Takeaways from the NFL owners meeting

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Learn more at Discover.com slash credit card. Limitations apply. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Draymond Green got ejected from a basketball game again.

What is your major malfunction? Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. And now Green runs over Nurkic and he'll be called to the foul. Oh, man. What's going on with him? I don't know.

Personally, I feel like that brother needed help. Earlier on the show, Bengals running back Joe Mixon coming up hosted pro football talk. Mike Florio, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Chris Mannix, plus your phone calls and more.

And now it's Rich Eisen. A very entertaining intermission here in our studio in between hours one and two on the Roku channel of this Thursday edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Chris Brockman was playing on his phone, speaker phone, Cage Brockman's performance with his classmates at today's, I guess, Winterfest in his.

Yeah, at his school, at his preschool, his preschool. Would you do me a favor, Chris, and send that to Mike so we can play some of that later on? Sure. Because it's it's it's great. It's it's it's highly entertaining.

Very fun. Just send it to Mike and we'll we'll we'll sweeten it. Mike, you can you can ride some faders to make it, you know. This is his son like this. At one point, he had his beanie hat pulled over his head. Yeah, he wasn't having it in front of his whole fat Albert. Yeah, literally no holes, but in front of his whole face.

Yeah, that's my boy. OK, such a goon. Fantastic. But I mean, we don't need this.

We don't need to see the video. We just need to hear it. It was very fun.

They're doing later on. I think we've got some real estate. It's got a Wonka theme to it today. It was very fun.

Oh, wow. Different classes sponsored just like, you know, like the Monday night game was. And I'm looking at the pictures sponsored by Wonka.

They've got a nice, colorful background. It might be it's like Oompa Loompas. Is it is it is that the did Timothy Shalomay go to that nursery school? Is that why it's in your question?

That's what I'm missing right now to be here with you. Do you think anybody calls him Tim? Tim Shalomay. Timmy. We should get Shalomay on the show.

He's always at Knicks games and playing ball outside at Rucker Park. Like, I bet Shalomay. Hey, listen, Liz is on a roll right now. Yeah, Arnold was in this. The last two people in this chair.

Well, I shouldn't say that. Let's do people in the studio with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Adam Driver. As we all know, the last person in Brockman's chair was Arnold.

This is the baby child. He refused to sit in. I'll be back. I just saw the picture of you and Arnold blown up in the back on the wall and just seeing that chair there. We should have had Adam Driver scream more into the microphone. That's a great, great meme. Oh, my God.

Great Jeff on it. I know. I tweeted it out when when, you know, when Michigan was beating Ohio State, you know, by by by they were really up by 10 in that game at one point.

Yeah, I think they were up 14, three or something like that. I'm like screaming more. By the way, Adam Driver is a picture of some Jordans.

So, yeah, that's a good point. Hey, how are you doing when he comes back? Are you getting my favorite Ohio State quarterback?

Great question, Ridgewalk. Kyle McCord rumors swirling around the transfer portal was looked like he was going to Nebraska canceled that. Well, it's because aren't they getting that Riola kid last night. And now the Syracuse rumors are popping up. Fran Brown, our new coach. Kudos, my man.

You are killing it right now. Be careful. Don't do that to him.

Last time you were talking about. Well, he's not on the show. We haven't had Fran call.

So you would you not get him on our program ever. No birthday wish ever. The Rose may not know we're referring to. I try. By the way, I thought this was a nice gesture. It was a very great gesture. I was very surprised on your birthday. Very thoughtful.

A few July ago, four years ago, after Dino Babers at his best season as Syracuse football coach, we had him calling to wish you a happy birthday. And then the wheels fell off the program wagon. Like honestly, terrible, terrible. Like the air came out of the carrier dome. Just the roof caved in.

Like there was like a pile of snow on it. Yeah, but Fran Brown got him from Georgia. He's killing it. Flip, flip and four star recruits. We got three of the top 10 players in New Jersey already. So I know we're back. That's good. And that's what Syracuse used to do, right?

To do used to go into New Jersey. Right. And I'm just upset about all the players leaving Michigan through the transfer portal.

Wait a minute. They haven't lost a single one. God is going to leave when you're still playing for the national championship.

This is a great narrative that you guys are leaving out when you win. Michigan, who is tweeting out about, oh, this Texas guy is going to show up in USC and the backup quarterback of the Longhorns just said, I love my teammates, but I'm out of here because it makes sense for him to. Why? Why?

What do you mean why? He's the backup. Excuse me. Florida State didn't make it because their backup was apparently not good enough. And you were very, you know, one snap away from this kid having to play against Washington. Oh, I'm sorry. How can this guy play for Florida State? I'm confused.

