RE Show: Emmitt Smith - Hour 3

This is The Rich Eisen Show. With guest host Andrew Siciliano. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. What the hell just happened?

I want to apologize to the good people of the UK for waking up half their country. Earlier on the show, two times Super Bowl champion and host of the Green Light Podcast, Chris Long. Still to come, Pro Football Hall of Famer, Emmett Smith. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Andrew Siciliano. Are you ready for Aiden O'Connell and Tyson Bajant head-to-head Sunday at Soldier Field, Chicago?

That might be the case. Although Josh McDaniels won't say much, he did say that, hi everybody, welcome to the third hour of the show. That the Raiders kind of sort of, in his words, dodged a bullet with Jimmy Garoppolo, so favorable. They thought maybe there might be some internal injuries, but he wouldn't even begin speculating about Sunday.

Is it for the three and three? Now, back in the conversation, Vegas Raiders Aiden O'Connell time, as they head to Chicago to face a Bears team that likely will not have Justin Fields, he is doubtful. According to Matt Eberfluse, who said that moments ago with a dislocated thumb, says it's coming down to grip strength. And if he can't go, the quarterback on the roster is Tyson Bajant. He finished up yesterday, where they start Nathan Peterman.

What do you do? It's getting to be that time of the season where you have to make organizational decisions here, the quarterback position. As Eberfluse said, maybe by the end of the week, they'll find out if he needs surgery. He being Justin Fields, if the swelling does not go down. And with that, we welcome you to the third and final hour of the Rich Eisen show for the day. Rich is back coming up. My last day as substitute teacher, Chris Brockman, Mike Del Tufo, TJ Jefferson. Good day to each and every one of you. Are you going to Monday night football tonight?

The Dallas Cowboys and the Los Angeles Chargers of Los Angeles. Chris, I'm not going tonight. Just not doing it. Okay. I may go visit some of the TV people because I know a lot of people that work there.

Yeah. And the reason I'm asking in this word, I didn't think you were going Del Tufa. I mean, you, you, you always show up for big events.

TJ, I just want to take this one last opportunity here working together. And you know, I love doing that to tell you as a Cowboys fan, just go to the stinking game, man. They're here. They're your favorite team. They're in town. They don't come every year.

Although it feels like they do like go to the game, man. I mean, there is nothing more comfortable, Andrew, than just enjoying yourself at home and privacy. I haven't been to your home. I'm sure you have a lovely couch. I'm sure it's comfortable. I'm sure you have a hundred dollars for parking.

I just, that just doesn't sit well with me. You don't need to park. It's a take, take a service. Okay. A service is going to cost me 75 each way.

Oh my God. Over there for less than 75 bucks. Don't live in Riverside. You live on the west side. It's down the street. I live like 16 minutes. Dude, you can rent one of those scooters and get there in a half hour. That's a great call. I mean, that is true. Get a scooter and a bird scooter. Leave it on the side of the road in Inglewood.

Nobody cares. I probably like me too big for a bird scooter. I mean, I don't see cats my size. Come on man. Cruising down Manchester on a bird scooter.

I don't know. I'll give you a hundred dollars if you go to the game. Then I gotta use that hundred to buy a ticket.

And it is tough out there for a Cowboys fan. Man, so many excuses. That's why you're not going to win tonight.

Why? Because I'm not there. You're not there, man. You're going to have a home field advantage even with you not there.

Yeah, that's why they don't need me. It's the Chargers night, man. Dallas is in a free fall.

Oh, here you go. You're not going to go to the Kellen Moore bowl, man. The Kellen Moore bowl is in your town and you choose not to go. I know. If I mean, gosh, you're making me feel bad.

You should feel bad. Dave, the Browns were here and they will be here December 2nd to play the Rams. I'm going. Are you getting a free ticket? I'm a season ticket holder. For the Browns? No, for the Rams and the Rams. My brother's a season ticket holder for the Browns, but no Rams games here December 2.

Yeah, look, the days are over. I'll be sitting in 204. Come say hi.

Something might happen. My uncle Jerry might call me before the game. Is that a real name? Uncle Jerry?

You just make that up for the story. Uncle Jerry. You got an uncle Jerry. Okay. He owns the team. Okay.

Oh, that uncle Jerry. Okay. Well, let's get to the real football.

Not that the game tonight isn't a real football game. I highly recommend you watch it. It'll be fun. You should watch it. Okay.

ESPN, Joe Buck, Troy Aikman. Who knows a little bit about the Cowboys. Just a little bit. All right. I had a cool weekend, by the way. Amazing weekend. Best weekend ever. Honestly, called a game on Peacock with Kyle Rudolph, who is a joy to work with.

Great crew for NBC, Peacock. Ohio State wins 41 to 7. I'm not a Buckeye fan, but that was cool environment.

