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Download Game Time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. And I'm not going to lie, Amy Trask. When I was doing the show last week for Rich when he was in Germany, this has never happened in my entire career.
I totally run Burgundy. I was doing a promo and I think it was for Westwood One. I think it was for Monday Night Football. Maybe I'm projecting because I really want to do Monday Night Football when Rich is away next time. But I said, join Kevin Harlan and me. And I was going to shoot. I think it was that was the promo. It was join Kevin Harlan, Kurt Warner and me, Rich Eisen.
I'm like, oh, God. And I did it on the live show. The guys are hysterical.
I don't care what I'm not going to get fired. Right. So, yeah, I run Burgundy the promo. So I always have to make sure I have the right promo. We used to laugh at some of the people at Fox Sports when they would do auditions. They'd have to make me do auditions with them all the time.
And the amount of people that would run Burgundy when they tried to read. Do you ever read promos? You ever read like prompter?
Rarely, rarely, rarely. And kind of I'm a little jealous of the people who get to read off prompter and I'm not using a prompter. And that means I'm using my brain.
And, you know, the prompter might help at times. But, you know, Suze, before we dive into anything, I want to let you know I'm over caffeinated today. I'm very over caffeinated. In fact, when I'm like this and this morning, my husband said to me when I'm like this, which I am, you are like a hummingbird on speed. So that's what Rob said to me this morning.
I'm like a hummingbird on speed. So get ready. And also, while I'm on the subject, since I am over caffeinated, you know, every time we walk down the hallway to come on set, there's all these pictures of rich just frame after frame. They're magnificent pictures of rich with magnificent celebrities. Where the hell is the picture of you and me? What if we come in next week, just hang our own picture? And I have a really ridiculous story to tell you that has to do with Jeremy Shapp and that. But that's a whole nother thing. I should probably do that one off air. But it has to do with Jeremy Shapp and hanging a wedding portrait. That's a tease, people. But I don't think I can do it on the show.
But get me drunk enough and I might just tell this story. I just think what we should do is at some point, you and I should take one of the pictures we've taken on this set, frame it and just put it up on that wall because there's about a thousand phenomenal pictures of rich. And I think you and I should be on the wall. Well, poor Marshall Falco will join us soon, by the way. And by soon, I mean the 10 is a mess and we wonder when he'll actually get here. But we trust him. He's my other husband.
And I think he will get here eventually. We will talk to him about dumb decisions like I had that one with Jeremy Shapp. We'll also talk to him about being with you when you're on a caffeine hummingbird kick, by the way. That could be better than last week when we were cranky on the air and people seem to feel like I was reading some of the comments, which is just sometimes a dumb thing to do. But I'll often look for comments because you guys like to ask questions. And a lot of people said, I felt your pain last week when you guys were cranky and we started cranky.
But by the end, we weren't cranky at the end. By the way, just for our listeners and viewers on the Rich Eisen show YouTube channel, Susie's reference to the 10, you know, people who aren't in Los Angeles might not get that right. Right. There's that great.
And it's so true about, you know, well, you take the four or five to the 10 to the nine. Well, the 10 is a freeway and it's got some problems today. By the way, get out of here, Stewart.
I love the Californians so much. You know who's really cranky this morning? Speaking of cranky and people who are probably under caffeinated this morning, I would say that maybe Ken Dorsey is. Obviously, the Bills let their offensive coordinator go today on Tuesday. We tape on a Tuesday. I like to let you guys know when it is more for me to remember what day it is for.
Which could I have to pick up after this? But I am playing this out loud and we are taping this on a Tuesday. Yeah, the Bills let their offensive coordinator go after their loss to Denver. And I think it's great to have Marshall Falk on so we can ask him what it's like to actually lose a coordinator, what that means for the team. But, you know, clearly, Amy, they decided they had to make a wholesale change fast. They did make a change. And what we don't know, because we're not behind those doors, is did they believe that the sort of the regression, the fall off in Josh Allen's performance was related to Ken Dorsey? Or did they just feel that they needed to make a change to shake things up?
Or were they looking to find a scapegoat for their offensive problems? He could have been relieved of his duties for any number of reasons. What I find fascinating, what I'm interested to see is, was the Ken Dorsey, Josh Allen fall off correlation or causation? Will we see an improvement in Josh Allen now? I don't know. And it's interesting because we know that they had to have made that move with Allen signing off on it.
He's too established in that position. You think I'm wrong? I don't know. No, I don't necessarily think you're wrong. I just don't know if you're right. I thought you were going to say with team ownership signing off on it.
And I might have nodded differently had you done so. I don't know if or to what extent they factored Allen's thoughts into that. Maybe he shared that his fall off was related to the offensive coordinator. I don't know. Teams sometimes do make changes without talking to people with whom they should speak. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's I guess I should have asked you instead.
What are your thoughts on this as opposed to opining? And again, this is really right. I might be right.
I might be crazy. Sorry, those aren't mutually exclusive. Yeah, I know. And but the truth is, we don't know yet. It'll all come out as it always is and as it always does. But what are your thoughts when you see them shaking up like that and making a change like that end of week 10 going into week 11?
Well, you know, first of all, if they don't have 12 men on the field, game over, they win absolutely a different calculus. And by the way, if you want at some point, I will share with you my behavior. When we played a game in which another team was not penalized for 12 men on the field when they had 12. I want you to share that right now. Right now.
Right now. Playing Baltimore Ravens 1996, I believe it was. It was their first season in Baltimore. We are playing end of the game. They have 12 men on the field. I look down on counting one, two, three, four.
I get to 12. They have 12 men on the field. Play is run, no flag, game ends shortly thereafter. I stormed and Susie, I mean, stormed over to the NFL Observer.
