What the Football with Suzy Shuster and Amy Trask: 13 with Rich Eisen

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

Limitations apply. Hey everybody, welcome to this week's edition of What the Football? Thrilled to be here with you again. This is brought to you by Game Time, the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you. Game Time's got killer last minute deals all in prices, views from your seats, so you know exactly what to expect when you arrive.

Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the app. Create the account. Use the best code ever WTF for $20 off of your first purchase. Restrictions apply. Visit GameTime.co for terms.

Again, create an account. Redeem the code WTF for $20 off. Download Game Time today. Last minute tickets.

Lowest prices guaranteed. Amy, a lot went on last night while we were at dinner. We got to watch the end of the of the game on Monday night. We had a quick dinner first with a bunch of women together, women in sports, which was great. A dinner at which Game Time, I hope you're listening to me, Susie did that read without having to read it. She knows it by heart at the dinner table.

So Game Time was discussed at the dinner table. I give you credit though because you started it. It was your idea, Amy. I did kind of give her an eyeball look and she started doing it and there was some giggling and it was fun and game and we did use the WTF for $20 off. We did. We didn't. And I think we'll get your own code.

We need an Amy code. I'm just saying. Anyway, Rich Eisen joins us soon. I'm not sure if you know who he is or not. I've heard of him.

Yeah. He's a very happy Michigan guy and a very sad Jets Yankees guy. It looks like the Otani race will not go to the Yankees and we will give him a little bit for that. But aside from that, interesting game last night. It looks like Trevor Lawrence, obviously we watched him get stepped on by Walker Little. A lot of fear about what kind of injury he would have and hoping to see him coming back. They said today, not a season ending injury, but that high right ankle sprain. Well, and from my ears in football, I hear the words high ankle sprain.

And what I hear are dread high ankle sprain because those were dreaded, dreaded words because high ankle sprains are tough, tough injuries from which to recover. Now he may not have a significant high ankle sprain. It may be something that they really do believe is going to be well enough for him to play this week. Maybe they'll decide it's more important to sit him a week and get him better for the duration of the season.

I don't know how they'll approach that. I do know that high ankle sprains can be very, very tough injuries from which to recover. Yeah. It's a lingering injury. And I'll add to that, that Peterson not ruling him out for this game on Sunday, but oftentimes you hear when a player's reacting or a coach is reacting to a high ankle sprain, they'd rather have a break than a sprain.

Well, I mean, as I said, we always refer to them as dread high ankle sprains and the decision that Jacksonville is going to have to make. Can he play this week without further injuring the ankle? If we play him this week, do we then lose him later in the season? Is it better to sit him for the week?

And that's something they're going to determine as the week goes on. So they may be very fortunate and he may well be able to play this week, but they're going to be talking to those trainers and those doctors every single day, multiple times a day to determine whether it's best to play him. And a really nice moment in the game when Trey Hendrickson, the Bengals defensive end, picked him up off the floor and then took a knee, looked like he sent a prayer up for him too. When he watched Lawrence hobble off the field, he took a step and he went right down.

Painful to watch as a fan and painful to watch him shore as a member of Jaguars nation. And also interesting that they didn't immediately put him in a cart, but walked him a significant amount of paces, steps. And there can be any number of reasons for that, but I thought that it was interesting. Now I'm not suggesting it needed to be a cart that's driven out into the field, but carts remain on the sideline and he could have been carted to the locker room. So it was interesting that we saw that footage of him walking through the tunnel being helped by two people.

And I really think that there's something mental about that. These players will do whatever it takes not to get on that cart. It's that you'd rather be seen being helped off the field of your own volition, or I know plenty of people reported they saw him on crutches in the locker room, but there's that mentality of it all where you just don't, you want to do whatever it takes to get off that cart. Well, and these are athletes who have been doing this for decades. They start young, they play, they played through high school, they played in college, now they're in the pros.

They've dealt with injuries, whether they're own or teammates, and there is a manner in which they like to handle things. Yeah, and this is not the first time that we've seen Trevor Lawrence leave. He had that left sprain earlier in the season, I think it was when it was at the win over Indy, he had that left sprain.

Then the following week, he came back and won over New Orleans after a four-day break. So there's something going on, something going on there, and you know, you have to wonder how many more quarterbacks are going to get hurt this year. This has been the backup, the battle of the backups coming in. So many quarterbacks it seemed are taking a beating this year. Yeah, you know, injuries are part of the game, and you learn that when you're in the industry. Injuries are part of the game, and yes, there have been a significant, significant number of quarterback injuries this year. Sometimes it's other positions. Normally it's every position, and the decision a team has to make going into every season is, what do I want to do by way of backups?

What do I want to do in case we lose a quarterback? And look, the roster is only so many people. The cap is only so much space, although I put that to the side because the cap is simply a method of accounting, and you can deal with cap accounting just like you can deal with, oh my gosh, we could do a whole podcast on accounting. We could talk about gap accounting.

That sounds so awful. We could talk about tax accounting. We could talk about cap accounting, but my point being, yeah, I know you don't want to.

I just fell asleep thinking about that. But my point being, the cap is a method of accounting. You can work around cap issues.

Cash is also an issue. So if you're the GM making decisions on a roster for a team, do you want to allocate a roster spot and additional cash, because some teams care more about cash than do others, to a backup quarterback role? Or do you want to spend that elsewhere and just sort of cross your fingers and hope you don't lose your quarterback?

As is said, hope is not a strategy. Do you want a good backup? If you go out and get a good backup, who are you going to remove from the roster to have that good backup? Where are you going to find that cash?

