RE Show: Tom Pellisero - Hour 1

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That's Dell.com slash gift guide. Turn it up. Let's go. This is the Rich Eisen Show with guest host, Anthony Siciliano, Andrew Siciliano.

I'm a man crush on one Andrew Siciliano. Hey, hi. Hope you're doing well today. The Rich Eisen Show live from the Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles. You know what? I love you. Go. Thank you. Today's guests, NFL Network insider Tom Pellicero, Westwood One Sports NFL analyst, Ross Tucker.

Plus your phone calls, latest news, and more. And now sitting in for Rich, it's Andrew Siciliano. However, I have been called Anthony before. My name ends in a vowel. Obviously it's Italian.

My first name begins with an A and people's brains just go there. I do not answer to Anthony. However, if I had a dollar for every time I was called Anthony, I would still play the $1.4 billion Powerball tonight.

However, I would have a few more dollars in my pocket than I have now. Good morning, everybody. Or good afternoon, wherever the heck you are. Where we are in Los Angeles here, El Segundo. To be specific, speaking of wallets, if you lost yours, it is still morning, 9 a.m. here, noon where you are. You are meaning normal time East Coast.

Yes, I did grow up there because of course my name ends in a vowel and I have dark hair. So of course I am from the East Coast. Welcome to the Rich Eisen Show, starring Rich Eisen, who will join us in about an hour from London. Rich is there to call the Bills and the Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, NFL Network, NFL Plus, and NFL Network, NFL Plus exclusive coming up on Sunday. Von Miller says he is 94.5% likely to play.

True. Also, what does the word cheeky mean? Josh Allen had a cheeky connection.

Is he using his English vernacular the proper way? We'll unpack that a little bit later as well. We're happy that you are here. I am happy that I am here as well. I'm here a lot next week as Rich is in London as well.

And I'm also happy that Chris and Jason and TJ, gentlemen, Good Friday to all of you are here as well. My name ends in a consonant and I have no hair, but I also grew up on the East Coast. Yes, you did. Jason, where did you grow up? Here. Okay, here.

Hence the Dodger Hat. Yes, alright. TJ, where did you grow up? I'm from the East Coast depending. These guys say Pennsylvania is not East Coast. No, no, no. You're from Central Pennsylvania, not East Coast.

Look, it is what it is, but here's the other thing. I traded DJ Moore after week two. Yeah, dummy. That was me. Hey, the man who gave you fantasy vibes yesterday traded DJ Moore after week two.

We'll get to that in a second. In all seriousness, we'll put the East Coast the vowel thing aside. Everybody thinks I am from New York.

I am not. I went to school in Central New York as did Chris at Syracuse. Because A, I have dark hair. B, my name ends in a vowel.

And C, I can sometimes be loud and use my hands when speaking. So it is assumed that I am from New York. You guys are at the same time, by the way?

We're not. Chris is a bit younger. Yes, despite his lack of hair, Chris is younger than me. Yes. Hey, buddy. Yeah.

No. Moving on to the football game. A funny thing happened last night in my hometown. Well, Virginia, the other side of the district, but at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, where the Capitals used to call home, the commanders failed to show up, which is surprising because they got to drive to the game in their own personal vehicles, as opposed to the Bears, who lost a heartbreaker yet again to remain winless in Chicago this past Sunday.

Wednesday had to get on a plane, fly to BWI, get on the highway, their hotels and the whole thing's a mess. But the Bears showed up when everyone thought the Bears were dead. They were dead in the woods. They showed up. They punched the commanders in the mouth early. And unlike last week against the Broncos, yes, Sam Howell made some plays in the second half.

The commanders came out. Clearly something was said in the locker room. Ron Rivera told Kaylee Hartung he didn't have to say much.

He left it to them, the players in the locker room. They showed up in the second half and, I don't know, kind of made it interesting. Late touchdown, put it away. But Sam Howell threw for.388, mostly second half yards. Got me 30 points in my fantasy team.

Hey Dow. But the total opposite happened last night. Bizarro world happened last night.

We spent three hours on this show last night trying to tell you, well, I did. Matt Eberfluss is not getting fired. But yeah, the Sharks are circling. Bears don't fire coaches in season.

They've never done that before. There's no obvious replacement on that staff if you were to fire Matt Eberfluss. Now we sit here today, and I'm going to ask Tom Pelissero, who joins us in about 20 minutes, this very question. Now we sit here today wondering Ron Rivera's status.

I don't think he's getting fired, nor do I believe he should be fired. But that team was dead last night. Dead. D-E-D, dead. Dead. As somebody once said, dead. Did you see the looks on their faces in the first half?

Did you see the look on Chase Young's face walking to the locker room at halftime? Anybody? Dead. Not great, Bob.

Dead. Zero energy. And if you don't believe me, ask America's most prolific and nonsensical tweeter, Hall of Famer, Irvin Magic Johnson, who owns 4% of the commanders who was there last night, who was on the pregame show on Prime with Ryan Fitzpatrick fanboying, having him sign jerseys and photos and everything. It was actually kind of endearing.

It was cute. Magic said, tonight the commanders played with no intensity or fire. We didn't compete in the first half and got down 27 to 3 heading into halftime.

