REShow: Dan Wetzel - Hour 1

You know, in today's world, it seems the best treatment is reserved only for a few. Well, Discover wants to change that by making everyone feel special. That's why with your Discover card, you have access to 24-7 live customer service as well as $0 fraud liability, which means you're never held responsible for unauthorized purchases. Finally, no matter who you are or where you are in life, you'll feel special with Discover.

Learn more at discover.com slash credit card. Limitations apply. Some guy walks up to me. He says to me, This is the Rich Eisen Show. Aren't you Susie Schuster's husband?

No. With guest host Susie Schuster. I want to take a minute to talk about Caleb Williams. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. This is a kid who just wanted to go to his mom.

When did him need to be comforted, become a sign that he's soft? Today's guest, two time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning, Yahoo! Sports columnist Dan Wetzel, Marconi Award winner Rich Eisen.

And now sitting in for Rich, it's Susie Schuster. You know, I feel like I'm still at home. I'm trying to get these guys to focus.

We have a television show, a radio show, a podcast. I'm focused, man. We're streaming.

I'm fully focused, man. These yahoos are over here screaming each other across the way like it's last night's game. I'm trying to watch the Warriors last night.

I'm trying to watch the Warriors and the Nuggets. Amazing. Amazing. And I'm like, could you stop beating your brother up? Taylor, stop playing with the dogs.

You're a point guard. Pay attention. And we had three murders in the building last night, three indestructible toys that my dogs destroyed. Three murders in the building.

Destroyed the squirrel, the possum and the octopus. It was a rough night last night. Why did Steph go left hand scoop? Dude, why did he do that? And what happened to Klay Thompson with a second or so to go? And here I was. He did. And I felt I felt for him.

I rewatched that like literally 15 times this morning when Chris threw the ball. He was just it was ahead. It was just it was a hair ahead, TJ. It was a hair ahead.

Too fast. I mean, you can't say, oh, Steph Curry with the left handed floater down the lane. And that's why they lost the game.

But a left handed floater down the line. But look, he was insane. Well, Steph had a rough shooting night.

I think he only made three point shots only. And oh, by the way, like like a jackass, I said to the kids with a minute to go. And I'm like yelling at my kids like, would you go to bed? I'm like, it's a minute to go. I'm like, OK, this game's over for everyone confused about the end of the. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's right. Shall we discuss? So we said, hey, everybody, welcome to the show.

Hey, Susie Schuster in for Rich Eisen, who, by the way, just got back to Frankfurt. He's got a big game this weekend. They take a look with him. He didn't. But he was very excited.

He was met at the platform by NFL security. And he liked it. Oh, yeah. Big time. Well, you know why?

Because he's known all over Germany from his bike tour. Oh, like sent us an email. Did you see that?

Yeah, Berlin. That was incredible. T.J., good morning, Mikey. Good morning, Chris Brockman. Good morning.

Good morning to all of you out there watching on Roku and listening to us. I want to be clear. We did change our serious. It's XM 161. I'm sorry. Serious 161. Don't listen to me. Serious XM 161. You want me to do it? You do it.

I'll tell you why. My brother was like, I tried to listen. OK, if you're watching us on Roku and you need to bounce around and listen to us on Sirius, we're on Sirius 161. If your automobile has XM, it's XM 206. And if you're looking for us on the Sirius XM app, 998.

Thank you for that. Mikey, that's where you could play the you know, you can't be serious drop, by the way. And you and you must be.

But yeah, my brother was like, I didn't I tried to listen to you yesterday and where were you? And I said, OK, let me do a reset off the top of the show. We're already off the rails. Back to the game. We are off the rails.

I kind of like it. Back to the game. Here I was, jackass number one. I'm like, guys, the games are off.

Forget it. I mean, it was insane. Was probably dialed in.

Coop's like, Mom, you got time. Then again, a three pointer. We're now back in the game. And by we, I'm saying they. But I do love Steve Kerr.

I'm an unabashed Warriors fan because I'm such a big Steve Kerr fan. And there I thought, yet again, here we go. Here we go.

And then, yes, it was an inch or two in front of him. And Klay Thompson was just so mad at himself. And I love seeing a guy mad at himself this early in the season. I love it. I think it's great.

I'm all about it. T.J. Jefferson, you know, what's funny is, you know, just like I said, just rewatching the end of that game. When Chris Paul gets the rebound, they head out to the other basket and he throws the pass to Klay and the ball's a little bit ahead of him. I literally I'm sitting there thinking if he pulls up at half court and I'm like thinking, wait a minute, like I literally am sitting here saying this guy should just pull up from half court. Yes. And there's two guys on the court who could pull up from half court and you go, that shot might go in, you know, and it would be Curry or Thompson. So it's just one of those things.

Not enough time. The ball is a little bit ahead of him. And just yet another reminder of just how big Nicola Jokic is. I mean, I think I mean, just as best player in the NBA, front runner for MVP, the Nuggets got to be your title favorite right now. It was everything you wanted kind of out of a first couple of weeks of the season playoff preview. Like I think I was Rachel Nichols, I think tweeted it out.

