Celebrity True or False with Adam Driver

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Limitations apply. This is the Rich Eisen Show. We're not one of those shows that starts with the Dallas Cowboys, just because. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I just have to say this to start this program based off of what I saw on Sunday night.

These Dallas Cowboys are for real. Earlier on the show, Emmy Award winning actor Tony Shalhoub coming up, Academy Award nominated actor Adam Driver, MLB Network insider Tom Verducci. And now it's Rich Eisen.

Yes. Our number two, the Rich Eisen Show is on the air right here on the Roku channel and also this Rich Eisen Show Terrestrial Radio Network program that we're thrilled to have in your ear gate. Also Sirius XM. We say hello to your audience as well as Odyssey as well. And eight four four two or four riches the number to dial here on the program.

Our number two kicks off. We are thrilled to have right here on the Rich Eisen Show in studio. The man who plays Ferrari himself in the new film Ferrari that's available in theaters nationwide on Christmas Day. Another fantastic movie directed by Michael Mann and in it. The actor Adam Driver here on the Rich Eisen Show. Great to see you, sir.

Yeah. Thank you very, very much for having me. Dude, you're great in this movie. Thank you very much.

You are very welcome. How do you how do you how do you get into the this role? I mean, it seemed like you transformed yourself clearly. How did you prepare and get into this role for Ferrari?

A lot of it winds up being kind of by osmosis. You know, we shot it all in Modena and were there a month before it started. And the prosthetics and Michael is had he's very much into internal life. So for him, the key to the character was someone who the mentality of a racer, someone who is, you know, myopic focus for a prolonged amount of time. So we raced a lot of cars in California or here in Modena. And we know when we're shooting with just the chassis of the cars that we used in the movie that were weren't didn't have shells on them yet.

So that's that's the cars that we see in the in the film. Yeah. Yeah.

Some some of them are the real deal, which were, you know, shipped with security guards. About to say. Yeah. Did you get behind the wheel of one of those?

No, no, no, no, no. There's like a guy that stands behind cones and just like, you know, keep keep moving. But Michael, he's he's like the he'll ship a car from he shipped to one of the Maseratis and, you know, strapped nine microphones to it and took it through a tunnel because he just just for the sound.

It's never in the movie, but the sound of it is not going to be just just for the sound because you can't duplicate it. So he's a relentless in his kind of quest for being authentic and just by being there in the place you it just kind of naturally happens. Right. It's it's kind of like going to a different country, adjusting to a time zone of a different country. You you you go to London or and you're all messed up for a couple of days and then just just naturally you start adjusting to the time. It's the same same thing with playing a character for like that for 14 hours a day for months.

You without thinking about it, you naturally just start to. Well, the neat thing is there's a source material. There's a book on which this film is based Enzo Ferrari, The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine by Brock Yates.

I imagine you devour that book, correct? Yeah, Piero Ferrari, who's in the movie as a as a kid, was opened the doors literally to Enzo's house and Enzo, you know, his brief. He was in his office and opened up a briefcase that he hadn't even seen. So we're watching him watch, you know, open his father's briefcase and going through all of his stuff.

How do you keep from wanting to, you know, not want to dive into it yourself, right? I mean, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He shows all the ties, all of everything that he wore. The barbershop that's in the movie is the actual barbershop where he got his hair cut. The guy who's cutting his hair is the grandson of the guy who actually cut his hair.

The man, the crash at the end of the movie is where the crash is. That is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Without giving it too much. I know because it was. Yeah. There's such a it's a jarring finish straight up in the way it builds and the way that everything's going in. And the film, again, is about Ferrari's life and at this very specific moment in time. So and there are some thrilling race moments. But this is really a story about Enzo Ferrari, who he is, his family life, how it made him, who he was and what happened at this very important moment in the mid 50s.

Yeah, it's a very character driven film. If it's not if people are expecting it to be just nonstop racing with no with a very weak, you know, plot, it's not that it's very much about him at a, you know, the death rate, I think of his drivers in the late 50s, my 55 to 57, something like 50 percent. And his business that also the racing world was changing.

It was suddenly television was coming in and how his business was going under because he was more interested in racing than he was selling commercial vehicles. And then personally, his wife, you know, they lost a son and their relationship was very business oriented. And they had a son with another woman named Lena Lardi and that's Piero.

Yeah, right. And that's Piero. And he was, you know, do I take the name Lardi or Ferrari? So but then Michael's key into that is someone who's a racer who is calm on the surface, but kind of furiously paddling underneath and has to stay, you know, at least project an image of control, you know, as racers do.

They're they're have to are aware of every everything around them in a way to become, you know, hyper focused. So Adam Driver here on the Rich Eisen Show again, Ferrari in theaters nationwide on Christmas Day. What do you knowing Ferrari obviously is as well as you you you must. What do you think Enzo Ferrari would think of what Formula One looks like right now?

