part, good, good people. And every team has a handful of fans that are not behaving appropriately in stadium. And one of the things I did with the Raiders about, which I feel best, was working to change the image of Raider fans because 999.99999% of those fans were terrific in stadium.

There was a small handful that was not behaving appropriately. And the reason I raise that is, you know who were the most helpful to me in fixing what was going on in the stadium and fixing the image of the fans? The fans. The really, really, really good fans of teams do not want the handful of bad fans acting as they do. What was the most stressful part of your job in your 30 years with Al Davis?

How many hours do we have left on this show? I got ice cream. Look, these are obviously all stress with the expression, the first world sense. I like an expression my nephew Joe came up with better, the champagne sense. These were work stresses. These were not life stresses.

There's a very, very big difference between being stressed at work and being stressed because you can't feed your kids or you have no place to live or you have to work six jobs to feed your kids. So I'm very, very cognizant of the fact that the stress I've experienced during my career was champagne level stress, or how did he say that? Not a first world sense, a champagne sense. Well, you know, that's a very Taylor Swift thing to say, champagne problems. Is it? Did I just quote Taylor Swift? You kind of did.

I thought my nephew invented that. No, champagne problems. Oh, okay. I can ask Travis to call you and fill you in on that.

That'd be great. The biggest stress. Well, I would say one of them, and there were a number, one of them was keeping the team afloat financially. My responsibility was finding cash, credit, cash flow, all of those things to keep the team afloat financially. It was not in a good place financially. Much of that was due to decisions that were intentional. In other words, Al loved being in Oakland, but there were cash issues associated with that.

So I would say one of my biggest stresses, perhaps the number one, was finding the money to keep the team afloat and to keep the team owned by the Davis family. Much more from Amy Trask every week on What the Football with me. That's just a little taste of what we talk about. I hope you guys will subscribe, listen to What the Football, wherever you find your podcasts on the YouTube channel, wherever it might be, but that is just a little kind of a, that's an aperitif, that's a sample. That's just a little taste scoop of what we talk about on What the Football. When we come back, we will pay off our conversation that we did have on Tuesday about how close was Bill Belichick to being a Raider and whose idea was it to bring him in as the head coach. That's ahead right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Hey everybody, I'm coming for you. Absolutely what you need to hear over Reaction Monday, every single Wait for It Monday, wherever you listen.

Something you should know wherever you listen. Do you not believe the Tuck Rule was appropriately applied as it was written in the rule book? I do not. I do not. I watch the news a lot. You know, a lot of times you'll have, you know, two economists on television and they'll be talking about their economy. One will say the economy is doing great and one will say it's in the tank. But you're like, oh, these are economists. They both have the same facts and figures, same numbers.

How can they have differences of opinion, right? Two plus two is four. In our case, two plus two is still four, but they added one. So two plus two equaled five.

Why? Because they were able to add their own interpretation into it. So they took a play, two plus two is four, a fumble. They added their own interpretation and made it into incomplete pass. So if me and you were in the court of law and you're arguing that his arm was going forward, I would say, well, show me the part where his arm's going forward. You would show the tape, you'd see his arm going forward, and then you'd bring it back. And then I say, well, tell me, when did he fumble? Did he fumble while his arm was going forward? And you would have to tell me, no, when he brought it back into his body. Hence the Tuck Rule, correct? Yes.

Okay. So was he bringing it back into his body or was it into his body? So there's a technicality to it. So he wasn't bringing the ball back into his body. When I hit him, he had it, both hands on the ball. It's in his body.

He ain't bringing it back into his body. It's a fumble. Two plus two is four, unless you add one. And then it's five.

See, I thought you meant two plus two is five because that's how many Super Bowls Tom Brady has won. I like that. I can dig it. I can dig it.

I can dig it. I love the fact that he's won five Super Bowls. I'm happy, and I'm actually happy for him. This guy. Ah, yeah, that guy. That guy. You are such a that guy, Chris Rockman. Wait till I tell you about the first time I met Charles. Oh, I want to hear about it, but first I'm going to tell you about Grainger.

Okay, so hold that story. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry.