Let's take seven of those come May, because I think we would all sign for that. It was awesome. Great finish and, you know, great ball night. What else do we watch? We watch Wimby in New York, which, by the way, was very anticlimactic. You know, but that's OK. Not a big deal. You know, the Spurs aren't a great team. They're going to lose a lot of games. They're the youngest team in the NBA. You know, that was kind of more important for the Knicks, I think, to kind of get a win there at home and hold the home court back to back. And then and then TJ and I were locked into six or Celtics, kind of a womp womp night as well. Maybe for you.

Yeah, not for me. Well, I'm just saying both teams didn't play all that great kind of a slow first half, low scoring defensive battle, kind of what you expect with these two teams who have had so much, you know, butting heads in the playoffs of late. A lot of history.

A lot of history. And you know, kind of a fun came down to the wire. Wasn't really a game. Then two minutes to go. Bunch of turnovers, bunch of quick shots by the Celtics. And suddenly it's like, OK, I talked myself into overtime there, TJ. I was like, OK, maybe we can get overtime here. And then, you know, it's all right. And it's playing great right now.

TJ looks smart for taking him second overall now in our fantasy league. Yeah, I was getting knocked for that suit. Yeah. But Embiid is just he's hard.

How do you stop this guy when he's on? Yeah, I don't know. Just like Joker. Yeah.

You know, ultimately in a perfect world. And you guys know, I do love the Clippers, too. But like as a true basketball fan, I would love to see a finals where we got the Nuggets and the Sixers just to watch those two big dudes, because, you know, I love the big man, you know, in terms of basketball. I know that game has gone to like shooting from midcourt. And but I just love big dudes down low, physical, just doing their thing and watching Joker against Embiid in a seven game championship, I think would be a pretty fun thing to see. I mean, what you're saying is that you love old school basketball, where a five was a five. And that's what I think is, you know, it's funny we talk about this every so often when Shaq comes on is this he kind of longs for the days when the five was actually a five, as opposed to like some of these crazily talented people like Giannis, who basically can do whatever he wants to do. And we'll talk about this a little bit later in the show, because, you know, I do tend to go NBA heavy, but I'm kind of like fascinated with him, kind of two texts and this kind of bad boy Giannis coming up reminds me I'm here for bad boy Giannis.

You like bad boy? Look, it was kind of a soft ejection, but it was again, Chris, it was a very soft ejection. Agreed. But it's kind of like the NFL, like these guys know the rules. True. So play within the confines of the rules. But you've said this before. No one's going there to watch Giannis get tossed out of the game.

Absolutely. Give them a delay of game. If he would have stood in his face and really barked at him, but he gave him a look like they call these players soft.

Well, that's soft. They gave him a tech for just staring at a guy who wants Chase LeBron around the court trying to rip his head off. So it's not like Stewart's a soft guy like he probably loved it. I have a theory about this that I'll share later in the show. I'm going to say I wonder if it's a situation where he saw Giannis kind of pose and flex. And I don't know if he yelled.

Maybe I wasn't watching the game, but I wonder if the ref lost track of Giannis having a tech earlier in the game. And so it's one of those things. It's just like, let me quick team up.

And then in your in your head, it's like, oh, bleep. That's his second one. Right. Right. All right. Sorry.

What did I do? Exactly. I hope that was the case. You know, it seems like that.

I hope that's the most logical explanation, but I guess you never know. Eight four four two oh four. Rich, call us.

We had some really nice calls yesterday. I mean, I kind of took a beating for my Caleb Williams remarks about you did so a little bit. I mean, I try to avoid. So like, by the way, if you're going to put something like me now, don't bother. I probably won't see it because I'm not really on social media, but like a couple of people were like, oh, Caleb soft and she's taking the wrong approach. Caleb soft. I'll stand by my approach that I don't have a real problem.

I don't think his NFL career is over because he's soft and he can't lead men in a locker room because he went to go see his mom, Dane. But I got a kick out of that. Just give you a little heads up here. You have to kind of also remember, you look at if you're talking about Twitter or X, you're saying it. I promise you, anyone who was coming at you with a negative response had a private page. Right. They have like six followers, six followers. So those to me are either bots, not real people who want to call someone else soft.

But if you saw them, they'd probably make the Michelin Man look hard. So I wouldn't even take that to heart. It took me a while to get to that point. Oh, no, no, no. I think was that Brockman called them keyboard losers or something like that, which I thought was gorgeous. Keyboard tough guys.

Keyboard tough guys. I mean, here's the good news. I slept great last night.

Of course you did. I'm not even cranky today. It's crazy. I did wake up at five twenty. I'm like, oh, no.

Ten more minutes to go. What do you do with that? I woke up at five and was just kind of like, all right. What do you do with that?

I'm awake now. What do you do with that? And then then Zander's ride fell through. I had to take a kid to school. I got to ask Eli Manning how he handles four kids. Eli has four kids. Four kids. Wow.

That's ridiculous. Four. So when he joins us in the second hour, we will ask him not only how he handles four kids, but what do you do with the donkey in your screen? Donkey. Donkey.

What do you do? There is a game tonight, Christopher. There is a game tonight. I want to remind you that there's a game tonight. There's a football from Chicago. Panthers Bears. Oh, sorry.