What do you think I would say about that? I don't I'm not I'm not so keyed into what Formula One is now. Well, it's just it's as commercial as huge as it gets right now.

I mean, it is an international sport that is on par with everything else right now that everybody wants to see and watch right now, even in America right now. Right. So I guess, you know, what would he think? I guess of something that is so significant in the racing world when he was involved in a race that that went so poorly for him, I guess. Right. Well, I guess I mean, you would ask Enzo what his favorite car was.

And he would always be the it always be the next one was the answer. And you go to the factory because I went to the Ferrari factory and you watch them make these cars. And I was expecting it to be like, you know, I don't know, people just one guy's job is to pull some heavy thing down like steam comes out and it's, you know, but it looks like a science lab.

You know, they're people in white coats. Immaculate. Yeah, going over a small detail, you know, for it feels like you were walking into, yeah, like a science lab. It doesn't feel like in any greasy or, you know, messy. It's it's very clinical. There's nobody going underneath, you know, underneath the car right now.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's, you know, a bunch of people on lab coats. So then what'd you learn about him? What'd you learn about him when it's all said and done about Enzo Ferrari? Well, a lot of people had their own versions of who he was, but I really liked the idea that he was very aware of his image and played up to it. And he kind of embodies something that I aspire to in life. I feel like when things are bad for me, I kind of let everybody around me know it, but he was very contained and calm under pressure. And, and this is all pre psychology. So he's not, he's not also self analytical.

He is instinctual and all about moving forward and doesn't second guess impulses, you know. Adam Driver here on the Rich Eisen Show. You got a good Michael Mann story you want to share? What do you got for me?

Yeah. My favorite, my favorite Michael Mann story actually was, I have lots of them, but my favorite one that kind of, for me, it says who Michael was, we were in pre-production for this Ferrari and we were here and we were going to go do a makeup test in some factory somewhere and Michael likes to get in the car with you, which I didn't know. He likes to ride in the car so he can talk to you and, and, you know, talk on the phone and like kill a lot of birds with a lot of stones. And he wanted to get coffee and he was like, do you want coffee? So we pulled over the side of the road at this 7-Eleven and we got a coffee. We get back in the car. This will get good. I am, I am completely locked in.

I'm completely locked in. We get on the highway and he's like, Oh, I lost, I left my, uh, my wallet back in the 7-Eleven. So there's like a local road on the side. So we, we get off and we go back to this like really busy intersection. It's like three lanes here divided by a median, three lanes going the opposite direction.

It's repeated on all four sides. And we were, we pulled up to the stoplight for maybe 10 seconds and Michael's in the back with me and he just, he's like, I'll be right back. Opens the door, runs across the lane of traffic to the left, jumps over the median, runs across three lanes of oncoming traffic, runs in the parking lot, into the 7-Eleven and disappears in the door. I can't remember if the door of our car was open or closed, but for the sake of the story, I'll just say it was open and has still not turned green. And, uh, then, then before it turns green, Michael comes busting back out, running across the parking lot, again, across three lanes of traffic, jumps over the median, another lane of traffic gets in our car. And then you would think you would then go left when it turns left when the light actually does, but then tried to convince the driver to go cross over two lanes of traffic to get back on the highway because he didn't want to waste any more time because he, uh, because we had to make it to this makeup. We had to make it to this makeup test that that's Michael in a nutshell.

I have one follow up if you don't mind, Adam driver. Did he have a slushy in his hand? What did he come out of 7-Eleven with it with his wallet? Okay. Yeah, that's it. That's it. Want a taquito or a hot dog?

I just don't know. No, no, no. Yeah. You just wanted a coffee and the coffee was still in the car.

He just wanted to go get his wallet because he left it there. Understood. Yeah. It makes sense. Okay. Just didn't know if he came back with anything else. No, no, no. My God.

Yeah, and oddly there's 700 bucks in cash. He robbed it. He robbed it. Fantastic.

He turned into Neil Macaulay and he. I love that. Ferrari again in theaters nationwide on Christmas day. Everyone should go see it.

It is awesome. The cast is unbelievable. Penelope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, Patrick Dempsey, just to name three along with you, Adam driver. When we have somebody of your stature with a significant filmography and career, we have a segment called celebrity true or false about your career. We wish to know if these are actually true facts that we've seen online and about written about you or if they're false. If you don't mind, we actually have a great production value to go with it.

Please hit it for Adam driver. Celebrity true or false. You can't handle the truth. There you go. That's it.

Again, I know you just did SNL, so you appreciate great production value for a fourth time. Exactly. There you go. All right. First up, Adam driver, true or false. You spent your first big acting paycheck from law and order on a pair of Air Jordans. That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay. So first of all, who were you in this loan order? I was, I think the character's name was Will Slansky. I did it kind of. Is that Will right there? I think so.

