REShow: Eric Stonestreet - Hour 3

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Because we're lead pipe wielding professionals. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The third interim head coach that David Tepper will be employing in his tenure as owner of the Panthers that began in 2018.

I take full responsibility for everything. Earlier on the show, co-creator and writer of Max's bookie, Nick Bakay, NFL on Fox analyst Greg Olsen. Coming up, Emmy Award winning actor Eric Stonestreet. And now it's Rich Eisen. Our number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air here on the Roku Channel. And we've gone through many different many different partners in the history of this program. Right.

We were birthed by DirecTV. And as a matter of fact, the the people who have always helped right now, they're there. I believe they're they're they're looking for Al Capone right back there. Is that what is that? Well, we're going to find out Al Capone is buried behind us here in that fountain. Oh, my gosh.

But anyway, DirecTV and then right then YouTube and then Peacock and now here on Roku. This man's been through it all with. Yes, he's truly been here through it all with us.

I'm a survivor. He is exactly that. Ladies and gentlemen, the Emmy Award winning and star of the Santa Clauses in season two right now. And joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show, diehard Chiefs fan Eric Stonestreet is here. How are you, sir? I'm great, Rich. How are you? It's great to be here.

It's great to have you. It has been a minute. When was the last time I saw you? You know, maybe a year and a half ago. Was it really?

No, no. It was at the draft. Well, I saw you, but on your show.

I see what you're saying. Yeah, yeah. No, but the draft is when you were driving me around and in your car and letting everybody know who was in the car. Rich Eisen's in town, everyone.

They didn't film networks, Rich Eisen. You've never lived life until you're in a pickup truck the size of the love boat being driven around the man driving you around Kansas City. And then just having you had like a speaker system. I have a professional PA system. Now batting.

Yes, I can. I can make announcements everywhere I go. Oh, my God. So that was the last time I saw you was a great draft. How much fun was that? I was a blast that he showed up.

That was a blast for sure. Good barbecue. We had great lunch. Oh, my gosh.

I think I'm still finally finally through that meal. Unbelievable. All right. Let's just jump into it here.

Yes. Let's let's hit the narrative, the narrative in the National Football League. I know where we're going. Let's just jump. I mean, shouldn't we just dive right here?

Let's just dive. The narrative is that once again, the Kansas City Chiefs will eventually succumb to the fact that Tyreek Hill is not part of this passing game. That's it. That's the narrative.

I mean, I mean, what do you got for me on that? Well, I texted you in London to tell your broadcasting partner I think you were in Germany. Yeah, right. Where we were talking about the Chiefs inability to pick up a third down. And he was like, since Tyree kills left this and that. And I'm like, I'm sorry, since Tyree kills left, we won a Super Bowl.

So I think we picked up a few third downs along the way. He's giving me texts about what I should say to Orlovsky on the live broadcast. OK, you guys listen. Great broadcast.

Thank you, sir. And I love him. I think he's great. But this whole thing that the Chiefs can't win or aren't as good without Tyree kill, it's like, OK, we got it. Tyree kill was a special player.

Loved having him in Kansas City. We have Patrick Mahomes. We have Travis Kelsey. We have Andy Reid. We have other players that that, you know, aren't Tyree kill. But guess what? There's only one Tyree kill. Right. Right. We're fine. We'll be fine. OK. And walk me through the roadmap to find what he got.

Rashid Rice. First of all, let me tell you, you know, I'm close with the GM. I do not. I do know. And you also know that at the beginning of the season, you asked me a very specific question about your fantasy football team.

And I always do this. Like, tell me somebody that was Pacheco last year. It was Pacheco. And you said, who's? Yeah. W.R. one.

And the answer was W.R. one is up in the air right now. But by the end of the season, Rashid Rice will be hitting his stride. He's a rookie in the NFL. Look at his numbers. He's he's competing just like every other rookie that's come into the NFL.

Right. He's a flowers and learning the curve that everyone does. And I'm just thankful we have Andy Reid and our coaching staff and Patrick Mahone to tutor them along. Like, I'm not freaking out about it. I'm not Justin Watson. I've told you that I was a big fan of his from the beginning. He's such a great guy. From what I understand, I believe it or not, I'm not in the wide receiver room on a regular basis.

No, I'm not. Breaking news. But from what I understand, like those guys love him because he understands the game and he helps people along. And that we know in the NFL, that so much part of the game is veterans helping young guys.

So I'm not worried about it. You saw Rashid kind of pop out last last week with some great catches. That's going to give Patrick confidence. That's going to give take some pressure off Travis because, you know, you're going to have to.

Teams are going to have to say, well, do we apparently we do have to defend someone else. Right. And then, you know, the narrative, at least they blew it up that they can't score points after halftime. I mean, that was wild, though. I mean, that was a season long issue, though.

It wasn't just three weeks. I understand it. But your overreaction Monday thing is perfect for all that, because it's like, you know, here's the deal. They're the chief. We're we're we're we're in our twilight. We're in our moment right now.

Yes, yes, yes. And our moment includes a future Hall of Fame coach who is the leading winner winning as coach for two. That's right.

Two organizations, the only coach to ever do that. So it's a long season. And I know that Coach Reed is on it. I have no I have no worry that we will have our best effort to get a chance to go to the Super Bowl. Yeah. And I don't doubt it. I'll be straight up with you because the Raiders last week.

