The Coaching Carousel In The NFL Has Spun Off Its Axis

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Limitations apply. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show live on the Roku channel. This Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate Sirius XM Odyssey and more. What a day for us to be hanging over the next three hours. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial and there's no shortage of any sports news to talk about on this very day. The coaching carousel and the National Football League has spun off his axis and is rolling down your street.

Look out if you're strolling out of your house right now. Look both ways because there is a coaching carousel and it is rolling downhill with considerable momentum. I have done this football thing, including my seven years at ESPN for, let me get this number right, 27 years.

And I cannot recall a moment like this very moment. I am talking to you from this chair in Los Angeles, California, as Bill Belichick is saying a farewell to the gathered media in New England. That is happening. As I am talking, he is stepping up and reading a statement or giving a statement to the media after he and Robert Kraft met over the last 48 hours and decided that parting ways is the way to go. After one of the most incredible coaching runs in the history of coaching, in the history of the National Football League, in the history, I guess I should have just left it at coaching. After 24 seasons together, that's a lifetime. In terms of coaching, in terms of coaching in the NFL, that's multiple lifetimes. And it happens less than 24 hours after his former defensive coordinator at Acolyte, Nick Saban says he's retiring in Alabama.

And that's one of those, what? I can't believe that. So six Super Bowls is walking out the door in New England and seven national championships is walking out the door in Alabama. And that happened just a few hours after Pete Carroll gave his farewell address after 14 years on the job in Seattle. And that happened one day after Mike Vrabel gets fired after six seasons in Tennessee, including a Coach of the Year campaign just two years ago.

And that happens just after my team wins the national championship for the first time in forever, outright for the first time in literally forever. And Jim Harbaugh is his pick of whatever job he wants, it seems, including Michigan. And Carolina already needed a coach. And Atlanta fired their coach at 1201 on Monday morning. And the Raiders already fired their coach. And the Chargers are saying, who wants to coach Justin Herbert? That's happening right now. I cannot recall a more drunk coaching carousel.

In my entire life, over served. And Belichick's still talking. Not expected to take questions, I'm told. So we'll let you know what he's saying. And then Robert Kraft will speak. And then apparently Kraft won't take questions and then is going to return a couple hours from now, top of hour three. He's going to have a press conference answering questions as both men just shook hands, Belichick just left the podium. And now Kraft is speaking.

This is happening in New England. And in terms of Belichick's tenure in New England, I cannot say enough. And there are no words. There's not enough words to describe it. There's not enough words to describe it. No one will ever do this again.

No one will ever do this again. And in terms of the numbers we're showing on the screen on the Roku channel, I mean, playoff wins, career wins, and AFC Championship games. He could add to him.

And we don't know where he's going. But he won the AFC East 17 times. That's not a misprint on our screen. That's insane. He won the AFC East 11 straight times. And he had 19 straight winning seasons. Don't tell that to Pittsburgh. But he did win championships in those times, which I guess is Pittsburgh's point. The all decade team of the Autzen 2010s, of course he's the coach of them. I mean, there's no other choice. But that six time Super Bowl champion, good luck to anybody else.

Good luck to anyone else. And I will never forget the first Super Bowl we covered on NFL Network. It was just his second win with the New England Patriots. And then half of the Super Bowls we covered prior to the time Tom Brady departed were the New England Patriots.

They were in it every single year, figuratively, and in it every other year, literally. That happened. That happened. And I'm looking at Kraft and Belichick on the same podium. And I just remember Robert Kraft after he, you know, threatened to move to Connecticut. You remember that? And everyone's wondering what the direction of the franchise was with young Pete Carroll.

How about that? Didn't go from Parcells to Belichick. It went from Parcells to Pete Carroll, by the way. Belichick opened by saying, haven't seen this many cameras since we signed Tebow.

I mean, guys kill it. And again, that is the guy that I got to know and meet at the NFL Network all time. That's amazing. The NFL 100 all time team show. But I just remember the question was the state of the franchise. What is Bob Kraft doing? He had Parcells and scared him off because he wouldn't hand things off to him.

There was a certain way of doing things. And then you're wondering, like, is he really into New England or not? And then Pete Carroll happens and they're like, well, we're going to go back to what we had in similar to Parcells and bring Belichick in here. And as a matter of fact, we're going to poach him from the Jets. We're going to take him.