Grainger has the right product for you. Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. Charles Woodson, of course, the first guest ever on What the Football with Amy Trask and Suzy Schuster. But Chris, what's the first time that you met Charles Woodson? So in our Roku only segment just now, we played a clip from the Super Bowl in Atlanta. Charles was with us, obviously talking about the tuck rule because, you know, it keeps him up at night. We call that the snow game, Amy.

Sorry, not the tuck rule game. And so, you know, I just pointed out to Charles, he's talking about two plus, he's doing some weird math, fuzzy math, Amy. I didn't really understand. Two plus two equals five or something. So I reminded Charles, oh, maybe he thought two plus two equals five because that's how many rings Tom had at the time. Of course, he won two more after that.

He has seven. So the first time Charles ever did the podcast, the Rich Eisen Show podcast back at NFL Network, this is probably 2011, 2012. We were in there sitting. I was there. He was like, oh, Rich, Charles Woodson, this is Chris. He's a Patriots fan. Charles stops dead in his tracks, looks at me with a stone cold stare and goes, well, what is he doing here then? I love it.

All right. I have a few things to say about that Charles Woodson clip. First and foremost, I have a law degree. I passed the bar exam. He would make a spectacular attorney. Did you hear that cross-examination he did? He cross-examined about that Tuck rule play better than a lot of attorneys cross-examine.

So, Charles, if you ever want to go back to law school, we could do something together. Two, I agree with his comment about Tom Brady. I have no ill will against Tom Brady.

Tom Brady did exactly what every fan of every team would want his or her quarterback to do in that instance. And three, what was number three going to be? Come on. I got to remember number three.

Oh, yeah. After that game, we get to the airport to get on the team plane to go home. And one of the first people I see when we get off the team buses as we're waiting to get on the plane is Charles. And the two of us simply stood there and just looked at one another.

I will always remember that. Neither of us said a word. We just exchanged all our thoughts with brainwaves. What was that flight like home? Well, there was a delay. There was weather. You just referred to it, Chris, as the snow game. Well, it was snowing. We get on the plane.

We get on. They de-ice the plane. They get the whole plane de-iced. They de-ice the runway.

Whatever they're de-icing, they de-ice. We go to take off. There's a delay.

Then we have to de-ice again. We got home. We were hours and hours delayed. And it was just a rough flight home. Who sat where?

I love hearing all these things. Like, who sat where on the plane? That's a really interesting question. Well, I learned a lot on flights home and to the games because I sat in one seat. And then there was the aisle and Al sat right there. So it was like I was here and Al was right next to me with a little aisle in between us. So when we were flying home from games, the trainer would come visit Al and go over all the injuries. I had some of my great conversations with Al on those flights to and from. Were people afraid of Al? I think different people reacted to him differently.

Look, two and a half weeks, two, two and a half weeks, something like that, maybe a little less, no more than two and a half weeks into my job. I got into an argument with Al. I told him he was wrong. I was in a room sitting with a colleague. He walked in and he ripped into this colleague like I can imagine a velociraptor would rip into flesh. And I realized part way through he was wrong. So I said in a loud voice, because he was talking loudly and I have a loud voice. Excuse me, you're wrong. I will forever remember the look on his face when his head spun around.

It was kind of like the exorcist that head spinning around. He looked at me like, what do you say, like this kid who's been here two weeks? And I said, you were wrong. And I went on and I won't belabor the story because we got things to talk about. But I said to him, look, if the data upon which you were basing your conclusion was accurate, it'd be a fair conclusion.

But you're basing it on inaccurate data. We argued and argued and argued. And by the time we were done, he said, OK, I gotcha.

I got it. And we went on to have a great conversation. I learned at that moment, Susie, that all the urban legend that you couldn't disagree with Al, he wouldn't tolerate disagreement.

He wouldn't tolerate people who disagreed with him. It wasn't true. See, that's just a little bit.

That's just a little flavor, a little tasting of what you're going to get on what the football. And in light of that, I do have some leftover flying saucers because I did win a bet over the weekend with the Jets Patriots game with my good friend Damon Lindelof. Thank God the writers trach is over. He of lost fame and watchmen. His team is lost.