Hell, no. Are you kidding me? You see, because somebody sent me a text yesterday on Eisen because you had said something on Sunday. It's like, I'm going to have to deal with the Chiefs fan on Sunday.

I did say that. I thought it was because you maybe picked the Raiders. No, it was Mariucci trying to goad me into lone wolfing the Raiders, which I was never going to do. You know how on game day morning we start either with me or with Michael and then go down the row. It started with Michael and came to me at the end and everybody had chosen the Chiefs and Mooch is like, take, you know, like take the Raiders. You want to look the way that game started is kind of a microcosm for the season, right down to touchdowns.

What happens? We put it into a different gear and that might be the wake up call and that might be the reminder for everyone on the fifty three. It's like, wait, we are we are them. We are the Chiefs. We have a great team. We have a great coach.

We just need to relax and do what we do. And listen, I just in Veatch I trust and in coach Andy Reid I trust. And Spagnuolo too, man, because that is that is a championship defense, period.

End of story. I mean, if you want to talk about championship defenses in the NFL this year, you could talk about the Ravens. Chiefs are on par. Ravens are good. You could talk about, you know, even you wouldn't talk about Dallas, TJ's Cowboys, you know, they're they're right there. The forty niners, they're right there.

And and they kind of are overlooked for the lack of a better phrase, despite the results. And of course, Chris Jones being a top 10 player in the in the poll that that preceded the season. Talk about somebody on our roster that is should be near and dear to your heart who is having a great season.

That's quiet is Mike Dana, Mike Dana, right defensive end rush edge guy. He is such a stud. He is such a great guy we have.

But that's it. They've compiled this defense that next man up is is really working out for us. And George Karloff does.

Yeah, he's been great. Well, I mean, he was dominant at Purdue, too. I mean, that that's for sure.

But it's interesting. We had Chris Jones on the show before the Monday night game against the Eagles. And I asked him, like, what's the difference in the defense? Because despite your pride in the defense, this has been kicked up a notch. You know what I mean?

Like, this is better than last year's defense, without a doubt. And Bolton's not even active right now. OK, coming back. So so I asked, what's the difference? He said it's because Spagnolo's wife is is with him, because, you know, a lot of coaches live separate from their families. Honestly, that's what he said. I love that as people who really love their partners. That's that's so great.

That's what he said. And it's just like, you know, I don't know. Like, I guess, you know, he was missing his wife and and now he's blitzing more. I don't understand it. I don't understand how those things have to do with each other.

But yeah, I'm trying to make the correlation in an adult friendly way, but I'm not quite getting there. But it's just that that's the that's the reason why you're when you're saying, you know, Reid will get it worked out. Mahomes is there.

Kelsey's there. We'll figure it out. The defense is keeping this whole thing allow a float to the point where you're still in the mix for a one seed, totally winning the division.

And and the reason why that you can still tinker around and figure out the offensive lab work is this defense is killed. And and also, Chris, I'm sure talked about Coach Collin. The defensive line coach has just been not actually, but you can. Incredible.

Like, I mean, major uptick in play. Yeah, he's awesome. Great energy. Watch a Coach Collin video on the sideline. It's his voice is exactly what you want to hear from a football coach.

You know, it's great. Look, Justin Reid last year, he was learning the defense. He's having a great year. Trent McDuffie. I mean, I was in the room the day before the draft when they were going back and forth between Trent McDuffie and someone else. And like, yeah, they were happy with Trent McDuffie.

Yeah. You texted me during the game at McDuffie when he was the one who ripped the ball out of Tyreek Hill's hand. You're like, he he texted me during the game that they used one of the Tyreek Hill picks on McDuffie. Hi. Like, I should have.

I should have. Like, he's helping me improve my broadcast. There is an eye on Eric, but he's still a team player. I'm a team player. You know, so which is the team that concerns you the most? I mean, look at the watching the Ravens. They're no joke. I mean, and I love watching Lamar Jackson play football. He is so fun to watch.

I can't imagine him coming at me. Right. Running. Yeah.

Breaking contain. Yes. Like so. Obviously, they're very they're very scary and their defense is is awesome. They're playing great.

You know, that it I mean, that's it. I mean, because you took care of the Dolphins in Germany, you're dispatching. I'm still nervous about the Dolphins. I mean, I think beating a team twice in the NFL is hard. How about this one?

You just saw what the Bills did in Philadelphia. I mean, they're I think they're coming in soon, right? Are you going to know?

It's it's an arrowhead. I'll be there. OK, we don't miss after. OK, I mean, they're they're good. They're good.

I know you've beaten them all. I get it. But I was sad to see the injuries like I love I love the rivalry between Cincinnati, although their fans are difficult sometimes. I mean, for having, you know, like not one really anything ever.

They're pretty confident, pretty, pretty, pretty proud of themselves pretty quickly. All right. So we're on the subject of spite. What do you think of the Patriots car situation? Do you take any pleasure in this? I don't take any pleasure in it.

I don't. I mean, because, you know, I've been there, you know, and and I'm enjoying this moment right now of being a fan of my team. OK, so, you know, I I'm sorry the Patriots are going through it, but they went through it before this and then they got great. Right. And now they might be having a moment, you know, from the 80s. Right.

I like the Kansas State Steve Grogan years. You know, oh, yeah, he had a very Davis Mills like neck, right? Did he used to wear a neck roll? Is he on the all neck team quarterback? Yeah, I think so. You got a long neck.