It was too big of a hole to climb out of, and that is why we ended up losing 40 to 20. That's the owner, Magic Johnson. I mean, not like all of it, but owns enough of it. More than you or I combined. He put down 200 mil. He put down many millions of dollars. And listen, much like Nathaniel Hackett last year with the Walton Penner Group in Denver.

I know it's a difficult comparison, but bear with me here. Ron Rivera was taking a team to a Super Bowl before. You are coaching for a new owner, and that new owner is kind of hanging back and watching how you do things. Because he's the new owner, not making any rash judgments, snap decisions.

He's letting it play out. That was really bad tape last night for the commanders in front of your new owner, in front of a fired up crowd. That was a sellout last night.

It was a sellout. You saw David Chang's piece last night of the pregame. You know, the great David Chang, Momofuku, great restaurants, right? He's a DC native.

We're basically the same age. Grew up in the same era there. Watch those great teams.

He did a piece where he went to the Old Epic Grill with Doug Williams and Darryl Green and talked about how great it would be to just get back to any level of that greatness. To get the stadium back in the district, to feel the feels that we all felt as kids with RFK physically shaking, physically shaking. And then you lay that egg. And who are the commanders right now? How does Major Tuttie feel this morning after laying that egg?

Because they were bad. And Ron Rivera said, it's on me. Hey, we got to get out of the gate better. That first half is on me. He always owns it. He's always that guy.

He is not a finger pointer, ever. But it's hard to say that that was the same team that was within a two point decision and conversion, you know, deciding to go for two doesn't win you the game, but a two point conversion away from beating the NFC champions last Sunday on the road. The home team is supposed to be the better team. It was almost as if the commanders were, I'm not saying it was a revolt against their coach Brockman, but it was almost as if they were disappointed and flat that they didn't go for two. Like if they had gone for two and beaten the Eagles, I cannot see them performing like they did last night.

Can you? Yeah, I agree. That was one of the things going into halftime. It was 27 to three last night. A part of me did think, hey, we saw this last week with the Bears.

Maybe they might come out flat again. And the commanders came right out of the gate and the third quarter marched right down the field. And I said, here we go.

Here we go. Top tempo offense, get the touchdown, get the two point conversion. But the looks on everyone's faces, Ron Rivera, Chae Sung, you mentioned, man, it was like, you think Ron would have wished he would have went for two last week?

Cause it seemed like everyone on the team did and everyone in the building. Just a different vibe. Even if you don't get it last week, at least you tried. At least you pulled out the old riverboat card.

Like it seems like riverboat Ron has sailed off into the sunset. It's hard here because I don't think that they're miraculously a better team if he goes for two and they get the two. They're not. They're the same collection of talent. Sure.

Same human beings, right? But human beings do work off emotion and a spring in their step at three and one maybe would have led to a better first half. But it's not as if Washington was collectively as a fan base here, collectively as a region going, I can't believe we lost that game.

We are down in the dumps. This team, this thing is over. There is no such thing as a moral victory, but collectively talking to people back home, they felt good. They felt good about that performance last week.

They really did, especially because of how Sam Howell played in the fourth quarter. Yeah, exactly. Right?

I don't get it. All right, let's talk about the Bears side of it. Because the Justin Fields, like I said, if you were leaving soldier field last week and chanting Caleb Williams, who I think is amazing, who I think is a franchise changer, if you get him. Then I said yesterday, you clearly weren't watching what Justin Fields did for three and a half quarters against the Broncos. Because if you can get that guy, that guy consistently, then you have your quarterback and you do not need Caleb Williams.

You don't. You got that guy last night and damn, didn't it feel good if you're a Bears fan. Didn't it feel good that Justin Fields did it again and he was able to make plays in the fourth quarter and DJ Moore had 230 yards and DJ Moore would have had four touchdowns if there was a clear angle of him staying in bounds, which I think he did stay in bounds. Omari Cooper is on line one from week three. It's the same play, except in Cleveland at week three, there was a clear view that Omari Cooper was in bounds.

They still couldn't overturn it because he, he, there had been a whistle. That's what you thought you were getting when you traded the number one overall pick to Carolina. That game last night from Justin Fields and DJ Moore. Now you just got to get it consistently. I don't know that you can, to be quite honest. Chris Canty was on one of the ESPN shows this morning.

I was watching while brushing teeth and getting ready to come in here. I thought he made an interesting point. He said, now's when you trade Justin Fields. Sell high. That's a take. That's a hot take. That's a take. It'll never happen.

That's fire right there. It'll never happen. That's a fantasy move. Because if you're Ryan Polls, then at that point you're packing it in for the season with Tyson Bajant because you cut Nathan Peterman.

I mean, he played well in the preseason. Sure, but you are wiping your hands of success this year. You're saying we're out.

You know what? We're out. I mean, to quote Cosmo Kramer in the legendary Seinfeld episode, The Contest, I'm out. I'm out of the contest.

Okay? We're done. And you have to have a reassurance that you still have your job as GM next year. So that will not and cannot happen.

It can't and it won't. Period. But it sure makes the rest of the year a little bit more interesting, doesn't it? Here's, by the way, what Justin Fields had to say after the game. How would you describe what that felt like? Just felt good. So good. Just seeing all the hard work pay off, especially, you know, getting a dub after everything that's happened this year.