I'm awake now. You know, look, it's not going to be the prettiest game. It's a super low total for the Betters out there. Justin Fields is not playing. So it's more Tyson Bajant and his crazy, insane arm wrestling dad. You know, a chance for the whole country to see Bryce Young play.

Yep. Well, Al Michaels make it through the game. He's great. He's going to be great. And I don't know, his interest level, him and him and Herbie. Maybe it's time for Bryce to show why he was the first pick.

Hey, there's a four seasons in that city. I am excited to see Bryce Young play and how they handled the short week. They got kind of blasted last week after picking up their first win in week eight. I'm just trying to be positive. The athletic had a really interesting little bit. I want to read it and I want to give credit to the athletic because I hate it when people act like I came up with this great idea.

And it's like because I read it because somebody else did it. They're talking about the NFL quarterbacks. And it was in response to Tommy DeVito, no relation to Danny, starting as the Giants quarterback with Jones and Taylor out. DeVito is already the 10th rookie quarterback to start a game this year. The most rookie starters we've seen in a season since 1950. And we're in week 10. I mean, that's bananas. OK, then they went, let's zoom out even further, not even counting DeVito. Forty six quarterbacks have started a game this year, 14 of whom did not begin this year as a starter. And it's fantastic. And they went even further.

And by the way, athletic. I want a percentage of all the people that sign up from this promo. But yeah, so they're saying, I dare you without cheating to name the colleges for these quarterbacks who've started a game in 2023. DeVito. Badgin O'Connell, Clayton Toon and Jaron Hall. All right, so DeVito. There is your drinking game people. And it's nine a.m. on the West Coast. You're welcome.

I think I can do it, too. I know DeVito went to Syracuse and then played last year Illinois. OK, Bajan, we all know, went to Sheppard. Who are the other ones? Jaron Hall went to BYU. Jaron Hall, BYU, because he's Pukinokua. Tyson Badgin. Yeah, Badgin, Division II, Sheppard.

Who are the other ones? Aidan O'Connell. Aidan O'Connell went to Purdue. Aidan O'Connell went to BC because he's like Aidan O'Connell, right? Sounds like a guy who went to BC. I actually played at Purdue. Right. Who else? Clayton Toon, he went to Houston.

I'd know that because I just looked that up like two weeks ago for whatever weird reason. But it's, you know, it's not great. It's not great.

No. Tommy DeVito, I tweeted this out. He's projected for nine and a half points in my fantasy this week.

Oh, really? That's got to be the lowest projected total from a starting quarterback in fantasy history. Well, he's, Mr. DeVito's in trouble this week is all I'm going to say. He's playing Cowboys.

Yeah. Well, let's ask Eli about that. I mean, it's like name your Giants quarterback, right? I mean, by the way, does Eli have any have anything left in the old shoulder? Does he want to play this week? Does he want to take off the quarter zip and get out there? I feel like he could suit up and probably do just as good this week with all due respect. Who's got who's got stronger sweater game?

The Manning brothers are rich. What do you think? Or Jim Nance?

Start bench cut? Nance, that. I mean, get it out. I see Rich's sweater game five days a week as opposed to the other ones. His sweater game is strong. I feel like he should have his own line of sweaters. Look, I have been trying to get rich to do like a target line for men for so long. Like you could do like a really handsome dad line.

That's not embarrassing. And I think it would basically pay for like a Sun Valley ski house. Go for it. Make a nice target line. Eli Payton, call me after the show. We'll talk about it.

We'll brand it like Omaha for Target. My brother, my brother pointed out like they never wear anything that's not a quarter zip. Really? I paid attention to that. Can we think he could be a subsidiary of the Michael Strahan collection?

Like, you know, he could straight could have his sweater collection to be the Rich Eisen line, you know, like a branch on the tree. We need to be everywhere. You know, look, we got a bank.

Let's go. What's the expression bake hay when the sun's out or something like that? We're going to make hay when the sun's shining. Are you trying to do Kenny Chesney lyrics?

You are the weirdest person walking around making up your own country. Why don't you come up with a nice song for the show? Because you do have a penchant and a knack for your weird country music lines.

Kenny Chesney is the master of the haiku. What's my base? What's my base song?

What is your baseline? When the sun goes down. All right, I'm in. I think it's a great idea. I have lots of great ideas at this point in the morning. Call me at noon Pacific when we're done.

And then I'm basically like, how do I get home? Wait, where's the champagne? Are we drinking today? TJ, where is it? I completely forgot about it. But where is it? Probably in the fridge. OK. Commercial break. It's not that far. How are the croissants day two?

Day two. Not as good. Not as squishy fresh.

Yeah, I know. But still delicious. I ate one at seven thirty.

OK, that's all I'm asking. Mike ate one. I had a half. You did? OK. I didn't have time, guys.

It was either take a kid to school, leave them on the side of the road. There were also so many in the box yesterday that we didn't even come close to finishing it. So the leftovers today are perfect. All right.

I'm glad to hear it. Rich is going to call in, zoom in from Frankfurt again and again, breaking news. Oleg is a major celebrity now in Berlin. Major celebrity. He actually emailed in.

It's it's something. Oleg, as you may or may not have heard from yesterday's show. And if you haven't heard, where were you? Number one.