They lost. So he had to pay me a hundo. I tried to give him a Randolph Duke bet, like one dollar instead, one hundo full of flying saucers. So do you want chocolate or vanilla? Well, first of all, I know where the freezer is now here. I found the freezer.

Did you notice there's two missing ones? Yeah. Yeah. I had breakfast. Fantastic.

Yeah. I love that about Amy. She's a woman who's not afraid of ice cream. Not afraid.

You're also not afraid of picking out winners. I want you to retell the story. You mentioned it on what the football this week. And you, too, can find what the football wherever you find your podcasts or on the Rich Eisen Show YouTube page. That said, can you just give us that story again about Bill Belichick and how in an alternate universe that maybe David Lindelof could have thought of?

He could have been the Raiders head coach. I would love to because and I shared this on what the football people use the expression humble brag. There is no such thing as a humble brag. Humble brag is an oxymoron.

Google that, kids. I'm going to brag, brag. I brag brag about this a lot. And I don't think I'm ever going to stop with the Raiders almost 30 years. And in that 30 year period, only once one time did Al involve me in a coaching search. And he had me meet every candidate he brought in and then give him my opinion when I was done. So I met with each candidate, one of whom was Bill Belichick. So after all the interviews were done, Al says to me, which one would you hire?

And I was unequivocal. Bill Belichick. Al went on to hire John Gruden, at the time also a very good choice. I thought that story about how I recommended Bill would just remain between Al and me and nobody would ever know about that. And he did something so kind and so generous. He didn't have to do it. At a press conference subsequently, years subsequently, he said, Amy told me to hire Bill. And he shared that publicly. Again, he didn't have to.

That was a really generous thing to do. By the way, as Bill kept getting better and better and proving himself, periodically Al would say to me, you sure know how to hire a head coach. Or you know how to hire a head coach. No, it was you know how to pick a head coach, kid. You know how to pick a head coach.

And I would preen like a cat. I wonder what it was, what happened in that press conference that made him think of that. Do you have any recollection of that?

You know, I don't remember what brought it up. And it wasn't at the main press conference. What Al used to do is we would hold main press conferences. He'd be on the stage and then he would move to the side and have a discussion with all the assembled media. And that was really the best part because he would answer all their questions. And I don't know what prompted it.

I guess I could go back and figure it out. But he was asked a question and he said, Amy told me to hire Bill. Did he wear a hoodie in that interview when you met him? He did not. He did not. I don't remember exactly what he was wearing.

It wasn't a hoodie. It was appropriate for a football interview. What do you think it was about him that made you think he's the right choice? He's the guy that we should hire. Oh, I know what it was.

And I will use a Boston expression and I'm going to try to use a Boston accent. Wicked smart. Wicked smart. Just so smart.

The conversation we had was phenomenal. It was X's. It was O's. It was team building. It was leadership. It was organizational.

It was the National Football League as a whole on field, off field. But how smart he is was evident to me in that conversation. You know, we talk about this all the time. A lot of people will say, well, look at Matt Patricia. Look at Josh McDaniel.

Look at Vrabel. All these acolytes who come from Bill, but they haven't been able to translate. And then I'll see somebody say, well, it's really about Tom Brady.

What do you think? Well, a couple of things. First, I want to correct one thing. A lot of Patriot fans have pushed back on us and not in an irrespective, you know, and not in a disrespectful or rude or a mean way. But they've said Al never would have let Bill be Bill.

And I want to make this point. Al loved Bill. He respected him. He admired him.

He appreciated him. I do believe had Al hired Bill, they would have been a phenomenal combination. The reason and then I'm asked, well, why didn't he hire Bill? Al skewed offensive. He went with the offensive coach and that was something Al did. But make no mistake about it. Al loved Bill, respected him, admired him.

They would have been a fierce, fierce team. You know, and as to the was it Brady or was it Belichick? This is something I've said from the moment that Brady left and people started saying, well, now we're going to see if it was Brady or now we're going to see if it was Belichick. Two things don't need to be mutually exclusive. It doesn't need to be an either or.