Had been to Rossade before, but never for a game. Great college environment, even with some rain there as well. I think the Buckeyes are a good team, but they're banged up here, especially offensively.

Emeka Ibuka. I wouldn't hold my breath that he's back this week against Penn State. And then in the running back room, Trevion Henderson was supposed to go.

Didn't go. They didn't dress him, although he did warm up. And then you lose Chip Tranem in that game.

Ryan Williams didn't dress as well. Ohio State, Penn State, huge, huge, huge top 10 game coming up this week in Columbus. We have all week to look ahead to that.

Penn State, though, is the healthier team, at least for now. In the NFL, the two remaining unbeatens were beaten yesterday, so there are no longer undefeated teams in the NFL heading into week seven with week six wrapping up tonight. The Browns beat the Niners. I was there for that. That was fun. On the call.

Amazing weekend. An honor to fill in for Jim Donovan, who hopefully we are all praying is back soon. And then the Eagles lose as well.

They lose to the Jets. Robert Salah inexplicably after the game. I know you're talking to your locker room. Said that they embarrassed the quarterbacks that they're playing this year.

St. Jalen Hurts was embarrassed by name there, but said like this defense is embarrassing quarterbacks. I don't know about that, but I get it. Pump up your team. You know, makes everyone happy here. Here are my top five takeaways.

Yeah. Hoskins asked me out the door of a top. Hoskins asked me to make a list. Yes, I generally don't make lists. However, I've been told by the social media people that lists perform well. So do a list. Why do you think we do power ranking shows? You should watch the power ranking show on the NFL channel on Roku right here and a podcast with me and Eric at home tomorrow night. You just made the list. Here we go. Let's do it. Andrews top five takeaways. Takeaway number five. It's Jarrett Stidham time in Denver. I want to go back to Thursday for that one.

And I'll say it again. Nathaniel Hackett's Broncos at this point looked better than Sean Payton's Broncos. They did go back and look at the numbers.

They looked better. Now I have more long-term faith in Sean Payton's Broncos than I would have in Nathaniel Hackett's Broncos. And I do think that the Broncos new ownership made the right decision the day after Christmas to get rid of Nathaniel Hackett last year, even though it was the holiday season, this was the right move and they'll be better in the long run. But I think we've seen enough. Russell isn't playing horribly, but Randy Gregory is out the door.

Frank Clark is out the door. And I think we're at a point in the season. And I told you this last Thursday, I said, it will be time for this conversation after this game, because it's going to go poorly tonight that Sean Payton is voting guys off the island. And I think it's Russ's turn. I think we all agree this is his last year.

Somehow they find a way after this season ends to bite the financial bullet and find a way to take the loss, write it off and move on. Russ had two picks in week six. It was his first game this year with multiple picks.

I realize he cleaned that up. Third fewest passing yards in a game for Russell in his entire career. He threw for 95.

I know it's not all his fault. I'm not a big passer rating guy. If you make enough plays for your team to win, I don't care what your passer rating is, but his passer rating of 46.6 is the worst since he joined the Broncos. A 2.8 passer rating against the blitz on Thursday night. I read right from the NFL research packet post game for that one, not suggesting Jarrett Stidham is going to be a world beater. But when you look at the free agency timing of when the Broncos went to get Jarrett Stidham, they made that call pretty early. Payton had his guy circled as this is the guy I'm eventually going to turn to. The Broncos are at home this week in the late 4 p.m. window at one and five against a Packard team coming off the big break they're playing on Monday night.

I think this is it. I'm not saying he's going to do it, but I would do it. It is Jarrett Stidham time. Nathaniel Hackett won four games last year. Did Sean Payton get to four this year?

That's a great question. Do you want to go through the Broncos schedule? Do you want to play that game? I think they do because I think there is enough talent there, but they are going to be sellers. They're already getting rid of guys this week. It's Green Bay. Then it's Kansas City. They're not going to beat them again. They play them twice in three weeks, then a buy, then at Buffalo in primetime, a Monday night game, then Minnesota and Cleveland at home, then Houston, the Chargers, and the Lions on a three-game road trip, then the Patriots, the Chargers again, and then at Vegas.

Is Jarrett Stidham facing the Raiders week 18 with the Raiders fighting for a wild card? I don't think so, but talk about the hypotheticals. Seems like four maybe at the most. Yeah, so there. That is take number five.

Take away, rather, number five. I don't want to be like, take guy. I love when you tweet something or come up with an opinion. People go, that's a garbage take. I know. It's just what I thought at the moment, and I send on the tweet, garbage take like yesterday on that Josh Allen laser beam throwing back across his body, hitting 85, putting Morris.

Like I said, no one in the NFL makes that throw. And I said, I'm in no mood to argue right now. Like I'm tired. I'm exhausted. I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm tired.

I'm exhausted. Have you not seen Patrick Mahomes? Bro, forgot about Mahomes.