Everything in the media, everything on the outside. Just just it just feels good when you can you can say that the hard work paid off. So, again, I'm proud of everybody in the building. I love everybody on my team.

Players, coaches, shoot everybody upstairs. I might not even know them, but I love you all. So. So, yeah.

So, I mean, that that feeling was, you know, like I said before, a feeling that you never wanted to end. And, you know, we just got to keep this momentum going and just just get ready for Minnesota coming up next week. Last two games for Justin Fields, six hundred and seventeen yards passing eight touchdowns.

Also, eighty two yards on the ground. Not bad. And that's the guy you drafted, right?

Pretty, pretty, pretty good. And the Bears won that game with Kari Blastingame closing out the game at running back. He's a fullback with three career carries coming into the game, a fullback. OK, because all your running backs are hurt and Deontay Foreman was inactive. Also, when you see Khalil Herbert roll up or go down last night, once again, back to our conversation from yesterday.

If you're running back and you can get paid, get paid, because it is hard out there for a running back. The Bears celebrating in the locker room afterwards as well. I mean, that was that was awesome. You just feel good for good people. And DJ Moore and Justin Fields are good people to finally see them have success and taste victory. Because, you know, you're working hard. It doesn't mean it's going to be all roses the rest of the year.

It does not mean that at all. And also, you know, I want to say this. Hats off to Justin Fields for showing up on the Amazon set afterwards.

Yeah, not not because they had been saying bad things about him. But because if anyone knows the setup there at FedEx Field, that is a second level set. That's not just coming out of the locker room and walking over to a set set up on the 20 yard line. Having done that show and having done a show at FedEx there, that is.

And can I say this? Pull the curtain back on TV. That is an awful set location in an awful building. It is up on the second level in the mezzanine with fans like literally falling over you. The ropes are almost arm's length from the stage of all the TNF setups.

That is the worst. So the Bears PR staff tip of the cap to you to getting your quarterback up a like. I think there's an elevator there, but it's a bad elevator. There is a set of stairs there in that end zone. Again, TV logistics here.

That is a bad set location. Justin Field showed up, smiled, said all the right things. He's a great kid and I'm happy for him. Where does that leave the Bears? I don't know that it really changes much, to be honest, other than it puts a little spring in their step. Next week, they get the Vikings at Soldier Field. OK, sure. Maybe. Raiders.

OK, sure. Maybe. Think about, though, how much differently we think of them, where we said yesterday, if they are to lose this game, I think they are losing 17 in a row. Now, can the Bears get a little winning streak going?

Maybe. Let's see what kind of fight Minnesota puts up against KC this week. How does Vegas look Monday night?

Jimmy G trending back. Devante Adams not practicing. You think Devante Adams would really miss the Packer game? Probably not.

I don't think so either. Chargers look good. Coaching. Excuse me?

They look good on offense. Oh, OK. Got it. Got it.

Defensive head coach. No, no, no. Sure. Yeah.

Again, doesn't change any. Doesn't change everything for the Bears, but it certainly is. It was fun to watch. Fear Bears fan. Shout out Bears fans. Shout out to Adam.

It wasn't a walk of shame last night. They were happy. Adam said he felt like they won the Super Bowl. That's how big that Bears win was last night.

So good for them. If they just would have listened to me, they would have known that the win was in the bag. You said to start Brian Robinson. OK, so of course you're going to pick the negative and you're going to forget the positive thing that I did and look at the negative.

That's so you. The Bears also made a trade. They traded Chase Claypool this morning. The man who broke that trade, Tom Pellicero, will join us coming up next with more details on the trade. And a look back on the Bears move to get Chase Claypool last year at the deadline, which will go down as quite possibly. No, let's get quite possibly because that's couching it.

It will go down as the worst trade in the last five to 10 years in the National Football League. Can you think of a worse one? I dare you. I double dog dare you. I defy you. Come up with a worse trade than that one. Thank you.

Thank you. And also coming up, obviously, we lost the great Dick Butkus yesterday, one of my. Not only one of my favorite former players and favorite Hall of Famers, but I'll say this about Dick Butkus. No one. You got to make the argument and I will. No one player personifies a city and a franchise for any team in this league more than Dick Butkus did for Chicago and the Chicago Bears.

Not one. Nobody coming up will remember the great Dick Butkus. And we will also go through his IMDB page because you will not believe some of the Hollywood magic that he made here after he moved to Malibu. Love that guy. As I said, Tom Pellicero coming up next, the details on the Chase Claypool trade.

Will Jonathan Taylor be traded? That's next. I thought it was spot on. Millions of listeners and thousands of five star reviews rave about the hit podcast series in the red clay. The unbelievable story of Billy Sunday Burt, the most dangerous man in Georgia history. He was a whiskey man, bank robber, hit man.

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Get the podcast wherever you listen. How many brothers do you have? Three. Three?

Yes. So you're the are you the lone? I'm the second oldest. I had some power. But you're the lone girl.

I'm the lone girl. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So I played a lot of sports growing up.

What'd you play? Soccer. Okay. Yeah. I played on all boys teams. Karate Kid.