How could this guy sometimes not high school player play for the Florida State? I'm just glad I'm just glad I don't play. Leaving out.

Excuse me. I'm just so glad I don't play chess against you, because if you ever get checkmated, you're just like, I'm out of here. I'm just not going to play anymore. I just got checkmated.

In what way did you checkmate me? I said Michigan hasn't lost any players to the transfer portal. And you're like, which player would leave? Because there's a national championship on the line. I pointed out the backup quarterback of the Texas Longhorns has left the program in advance of this game. Does Arch Manning play for me?

I'm confused. No, Arch Manning may have to play if he's not ready, because Quinn Ewers. This kid who left was one snap away from having to potentially be the guy that Florida State, I guess, wishes they had, because Florida State got left out because their backup was playing. But this guy's not going to play next year because Quinn Ewers is staying.

So now is the time to go. Oh, OK. So the Michigan won't have any of those people.

They don't have any of those people. It's just a weird argument that Michigan people are using. TJ, would you check in on this? You sometimes check out when the two of us have out of here.

I'm like, I think he's got a point and you've got a point. Thank you. Oh, my God.

It's a soup that eats like a meal over there, huh? I just let you guys firmly on the fence. Good Lord.

Like, Mariucci picking splinters out of his Iron Mountain behind. When I don't have a dog in the fight, I just shut up. All right. Oh, we're just getting started. Oh, baby, we're just getting started here. Listen, let me update some people here.

And eight, four, four, two or four rich number to Donald. We'll take your calls in a second. I promise.

Mike Florio coming up. Let me just update some people around here, just in case if you're new around these parts. I see things for a living. OK, I'm not I'm not talking about a sixth sense sort of thing that I'm saying.

I'm not. But what I do see are dead rules. I see dead rules. OK, I see dead rules. Spoiler alert. Back in the day.

All right. On NFL Network before the show was even born, before it wasn't even an embryo in the thought of my head, I was seeing things and I saw a dead rule in the tuck rule. I saw it. Tom Brady bringing the football down in the New England snow in the convergence of the greatest players in the history of University of Michigan football on either side of the football, converging in an NFL moment for the ages, bringing the football down and it being ruled an incomplete pass was the proper call of the rule. I said at the time, what the hell is this thing all about? Mike Pereira, the head of the NFL refs at the time, came on NFL Network, said the tuck rule is necessary because it it removes the gray area about when somebody is throwing it and when somebody is running it. And I'm like, excuse me, Mike, the tuck rule is the gray area.

What better indication? Of your intention to no longer throw a football is there than bringing it from a throwing position down into something else? This movement. Is the motion to indicate you intend to run no longer throw or brace no longer throw. So why are we using this as an indication of you intending to throw or still throwing it? What the hell is that all about? He fought back. Guess what happened a few years later? Let's start thinking about it. This tuck rule thing.

Yeah, you kind of look at it and it doesn't make any sense. And what happens? Poof.

Kaiser, Sose gone. A couple of years later. That's Brian. Sorry, TJ, in a playoff game, just like the tuck rule shows you what people of his ability can do. Grown ass men, grown ass men who are physical receivers who can catch a football and gain damn near 10 yards worth of ground while going to the ground. He can do that. You know who can do that a lot more now?

A lot of other receivers. But at the time, he was one of the few who could catch a ball and in two steps, gain a first down while going down to the ground and make a football act like I'm going to try and score the damn touchdown. Now, even though I caught it right around the 12 yard line, 15 yard line, I'm going to have the ability to get more yardage while catching it.

And upon hitting the ground, reach out and try and score a touchdown and the ball comes out. At the time, proper interpretation of the rule. I'm still not sure about proper interpretation of the rule at the time. But at the time, it's just like, what the hell are we doing? If people in a bar en masse can say that's a catch, why are we ruling no catch?

And the refs are like, what are you doing? I don't know. We're going to take some time to talk about it. We need to look at it. The competition committee might talk about it.

We'll take a look at unintended consequences. I don't think this is how they sound. Understand? It might be.

But they're they're people that I respect and I should be more respectful of. But they made the completely wrong move for a long time until. New catch rule, is it perfect?

No, it's not perfect. But are we removing stuff like this from the game we have? We have the stupid crap removed. That happened like a couple of times. Understood. I'm about to get my third hat trick.

I have been howling at this moon, howling this moon for quite some time. Why in the world? Why in the world? Are we giving a football to a defense just because a ball is fumbled into the end zone? An inch beyond the pylon, when an inch in front of the pylon, the offense still gets to keep it.