Dude is tripping. Garbage take. What about Mahomes, bro? Like Patrick Mahomes has the ability to see that throw and make that throw, but the pure RPMs, the velocity on that throw, only Josh Allen can do that. Only. Mahomes is the best on the circus throw and the crazy platform and crazy angles, but the sheer velocity on that throw, Josh Allen's the only one.

All right. Takeaway number four, the lions are clearly the third best team of the NFC. And I don't know who in the world would be number four. Not after the Seahawks fell apart in the red zone yesterday at the end of the first half and the end of the second half, Philadelphia, San Francisco, one or two, however you want it. I say San Francisco, still one. Philadelphia, two. And then it's the lions.

And I don't know that anyone is close to four. Cowboys, maybe if they lay a whooping on the Chargers, but we have our doubts and we'll talk to Emmett coming up in a bit. I think it's the lions four times this year. I know you have doubts about their defense. Four times this year, they've held teams under 20.

All right. They're doing it on the road. They did that yesterday. I think it's the lions. I think the lions are right now, one of those teams where you say, I don't want to have to face them in the playoffs.

Think about that again. I don't want to have to face the lions in the playoffs. They're going to be in the lions are the third best team of the NFC. Number three.

I mentioned this one earlier. I'll say it again. Bring me Taylor Heineke in Atlanta, because I think the Falcons could be in that conversation about the number three team of the NFC. I know that's a big leap. They're not like the Lions, who have won 13 of 16 games.

The Lions have 13 and three since Halloween of a year ago. But I've seen enough of Desmond Ritter, and I know that sounds harsh. He's a good young man. He's a heck of a leader, but you could only lead an offense so much or for so long when you're leaving that many points on the field, when you could see the body language of your receivers that are so, so frustrated and so kind of done.

It seems with with getting balls in the dirt and this over there, they're like, look, I'm a little tongue tied here. I'm having trouble speaking from Vang, but Taylor Heineke should be the guy. I think it's time.

And I think the look on Arthur Smith's face says it. Bring me Taylor Heineke, who's not going to be perfect. He's going to turn the ball over.

Right. I mean, he is a roller coaster ride, but it would be a cool story for him. A couple of years ago, he was sleeping on his sister's couch in Georgia, taking grad school classes online. That's when Washington called. He ended up almost leading the football team, whatever they were called at that point, to a playoff win over Tom Brady and the Buccaneers.

Remember that game diving for the pylon? Taylor Heineke is a fun watch and he makes the Falcons better. Taylor Heineke time in Atlanta. Number two, the Cleveland Browns have the number one defense in football. Full stop. A thousand and two yards.

That's all they have given up. One thousand and two yards through five games. Third best ever since the merger. And the only two that were better were 1970 and 1971. Different era of organized football. The Browns are the first team to hold San Francisco under 30 since week 15 of last season.

Think about that. They held the Niners to 215 yards. No team has hit 300 yards this year against the Browns. Best third down defense. Best red zone defense. I know.

Great. Jordan Mason, eight yard touchdown. OK, one play drive. Bad pick. Nice run back.

The defense is that good. Period. Full stop. And my number one takeaway. Going outside the box here. I am. This is a bold prediction.

My number one takeaway. Aaron Rodgers is going to play football for the Jets this year. He's going to play like 2023, like this year, like this season, this season. Put a week on it. In December. Wow. Now, in January, I don't know.

I don't know. But he was standing out there. I'll be honest. I'm kind of second guessing this one now, but I do believe it.

I do believe it. He's throwing footballs without anything on that Achilles. Now, he's not moving.

OK, he's not moving. OK. And I know a little bit of this is for show. And how about Brian Bouldinger in that picture?

America's guest, Brian Bouldinger. I love that. How about a lot of it is for show? I love that.

And you think it's all for show? He's throwing footballs, man. Don't forget about it.

This is what this is. He is out there. It is not all publicity. I know. Where is A.A. Ron right now?

OK, I know you think he's a narcissist. So Week 17 is a December 28th game. Jets at Browns. I don't know about that one.

That's a TNF game. That is getting more interesting with both of those two teams winning this week. And then Week 18, obviously Patriots.

We don't know. Can you imagine if he came back week 18 and what could be Bill Belichick's final game? A.A. Ron as head coach of the Patriots and with a wild card spot on the line.

Aaron Rodgers. I did not say that. Thank you for the record. It's totally unprecedented. Medical science says it can't happen. It says it can't happen. If you do the math on Cam Akers, amazing Achilles return.

Exactly. So go back to when the Rams won the Super Bowl in 2021. Cam Akers blew his Achilles out doing a box jump in July, a couple of weeks before training camp. And Cam Akers made it back in December. Week 18, Week 17, Week 18, at least Week 18, and then was healthy and played.