We're going to acquire him. And Belichick's tenure with the Jets was two days, and his tenure with the Patriots was twenty three years and three hundred sixty three days longer in terms of seasons. Unbelievable that these two men now part ways and have a chance to win.

Have all those trophies in the case. And the most magical run ever. And let me just say this about Belichick, because it's tough to just go all in here because I don't think he's done. When I saw. Belichick last. On December twenty third. Twenty twenty three night before. His.

Patriots took on the Broncos. In Denver on Christmas Eve on NFL Network, I saw a guy who was as engaged as ever. I saw a guy who may have known, you know, the end is coming or he may have been thinking, you know what?

This ain't it anymore. I mean, he's he's he's a. He's a sharp man. Bill Belichick. This just in.

But I saw a guy who loved to coach, loved the challenge, loved the X's and O's. And I know we all make fun of the moving on to fill in the blank. I know we make fun of the, you know, mumbling and I won't give you anything. I'm not going to give anybody anybody any insight into what we're doing. I'm not going to let anyone know what I'm thinking. I'm definitely not telling you who's hurt. You know. He's the king of listing half his team is questionable. Leaving you guessing.

But this guy loves. The challenge of coaching, and that's literally the way he approached everything day by day, week by week, snap by snap, quarter by quarter, nobody. I've never met any of any other coach who could boil down a game literally to snap by snap, which is really what it is. You go to the line of scrimmage is your quarterback. You see the defense, you read it, try and read a pre snap.

You react to what is happening post snap. You try to win the matchups that the defense provides you. You try to win the matchups that your offensive scheme provides you. And then you move on to the next one, and then you try to get the first down, and that's the way is you matriculate the ball down the field.

But it's so difficult to actually live that way. It's so difficult to coach that way. He cracked that code more than any other coach that I've ever come across with no disrespect to any other coach. Because nobody has the institutional knowledge of somebody who's been an assistant or a head coach in the NFL for 49 straight years. Another record Belichick has.

Nobody's able to ever say, you know what? That one time Jerry Rice kind of fooled us. That one time that there was a fumble on a snap in a two-minute drill and the clock's running when Steve Young fumbled a snap, and then our defense wasn't ready. And then because our defense wasn't set, because there was a fumble on a snap, he then went to Jerry Rice next for a touchdown. And I'll now use that in every single pregame meeting with my defense team. Pregame meeting with my defense to go over the two-minute drill. I mean, nobody, when I was sitting with him and he and Kurt Warner going back about X's and O's, I just, you know, screw it.

Because he wasn't really going to give us anything on the Broncos. No, I said to myself, screw it. I even said this to Belichick. This one's for me. This question's for me.

That's how I started it. And I said, what was your pregame scout of Kurt Warner going into your Super Bowl? And he starts talking about that Super Bowl and what Mike Martz was able to do and what Kurt was able to do and what Marshall Faulk was able to affect and what Isaac Bruce was doing. And then he just remembered how Kurt scored on a quarter. Do you remember Kurt scored on a quarterback sneak in that Super Bowl? Does that even ring a bell?

This is not. I know he hit a deep pass to Ricky Proel, right? And then the rather touchdown was a QB sneak. He ran it in.

Interesting. And he talked about how what really screwed him up, where the two guards popped up and went out in the opposite directions to make it seem like that they might be running in either of those directions. They pulled and went in opposite directions and Kurt just walked straight through. He also remembered how there was a hold on McGinnis that really wasn't a hold because he was holding, I guess, Marshall Faulk and Kurt and him started arguing with each other that it really was a hold. And it was just like one of the I wish I could have just recorded it. You know, that was Belichick just remembering everything down and, you know, Sean McVeigh can remember everything from, you know, 15 years ago, minute by minute.

I mean, I'm not saying he's he's the only one with this capability, but he's the only one with all of these capability in one. Which is why it's so mind blowing that he and an owner would look at each other and say, yeah, this is just better if if it doesn't happen anymore. But you look at the way that the Patriots have been constructed and he's been in charge of that construction and if there is somebody like Mike Vrabel sitting out there with the Patriot way, part of his DNA, and he's coming to the market, I totally understand that you look at that 48 year old and say, let's go there.