The NFL has an officiating observer on site at every game. I stormed over to him and I was so angry. And I said to him, even Mr. Ed can count to 12. And I stomped my foot like it was a horse hoof like Mr. Ed. I did a Mr. Ed imitation stomping my foot 12 times. Like even a horse, even Mr. Ed could count to 12.
Oh, you know what? I'm getting mad all over. What position would you have been if you could play? Defensive end in a four, three defense. And I would have been the person they brought in on third and long. And I would have just blitzed every down. I used to say to Al all the time when he'd talk about whether we should be blitzing, whether we shouldn't be blitzing. I'd be send them all, send them all, send them all every down. And then I would say, you know, if I was defensive coordinator and he would immediately respond, you're not.
And you're not. I definitely, since you didn't ask, I'm going to tell you, I would be a quarterback because I'm so bossy. And that's the thing. I think that almost rather be a coordinator than actually play. Cause then I wouldn't have to get hit.
Well, there is that. And you know, Marshall Faulk. You'd be a good quarterback. And then Marshall Faulk will tell the story. And I'd sack you.
You're half my height. I would have danced to the side and then I would have done a shutter step and then off I would have gone. Marshall talks about it all the time. The reason why he was so good and that part of the fact was, you know, sheer talent. It was working so hard, but also he hated getting hit. Oh, interesting. He hated it. Interesting.
And I think it's kind of funny. So we played him once. I don't think we hit him once that game.
No, you're probably right. But it'll be interesting to see what happens. And if Allen's confidence comes back, he does seem to have been off this season so far. And what I like about Josh Allen is there's no deflecting. He has been almost sometimes painfully too much.
I think taking the blame for when he's not right. And I think we all know this is a team effort out there, but he's very forthright and very forthcoming when he's not playing well. But I wondered if there's something to do with his confidence level and if his head coach saw that he had it to have someone coming in.
Joe Brady, the quarterbacks coach, will now be the offensive coordinator. We'll see how long that lasts, but something doesn't seem right there. Well, your point about him accepting all the blame is something I believe.
I feel very strongly about this, and it's not just football. It's every business. It's every walk of life. The best leaders always accept all blame and grant all credit. Even if credit isn't due to others, they always credit others. Even if blame shouldn't be on them, they always accept all blame.
So I think that speaks highly of him. And now we're going to see, was it correlative or causative? And that's your favorite thing because you love it when people mess up the two words. People shouldn't mess up correlation with causation.
Something can cause an outcome or it can just be correlated with the outcome. And yeah, it really does bug me when people mess that up. You know, Rich used to say on SportsCenter all the time, he would use words that were too big and basically force people to go get a dictionary. And I actually think that there will be plenty of people who will hit the dictionary today for correlation versus causation.
You know what? Here's two dictionaries. And by the way, kids today. It's a book and you open it and there's letters inside. Your mom would say to you, it wasn't go Google it. Your mom would say, go look it up. And we had dictionaries and we had encyclopedias. Yeah, we had all those things.
We didn't have cell phones. I want to change the subject because I couldn't think of a smooth way to do it. And I'm going to jump right in, because otherwise we're going to go on and on about dictionaries and word choice. Let's talk about things that make us happy, which we do every week. I think we're starting to get a continuation of a theme here. We start cranky, then we get really happy. You make me happy.
Oh, Amy, you complete me. C.J. Stroud, it just seems like week after week, his name comes up and it's part of the conversation. And we thought today, instead of being across the board and talking about a bunch of things, that we're going for a Jets Patriots Raider List podcast, people.
I want you to know that because we are aware that there are other teams out there. But boy, watching C.J. Stroud makes us happy. Two weeks in a row engineering these game winning runs, these game winning, beautiful drives down the field, engineering them.
And just with pinpoint laser like precision, not playing like a rookie. And we just want to kind of spend some time celebrating him today. And I have three points in that regard. Number one, do you remember?
And of course, you remember that was rhetorical. The heat that Lovey Smith and the team took at the end of last season for winning that final game such that they lost a spot in the draft. And yet they got C.J. Stroud, not Bryce Young.
And that goes to a point about which I am so passionate. The draft is not a science. There's no Enigma code.
There's no Rosetta Stone. The draft is not a science. The other point as to C.J., I made briefly last week and I'm going to touch upon it again because it applies not only to C.J. He has worked with a performance based coach here in Los Angeles. The coach uses the game of chess to help sharpen decision making skills under pressure. And two of the things he does is when it's your turn to make that chess move, he will blare in crowd noise. So now C.J. sits there and he's trying to make a chess move with crowd noise like a game. And also he will put a time limit on it. C.J., make your move. You've got 25 seconds.
Go. Well, here's why I raise this. I will tell you this is causation and not just correlation. Two of the other coaches, two of the other players that coach works with, Josh Dobbs, Jalen Hurts. The three of those players use chess to strengthen their skills and we're seeing it on the field.
Yeah, it's pretty incredible. Now Seth Makowski, who's the name of this performance coach, I talked to Bruce Feldman on the way in. He did a great article on him in The Athletic and I wanted to talk to him more about whether he really believed what this was. He said he really, it's not that he believes it.
His research shows that this works out. I mean, he's teaching them how to operate in real time and how to quiet the voices around them. Like you said, the crowd noise, piping it in and seeing what I thought was great was just the idea of seeing the board as a whole.
So many quarterbacks get so focused on what's in front of them that they don't see who's going downfield here, they can't figure out the running lanes, what have you. But I love the idea of him quieting the board and just being able to be there in real time. He's even changed the look of some of the pieces that he plays with when he plays with these kids here. The kid is, Seth Makowski has become so relevant that UCLA has basically added him to the staff.