I mean, healthy enough. Help lead the Rams to a Super Bowl. Yeah, that was unbelievable. The kid was like 23. But it was the same doctor, Dr. Neil Elatrosh, who's also, by the way, the Rams team orthopedist who did the surgery. He did the same kind of surgery on Aaron Rodgers. If you do the math from the exact number of days it took for Cam Akers to get back, that would put Aaron Rodgers back. If they have the same miraculous timeline, even at his advanced age of 40, nearly 40, that would bring him back three days after the Super Bowl. I already did that math.

So it would be ridiculous. And I don't think the Jets without him can get to the Super Bowl. But he's already throwing without a boot. What is that a boot?

I think he's going to play. Call me crazy. I'm calling myself crazy. Coming up next, A. A. Ron. Here, coach. Emmett Smith.

What are we getting tonight from the Cowboys? That's next. 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. He was a murderer.

He's also my father. Seasons one and two are available to binge right now, and bonus episodes are coming soon. Imperative Entertainment presents In the Red Clay. Get the podcast wherever you listen. Suzy Shuster 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 they 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 Shuster and Amy Trask.

The podcast is available Tuesdays wherever you listen. When did you first know that you were part of something that was huge and becoming big? I'll give you one that I this is will seem an odd answer. And I haven't said this.

I haven't thought of this till you asked me this question. So it's all incremental. Like, oh, you know, he went out to eat in California on a vacation. And because I did the late show, what does this Swami want to drink? You know, in 1981.

But that's more incremental. 1983, you will laugh. The America's Cup race that we lost off Newport, the seventh race, the wing keel land down under, okay, sailboat racing, right, right. But it was like a Tuesday afternoon.

Don't quote me on that. And one of the Providence stations had a helicopter that they were televising in Rhode Island, and some sort of commentary and we picked up the feed at two o'clock when it was on the big seventh race of Australia's United States, the sailboat race, two in the afternoon, I want to say a Tuesday. With no, we didn't tell anybody, I think they arranged it at 145.

You know, typical. The rating we got, or the amount of people that saw this, who just, well, if it's on, it'll be there. But that's 1983. We only started in 79 rich. So a sailboat race in the middle of a day of a week, and people were looking for us because if they don't have it, nobody will. And so this isn't what, oh, now I know we're going to be big time, but this is what I knew that people knew who we were, what we stood for, and what potentially we could give them, even without any promotion. I hadn't thought about that one in a long time.

You dug it out of me. What an interviewer, man. Just don't make me cry on the show. How about Brockman wearing a sport coat there and welcome back to the Ridge Eisen Show.

Andrew sitting in for Rich, who's back tomorrow. I am at the Ridge Eisen Show desk, which is furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call or click Grainger.com or just stop by. It is always a pleasure to have one of the greats and a great man as well here on this show, the hall of fame, but the three times Super Bowl champion, Emmitt Smith. It is good to see you. How are you? Andrew, bro, I am doing good. How are you doing? I am doing well as well.

You're here for a good cause. And we could talk about the Cowboys game coming up tonight, but I want to pick up and continue the conversation we were just having off air here about EJ. You are a football dad now and you're living and dying and like sitting in the stands watching your boy play big time college football here.

And he plays for Stanford. For those who don't know, what was that like as a football dad watching that crazy comeback on Friday night to beat Colorado? It was the tale of two halves.

The first half was very, very poor. And man, I was like, he wanted to go to sleep. I did go to sleep. I turned it off. The game was over. I woke up. Yeah, bro, at 29. Oh, it was like, man, I'm sitting on this cold weather for 29. Get this thing over with a running clock or something. Get this thing over so we can get on back down his heels.

And I go to get up on the get up next morning, get back to Dallas or something. But then the half started changing and guys started making plays. And to me, it was the prime example of players just hanging in there and fighting to the end. And I think Stanford team grew as players.

They grew overnight, right before our eyes. Absolutely. And hopefully the coaches found some things too that they can actually start to build off of instead of just staying very generic and expand the offense a little bit more and give guys a chance. There's a lot more players on that team than they're giving them credit for.

EJ, a big part of that comeback had nine touches, senior running back. What's it like, Emmett, watching your boy play and you're sitting up there and you have no control. There's your guy down there.

Well, first of all, he chose his path. And so as a father, I'm sitting up there nervous as all get out, having to watch him feed and fight for himself. And, you know, the only thing we can try to do, and he and I, we have a very good relationship. And so I just watched him grow with that last night or Friday night as well. I mean, we talked about this kind of game, what this game really means and how you have to approach this game, the intensity level that you must have. And it's the same type of intensity that you must have every week, regardless of who's on the other side. People on the opposing team has to feel your pain and you have to deliver that pain to each and every player that you have a chance to deliver that pain to.