She plays soccer. Oh yeah. I had to pretend to be bad at Karate Kid. I'd pretend. I didn't know what I was doing, but I was better than Ralph Macchio at soccer.

And probably a karate too. Of course, I didn't train. I'm sure it would have been much better if I trained. That wasn't part of your role. No it wasn't.

In the film. I could have kicked his ass. You could have swept the leg.

You could have done all that stuff. What was that like for you being a new actress in the world and getting to be in the Karate Kid right off the bat? What was that like for you, Elizabeth? Well, I had been in the business for about five years before that, so it wasn't this sudden experience. I was the Burger King girl. I did a lot of commercials. I sort of slowly, slowly, slowly learned my way into it. So then you just showed up on the set of Karate Kid. Did you have any idea how special that movie was when you were doing it? No.

None. I was worried. I thought it sounded a little strange. The Karate Kid and Ralph being Ralph. I didn't think that he would have any credibility as a karate expert. Wow! Ralph had no idea he was waking up today.

He's going to get thrown under an Elizabeth's shoe bus. Sorry. That's okay.

I mean, hey, it is what it is. No, it was amazing, though, to see that movie actually stand the test of time. All my kids have watched it. I love what it says about sports and about the relationship between Miyagi and Daniel is so beautiful.

So there's so much that's good about it. For those watching on the Roku channel, and you can see the old clips there, I am just in rapture there watching a six-year-old Elizabeth shoe video. Hi, I'm Andrew, everybody.

Just watching Elizabeth's shoe here, sitting in for Rich, who joins us coming up at the top of the next hour live from London, 48 hours, roughly, ahead of the Jaguars and the Bills. This is the Rich Eisen Show desk, by the way, at our studio here in Los Angeles. It is furnished by Grainger. With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger has the right product for you.

Call, click, grainger.com or just stop by. Ross Tucker joins us in about two hours. He called the game last night, a commander's faceplant, a Bears win, 40 to 20. Joining us now, my colleague from NFL Network. I don't get a chance to speak to him much anymore, but it is a pleasure to do it on a day in which we're all kind of like dressed down.

Because we do that now, the network. I'm wearing the golf shirt. Tom Bellisero wearing a hoodie. Hi, Tom.

I'm great, Andrew. The wardrobe has been a very interesting debate slash development in recent months at NFL Network. We've got no ties on Total Access now. We still are in ties as newsmen on Good Morning Football.

It makes no sense. The past is closer to this style of wardrobe. So I made a promise to myself, hoodies on casual Fridays only. Every other day, you know, it's a little bit above that.

And I'd like to wrap up or drag it down by constantly wearing short-sleeve Henley t-shirts. Yeah. Ian, yesterday, maybe it's two days ago. I'm losing track of days.

This week has gone quickly. Ian had a shirt on. It was like lime green. It looked as if he pulled it out of the bottom of his laundry basket, his hamper. It looked like he had slept in it and he could not care less. And this is what we were talking about it on the show. And the company that made that shirt sent him like 10 more.

That is a real story. That's basically if you want to sell out, grab a port's existence. It's basically he's an influencer who dabbles in TV news at this point. I would put it another way. I would say he's an insider who goes on television and grovels.

There's a difference. He grovels. All right, let's get to the trade. You had a trade this morning.

You broke the news, you and Ian, that Chase Claypool has exited Hallis Hall. Finally, he's traded for the second time in less than a year. And the Bears basically gave him away for a Cam Akers-like ham sandwich. That seems to be the going rate on a lot of these trades right now, which is if you've got a player who is making even a little bit of money because Claypool is not making a ton.

And for one reason or another culture or otherwise, you need to move on from the player. That late round pick swap seems to be the new form of compensation involving future picks, not even in 2024. So, you know, for the Dolphins, they obviously love to have as much speed, as many weapons as they can have at the wide receiver position. It's a flyer.

It doesn't cost you much in terms of trade comp or the salary. And for the Bears, it just, you know, there were concerns about just the maturity with Chase Claypool. Obviously, he had said some things that didn't really land well.

He hadn't really fit in. And I think that if you look at the Bears offense in the two games they've played without Chase Claypool, they've been substantially better. I don't think you can trace that solely to one player's absence, but they feel like they're in a better position. And for the Dolphins, they're getting a player who, you know, less than one year ago, but 11 months ago, the Bears gave up the number 32 overall pick, what ended up being the number 32 overall pick to go and get him. You're thinking it's all upside here. And if it doesn't work out, you're the next team to move on. You can write this one off, and I would, as one of the worst trades. The Bears trade with the Steelers in recent memory. And I know there's this, I know we had reported that the Packers had gotten in on that, and the Packers kind of drove the price up because they wanted to get another weapon for Aaron Rodgers down the stretch, but giving up what turns out to be, in essence, a first round pick on a four-year contract. Bad trade for the Bears. Let's talk about the game last night.

I think coming in, Tom, there are a lot of people, and I tried to pooh-pooh it. The Bears have never fired a coach in season. There's no obvious replacement on that staff there that said this might be the end of Matt Eberfluss.

Again, I didn't see it. Now when we see Magic Johnson, and we could laugh because Magic's had some silly tweets over the years, but he is ownership, right? Four percent ownership, which is more than you and me tweeting about lack of effort, which was obvious to anyone watching the game.