You got to wear a roll. Yes. Well, I mean, thanks.

OK. Merton Hanks. Yeah. Yeah. They're all in that role. Yeah. These are all neck players.

OK. Dino Hackett. But obviously, this is you just being you, Eric. I mean, you're because the karma is right now the Patriots of our current day looks like it's the Kansas City Chiefs right now. Yeah. Well, we're going to get an all world coach hooked up with an all world quarterback and groceries being shopped to keep it going.

Yeah. And I don't want to ever take that for granted. Like I we've been through the lean years and I want our fans get sometimes discouraged with some fan fan fan chatter from all teams.

But since I can talk about the Kansas City Chiefs fans, it bums me out when we get a little too, you know, ish. What do you mean? Well, cocky and, you know, mean. Oh, things like that. Who does that to you? I do. You can take it. You're a national media. When's it going to happen to me?

What is this? When's this whole, you know, like dropping out of the sky? Here comes Patrick Mahomes and, you know, I walked up to Philly fan. I walked up to a Philly fan at Arrowhead last week before the game and they were just two guys standing there. I don't think they had any idea, you know, what I did for a living.

Yes. And I said, hey, have any Chiefs fan told you to go after yourself yet? Mm hmm. And they were like, no, do you want to be the first?

I'm like, no, I want to say welcome to Arrowhead and know that I would never get that in Philadelphia. And how does that feel? And how did that go? I loved it. They were like, everyone's been so nice. I'm like, yeah, take some notes, take some notes. No, actually, I disagree.

I don't want Philly fans to be nice. I know it is fun. That's their thing. It is. It is. I get it. But I have had I have been told very deeply to go off myself by Philly fans, though. Well, if you showed up as Santa Claus, it might be different. Yes.

Well, you get batteries thrown at you. No, I see. Now, Philly fans, they hate when we just did what we did. Well, it's a thing. It's a thing that happened. I know.

But a long time ago, like a long time ago, and we keep bringing it up. Oh, throwing batteries. I don't have any experience with that. I just have at the Super Bowl like fun. I just know that like. In Arizona?

Yeah, in Arizona. I don't expect and assume people know what I do for a living and who I am. But if I like talk some like fun trash or like create like I did with those guys to create some kind of conversation. Hopefully my persona, my ability, my comedic ability comes at it from a pretty lighthearted way.

And as just human to human, they'll be like, oh, this guy's not being mean or rude. He's being fun, regardless of whether they know that I'm an actor or funny person or whatever. And I just can say that in Philly, when I were in Arizona at the Super Bowl, when I tried to engage some, not all Philly fans, it wasn't met with like lightheartedness.

It was very much like a one fun thing to attend. Like, all right, moving on. It's the Super Bowl's on the line here. I mean, how great is football, though?

You sound like Chris Collins. Where that is football right now is the game. Listen, I love I love I love people being fans of their teams.

I love it so much. And Philly fans are very educated, very smart football fans. So I don't take that away from them. But I noticed a pause between very smart and educated pause.

And you said football fans was that on purpose? Richard, do not do that. All right. Let's take a break here. We'll come back and we'll talk about. Do you want to take some phone calls? I love a phone call. We'll talk about the Santa Claus phone calls and we'll talk. I wanted to hear about your family as well, because I know that there is something near and dear cause that you want to hit as well here on the show. Eric Stonestreet is here. Everybody don't go anywhere.

We're back with Eric and more in a moment. Eight, four, four, two or four rich. All right, folks, let's talk about game time and let's talk about buying tickets to big time events, because it can be worrisome, it can be time consuming and it can be expensive. So game time is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy and theater events near you. You can see the view from your seat before you buy.

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Eric Stonestreet is here. I think we've tallied it up. This is like your eighth appearance in the history of our program, really phoning in or being Super Bowls. And wow, that seems low. Is that right?

I feel like it's low. I mean, I did Ellen 20 times. I know you better than Ellen.

You never surprised me. You're allowed to look us in the eye. Yeah. Look at you, man. Look at you. Always stepping in it. What are you trying to do, bro? What do you mean? Purposefully. I mean, he looks at a pile of poop and he'll just put his foot right on it. I contacted this show.

Ellen welcomed eye contact. Don't put our guests in positions. How dare you? How dare you? Look at us.

How dare you, sir? I wonder, are you going to have Christmas parties again? I know. Dude, our Christmas party, my Christmas party's fun.

The best ever. And, you know, it's a real sore spot with Lindsay because I started dating her after the Christmas party. So she can have one. She's never been to one. That's it.

And all she hears is people talk about them. I'm sorry. You guys weren't invited.

That's right. You've never lived. Sorry.

Eye contact. You've never you've never lived until you've elbowed Ed O'Neill out for eggnog in your entire night. Seriously. But I mean, honestly, it was just so much fun, man.

Well, the hope now is once our house is done, we'll we'll have a Christmas party in Kansas City for you. I mean, you go. Well, I mean, how about you both? Yeah, good. Yeah, go. You put the bill for one. I'll get the other one. Well, thanks for coming on.

OK. But yeah, those were just fun. Mooch misses and more than anybody else in all the desserts. That was his doo wop band back in the 60s. Mooch and the Desserts. Donuts and candy. Mooch and the Desserts sounds like his favorite doo wop band back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grange with supplies and solutions for every industry. Granger has the right product for you.