Oh, the end zone. And Chris will soon give this opinion. I believe Conor Orr of Sports Illustrated wrote a very thoughtful piece on it. Did a great job. He echoed every point that I've been making for years that the end zone is hallowed ground and every single rule change in the NFL benefits the offense.

So. I have no idea why a defense that has given up, say, let's go the full route here. Ninety eight yards of ground because there's so many ninety nine yard touchdown.

Oh, we kind of saw one, you know, by Conor Murray against the Steelers. So, hey, let's just go for even half the field, half the field. The defense has the fortune of that oblong piece of pigskin rolling around past the pylon an inch. But had it been an inch in front of it, the offense gets to keep it. I think it's stupid. I think when it happens in a Super Bowl and it will, people will flip out and it should be changed. And what did Troy Vincent, the head of football operations, say yesterday? That they're going to take a look at this play, which they have in the past.

They have in the past and they haven't changed it. But he said, question two, is it too punitive? Huh?

Do we need to give them a chance again? And you read it. Excuse me.

You add in the huh? No, no. Can we hear him say this? Do we need to give them a chance? Do we need to give them a chance again? And you read this to say, do we need to give them another chance?

They've already had their chance and blew it by fumbling. I can tell you with certainty it is the way I'm reading it. Do we know? Do we? I have spoken to people who works for the NFL.

Do we have audio of this? Excuse me, Chris. Trust me when I say this. How do you doubt what I am saying? Because you're on the side to how you want to read it. Because the way that I want to read it is the way it is being read. This is the way he did say it. It has been confirmed to me that they are really rethinking this right now. Do we and the ways do we really is it too punitive? And the way they put it up one more time, please, because this is what he is saying. 100 percent.

Do we need to give them a chance again? By giving the football back to the offense, perhaps where it's fumbled, perhaps at the previous line of scrimmage. Do you come up with a reverse touchback that you do put it in the end zone? You still get the ball in the 20 yard line with the same down. Now the distance is longer.

You can make it somewhat punitive if you do view the end zone as the hallowed ground that you do view it with. But this is happening. And I'm telling you, I know how it works. It is like a tanker turning around. It takes forever. Ever.

It takes forever. This is a tanker being turned around, and I will tell you. And I don't understand why you doubt me, Christopher, because I told you about the tough rule and I told you about the catch. I told you about Daniel Jones getting paid. And every time you say I'm right about that, I don't say you are right or wrong. I'm just saying this is how it is. This is how it is. This is what time it in fact is. I also don't understand the focus on plays that don't ever happen.

It's coming. The tuck rule literally happened once. That was a major once, though. The the catch rule literally happened twice.

I get it. Calvin Johnson and Dez Bryant. Well, I mean, it's also happened multiple other times, but nothing as egregious. When was the last time there was a fumble through the end zone? This year? I don't know.

I don't know. But it's coming. Or there may be like if you fumble it into the end zone and it goes out of bounds, the out of bounds is just like it's out of bounds in front of the pilot. You fumble it through the back of the end zone, you lose it like that.

Maybe another compromise that they're looking at. How about if you fumble out of bounds anywhere on the field? The defense gets it. How about don't fumble? Do you know back in the day, Chris, the rule was if it was an incomplete pass in the end zone, you lost the football.

It was a turnover. That's a great rule, too. Oh, that's as dumb as I've ever heard. You don't believe that. No, I don't believe that. OK.

I do believe that you should. What I'm just saying is back in the day, don't fumble that. Come on, don't fumble. There could have been your great, great, great grandfather was saying, why would you change that rule about an incomplete pass being a turnover in the end zone? The end zone is such a hallowed ground, absurd as an incomplete pass.

And you're like you're like Lieutenant Dan's family, one after another, after another, generation after generation, after a generation served valiantly, but are definitely failed in the end. Pick all I'm saying. Give the offense to bought the 15. I know how it works. I can see how it works. You already screwed up.

Why should you get another chance when I saw this yesterday? I'm like, yes, it's it is happening. It is happening. It's coming.

I don't think it gets changed. On Wednesday's show, Troy Vincent will join us. And we can ask him yourself. Say the line like we asked.

We had Stefan Diggs saying, what the hell is going on? We will say this. So how did you say? Well, he will say it. I will ask him the questions. He 100 percent knows why I want him on and agreeing to it. We hear the loudest voice for this.

I want to talk about this. The brotherly shove play, which he said that they don't believe they would ever take it out just because one team does it better than others. Well, the hip drop tackle to that, to me, my opinion, that's got to go. But I don't know how you're going to codify it in a rule where it's called properly on the spot. It could be one of those. You see. Oh, my God. Yes, I think that's the way it's common.