And that has to do with more in life than just this. And people will immediately say, but, but, but, but, Amy, Bill hasn't won without Brady. Well, that roster was pretty darn depleted when Brady left. It wasn't just the absence of Brady, who is a great quarterback. But there were other holes on that roster as well.

And I don't know why we societally always need to pick and choose. Was it A or was it B? Sometimes it can be A and B. Chris, you were right over there. I thought I saw you tear up for a minute. I thought I was going to have to hold your hand after holding Rich's hand all week.

I was just looking at the Raiders roster there in the early 2000s. I wonder how Bill would have meshed with Rich Gannon and some of those guys, some of those older veterans. It's a great question.

I tend to think Bill can mesh with whomever Bill chooses to mesh. But that's a great question. Because Rich Gannon, you know, was kind of a journeyman before he got to, got to Oakland and he had his best years of his career with Jon Gruden, weighed in his career.

He was MVP at 37, one of the oldest MVPs in NFL history at that point. And I'm just kind of curious to just think about the what ifs of all of that. Well, and what ifs are fun because we can't control for all of those variables. But again, to people who say, you know, well, why didn't Al hire Bill?

Al skewed offensive when it came to head coaches. Oh, that's so true. Of course. Before we let you go.

Oh, God, I forgot I was going to ask you. I had something. Hold on.

Tom Brady. That's what it was. That's what happens with us, by the way.

We're like, wait, what are we going to talk about? Oh, yeah. Just Tom Brady.

Oh, yeah. Tom Brady. Default Tom Brady. You know, when in doubt, Tom Brady. I'm surrounded by Patriot fans. You really are. It's horrendous.

Help me. What do you think about Tom buying a piece of the Raiders? I have no issue with that. You know, when when it was announced that and he hasn't yet purchased the interest, it may be in process.

Perhaps it's not yet in process or the process isn't fully fully taken place. I have no issue whatsoever with that. People have asked me, am I bothered? Am I mad?

Not at all. Look, I'll say again what I said when we were discussing Charles Woodson's quotes. Tom Brady did exactly what every fan of every team would want his or her quarterback to do. Yeah, he did.

Yeah. I mean, Tom Brady did nothing wrong in that play. Tom did what you'd hope your quarterback would do. Now, if you want to talk about the officiating, that's a different topic. We'll get into that a different time. And I don't want to hear from you, New England fans.

Every time I mention this, I get the but, but, but, but. Guys, if we can't discuss this in good spirit as good sports, then what the heck are we doing? It was a perfectly officiated play. I don't know what the issue is.

I mean, don't give him any of my ice cream. They called it like they saw it. What was wrong with that play? It was a forward pass.

Yeah, an incomplete pass. What are we doing? Well, I can't repeat on air because I don't want to get the Rich Eisen show or Suzy in trouble by saying anything on air. I don't even know. You'd call it on air, on streaming, on whatever. But what I turned around and said to the official, it was the observer, not the on-field official, obviously, when I realized that play was being reviewed, Google it.

Oh, my God. We're the morons sitting here. Like, we're the fans. What happened just quickly before we go? Because she was there. We're the idiots who are like, hey, remember that pass?

That was awesome. You know, there's a rule in the National Football League, no cheering in the press box. And I was sitting in the staff area, visiting team staff area of the press box. We see the fumble. We all thought we won the game. You know, we grab each other because we're not allowed to cheer. So we're holding each other's hands.

Everyone on staff's grabbing each other. And when I realized that the play was being reviewed, I turned around and looked at the observer, the NFL observer. And I said something to him that, you know, if you overturn this play, you better call 911.

And there were a lot of, because I'm going to have a blanking stroke. It was quite a moment. And by the way, something nobody thinks about, if that play were only a few seconds later, game over. And no time left. Because New England had no timeouts left and they could have not had, oh, I'm sorry, a few seconds earlier. New England had no timeouts left. They couldn't ask for replay. But because of the timing of the play, the replay came down from above. So, you know, I talk often about the game being a game of seconds and a game of inches. That was a game of seconds, because if the onus was on New England to call for a replay, they couldn't.

They were out of timeouts. You want to know why? God loves Tom Brady.