Call clicker engine dot com or just stop by. Eric Stone Street is still here with us and thrilled to have him for the hour. Put a lot of emphasis on still like you said, still here. No, that's a new thing. I mean, I'm thrilled that you're here.

I don't take this for granted at all. So we'll take phone calls in a second right here. Tell me about the Santa clauses.

Sir, what do you have? Jack Burdett. You know, Jack. Yeah.

Dards Brown's fan, by the way, has traveled to Kansas City, though, for a Chiefs game, came to a snowy Chiefs game in Kansas City. Yes. You know, last year we were watching the Santa Claus's season one, which is a continuation of Tim Allen's franchise, the Santa Claus.

Yes. And the boys were enthralled, loved it. And I just sent him a picture of the kids watching the show and said, you got a couple fans here. He's like, well, hey, if Disney picks us up for a season two, do you want to, you know, come play at the North Pole? And I'm like, yes, of course. And then, you know, we know in this business, you never know if people really mean it. Yeah, right. And sure enough, he calls. He's like, hey, we just sent an offer over.

Let's hop on the phone and talk about it. And it was to get to play this awesome character, this, you know, whimsical, mad angry Santa, Magnus Antus, the mad Santa. Yes. And I said yes immediately. And we shot six episodes. It was great working with Tim Allen and with Fluffy and the whole cast there was great. That's pretty cool, man.

Yeah, loved it. Love putting on my costume. You know, Jesse, I sent Jesse Tyler Ferguson a picture of me in the costume. And he's like, I just know you're happy in that costume. Yeah, because he knows how happy I was putting on my physical costume. He's like, I just know how happy you are in that coat and that beard and stuff. It's so true, though.

I love doing it. I mean, I was literally was my first question I was going to ask you is like when you first put it on and you look in the mirror before you're going out to shoot your first scene, you must have been jacked up. Well, the jacket is like 20 pounds. Like, it's heavy. And it's, you know, as an actor, I don't know that all actors feel this way. But those things are so helpful in performance because I wanted the character to have this, you know, grounded gravitas and this feeling of, you know, command and control. And that jacket really helps. And then the beard allows me to be, you know, whatever I want to do with my face and not feel self-conscious in any way about what I'm doing or how I'm doing it. It's just a testament to, you know, we love how Hollywood works.

Everybody has their lane, right? Everybody's really great at what they do. And then that all comes together in hopes of a great product. Sounds like a football team. Yes.

A well-coached Andy Reid football team. Speaking of Santa. You know that story. What? I told you that story. No, you didn't. Didn't I tell it the last time I was here? I don't believe so. I was Santa for Coach Reid once. Okay. Have you seen him in your last?

No, that's first I'm hearing of this. I think enough times past I can tell. So I'm in Kansas City. I'm shopping at a store. My phone rings. I look down. It says Big Red.

I have him in my phone. It's Big Red. Yes, you do. Come on now. I'm going to answer this. Coach, my answer is yes. I've waited a long time for this call.

He's like, hey, buddy. I don't know if you know it or not, but Tam, Tammy, bought me a Santa suit years ago in Philly and I used to have some fun with it. But I was thinking, would you want to come in and be Santa Claus for the guys for maybe five minutes tomorrow? For the Kansas City Chiefs?

For the team. Okay. This was the night before, the day before, oh, it was the year we went to the Super Bowl.

I think it was the day before, no, I can't remember who we were playing the next game. We can go back and look, but it was Christmas Eve. Okay. That I went in to see them.

And I said, sure. He's like, but don't tell anybody about it. Don't tell any of the guys you talk to on the phone. Don't tell anybody. The only people that are going to know are me, you and Porter, my assistant and the head of security.

They're going to sneak into my office. So before the Bears, 2019? Yes. Maybe. Yeah. Okay.

Whatever the Christmas game is then. Okay. Great. Okay?

Yeah. So here I get snuck into the facility and I've never been in Coach Reed's office before and I go in and there he is at his desk doing his offensive minded genius stuff. And he's like, sit down on the couch.

So I sit down on the couch and he's like, the Santa suit's hanging in the bathroom. You want some help putting it on? I'm like, I got a coach.

I think I can do it. So I go in and start putting everything on and then I'm looking in the mirror, putting my beard on and then just through the doorway pops Coach Reed. And he's just over my shoulder here. And it's just me and Coach Reed in this amazing moment in his office where he's like, no, you got to you got to pull this like this right here and let's cinch this up. He's a coach. Yeah. And he's helping me put his Santa beard on my face. And I'm like, what is my life right now?

This is like incredible. But yeah, so I went in and did, you know, he's like, you got about five minutes and I'm like, I don't want to go over. And I said, what kind of jokes? You know, and I was freaking out because it's like the game plan. Yeah.

And I want to hit a home run like and he given me a very little time to prepare. Yeah. And he kind of ran over some of the jokes he was thinking about and I was like, OK, we're going to be good. We'll be good. Oh, you didn't need to.

Well, his jokes were as, you know, like, you know, give so and so some trouble about how loud they play their music or give so and so some trouble about this. I'm like, I'm going deeper than that. I'm going. So what'd you do?

Well, I mean, I went pretty, pretty good. On who? Everybody will Tyree kill, you know? Yeah. My little elf, Tyreeke.

OK. I remember him rolling down the steps laughing because I told Anthony Sherman, our then fullback. I said, where's Anthony Sherman? Stand up, Anthony. And he stood up and I go, no, stand please.