I think so. I did the mothership one and then the SVU. I both played creeps. That's my, that was my name. Okay. All right.

And still is. All right. Yeah. Do we know what was the, what was the, what was the pair of Air Jordans? No, I don't know the name of them. I still have them in my closet. You do?

Oh yeah, yeah. And I don't wear them. They, they are very dusty. They have like a kind of like a clear plastic panel on the back part of the shoe.

And it's kind of like filled with dust and. Okay. And I don't clean them and I don't wear them. So then why, why Air Jordans?

You just wanted. I always wanted a pair when I was a kid and we couldn't afford them. So, and I would, I had one pair of Nike's that I got at a garage sale.

This is in Indiana, a small Mishawaka, Indiana, but we couldn't afford Air Jordans. So when I could actually, when I actually had money, that was the first thing I wanted to get. To me that symbolized, you know. Right.

I respect that. Were you a Jordan fan? Oh yeah, yeah.

Massively. Yeah. It was like the late nineties. I should have been a Pacers fan, but because we were a little closer, well, cause Jordan was Jordan.

Um, so I, you know, so all, all of, uh, that was my, he was, he was my, uh, my childhood. So Jordan over Reggie Miller is what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You even shouldn't say that. No, it's okay. You made the face, you know, which is good enough. You made the nod towards the Indiana fan. Yeah. But are you wearing Jordans right now? Yeah, yeah, I am.

It's the first thing that we talked about when he came out. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, no, I know what year this was.

Maybe we can pinpoint what Jordans you bought. Yeah. What year was this year? No, no, no, whatever year that was.

Whatever, whenever he was will the creep on law and order. Okay. But I didn't even know they were like, you know, air ones. Like I didn't know anything about, you know, the, I just knew that I went and bought the first pair of Jordans that look like. And, and they're still in your closet. Still in my closet. Yeah, I'll, I'll take a picture.

I would appreciate that. All right. Uh, second item, Adam drivers, true or false, you landed girls thanks to spontaneously licking Lena Dunham's arm during the audition.

True or false? Oh, I don't know. Apparently, you know, you don't remember your, I would imagine a lot of people.

I had the Jordans. I was feeling very confident. Okay. All right.

So that's, if you've ever had a pass before, either it's true or false. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if that's, if that's what she said, then I don't know. I don't remember.

Like I, I, I got it. I licked her. I know that was a, I don't even remember licking her. Okay.

And the arm or anything like that? No, I mean, yeah, no, I mean, I probably did at some point. Okay, very good. Yeah. Well, you got the role and obviously it's, it's a confusing time.

It's led to a few things. All right. Next up, true or false before filming Patterson, you got a commercial driver's license so you could legally drive a city bus while filming in Patterson, New Jersey. Yes, that's true. Yeah. So you went through training for it or something like that?

Actually, oddly enough, there was a driving school in Queens, I think called the Ferrari driving school. Get out of here. Yeah. I just put that together. Yeah.

I have the certificate for it and everything. So, so you, you went to Ferrari driving school to learn how to operate a city bus. Yeah. But it wasn't like Ferrari, Ferrari.

It was just, it was just like, it was probably. It was a guy named Ferrari? Ferrari with one R. Gus Ferrari? It's Gus's Tom Ferrari's driving school to learn to be fun.

The dumber brother, you know. So you went through the process? Yeah. I knew that we were going to be shooting this movie and I, I, I didn't want it to get to the part where suddenly Jim Jarmusch who directed the movie was limited by shots that we could do and by its schedule, by, you know, suddenly having to compromise and getting a stunt driver. So I'm like, well, if I get my license and I knew there was a lot of scenes where I'm driving, I didn't want to think about the mechanical parts of it. I feel like I should know that stuff because he would know that stuff. And then I can be, you know, open to actually act and not, not look like I was just kind of making it up, but I feel like those people have such a rhythm and I needed to know that rhythm. And the only way to do it was in my mind was to get a commercial, was to get a bus license.

Is it, is it like getting your driver's license where you, somebody got in and you had to go through a test drive with somebody? And a really angry guy who was really so mad at me. Even, even the guy before gave me like an advice about like a, cause you have to, you know, it's very specific about crossing train tracks and he, he gave me the wrong information and the guy almost lost it on me, but I passed. Like I, I did it. That's pressure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it's, it's, it's tough in New York to drive around or to get your license and a bus is, was intense. I love it. Ferrari.

You went to a place called Ferrari for that, right? Two more, Adam Driver, true or false? You turned down an invitation from Mark Hamill to hang out while shooting The Last Jedi cause you didn't want to break character of Kylo Ren. False.