How are you going to make your cap jiggle and juggle to make that work? And now we're seeing a lot of teams did not prepare for losing their starter. And you know, there are so many different ways to go in this. And of course, you know, I always, everything to me is Patriots related. I think about we would have never had those great run of years with Tom Brady had he not have been True Blood, so his backup. But you look at what's happening in New York with Zach Wilson, who should never have been the backup this year.

Let's face it. They should have let him go. They should have cut ties with him. How was a kid supposed to come back and play for a team that basically all but said we don't believe in you, and that was built around somebody else?

I don't know, Amy, you would know so much better than I. How does the team prepare that way? When you are setting, setting yourself up as the Jets thought they were to win with Aaron Rodgers, they're not setting it up to win for whoever's sitting behind him.

How do you think? You have to know that's a possibility. Now look, nobody believes they're going to lose their starting quarterback around whom they've built and crafted the whole roster, including the coaching roster. With the addition of Nathaniel Hackett, nobody thinks they're going to lose their starting quarterback within the first minute or so of the season. But you have to be prepared for the fact that you may lose your starting quarterback at some point during the season, if only for a period of the season, maybe not the entire season.

Maybe you don't lose him for the whole season, but you've got to be prepared, particularly with a quarterback who is of the age Aaron is, that you may lose him for a chunk of the season. And you've got to have, look, you've got to have a plan. I've shared this story before, I'll share it quickly because it applies. I had a very, very bad equestrian accident at one point, and after everybody was checked out and I was fine and the horse was fine, Jody walks up to me and Jody says, Amy, you have to have a plan. She was right.

She was also eight years old. You have to have a plan. And it doesn't look to me like the Jets had an adequate plan. Now again, they didn't expect to lose Aaron in the first few minutes of the season, but if Zach was their plan going into the season, that's interesting.

I mean, so look at the names we're talking about now. I mean, who knew who Jake Browning was before this past weekend? We're looking at games that lay ahead, Bailey Zappe versus Mitch Trubisky, obviously, because Kenny Pickett just had that surgery.

I think it was called pin surgery, something like they go in there into an ankle and clean up the ankle and give it a little bit of extra support, which I know it gets, it happens all the time. Gardner Minshew, like I said, against Jake Browning. Josh Jobs potentially versus Aidan O'Connell, obviously Bryce Young, versus Jamis Winston. How many backups are we going to see out there battling week after week? This is like, it's almost like having like the JV football.

Well, I don't know that I would go that far. And some of these, look, we saw what happened with Cincinnati last night. They beat Jacksonville. So your point is well taken when you cite all those matchups of backup versus backup versus backup versus backup. But these men are still NFL quarterbacks.

Yeah, I guess so. I just think that there's something so strange this year with so many injuries and so many quarterbacks sitting down and just, it's kind of fascinating. You never know who's going to be the next Nick Foles, who obviously is the last backup to win a Super Bowl.

And you never know who's going to be, like, who knows what's going to happen. Like Brock Purdy, right? Another perfect example. I was just going to cite Brock Purdy as an example. Yeah.

So who knows? What'd you think about Philly this past weekend? What were your thoughts on that? Do you want to discuss Philly or do you want to talk about their security guard on the sideline? I'm sorry. I digress.

Well, that was, I'm sorry. That was just to me, vintage Philadelphia. And I'm not speaking Eagles specifically, but just vintage Philadelphia, that their security person on the sideline is wreaking havoc and causing a ruckus. But isn't that the only stadium in the country that has a prison underneath it? I don't think the new stadium does.

It was the old stadium. The vet. Was it the vet? The link?

I can't remember the difference. Yeah, I think this one's the link. It was the vet.

This one's the link. Yeah. But the fact that they, the fact that they had a prison in it, it's just a normal place to play a game. Oh, look, we played the Eagles and my parents happened to be on the East coast that week. So they came to the game and I had two seats for them and lucky mom and dad, they were in the third deck.

So I put my parents up there. They were wearing nothing that said Raiders that they were wearing little black sweaters, little black jackets. They were getting the crap boot out of them.

And people were throwing popcorn out of them. And these are my parents. And not that they were my parents in particular. My point is these are parent age people, parent age of a grownup. So I'm trying to be kind and not say they were elderly because they weren't really that elderly. But I went up in the third deck at one point and I looked around at the fans. I said, what are you doing? Why are you throwing popcorn at my parents? And they looked like, Amy, it's Philadelphia.

Like, okay, I get it. Well, it was the, what was the worst weirdest or most different, I say that judiciously stadium that you went to and that the players may maybe complained about. I don't recall our players complaining about any stadium. I don't know what you mean by worst or weirdest or maybe the facilities were rough. The locker rooms were grody.

Well, our stadium in Oakland, there were times the visiting team went to the locker room and there was no hot water. Oops. Sorry. Was that on purpose?

No, no, it really wasn't. So I did something really nice. I went to the visiting team and I said, look, we understand there's no hot water in your locker room. We have a little bit in our locker room after our players are done showering.

You're welcome to use our locker room to shower. I thought that was very generous. Very kind of you. It was very kind. I don't think there was any one particular stadium. It was always, I enjoyed going to games on the road and our fans traveled so well to be able to go through the parking lot and visit with fans. Both of our team that were on the road with our team and then fans of the other team was a lot of fun. Quickly, strangest thing that happened to you in a parking lot? I beg your pardon.

Well, it's not strange. It was just heartwarming when our fans learned that I was a vegetarian and I would walk through the parking lot before the game and they were all tailgating and barbecuing. They would start yelling out, Amy, Amy, we barbecued you asparagus. We have mushrooms for you. And excuse me, let me make that very clear. I'm talking about barbecued mushrooms. I'm not talking about the other kind of mushrooms. Yeah.