Yeah. And then obviously a little bit of officiating talk. He fully knows he has agreed. I'm on the show first up on Wednesday.

The tanker is turning around. I will be proven correct. And then the question is, you'll just have to tell me how you felt after the Red Sox finally won a World Series. How what do I got to do next? It was like, what's next? You just keep what's next for me. You just keep winning the most in the last. This does get changed.

What will be next for me? We're not going to apologize for winning. We will not apologize for something else. Correct.

I don't think it gets changed. Mike Florio is next. This is going to be fun because he takes my opinion. Chris Simms is on your side. Great.

Is it handsome? Well-manned man on my side. That's next. Your phone calls as well on the Rich Eisen show.

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All right. Your your your impression of what came out of the owners meeting, what what leaps out to you, Mike? I always think it's interesting when the press conferences that conclude a league meeting have a political tone to them. And I don't mean in the traditional politics sense, but there's an objective here from the league office. The league office is trying to muster maximum support to get rid of the hip drop tackle. You don't have the commissioner and Troy Vincent, the executive VP of football operations, go to a podium and say this has to go. Unless you're trying to make sure that in March, when they gather for the annual meeting, there will be at least 24 owners who agree that this has to go.

So I'm always looking for that element where they're trying to set something up. And I think they're trying to get enough of us in the media to understand what the hip drop tackle is so we can explain to enough fans what it is and why it's a problem and why it's not an attack on defensive players and how defensive players can still do their job and why this is unsafe. And you were talking about star players being available to play games that would potentially be exported to another country. Well, if star players aren't available to play because they're injured from a hip drop tackle like Tyreek Hill the other night, that's a problem.

And and so that was the big takeaway for me. They are determined to get rid of the hip drop tackle. They are making their case public, and I don't think they'd be so aggressive about it if they didn't have some concerns that it wasn't going to be successful. You don't have to take this public if you just know we're going to get to the league meetings in March and we're going to get our 24 votes. So them talking about anything publicly you think is is a politicking moment where and it's an audience of 32. Is that what you're saying, Mike? I think that there's a wrinkle along those lines to it. If they weren't concerned about having the votes, they wouldn't be trying to make their case.

They just wait until March and count the votes unless there's a PR element at play here where they want us to know and they want us to be able to push back against those in the media who would just say, oh, well, this is stupid. I don't even know what a hip drop pack tackle is. Well, it's not that hard to figure out what it is. And Sims and I spent the first full hour of our program today talking about the various big picture items, the specific issues that that are going to be addressed by the NFL going forward. And the hip drop tackle was the biggest one, making sure people understand what it is and what your alternatives are to grabbing someone around the waist, twisting them and falling down on their legs in one fell swoop and potentially breaking their ankles.

There are other ways to get guys on the ground. And again, they want everyone. I give the league credit. You know, I say the league is often not proactive enough. They spotted this play, they spotted this trend, they recognize the risk.

They've they've identified it and given it a name, and now they're determined to get rid of it. Usually it doesn't happen that way. So I think the league's done a good thing here to to protect the health and welfare of players. And you are also, as you just showed right there, an observer of the language coming from the league being a high indicator of their intentions and a great indicator of their intentions.

Intentions. And I believe when there is a rule change in the ether, you'll sometimes hear we're talking about it, but we don't really believe there's much momentum for it or a need. You'll hear sometimes, you know what, it's hardly ever happening.

So why do we need to address it? But we'll still talk about it. And then you'll hear Troy Vincent say aloud, as he did into a microphone yesterday about the ball being fumbled through and out of the end zone, going to the defense, that rule that I have been howling about from this chair and everywhere else about needing to change and hearing the same thing I just said to you, the set up.

Oh, what doesn't really happen? All that business, him basically starting to opine about changing it and discussing it and saying, do we need to give the team that fumbles another chance? And I heard that I'm like, well, that's new. So do you think this rule is actually being discussed to change this time around?

Yep. Rich, one of the many essays in Playmakers, the book that came out in twenty twenty two, is focused on what I believe and you believe is the worst rule in football. It makes no sense. It's an unfair punishment to the offense and it's an unjustified reward for the defense. They've done nothing to secure possession of the ball, yet they're given possession of the ball. And it's as simple as the guy fumbles at the two, the ball trickles out of bounds just short of the pylon. It's the offense's ball at the spot of the fumble. If it nicks the pylon, the defense has the ball at the twenty. It's never made sense to me. It's a vestige of days where they put a lot more importance on the end zone. In fact, there was a time when the forward pass, if it landed incomplete in the end zone, was a touch back and the defense got it at the twenty. But the fact that this was brought up, not in reaction to some team getting screwed by it, is significant to me, because I always thought it would take a Super Bowl, having it happen in the Super Bowl and millions of casual fans saying, what the hell was that to get it to change? I think they just recognize it's unfair and the unfairness applies both ways.