I'm so glad you're asking me about that. Totally false. We, we, there's so many things in Star Wars that are totally false. No, no, it was, it was literally a thing of scheduling. We, we met and we're, he, he wanted to talk and get together at some point to talk about our characters and I was totally down. I, and, um, and then he kind of left, you know, when our schedules were not on the same page. So it really was just a matter of scheduling. It wasn't cause I wanted to stay in character. I, I, you know, I love Mark.

I was not going to like, I mean, my God turned down a dinner with Mark to talk about good character. That would be, that would be crazy. Okay. So I'm glad we're clearing that up. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What else you want to clear up? Is there anything else?

Yeah, maybe, maybe. All right. Well, here's another one. True or false? You took home your costume and lightsaber from the last Jedi when you filmed, when you finished filming. True.

That's true. I have all that. Is that next to the Air Jordans? No, different, different.

I have like an office and I have all this, you know, similar, and then I go and I pray to myself. Very good. Was it an immediate yes when you were offered for Kylo Ren?

No, no, no, no. I wanted to think about it. It was when we're shooting girls and I was a fan of the, I was a fan of Star Wars and I didn't want it to be bad.

Okay. And there was no script to read. That was, that was part of the gig.

You, you, you could get the part, but then after you agreed to do everything, then they put you in a tiny room and allowed you to read the script for the first time. What do you mean? What are you talking about? Like, like it's top secret?

Is that what you're saying? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. JJ walked me through what he wanted to do with the character, but you had to sign up and be like, okay, yeah, I'm going to do it. So then once you, once I did that, you know, I went to London to start for pre-production. There was like, there was a tiny room down the hall.

You can go in there and read the script. And so I was reading it for the first time. And then you had to leave it there. Yeah.

Then you had to leave it there. Yeah. That was the first one.

It's like top secret. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It was massive, massively.

Till we had special stuff and everything. But did you know, did you know that at least you're, you're, you're playing Vader 2.0? Like at least, did you know that as conceptually?

I did. And I had an overall arc that in mind that he wanted to do, which, you know, then changed. But his idea was that almost the opposite journey of Vader, where Vader starts the most confident, the most, you know, committed to the dark side. And by, you know, the, the last movie he's, he's the most vulnerable and weak. And he wanted to start at the opposite where this character was the most confused and vulnerable.

And by the end of the, the three movies would be most committed to the dark side. So that I tried to keep that arc in mind, regardless if that wound up not being the journey anyway, because it changed obviously shooting. Yeah. Right. Right. But I was still kind of focused on that.

When did it change? Well, with, with Ryan, he took it into a different direction, but still it kind of still tracked with the character. Then the last one, it changed into being, you know, about them and the dyad and, and things like that. And then again, so you And, and kind of evolving into Ben, Ben Solo, that was never part of it.

That wasn't either. No, no, no, no. Cause well, Ben Solo, he was Ben Solo from the beginning, but it wasn't, it was never a version where we actually see Ben Solo when, when I first signed up for it. Well, I mean, again, so you're a Star Wars guy, just like, you know, most everyone in the human race, right? Yeah. So what was it like for you, Adam Driver, when Harrison Ford's on the set and you know, you're about to do what you're about to do to Han Solo. Yeah.

What was that like for you? A lot of the first movie was denial. That, I mean, those movies are action adventure, but in between takes, they're pure comedy. You know, it's stormtroopers trying to sit down, you know, it's like people trying to look, move around and running into walls because they're wearing masks and, you know, it's like chewy, like trying to eat, you know, yogurt and lift up. So I tried to like block out all of that, but then there's so much Star Wars iconography and Harrison Ford that you want to try to stay focused. But from what I remember that day was mostly about Harrison. Harrison was like, you know, it's seemingly from the outside was an emotional thing. It was a thing, you know, him and his son and me and our father and all that stuff was coming out in the scene. And I remember we were on this big catwalk and we're shooting it and we're just him and I, and we're talking and he was like looking around and he goes, you know, look what we get to do.

Isn't this so great? You know, and I was, you know, I would think that he would be cynical or over it. And that was the exact opposite. He was very emotional and open. And just as about he was a Han Solo is about to eat it.

This is what he's saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like he was so excited to be like how lucky he was to be shooting this movie and this character and like how great filmmaking is. You know, it was, it was very earnest and uncynical and pretty, pretty great. I mean, he's, but you know, he's Indiana Jones.

He's Dr. Richard Kimball. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And you were kind of like the one-armed man in that instance. It's one way of looking at it. You know what I'm saying?

And then I licked him. Which is odd. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, you know, that's an approach. That's an approach. That's an approach. My gosh, that is unbelievable.