I have the feeling that you were not going psychedelic on me. So obviously let's talk about this game coming up this weekend with Philly and Dallas because Philly is a huge ganged up and Dak's been looking like an MVP. So what are you expecting? Huge game. Obviously Philly just got trounced by San Francisco. If you look at the NFC and we're looking a few weeks ahead and it's going to, if we were to look a few weeks ahead, we'll be looking at Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas, among others vying for position and Philadelphia just got whomped.

They really did. Now they're going to Dallas. Dallas hasn't lost a home game in 14 games, which is really remarkable given the fact that there's waning home field advantage. They have a home field advantage in Dallas and it's going to be a tough, tough game for Philadelphia. From your perspective, talk about home field advantage. What does that really mean to a team and how did you experience that?

It's a big, big, big deal when I was in the league. One of the toughest, I think the toughest road environment in which we played, Kansas City. Those fans were cacophonous. You'd go into the game and they would create a roar and a cacophony for their home team and it was a tough, tough place to play. Buffalo also very, very, very hard. When I first went to the new stadium in Dallas, he kind of looked at it and said, wow, it's very fancy and it's beautiful and it's elegant and they're not really going to have a home field advantage here, are they? But they do. Fans are what create the advantage.

Yeah, so, so very true. All right, Rich Eisen is going to join us shortly. We're going to get together with him. We'll talk a little bit about the Zach Wilson situation. We'll talk a lot more about Philly and Dallas. You have to talk about the Philly situation, sorry, the Jets situation only because it makes them uncomfortable. Well, which is he going to want to talk about, Jets or Michigan?

I mean, do we give them a choice? No, I don't think so either. All right, guys, you know how frustrating it can be to find those perfect tickets to a game or a concert you've been dying to see. There's so many that I want to see right now. How's that coffee treating? Do you have whipped cream in there? Do you have whipped cream in there and sprinkles again?

It's coffee and there is a little whipped cream, but there are no sprinkles, but sorry for that slurping noise. Just checking. All right, with game time, you don't have to worry about buying tickets to your next big event. It is the best way, the fairest, the easiest to buy tickets for all your sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you. And I love it because it tells me where I'm going to see, where I'm like, is there anything in front of me?

Is there an obstruction? Am I going to have Taylor not be able to see the stage? So I like to tell you that that is the reason why you go to game time because it's the perfect solution to find it for a household of kids with different tastes and allegiances to artists and teams. And I love that they have deals right up until just before you go, even an hour after it starts because I'm always running late. So the game time guarantee means you will always get the best price. You'll find the same tickets in the same row and you find it less somewhere else.

They're going to credit you 110% of the difference. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time, download the app, create an account, use the code WTF for $20 off of your first purchase. Restrictions apply. Visit gametime.co for terms.

Again, create that account. Redeem the code WTF for $20 off. Download game time today.

Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Let's talk audible people. Audible lets you enjoy all of your audio entertainment, all in one app. Titles in every kind in all categories, wellness, bestsellers, and new releases, as well as podcasts and originals. And audible members can keep one title a month from the entire catalog.

You keep it. You'll always find the best of what you love or something new to discover. You know, I travel a lot, especially during football season. And 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 audio book from audible and boom.

It's so easy to just listen. New members can try audible now free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash eisen or text eisen to 500-500.

That's audible.com slash E-I-S-E-N or text E-I-S-E-N to 500-500 to try audible free for 30 days. Rich Eisen here. If you love football as much as we do here and want to be in the game every day, there's something the guys on my show have been enjoying. Prizepix Daily Fantasy Sports, the number one daily fantasy sports app. Brockman, tell everybody about Prizepix and your strategy this season. Rich, it's fun and easy. Pick two players or more based on their stats and place your entry.

It takes less than 60 seconds and just a few taps. You make your picks and boom, you're part of the action. With basketball season here, you can now pick combo projections across football and basketball from the specials league, a league created specifically for combo projections that includes two or more players from different sports and leagues. Prizepix even has a reboot policy where your entries stay in play if one of your players gets injured.

For basketball and football games, if you have a player who exits the game in the first half and does not return in the second, that player is rebooted. Prizepix is the only daily fantasy sports platform with insurance for injury. I love Prizepix because it adds to my game time experience.

Look, looking ahead this week, NFL, Jameer Gibbs, total yards, Tony-powered rush yards. Boom, that's a winner. If you're eager to test your knowledge and skills, play the game enjoyed by millions and join the Prizepix community. Visit prizepix.com slash pigskin and use code pigskin for a first deposit match of up to a hundred dollars. That's code pigskin at prizepix.com slash pigskin for a first deposit match of up to one hundred dollars. Prizepix, daily fantasy made easy. Must be present in certain states.

Visit prizepix.com for restrictions and details. So as promised, we dragged Rich Eisen out from the back and made him sit in for yet another edition of What the Football High. What's up? Last time I saw you, you were asleep. You know. And I snuck out to go get my workout in today.

That never happens. I am the lightest sleeper in the world. Very much so. You know what? I'll see you a light sleeping and I will raise you a light sleeping. I am horrible at sleeping. I just, I don't sleep. I don't sleep well. And I'm the lightest sleeper in the world.

And so when I'm up all night tossing and turning because I can't sleep, things occur to me and I think about them. What's the depth of the Mariana Trench? What is the circumference of the earth? And then she emails me.

Yeah. And then I'll wake my husband up. I'm like, how deep is the Mariana Trench? And what does he say?