I mean, this is a team that could have would have come in at three and one, the commanders, if they had only gone for two and gotten the two in Philadelphia and beaten the undefeated Eagles. I mean, what do we make of the situation in Washington with new ownership and a team that so badly underperformed on a national stage on a big game last night? Well, the Magic Johnson piece, you alluded to it, Andrew. Magic's known for expressing opinions along the way. This is just in a unique spot now where he's not in the NBA anymore. He's not the president or whatever he was of the Lakers. He's now a minority owner with the commanders, and he's speaking out in a way that I don't think we've ever seen a minority owner do about any team in the NFL.

So, you know, you take that on one hand. It obviously was not a good performance at all by the commanders in that game. They'd also been a team that we looked at over the previous couple of weeks and said, boy, you know, there's something here. Obviously, Sam Hall had the bad game where he threw the four picks, but other than that, they looked competent. They looked better on offense. And last night it was just kind of this disjointed mess.

They had opportunities. You know, Howell throws that ball a little bit outside of, you know, outside the arms of De'Ami Brown down the scene. Maybe that's a play that kind of flips the whole thing. But to the Bears credit, I mean, everybody, you know, kind of buried him.

I don't I don't believe, Andrew, based on what I know. I don't believe that Matt Eberfluss would have been out with a loss last night anyway. You know, we're still five games into the season at this point.

You never want to lose 15 in a row. And thankfully for the Bears, they did not. And they got a significant win. But they felt internally like they were not that far off. And they felt that way even before Justin Fields made the comments about being robotic, the cause of Firestorm, because people decided to reduce that to a one word tweet about coaching. And, you know, they continue to build toward that. But when you have that going on, you have the Alan Williams situation going on where your defensive coordinator just one day isn't there anymore.

And then you have the Chase Claypool thing that was playing out as well. You had a lot of different parts here where it's hard, man. These are not you know, they're not machines on the field.

These are human beings. And the emotional weight of a lot of that stuff was not really productive. But you saw flashes of it in the Broncos game before that one got away from. And then last night you saw, I mean, D.J. Moore stepped up in a massive way.

Khalil Herbert certainly had good moments in that game. And then Justin Fields, he's playing like we've seen the flashes from with Justin Fields. And this is going to be one of the complicated evaluations for the Bears to make going forward here, which is that, you know, Justin Fields can do that. You know, he can flash that way. But can he do it consistently enough?

Are you going to get the really good Justin Fields games and the not really good Justin Fields games? That's all part of what they have to look at going forward. But I think you have to credit, you know, everybody from Matt Eberfluss to Luke Getze to Andrew Genoco, all the coaches who are implicated by those comments that, again, were taken somewhat out of context from Justin Fields.

They've continued working. And on a short week going on the road, quick turnaround, they went and absolutely kicked the holy hell out of the commanders team that had been flying high going into that game. And in the fourth quarter, after Sam Howell and the commanders had come out in the second half and made some plays and made it interesting. Unlike last week, Justin Fields and the Bears made plays offensively and put that game away.

And they go into the mini-buy now feeling good getting their first win. Is Jonathan Taylor going to play on Sunday, Tom? You look at the injury report and you read Jonathan Taylor's words, there's no reason right now, Andrew, to think he won't play this week for the Colts. Now, he was not exactly effusive in his statements about the organization when he spoke to reporters for the first time in months. He was asked, does he want to be a Colt? And he said, well, I am one right now. Something along those lines. You know, it's obvious that he's not pleased with how everything has played out here.

But the reality is, you know, he was coming off an ankle injury. I think that's one of the things we talked about a bunch of times, Andrew, on this show with Rich and the boys in studio. What's up, boys? Sorry, I forgot. What's up, brother? Thank you.

I hope you're enjoying your plant-based energy that I sent you out there. But, yeah, I mean, it's a unique type of a situation overall, I would just say that. Do you think if he plays Sunday, it is still building towards the possibility of a trade? In other words, is this kind of a show and tell that he is healthy? Do you think they would still move him if they could?

Right. And that's what I was getting at was, you know, I think there was this conspiracy theory that it was all a hold in and the ankle was fine. He left him in the middle of August to leave the state and go get treatment on the ankle.

You don't do that if it's part of a hold in. Yeah, he's been frustrated. Yes, he requested a trade.

All those things really happen. He still wants a new contract. But at some point, going out there and showing everyone that you're 100 percent healthy, whether that raises your value to the Colts, whether that raises your trade value with the league, there's a lot of reasons to think that playing football right now is a good option for Jonathan Taylor. Could they work something out in terms of a new contract in Indianapolis?

I know there have been discussions about that. I don't know that anything is imminent on that front at this point. But for Jonathan Taylor, he's got to play football. Ryan, people use the twenty twenty one NFL rushing champ and then we've still got Andrew three, four weeks until the trade deadline here.

Who knows what direction it goes. The Colts have been always consistent. They would like to pay Jonathan Taylor. They just don't want to pay him right now.

That's been one of the discrepancies throughout this entire process. Two quick quarterback once here before I let you go. Desmond Ritter somehow did not get benched in London last week at halftime. But Taylor Heinecke is waiting in the wings.