And that's the approach that I think all athletes takes. Do you think we get that kind of approach transitioning here from the Cowboys tonight? What do we get out of the Cowboys tonight against the Chargers on Monday Night Football? What I hope we don't get, it's easier for me to say what I hope we don't get. I hope we don't get the repeat of what we saw last week against the Niners.

That part I hope we don't get. I hope we get a level of intensity, a level of focus, a level of commitment, and a level of care. I'm gonna say care, taking care of the football. And hopefully, and this goes throughout the whole entire team, it goes strictly to the offense of staff because defense, they're doing their thing. If the offense can match the same level of intensity that the defense has, and the same sense of urgency that the defense has, I think you will see a totally different dynamic Dallas Cowboy football team. Is it urgency or is it play calling? It's a combination of both, urgency and play calling. I think the play calling has to expand. I think I need to see a little bit more creativity in terms of the key players being put in positions to make plays and a much more broader, diversified number of players making plays. I mean, we bring in Brandon Cook and everything else, and I don't see anything designed for him.

I see very little design for CeeDee Lamb, let alone Michael Gallup. And so if there's anything that I can say about this, the Cowboys offense, it's a system. It's a system offense.

It has to be ran a certain way, and if it's not ran that way, you will not have success at all because teams understand what you're doing. Burton is disguising things and building upon things and letting something set the next thing up. I don't see none of that happening. Talking to the great Emmitt Smith, the all-time leading rusher in the history, the 104 year history of the National Football League. Emmitt, you lived it. I mean, you know how it feels to be in the middle of this Cowboy media storm, but it's so much bigger now. I have the DirecTV.

I have all the channels up here, all the sports channels. And any time, any day, any minute I look up, I mean, I see Dak Prescott's name on the bottom of the screen and people screaming and yelling about it every time I look up. So no matter what happens tonight, there are going to be people screaming and yelling about Dak Prescott tomorrow morning. That said, Kellen Moore's calling plays for the Chargers tonight for Brandon Staley. And if it goes poorly tonight for the Cowboys, you know what they're going to be yelling tomorrow on those screaming head shows. Emmitt, how do you deal with all that? I mean, it just feels like there's never, no matter what you do, no matter how well you play, and he hasn't played his best this year, they haven't collectively played their best.

Like it never ends. It doesn't because you are the Dallas Cowboys. Number one, you inherited that legacy. And number two, you have to understand what that legacy truly means and what's expected of you as an individual player or as a team. In order to meet that standard, you truly have to go deep in the archives to understand what made great teams, great teams. And I'm not sure if the Cowboys have done that or this current team or the or the staff themselves.

Some people are just taking jobs. For me as a player, it was not about the job. For me, it was about creating and cementing a legacy. And the only way you could do that is by winning championships. And so the focus and Jimmy's focus was winning championships, doing things that people say you cannot do. And those are motivating factors. And so putting my talent aside, I had to ask myself, what can I do to help this team to help this team become better?

And what do I need to do to become a better player? And that focus, that became my focus, that became the focus of the team. Because I know one thing, they did not draft me and draft Troy and Michael and everyone else that they drafted to be 115. They drafted us and Jimmy built us to become champions. And that began in practice.

We're talking about two different eras of football. How do you instill those type of values in the current team? I have no clue with today's environment. Everybody can take off when they want to. They can practice when they want to. They can do whatever they want to, however they want to do it.

How do you instill those type of values in these young men? And that's a hard situation to be in, let alone the coaching staff. I know Al Harris and I know some of these coaches, they take pride in what they do. But sometimes you got to break the system up to tailor it towards the talent that you currently have and make it work for that talent.

And then you can start massaging some of these other components into the mix. And you changing gears here, obviously, you fought for a contract you held out when you were a Dallas Cowboy. Hello, hello, Andrew. Let's not put that out there. I held out. Okay. I was unemployed. I was okay. When your contract is up. True.

Do you have a job? I am glad you made that distinction. I'm glad you because a lot of people in the media and I just did it there. Get it wrong. Sometimes say guys holding out like, nope, my deals up. If you want me back, then bring me back. Bring me back. Exactly.

I was going to say allow someone else to sign me, but that wasn't the case during my time. But I'm going to let you finish up your question. My question is, you see the running back market now, right? Okay. If the running back market then was what it is now, in other words, teams have just decided we're not going to pay running backs. Period.

Period. Would you have hung around long enough to be the all-time leading rusher or would you just have said, you're not going to pay me? I don't want to get hit. I'll just go home and find something else to do. I'll just walk away. I'll be like Jim Brown. I'll say, see you.

I'll go to London, make a movie. Again, the question became, can I get fair market value? And the answer might be no. Can I get some value that I can be comfortable with? At the end of the day, being comfortable with that value and still establishing your personal brand within the National Football League and how you approach it, you do what you need to do as an individual person. I cannot go back and retrace the hands of time and say what I would have done.