He's working with all of their players across the board. And I did a nice deep dive into CJ as I would want to do as a reporter and just in learning more about him and in his time at Rancho Cucamonga and how he learned how to play and how he didn't start until he was a junior, but how he took the time earlier to sit there with the iPad to learn the positions, every position on the field, he learned how to play their game. And I think that makes a player when you're a quarterback and you're not just focused on yourself, but you're focused on how the chess pieces around you work.
It makes you that much more effective as a rookie. I agree with everything you just said. And I also want to give you a shout out for using in a sentence on our podcast, the word W-O-N-T. I love that word. He is want to do.
Not enough people appreciate that word usage, so thank you. Agree with you everything on CJ. The other thing I will note is something his teammates have said about him, which is he's looking through what opposing defenses are doing and he's sending them texts 11 at night, midnight showing them this is what we can expect to see from their defense. This is a man, a young man who has tremendous, tremendous attention to detail. And I have always believed that attention to detail and hard work are what separate the great from the good.
You know, I'm so curious as to this. He didn't do well on his cognitive tests, and that was why some teams said maybe we're going to pass on him. And obviously one team passed. And that's why Bryce Young went where he went, and that's why CJ ended up a Texan. They were concerned about his cognitive skills. Now, I personally had the lowest incoming SAT scores in my entire class.
I can't standardize test. I get bored. You're not a good boy.
Oh, my gosh. I knew we were like sisters in every regard. I have the worst SAT performance of anyone in my family. I didn't do well on the LSAT.
I still consider it somewhat of, you know, a little bit of a miracle. I passed the bar exam the first time. I don't. Did I mention I passed the bar exam the first time? Because I might want to mention that six more times.
I'm just curious. Did you pass the bar exam the first time? But, Suzy, you and I both, I was horrible on the SAT. If I was taking it in this day and age, I don't get into college where I went. I was horrible on the LSAT.
I don't buy into standardized tests as being indicative of one's abilities. I just think it's fascinating as we look now at the rookie performances and we see where Bryce Young is and we see where C.J. Strout is and you could, it could be said that it's also about who's around him. And it could be said that perhaps the, I mean, if you watch the last two weeks of the Texans playing and you see that, you see the team that's built around him, namely their tight end and their wide receiver, you just see that this team is clicking, right? You see that they're responding to him. And I wonder, as I go back and talk to you again about that, kind of that decision you make when you're drafting somebody, so much goes into selecting that rookie quarterback.
So what's it like in that moment? Well, here's one question for you, and we will never know the answer to this. Had Lovey Smith not led that team to victory in that last game, and had they not dropped that position in the draft, do they still take him or do they take Bryce Young? Or do they take Bryce Young, and we're never going to know that.
I mean, you know, again, the draft is not a science, but you can't control for all of these variables. And by the way, to kids that are listening or parents of kids that are listening who those kids don't do well on the SAT, I think Susie and I have done OK for ourselves. We've done just fine.
Yeah. One more question about Bryce Young, and I have to ask because it's funny. And again, as I hit the research books and I say to you, God, it's so funny, 5 of 10 seems small for a quarterback.
And I remember thinking, as most people did during the draft last year, God, 5 of 10 seems small for a quarterback. What's 5 of 10 in football parlance? OK, first of all, you want me to let you in on a little secret about how teams do this on the weight and height thing?
Yes, please. When you have a player who is perceived or believed to be a little shorter than he should be, you sometimes fudge up on height. So you'll put out your roster and all the information. And I don't know how tall Bryce Young is. He may be 5'10". I will tell you from my years in the league, there were times a player might have been, you know, let's say 6'1.5", and we're like, just put him down at 6'2".
Or 6 feet or 5'11", just 5'11", just smudge it up to 6 feet. And then you do the opposite with players who weigh too much, which, by the way, is not a bad thing in theory for life. But if a player weighed too much and he was there at 3'62", you might put him in at 3'55". People, I'm just telling you, I'm not suggesting that they've done with Bryce.
These teams lie on the height and weight. Let me also go on the record right now, people, that we are not calling a career on Bryce Young. What we are doing instead is just talking about the decision-making process that goes into taking a quarterback.
Right now, the Texans made a really smart choice. We could be sitting in the chair next week talking about Bryce Young and saying, this kid is the next coming. This kid is it. This kid is everything. So I want to be very clear before the keyboard monkeys attack us and say, why did you say that about our quarterback?
Your point is so well taken, Suzy. It's such a smart point because it's not just the player. Who's around him? How's his pass protection? Do they have a good running game? And I'm thrilled we're getting Marshall because I am team running game. The better you're running game, the better you're passing game.
So there's a lot of variables. Great point, Suze. Yeah, let's piss off Marshall by talking about how the running game has become devalued in the NFL. He'll just sit there like he wants to. It doesn't matter because I have his back.
And by the time we're done, Marshall might want to name me running back advocate because I believe in the running game. So guess what I did last night, by the way? Do I really guess or are you going to tell me? I'm going to tell you anyway. You took a bubble bath.
What are you, insane? I have three kids and it's Monday night. I did none of the above. You had a drink. That's clear. That's so obvious. We know that I bought a lot of tickets to stuff.
Cool. I was sitting there watching Monday Night Football. Rich was home, which was nice.
He wasn't very helpful. He was just basically sitting there watching the game because he's tired. But I had to buy a lot of tickets because we have a lot of shows coming up and you know, I've got three kids with three different tastes. So I'm basically all I do with my life is drive them, try to watch football and buy tickets to show. So I use game time because you know, that's what I always do. I use game time because I have three kids with three different tastes and they're always going to tell me at the end where I can buy the best seats for the best prices. And the best part about it is I can decide last minute. They sell tickets up until an hour after the show starts.
So I know that I say like last minute, hey Rich, listen, I'm busy. I'm going to go take Xander to a show and off we go. And the best part also on top of that is I can see where the seats are because there's nothing worse than taking a kid to a show and you can't see because suddenly there's an obstruction.