How short is the leash there for him? It's a good question, Andrew. I think that you have to have the frame of reference that two weeks ago, when the Falcons were 2-0, Arthur Smith was saying this guy embodies everything about what we want a Falcon to be, just in terms of the toughness and leadership and everything else. So it's hard to swing from that type of this is our guy to, well, now we're going to kick you to the curbs. We had a couple of rough performances here. That was obviously not the best we've seen at Desmond Ritter. There's a lot of things that they do like about Desmond Ritter.

They also did pay Taylor Heinecke a lot of money. So I don't know that it's a he throws one pick in this game. He's getting yanked out type of a situation at this point, certainly bears monitoring.

But I would just say it's not strictly a Desmond Ritter issue. That offense in general just was not firing over these last couple of games here. And let's see if they can do that this week. What about New England? Mac Jones, Bailey Zappi?

I can't believe I'm asking this. But Mac Jones and Matt Matt for both of these offenses week in that game, the Patriots and the Saints have been awful. But forget about the Saints. Any chance Bailey Zappi is keeping the shoulder warm? There's always a chance, Andrew, but I would also remind you that they cut Bailey Zappi a month ago, you know, and he cleared waivers.

And then there was a back and forth. Wasn't that Belichick like just procedural chess when everyone else was playing deadline checkers? He started games last year, won games.

And I thought it was a coin flip. Was he going to get claimed? You wouldn't do that if you're thinking we might get four games into the season and bench one guy for the other. It's always a different deal in New England because Belichick went through the entire offseason and never actually named Mac Jones the starter. That's literally the only confirmation we had the entire time was, hey, Bailey Zappi got cut. I guess Mac's the starter now.

So there was never that kind of, you know, Cam Newton's our quarterback. We're on to Cincinnati. Hold on. I got to answer this.

This might be a trade. Hold on. We'll do this arch live on the air. Go ahead.

This is awesome. Hey, Tom Pelissero working the trade. Hold on. We're going to have to mute his microphone.

This is how the sausage is made. Oh, you there? Yeah, now I got you. Bad sell who dis?

NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero. Perfect. Yep. No, no. Got it. Don't give it to Ian.

Yep. Don't give it to Ian. Not Ian. That's good, man. I appreciate it. All right.

Not just yet. No, no. Man. That was cinema right there, guys. Wow.

Can you give us a hint on it? We want it. No. Okay. Can Tom Brady start this week for the Pats?

Yeah. Did you hear Chris? Can Tom Brady play this week for the Patriots? No, I heard it.

I heard it. That would not be a trade. Tom Brady is a free agent. Tom Brady is a free agent. Patriots fan.

Thanks. Tom Brady's growing a roster. Not yet owner of the Raiders either or a owner.

And owner chance. That'll be an interesting one. I don't know that it's I don't. I mean, I've had people in the league say they don't know that that's ever going to get pushed through for multiple different reasons. So it may or may not. The next league meeting is in a week and a half here.

I don't know that it's going to get a vote then. The next meeting after that would be in December. So Tom Brady quite possibly for a good chunk of the season if people decide to come back would be eligible to do so. Hey, as we let you go, I was listening to Tom as I often do on Monday on my way to work on the Jim Gray and Larry Fitzgerald thing on Monday night and Westwood on Sirius, whatever it's on now. And he works blue now. I don't know if you've heard that. Tom willing to add colorful f-bombs in the broadcast there with Jim Gray.

It's satellite radio. He doesn't care. He's working blue. He's lost ten pounds and he's unloading on people. What? Yeah.

You should check it out. Looks like he's lost more than ten pounds. At that Patriots ceremony, he looked gaunt.

He looked gaunt. Yes, that is a way. That is a good way to describe it. A polite way.

If gaunt is good, I want to look like that. To describe it. Or like when you come home and your mom always goes, you've lost weight.

It's better than saying you haven't lost weight. So there. Tom Pellicero, the insiders, wearing a hoodie and then on game day morning coming up on Sunday wearing a tie. Game day kickoff. Come on. Game day kickoff.

I'm sorry. It is game day kickoff. It is 7 a.m. Eastern time ahead of the game. An NFL Network exclusive and on NFL Plus as well. Plus.NFL.com.

Plus.NFL.com. Coming up on Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. See you then, Tom. Thank you. Thanks, Andrew. 7 Eastern meeting.

4 o'clock here in Los Angeles for the people in the studio with that shift. I'm not one of them. Good luck. Me neither. It's OK.

I'll be in the building around 7 for those who care, those who don't. You should watch the show that we're doing now on the NFL Channel. It's here on the Roku Channel. It's on the fast channels. Whatever you have on your connected TV.

I have a Sony like you hit the home button and then there's like little TV icon. All the free channels. The NFL Channel. There's a channel there with 24 hour a day. NFL content. A lot of NFL film stuff during the week. Do a power rankings podcast show thing there.

There are get home. There's a fantasy show on a bunch of days. And then on Sundays we do a new show. NFL game day preview noon Eastern. Me, Steve White, Cynthia Freeland, Leslie Frazier, all the reporters. Tom's been on the show there obviously when he's in the field.

Ian, Mike, everybody at all the games that you would see on game day morning. We do the same thing as we're like in the room next door. We do it on the fast channel. You should watch it. We don't necessarily have Irv wearing funny hats or mooch.