Offense and defense, it's just unfair to both teams involved that you would have that kind of a punishment coupled with that kind of reward when the defense has done nothing to secure possession of the ball. Counselor, you and I could be character witnesses in each other's presentation of facts if either one of us are called to try this case. But because you are a man of law and a man of letters and understanding that there is another point of view, I present, I guess, would you say you are the the public defender of the defense of this law, Chris Brockman? What would you have? What would you call yourself? What would you say?

Sure, that's totally fine. Cherry picking a rule from when only a handful of teams actually use the forward pass, not a great argument. I expected more out of you. Oh, don't go. Don't make it personal. State your facts.

No, I'm just kidding. State your facts. Unfair to the defense. Literally every new rule favors the offense.

So you want to do another one? You can't touch, you can't touch receivers. Bill Polian, Bill Polian, do I need to help you make your best case? Your best case is talking about the end zone, that the end zone is a different piece of property as opposed to the rest of the field. Literally don't fumble. Just don't fumble. The idea is the ball is sacred. Take care of the football. So you're going to get a do over for losing the ball. But Chris, why are we going to do this? But if the ball goes out of bounds at the one inch line, you still get possession.

Well, guess what? Football is a game of inches. I think Al Pacino said that it's a game of inches. It's a weird ball, weird shaped ball. So it takes weird bounces. That's just the way it goes. You just don't like something.

So you want to change it. This literally happens. What? When was the last time it happened? Has it happened this year? It happened.

Justin Jefferson, week two. It happened. It's happened also. Somebody else, somebody else later in the year did it. The Falcons, I think, had it happen in the first game against the Buccaneers week seven.

But when it happens, it creates such an unsatisfying outcome. It doesn't make sense for whom? Well, for the offense, but every team has an offense. It's going to apply to all 32 teams equally. The rule helps everyone's offense. And and look, I think your better argument is that the end zone is sacred ground. Rich was going there.

Chris Simms and I argue about this all the time. Yes, he calls the end zone North Korea. And if the ball goes in North Korea, you lose the ball. I mean, that's pretty extreme.

But I'll ride with them since we agree. I didn't know we were going geopolitical. Wow.

Forty fifth parallel. It makes a point. It makes a point. Yeah.

You score a touchdown if it creases the 45th parallel. I like it. It's really OK. Well, you've got your Chris.

I've got my Chris. And but I do believe hearing the language that I heard that that's a shift, would you not agree there's a shift? That's a shift. Yeah. Troy Vincent doesn't send messages accidentally.

He sends messages intentionally. And I think that's being put out there for us to know that it's coming. And they just have to hope they get through this season and more importantly, through this Super Bowl without it happening, because I have said for years, that's the moment when they will change it.

So why not change it before that happens? And you and I are lockstep on that one. That is for sure. So what do you think the league is the league? I mean, Roger Goodell did make an interesting point yesterday. If when everyone's like saying the officiating is an issue and certainly what happened in Kansas City and his answers, well, they actually got a call, right, and you're complaining about it.

Essentially was his message. So what do you think is the state of officiating? You knew there would be a full throated support of officiating from the commissioner and Troy Vincent. And that happened yesterday.

But what what do you think is happening on that front right now? Well, and look, here's the caveat to what Goodell said. It's the point Dan Orlovsky made earlier this week on NFL Live on ESPN, where he showed the various times get areas. Tony was lined up offside earlier in the game. It wasn't called if you call it once, then maybe he lines up right the rest of the game. Why do you wait until crunch time to throw the flag for something he's doing repeatedly? Rich, what I've been saying for years, they need to take the current officiating function, tear it down and rebuild it, reimagine it with all current technologies in mind, they've been pushing for years and it's still out there.

I found the link to the website earlier today. A first down marker that is laser based. So when you were in the stadium, you actually see the green line. It would be a green line that shows how far the team has to go to get a first down and everyone can see it. Why not have a blue line that signifies the line of scrimmage so we don't have to play this guessing game and you don't have to have a receiver looking to the line judge who's going to say yes or no. And you don't have to have this inconsistency. There's no guesswork.

There's no misunderstanding. The line is there and everyone knows whether or not the guys on the right side of it, no one has to engage in speculation about lining up because that has nothing to do with the game. If a guy's a foot over the line, it doesn't change anything.