What's the circumference of the earth? And he looks at me and then he knows I need to have the answer in order to try to go back to sleep. My question the other night as I was laying there unable to sleep was, what would you prefer? What would Rich Eisen like better? Not to be awakened, be asked those questions, but that's number one, but I don't mean, but what, what, what, what, but here was what occurred to me. Yes.

What are you, what would make you happier or what would make you less happy? Yeah. Answer it either way. The Jets in the playoffs, Michigan, not Michigan having the sort of season it did. The Jets not doing well.

In other words, how do you prioritize jets and Wolverines? Wolverines. Oh God. Yeah.

Okay. I told this story on the air on, on the main show, if you will, the other day. Did he just call his show the main show? I, I, I, it sounds ridiculous. What do you think that means for us? You know, when you refers to FS one is baby Fox. Uh, what I meant, I meant that the, these, uh, whatever, are we like the Princess Leia buns on either side of the planet of rich? This is why, you know, I, I should, I need to mind my P's and Q's, particularly when I come on this main show.

Well done. And, and, and I should have known that the last time when I sat in between the two of you and I was blocking the B last time I was on what the foot all now I'm on what the football, I don't know. Um, uh, I don't, I, I appreciate the angle, but, uh, long story short is when I was on the rich Eisen show over there telling the story, it was right around the third quarter and I, uh, of Michigan, Ohio state. And I turned to you, Sue's and I'm like, why do I care about this? So, so very much. He paced, you were offering me like lunch.

I'm like, get out. I can't during the Iowa game. Well, that was dinner during the Iowa game. That's true. Well, poor Kirk Farrens is aging by the second.

And I even said to rich, Oh, I love Kirk Farrens. I did so many Iowa games that ABC, he looks like he's aged during this game alone and he's pacing and I'm like, they're going to destroy them. Yeah.

But it was 10, nothing. And it was like pulling teeth. It was literally root canal watching Michigan against Iowa. So yes, I look, so Michigan national champion jets, Superbowl champion you're taking, you would rather have Michigan 1,000%.

I will do that because that's one less thing to keep me up now at night because the other one is just never going to happen. You know what I mean? Like I, I honestly, I'm truly, I'm watching Michigan. Oh, please.

No, they're never going to win. Don't be ridiculous. You know where the football gods are sitting right now. They're, they're, they're, they're like, that, that, you know, sitting in the front row seat, you know, and just cackling, you know what I mean?

Like the, it's like the Tony Bennett song, right? I'm just sitting in a front row seat, you know, why are you hoping that, you know, they break your heart? Like you broke mine. Like that's, what's happening every single time the jets take the field. It just, look, I would say, don't get me started.

Don't get me started, but I'm already started for them to lose Rogers the way that they did. And I heard what you said, um, earlier on in the podcast that you, you, you, you have to have a plan, right? And it was an eight-year-old who once upon told you, Amy, you have to have a plan. Well, unfortunately for them, uh, that their plan was to, to go to a quarterback who looks like he's eight.

I think he is eight actually. Uh, he is eight in terms of, I guess his, his, um, his ability to discern, uh, the way that he must, but, um, he is 1000% the best quarterback they have and that they, you know, they went with Tim Boyle and then now they just picked up Brett Rippon from the Seahawks, uh, practice squad and finally told Tim Boyle, thanks for the memories. And look, uh, I don't know what's true and what's not about Zach Wilson saying he didn't want to play or he didn't, he, he, he definitely has to sit here and think, well, you benched me, you benched me again.

And we have now seen that nobody can operate this offense behind this line with the scheme that's had right now. And so if he's going to have somebody come to him and say, Hey, we need you again. I don't blame him for having a hitch in his giddy up for a second, but if they do turn to him, uh, he's going to start. I mean, don't you think he would he would self immolate his career if he chooses to not play, if he says, I'm sorry, I'm not going to go through rehab to hurt myself behind this line, because I'm not going to be trusting my teammates enough to protect me or my coaching staff enough to scheme it properly or my own potential abilities to get rid of the football properly. Like, don't you think that would be the end of his career as a starting quarterback? I don't think it would be the end because I think it would you pick them up.

How would that land in your front office? Sorry. Now I'll be quiet. I don't think that look to stop. Let her finish.

I don't think it would be better. Talk. Are you two?

Are you two? Okay. I know. I love it.

I love it. Um, I don't think it would be the end for the following reason. There is always going to be a team which thinks we can, we can handle this. We can do this better than the Jets did.

Yeah, he didn't act like you'd want a quarterback to act with the Jets, but come on, it's the Jets. We can do better with him. Do I think it would hamper him? Yes. Do I think it would cause some teams to take a second glance? Yeah. Do I think it might cause some teams to pass on him?

Perhaps. Do I think there will be a team that will say, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I get it. That was the Jets.

I get why he did that. We'll handle him differently. He will be different with us. There is a tremendous amount of ego at every single level in every single team.

And there are teams that will believe they could bring out the best. What I wondered when I heard those comments attributed to him, and I don't know if, and to what extent they were accurate was who's in his ear. Was that guidance he was being given by an agent, um, an advisor, uh, someone who's in his circle was someone saying to him, Zach, you shouldn't play because they can't protect you and you could suffer a career ending injury. Just tell him I'm done. Did he decide that on his own? Did someone push him to do that?

All those things come to mind. You know, there's a saying, and I'm going to, I'm going to try not to butcher it. It was Steve Kime then with the Arizona Cardinals who said if Hannibal Lecter ran a four, three 40 people would convince themselves. He simply had an eating disorder. And that's my point about Zach. Even though teams would not like that, he did that.