Or Gerard Mayo has been your guy-in-waiting and you go, let's go there. And I wouldn't blame Kraft for saying to Belichick, then we need to go here in terms of the shopping of the groceries. And Belichick saying, yeah, at this point in my career, that's that's just not the way it works. And then they look at each other and Bill goes, I don't know, I don't know, I don't look at each other and Bill goes, I could still have a place in Nantucket and coach anywhere else in the world.

And those six banners, I'll come back in a red jacket one day when I feel like it and we'll talk about them. You know, and so that's the way I'm looking at it right now. And, you know, I'm keen to know, obviously, what you have to say, Chris, and I'm keen to know what everyone else has to say at 844-204-RICH number to dial. And I'm keen to know what Bill and Robert Kraft just said. And let's take a break so I can kind of get that settled in my head. But I mean, we have three hours of real estate that I thought when I woke up today, we would be talking considerably about the modern day Bear Bryant.

Yeah. If not the greatest college coach of all time from the Belichick coaching tree. So everyone's like, Belichick's coaches, you know, who are they?

What have they done? And I understand that so many of them from Patricia and McDaniels now twice and also Charlie Weiss in Notre Dame and Romeo Crenell had a nice hot minute every now and then. And you're looking at it and the idea was always, hey, you know, in the same way that Peyton Manning was the only one able to operate his offense, only Belichick with the championships in his back pocket is able to have the Patriot way with the modern day athlete to the to buy into the program that these other guys just couldn't get their players to do. But everybody keeps forgetting about Nick Saban, you know, kind of from the Belichick tree. And I know he didn't do anything in Miami and all that stuff, but what he did at the collegiate level is the greatest of all time. You know, the greatest of all time, I thought we'd be coming on the air and talking about him, but instead we're talking about Bill for obvious reasons, moving on from New England, the greatest combination of coach, quarterback and organization ever. And I know I'm talking about the 49ers in their days with Walsh and Montana and DiBartolo, but for what the Patriots set up and what Belichick was able to affect with Tom Brady and what Tom Brady was able to affect with Belichick and Kraft.

Greatest run of all time, 24 years, six trophies in the case, six good luck to the Dodgers, by the way, matching that with Otani and Yamamoto and the rest of that team and spending a gajillion dollars on trying for it. So Greg McElroy, former Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback, who's now coming on the air former Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback, who's now calling games. He called Texas and Washington. He's the analyst in the booth with Sean McDonough. He's joining us top of our number two. Carl Anthony Towns is going to join us in hour three and in the middle of the program.

My boy, Baker Mayfield. But when we come back, Christopher, I'll put you in the driver's seat. You're the guy who water skied behind all those yachts as the fan of the New England Patriots, the Belichick-Brady era came to an end in 2020, and the Belichick-Craft era is over in 2024. Wow.

We will take a break. 844-204 Rich is the number to dial. Rich Eisen here. If you love football as much as we do here and want to be in the game every day, there's something the guys on my show have been enjoying. Prize Picks Daily Fantasy Sports, the number one daily fantasy sports app. Brockman, tell everybody about Prize Picks and your strategy this season. Rich, it's fun and easy. Pick two players or more based on their stats and place your entry.

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Visit prizepicks.com for restrictions and details. Welcome to Talkville, the ultimate Smallville rewatch podcast. Karen, what you got? Hi, guys.

Karen from Australia with a quick question for season three talisman. That knife wound was so powerful. Tom, what was it like to do that scene with John as your director? It's great that I was with those people, because when your eyes are closed and someone is supposed to going to stab you in the chest, you have to really trust that they're not going to hurt you. So I was in good hands with John.

Jump in now or catch up on any of the past seasons of Talkville on YouTube or wherever you listen. I mean, honestly, there will never be a coaching carousel like this one ever again, ever again, where where Alabama and New England's up at the same time. And it's because somebody of the resumes of Sabin and Belichick are gone within 24 hours of each other. You can't make it up.

You'll never see it again. Right. I mean, over together at the both of their levels, over 600 combined wins.

The hell going on? 13 combined championships, right? The tenures, one is 17 years long, the other is 24 years long. And they're also from the same coaching tree.

They they're they're they're synonymous with each other. Same age. Oh, and then throw Pete Carroll in the mix.