All I can go back and look at what I had to do when I needed to do it and how it worked out for me. Now, granted, the running back position has been devalued by so many people. You have to ask yourself the question, why? Because right now, I can think about four or five quarterbacks that are out right now getting paid more than all the running backs themselves. And I can think about the running backs that are on the field performing and doing well while they're trying to buy time for these quarterbacks to come back. At the end of the day, somewhere along the line, the story cannot just be about the quarterback. And the quarterback is not always the franchise player. You're trying to tell me that Daniel Jones is the franchise player for the New York Giants?

I don't think so. I think Shaquan Barkley is. Daniel Jones is not the quarterback of an Aaron Rodgers. Neither are some of these other quarterbacks that are out there doing the thing. They're allowing the running games to buy time for these quarterbacks to mature into their offenses. And so if you're doing that, you have to value the running back position as such because there's value to each and every man on the football field. If you don't want to run it back, why even have the position? Bring on five wide receivers or put an offensive lineman in the backfield. Let them stay back there and block on third down instead of your running backs.

Take Chris McCaffie out the game. If you don't value the running back position. So my thing is, I think the NFL is very hypocritical about value, and I think they're just trying not to pay guys.

They're looking to shift money around to other positions that they proceed to be more valuable, but yet they want to utilize the running back position at the highest level, which is unfair. What's I know frustrating for the running backs is the salary cap keeps going up. It's not as if the salary cap is going down.

Not anymore. We had our dip in COVID, but it's corrected, right? The new TV deals are here, so the salary cap keeps coming up. And Jonathan Taylor got a little more than I thought most people expected. The Saquon deal, the Josh Jacobs deal, Saquon especially really wasn't anything. It just added some incentives and then he got hurt.

He's not going to hit those incentives. So if all the other, if the rising tide is lifting everyone except the running back, why? Naturally, you would think they have to make a little bit more if everybody else is making a little bit more.

Well, I think it's a combination of so many different things. I think the league itself is moving into a pass-happy league, number one. Therefore, they put a lot more emphasis on guys who are throwing the ball, guys who are catching the ball, and that could go all the way down to the tight end position.

The running back position, they don't run the ball as much as they used to for various reasons. It's probably primarily because the league is going towards the passing game. They want to see more points on the board. So to see more points on the board, you have to throw the ball a lot more. And that's one reason why you see all these coaches trying to run so many plays throughout the course of the game to give themselves more opportunity to throw the ball a lot more.

The passing game itself has skyrocketed. Everybody's not a Patrick Mahomes, and everybody's not a Tom Brady. Everybody's not a Drew Brees. Those are gifted athletes that come around every so often.

Peggy Manning's are gifted, period. Everyone else does not fit that mold. Everyone else requires complete team effort. Russell Wilson probably thought he could throw the ball 45 times a game and be very effective.

It cannot happen. His effectiveness is predicated upon a Marshawn Lynch back there running the rock, doing what he needed to do to create the balance so he can have the ability to take advantage of a play-action pass and throw the ball deep down the field to someone. That's what the game is all about. It's about deception and also execution.

And the running game provides you the opportunity to do both. Emmett, I love having you on. And I said when you got here that you're here for a really good cause. You're here on behalf of Emergent to help raise awareness on Narcan, which is the nasal spray. Obviously, when there's an overdose here, we're talking about opioid overdoses, tell me what you're doing with them and tell me why this is important. Yeah, with the Ready to Rescue campaign, Emergent and myself are out to spread awareness around the opioid emergency needs for people who are suffering from opioid overdoses. The way we go about doing that is obviously we talk about Narcan, the nasal spray that you can actually use in case you want to call someone or see someone that will power straighten their needs. The spray can actually be inserted into the nasal nozzle and squirted up and hopefully bring a person back depending upon the time of that person being out.

Never do it just that alone, but also call 911 to get the support that you need. And so what we're trying to do is break the stigma, encourage people to go out, get their Narcan, a nasal spray, have it on you whether it's in your house, in your medicine kit, or in your first aid kit, or in your wallet, or in your pocketbook, or whatever it is, have it on you just in case you're a person that run into someone that's in need. And so that's all we're trying to do is just make people aware of the dangers of opioids themselves and other drugs that are out there hurting people.

Because it is such a problem, it is such an epidemic here. And to find out more information, Narcan.com, N-A-R-C-A-N dot com. Emmett, it's great to have you. Good luck to your Cowboys tonight. Good luck to EJ as well, as always. Thank you. Thank you, pro. Emmett Smith, everybody.

The greatest running back in the history of the National Football League, the all-time leading rusher. Emmett's awesome. Oh, I forgot the whole thing about my wife hates you. I'll tell that story when we come back.

It's a doozy. I promise, I'm going to pay off the T's. I promise you. And I'm also here to tell you about game time as well. Do you have a ticketing need? Yes, you do. A ticketing need, right?