Someone would do the Hannibal Lecter. I mean, you never know too, how much a change of scenery can help a player. We saw that happen with Randy Moss and who knows if he went somewhere else, if he could be more effective, it could just be that he has such a total loss of confidence right now that no matter what he does, he's going to go out there and tank. And it reminds me of a different Hackett. It reminds me of Carson Palmer at USC. When Paul Hackett was there and he brought with him his Jets playbook and Carson really was overwhelmed. And he was given this massive playbook that was just, it was not explained to him well.

And he was a, a shell of himself on the field. Paul Hackett gets fired. Pete Carroll comes in.

He took the, he took the Hackett playbook and ceremoniously burned it and said to them, we're going to simplify football for you. They went on to become the USC that we know them to be. And Carson Palmer went on for a fairly successful NFL career. I mean, that was the year that he looked at me. I was on the field with him after the last win of the regular season. And I said, Carson Palmer, look into the camera and tell the world why you should be the Heisman. And, you know, it was exciting to watch him rebuild, but that kid was a shell of himself.

He had zero confidence. It could just be that Zach Wilson has to leave. Who knows if there'll be anything same with Mac Jones. Mac Jones seems to be set free.

No, that's you're, you're not wrong about that. And I was going to actually, uh, you, you read my mind because look, here's this scoop by the, as we're recording this podcast right now, all the conversation about what was Zach thinking, what did he know? What did he say when he said it?

All that business. I believe if people are listening to this podcast, uh, later in the week or on the weekend, Zach Wilson will be named the starting quarterback against the Houston Texans. And that will be a very difficult assignment for him because not only is Houston playing terrific football, but they have a number two overall drafted quarterback of their own who has come out of the box, looking fantastic. And Zach Wilson has now been benched for Tim Boyle and Chris Streveller and Mike white and Joe Flacco. And here comes CJ Stroud, who is 1000% the offensive rookie of the year of this year, potentially taking Houston to the playoffs and doing that well. And it's just really not great. And it's Robert Salas acolyte, who is on the other side of that field who might be a coach of the year candidate.

It's just got all the bad metrics and bad visuals and bad setup for that. But to your point, Susie, 1 million percent, if Zach Wilson had the, uh, that had the guru had Mike McDaniel as his first, um, coach and play caller, it might've been a different situation than having him come in and, you know, fresh off the Adam Gase era and also having all, all of that nonsense that got thrown on him to immediately be the guy. Uh, even Patrick Mahomes sat for a year, but Mahomes has been hooked up to Andy Reed.

What a blessing. Could you imagine if he went to Chicago instead and to your point about Mac Jones. So in the two games we did in Germany on NFL network, it was chief dolphins and it was Patriots cults. So we had Mike McDaniel first in our, um, broadcast meeting room. And I, I, I went on, um, my Twitter feed and did my best to express what we all heard in the meeting, which was him having full and complete love and confidence in Tua Tungovailoa. Cause I asked him, I'm like, you took the job and everybody assumed, obviously, uh, incorrectly that he wouldn't want Tua right. He's coming from the system in San Francisco.

He's coming from whatever system and Tua had been so far, um, somebody who was benched for Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Brian Flores era. He was the guy then he wasn't the guy and we're seeing Justin Herbert kick ass. So we thought you didn't want him, but Hey, you did want him. You actually FaceTimed him on your flight, your private jet flight to Miami to say, you're my guy. And he talked about how he was a guy who remembered what he's an only child. Like he was going in this direction, an only child. And he remembered his mom always telling him what a special kid he was and how that was very important that that's the way he views coaching is to throw his arms around players and to throw his arms around his quarterback and tell him you are great.

You are terrific. And that that's not just blowing smoke, but to figure out a scheme and a system and an abilities to try and connect with that guy. And it was truly beautiful. Like we were all in the room going, Whoa, that is not a coach that we normally hear talking in the NFL smash cut to the next week. Matt Jones comes walking in. This team has two wins and it's a completely different scenario with a team that is losing and their season is essentially over.

And here they are in Germany. And Matt Jones has been completely a shell of himself, as you pointed out, Susie. And, um, he, at one point, we talk about how he's only had the same coordinator in back to back years. Once it was Steve Sarkisian in Alabama when he wasn't even a starter, right for one of those two years and how he would love that sort of continuity.

But he doesn't have it. And that was also leading to the question about, like, what about, you know, your coaches like is I asked him if Saban and Belichick are, in fact, the same guy, right? Like, that's the conversation. Long story short or shorter, he says that he's only had, like, really hard charging task mask, you know, tasking coaches in his entire life. And at that point, he goes, it's he's the one who brought this up. He goes, it's, you know, that's the way I'm used to it. He goes, Would it be nice to have a coach that invites you over to dinner and also sits next to you in the meeting rooms and also in the room?

Hold on a minute. And he sits and throws his arms around you like Tua. He mentioned Tua's name because he was a college teammate of Tua. He mentioned Tua. And as soon as he left the room, you know, we were all the same broadcast crew from one week to the next.

We all looked at each other and we're like, so. Does Mac need a hug? Like, does he need somebody who will throw their arms around him and say you're special?

You're awesome. And, you know, who's not going to deliver that? Belichick, you know, who didn't need that? Brady. And it's just amazing the coach quarterback dynamic and how it works and how it doesn't work and how the timing is important and how the personalities need to mesh. And I think it plays perfectly into what you just said about Mac needing to be set free and what we're talking about with Zach. You know, it's exactly the sort of thing that maybe Jake Browning has with Zach Taylor. That's why he looked so good.

I don't know. We're not there in these locker rooms, but I just wanted to go through that whole storytelling there. But you're right. Like Andy Reid for Mahomes. What if Mahomes didn't have that guy?