You know, tripping down the steps wearing goofy costumes. We don't have the human tricks as Dave Letterman used to call them. But we do have great football content.

And you should watch it every Sunday morning. All right. Coming up next. Dick Butkus died yesterday. When it happened, I texted TJ and Chris bears by 50. I was wrong by 30.

It was bears by 20. Our memories of Dick Butkus and we will go through his IMDB page because it is spectacular. That is coming up next on the Rich Eisen Show, sometimes starring Rich Eisen. Suzy Schuster and Amy Trask present offbeat conversations and expert sports commentary as they ask, what the football? When my family found out how long it took me to figure out why Charles Woodson named his wine intercept, they said, there's a reason that you had trouble in school. You know, not everyone knows, you know, what I think about a little intercept. They don't know that I play football. Well, what I've learned is a smooth defensive back can make smooth wine. That's what it's all about. What the football with Suzy Schuster and Amy Trask.

The podcast is available Tuesdays wherever you listen. What was the big break for you? Was it married with children, essentially, or? Well, I went to New York from Youngstown and I was doing a lot of theater and I did Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theaters and so forth. And I was doing a play at Hartford Stage called Mice and Men, which is not a comedy, by the way.

And I was I was playing Lenny. OK. And then a casting director from L.A. was visiting his aunt and went to the show and then like the play, like me. And then a year later, they're casting married with children and they can't get the Bundy guy. And this guy's name was Hirschfeld. And he said, you know, this, you know, guys, you're going to think I'm nuts.

But I saw an actor a year ago in a drama that I think he could do this. And they they almost fired him. And I happened to be out there at the time for a failed pilot. And they called me and I was playing handball at the Hollywood Y. And I showed up with my glove, with the bag, you know, my bag with the gloves hanging off. And it was Levitt Moyer.

The hell is that? And so we we started talking in the office and then they had me audition. They said, would you mind reading? And I said, no, that's what I do all the time. And I saw the guy as as my uncle, one of my uncles, Al Bundy.

Yeah. He was like and the guy was a judge. But he reminded me of this guy. And what I mean is, I guess apparently most of the guys that read for it were doing it like Jackie Gleason and the Honeymooners, you know, yelling and mad. Well, my uncle was like resigned. You know, life was going to be bad.

I love it. So, you know, we'd be like you get home from work and he'd come in the house. And my aunt, his wife would say, Joe, I ran over the dog in the driveway.

Today's dead. And Joe would say, what's for dinner? It was sort of like that, right? That's how I read it. And they had not heard that tact, you know, that reputation. No, they had not heard that. And they went, well, that's kind of funny.

Genius. And I, I love that old stuff. Yeah, there's fantastic. And really, like I was talking to a college student recently, like a daughter of a guy I went to high school with who reached out.

She's a college student trying to get in the business. And that Ed Harris story about like you never know who's in the audience watching. And then you get your big career break. I didn't tell it the same way because it's not the same thing.

But like shake as many hands, you know, meet as many people, offer to do as many jobs. Because one of these days someone's going to call up and say, hey, someone, someone's sick or someone can't come to work. Or somebody's dog, as Ed Harris said, was run over in the driveway and is dead. And they're going to need you and Ed O'Neill. Ed O'Neill.

I'm sorry. I've heard it both ways. Not Ed Harris. Ed O'Neill. Has Ed Harris ever been here?

No, actually not. Ed O'Neill. Ed O'Neill. Al Bundy. Imagine if that casting director had been in a theater in Connecticut for Ed Harris. And how TV history would be different.

Anyway, I digress. Andrew's sitting in for Rich, by the way. You can stream the NFL and Westwood One for free, sponsored by AutoZone. All season long, you can listen to every Westwood One broadcast of the NFL, a lively NFL app, by asking Alexa to open the WWO Sports app or on your Westwood One affiliate station's digital platform.

You can stream Kevin Harlan, Kurt Warner and Rich all season long for free. And get in the zone of AutoZone. It makes AutoZone America's number one battery destination. Because they offer free battery testing and charging and reliable replacement batteries.

And they've always got your battery solution. Get in the zone with AutoZone. The Bears were in a zone yesterday as we found out about two hours before kickoff that we had lost the legendary Dick Butkus. Did you see that Justin Fields said after the game that he found out while warming up and he saw it on the jumbotron at FedEx and went, What? And he said they played this one for Dick Butkus, who was often around the team. He was there earlier at Soldier Field this season, right? With a cane on the field, always tweeted about his team that he loved so dearly.

This one was for Dick Butkus and they found a way to win, to kick some Butkus there on the commanders and win by 20. Dick Butkus, I'm honored to say that I interviewed him a couple of times over the years. I met him plenty of times when I was a young radio reporter for the Bears flagship station in Chicago in the 90s. He was an American original, but he was truly, he was everything about a franchise and about a town and about a team and about a style of play. No one in the history of this league, and this is not hyperbole, personified a town, a team and a franchise more than Dick Butkus. Oh, by the way, he's a top 10 player ever, ever, ever, ever, ever at any position. He was mean on the field. He could not play the way he did now, full stop. He aimed to hurt you when he tackled you, and he often did.