You need a ticket to a game, a concert, a show, a last-minute ticket need. May I recommend the game time app. Go download it. Browse through it. It's easy. Get the app from the app store, all right? And then you could find your way in to whatever it is you want to go to, because game time takes the guesswork out of buying tickets. Download the app, create an account. And when you do, here's a promo code, rich.

It's R-I-C-H. When you put in the promo code rich, you get $20 off your first purchase. Now, if you're going to buy tickets, you get $20 off your first purchase.

Restrictions apply. Go to gametime.co for the terms. Again, game time. Download it from the app store, create an account, redeem the code rich, R-I-C-H for $20 off the first time you use it. Game time, download it today.

Last-minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. That other story I was mentioning, you know, about people hating me. Coming up next on the Rich Eisen Show. Okay, I mentioned before, I'm paying off a tease here, that Tyson Bajan, who might be the quarterback for the Bears this week, with Justin Fields' bad thumb, right thumb, this thumb, division two quarterback from Shepherd in West Virginia.

I mentioned his dad, Travis, a 28 or 29 time arm wrestling champion, did the deal with Tom Pelissero on NFL Plus with us back at the Senior Bowl. Take a look. First of all, have you ever done this before? No. Perfect. I'll take over from here.

I can actually keep this if you don't mind. Perfect. So, I'll leave mine hand here to the side.

It's real easy. If your hand hits that pad, you are the great, you are the baddest dude in the history of the NFL Network. What usually happens is I win.

What's best for you is don't fight it. Everybody's good at something and this is what I'll do. Ready and go.

Nice. Relax there, young man. I thought for sure you'd be a lot stronger. I'll take it from here. Listen, the rest of these people, they've been calling me Travis. You can call me daddy, young man. Yes, sir.

Thanks a lot to the NFL Network. He's actually a lot stronger than I thought. He could definitely beat you. There he is, guys. That's going to hurt tomorrow, but I swear by Saturday, I'll be ready. No travels, we're ready to write. Wow. And for some of you guys in the back, if you want to, if you don't believe it, you want to feel it, get on up here. It's the real deal. Thanks a lot, guys.

That is, you don't believe it and want to feel it. How cool was that? That was on our NFL Plus coverage of the Senior Bowl, which is great.

We just do like six hours a day, just live practices, that kind of stuff. And Tom was a great sport about that, obviously. But that is the dad, the father of soon-to-be Bears quarterback Tyson Bajan, starting potentially here. He had played yesterday off the bench, Travis Bajan, who is truly a character.

I mean, right out of over the top. When you turn your hat around, man, I'm a different dude. He's got mic skills, TJ. He does.

He does. Back of the Rich Eisen Show here, Andrew Siciliano, down the stretch we come on the last 12 minutes, 13 minutes of me filling in. Rich is back tomorrow telling you about Monday Night Football. Stream the NFL on Westwood One for free. Sponsored by AutoZone. All season long, you could listen to every Westwood One broadcast of the NFL live on the NFL app by asking Alexa to open WWO Sports or on your Westwood One affiliate stations, digital platforms.

That's right. You could stream Kevin Harlan, Kurt Warner and me. Well, the me is rich. I just read it out loud there like I'm reading prompter or rich all season long for free and get in the zone with AutoZone.

AutoZone's free battery testing and charging is available for free at your local AutoZone. Get in the zone, AutoZone. Restrictions do apply. Paying off the teases here. I didn't mention it with Emmett, I forgot, but I did mention earlier that Emmett once told me his wife hated me. So the backstory on that is like 2011, 2012, I'm hosting NFL Total Access on NFL Network and Emmett was in studio and we were over on what referred to back then by our great stage manager, Puma, as the comfies.

We're in the comfies, like some leather chairs off to the side set there. And Emmett was doing two segments. So we're talking about whatever we're talking about. And then I said, all right, you know, Emmett's staying with us for a little bit.

We'll be right back. We go to break and like, you know, the camera's pulling out, right. And our mics are off and you see the guys nodding.

You've seen that shot before. Guys still talking, but you can't hear the mics, you know, doing that thing. And Emmett looks at me and goes, man, my wife hates you. Like, what, huh? He goes, man, I watch you every Sunday in red zone. And she, she comes in and is like, I can't do this. I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, he's changing every like five seconds.

I can't do this. I cannot, I cannot watch this. I'm, I'm dramatizing this right now, but, and she leaves like, really? It's like, yeah, she can't watch it. I love it, but she can't, she can't watch it.

She won't sit in there with me and watch and watch the red zone channel. I'm like, I'm sorry? I'm sorry? And then, and then Puma of course counts us in, Puma our great stage manager, one of the world's greatest humans, top five of all time, right? This is real. This is Holyfield, cell phones off.

I am sure. What else we got? Frank Reich gave up play calling duties today, handing the keys to Thomas Brown. Panthers are 0 and 6 and they are on a buy this week.