And that makes me irrationally angry and nobody wants me irrationally angry. So I go to game time. It's the best. It's easy to navigate. I can see exactly where the seats are going to be, like I said. And they tell me upfront how much it's going to cost. When you have five people and you're buying tickets for five people, it's so important to know how much things are. So it's the perfect solution to finding tickets to satisfy everyone. And the game time guarantee means that you'll always get the best price. If you find tickets in the same section and row for less, game time is going to credit you 110% of the difference. That never happens. Nobody gives me money back.
So that makes me really happy. So download the game time app, create the account, use the code WTF for $20 off of your first purchase. Restrictions apply. Visit gametime.co for terms. Again, create that account. WTF is your code for $20 off.
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Visit prizepicks.com for restrictions and details. And as promised, Marshall Faulk joins us here on What the Football, because I dragged him in. I made him come in person because I like seeing you 28.
Oh, stop it. I just, you know, when you call, I come. And before we dive in, I just want to thank you personally for coming. It is absolutely a treat to have you with us. Good to see you. And I like seeing you better than when you were rushing for 158 yards against us.
I know, I know. I don't think we've tackled you yet. So let's just jump right in. What do you think's happening in Buffalo?
It's typical. Let's just say, you know, head coach is starting to feel it. They're getting a new stadium. You want to go into that new stadium, a winner. It was funny. I was listening early this morning and to think that in the AFC, like, Buffalo is the oldest team.
It's like, what? And those guys, they seem young, but the clock is ticking. Last year, Leslie Frazier wasn't good enough. This year, you get rid of Dorsey.
Obviously, Dables gone. And now they're going to put Joe Brady in the mix as if that experience in Carolina went well. The guy did a great job in college.
And let's be honest, Joe Burrow is Joe Burrow. I don't care who's calling plays for him. The guy seems that he has a knack for the dramatics in the game.
It's interesting. And right now, Sean McDermott is grasping for straws. He understands when the offensive coordinator go and the defense coordinator go, you're next. Pretty soon, you're not getting to hire another OC and another DC next year.
This family, is it the, what, the Pegulas? They want to win. And they've given them the money and they've done everything to win.
Clock is ticking. And you hit on a business point that resonates with me, which is this new stadium that's coming. Because along with this new stadium is going to be a requirement of a lot of additional sales.
You're going to be selling premium tickets and suites and advertising and sponsorships. So there is going to be tremendous pressure. You also touched on something that I find fascinating, which is the recycling of coordinators and the recycling of coaches. And you kind of look and say, you know, OK, maybe they reached out to Brady because he was the only one on the staff they could put in at this point. But I was always amazed at that throughout my career. And I would love to hear from your perspective, what's going on in that locker room right now?
They made this change. What is the dialogue in that locker room? I think everybody's kind of, actually, when these types of things happen, you pull closer. But your core players really start to look at themselves in the mirror and say the things that they need to say. Because it's one thing to be competitive. It's another thing to just be outright careless. Because as I was told when I came into the league, our hopes and dreams is in that football.
Oh, yeah. And our jobs, too. And Josh Allen, he plays the game with reckless abandon. And he don't understand that there's some guys on that team that they don't have the opportunity.
They don't have the 200 million that he has. They need to win now. And we're seeing that. We saw that in a tweet that went out last night from Trayvon Diggs saying to his brother, time to get up and out of Dodge. And so we're going to see what happens. I think we have that tweet handy.
Man, 14 got to get up out of there. No doubt. I mean, Marshall, when you start taking the socials to that, what's your reaction to that?
Hey, let's just say this. And I'm going to give Steph his props. But his bro didn't just put that out there without a conversation, man.
And somehow, some way, you will not do that to your sibling. But it was well orchestrated. I heard the stats last night on the guy hasn't caught a touchdown pass in the playoffs from him.
How many balls, how many times he was targeted last night. And it's all starting to come to fruition as to those wide receivers. They're divas. You know, they are. Let's just be honest.
They're divas. Can I hug you right now? Can I hug you for saying that? I'm going to hug you for saying that.
You know what? Throughout my career, that was a discussion. If there was one position that you could look at on the team and say they are divas, it was always the wide receivers.
Yeah. And I have to separate my guys because until I saw Isaac Bruce and Tory Holt exist, I never thought two receivers could exist in the capacity that they played and never complained about getting the ball. Not to mention that they had me in the backfield as well. It just never happened. So they were the exception of all the guys I saw and all the guys I played with. And the guys, they were the exception. But when you're out there, it's a lonely world out there.
You're far removed. A lot has to happen for you to get the ball. And when it doesn't happen, it starts to wear on you. And I saw it happen to Devontae Adams this year. And I saw it start to happen to Stefan Diggs. And here's what happened. They ability to concentrate start to drop and they start dropping balls.
Like I've seen both of these guys make incredible catches and catchable balls hit their hands and they drop it because it starts to get in your head. You're not being targeted. You're not valued. And that diva mentality, it really kicks in. You point to the diva mentality. And I did. For those of you that are listening and not watching on the Rich Eisen Show YouTube channel, I did. I hugged him because you are singing to me because almost 30 years in the league and I will tell you that's the diva position.
And that's why I laughed. It was a couple of weeks ago, a DB, and I apologize. I don't remember which DB this was, made a comment about a receiver during the game who kept asking for DPI flags. Give me the pass interference.
And the DB said, why is he asking for a flag? He's the one pushing me because he's a receiver. Why are the receivers so valued and running backs aren't? Well, first of all, let's be clear that, and everybody wants to blame the running back for what's going on. I'm team running back. I'm team running back.
And I've pointed this out. I used to watch games with Rich and they used to watch me get pissed because the position has become what it is only because the players that are playing it, they want the money, but they don't want to put the time in. They want to share the backfield, but then when it's time to get paid, they want to be paid like the number one guy.