Super Bowl and national championship and 14 years of the winningest run in the history of his franchise. All within a span of what, 20 hours of each other? Something like that. I mean, honestly, when Sabin went and then Carroll went, I thought the third was Chris Christie, but then take him out. Christie and Sabin were like right at the same time. And then Belichick's the third.

I mean, this would be like if Bear Bryant and Vince Lombardi retired on the same day. Yes, right. That's the only equivalent you can really. Yep. Right.

And then I don't know. I mean, and Pete Carroll has connective tissue to the Patriots, too. Yeah. Crazy.

You can't make this coaching carousel up. Unreal. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show. 844-204-RICH. Number to dial. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call click Grainger dot com or just stop by. All right, Chris, what are you thinking today? Man, I saw the photograph you tweeted out right of him and Brady Belichick and Brady with the six trophies last ring ceremony. Just really cool and kind of encapsulates, you know, the whole the whole history of the twenty four years, kind of like you said on Monday, Rich, about, you know, the passing of time and our sports fandom.

So many so many great memories. But look, I think we knew this was coming. I think it was one of those things I was saying it last year that it seemed like it was just time for something different, time for new voices, time to move on. And Kraft is getting older and he doesn't like seeing, you know, the team, not in the playoffs, the team not succeeding, not not having some of the success that you're just you're grown accustomed to after after 20 years.

But this team where I guess where I'd like to tap into for you. Is they were the first. In this century, in New England, to start it off, yeah, and it kind of broke one huge massive dam sports dam in that town. Yeah, so I'm not everyone. I'm not a New England lifer.

We moved there when I was 13. And so it was right when Drew Bledsoe got drafted in that whole era with Ben Coats and all those guys. And Parcells was still the coach. And, you know, I remember the Super Bowl against the Packers and everything. But, you know, I think Bill Simmons said that he never expected the Patriots to ever win ever. They were the biggest losers in football. They were a laughingstock of the league.

And then Bill comes, Tom happens, and then it was off. And then they became the gold standard for what every franchise is trying to to live up to year in and year out. And six rings is insane. One coach, one player to have that type of dominance and one owner. Don't forget.

And Bob Kraft will be in the Hall of Fame someday with all with Tom and Bill. You can't say one without the other. And so I don't want to hear the whole argument of who was more responsible.

And I want to hit on that a little bit later on. It's 50-50. They needed each other. But this is, again, the Patriots did and the Red Sox did, right? Then the Celtics did. And the Bruins, it just kind of just kept going and going and going and going.

And it was, you know, 20 years of just the greatest run for Boston Sports. And I don't want to be sad. And even though it is a sad day, I don't want to feel that way. Someone asked me to just rant.

I'm like, there's nothing to rant about. Like, I want to honor what Bill and Bob said today. It's a day of celebration. It's a day to remember the 24 years and all the wins and all the great moments and all the feels and how those three hours on Sunday in the Super Bowl made you feel as a fan and as a person and going to the games and the pride to be able to wear where Pat the Patriot and feel great about it.

20 years. That's what that's what today's about. We can think about who's going to be the next head coach and argue about, you know, who deserve more credit and all of that.

We can say that for a later day. But but for today, it's it's a celebration. You know, Bill is getting choked up talking about the fans and what it meant to him and how they made him feel and the appreciation that he felt.

Thank the assistant coaches and the equipment guys and everyone right down the line. And they were smiling. And Bob Kraft joked about wanting to give Bill a kiss.

But he's been under the weather, so he won't do it. They're obviously at peace with it. And they're you know, they have a great relationship. It was obvious that there's nothing, you know, animus.

It's not well, at least not hard feelings, at least not publicly. And that that I think was important for for Kraft. They put on a great face.

They really did a great job today. Well, I think we have the sound bites right here. Here's Bill Belichick again. Tom Curran, who is supposed to be on the program, but with all the moving parts, because we thought there was going to be a press conference at noon. Right. And then it would be over and then he would join us at the top of our third hour to Eastern. But to Eastern is when Robert Kraft is coming back out to take questions from the media. And according to Tom Curran, this was the construct that Bill was comfortable with to be part of today's announcement. So Belichick spoke first and this is what he had to say. For me, this is a day of, you know, gratitude and celebration.