The whole team was like, no! Did you get Mahomes? Did you go get Mahomes? Oh yeah, I got Patrick. I can't remember what I said about him.

Something about the jewelry and the purses and all the stuff. Frank Clark, Chris Jones, got them all. Kelsey? Yes. I can't remember my Kelsey joke, but the one that got everybody going is if you watch the Kansas City Chiefs, you know that we have an assistant coach that's got one arm.

Yes. And the night before it's Porter Ellett is his name. And we're very good friends. And I texted Porter the night before, late at night, is your arm in play? And he goes, of course my arm's in play. OK. And I said, do you have an extra fake arm? And he goes, yeah. I said, can you bring it and put it in a big Chiefs travel bag? He said, sure.

So I walk in with my thing. Merry Christmas, everyone. Merry Christmas. Where's Porter? Is there a Porter here? And as he's walking forward, I pull out this arm out of the bag and he walks forward and I go, well, this makes sense now.

Merry Christmas. Oh, wow. I mean, they lost it. They lost it. That's what a football locker room is. First of all, everyone watching, that's a football locker room.

Very close with Porter. Very good. Approved joke. And I know you're in NFL Films has done stories on him and you're very passionate about it. But that's a football locker.

Yeah, that's a football. And then I told this story. The first line was Merry Christmas, everyone, except Mitchell Schwartz. That's one of our favorite moments in the history of this show. We were there for Big Slick years ago. When I when he said I said it's we got a member of the tribe right here and you go, chiefs. And I'm like, not that tribe. I know that's so embarrassing. But here, like the truth is, is I know what a member of the tribe means. It just went right over my head.

I know it's Kansas City. Merry Christmas to everyone, except Mitchell Schwartz. That's so funny.

Oh, that was fun. But my point is there, Coach Reed. That's the other thing I would tell people with Coach Reed that like I'm so blown away by because everybody talks about what a what a player's coach is.

And I don't play football, obviously, not in that wide receiver's room. But what my assertion from being around him a little bit is, is he is such an upward outward living person. He knows obviously what his job is, but he also knows what the number one trending country song is right now. He also knows what's popular in culture. And I think that just makes him such a relatable person to all the people around him.

I'm just blown away by obviously what he does on the field, but him as a as a person and that he has the control he has over everything around him. I mean, and then the number one, you can't even say she's pop culture. I mean, she's just the number one famous person on planet Earth. Yeah.

And Taylor Swift being around the team. How crazy is that? It's nuts. It really is.

It really, truly is. And and when we were in Germany and there was an open five minute open portion for the media of practice and when they opened it up, the number of media members that came out, it was insane. It had to have been about one hundred and fifty, maybe two hundred people with cameras and microphones and and and, you know, still photographers and everyone else. It was nonstop. And and, you know, as much as we'd love to say, OK, that's the Super Bowl champs of the number one sport on planet Earth.

OK, that's the way we feel. But there's no doubt it was because people wanted to take a photograph of the world's most famous boyfriend who happens to be a Hall of Fame. There's my photograph of it right there.

I took a picture of it. Incredible. I mean, look at that. Yeah.

That's not because the NFL is so popular. Right. It's part of it.

I would like to. But I just crazy. I love it on a personal level for Travis because he seems like he's happy. Yeah.

Right. And she seems like she's really happy. I don't I don't know Taylor, but I know Travis. And I mean, I know her fans certainly seem surprised by her being out and being doing stuff and like in Kansas City and all that. And I hope that Kansas City continues to be the great town I know and love and just give them all the respect and privacy that's possible. They still are.

Travis, Kelsey, Taylor Swift. Right. But making her feel welcome in Kansas City and that she could potentially find some normalcy in her life would be great. Karma's a boy on the Chiefs. Yeah. And just seeing him down and, you know, spending his bye week down in South America.

Loved it. It's crazy. But this is the Kansas City Chiefs we're talking about here. Right. I mean, yeah. And I say that with the ultimate of respect, because it's not the Giants, it's not the Cowboys. Patriots, because of 20 years, right? That this is happening.

Yeah. It's your team. It's my team.

The hell? Our team. When is it going to be my team? It's going to be your team sometime. Great.

I told you that when you guys drafted. What's his name? I thought you were on. What's his name? What's his name? What's his name? There's been a lot of what's his name? What's his name before that? What's his name? I've lost track of what's his name?

He's gone from USC. Oh, Sam Darnold. I thought Sam was going to be great.

We saw red flags right away. We even talked to him about it. And then Zach. I thought Zach. He put a hat on during his pro day because it was raining. We called that a red flag to his face. Yeah.

I like my coaches to dress pretty tough in cold weather. There's a phone call for you here. Oh, I love phone calls. Amy in Michigan wants to ask Eric Stonser to question 844-204 Rich, you're on The Rich Eyes and Show with Eric Stonser. How are you, Amy?

I'm doing great, Rich. Go blue. Hi, Amy. Hi, Amy.

Go blue. Oh, you brought a friend from Ohio State here today, too, Eric. It's OK. It's OK, Amy.

That's the silence you hear in the studio. Don't worry about it. What's up, Amy? Well, I just had a quick question for Eric, and I'm a huge fan of both of you and your talents. And I just wondered, what is your opinion, Eric, on the officiating in the NFL this year from years past, specifically talking about the Eagles-Bills game with Sean Hockley's crew?