The last thing that I ever did was wanted somebody else to do my damn job. I played as many plays as I could. And if you watch the young guys in today's game, they're coming out of college thinking, you know, you could have one or two or three guys.
No, when you're the guy, you're the guy. And in today's game, what's happening is game starts. They give them the ball two to three times. They got to come out of the game.
I think I saw this happen the other night or the other day. I'm watching the Raiders play, all right, the Raiders and the Jets play. Josh Jacobs is being fed the ball. He got, he had like three carries in a row and he was headed to the sideline and he told him, no, like, go back in. And I'm like, the head coach told him, go back in. Old school Antonio Pierce was like, you want to be the man of the game. Like you want to be the man you complained about not getting the ball.
Go back in. He went back like, like you're not supposed to play tired. You have to play tired. What a lot of people don't understand in this whole running back debate, and I will say it again, I'm a running back advocate. The better the running game, the better the passing game, because if you have to defend the run, that's less men you can put into pass coverage. Look, it's a game of math. It's 11 on 11, and if you've got a defender runner like Marshall Falk, you're putting attention on him.
Guess what? You've got tight ends and receivers that are a lot more open now. Yeah, I'm tired of watching football and teams run in play action pass that don't run the ball.
Right, right. What do you do? Is it just the concept for timing? Why are you running? You do not run the ball. What do you run in play action for?
It's a waste of time. What's the correlation, not causation, but what's the correlation of how many times you run the ball versus how much you get paid? Because it seems to me like these guys would want to touch the rock every single time because the more you do, the better you are, the more you score, the more money you'd get. That's a great question, and I don't think it's how many times you touch the ball. I think it's how productive you are when you touch the ball, and that's that.
The productivity starts to happen as you start to get in the groove. Let's just say, if I run the ball 15 to 20 times a game, at least four of those carries are going to be 10 or more yards, and now what do I have to average in the other 10 carries to where I crack a hundred yards? I crack a hundred yards, and the better thing is, when are those yards gained? I could break an 80-yard run in the first quarter, that means nothing.
But with two minutes to go, it could win the game. Right now, listening to player memoirs from Audible really helps me relax and pass the time on long flights. With the app, you can listen anywhere, as it's all in one spot. Whether I'm on a transatlantic flight or on a long car ride with my family, I just put on an audiobook from Audible and boom, it's so easy to just listen. New members can try Audible now free for 30 days. Visit audible.com or text eisen to 500-500.
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Download game time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. or it's first and goal or you're at the goal line or you need a little bit and they're lined up in shotgun. First of all, that makes me crazy. Run the damn ball. Look, first down, that's a yard, that's 36 inches.
If my shoe is almost 11 inches, that's only about three itty bitty steps in my shoe and that teams don't run the ball or use shotgun. Marshall, it makes me crazy, does it make you crazy? I just understand what this league is. You know, we're paying Andy Reid to be Andy Reid. We're paying Sean McVay to be Sean McVay and guess what they want to make sure you know that they are who they are.
Coaches are no different with their egos than them players are. It's like Philadelphia coach figured it out. Hey, guess what we're going to do? We're going to do some old school rugby tush push. That's what we're going to do. We're not getting fancy. There's nothing to draw up here. Let's just let's just get the yard we need and and keep it moving.
All these other guys, they want to design and draw up and show you how smart they are. Just play football. That's it. And by the way, you know what football is? Running the damn ball.
That's the way I don't understand this controversy. All I ever knew about with football was, you know, was it three yards and a cloud of dust? Like I thought football was for running. I love Marshall and I will tell you, Marshall, I had this discussion with Al Davis all the time. We would be bemoaning some coaching decisions.
And my comment was, don't try to be cute. Just win the game. Al and I had this discussion about coaches wanting to show how smart they are with cute plays. It's a game of matchups.
Exploit your matchups. If you watch where the league is now, all right, think about this. The last time you saw a coach or heard of a coach, offensive, where the head coach or offensive coordinator being hired because they run the football good, you get hired to develop a quarterback, which means to throw the football. Is that a system, Marshall? I hate the word system in football.
It's so annoying. It's all a system. We run the same damn plays.
We're playing the same game. Everybody, it's when you're young, you're running the system. As you get older, you become the system. When we first watched Patrick Mahomes come into the league, he was running Andy Reid's system. But now Andy Reid is calling plays based on his skill set.
So now he is the system. Which is what every coach should do. If you are a coach, best position your players to be their best and use the skills your players have. It drives me nuts when coaches try to be so cute that they're asking players to do what they can't do.
Yeah, that's the best I can say about it. It's like good coaches can coach players who need to be coached and good coaches can get out of the way of players who don't need them. Okay, now I have a good question for you. Given everything you've said, with which I agree in its entirety, do you want to coach?
No. He's too fancy. It's not even about being fancy.
I just don't relate in that sense. Other than the teaching me of the game and the understanding how to lead, I was making enough money to work my butt off and make sure I was there and responsible to get the job done. I wouldn't need to be told to come to practice or to practice extra or to do extra stuff.
You're making all this money. You have all the social attention and so somebody got to make you want to be great. I mean, just to be kind of good in this environment makes you a superstar. The job I wanted Marshall to take that he won't take is GM because I think Marshall knows how to shop. I think Marshall knows how to talk and I think Marshall would be the most incredible builder of a team.
Let's keep talking about him like he's not here. Marshall would be so good at that, but you don't want to do that either. But you don't want to do that either. No, not right now. You know what? You know what? I thought I did. And then I watched John Lynch over the last five years go from like the Sproul young guy.
He got grayed out. I'm like, man, John just started to age. Like it hits you quick. This game starts to wear on you. Literally, it's like I went from being able to call Mike Mayock about everything to where Mike wouldn't even take a call because you literally get sucked in.