Here's the issue. You made the point about Mike McDaniel. Mike McDaniel does what the best coaches do. He is best positioning his players to be their best. The best coaches don't make players fit to a scheme. They build a scheme that fits to their players. So when you said that about Mike McDaniel, I smiled ear to ear because he's doing just that.

He's best positioning to it to be his best. What I think a lot of people forget is when you are drafted high as a quarterback, number one, number two, unless the team that drafted you has traded for that top pick, you're going to a team that played very, very, very badly the year before. So by definition, if you're going to a team that has the number one pick, unless they traded for that, they were the worst team last year. So to look at the quarterback and think he's going to answer all of the problems and solve all of the problems is unrealistic. Usually the rosters are depleted.

You need more players. Usually there are bigger issues than just needing a quarterback. And so if you are lucky like a Patrick Mahomes and you go to an Andy Reid, it's an entirely different scenario than for Zach or Mac. Or even just to bring it all full circle, you know, Zach Wilson might be sitting there watching Monday Night Football and watching Jake Browning light it up and saying, be nice to have Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd and that offensive line. And, you know, in front, not a team that was built around somebody else's wishes. That's another perfect example. Exactly.

Around someone else's wishes who they are still. The word catering is infused. They're not catering to Rogers wishes to make sure Hackett stays around or the fact that Tim Boyle was kept around or given the shot. Catering is infused, but they have no other choice but to run it back with Rogers. They have no choice but to do that and see what their plans were for twenty twenty three that the football gods from the front row seat, you know, blew up his Achilles in front of the whole country. They do have they do, I believe, owe it to everybody to give it one more shot.

And God forbid he gets hurt, just have a better plan behind him, certainly if he's 40 years old. But that's an excellent point. You know, in today's world, it seems the best treatment is reserved only for a few. Well, Discover wants to change that by making everyone feel special. That's why with your Discover card, you have access to twenty four seven live customer service, as well as zero dollar fraud liability, which means you're never held responsible for unauthorized purchases. Finally, no matter who you are or where you are in life, you'll feel special with Discover. Learn more at Discover dot com slash credit card.

Limitations apply. 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 so you know exactly what to expect when you arrive. They have all in prices that show you your total upfront. So, you know, you're getting a great deal without hidden fees.

And how easy is it to use? You can buy tickets on game time in seconds with two taps. And there's a game time guarantee, which means you'll always get the best price. If you find tickets in the same section and row for less game time will credit you one hundred ten percent of the difference.

It is so awesome. I use it. You should as well for sports, music, comedy.

Did I mention theater events all near you? Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the game time app, create an account. It's so easy and use code Aizen for twenty dollars off your first purchase. Restrictions apply. Visit GameTime.co for terms. Again, create an account and redeem the code EISEN for twenty dollars off. Download game time today.

Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Let's get off this because my God, we just keep beating the New York. We just keep beating them into the into the dust. And I just need to. And they're four and eight, by the way, they're four and eight. And there's they're only relevant this week because the Texans are in their house and the Texans have a shot to make the playoffs. Let's just talk something more.

What do you got? Fun, sexy, interesting, which is the match up this weekend. Well, don't get too excited.

You do. We've already talked about you in bed once today. We can't like go too crazy. OK, let's talk Philly, Dallas. Rich, as you look ahead to the weekend and what you find most interesting about this as Philly heads back to Dallas. And Dallas is looking really good. Dak and CD Liam look like they're playing well together. They're playing nicely on the playground. So what are you expecting?

What do you think's fun about this game? Oh, God. Sunday night's going to be amazing. We don't have anybody coming over, do we?

Not that I'm aware of. I don't know. I mean, but yeah, I mean, Sunday night's going to be great. And when do we ever have people on Sunday night? We had we had a whole host of people from Michigan, Iowa, but that was Saturday.

OK, so I just I don't know. I just want to make Sunday just people on Sunday. Rich is like a zombie. You love the word zombie. No one loves zombies more than Amy. He is a zombie. He's cranky, pacing by seven. He's like, I'm tired.

I love when we get these inside glances into their marriage. I mean, OK, it's true. I mean, because it's a four a.m. start. And by the way, usually I wake up like I set my alarm for four thirty on Sundays. And this past weekend, I slept through the alarm.

It's fine. It's great because one time, one time in 20 years, he slept through the alarm for NFL Network. Yeah. Once, you know, whenever I have an early call time, my husband always does my backup alarm for me.

Same thing. I set my alarm. Rob does the backup alarm. Prince Rob's the best saint. I mean, he sets alarms for you. He answers questions about the Mariana Trench for you. You know, really the podcast in his car really last night, middle of the night. Yeah.

What is the circumference of the earth? You did not. Oh, no, I did. I did.

I would murder you. Why would he know that? Why would you expect him to know such a thing? You did not really do that. I really did do that. OK, I when I have a question that's burning in my mind, I had to go first yourself. First of all, I'm tossing and turning, tossing and turning. What do you say? It's called Google.

Google. Well, I know. But we did it together. OK. And so then I what if I did that tonight? I would murder you.

I would murder you. The other thing, though, white outline, you know, that's what that would be. Can't tell you what happened the other night.

Total Segway. I don't know. Four thirty in the morning, one of the white dog comes in, opens the door to Cooper's room every night, jumps in the bed, but usually around four thirty, quarter five, five minutes of five. And I work out at six on Monday. So I was up, you know, I usually get up around five, fifteen, five, twenty. Something fell on me and I thought the world had ended. The gold dog had jumped on me at five in the morning and I literally went on. And I thought I thought I woke you up for sure. You did. No, I woke up. I certainly woke up.