Here is Frank Reich earlier today. Obviously, you saw reports out that in turning the play calling duties over to Thomas Brown, those reports are accurate. It's always been part of the plan, something Thomas and I have discussed from the time that he was hired. I'm excited for this for Thomas. I'm excited for our team and our offense. Thomas is a stud. He's a great leader.

He's a brilliant offensive mind. We all have a lot of confidence in him and, you know, sometimes, and I think the timing is right. This has been something even from the beginning that I've talked through with Mr Tepper and Scott from the beginning of the season.

You know, we thought that this bye week was going to be a checkpoint. How big a role did Dave have in this and did he encourage you to give it up? No, this is something, you know, as I said, we've talked about this periodically as we've gone, but this was 100% my decision from start to finish. But has he been involved in discussion? Yeah, I talked to him about, you know, all the things related to this team and how things play out in our weekly discussions. And as I said before, those are great discussions.

Meant to do it all along. By the way, he said those reports, the report came from my colleague Tom Pelissero at NFL Network. In between getting his butt whooped in arm wrestling, Tom did report that Frank Reich has given the keys to one Thomas Brown. And again, he said during the off season that eventually I'm going to, you know, step aside and let somebody else do this.

Thomas Brown, Jim Caldwell, a lot of great offensive minds on that staff, a lot of cooks in the kitchen. As I said, the question is, would you have done it if you were four and two? Don't think so.

Five and one. I mean, can you imagine if they were four and two, five and one, Bryce Young was playing like CJ Stroud and Frank just walked in to his Monday press conference ahead of a bye and went, you know what? Someone else is going to call the plays from now on. No, that would not have happened.

It would not have happened. The question is, did David, meaning the owner, David Tepper, was he part of this conversation? He said, no, this is my decision.

I am always talking to the owner. Okay. I always make decisions too, but sometimes I can feel pressured to make decisions by others. Right? Yeah. I decided to do something. I decided.

However, I, I think this is what my boss wanted, but I decided both can be true. Right. Right. Right.

Gotcha. Tonight, by the way, I like the, I like the Chargers tonight, guys. I do think the Cowboys play a good game. I don't think this is like some, you know, disaster like it was.

Certainly. I don't think the Chargers defense does to the Cowboys. What the Niners defense did to the Cowboys last week, holding them to only 197 yards and forcing four turnovers. I do not think that happens, but I do think Kellen Moore dials it up a little bit tonight. That doesn't mean blowing them out or anything like that. They're still without Mike Williams. You know, Austin Eckler should have a full workload.

He should be fully good to go. I don't think they blow them out at all. I think Dak plays a good game, but I like the Chargers at home tonight. And then inevitably the question becomes, you know, what is the narrative? Like we're talking with Emmett there earlier. What is the narrative this coming week for the Dallas Cowboys and Mike McCarthy, or rather last week, Jerry Jones said of Mike McCarthy's play calling going to try to tie these two stories together that he is not in any way ready to talk about Brian Schottenheimer.

Matter of fact, he, he, he, he squashed that immediately. But as always with the Cowboys, you sit here watching the game and saying, well, what if this happens tonight? And we do that with them more than with any other team in the NFL, right? What if this happens tonight, guys?

I think that's kind of the way we look at this one as well. I do like the Chargers. I think I'm going to go for about a quarter, TJ.

Oh, that's it. And then I'll be with Steve Weitch and I think Leslie Frazier tonight as well on NFL game day final, the post game show on NFL network. As soon as the game is over, flip over to us 212 on the DirecTV, wherever you find your NFL network.

You can also watch it on the NFL plus app plus on NFL.com plus.nfl.com NFL game day final to wrap it up, to wrap this show up. I want to thank each and every one of you as well. Brockman, Del Tufo, Jason, who's not here right now in that Del Tufo chair. TJ, thank you. Bowie, Hoskins, Liz, Erica, Sarah. Who else am I forgetting? James, obviously. I forget James. I'm sorry. James as well.

The whole crew. Thank you. And thank you to each of you listening and watching and above all else. Thank you to Rich for having me sit in this chair.

Thanks for juggling. And on Wednesday when I had to go step aside to do Ohio state interviews to prep for that game for another job, Rich filled in for the guy that was filling in for himself on his own show and did so for many miles away. So Rich is back tomorrow. Hopefully I'll see you guys soon. Watch tonight on NFL network.

My name is Andrew Siciliano. Say it. Every Monday, Rich Eisen and Chris Brockman react to what's happening in the world of football on Over Reaction 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 were asking me to call my shot, this is the Over Reaction Monday podcast. Call your shot. Entertainment purposes only.

Unless I'm right. Chiefs. Dolphins. Bills. Ravens. Ravens. Final four. Over Reaction Monday. The podcast. Wherever you listen.