Start with Robert and his family. It's great. So much thanks for the opportunity to be a coach here for 24 years. It's an amazing opportunity, received tremendous support. We had a vision of building a winner, building a championship football team here, and that succeeded my wildest dreams and expectations. The amount of success that we were able to achieve together through a lot of hard work and contributions of so many people. So I'm very proud of that and always have those great memories.

Those great memories I'll carry with those those with me the rest of my life. You know, it's going to be tough seeing him on another sideline, but I was thinking about that this morning. All of our greats end up playing for other teams. You know, Tom Brady played for the Bucks. Paul Pierce played for the Nets and the Wizards and the Clippers. It just feels weird and looks weird. Johnny Damon went to the Yankees and it's one of those things you just kind of you just kind of deal with.

Fred Lynn went to the Angels, you know, Ted Williams was the coach of the Senators. It's just one of those things that it happens. It's a part of sports. And you try to live in the moment and enjoy the run like Eminem said, you know, when your run is over, just admit when it's at its end and our run is over. And it was a great time. And I'll remember it forever.

And you just hope there's another one someday. Kraft spoke and had this to say. The man standing to my left brought the leadership and coaching skills that were needed to make this type of unprecedented success that we have had possible. Coach Belichick will forever be celebrated as a legendary sports icon here in New England and I believe go in as a pro football Hall of Famer on the first ballot.

Why? Because he is the greatest coach of all times, which makes this decision to part ways so hard. But this is a move that we mutually agreed that is needed at this time. What Bill accomplished with us, in my opinion, will never be replicated, and the fact that it was done in the salary cap and free agency era makes it even more extraordinary. I thank Coach Bill for his hard work and dedication.

It'll be difficult to see him in a cut off hoodie on the sideline, but I will always but I will always continue, wish him continued success, except when he's playing our beloved Patriots. So I thank you all for coming here today and being part of this celebration. Thank you.

Thanks, brother. And then they shook hands and looks like Bob went in for a hug and I think Bill was in much of a hugging mood, but it was nice. The only weird part about it is I'll be straight up. I always it's what you always envision. I envision Bill leaving New England the way that Saban's leaving Alabama. When he wanted to on his own terms, when it was all over, that's the way I always envisioned it, and I'm sure maybe Belichick did, and I'm sure Kraft did, and I'm sure Brady did while he was there being coached by Belichick and all of that.

But that's part of our sports world as well. I said earlier this week about Michigan winning. It felt like it was the marking of time for me as a once upon a time 18 year old freshman falling in love with Michigan sports, and I'm 54 years old now getting to feel the way that I've never felt before. Thanks to my quarterback when I was an 18 year old now being the 60 year old coach of the team, it kind of always thought it would be Belichick maybe going off like Ray Lewis or Betis or Elway or Strahan, winning it all, hoisting and saying I'm done. Peyton, and that's not happening because Kraft, I think, handled that part of the question of what next. Belichick did not, but what next is like it'll be tough to see him in a cut off hoodie somewhere else because he's going to go somewhere else, and I'm already ready for it. The it being this, can he do in his new spot what Brady did in Tampa? I mean, you're already seeing it already on the bottom lines of so many of the shows we compete with or come on after in our conversation world. Let me just put it to bed, okay?

I just want to put it to bed. The conversation about can he do what Brady did and he's not the same coach without Brady. Look at his numbers in Cleveland. Look at his numbers since Brady left. Look at what Brady did in Tampa. Will he be able to do like that'll be the question wherever he goes, fill in the blank, wherever he goes, will he be able to win there and if he doesn't, well, we finally get the answer who's more important, Brady or Belichick.

You referred to it earlier, Chris. We always have to sit here and wonder who's the best, who's better, who's more important, who's more this, who's more that. The Patriots would not have had six championships without Tom Brady. The Patriots would not have had six championships without Bill Belichick. They were absolutely perfect for each other. They were the perfect coach quarterback organism and the organization helped the organism grow and become dominant and then destroy you.

Week after week, year after year. That's the truth. That is the absolute truth. When I saw Mac Jones in Germany this year and he was talking about how all his coaches, I asked him about how is Belichick just like Saban? He played for both of them and it's only fitting we've mentioned this on this day when Saban retires on a Wednesday and Belichick mutually parts ways on a Thursday. And I asked him, like, what are these guys, they're the same, right? He basically said that Belichick was a little bit more fun or easy going in a way, kind of intimated that. Then also then mentioned how his high school coach was kind of a hard-ass too and how he's had hard asses. And then he said at one point that, you know, does he sometimes think about what it would be like to have a coach who sat down next to him and talked offense during the game or went into the quarterback meeting room and went into the offensive meeting room and sat there and just attached himself hip to hip with the quarterback and invite him over for dinner, kind of like Tua. He mentioned Tua, not us.