Why do we want to put that burden on somebody if it's unnecessary? That's just one example of how you can completely reimagine officiating if you say we're taking every modern technology and infusing it into how we determine where and when and how the rules are complied with or violated and get rid of the two sticks and 30 feet of chain length that they've been using since nineteen twenty. I found a picture today of an old game where they're out there with that stick.

The only benefit of that stick is it gives you a little bit of drama when they pull the stick. I'll trade the drama for certain. And you know, it's an interesting this is Mike Florio here in The Rich Guys Show. This is a good time to have this chat is I think the NFL should hook up with XFL, USFL and and bring it in, bring it in house. And I understand that the minor leagues, so-called minor leagues are really college football, right? Where the minor leagues for the NFL in college football is where players can get their their their games going and work on their games and mature. But there still needs to be a developmental aspect of this sport that we are seeing come home to roost with offensive linemen, not as fast or as agile as the defensive linemen that are coming into the league now that we're going to see at the combine. There's going to be new records broken. We're not seeing enough quarterbacks with enough experience coming in when there's I believe this week, Nick Mullins will be different starting quarterback, fifty five this season after Easton Stick is fifty four tonight, Mike, that we don't see enough developmental stuff for players, coaches and even officially like what you just said, great idea.

Let's work. Let's let's show it in a in a spring league that the NFL is involved with and teams are involved with and scouts are involved with and get it going there and and use all of that as a is a ground for development for every aspect of the sport. What do you think about that? I think that's an excellent point. You're coming at the problem from the perspective of someone who cares about the game and wants what's best for the game.

That's good, right? You're not coming at it from the perspective of a business person because developmental leagues don't make money. If developmental leagues make money, the NFL would have one.

The NFL wouldn't have shut down NFL Europe or NFL Europa, which was its final name in 2007 when they finally abandoned it. They don't care about developing players and officials unless there's a profit to be earned while doing so. And that's not a criticism. It's a reflection of reality. It's a business. It's a zero sum game. It's on you to develop whoever it is, offensive lineman, quarterback, official sink or swim.

You develop with the opportunities you're given and we're going to have 53 guys on the team and 11 are going to be on the field and we don't care if there's this great story where a guy goes from bagging groceries to playing for the Iowa Barnstormers to playing in NFL Europe, to going here, there and everywhere before it becomes a Hall of Famer. We don't care. All we care about is what it's going to cost us to have something like that that isn't going to generate profit. And the minute the XFL USFL becomes consistently profitable is the minute the NFL will buy it.

Guaranteed. But what about the idea of what it's going to take Jeff Bezos to call up Roger Goodell and say, man, I wish Easton Stick had more ability before tonight's I'm serious. Like, don't you think that the product would work better if all of these kids that are now backup quarterback? I mean, when you and I were kids, I mean, there were grown ass men that were coming like Steve DeBerg would come off the bench with a million snaps under his belt as the backup quarterback now where it's like, let's see Easton Stick against Aidan O'Connell, who's you know, they're doing their best. But don't you think the product would be better if these guys had more experience coming into these games, you know, before I answer your question, I just need to tell you a Steve DeBerg story that I wasn't aware of. We are all ears, my story.

No. Do you know the Steve DeBerg story about he injured his larynx and couldn't talk as loud as he needed to to call out signals, so they put a speaker on his shoulder pads that would project his voice to his teammates that actually happened. That actually happened. And he had a boombox on his shoulder pad so his teammates could hear him anyway. He was the radio Raheem of of of quarterbacks. Is that what you said? It all happened because he got hit in the neck. Say he got he got hit in the neck. I don't know if they were playing Peter Gabriel, but he got hit in the neck. So, look, Rich, you're absolutely right about quarterback play.

Yes. And about the quality of the games. Scoring's down. Last year, they had Troy Vincent on ESPN's pregame show to defend roughing the passive calls, and he said, look, we need to have healthy quarterbacks to have healthy ratings. If you start having a bunch of quarterbacks injuries, nobody's going to watch.

Well, Rich, I got a tweet yesterday from the NFL media account that told me that seventeen point eight million people on average have watched NFL games this year, the highest since twenty fifteen. So it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Bad football, good football, ugly football. We're still going to watch it. It doesn't matter.

Now, that might be short sighted, but maybe it's not. Maybe football is so baked into what we do from September to February that it doesn't matter if the best quarterbacks aren't available. What matters is the game.

We tune in to watch the game and they can take a lot of solace in that. Mike, thanks for the time. Let's one more time talk about your book and and what it what it helps on our way home, three ninety nine e-book on Amazon nine ninety nine for the print edition. And all proceeds go to the Humane Society of Harrison County, West Virginia, our local no kill shelter, taking care of dogs and cats that have been rescued and are awaiting their permanent homes and also offer still stands.