And you lose yourself. Well, I understand why you don't want to coach, but I want to let you know. I think you'd be a phenomenal coach. Thank you. I appreciate that. Let's hit you up in a couple things before we lose you. And they always tell me, don't go too long.
And then I go long because, you know, they don't know their talk because I don't care. And so CJ Stroud, we spent a lot of time in the beginning talking about him. Is he as good as we all think he is? What do you think about him?
I don't know. And I'm going to be honest because there's a lot of Ohio State fans that I know. I kind of put him in the category with all Ohio State quarterbacks. I was just like, you know, that's it. Are you saying that because Rich is in the back listening?
No, no, this is this is real. This is I had this conversation with Orlando Pace, Jonathan Wells. I had it with several guys that are Ohio State guys.
And I was like, I don't know. Like they didn't Ryan Dave being the offensive guru that he is, did not display the arm talent that I'm watching his kid play with. And it wasn't like he didn't have good receivers. They have two of them in the league and probably one of the best that's coming out and Marvin Harrison Jr. So I just don't understand how how a Michigan could ever beat Ohio State with this guy. And they beat him twice, which is which is unbelievable.
So I mean this. I'm watching him in the league now and the arm talent, his ability to to deal with disappointment, to deal with disappointment, which is you throw an interception for a pick six and then you come back like it like it was nothing. I mean, I play with Peyton as rookie. I watch those things bother him and he eventually got over it. But I it's it's unbelievable not to mention rookie head coach.
It's a great point. It's like these dynamics don't usually happen. Usually it's a veteran head coach with the rookie quarterback that's bringing him along. D'Amico Ryan's rookie head coach.
You know, but can I ask really quick, Amy, you know firsthand how hard it is to be the best rookie in the league your first year. What is that like? Walk us through. Um, well, let's say this.
It's not just so that's one part. The other part is walking into a locker room where you're like the savior. And I was the second overall pick.
He's the second overall pick. You walk in and these guys are looking at you like who the hell he think he is. And then you're looking at them like, well, who the hell you guys think you are? I got drafted second. There's a reason why I'm here. Right.
But the other thing people often forget, I know none of you, we don't forget it. But when you are drafted first or second, unless your team has traded up for that pick, there's a reason they're drafting that hard, that high. And that's why I'm going to underscore what you said about D'Amico Ryans. That's a team that earned that second pick. And frankly, if Lovey hadn't won the last game, they would have had the first pick.
That was for a reason. So that D'Amico is doing what he's doing and CJ is doing what he's doing on that team. I find remarkable. And in CJ's instance, it's hard work.
He pays attention to detail. Yeah, that's why I'm saying it. It's like when you walk into that locker room, you're second overall pick. You're walking in kind of with your chest out, like, hey, you know, I'm somebody.
And the veterans are always trying to suppress you. And like, you know, who do you think you are? It's like, well, I got to be somebody.
You guys earned the right to pick me. Like, you were very bad. So what was it like?
Because, you know, part of the reason why I love having Amy is she can pull the curtain back. It's football. No, but Marshall, what was it like performing at that level as a rookie and being so new and the pressures and the speed and the size and the lifestyle? And, you know, obviously I know well, your transition to college, you were alone for the first time, but now you're off in the big leagues. So what was that like?
Walk us through that. It's a scary world. It's different.
It's unique. And when I look at CJ, just, you know, reading about him, understanding the complexities of his upbringing, where his father is now not having that positive role model in his life, mom doing a heck of a job at raising him to be the young man that he is. For him to then walk into this locker room or you walk into this experience, you have to be a very confident person, a very confident person in your abilities to play this game. And here's what happens after the first game, all the little things that you do right, you file away and the things that you do wrong, you work on them.
And then the next week, the things that you did wrong, as you start to progress and get better, you start to feel more like you more than just belong. You stop having those, I'm in the NFL moment to, I am the NFL. And that's where he is, like watching him play, having fun, dancing with the rest of the guys, not being too uptight. He's really enjoying and embracing the learning process of him becoming an NFL player.
And you get to take it in. Listen, they're doing a really good job at cultivating an environment around him that allows him to grow because when you throw, they just came back, you throw an interception and now you let Joe Burrow back in the game. It's like that doesn't happen. He has a calm about him and the kid just like the facial expression was like, I got this. And I'm sorry, I'm just going to jump in once more and say it really struck me when I was reading the comments from his teammates that at 11 o'clock at night, at midnight, he is sending them texts with video of the defense they're going to be facing. And my point is his success is not happenstance. He's putting in hard work.
He's paying attention to detail. Yeah, he understand the process and more than anything, he understands the lack of success of guys that came before him that was in this position. And sometimes it's not about what you do, it's about what you don't do. And he understands the things to not do like, this is how I'm going to be successful. He might not know everything to do right, but when you start, you know the things to do that are wrong and you can stay away from them. And your ability to be the player you want to be in this league, it's there for you. You know, you just got to have the components around you.
And D'Amico and the Texans, they've surrounded him with the right caliber of guys. I can't decide whether I want to ask you what was the most indelible moment from your rookie year or what was the craziest thing that happened to you? Or when did you know that you were you?
Ask them all of them, all of them. So I knew I was me after the first game. You know, I'm a very confident person even going into there.
But there's always the question of, can I really play this game at this level? Because I idolized football players. That was my thing. And so now I'm playing against the guys that I idolized.
I'm like, wow. My first game was against the Houston Oilers. I literally, I watched the Houston Oilers and Buffalo Bills with the comeback. I'm like, so their first regular season game in 94 was my first game. Their first game after that was my first game.
So we're playing the Houston Oilers. And I'm like, wow. So I have a great game.
I rushed for about 127 yards, three touchdowns. And I'm like, I can play this game. I can play with these guys.