He struck fear in the hearts of his opponents, and that also is not hyperbole. Many of his opponents, including people that also have gold jackets, say that they were legitimately scared of Dick Butkus. He was born and raised in Chicago on the South Side as the son of Lithuanian immigrants. He went to high school in Chicago. He played in Champaign at the University of Illinois, where he played both offense and defense.

He was a center at one point. He was an All-American. He then came home to the Bears and played for his hometown team and rewrote the record book and rewrote what it meant to be a Chicago Bear.

He had his South Side accent till the day that we lost him yesterday, even though he lived in Malibu. He was the bear of all bears. He could be cranky.

I last interviewed him in February. He could be pretty mean spirited to the team that he sat on the couch and rooted for every Sunday. But man, did he love his bears. And when he got him on the phone, he sounded like, well, he sounded like a Bears fan calling The Score, the sports radio station in Chicago, complaining about the team and the coach and the ownership. He was Chicago through and through.

He also, let's put it this way, was a Hollywood legend for some of the the classics that he made here after making his move to L.A. Have you gone through Dick Butkus's IMDB page? If you haven't, you're about to. Here we go. The Bernie Mac Show.

Hang Time. Any Given Sunday. Coach. The Last Boy Scout. MacGyver.

Necessary Roughness. Gremlins 2. Oh, The New Batch. The New Batch. My Two Dads.

Kate and Ally. Growing Pains. Matlock. Night Court.

Hamburger. The Motion Picture. Murder, She Wrote. Johnny Dangerously. Half Nelson. The Love Boat. Blue Thunder.

Simon and Simon. The Greatest American Hero. Magnum P.I. Vegas, the one with the dollar sign for the S at the end. Fantasy Island.

Taxi. Wonder Woman. The TV show Wonder Woman.

What else? The Rockford Files. The Six Million Dollar Man.

Police Story. Brian's Song. Well, obviously he'd be in Brian's Song. I mean, that is that is quite a Hollywood life. He had a football life. He had a Hollywood life. Dick Butkus lived an amazing life. And the NFL and all of us are worse off today than we were yesterday because we do not have Dick Butkus. And he's another one of those players where when you watch the highlight reel that we rolled on NFL Network yesterday and that we rolled on Prime last night, you just go, holy hell, what a different sport it was. Oh, for sure.

I mean, that's obvious. You know, the best segments used to be jacked up. It used to be the NFL film's greatest hits.

None of that stuff obviously flies today. But Andrew, yeah, when NFL Network did the 100 best players of all time, ranked them in 2010. He was number 10. Obviously, he was on the all time team a few years ago that Rich hosted one of the greatest.

You don't think football. He's one of the first names that come to mind when you think about the game of football that we love so much. So obviously a terrible, terrible loss, but no surprise that the Bears won in his honor yesterday. They won in his honor.

I can't think of another player that played for his hometown team at that level and personified a team in a city more than him. Chicago Vocational High School, South Side, Illinois, first round pick in 65. Did anyone see the Bears first round in 1965? It's pretty good. Anybody?

Dick Butkus three, Gail Sayers four. How'd that work out? Is that good?

Is that good? Now Ozzie Newsome's first draft with the Ravens in Baltimore in 95, also good. Two Hall of Famers in Jonathan Ogden and Ray Lewis.

Nailed it. That is the modern version of what the Bears pulled off in 65. But in 65, they drafted Gail Sayers and Dick Butkus back to back. I double dog dare you to find a better draft.

They nailed it. Coming up next hour, by the way, Rich, who posted a photo of he and Dick Butkus on the Instaface earlier today will join us. His thoughts on Dick Butkus and that game coming up on Sunday from London.

Rich will be here coming up shortly. So when I was a very young reporter, when we lost Walter Payton, what year was that? Can somebody Google it? 98, maybe, I think. They had a massive memorial service. November 1st, 99. A massive memorial service at Soldier Field on the field for Walter Payton. And we at old WMAQ Radio Chicago had just gotten the Bears contract to be the Bears flagship radio station in Chicago.

And 99, November 99. Is that what you said? Yeah. So I just turned 25 and it was my job to go down on the field and as the roving reporter, interview all the Bears legends and Chicago, you know, famous Chicago people back for that Walter Payton memorial service. And you hate the circumstances, obviously, but with everybody there, whether it's Butkus or Singletary or all the greats or Ditka, like that was one of those moments being around that group of legends that I will never, ever, ever forget.

As he said, you hate the circumstances. As mentioned, Rich Eisen coming up from London momentarily. What does the word cheeky mean in British parlance? And is Stefan Diggs using it properly this morning on the podium when discussing his connection with Josh Allen?

You can't get a tease better than that. Also, Rich's five most intriguing games of Sunday don't go anywhere. Every Monday, Rich Eisen and Chris Brockman react to what's happening in the world of football on overreaction Monday.

Dolphins Final Four AFC team. Oh, that is not an overreaction at all. I'm with you. You're in. I am in the other three Final Four teams. If you ask me to call my shot, this is the overreaction Monday podcast. Entertainment purposes only.

Unless I'm right. Chiefs. Dolphins. Bills. Ravens. Ravens. Final Four. Overreaction Monday. The podcast. Wherever you listen.