And we had just seen McDaniel and Tua the week before in Germany and it just hit me in my head right there. Mac needs a hug. This guy needs a hug. You know who's not going to give him that hug, but we'll give him all the information as to how to get better and we'll coach him hard, Belichick. And do you know who never needed the hug?

Tom Brady. He just needed the information. We all need hugs. Of course, Tom needs. And I think Tom needed the hug towards the end of his career where he's just like, I'm sick and tired of this kind of dynamic here. I don't need it.

I can try maybe find it somewhere else. Certainly if you're not paying me what I want. That's where the organization started grinding gears. And that's what happens over time in relationships.

The Beatles broke up for crying out loud, you know? Brady didn't need the hug. Belichick doesn't give them out very often, but what he does is he coaches the hell out of you and he gives you every piece of information you need to go kill the opponent. And he gives you every piece of motivation you need to do your job. And the quarterback was the perfect, do your job, Patriot way, Belichick embodiment.

Do your job. That's what is the truth. They were perfect for each other. And Brady may be getting benched for Drew Henson, overlooked. His Michigan path might have gotten him ready for Bill Belichick and Belichick's path of trying to figure out in Cleveland, getting run out on a rail for many because of the way he treated Bernie Kosar to get Vinny in there. Right. Got him ready of saying, you know what?

We're sticking with this number 12 kid. When Bledsoe was healthy enough to come back in that first major Superbowl season, because Bill was the guy, right? He could have easily said, Oh, we paid him a hundred million dollars. Right.

And Kraft may have been like, we've paid him a hundred million dollars. What are you doing sticking with this kid from Michigan? 199th overall. I know he's played well, but really?

And if Belloq is going to be the guy that's going to be the guy that's going to be the guy, and if Belichick didn't have that fortitude, what if he took and he started Bledsoe with all due respect to Drew? Don't know. Who knows?

Who knows? That's what I'm saying. What a waste of time.

What a waste of time. Oh, Brady, without Brady, Belichick's nothing. Without Belichick, Brady might have been a backup for a couple more years. And they've been out of the league.

Who? That's that's the thing that I kind of loved most about about Bill was he was able to really suck every last ounce of talent that you had in your body. If you look at the Patriots, it wasn't a team full of first round draft picks and guys at the top of the draft and five stars and all this and that Brady was a sixth round pick. Like all the players Edelman was a seventh round pick. Look at all these great players that he was able to to coach up and make them get every last ounce of their athletic talent and get it out there for one common goal. And that was to win and win big games. And he was able to do it.

How many times did he take other players from other teams and turn them into superstars? Dylan, Wes Welker, Corey, Dylan, Randy Moss. His career was over from the Raiders. Yeah, it was over.

Yeah, and one last thing on that, not just get all out of them, but put enough into them so they knew in the moment what their job was and to put down so simply. To do your job, how many times did the Patriots get on a loose ball that everybody else thought that's incomplete? Oh no, it's a fumble. Oh, you have the ball now situationally brilliant teams. Consistently, and who's the guy who then became that neck up quarterback who would kill you with a quick trigger and a mind that's even faster? Tom Brady.

They were perfect for each other. I don't want to hear this argument anymore. We're going to see it everywhere, but go elsewhere with it, not here for sure on our show. And then that's why when you look at the last couple of years and we're kind of slowed down, the teams didn't do that. No, I know that you didn't put correct.

So I'm just talking about the Brady Belichick era, not the reason why. He's gone today. Yeah. 844204 rich number to dial here on the program. And then there's Pete Carroll.

My goodness gracious. We'll talk about him. 844204 rich number to dial.

We'll take your calls as well here on the rich eyes. So just one more thing to mention here. If you don't mind a moment for me on this Belichick thing. So all those Super Bowls and AFC championship games and playoff wins called by some of the all-time greats, Summerall and Madden did the first one. Remember that Madden was saying, I don't know if they're going to risk it with this kid. They should just play for overtime.