And number two, go back and watch it on the YouTube page. Rich did a bike tour throughout Berlin and just had the greatest. Let me say the bikes. Twelve kilometers, people, which I think is probably an Eizen family record. No doubt. Biked twelve kilometers, saw the whole city and his friend Oleg, his Russian tour guide, was out last night on the town and was told, I know you Oleg. You are Rich Eisen's tour guide from Berlin. And fantastic. You took the man around.

There it is. And my kids were so happy to know that he wasn't hurt, that he made it in one piece. So I know for all of you out there waiting for the Colts Patriots game on Sunday, which will be there. He is not questionable.

There is no injury. He is reporting and ready for duty. I know you've all been concerned about that. What else? What else do we have? I think we should go to break.

Take a break when we come back Dan Wetzel because I've got a whole segment without talking about Michigan. You're welcome, everybody. You know, in today's world, it seems the best treatment is reserved only for a few. Well, discover wants to change that by making everyone feel special. That's why with your discover card, you have access to 24 seven live customer service as well as zero dollar fraud liability, which means you're never held responsible for unauthorized purchases. Finally, no matter who you are or where you are in life, you'll feel special with discover.

Learn more at discover dot com slash credit card limitations apply. The football season is underway and believe podcasts are talking about it. When he went home and went to sleep, Michael Parsons is terrorizing. Believe has podcasts covering all 32 professional teams and many of your favorite college teams to be only producing 15 points a game.

That's something that is definitely disheartening. Sideline to sideline, end zone to end zone as a quarterback. I would expect him to be acting like that. Take the accountability. Put that on yourself.

Don't put it on your teammates. Search BLEAV podcasts wherever you listen. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show. Suzy Schuster sitting in for Rich, who is back in Frankfurt after a couple days off in Berlin. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show radio network desk furnished by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Granger's got the right product for you.

Call click ranger dot com or just stop by. Well, unless you're sitting under a rock or living under a rock, you're totally aware of what's happening with Michigan football right now. And we are very lucky and grateful for Dan Wetzel to join us. Reached out to him this morning.

Grateful for you to hop right on with us. Can you just please walk us through because you have been on top of it more than almost anybody in reporting the latest from Michigan and what you saw in that 10 page return letter that Michigan sent to the Big Ten. Right. So earlier this week, the Big Ten sent their notice that they were considering punishment under the sportsmanship policy of the league. Michigan had, I guess, 48 hours to respond. They did late Wednesday afternoon, as did Jim Harbaugh's personal attorney, Tom Mars. And so they have responded, brought up their side of the arguments on why this is either not a suspension or some punishment is impossible under NCA or Big Ten bylaws and NCA bylaws and all the different legalese that went through it.

There's more to it than that. We'll get to it. But right now it's back in the Big Ten's hands. They're reviewing the response and everyone's waiting for a decision to see what punishment, if any, the Big Ten hands down on Jim Harbaugh or Michigan with the game against Penn State at noon on Saturday, the biggest game so far of the year for Michigan looming.

There's still a possibility Jim Harbaugh doesn't coach that game. So it's kind of a interesting, unprecedented time. What was in that letter? If you could unpack that 10 page letter, what did it contain? Well, it was a lot.

That's a lot. And, you know, the merits of it will be decided, I guess, eventually kind of sets up a potential lawsuit also. So if the Big Ten does suspend, you would expect a stay. I mean, the various things are basically never before is the suspension or the sportsmanship rule been used to step in and punish a coach while an investigation is still going on or in any way. The sportsmanship policies generally like deals with referee, you know, arguing with referees or or things like that. It's very nebulous. What is sportsmanship?

They talk about how the big the end. There's nothing proven that Jim Harbaugh committed any unsportsmanlike act because he's not even aware. There's no proof that he was aware of how Connor Stallions was gathering his information. He was aware that Connor Stallions was a sign stealer because every team has a sign stealer.

But he was not there's no proof that he was aware of of any advance in person scouting or anything like that that Stallions was doing. Therefore, the the NCA has a rule that says, well, there's now strict liability for head coach, you must be responsible for all of the actions of all of the people underneath you, which is gonna be like 100 people. But the Big Ten's rule actually says it's the institution that is responsible for all the people, not the head coach. So can the Big Ten sort of, it's almost like a state court using a federal law.

Can you do that? Again, I don't know. I thought one of the more interesting was the lack of evidence at this moment that the Big Ten actually possesses. The NCA, it seems, is not able to hand over anything that they have found on this until after their investigation is complete, which it is not. So all that really these letters suggest the Big Ten has are some ticket purchases and some really nothing, nothing really impactful at all.

That would suggest even I'm not sure or they certainly don't believe, and I'm not sure you could even say Connor Stallions violated a rule based on the lack of evidence that the Big Ten possesses right now. So Michigan is sitting there saying, look, this investigation isn't even complete. There's been no conclusions. There's just allegations.

We aren't fairly able to respond to what evidence is out there because you're not presenting it to us. So give us the due process. Let this play out. Don't suspend us now. Now, again, there will be evidence that would certainly show Connor Stallions did something.

But at this moment, there isn't. And so it's you're they're arguing the Big Ten is kind of jumping the gun and trying to get this done too soon. And they should let the system play out the system. Really, if I think anybody would read any of this, whether you are no matter what team you root for or what you think, the system is not well equipped to handle a situation like this. You know, and it's like everything else, Dan, this is not about Michigan versus the world.