If you buy 10 of these and you send me the proof of purchase to Florio at Pro Football Talk Dotcom, I will send you a free signed copy of the book. And thank you, Rich, as always, for the chance to get the word on, man. It's it's a great cause. And and you, the man, I appreciate it. If we don't speak in advance, have a great holiday and we'll see in the playoffs. Same to you guys. Great conversation. Appreciate it.

Back at you. That's Mike Florio right here on the rich. I'm sure he's got his Chris. I've got mine. Except you don't make North Korea references to the end zone. That's a you know, now I kind of wish I would have thought of that one. Just kidding.

Nice. I've been outside in North Korea and it's a little scary, but you see what I'm saying now about like a developmental league. Oh, for sure. Like the NFL get together with the Rock and what everyone else and let's figure this thing out. But obviously, would you put your your backup quarterback in a football game?

The spring league? Yeah. And where where somebody rolls up on his ankle and all of a sudden you got to now and you sacrifice your backup on the altar of development.

That's a tough one, man. Stuff like six or one half dozen, you know, what these guys, these guys do need reps. Yeah, you want to get better. And you know, he's the most rest of some of these offensive linemen that are coming in these the Jets. I mean, the Dolphins are in deep trouble with the number of injuries they've had up front the Jets season. You we can blame the quarterback all you want and the and the coordinator all you want when you got guys that just get released by one team and our second or third stringers on that team and they're released and you pick them up and you're starting them against some grown ass man who runs a four four forty and an insane weight for running that fast. You know, it's going to suck your offense. Yeah, Andrew Whitworth and Kevin Clark had a really interesting conversation this week, and Andrew was saying that a lot of it is at college, these guys aren't really taught how to play offensive line at some of these colleges and they get to the pros and they're kind of shell shocked and they don't really know what they're doing and they have to get out there and they're getting their quarterbacks injured. Yeah, because when you're going against somebody else's team, they're not all. Running like four, four, four, five, four, six.

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AutoZone's free battery testing and charging is available for free at your local AutoZone restrictions apply. Get in the zone AutoZone phone calls when we come back right here on the Rich Eisen Show and setting up our chat with Chris Mannix. Who's got Giannis's basketball? Game time tickets, get it on your mobile device right now and use it, it is right around the corner.

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Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Let's go to Tony in Florida. What's up, Tony? How are you, Rich? Can you hear me all right? I can't, Tony, what's on your mind?

Rich, I just had a call in. DeVito is giving us juice, the G-Men juice. G-Spans may love their Swifties, but Big Blue loves Cutlets.

You know, that's a great analogy. But wouldn't you say, Tony, he's given them sauce instead of juice? Oh, what do you think? What do you think?

Well, listen, if you watched The Godfather, one, two, forget three, you understand that what's important is the Italian community really didn't love Godfather in the early stages. Watch the offer. Oh, by the way, we did.

I did. You're not wrong. By the way, great show, by the way. Great show. We love the three times. But listen, we love this script. See what I did there? Oh, yes.

Well done. Now, Tony, stay on this phone line right now, because this is very important. Mike Del Tufo says he knows the DeVito family, knows them, right, Mike? You know them? I'm friends with his mother. OK, you know Lexi, right?

Yeah. OK, I grew up. I grew up maybe three miles from there. I grew up in a town called Roseland. Roseland. Come on from Livingston. Come on, get the hell out of here. Tony, that's tremendous.

My paisan, how you doing? Yeah. When did you move out? When did you move away? We used to love we used to love kicking your tail in football. I was here.

We stunk, but we beat in hockey. Yes, that's true. All right. Yeah, it's a family affair.

We only put ice in our drinks, not on the rink. I used to DJ crying. Remember crying?

Oh, do I remember crying? Yeah. The sheriff used to sit at the bar. He was half a criminal.

It was tremendous. All right. Hey, Tony, do you want to do a podcast with Del Tufo for the Rich Eisen Podcast Network?

You want to do a podcast? I do, but I do want Brockman to Google something for me. I want you to see Sean Stellato, who was a tremendous athlete at Marist for those that want to Google him. But he was also if you look up the hit man that went after Hyman Roth. Oh, we did that, Tony. Tony, we were on that already. He's the one who knocked out Gianniola. He looks just like him. We have that.

We put it on the screen all the time. But I will say this. He's a good man.

Yes, he was a two sport athlete at Marist. And I tell you, just like the DeVito family, I'm telling the DeVito family is rock solid. God bless them. They love their son.

They love their country and they love themselves some football. So, you know, we're going to roll with it because we're relevant now. And at this point, you know, we'll take it because, you know, Tommy Cutlass isn't afraid of the moment.