They should nail it. Right. A minute and a half left. I was Pat Summerall's last game. Yes. At the mic. And then obviously Nance called games and Al called the Malcolm Butler.

Right. And obviously Joe Buck. Joe Buck called the Patriots win over the Eagles. I believe that was his first Super Bowl with Collinsworth and Aikman. And so that's how long they've been at it.

Do you know who called Bill Belichick's final win as head coach of the New England Patriots? Is it you? You're looking at him. Rich. Wow. I thought about that this morning. Wow. Chad Rylan for the win, buddy.

Last Patriots win with Belichick on the sideline. I called it. How about that? I said that to Suze this morning. I'm like, how about that? Wow. How about that?

That's awesome. Never know, man. You never know. Certainly didn't think that while I'm sitting at that desk with him and Collinsworth, the NFL 100 all-time team show. Oh, you know what I'm going to do?

When you're done coaching the Patriots, I'll call your last win on Christmas Eve. Wow. Life is amazing. I mean, how on earth could you predict something like that? You can't make it up.

Just like that's why Al's book is called that. You can't make this up. You can't.

That's cool. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, 844-204-Rich is the number to dial. Let's take this phone call.

When the people put in their nicknames, they sometimes don't show up in full. Matt, the barber is calling in from Haley, Idaho. What's going on? Matt, the barber. Rich, how's it going? How are you? You're a barber, are you?

Yeah, out here just outside of Sun Valley, Idaho. I just wanted to call on behalf of the 12. Thank Pete Carroll for his 14 seasons. We had 11 winnings. One of those three seasons we didn't win, we actually won the NFC West, and that's when we had Beast Quake. 10 playoff wins from Pete. They're at all times since 2010 behind Reed and Bill Belichick.

Like I said, five NFC West titles. I just wanted to say thank you, Pete. I think that the Seahawks organization has to have a game plan after this.

I don't think you let a 72-year-old coach go without something lined up, and I think our next coach might be Dan Quinn. I think so too, Matt. Obviously, by the way, I know exactly where Haley is. Susie and I take the kids to Idaho a lot.

Sun Valley and Haley, a beautiful, beautiful country, and I appreciate you calling in. Idaho has been called Seahawks East, Seattle East quite a bit. There's a lot of Seahawks fans there in the great state of Idaho. I don't want to speculate, but if Dan Quinn is the guy, because again, Amy Adams Strunk, the controlling owner of the Titans, said that there were conversations to trade Vrabel somewhere, but they didn't want to go through that process because it would have taken so long they might miss out on the guy that they wanted to replace Vrabel with, and so made the move and just let Vrabel go. And then on the heels of that, Pete Carroll meets with Jody Allen, the controlling owner of the Seattle Seahawks, and she comes out and says, after all this time, we decided to move on from Pete. He's going to be having an advisory role. And as you'll hear in a second, it seemed like Pete had trouble when he spoke to the media yesterday, wrapping his arms around that concept still.

And maybe, just maybe, it's like, okay, Dan Quinn's in play. We better have the opening, even though he's getting ready to try and tell Jordan Love, not this year, sir. Yeah, you can't talk to him for at least another month. So, well, I mean, a couple of weeks. Till the end of February.

A couple of weeks. No, no, no. You can talk to him during playoff runs now. You can do that. And so you've got to set the stage. You got to set the stage.

You may not get him until, as you want to say, middle of February, TJ. Well, I'm just wondering if that's what's at play. Because obviously, if you're Seattle, Quinn's the guy who knows your id and psyche. Because he was there when Pete was starting to build it with John Schneider. And if Tennessee's interested in Quinn, and they want him, and the only opening currently in the NFL where you know Quinn's not going is Atlanta. Right? Yeah. That's the only one you can make sure the only owner who's not calling Jerry Jones says Dan Quinn available is Arthur Blank. Guaranteed.

Okay. I mean, nothing in life is guaranteed. Everybody else.

I mean, 99.9%. Everybody else is going to be, let's talk to Dan Quinn. So you better, I'm wondering if that's what's at play with Dan Quinn. Sleep Dan on, right? No, no, dude.

Just get used to it. It's coming. He's busy. Well, he is. Pete Carroll had this to say, because again, I mean, this is the crazy part of the carousel, is coaches are, there's mutual partings or kicking upstairing and then press conferencing.