But it is heavy. You know, it was, it was nerve wracking. Yeah, yeah. Do you have people who like stare at you in real life? Like you, you, you did it.

You, you killed Han Solo. Do you get people like pissed at you when you? No, well, in the premiere, I was worried because people were watching it for the first time. And I, I was like, oh my God, they're going to riot. And they're going to be like, there he is.

And you know, let's, let's get him. But it all was fine. And then like every, every one, less now, actually, I kind of said it recently that but it's not really something that happens all the time. But for, for a while, a couple of years afterwards, like, why did you kill Han Solo?

Like, like, I have no choice in this shit. You know, they asked me to be there and I stabbed him and that was it. That was part of the script. Right. And then you got it done. Yeah. Oh my God. My memories of that were actually very nice.

I mean, regardless of that, just stabbing him and, you know, him falling down the shaft. Well, just a moment for me, if you don't mind. You know, my daughter, Taylor, 10 years old, she was Kylo Ren for Halloween. Really? I wonder if you don't mind, what, what do you think of the form here? Oh, great. What do you think? Yeah, very good.

What do you think? Menacing? Oh yeah, yeah.

It's a good angle. Okay. The, the saber. Do you think it's a, she's wielding it properly? I mean, it's okay.

You can be critical. No, she needs some gloves. Okay. She has kind of like a chewy there to the right. A real life one?

I like the shoes too. Okay. It's good. Yeah. It's not, it's not totally flat because if someone was attacking from the, you know, you need a little, an angle, you know, to kind of ricochet off the other way. Didn't even think about that. Yeah.

If it was flat and then it would just, when you hit, I'm trying to come up with something that's okay. It's great. She'll love it. Excellent.

I appreciate you saying that. And last one, is it true? You wear the Kylo Ren mask while driving?

That's not true. No, no, no, no, no. I have a couple of masks. I have a couple of sabers.

I have a blaster. I try to keep a lot of stuff from that, from the set. Well, we're having a blast with you here. Thank you for coming out.

Thanks for having me. That's it. That's it? Yeah.

I mean, wow. You want to talk sports at all? No, I don't. No, I don't. I've already done enough. Okay. Good enough. I do. I mean, I do like Reggie Miller. I like him as a commentator. The two.

He is doing a very good job. Oh, and then last one for you. Great job on SNL.

Ah, thank you. I had no idea you played the piano like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Number one. And then you as the baby. Me as the, yeah, yeah. Was...

Autobiography. Was jarring. I'll be honest with you. Seeing you as a little baby on a plane.

It's a little jarring. And then the chocolate skit we're just going to have to leave there. When they're pitching this stuff to you, is there, I mean, are you all in on whatever the ideas are? Do you come up with your own?

No, no. The monologue I have opinions about, or we talk about that. But the writers came up with most of that stuff.

You just leave it to the pros. They ask you if you have any ideas, and I'm like, I got nothing. And every time they always come up with something really great and weird and interesting. One more, you get a robe. Yeah, yeah. That's going to be, I mean, you get the number five robe.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fantastic. It has the jacket.

That's going to be great. Is it a jacket or it looks like a robe to me? I think it's a jacket, but you might be right. You will have to know. So there's some homework. We do need to see a photograph of these Air Jordans.

We would love to see that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'll connect with that. Yeah. And then homework for everybody out there.

Go see Ferrari in theaters nationwide on Christmas Day. Again, another revelatory performance by you, sir. Thank you very much. Huge fans of yours here on this program. And you're welcome here anytime. Oh, I'll totally come back. Please appreciate that. That means a ton to us because we barely scratched the surface on Celebrity True or False. Literally.

Yeah, no, I have so many things to correct. And we're here. We're here to help. We're here to help. There is an I in Rich and Eisen, but we're team players, Adam. Thanks for coming on here. Thanks for coming on.

All right, thank you very much. Everybody check out Ferrari. We're about to show a clip when we come back right here on The Rich Eisen Show. You know, in today's world, it seems that best treatment is reserved only for a few. Well, Discover wants to change that by making everyone feel special. That's why with your Discover card, you have access to 24-7 live customer service, as well as $0 fraud liability, which means you're never held responsible for unauthorized purchases. Finally, no matter who you are or where you are in life, you'll feel special with Discover.

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Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. That's awesome, man. That's pretty cool. I love how you guys are most impressed by the Air Jordans. Yeah, first thing I noticed when we walked out. And that the story is that he bought Air Jordans. Oh yeah, and he still has them. That's amazing. I think we all have that same story.

When we were younger, we couldn't afford any. So then you get a little bit of scratch, and you're like, oh, I got to get some Jordans. There you go.

First pair of the all-grade 10s for me. Yeah. So while we were talking to Adam Driver, words I've never said before into this microphone, the Chargers ruled Justin Herbert out for the season. He's done.