I got no comment. But no, I have no ill will towards Tom at all. He did what you want every quarterback to do if you're a fan of the team. So if he buys an interest in the Raiders, terrific. Amy, I'll see you Tuesday.

Yes, you will. For What the Football. With ice cream.

With ice cream for everybody. Find What the Football wherever you find your podcast. Thank you to Amy Trask. Thank you. Well, thank you for saying thank you.

It's my pleasure. We'll take a break. We'll take a second hour of the Rich Eisen show when we come back. Rich is probably still having a hot toddy somewhere.

There you are. You're clapping. He's clapping. Oh, he's sweating.

He's over the brow. So he made it out of contestants. Well, yes.

He made it out of contestants. A brand new car! A car! Yes! Yes! TJ can win a car! Let's go!

This is amazing. Let's go! Master Key is the game.

Master Key is the game. This is going to take a while. Okay. Here we go. Popcorn machine. Oh, I'll take that if you want that, TJ. By the way, you've got to bring in this popcorn machine if you win it.

I want this popcorn. $41. $41. $41. It's not $71. $41.

It's $41! That's one key. That's one key. Grab the key. Take the middle key. Take the middle key. There's five keys.

Yes! He takes the middle key! No, he's not looking! He takes the second to the right key. I didn't look.

I didn't look. Here's another key. Here's a basket. $584. That's a $58 basket. It's not an $84 basket. No way.

No way. What's in it? Oh, you've got to get what's in it, too. Oh, it's an $84 basket. It's an $84 basket.

That's where I messed up. I listened to the people. That's an $84 basket.

I listened to the people. Come on, TJ. $84. No! It's $58!

$58! No! Oh, no! TJ! Oh, he only has one key! We need to find a friend! Oh, my gosh.

Come on, TJ! It's an $84 key. Uh-oh. Master G. Does it unlock the...

Does it unlock? Okay, it does not... Coffee maker. No coffee maker.

Coffee maker. Okay, he's going to unlock the electric bike. No, no, no, no! No! Okay! All right! All right!

Does it unlock the electric bike? No! No! No! No! No! No! Does it unlock the car?

Oh, my gosh. Does it unlock the car? Let's go! Does it unlock the car? Does it unlock the car? Does it unlock the car?

Does it unlock the car? He's turning the key! No! Oh, TJ! Oh, man. That was funny.

Before we get to TJ, Jefferson's fantasy, and that will come very shortly. Let's take a call, please, from San Antonio. It's Jimmy. Jimmy, how are you? Jimmy! Como estas?

Todo bien, gracias. Yeah, you could just call me Sprinkles. That's cute. That's a good little play on words, Jimmy. How are you, bud? I'm good. I was calling for advice since my girlfriend's gone. Hi, Amy. I know.

She's great, isn't she? Yes. What the football? You want to hear intelligent talk, people? Just sign up, subscribe, whatever the hell.

Click buttons. It's good. Thanks, Jimmy. You're welcome. Thank you.

How can I help you? The doctor is in. I'm listening. Jimmy, are you giggling, dog? What was that?

Yeah, I spoke a little before I saw it. The Mad Dog. She's on a Mad Dog game. A Mad Dog Thursday. What was it, a Philly? No, no, no. It's just some flour. Woo!

In the people. No big problem, no problem. Okay. Jimmy, how can I help you here? I'm on vacation.

I'm about to go on vacation, and you guys need to help because I'm headed to the Cape in Boston in four days. Yes. Oh, nice. Fantastic. That is fantastic news. For how long?

Four days. We do it annually. I've been with my buddies since we were eight years old, so it's a fun trip, but I want some new places to go to. We always do seafood. What else can I hit up on the Cape or Boston? Well, I mean, don't you think- You've been to the Cape more recently than I have, so- He's going to stop at the Hilltop Steakhouse on Route 1 on the way down there, right?

There you go. He's going to stop at the Hilltop Steakhouse, classic, and then I would also tell you, take a day ferry to Nantucket. It's easy. It's great. You stop at the juice bar right when you get off the wharf. When you get off the ferry, you make a right-hand turn on India Street, all right? Then you go across, what is it, Water Street that takes you right on the way to Easton Street to go to the juice bar, and you get yourself a sick, sick triple scoop waffle cone. Wow.