This is feels like it's become crazily partisan in a way. We've seen a lot of Michigan lawmakers petitioning the Big Ten saying, get out of this. Don't penalize them early.

Obviously, they all want to go to a a nice they want to go to a nice football game as well. And they see that there's a potential for a national championship on the line here. And yet the Big Ten has said this is not about punishing the kids. But how is it not punishing the kids if there's a potentiality for suspending their head coach? That's sort of the problem here.

And, you know, this whole system of NTA and Big Ten, you know, infractions and and just overall, it's one of the reasons there's so much frustration with these organizations is the rules are written very poorly. The the punishments could be draconian or then they could be too light. Again, we're not punishing the players. We're just taking your head coach away from a. Well, see, that would seem to be a fairly important thing.

But then again, what do you do? You don't punish anybody. They've struggled to punish people in college basketball and things like that. So then they come up with a strict liability rule, which even again, even if you hope Jim Harbaugh never coaches again, it's somehow suspended for life.

You do understand that when there's a strict liability rule, that might not be the best idea because it's your coach next. And so there's a lot of problems with the whole thing. And that's why there's so many frustrations. And yeah, it becomes, you know, politicians are jumping in because there's voters and it just it's a lot of grandstanding. The thing about it is when you read these and when you get into it, it really boils down to really precise things are going to decide this.

And none of them really work well on talk radio or or television. But it's things like, you know, how do you what is the definition of an of an in-person scout? Like that's never been defined or litigated in any of the documents. But it would be a huge determinant on just how common this is or not, how common this is. Can you does the Big Ten want to walk into the briar patch of, well, we're going to suspend Jim Harbaugh for indefinitely because this scandal reaches, let's say, one hundred on our scale.

OK, fine. What happens when another scandal, another scouting scandal pops up tomorrow that reaches seventy five? You suspend the person three quarters of Jim Harbaugh.

You know, what do you do? The precedent, the Pandora's box, the lack of, I think, a lot of the the NCA and Big Ten and just in college athletics in general, people walking off cliffs without looking ahead at saying, geez, how is this going to play out? The next time is got to be a factor. It's it's a total circus right now on this story. And I have no I have no good advice. I'm not glad I'm not in charge of it. I don't know what's going to happen.

But there really isn't a solution that you look at and go, oh, that's going to work out long term or appease everybody in the short term. Yeah. And I was going to ask you, what do you think is going to happen?

And at the same time, it's the dumbest question you could ask because we don't know. It's so unprecedented. And I think Tony Petitti coming in, we all we know him from the television world. He what did he run CBS before one of those guys. But, you know, he's going to want to make a stamp here. But boy, the rush into making that stamp could be deadly for him and his legacy and also for that of college football. Because if our whole country is built on due process and innocent before proving guilty and there's nothing tying Jim Harbaugh. And again, I didn't go to Michigan.

People relax, sit down. But the whole idea of of it is penalizing the kids. I mean, we are what two days out. We are two days and a couple hours from kickoff in Happy Valley.

Yeah, less than two hours, less than two days. So, yeah. And that's that's the that's how much, you know, Petitti doesn't have a lot of experience as a commissioner or he's getting it right now. And it's not easy running these organizations. And it's more than just how much TV money we can get or whatever you would do. So there's just a lot of there's a lot of concern going forward on how it all plays out.

And it's very complicated. And a lot of what works, again, in the public sphere or even what the other coaches and administrators are hearing, they're not thinking through, you know, general ethics, the precision of law, precedent, all these different things that a commissioner has to. And, you know, I think, like I said earlier, the one thing that is clearly obvious no matter where you stand on this would be this system doesn't really set up well for anyone to do what they're trying to do. Maybe they can do it, but it just doesn't work right now. And I'm not so sure the best solution would have been like, hey, we got to rewrite this system. But right now, we can't do anything to Jim Harbaugh.

I know that's not going to please anybody. But the system really isn't set up for this. Now, can they do it?

We're going to find out. So Dan Wetzel, what should college football do about this? Well, they should just put headsets in the helmet and not care about this. And then the coaches can communicate.

I mean, we're in this narrow path. It's a really weird rule because you're allowed to steal the signs. OK, that's the main thing. So you're allowed to rob the bank. You're just not allowed to rob the bank this way.

You're allowed to rob it all these other ways. And coaches will steal signs off of videotape and then play a team and test their signs and get additional sign information. And then they will share that information with their rivals next team they play.

Right. At that point, are you in person scouting? Are you an in-person scout if you were the the first team that has gathered all the information? And you can make a fairly compelling legal argument that you are. You're exactly the same as Connor, somewhat the same as Connor Stallion's band of buddies with their iPhones.

What's an in-person scout? No one's ever gone through this because this rule got written in nineteen ninety four and it apparently has never been. There's never been a case since nineteen ninety four. So no one really knows where we're standing on this. But you can. Well, and the coaches say, well, that's just common behavior. We do it all the time. So that can't be a violation. Well, just because it's common doesn't mean it's not a violation.