Tom Pelleracero reporting its surgery today on the fractured right index finger. Kind of important for throwing a quarterback. What a disastrous end to a season with so much hope and promise. When we were talking about the AFC this year and how deep it's going to be and how tough it's going to be because of Aaron Rodgers coming in, from the NFC to the Jets, and Joe Burrow being in Cincinnati and Deshaun Watson having his first full year in Cleveland, and Justin Herbert was being mentioned amongst all of that with Jimmy Garoppolo in that division. But Herbert was being mentioned as this could be his MVP season because Kellen Burch was the one that was going to be the season because Kellen Moore was being brought in from Dallas to be the offensive coordinator and push the ball down the field and be the Sherpa for Justin Herbert in a way that previous administrations could not be. And he's now done for the year, and this team is going to put Easton Stick on the field, not against Jimmy Garoppolo on Thursday night, but Aiden O'Connell. And that leads me to point out with how deep the AFC was supposed to be the quarterbacks I just mentioned. Rodgers, Burrow, Watson, now Herbert. All taken out by injuries.

Season endings, too. I don't know what to make of it. Because it's kind of crazy. You take a look at teams who's in the AFC, whose quarterbacks have taken every snap that the coach wants them to take, right? I mean, I bet you a couple of blowout wins in early part of the season. Josh Allen didn't finish, right?

Maybe, but just in terms of you're starting every week, kind of crazy. Coming in, if I told you Tua would be a guy who has taken every snap and started every game, and he hasn't taken many hits coming into the season, that's the guy you'd think, well, Miami season is going to be on the brink because at some point he won't answer the bell. How about Russell Wilson? Russell Wilson's another.

In terms of his, I would imagine what his, I guess, his play or his results or his efficiency or anything like that. After they give up 70 and get blown out like that. But my point is just the injury front, right? But Denver is a guy, is a team along with the Chiefs that has started quarterbacks every single game. We're hoping CJ Stroud will play this week. He's in concussion protocol. It looked awful, but everyone else in that division, you know, has had scary moments with their quarterbacks and lost them. Tana Hill and Anthony Richardson. And then Trevor Lawrence remarkably answered the bell this past week.

That didn't look very good. Every team in the North, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland. Cleveland's on four quarterbacks with Flacco and Lamar is the only one standing. Now the Patriots didn't get Mac Jones hurt.

They just took him out. Yeah. But so let's remove them. You got the Bills and the Dolphins and the Ravens and the Jaguars and the Chiefs and the Broncos.

Am I missing anybody? That's six teams in the AFC of the 16. And those could be six playoff teams. And we were talking about the AFC being so deep because of all the starting quarterbacks in there. And guys were going to miss it. And 10 of them are gone.

I don't know what you do. Albert Breer, who maybe we'll get him on either tomorrow or later on. Breer's pointing out it's the offensive lines that are the issues in the NFL right now. You see the choppy play. You see the inconsistent play. You also see quarterbacks getting hurt because I'm telling you what every single year I go to the combine and the defensive ends get bigger and faster and stronger. And the right and left tackles are built the same way. And if you don't have some physical freaks like Trent Williams or whatever. Tyron Smith. Another example.

Then you are in trouble. And some of the line play you're seeing right now leads to, I think, a lot of the inconsistent play. And a lot of the quarterbacks are also inexperienced coming in as backups. Our friend, you know, the Pastronaut threw a medicine ball, a hospital ball, literally to Justin Jefferson.

He went to the hospital, thank goodness, for precautionary reasons. But a lot of these quarterbacks, they're not as experienced. And the offensive linemen are not nearly keeping up with the speed of the defenders that are coming in like Micah Parsons, right? Miles Garrett. And you put it all together and there are six teams in the AFC and 10 teams in the AFC.

Six have their starters starting every game and 10 of them do not. 844-204 Rich, number to dial when we come back over. Reaction Monday still to come. And Otani is deferring. Poor guy.

And he, well, you know, figuratively, not literally. Why is that? I don't know. Maybe because I'm older. I was going to talk to you about that because you're 79? Yeah. How old do you feel?

11. Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum, wherever you listen. Back here on The Rich Eisen Show, game time tickets. It's that time of year for you to go take your family to a concert, anything that you want to go for a sporting event. Hoops, hockey, go for it. Football, check it out. Maybe if you're traveling somewhere, there's a comedy show.

Sarah just did one in Atlanta, right? There's all sorts of events you can take your family to. Game time tickets is your portal.

Go and put it on a mobile device right now. And it's so easy. It's so pleasing to the eye to take a look at it. You can buy tickets in seconds with two taps. And the best thing is you can see the view from your seat before you buy so you know exactly what to expect when you arrive. And then you know exactly what to expect to come out of your wallet the minute that you check on these tickets, because all-in prices show your total upfront. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the game time app. Create an account.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Al in Dallas. You're here on The Rich Eisen Show. What's up, Al? What's up, Al?