You are welcome, Jimmy. Triple scoop? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. We're doing tuna fishing, bait fishing, all the dude stuff, but the steak, I like where your head's at. Well, the Hilltop Steakhouse is a classic.

They've got a bunch of plastic cows out front, and I'm just saying, when I was a kid, I thought the Hilltop was like the most glamorous place in the world, so it was pretty great. But yeah, take the ferry to Nantucket. Walk around.

Good idea. You can go to, what is it, Lola Burger and get a great burger. You can go to Tapas. You can go to Tapas for a nice lobster roll, right, Chris?

I think that's the way to do it. That all sounds perfect right now. Do me a favor, Jimmy. I want you to go there. I want you to document your trip.

Yeah. Add us and all your kids, buddy. Add us in from the line at the juice bar. And by the way, the best time to go to the juice bar, hit yourself a nice 3 p.m. ice cream. It's like a little appetizer before dinner. It's after you're not full from lunch anymore. That's my advice.

Try the Green Monsta. It's fantastic. That should totally work if I have my flour or gummies, then I'll be ready for ice cream before dinner. Well- Definitely going to be ready for ice cream. Jimmy's ready for vacay.

Probably a sub and a- Drop 10K on Colorado. Let's go. Seriously. That's amazing. Thank you for the nice words on What the Football, by the way. I really appreciate that you're out there listening. Ah, y'all are welcome.

I'll let you go. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. 844-204, which is the number if you need me to give you some advice on where to eat. I am here for it.

I'm also here to give you psychological feedback. I'd like to go to the Cape this weekend. If your team sticks. Right? By the way, how nice would that be? That sounds incredible.

This is the best time of year to go to the Cape because all the tourists are gone. All the people with the bad sunburns, right, that you always see like everyone's walking around and they're wearing just, oh, I mean, just, and they're red. Red. They look like lobsters. Right? They look like a bunch of lobsters.

You know, they sit there with the tans and the tan lines, inappropriate tan lines. Personally, I cannot relate. No, no, but you can relate to a sick waffle cone with a triple scoop. You better say it.

Triple scoop waffle cone, man. That is aggressive. I mean, by the way- It's some jinx.

I live in Los Angeles, right? A woman's supposed to look a certain way or they kick you out. It's like, if you're not a sports fan in New England, they make you leave. People don't need ice cream out here. The women are like, oh, I'm going to have like a half a bite of a frozen yogurt or something stupid.

I get you. I'm going to have like a really small skinny martini. Can I have a skinny tequila? I want like a mule, but with no sugar.

Do you have agave? I mean, shoot me. I'm from New England. I'm like, I want a triple scoop waffle. In 15 minutes of landing on that island or getting off the ferry, I am there. I'm like, pack that stuff in. And I want jimmies on top. You're welcome. There's no bunless burger in Nantucket.

That's stupid. Breakfast burger? Lettuce? No. Can I get that protein style?

There's no bunless. Can I have that wrapped in lard off? They'll be like, where are you from? You suck. Leave.

Get back to Los Angeles with a Kardashian. You know what I mean? Like, right?

You just can't eat like that. All right. Mike Hoskins has had enough of this conversation.

TJ, give me some fantasy right now. I got to get out this headspace. All right, Mikey. There we go. I like that. I'm the only one who does a segment on the show and has no intro, no opening, no graphics.

I won't take it personally, though. Anyway, we're here for fantasy talk, and I'm going to try to get you guys ready for some fantasy football in week four. And I'm going to start that off by telling you, Chris, Mike, Susie, and I know everyone out here who's watching. I'm going to tell you who's him. You know who I think is him this week, Chris?

We got TJ. This might sound a little bit crazy. Uh-oh.

I think Justin Fields might be him this week. What? Listen to me. The Bears have lost 13 straight games, right? That's an unlucky number. That's so bad. At some point, that's got to stop, right? Does it? Right?

I mean, at some point? Look, the Broncos have allowed the most fantasy points to opposing QBs this season. Jimmy G had 19. Sam Howe had 25. Tua had 36. They've all scored at least two touchdowns against Denver. The Broncos only have four sacks and one pick in three games. That's it.