It's common for people to speed. It doesn't mean it's a it's not a violation. So that's not a good that's not a good excuse. It's so murky and so undefined. And if you can get past the I just want this result or I want this result, it's it's it's somewhat interesting, but it's also like, geez, this is just a huge mess.

And so if you're going to punish this way, do you punish this way in the future? Do you ignore this but accept this? Do you listen to college coaches who are just you know, I thought Petite's one mistake was listening to his to to the other coaches in the league. Those are the last people I want the opinion of. It was me. I wouldn't want Jim Harbaugh's opinion on anything going on in Columbus. I'm pretty sure I know what it would be. And I wouldn't want it the other way or anybody else.

So who's running this thing? Why? How?

What? What thinking is coming up? What's the right discipline? Can you punish before all the facts come in, even though you know, these facts are probably coming in?

All of it is very, very challenging. Yeah. You said something that was so precise, which is why are you asking these people? They definitely have it in Michigan's best interest and they definitely don't want to win and they definitely want to be the best football team out there. So it was a combination of mom.

He did it, not you. And they don't have all the facts. They don't have any stuff off TV or the Internet. And it's like, you know, I mean, I know no one's ever been wrong on the Internet, but it's sort of, you know, if you go on social media, it's sort of lost the plot at this point. Like the questions are precise and the public discord is broad and loud. Right. And that's just the way things work.

But in the end, this has to be determined in some kind of fair manner. And it's boring and not fun and all that. But it becomes like, what is the what is the definition of this word? What is this?

How does this work? That's not what we're looking for when we're just sitting around talking sports to Jim Harbaugh be suspended or not. And by the way, lest you forget, there's an actual game to be played and no one's talking about the matchup.

They're just busy talking about this potentiality for a lawsuit. So let me ask you what you expect in this game on Saturday. Yeah, I it's it's Michigan's first big game of the year and it's November 11th.

Right. They've they've cruised to nine fairly easy victories and this their whole season is Penn State Saturday. They get Maryland next week and then Ohio State and then then onward if they if they can can run that gauntlet. So, you know, I think to me, this game is about J.J. McCarthy, the Michigan quarterback. I covered Ohio State Penn State a couple weeks ago. Penn State is not an explosive offense. The one reason they have a terrific defense, if they cannot make big plays, they're not going to score a ton of points. We'll see.

But if that's the case, same thing. The one thing that beat Penn State was basically Ohio State receiver Marvin Harrison Junior making plays downfield. Michigan does not have a Marvin Harrison Junior. Nobody has a Marvin Harrison Junior, but they do have this quarterback that is Heisman candidate has put up big numbers.

He's experienced. This is a J.J. McCarthy game to win if he plays very well and is moving the ball and scoring points. I'm not sure Penn State can keep up. So how J.J. McCarthy plays in this game to me will be the deciding factor of the game. At this point, do you think this is J.J.'s Heisman to lose?

No, I wouldn't say that. I think there's a bunch of candidates out there. Michael Pennix, I still think Jayden Daniels had an incredible year. You could have Bo Nix. There's many players that are having terrific seasons. So I think J.J.'s in that mix. But obviously if he puts up huge numbers, Penn State and Ohio State and stuff like that, yeah, he could conceivably win it.

But right now he just needs to score some points and play really well on the road at Happy Valley. It's not at night. It's not that white out at night.

But that's not an easy place to play. It should be. And that's a very good Penn State defense.

Very good. What stories in college football are we missing because we're so myopic about this story that's happening right now? Well, we love scandals in college football now.

I mean, that's the fun part. They've never happened before. It's so weird. I've always known a very normal and placid college football experience. We love it. Yeah, we love it.

Just ask Jim Tressel. Yeah. Yeah, I don't understand the people like I wish this. I know this is the stuff everybody lives for. I mean, you know, I don't know that we're missing a lot if you're really into it, but there's there's some good games. I mean, it's going to be a terrific Ole Miss. Is that Georgia this weekend?

I don't know if that's getting any attention. Ole Miss is nine. Can Ole Miss step up in class? They've been a very, very good program under Lane Kiffin. But when they get to the Alabamas and perhaps Georges of the world, not that it's some shameful thing.

They can't really compete or haven't competed at the level. I think they would like they get another chance Saturday down in Athens to to upset everything here. I think that's that's obviously the the other big, big game. And then there's Utah, which is perennially just the maybe the toughest team to beat in the Pac-12. They're playing Washington this weekend. Washington's undefeated rolling along. Does Utah play play a role like they did last year in upsetting our USC's playoff hopes that they mess it up? So there's some there's some terrific games.

There's all sorts of different stories. College football is awesome. And we love it, but we love the scandals, too. And it all gets sorted out. If you're if you're not too, too emotionally invested, it's it can be entertaining.

Oh, please. Every college football fan is emotionally invested before we lose you. What are your thoughts on USC at the moment?

Well, the defense really hurt him. I mean, I think it's I think there'll be a time or maybe it's already there where USC and USC fans look back and see since we had Caleb Williams and couldn't win. In a different scale, I liken it to when Patrick Mahomes is at Texas Tech and they would you look back and go, gee, how didn't you win more games? You had Patrick Mahomes. I'm not saying Caleb Williams will be Patrick Mahomes, but this was a terrific football player and it just didn't quite hit as a team the way they wanted. They were on the cusp of the playoff last year. Obviously, it's not going to happen this year.