My mom woke up a goal, woke up a goal. Hey, Richard, how are you, buddy? Yeah, buddy. You must be out of your gourd about Tommy DeVito, pal. About your G-man, right?

Did Tommy's agent whack Johnny Ola by any chance? You saw what I said, right? I mean- I know, nobody got it.

You know, I needed Del 2-4 there to understand what I was talking about. Thanks, Al. Yeah, no, excuse me. It's not anything against you, Jason.

You don't have a working knowledge of Godfather Part 2 like he does. You know, Al and I were out drinking. I thought we were buddies now.

Whoa! Yeah, no, we are, we are. It's just, you know, you're- Hey, listen, listen. It's the glass is half full, all right?

Everybody. This is a great NFL story. This is a great New York, New Jersey story. It's not a great Giants story because their success is going to just be kicking the can down the road a little bit. I mean, I can't- The schedule makers didn't do him any favors by scheduling the Eagles twice in the last four weeks.

The only thing could possibly be that the Eagles, like, you know, take a knee in the last game of the year. But this is a great story. You know, you got to love this kid's moxie. You got to love his bravado. You got to love the fact that he doesn't get sacked like Dave Brown.

I mean, Daniel Jones. Nice. You know, it's just, it is great though.

It's entertaining as all get out. And I just want to say one last thing, Richard, if you wouldn't mind. So, you know, I saw the boys a little while ago.

They noticed that I'm on this big weight loss journey, too. The biggest problem Del Tufo is going to have is the guy doesn't like to go to the hip for new clothes. So he's going to look like a bag man wearing all those baggy clothes that he gets on the arm unless he's on a world tour, shaking people down for free stuff. No, Al, here's what's going to happen.

I know, Mike, like anybody else. OK, the Super Bowl is around the corner. Free stuff.

OK, updated free stuff. He'll just downsize, that's all. And by downsize, you know, by downsize, I mean, he'll just have a size less than what he's been wearing. Not that he'll downsize without using both fists to grab is what I'm saying.

Mike Del Tufo doesn't have two outfits. Gentlemen, if I don't speak to you, I'll have a great holiday. Right back at you. Thank you very much. Alan Dallas. Be well, dude.

Great to chat with him. But so Shohei Ohtani says yes to the Dodgers. And all we're focused on is 10 years, 700 million dollars. Like, of course, the Dodgers can afford that. Who else can afford that?

You know what? Then we learn yesterday that Ohtani is going to get 700 million dollars from the Los Angeles Dodgers. But not over the first 10 years of this contract.

Wow. As a matter of fact, he's only going to get 20 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers over this contract for 10 for 10 years. He's going to get 20 million over the first decade of this contract.

What do you mean, Rich? It's only a 10 year contract. Well, he's deferring 68 million dollars a year in the 10 years after this contract. So we're all talking about isn't this amazing how the New York Mets are paying Bobby Bonilla one million dollars every single year because he deferred all this money and man. And then we take a look at what the lowest paid players on the Mets are like and how Bonilla is making more than some of these players and ha ha ha ha.

Well, Bobby Bowe has looked at Ohtani who's looking at Bobby Bowe saying, hold my what? Asahi? You know what it is?

Sake bomb? I cannot believe it. And so everybody's out there saying, how is this legal? Because what this does is it keeps the Dodgers below the luxury tax threshold in a way that allows them to feel more free to get more players and maybe pitchers or say this fellow Yamamoto, who's apparently here in Los Angeles, meeting with a whole bunch of teams to see if he can bring a potential Cy Young talent to the mound. And what better way to tell Dodger fans we understand we need pitching than by pairing Ohtani with Yamamoto and figuring out maybe a year from now, it'll be Ohtani and Yamamoto one, two in their rotation.

And you're like, how is this legal? How is Major League Baseball going to allow one of the richest teams on planet earth to pay Ohtani $2 million a year like he's a middle infielder who plays three times a week, right? And then later on, it'll be $68 million a year from what, 2034 all the way to 2043. As I said on my Twitter feed yesterday, the rest of the Dodgers of those years will be paid like the Las Vegas Athletics. That's crazy, man.

You ain't promised those years. And the answer to your question, if you say there's no way Major League Baseball is going Major League Baseball is going to allow this, right? There's no chance this is legal. The answer to that is it sure is legal. And Jeff Passan of ESPN tweeted out the specific article in the collective bargaining agreement that reads, quote, it's article XVI. Don't worry.

We don't let you have to do the Roman numerals. It's article 16. Hey, there shall be no limitations on either the amount of deferred compensation or the percentage of total compensation attributable to deferred compensation for which a uniform player's contract may provide.