Gold dog went flying. She's 80 pounds. Knows how to open doors. But she does fill in Dallas. So this game is truly for Dallas's season, I believe, because I'm staying because Dallas needs the home field more than most.

And I know that that is such a cliche sports talk topic bar. Who needs it more? Everybody needs it just the same. OK, Philadelphia needs it. San Francisco needs a Dallas needs it. But we were talking in the back 14 straight wins in a row in Dallas, which is remarkable, especially at a time where home field advantage statistically is waning. It is waning.

And certainly in this building, which is just cavernous, one hundred thousand people large. They they've had nothing but trouble for the previous years prior to this winning streak, winning games that they should. They always have trouble punching down on the opponent that they're supposed to beat.

And and and this team is now turning it around and offensively they are killing it. So they need to have the one seed, not just to have people come into their house, but certainly to have San Francisco come into their house. They cannot go back to San Francisco.

It's a great point. And and play them again after the way their season ended their last year, the way that they got smoked there this year. Could they? Of course they could win there, obviously, but it would have to be everything working perfectly and have San Francisco make mistakes that at this point in time would be completely uncharacteristic. And so the one thing if to beat San Francisco is to get in front of them and see how Brock Purdy can command the offense with two minutes to go and win a football game in which they are trailing.

We have seen Brock Purdy lead them in that situation only once in his young career. It was this year in Cleveland and they missed the kick to win that game, part of a three game losing streak that has Philadelphia in front of them right now. So Dallas needs to win this game to get a division hope in their ether from which they could then get the one seed.

If they lose this, I think they're the five seed. They'll end up having to go eviscerate the NFC South opponent and division winner like they did last year. It could be Tampa instead of Brady.

It could be Baker. It would be Atlanta, like good luck to Desmond Ritter, who has some trouble as it seems processing and playing consistent football against this Dallas defense. And Dan Quinn would love to go into that building and the whole team would love to give Dan Quinn the win in Atlanta. It would be very difficult and from there they might have to go to San Francisco or Philadelphia again.

That is not a path they want to take. In order to avoid that, they must win this game Sunday night. So what about San Fran, you guys? Are they the best team?

100 percent. They certainly are in the running and the only reason I'm equivocating it all is to quote Mike McDaniel, let me know when the season's only 13 weeks because the season's not over yet. And we always hear if the season ended today, we know what it didn't end today and there's more games to play, but they are certainly in the running for that. And I will say as to your point about Dallas, if Philly wants a chance to beat them this week, Philly should do something that Seattle didn't and account for Micah Parsons because that decision by Seattle, when they faced Dallas, it was just crazy to me. And it reminded me of something that I just drove me nuts during my years in the league. When a coach thinks he wants to show I'm smarter, I'm more clever, I'm more crafty. I'm going to show them and I'm not going to account for their best player.

That's just insane. We did that once we had a coach who thought I'm going to show them. I'm not going to throw to the other side of the field. I'm throwing, I'm going to just call plays. We're throwing straight at the guy. I got to say this. It's Lane Kiffin, right?

No, it was well before Lane. But my point was this coach decided I'm going to show them, we're going to show straight at the receiver covered by Dion. Like, why would you do that? Going into the game, we're all thinking you just don't throw to Dion's guy. You just don't throw to Dion's guy. Well, our coach decided I'm going to show them how clever and smart I are.

We're going to throw right at Dion's guy. Let me tell you something. It didn't work out very well. It's just in. Spoiler alert.

Spoiler alert. It also didn't work out for Seattle not to account for Micah Parsons. They purposefully didn't do that for the listeners or viewers of this show.

Yes, it was purposeful. What they did was on their fourth downplay do or die, they purposefully let Micah Parsons, a free release, have a free release to go right at Gino Smith and sneak from Gino's left past that beast of a pass rusher to the right leak out. And Gino Smith would just utilize, they would utilize Micah Parsons aggressiveness, throw it right over his right over him.

And it would be an easy first down. And they did that despite DK Metcalf having a huge night instead of going to him, they went and did this. The problem is they did it with not only DJ Dallas, their third string running back, but they also did it with Micah Parsons showing, you know, four three speed is four three speed and blew the entire play up. Here's why that won't happen with Philadelphia. That was the problem for Seattle in the fourth quarter is all of the fourth downs that they went for.

They didn't convert and it cost them the game and Dallas took the lead and that was the end. This wouldn't happen with Philadelphia because they wouldn't do that nonsense that you were discussing. They wouldn't even throw it to DK Metcalf.

They would do the unbeatable brotherly shove. And that's the difference that Philadelphia has amongst above all other teams. The number of times I've seen fourth down plays, we saw it on Monday night football where it was a slow developing fourth down play. I believe one of the running backs didn't get off very quickly and it didn't convert.

On Thanksgiving day, the Packers went to AJ Dillon. That got stopped. I don't understand how other teams don't have a brotherly shove in the copycat league that 1000% has the most unbeatable play I've ever seen in football. How it's not copycatted or attempted by other teams is beyond me. But Dallas will not be able to count on their opponents lack of ability to get a first down on fourth and short this week because Philadelphia is the greatest at that. That's why their coach says first and nine.

Right, exactly. When they get the ball it's first and nine. It's never first and ten.

It's always first and nine. By the way, Lane Kiffin was a very good guess. It was Mike White. Mike White. There you go.

How's that for a little history? I like it. I'm glad you look at your name and name. She would not have done that in episode one. She's very comfortable in what the football. Look at you just becoming a little bit more like you're you're you're you're blooming.