Kicking upstairing and then press conferencing. That's what Pete said. I'm so grateful to the coaches that have been with us for so many years. Also, all of the coaches that have been here for the years before that put up with my stuff and found a way to bring it to life daily. And I have great gratitude for that. Really, it was really, I go to the, it's not just the dedication and the loyalty, it's the freaking juice.

It's bringing it. And I asked a lot of them and they were good. And I appreciate that a lot. To Johnny Snyder, way back in the day when I first got the job here, Dave wanted to know if I wanted to be the general manager.

And I said, no, but I'd like to hire him. And Paul said, okay. And we got John on board. And from the first moment that we really, okay, now we're going to do this.

We stepped off to the side and I gave John a big hug. I said, we're getting married, dude. And I'm going to help you be the greatest general manager in the history of the league, if I could.

And you took 14 years to get to it. And I'm so proud. I'm so excited for you to have this opportunity.

It's going to be cool. And it's always been a great marriage and it's just forgettable. And I'm just so grateful for that. It's just, I love that guy, man.

I love it. It's the freaking juice. The freaking juice. That's a coach right there. You said he competed for the job still. I don't think he wanted to step away at this time, but got the tap on the shoulder anyway.

Yeah. Because again, if the Titans are going for Quinn and you want Quinn, you got to do it now. And I just love Pete's energy, his always compete mantra.

He was all about it. Seriously, Russ, we're going to draft you, even though we've got free agents that we paid money to here, but you can compete for the job. Oh yeah, you can get the job.

Oh, you can get the job and take us to super bowls, plural. And apparently Russ went out with the guys in Seattle yesterday to celebrate Pete Carroll. There were some, some photos on, on social I saw. Yeah. What a run man for him too. I can't believe they're all out. And I just love Pete's being about it and always being about it. But again, at this point in time, if Dan Quinn's there and that's the guy you want, you go get him. Pete Carroll, Nick Saban, Bill Belichick, one promoted upstairs, one retiring and one mutually parting ways, all in a span of about 20 hours, 15 hours. Nuts. I cannot believe it. We'll talk about it with Greg McElroy, the Saban part of it. And what's next for Alabama.

Cause apparently it is not Dan Lanning. We'll discuss that top of our number two, your phone calls 8 4 4 2 0 4, rich number to dial. If you're on hold, stay on hold. We got time for you.

And there's so much to talk about one hour in the books. Like a Harbaugh might be out there and this is just wild. Yeah. I don't think Harbaugh's the spot, Seattle's a spot for him.

No, but I don't know. Again, a spot for him. I mean, I don't think, I honestly don't think Seattle, I think it's Dan Quinn that they, that was the first name you, you said it before I said it into a microphone yesterday. And I know you want it, TJ. You want to keep them, but he's not, he's going to be a head coach again in this league.

Yeah. Or he's going to get a huge raise from Jerry Jones. But why would he take it? Maybe he likes staying in Dallas.

I don't know. Maybe he doesn't want to be a head coach. I guess I find that hard to believe. You'd be the highest paid assistant coach at like six, $7 million a year. I mean, that's a pretty good living. Or you can make double that as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. I get it.

I get it. Or the Tennessee Titans. There's a reason why they're like, we can't wait for Vrabel to have that trade transacted somewhere. And by the way, no coach is going to want to be acquired by a team, hired by a team that has to cough up assets. Right. That's, I think, why Bill, like Bill, this ended up being just a mutual bye-bye.

You know, he doesn't, he obviously wants to keep coaching and you don't want to go to a spot that suddenly doesn't have a second round pick this year. Yeah. Yeah. And speaking of Pete, Rich is something I mentioned you before the show, July 11th, 2010, Pete Carroll left USC. Now we're July 11th, 2024, and he's no longer with the Seattle Seahawks as the coach, as the coach, as the coach.

Yes. Hour two coming up. How wrestling really works and how you get the ratings. Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson explain on 83 weeks. I mean, I dig Jay Uso because he's born out of great storytelling and he lived up to the opportunity and exceeded it.

The LA Knight, he's way up on my list because here's a guy that's been around for almost ever. Should have probably quit a half a dozen times and he just forced his way into their life. And now he's making money hand over fist. That is a story I love. 83 weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.