In other words, what's that mean, Rich? You can go and do what the Dodgers just did. And you could sit there and go, well, why would they allow that? Why would they write a rule that allows the Dodgers to do that? Because nobody in their right mind ever thought a player would ever say, keep your 680 million dollars for the moment. I'll take it when I turn 48. I'll just take two million a year right now and know that when I join your organization, my off the field opportunities and dollars coming in will be so insane.

I'm not going to be at all struggling for my next meal. That's a very good point, too, I guess. They never thought in a million years a player would ever say that. And sure enough, I'd love to know. And that's one of the questions I'm going to ask Verducci. Does he know who is the one who broached the subject? Did Otani basically say, I'll just tell you how does two million a year sound? Or did the Dodgers broach the subject and say, how much money can we defer? Because we'd like to avoid paying the Baltimore Orioles money.

Yeah. Because we're aggressive enough to get you. And they're not going to take our money and put it into their players.

They're going to line the Angelos mint with it. We don't want to do that. So how much money are you willing to defer? And did Otani then basically say, how does, you know, 90% of 90% of it sound to you? How about how about almost all of it? Does that how does that?

How do you want to try that one on for size? And how do you think the Angels must be like, was this a possibility this entire time? Cause we'd have been able to pay you that way a long time ago. Like when, when, when did you decide to cough up 68 of $70 million a year right now, so we could pay you later on. And by the way, I'm hearing, you know, I I'm seeing as well, they're deferring a ton of money to Mookie and Freddie Freeman too. Because Mookie apparently has a residence in Tennessee where there's no state tax. And Freddie Freeman apparently has one in Florida, I guess, where there's no state tax. And Otani will be like, I'll be in Japan collecting 68 million a year. So, hey, Gavin Newsom, see ya. Not paying your taxes, except 2 million.

Yeah, you could have that. Mitchell Schwartz with the tweet of the day, our favorite member of the tribe. Chiefs.

Former chief offensive lineman who lives out here. The biggest Otani question is how he's going to live in Los Angeles and only $2 million a year. Good, good real estate joke. That's real estate joke too, right?

So you got to take taxes out. So what's he getting Chris? Like one, three, one, one, two, maybe.

Dude, Cooper and I, you know, we talked, we still, we talked about it the other day. Cause when we went to an angels game, you know, last September and there were Otani advertisements all over the stadium to the point where they were even advertising what, Japan's favorite cat food? And then Otani had nothing to do with that, I don't imagine. But Otani's cologne, Otani's this, Otani's that, it's all over. You don't think it won't be all over the stadium? Hey, Otani, defer 90% of your salary. You want, you want to, you want a billboard out there in left field? Out there in left field for your cologne?

Yeah, the reports are he makes almost $50 million in endorsements. What does he need it? You keep it. You keep it LA. Yeah, there it is. Get us some better players.

That's coming to Chavez Ravine, everybody. Cosé. Cosé. Smell like Otani. Does that mean you smell like money? Cause if so, I'm in it. There it is.

Chiru, Japan's number one cat treat. Is that coming to Chavez Ravine? You better believe it. Here it is. These are all pictures I took.

Forgot about it. By the way, I have no photo credit and you did this for us. No photo credit. Keep your money.

Keep your money. Good Lord. Did cousin Stevie Cohen know this? I got a ton of questions for Tom Verducci and he'll join us next overreaction Monday on a Tuesday and hour three and more of your calls.

This is amazing, man. I guess I about to say I've never seen this before, but none of us have because it's never happened. You know what I mean? Like this.

Who is the next one? Take 90% of my salary, please. But again, it's not like it's not like it's the NFL where you have to fit under a cap. You don't have to, there's no cap in baseball. They're, they're, they're, they're fitting it underneath the luxury tax because they didn't want to spend more money on top. This is an indictment on the lower third revenue teams in the, in major league baseball. We're not giving you money just because we signed Otani pound sand because half of you aren't going to try and compete with us anyway. So that's why they're doing this.

It's kind of a joke, actually. That's why they're doing this. They're, they're, they're not doing this because they have to, in order to fit all these players on the same team, because that's a hard cap, like the NBA or the NFL or a cap that you can circumvent.

They're circumventing the love. This is like luxury tax evasion is what this is. And it is legal and baseball. I'm wondering if they just made this legal and somebody in the Dodgers front office is like, you know, let's look up if he can defer 90% of his salary. And then they come back to the owners of the Dodgers. The lawyers are like, you're going to love our answer. You're going to love our answer. And baseball might be like, Oh, Tony's given up how much, and then the Yankees are going to go to judge and say, Hey Aaron, an offer for you.

Yeah, there's sand pound it. For the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments. It's something to wrestle with Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson too. 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.