So I think there'd probably be a lot of frustration and it's really the defense letting them down. Dan, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate you coming on with us here on The Rich Eisen Show. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Always a pleasure. We didn't even ask him one Boston question. He's got like the he's got the Bruins mug in the background.

He's Norton, Massachusetts. We didn't even ask him anything. Epic fail. I have to say next time we'll go hardcore.

Masshole with him. I mean, that's the thing, you guys. I mean, I think that's all people are either angry at Michigan or angry at the Big Ten and that's all there is. And I know a lot of people are thinking, by the way, Lane Kiffin must be like, wait a minute.

What about me over here? I like attention. Lane likes attention.

So you would have to think that maybe he's like, wait a minute. Smoke and mirrors. What's going on?

What can I do this week? I don't know. Let's take a break. When we come back, we'll close up the first hour of the show. Eli Manning ahead and one Rich Eisen from Frankfurt, Germany, will be zooming in in the third hour, maybe the second when we come back. Half redneck, half posh. One hundred percent fun. Drake Crowder and Corey Ryan Forrester try and learn fancy culture in putting on airs.

The host of the Medium Popcorn podcast, Brandon Collins and Justin Brown. OK, so Paddington 2 had like one hundred percent of Rotten Tomatoes for you. You guys ruined that? Justin came in and took it down like two points because of his rating. That's the time we started getting death threats. Yeah, I'm not surprised.

People worship that movie. Putting on airs. The podcast is on YouTube and wherever you listen. Back on the Rich Eisen Show, stream the NFL on Westwood One for free, sponsored by AutoZone. All season long, you can 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 is right. Stream Kevin Harlan, who I love, Kurt Warner and me. That's I'm on for What the Football. I'm on for What the Football. Thank you very much.

You can also listen to Rich for Monday Night Football. Don't Ron Burgundy me. I just read me.

That's that's what I'm saying. I tried to let I tried to let it go that I was like, no, you didn't. And me. I'm Ron Burgundy.

Whatever. Leave me alone. We're drinking here. We just opened.

We just opened. We may have hit the sauce at nine forty seven in the morning Pacific time, but join Rich Eisen all season long. Did you slurp into the mic? That was me.

That was nasty. Come on. We 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 apply. I can't get fired.

I mean, what's Rich going to do? I'll just I'll just I'll just lock the door. So there you go.

And me for What the Football. Did you see how I tried to clean that up? You tried such a bad job.

I don't know how great. Successfully. Whatever. We'll just edit it. Whatever. No one's listening. Wait, hold on. Let's see. I'm laughing. Come on.

I could, because I care. Manny, you've been on the phone for a while. Manny. How are you, Manny?

Manny. Hello, Miss Suzy and gentlemen. Greetings from a breezy, chilly, fifty four degree day in El Paso, Texas. Good morning.

How are you? Is there an Iden Olga Olga that only watch going on? Do we want to know how many pints of beer were down? All I know is that we need an Oleg chant. We need to start off with Oleg, Oleg, Oleg, Oleg. That's a good one. Well, seriously.

Well done. Well, congratulations to Ryan Blaney becoming aspect champion, giving Roger Penske back to back title. Congratulations, Texas Rangers. It's been a week and a day.

And unlike the other Texas team, no cheating scandal. And of course, congratulations, rich eyes and show on receiving a Marconi award. In my eyes, that's way better than me.

My question is, did you clear out Rich's office to make room for the new hardware? And if you can disclose what other items may have been tossed out and also misusing your mom coming. I love it. I'm 44 years old. I call my mother every night.

I tell her I love her. Why? Because one of these days, hopefully not very soon.

I'm not going to get a chance to. Anyways, we still got football. We still got basketball. We still got hockey.

Let's watch some sports. I love you guys. Have a good day.

Bye, everybody. That was a fantastic call, man. You brought the energy. You gave your mom the props.

I mean, you you really literally dotted every I crossed every T. You were fantastic, Mandy. Thank you for saying that. You appreciated my comments on Caleb Williams.

I really thank you for the support on that. And by the way, that was just a high energy call. The best one to start a series of calls right now. It was great.

Nick in South Carolina. What do you got for us? Hello. Hey, how are you doing? How are you today? Thanks for taking the time. I'm doing well. Thank you.

I also want to compliment you on your comments yesterday about Caleb Williams. Really appreciate that. Thank you. Sorry. I lost my mom in 2018. Sorry, buddy. Sorry. And TJ, you were absolutely right.

Get all the hugs you can from your mom while you can. Yeah, Nick, it's so hard when you can't. So anyway, you know, it sounded like yesterday when you were making your comments about Caleb Williams, there was a few moments in there where it sounded like you wanted to maybe throw in some colorful words that, you know, you refrain from doing.

But, you know, I could see it on your face, man. And I really appreciate you saying that. Well, Nick, I wish I could give you a hug across the country and I'm sending you my love and my thoughts. And, you know, anybody who knows me knows that I have a foul mouth and knows that I have to work very hard to keep this PG.

And especially when it comes to, you know, some kind of toxic reaction to things. So, Nick, I appreciate you calling in. It means so much to us that you take the time. And thank you for sharing your emotion about your mom.