Look at you telling names and spilling tea. Amy Trask. I know I like I like gossipy Amy. She's my favorite. She's magnificent. That said, guys, as we wrap this one up.

Yes. And obvious answers do not apply. Who's your biggest disappointment this year? I'm going to answer that seriously on a moment because I'm going to give it some thought, but I would suggest we might want to consider just relegating the entire NFC South.

We relegate them somewhere. It hasn't been pretty. That's for sure. Biggest disappointment. Let's see right here. I'm going I mean. Yeah, disappointment in the sense that we expected more expected more. OK, I've got one for you.

I got one for you. The Los Angeles Chargers jinx jinx. Remember when we were kids and we'd want to say the same thing and we'd say jinx one, two, three, four, five.

And then like whoever said something, buy me a coke. But take a look at, you know, every other team that you would consider Buffalo is on the periphery of being a disappointment. I still think they have time to rescue themselves.

I was sure that you would say Buffalo because in the beginning of the year, I mean, you loved, loved. Yeah, but they're not toast. They're six and six. They have some tie breaks that are working a little bit against them, but.

Why wouldn't six and six qualify? I mean, that's not because there's still some time. The Chargers are toast. And that's a fact, I would be stunned if they go from five and seven right now to make the playoffs, there's too many teams in front of them and they have so much talent on that. And they haven't.

That's what I'm saying. All the disappointments, the jets, the giants that you might mention, the Tennessee Titans are another one. Um, you know, you know, do you want to throw Carolina in there because they were so bad, but they have a rookie quarterback.

No, um, you don't know. Those are teams, as I mentioned, jets, giants, Tennessee, I just wanted to say those teams. And you could even say Vegas, their quarterback, their, their starting quarterbacks either got hurt or, or Jimmy Garoppolo proved to be so ineffective that when Antonio Pierce came in, he, he just basically deactivated him because the Raiders are, would like to search for the receipt on that acquisition right now.

Um, the Chargers quarterback is, is healthy as they come, except, you know, I guess, you know, one of his fingers, one of his digits, he had that right. But everything else, this team should not be five and seven should have been four and seven and needing to just scratch out a victory over, over the Patriots. Six, nothing.

They, they're a total disappointment. I mean, what does that six, nothing. And by the way, all six points were in the first half. So that means it was zero zero, or as it said in animal house, 0.0 in the second half, half, um, that speaks volumes about both teams. And the reason I say it's the chargers are you look at the quarterback, that team should be doing a lot better.

And by the way, if games were only 55 minutes or so, the team would be a lot better because they just haven't figured out ways to close out games. It's been, it's been, it's been a tough year and, um, that, you know, they, they'd be my choice. All right. Who's yours? I mean, Oh, why did I, why bother?

Why bother? That's up there too. I didn't see them being a two win team going into, um, I, I was talking about on the Rich Eisen show, you know, the satellite, the main show that, that, um, when the NBA in season tournament named its dates for the semifinal and the final, I'm like, good luck to you. Semifinal is the Thursday night of week 14, where it's Patriots at Steelers, those two stalwart franchises that have passionate fan bases. Good luck to the NBA. That's the Trubisky Zappi bowl.

That's correct. Zappi versus Trubisky. You know, it's very, it, it, it flows. Um, I don't know if the offense will, but, um, good luck, good luck, you know? So yeah, New England is obviously a candidate for disappointment. I didn't think that they would have, um, Superbowl hopes or an MVP quarterback candidate as everybody thought about the chargers coming into the season. Everybody thought it would be a difficult road to hoe for them because, you know, uh, it's my homes and it's now, uh, Garoppolo and in it's Ross with Sean Payton, they were a candidate for disappointing team of the year at one and five, but they are now in the mix at six and six.

Um, so, uh, the chargers had Superbowl hopes and MVP hopes for the, for their team and quarterback. And right now that ain't it. Yeah. Remind me not to call my brother the next day. They'll be in a bad mood on Friday, but you speak to him every day. I know he usually now he's into giving me critique on the, on the podcast.

So that's odd. And you know, what's so funny, Amy, when I asked you the question about home field advantage, no, maybe I asked you something else. I already forgot what I asked, but I asked it in a long winded way. And all I could think about is, Oh, I'm going to hear from Scott that it was too long. The question is what it's interesting that you say that. Cause you tell me I'm long winded. You were very long winded.

So here's ready for rich. My pet peeve in interviewing is I like to ask short questions. Okay. That's part of sideline reporting, get in and get out. And every so often ritual say to somebody like, well, did you think that was a great idea? Wasn't it, Amy? And I'm like, Oh God, stop because they want to start answering, but he says it gives people more time to think of what they're going to say. And then you need to reset for the radio audience when you're doing the main show. Oh, all right.

People we've had about enough of him. Hey guys, do you say that to all your guests or just me? No, that's a Peter King last week, but Peter, thank you so much. See you at home. Hey Marshall, thank you so much. Now we're back to what the, now they're football with rich. I'm like, all right, we've had enough floating.

It's a floating. We've had enough of you. Okay.

Very good. Hey guys. Um, we appreciate you taking this somewhat chaotic episode of what the football we will be back here each and every Tuesday.

Love being with you for Amy I'm Susie. You know who he is. He's on the main show, the main show. For the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments. It's something to wrestle with Bruce Pritchard and Conrad Thompson to 1995 when WCW announces they're going to be live and head to head with Monday night raw feels like this would have been something Vince would have kind of laughed off. No, we did not like them moving to Monday nights. There were a lot of hotels. They all carried CNN, TBS, and TNT. Vince was convinced that Ted Turner had deviously done this deal to get in the hotels and keep us out something to wrestle wherever you listen.