Probably the craziest, craziest thing. You got to be at the game two hours before. In college, everybody rides to the game together. When you're at home, everybody rides to the game together in college.
And the pros, you make it to the game yourself. Show up two hours before. Indianapolis is a wacky city to where it doesn't change time. It goes from Central to Eastern, Eastern to Central. It doesn't, they don't move their clock back and forth. And so we got a game.
I'm sitting in my room. I don't know much about the time. And I walk into the stadium and they're walking out for warmups. I'm like, why are they going out this quick? I'm like, I showed up an hour before kickoff.
I thought you were going to say you got there and you saw them kicking off. And by the way, that's not only on you, that's on the team. Because when I was with the team, you sent, I mean, you contacted every single player, wherever you were, if there was a time change. And if a player wasn't there on time, go find the player.
So yeah, that's kind of crazy, but that's on the team too. So what happened? I mean, I walked in, I literally, I didn't know. Ted Marsha Broda looks at me.
He's like, he's upset. I hurry up, I change clothes, I go out for the part of warmup that I caught. You probably performed like, I bet you were great that game. I had a great game. I rushed for like, I rushed for like 150 yards. I caught another 60 yards of passes. I scored three touchdowns. We lost to the Browns. And coach said it was, it was, it was my fault because I was late.
I was like, damn, well, everybody's fine. Didn't you just say you had three touchdowns? Dude, it's my fault.
I had three touchdowns. Did you say that back to him or did you just sit there? No, I understood what he was saying. You know, he was, he was just saying that because of things like me showing up and, and, and just that, those are reasons why you, you end up losing games and stuff. It saves the tone.
Correct. But I am going to say, and I mean this and I'm not being silly and nor am I saying this because Marshall's sitting next to me. That's as much on the team and its executives and its football staff as it was on you. You make sure you know, your players know if there's a time change. If the player's not there, if the player's not there right on time, you immediately are looking, you know, did he get in a car crash? Does he have a flat tire? Is there a problem?
Is he in his hotel room or in his home barfing? And really you do that as a team and that's on them as much as you have. I was so responsible and I was so on point. I would have assumed you were not. I don't think that they noticed that I wasn't there because they were so accustomed to, as a rookie, like I had done this.
This was probably, I'm going to say this was probably week, week seven. So like I'm talking, I was bringing, I was bringing the food on the travel. When we were, when we were going away, I was doing, I always had the coffee. I was always, so they didn't even notice that I wasn't there.
But that's their job to notice it. And if you were that on time, which you always were, they should have thought, Oh my God, he has a flat tire. Look, I hadn't been with the Raiders more than a couple of weeks. Al Davis wasn't in his office when I thought he was, when he was supposed to be. I just assumed he was kidnapped and started to call the police when he walked in. And I'm like, Oh, I guess you weren't kidnapped. They should have been checking to see if you were kidnapped.
Maybe so. But I know that they, there's no way that they didn't, because like the guy who handed it, he's like, no, I was on the board. Like you just didn't see it.
They didn't make an announcement and they didn't do all of that other stuff. And here's the thing, and I'm going to say this. I don't blame them and I'll never blame them. And I think part of our culture in sports, when you leave college going to the pros is a lot of guys aren't taking the responsibility because in college they coddle you and they babysit you. And then when you come to the league, this game is a professional.
It's a professional game. You're a man. You're taking care of, you have to own up to certain things. And you are right, but I'm doing the same thing.
You are in reverse. You're owning up to it and saying, I was a player. It was my responsibility.
I'm looking at it from the perspective of an executive saying it was also my responsibility to make sure there wasn't a problem. Did he get kidnapped? Did he have a flat tire? Was he on the side of the road? So I love that we're both accepting responsibility.
Yeah, but the player has to, oh, it wasn't on the board and nobody said it. No, no, no, no. Come on now. Two more questions for you. Oh, I interrupted you. What were you going to say? It's a podcast.
No, there's no such thing. There's no interrupting by Suzy. Well, that's true. I like how you think. What was your thought on the Christian McCaffrey going for the touchdown record with a huge lead to leave him in? I'm just curious about what you thought about the practicality of that. Just for a record.
Here's the thing. I want to comment on it, but I want to know if it was team, if it was offensive coordinator, head coach or McCaffrey, and we don't know who it's important to, but if I was McCaffrey and I know him to be the kid that he is, he's going to follow the rules and he's going to do, hey, get in, go run this play. He's going to do it. And I will tell you from a team executive standpoint, I would be sitting upstairs thinking, get him the hell off the field because if in that moment where Suzy pointed out accurately, they were leading the game by a lot, it wasn't in doubt. Imagine if a fluke season ending injury occurs. So I don't care whether McCaffrey's begging to be in the answers.
No, I don't care if a coach wants him in. I actually think Al Davis might've had me call down and say, get him the hell out of the field. Here's true story.
Here's what happened. All right, we're playing 1999 season. We are playing the Philadelphia Eagles. This is our Y2K game. We traveled to Philly. We had to go a day early and we're getting ready to play this game. And Kurt Warner and I, we have some records. We have no business playing in this game. And Mike and Dick Vermeil came to us and said, what do you guys want to do? We're thinking about sitting you out. And I said, you know what, this means more to this offensive line, to these coaches, like this record and what I'm doing is going to, they're a part of this.
It's not just my selfish, my name is on it, it's attached to me, but you can't do it by yourself. So I said, Mike, I want to play. He said, all right, as soon as you break the record, we'll take you out. He said the same thing to Kurt.