OK. And it just being so lopsided in the first half. See, this is what happens when you take phone calls. And, Amy, there's a certain somebody in Eric's life who might be very interested in this answer, and his name is what? What's his name? His name is Roger Goodell. OK, very good.

What's your thoughts on this subject? I was going to ask, does Roger watch this show? Because that could dictate what my answer is. No, here's the truth. I feel like it's my duty to remind Roger all the time, as his friend, when I think the officiating blows.

You do that, huh? Oh, I text him. And here's the deal.

Really? If you saw my deleted texts, and Lindsay can attest to it, it's like, I'm doing this, I'm doing this. I'm like, should I send it?

She's like, no, you can't send that. I'm like, OK, fine. But here's the deal.

I'm fair-minded in this. Officiating can be hurtful, but Coach Reed and every great football coach is you've got to outplay the officiating, right? We're human. We're going to make mistakes. Where I am on it, though, is when it's a mistake, when we can see it's a mistake, we have to fix the mistake, especially when it's a game-altering call. So you're talking about replay? I'm talking about replay, but I'm also talking about, you know, I'm just talking about, in that moment, yes, when you guys all get together on the field and I don't know what the process is there, but when it's holding on 56 and then three officials walk up and be like, man, I don't know what they talk about. But I know that just because the flag's thrown, everybody has to be open to potentially changing their mind, because sometimes they do that.

I don't know where they're making that decision from or how they're making that decision. Picking it up. Picking up the flag. Right. Uh-huh. I was told, I texted Commissioner Goodell last year after a game that I was going to send the league a new bolt of yellow fabric for, what's his name, Carl Sheffers, because he wore his yellow flag out on the field with the Kansas City Chiefs.

How did RG-1 take that? I don't get a response. And then we'll pick up like nothing ever happened a couple weeks later. Oh, is there? Yeah.

That's awesome. But here's the deal. Like he lives in Hollywood.

That's exactly what it sounds like right there. But I'm a staunch defender of the goods, as I know you are too, because I get the opportunity to know him as a person and not as the commissioner. I know who he is as a man, and I know that's hard for people watching, listening to know, but he is a good quality, fine human being that is put in tough situations. And I feel it's my responsibility as his friend to put him in as many tough situations as I possibly can. So I let him hear it every once in a while.

And then he's just staring for that Reed receipt on his phone right there. Right, right, right, right. Amy, thank you for the call right there. Thanks, Amy. Thanks for calling.

There you go. I texted him the other day out of the blue because possession and fumble, they called on Blake Bell on the Chiefs. One week was possession and a fumble and team recovered.

The next week, it wasn't. I'm like- Does he ever answer any of these texts? No. No.

No. Well, he'll say something general in that, and he'll correct me on rules. When I get the rules- He will, huh?

Oh, 100%. I mean, he's not going to throw anyone and nor should he ever throw anyone under the bus. He is going to defend those referees. And he's taught me a lot about it.

I've been to the office and seen where they watched the games on Sunday and talked to the head official in there. And he's walked me through- The Art McNally Center, yeah, for officiating. I think his name's Fred. He's like six foot six.

He's huge. And he's walked me through so many things and I've learned a lot. But Amy, I understand what you're talking about. But at the end of the day, what do we got to do? What's your team got to do?

You got to outplay the officials. It's not an excuse at the end of the day. Let's FaceTime Roger right now. There we go. No, Steve, don't listen to him.

He says that to absolutely everybody. You know. I'm just wondering, what would have happened had you had at the time... This was before you were tight with the goods, as you referred to him. What would have happened if you had that avenue of venting, of texting the commissioner of the National Football League on the day of the Chiefs-Titans game, when a sack force fumble on Marcus Mariota was ruled as a forward progress stop?

I'm getting hot right now. What would you have done? Because this was also pre-Lindsay. She wouldn't have been there to help you formulate the proper terminology? And let me just tell you.

What would have happened? We've discussed it many times since. You and Roger. Oh, 100%. I did a whole breakdown of the play. I got asked to host the commissioners awards in New York last year with the caveat with Pete Abidante, who's a great NFL executive. Yes, indeed.

Awesome dude. I said, Pete, I'll do it, but I'm going in on Roger and the officials on a couple plays. The roughing the passer against Tom Brady from Chris Jones, the AFC playoff championship in Arrowhead. He broke his neck. Most ridiculous roughing the passer call of all time.

It's lucky Tom survived. So we brought that up, and we brought the forward progress play from the Titans game, where Derrick Johnson sacked him, and then they called forward progress, and we lost the game. Last playoff game in the history of that referee.

Yeah. Well, I can't mention his name. What's his name again?

I'm not going to mention it, because that was the only thing that we were like... I remember him. I could see him right here.

I could see him right now. Why is his name slipping my mind right now? You know what it is.

But they said not to mention it. I don't know what his name is. What's his name again?

Because I do want to say, I don't want personal hate brought to any of those people, because they do have a job to do. Jeff Triplett. Okay, there you go. Sorry. I got something in my throat.

See me? Look at this. I'm shaking.

Oh, I broke it down. We'll take a break and finish up this show. We'll talk about your mom, and take a couple more phone calls. And then I got to get a good Ed O'Neill story out of you. Oh my God. Let me think of a good one. Okay. There you go. That's Eric Stonestreet here on this Thursday show. He's still here, everybody. Aww.

People are like... The football season is underway, and Believe podcasts are talking about it. When he went home and went to sleep, Michael Carson was just terrorizing him.