Just four. And they're playing back-to-back road games after just getting the bleep kicked out of them last week. Uh-huh.

Yeah. Also, Justin Fields, he averages nearly 24 fantasy points per game at home, so maybe being back in Chicago with the Bean and the thought of P-Quads Pizza will help him play a little bit better. Also, Dalton Kincaid. That was for Hoskins. Tight end for the Bills. I think this might be his week to score a touchdown because the Dolphins have allowed three tight ends to score at least eight fantasy points this week or this year.

So Dalton Kincaid, he might be him. Not him. Suzy, I'm going to have to piggyback off of what the football.

I'm going to have to use this again. Garrett Wilson of the Jets. Look, I love Garrett Wilson.

I think he's great. His talent's off the hook. But like I said on what the football, Chris, until he's able to pull a Mr.

Perfect Kurt Henning in the famous video with Steve Jordan, where he throws a 50-yard pass, runs and then catches it himself. Until he's able to do that, I just don't think he has any fantasy viability right now because the Jets quarterbacks are in a shambles. So unfortunately, Garrett Wilson, he's just not him this week. Also, this might surprise you, Dat Prescott is also not him this week. The Pats have yet to allow a quarterback to throw for over 250 yards. They held down jail in hurts. They held down to the Cowboys have issues in the red zone scoring. And let me tell you, what's not good for that is seeing a guy across the field in a hood and cut off sleeves because he's going to stop you.

So unfortunately, you're there, man. Dak is not him this week in fantasy. And you know who might be him?

They say revenge is a dis, best served cold. And once this team released him in March, I think the mill has gotten a little room temperature. Adam Phelan might be him. Look, he has 18 catches for 199 yards and two touchdowns scored at least 20 points per game in his last three games, and it's going against his ex team. So Adam Phelan, take a shot.

It could be him. Our fantasy football update sponsored by prize picks the number one daily fantasy sports app ready to test your skills. Join the prize picks community must be present in certain states.

Visit prize picks dot com for restrictions and details. Nicely done, TJ. Thank you so much for that. Thank you.

Hooked on a deal. Are you going to sing? Are you going to sing us to break? Is that what's going to happen?

I was pointing out that Adam Phelan song rhymes with rhymes, you know, Josh Jamil on the other side of this break on the Rich Eisen show still on Roku. And I have to tell you, I think Bryce Young's back this week, too. You think so? I think so. Yeah. He's practicing yesterday.

So it seems like he's on the right track. A lot of injuries so far. You guys a lot of injuries.

What is happening? So many so far. What do you think is the worst besides the obvious? Like, let's let's leave out the obvious, because that's just a whole other. You said something and I thought you were going to say something else. You said shambles.

I thought you were going to say another S.H. word coming out of that. So I was embracing myself. Well, apparently I'm not allowed to curse on Roku.

So OK, well, here's on the radio. Oh, OK. We could technically curse on Roku. Should we test it out? I mean, you can do it. No, please don't.

It would be issues for other people. You won't get fired. You. Yeah. You're safe.

I don't know. I'm hanging on by threat as it is. That's true. I'm really, I'm really bummed for Mike Williams. Back to the injury saying real quickly, I'm bummed for Mike Williams.

Yeah. This guy just can't say healthy. He's so explosive. The Chargers offense seems to finally be reaching his potential with Kellen Moore. And just to see him not out there is really a bummer. And obviously, Nick Chubb, you know, the Browns are kind of a sneaky, exciting, young, good team, despite what you think about Deshaun Watson. But that's that's a super bummer injury because he's also the best dude ever. And so well, the other thing we talked about on the WTF podcast is the fact that it seems like the Ravens and the Chargers, they're kind of used to this. Yeah. Every year they're suffering some type of debilitating injury with the top player.

So they're used to next man up. Our three ahead here on the Rich Eisen Show, Josh Jamil ahead of us. And we'll wrap up this Thursday edition so much more, though, do not go anywhere or we will come after you. Ask if you're looking for a new podcast to listen to about jargon, heavy legged waistbenders.