Now there's two ways to look at it. And that's why I said, we don't know who, it was collective. And they actually came to us and asked, like, does it matter? Do you want to, you know, and I was like, yes, because it wasn't just about me, you know, those like that offensive line, that offensive line is going to be a part of history. You might not see their names, but McCaffrey, if he get into the Hall of Fame, he's going to mention those names. Because when I, when I went in, I mentioned that offensive line who, uh, when I, when I broke the touchdown record or when I, when I did thousand thousand, I mentioned those guys because they deserve it. They, they were a huge part of it. See, I love that because it's a window behind what we're wondering because we just don't know, so we can sit here and talk about it, but no one was in the room where it happened. So we don't understand.
I just think from a practicality perspective, what are they insane? Now, the starters were already out. It's a classic risk reward analysis. And the one thing, and you just mentioned starters. I know this, even if you are going to let the player go in and try to break the record, you don't let him go in without starters around him. Let's say, for example, a quarterback, if you're going to have a quarterback in trying to break a record and you put him in without your entire starting offensive line, you're just begging for disaster.
You're asking for a broken leg. But, but, but let's, you know what, like, we'll do it to certain people. And then there's certain people we never questioned. Right. Belichick played his starters. It doesn't matter against who we, what playoffs, where he played his guys. And guess what we said?
That's Belichick. We never, is it dumb? Is it, does it make sense?
Or what's risk reward? We never questioned that. But would the discussion have changed if he lost, you know, let's say you're heading into the playoffs. You've already secured a berth. You're playing your starters in a game you have put away.
You are winning this game and he gets a key starter injured that now can't be in the playoffs. Here's, here's what he would say. Everybody, everybody plays. That's, that's just what we do. That's a good imitation. That's a really good imitation. Why didn't you pull him? Well, well, everybody plays like we, what do you mean? We don't pull anybody.
That's a really good imitation. You, what are you going to say? Mike Del Tufo, there's your new drop. Who's the best team in the NFL right now? Philadelphia Eagles. Easy. Why? Um, why? When I, when I watched him play, they find ways to win games and they don't care how it happens.
It does not matter to them. What I'm watching Jalen Hurts do on a bum knee, because now he's not the dynamic runner that we said he is. And no, no, nobody's just saying like, he's the quarterback that he is, that is the, his ability, his, his ability to place balls in areas like, and it doesn't matter if, if, if it's AJ Brown or you know what I'm saying there or, or, or the little guy, um, um, what's the number six Heisman trophy winner? Come on, Del Tufo. DeMonte Smith? DeMonte, no, yeah, yeah.
It doesn't matter what size. It's like he could, he can deliver the ball to, to either guy and, and it, I, I like the way that they, that they play football and unselfishness that they play with, how many guys they can rotate on a defensive line. Um, I just think the Eagles are, are the complete team. You know, when you look at, when you look at how they play. Who's the best in the AFC? Uh, Kansas City. Yeah.
Easy. I don't care how many games they win or lose, um, unless they, unless they have to play the Cincinnati Bengals in the playoffs. Cause Joe Burrow is the boogeyman to them. He is the boogeyman. He is the boogeyman to, to Kansas City. But other than that, Kansas City is, um, uh, just, just the, the, the Mahomes in playoffs is he's a, he's, he, he is something else, man. When he starts to, he starts biting that tongue, you in trouble, he started biting that tongue.
You are in trouble. It's, uh, I just, I like their creativeness. Um, I like, I like their, like a whole new group of receivers that don't know how to get it done. And they're, they're, they're, they're figuring it out. A whole new secondary, these guys barely played together. They're, they're just, they're figuring it out. And, and I, I, I just like now early in the season, what you have to do is figure out how to win games. They're still in preseason mode because pre-seasons, they're still in preseason mode.
And not even anything now, it's not even a season. Um, but I feel like they have themselves in a position to go out and, and not just play well, but, but dominate, you know, they, Andy Reed is, um, I just trust that guy. Like he, he, for whatever reason, you will not beat him because his team isn't prepared. You have to be better. Yep. Agreed.
You have to be better. This wasn't pain, very painful, was it? This was easy, right? No. We just talked, we chatted, right? Who said it was painful?
I mean, what the football? Oh my gosh. I love you. And I'm getting, see why this is my other husband right here. And I'm getting, you even worked in the name. And I'm getting such big points at Thanksgiving with my niece and nephew who went to school where you went to school. I'm getting major points for sitting here with Marshall. You coming to Thanksgiving? Oh, no, I'm going to my, uh, my, my, my aunt is like, she's been begging, begging, begging. So I'm a, I'm a bring the kids down to, to see my, my aunt and spend some time with her in Florida.
All right. She's down there with the retirees. You're always invited. Chris Brockman, not so much, but you're always invited. Chris, he's the dish stealer.
So you were there, remember? Oh yeah, he the dish stealer. He, he was there the year that we need to go and bring a dish back to the next Thanksgiving and wrapped it like a present. So our little kids were like, Chris comes to the house with clean Tupperware from the meal I gave him. This is before Sarah rescued him from his pathetic bachelordom. And he wrapped up the Tupperware like it was a gift. And so our little kids think it's a present for Hanukkah and it's Tupperware. And they looked at him and they said, why would you do this, Chris Brockman?
I thought you thought you was just going to slide it out of your nut. I said, then you're never coming back to my house for things. Love that dude. Love him. He's a good dude though.
He is. He's a good dude. Marshall, we love you. We love you. Thanks for having me on.
Thanks for coming. Really. Thank you.
Thanks for letting me work with you ladies. I was like, whew. Smooth, right? Yeah. I felt like I had to hold my own. Did you like that? That you're in between.
It's like, it's like a tennis match. Yeah. That was great. And I just thought you, I thought your insights tremendously wise.
Fantastic. Well, thank you to all of you taking in this edition of What The Football. We will be back as we always are next Tuesday. Until then, enjoy, comment, ask questions. We'll see you next week. Going to draw a younger demo because they're fun to watch and they're great entertainers. 83 weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-11-14 20:51:37 / 2023-11-14 21:20:41 / 29