And that's something that we can all embrace. Ladies and gentlemen, Tony's checking in. Well done.

It's now time to check your homework. You said you were going to reach out to Tommy DeVito's mother, Forrest. And you did. Has Lexi responded to you?

Yes. What did she say? I sent Hoskins a photograph.

She said she wanted the information from you. Oh, send his case. Hey, send his contact sent the booker. I sent all the information.

OK, so that's the it's the two ways already been done. OK, all right. And now we just got away because he's probably being asked by everybody at this.

I'm sure he is. But we're just you went straight to the top nation. I go right to the mall. I mean, you went she's right across the hallway from him. If there's anything like my setup when I would live with my parents, you know, it's downstairs right across the street, right across. I mean, right across the I was in the basement.

I was in the. All right. So you did your homework. Yes, well done. You have iPad time tonight.

That's what happened in our house. Oh, good. I got rich. I could have your iPad.

I can make rich cup rate. Rich takes Coop's iPad away, then says, well, it happened to his team. It seems like he has access to it on his on his laptop. And then he's just like, but if I do that at school, I can get suspended. I'm like, then do it like you have it in the morning. Don't get caught.

Yeah, no, I don't want to do that. He's too literal, by the way. And Coop's so literal.

Did I tell you this story? He was warming up one of his teammates this weekend. Oh, yeah. And the the the the pitcher said, you know, you know. Go further out, go like he made a because he was he wasn't right behind the plate and he made this motion and Coop thought he said get out like he didn't want to throw to him like, no, no, no, Coop, he told him, no, Coop, just move right behind playing this sweetheart.

I'm not going to tell him the risk getting suspended to make sure that. Half his bench was active last night, it cost him. And it's kind of funny, last night, when I saw Embiid, you and I are going against each other this weekend, Embiid this entire week, when I saw Embiid, actually, I saw the halftime score. The Pistons were up 70 to 50 something. I'm like, oh, God, 70 points first half.

How bad is this going to be? And then I looked and I saw it was 30 and 10 at halftime. I'm like, oh, God. And then I saw Giannis had fifty six. Yeah. And then I'm like, well, this is a blowout, so he'll be done. And then at the and then I got an alert that he scored sixty four. Yep.

How do you get back in the game? Well, what a story that is. And we're going to do it. You're going to go deep diving on that one coming up in our number three. It's Chris Maddox joins us from he says he's in Phoenix. So maybe he's covering the Suns because they're killing it, man, the first big three for them. They are the first time they all played together last night. Yes, there we go.

So he's coming up your phone calls. My top five most intriguing games of week 15. Spoiler alert. Tonight's game's not on it. But you should still watch it anyway.

The stick family is maybe you shouldn't have told them that. I'm starting Josh Palmer tonight because Keenan Allen's out. Are you really doing that? Yeah, but that makes sense. Dude, you're starting Zach Wilson, the quarterback and Josh Palmer receiver for your fantasy playoffs.

He is not serious people. Fifty and fifty. I have Flacco in there now, but I got to say he's the number one receiver.

The Bears defense. I would I would I would counsel here. I would counsel. And again, we're talking about for the show, it's better if you start Zach Wilson in your fantasy play. I mean, I would like to win.

Which is why I'm telling you, which is why you should have had it back. Will you do me this favor? Take a look at what the Bears before you make this decision, you have time. Take a look at what the Bears defense has been playing like since Phil Snow was hired on as a defensive assistant, which I believe is like nine weeks ago. And then they added Montez Sweat.

And everyone's like, what are you doing that for? Well, this team's five and eight, man. And they're only one game out of the playoffs and they're balling. And Justin Fields is coming to Ohio.

The old age, buddy. I'll just be careful is all I'm saying. Maybe Zach Wilson's a better play. Maybe Tyree Kil may not play either.

How about that? Mike McDaniel is making noise about maybe sitting him to make sure he's healthy for the rest of the year. I understand it's smart. You know who's smart? Mike McDaniel's smart.

Do you know who's freaking out about that? Everybody that made their fantasy playoffs because of Tyree Kill, which should be everyone. If you have Tyree Kill and didn't make the playoffs, honestly, I want to know who didn't make it. By the way, that's because we can give one of our famed Rich Eisen Show hugs. Yeah, he's literally wide receiver one.

If you have him and didn't make the playoffs, what happened to your team? You probably had 200 point bombs dropped on you every single week. Yeah, exactly.

By the way, one of the guys in my league, maybe. Oh, oh, oh, I wish. For the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments, it's something to wrestle with Bruce Prichard 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.