Believe has podcasts covering all 32 professional teams, and many of your favorite college teams too. When you're producing 15 points a game, that's something that is definitely disheartening. Side light 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. What was the big break for you? Was it married with children, essentially? Well, I went to New York from Youngstown, and I was doing a lot of theater. And I did Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theaters, and so forth. And I was doing a play at Hartford Stage called Mice and Men, which is not a comedy, by the way.

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

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

What the hell is that? And so we started talking in the office, and then they had me audition. They said, would you mind reading?

And I said, no, that's what I do all the time. And I saw the guy as my uncle, one of my uncles. Al Bundy, you said.

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

I love it. So, you know, it would be like he'd get home from work, and he'd come in the house, and my aunt, his wife, would say, Joe, I ran over the dog in the driveway today, he's dead. And Joe would say, what's for dinner? So that was sort of like that, right? That's how I read it. And they had not heard that tact, you know that? Interpretation.

No, they had not heard that. And they went, well, that's kind of funny. I love it.

I absolutely love it. That was years ago with Ed O'Neill. We got Eric Stonestreet here on The Rich Eisen Show to finish up the program, and we just showed a clip of Ed O'Neill from 2016 talking about being cast as Al Bundy and the story behind it. And we sliced that up as a reel for Instagram and TikTok and YouTube and putting it all together in the last week.

That video has been viewed about 5 million times on all of our platforms. And it's because, obviously, of Ed O'Neill's popularity, as well as you and he working together in such a remarkably popular show on Modern Family. And now, you know, you got a big, you got a smile on your face right now. What you got a good, what's your favorite Ed O'Neill, any favorite Ed O'Neill story? Yeah, I can't remember what I told you before, so I don't want to repeat, but have I ever told you the story of when the show got picked up?

No, I don't believe so. And when we had shot the pilot, you know, we all- This is at the very beginning. This is the very beginning.

We're talking 2009. And we all show up, and Ed O'Neill's Ed O'Neill, Sofia Vergara's mildly famous, you know, from her show. Julie Bowen's pretty famous from all of her stuff. I knew who Ty Burrell was, I knew who Jesse was. Honestly, I was the least known adult.

And my point is, is that nobody knew me, and I knew all of them for the most part. And so we shoot the show, and we don't, it's not like we exchange phone numbers at that point. We don't know if we're going to ever see each other again, if we're going to be on the show for 11 years.

We have no idea. One day, after maybe a month after the pilot was shot, I'm driving down Ventura Boulevard with my two friends. We were going to the Cuban restaurant Versailles, and I had my Nokia phone still, it was just like a little Nokia phone, and it's a little cradle in my F-150, and the phone rings unavailable. And at that point, I was on high alert, because, you know, we were waiting to see. So I'm answering, hello, Eric.

Yes? And he goes, Ed O'Neill. Like, you know, I'd worked with him for eight days, but didn't know him, and my friend in the backseat's like, what? And I said, Ed, how are you? And he goes, Eric, the show's fantastic. I hadn't seen the show yet.

I hadn't seen the pilot. He goes, you're fantastic. Eric, if this show isn't on 10 years, I don't know what the bleep I'm doing in Hollywood. And I was like... And we talked for a little while longer, and honestly, I told Ed for years, and told so many people, like, well, when did you know it was going to be a hit? And I always go back to that moment, where Ed O'Neill called me and told me, if we weren't on the network for 10 years, what in the hell was he doing in Hollywood?

And that's when I started to imagine my life changing, all because of that phone call from Ed. Wow. He's great.

I love that. What a story. He's got 11, right?

We did 11 years. He was off by one. Yeah, he was off. But one of my favorite things about that, that you just have to know Ed about, is he's not wearing socks in that interview that you just showed. And Ed would show up to the nicest things dressed exactly how Ed wanted to dress, which is in a thin pair of Tommy Bahama jeans, a pair of loafers, no socks, a t-shirt, a nice watch, and ready to go once he got there, always ready to go. And maybe I've told this, but we all had our techniques on stage of wanting to move on from a scene.

Yes. Mine was Julie Bowen's with Sirs and Madams. Sirs and Madams, what can we do?

How can we move this along, Sirs and Madams? Everybody had their own little thing. Ed's was always- Just tapping his watch.

Tapping his watch. Yeah, always. And that was an indication. We're moving on.

Yeah, we just talked about it before we were here over something, because you get held up at places and people turn things into horse and pony shows or whatever. And I really adopted the whole, what would Ed O'Neill do? In this moment, what would Ed O'Neill do?

And usually it's, he would leave. I love it. Is it true a lot of your Cam character was based on your mom?

Yep. So I love hearing him talk about how his uncle was an inspiration for him, because that's exactly where my mind went when I got the audition for Cam. I wanted to base him off something that was a sort of a guidepost for me, and it was my mom. So tell me about geographic atrophy, GA, what is this and what do you want to- So she has AMD, which is age-related macular degeneration, which is the not as serious form of GA, geographic atrophy, which my grandma had. Macular degeneration. AMD, which my mom has, certainly can move towards macular degeneration. She's an anahad macular.

Does she? Yeah. It's debilitating. So I've partnered with Iverac Bio and Estella's company to raise awareness. You go to askaboutga.com, see my mom's story, see a little video that we shot together.