It just means you're a strong man and it means that you were raised by a strong woman. Yep. Oh, man, she was.

I know you have the sign there on the desk. Best mom ever. But my mom was also one of those.

And, you know, I miss her every day. But what I'm calling about is, is, you know, I've seen some other sports shows where these experts are talking about the Dolphins Chiefs game and nobody is saying anything about how all world tight end Travis Kelcey was held to three catches and 14 yards. Miami's defense shut them out in the second half. And all they're talking about is how Miami can't beat any good teams. But, you know, they're going to be a playoff team and the other teams better look out. I think you are 100 percent right. I think it's very easy to harp on the numbers. I think that people tend to concentrate on the team that wins. And I know that if I were playing Miami, I would be cowering in the corner because I think that they are so powerful on every cylinder. And I can't think of a coach right now that which is a bigger fan of. So I think you are 100 percent right.

And I think it just goes to show you as well how many weapons Kansas City has that they were able to shut down Travis Kelcey the way that they did. Thank you so much for calling and I hope you call in whenever I'm sitting in the chair. I will do so. Thank you very much. Really appreciate your time. See you, Nick.

Much love. Yeah, Suzy on the Dolphins real quick. I think that's a fair point that Nick brings up. They did play great in the second half. And aside from that fluke play to kind of end the first half with Tyree kill there that could have went either way, whether that got overturned. TJ, that's a much closer game. It's 14 nothing at half.

Then it's 14 14 in the fourth quarter. And maybe Miami squeaks that one out. We don't know if you look at Miami schedule coming up their next five weeks, they could easily win all five games. We're looking at a team that could be 11 and three as we get closer to Christmas and that date with the Cowboys. And suddenly we're talking about them as kind of challenging for the one seed, depending on what comes up, because we know Kansas City kind of has a tough schedule down the stretch. So Miami is certainly still in it.

I'm also one of the people saying, who have they beaten? Which I think is also valid, but they are going to be right there in the mix as we get down down the stretch. I don't think you're wrong, but I think my Daniel is one of those coaches to keep an eye on as you talk about who's going to be cycling out of the NFL world.

He is a rising star. The Dolphins schedule really quick while we're talking for a long time. Yeah, he's gonna be the Dolphins coach for those of you who are watching along us with the Roku. I mean, Chris, let's go through the schedule. So they're gonna buy this week, you know, kind of a bummer if you have a lot of Dolphins fantasy.

Me, I'm going against Tyree kill, so it works out. But then they got Vegas, the Jets, the commanders, Titans and Jets again. I mean, four and one at the worst.

I mean, it could be five and oh, if they're clicking. And then Christmas, Christmas Eve, Cowboys at Ravens home for bills to end the season. Now, three tough games to finish, but are they riding momentum on a five game winning streak going to Dallas? We'll see. We'll see.

And then, you know, like I said, they could be 11 and three and somewhere like Dolphins one seed. So, yeah, that's it. Eight four four two or four.

Rich is the number to call. Sigh, we see you. Hold on. All of you on the phone. Just hold on.

We want to get you. We will get you on the other side of this break, but we're going to take a break in a couple minutes. I also haven't really anything this morning and I'm starting to feel the champagne already already.

I did. But I feel like that went right through me. This is on my like, whoa, good thing I came with breakfast yesterday and the day before.

It's like my kids. I'm like, you can't have a leftover. I mean, I got a whole bunch of croissants in the back. Rich Eisen on the other side of this break. Eli Manning. I'm Suzy Schuster in with these bunch of crazy people here at the Rich Eisen Show. Well, I mean, I have one. You can borrow mine. Hey, Donkey.

Donkey. What is your Emmy for? Outstanding sports reporting. Thank you very much. Congrats.

Welcome. Local or is it the big time? I mean, I don't know. Disrespect. How dare you? What? I have hardware.

What do you have? I didn't deny that it was real. And yet and yet you still got him. Yeah. Yeah.

By the way, I got one. Yeah. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I mean, I got a Marconi.

I'm just do you have a Marconi? Well, rich one. Well, yeah. So by price, I feel like my proxy and by you and we I mean, I do.

Rich has that Emmy in the back, but it was because when he was that is an Emmy for seventy five people, literally he showed up to Sports Center and he was there for two months and he got the Emmy. Oh, by the way, I'm like, mine's for me. Right. All right.

Mine's Mikey. You know it. And I know it. And cheers to all of you guys. And if you're watching on Roku, it's time to pour a baby. Yeah, it's time to go.

Roku, join us. I want to listen to you. I have a Pennsylvania school press award. Hey, listen, I mean, sports here in 2009.

Nobody cares. Just say that's local. That's like I was a podcast of the top podcast from the closet. No, no, no.

That's no, that's low. Hey, Roku, join us here. We're going champion heavy. I'm just saying here on the. That's how I ignore Chris Brockman. I just opened another bottle of champagne. How wrestling really works and how you get the ratings.

Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson explain on eighty three weeks. Too much time is spent discussing talent's age. The younger demo is just as excited about Paul Heyman or John Cena or an undertaker or Becky Lanchard. I don't care what their birth certificate says. They're going to draw a younger demo because they're fun to watch and they're great entertainers. Eighty three weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.