We talk about my grandma and how debilitating it was for her. And just really, it's all about getting people to the eye doctor is what the goal is here. And just taking your eye healthcare as serious as you take all your other healthcare, because 75% is undiagnosed right now. So you could have AMD and not know it, because there aren't a tremendous amount of symptoms sometimes. And it's the doctor that can get involved and see like, hey, you've got this going on. So the point is, go to the doctor and just, especially if it runs in your family, it runs in my family. So that's why I'm on top of my eye health as much as I am.

Askaboutga.com to learn more. Okay. How is your mom? She's doing great.

Okay. She's doing great. Do you go to these games or no? She goes to some games.

Here's the problem. Has she met Taylor Swift yet? She hasn't met Taylor Swift. Does she want to?

Of course she wants to. But let me tell you. Okay. Let me tell you something.

Yes, sir. She has met Travis Kelsey many times. And her meeting Travis Kelsey many times is part of the reason I can attest to what a great guy Travis Kelsey is, because he gives the biggest, most familiar hugs you could ever imagine to my mom. And it's, she's like, she's loved him well before Travis Kelsey did.

And it's clear, or well before Taylor Swift did, and it's just clear he's a good guy. But here's the problem with my mom going to Chiefs games. Okay. Because the Chiefs are good, we don't have a lot of noon three o'clock games. We have nighttime games. Yeah, I know.

Well, my mom's 78. You know? I don't like her out late.

I think you should text the goods and tell them the game should change the nighttime. Are we going to flex that Patriots game? I mean, nobody wants to watch the Patriots play. I don't think so. I don't think so.

A lot of people want to watch the Chiefs meet the Patriots. Yeah. I mean.

That is the reverse. Might be true. Do you think they will flex it, though?

Is there talk of it? I don't know. I would hope so.

I think you'd know that in short order, I don't know. But my mom's great. Thanks for asking. Of course. She loves you. Right back at her.

Right back at you. Again, askaboutga.com. Yeah, go to the website.

Is there going to be, is there a possibility of a Modern Family reunion, a show, or something like that? You know, did you know that there was a spinoff? And they just, they said no thanks. Really? Sure did. I did not know that. I'm telling you. Jesse's talked about it. I've never talked about it. You're my close friend. So I'm telling you first. Involving you? Me and Jesse and Aubrey.

Yeah. A spinoff where we moved back to Missouri. Chris Lloyd and wrote it. And Brad and Paul and two of our great writers wrote it. And it just wasn't right for ABC at the time.

What the hell? Yeah, I know. So that, does that close the door on trying for everybody? Well, I don't think it closes the door on everything. I think that, you know, it would take this right thing to come back. You know, and there's a couple writers that have some ideas of different things. But you know, it kind of hurt Jesse and I's feelings, I think a little bit. Just how quickly it was just like, meh.

I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay. Well, it was a full, fully blown script, full whole thing of us moving back to Missouri and me becoming, you know, getting the head coaching job at Southwest or Northwest Missouri, whatever it was. You had Cam involved too?

Yeah, yeah. Coach Cam. I was taking the job at a small college football. What the hell? And then I became terrible and we became a losing program. And one of the lines in the pilot, which was so funny, I shouldn't, maybe I should be talking about this.

I don't know. But one of the lines was so funny in the interview. I can still hear it because it was during the pandemic. So one of the lines was, I can still hear the boos of the cardboard cutouts.

Because I was a terrible coach. Well, I mean that alone, I just, we just got a little bit of Cam, like you just channeled Cam real quick. No, Jesse and I were, we were game. We were really excited. And you know, it's, everybody has to make their own business decision.

So it's no shade. I mean, we were just hurt that we thought we had created these two rich characters that Chris Lloyd, one of our creators, and two of our major writers, Brad and Paul, wanted to continue. And I think that's pretty awesome. And it just didn't work out. Well, we need to hopefully get everyone back together.

If it's just for a holiday. Well, we had to get together last week at Sophia's house. Okay.

She lives in a shack. Yeah. I saw the Instagram. We were, we had barely any place to stand. Like, it was just like Julie and I in a corner, like, oh, hey, how's it going? Uh, it was great to see everybody.

Ty couldn't make it. And those pictures went viral because they thought Ty died and it was a flower arrangement on a table and a picture of Ty Burrell and people were like, wait, did Phil die? It did look like it was awake or something because everyone but him and was in the picture. I mean, honestly, it did look like that in retro, but none of us thought that in the moment. But then I look at the pictures like, well, we kind of all are in black and there are flowers on the table. Well, maybe it was awake for the PAC 12, you know, for his Oregon ducks.

But I, I do think at some point I feel like we have to check in with the characters at some point and see how here's the deal. We all loved each other so much and it was such a euphoric and just idyllic place to work. It was great. Well, we got to see it too. Um, and our radio audience is about to go away.

We've got a couple more on Roku, you the man. Thanks Eric. Thanks Rich. You bet. Eric Stonestreet everybody.

Check out the Santa Clauses and go to askaboutga.com to learn more about a very important matter back in a moment. For decades, Rolling Stone has set the bar for entertainment publications. Today Rolling Stone music now takes over in podcast form. We have Michael Azerrad, who was Nirvana's very first biographer. I'm not sure how many people realize how many of the best songs on In utero were written way beforehand. To be fair to Kurt, he was also a new father. There was a lot of stuff distracting him. It wasn't just drugs, although that was certainly a major factor. Rolling Stone music now, wherever you listen.