Bucky Brooks and his surprising NFL Draft prospect rankings

Ladies and gentlemen, this is The Rich Eisen Show with guest host, Anthony Siciliano, Andrew Siciliano. I have a man crush on one Andrew Siciliano.

Hey, hi! Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. If they had won, would Steve Wilkes still be the DC today?

I think there's a strong chance that Kyle makes a change anyway. Earlier on the show, pro football focus analyst, Brad Spielberger, ESPN NBA reporter, Dave McMenamin. Still to come, NFL network analyst, Bucky Brooks. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Andrew Siciliano. On a Friday, heading towards the weekend, NBA All-Star weekend, we got Tiger trying to make the cut here.

He tees off in the next hour at Riviera, the Genesis Invitational. And it is officially now draft season as well. Chris Brockman, Michael Del Tufo. I called you Michael for whatever reason.

Sorry, Del Tufo. And TJ Jefferson, as always, making sure I don't break anything here. And we somehow get through the show before Rich comes back on Monday. We mentioned earlier the Jimmy Garoppolo suspension, two games for PED policy violation. That's going to get rid of his guarantee. He's basically losing $11 million, and the Raiders can now cut him. Okay, we'll talk more about that at the combine coming up in a couple of weeks. And then free agency opens up on the 11th. The new league year begins on the 13th. We are marching towards draft season.

We are inside of 70 days now until the NFL draft. And Bucky Brooks is working around the clock. Therefore, Bucky, I thank you here from NFL Network, obviously, for taking the time out of AUG today.

Thanks, dude. Hey, man, what's going on? Well, your list is going on. So, Bucky, and this is going to change. You update this throughout draft season. You put out your first top five, so you have a top five at every position. The quarterbacks, you have Caleb at number one, which obviously everyone knows. Bucky, for those who don't know, played at UNC before going to the NFL, played for Mack Brown in the first Mack Brown administration in Chapel Hill. Bucky, where do you have Drake May? I may get my target card temporarily revoked because right now I have Drake May third behind Jayden Daniels in the quarterback landscape. And part of it is due to, if we're going to be honest with the assessment and we're looking at the tape, Jayden Daniels outperformed Drake May last season. When you look at what Jayden Daniels did at LSU, you look at how he dominated the game as a passer and as a runner. When you look at his upside and what he could do right now, I have to put him ahead of Drake May.

When I look at Drake May, I know personally, because I know his dad, I know his family, like A1 dude, all the intangibles, great leadership ability, like everything that you could want. But last year, the performance didn't necessarily match the hype. And if we're doing it based off of tape, which is what you want to do, the production from Daniels exceeds the potential and the projection that Drake May has right now. And we'll see how it continues to play out as we get to the combine and through pro days. Do you think that's their draft order?

Gosh, I know we're so early, we're three months out here. But do you think it goes Caleb, Jayden, Drake May? You know, I think a lot of it depends on, one, how does the draft order stay? Do we stay with the Bears, commanders, and Patriots?

I think that'll have an impact. The other thing when it comes to the commanders and being specific to the commanders, Drake May's former teammate Sam Howell is right there. When Drake May entered Carolina, Sam Howell was the star quarterback at North Carolina. And Drake kind of sat and waited and watched while Sam Howell did his thing his final season. Drake took over, had two really good years at North Carolina. If it's a situation where you're Adam Peters and you're thinking, OK, we really like Drake May, maybe some of the inexperienced stuff kind of bothers us, we have Sam Howell in place. Maybe Sam Howell starts and when Drake is ready, maybe that's the succession plan.

I think there are a few different options when you're at the top and you're talking about the commanders in specific. Like they could take Jayden Daniels because you have a quarterback guru in Cliff Kingsbury who's done things with athletic quarterbacks like Calum Murray. I think the board is wide open. I think it ultimately comes down to the interview process and who do you feel more comfortable with as the face of the franchise going forward. And for those who don't know here, Bucky walks the walk here. Bucky, I feel like sometimes when we're talking on NFL Network all the time, no one reads what we call the tombstone here, like the bottom corner of the screen with your resume. So for those who don't know, Bucky played big time college football in the ACC. Bucky played in the NFL, multiple positions in the NFL. Bucky was a scout for years on the road in the NFL. He sat in draft meetings. He's not just some talking head here on TV. So Bucky, you have been through these meetings, you have done these interviews and obviously now you spend most of your year here prepping for the draft.

You have Panics 4 and you have J.J. McCarthy at 5. We had on Trevor Sikkema, one of our friends from PFF yesterday, and he said something which has gotten a lot of traction on social media. It's kind of a bold statement. It makes sense, but it sounds weird when you say it. He said that J.J. McCarthy controls the draft.

Let me explain. His thing was Caleb Jaden, Drake May, as we just discussed, or Caleb Drake May, Jaden, one through three. Let's say they go one through three. That J.J. McCarthy, in his eyes, was clearly four. And if you can't get up into the top three, and you're one of those QB needy teams, then the rush to get J.J. McCarthy is on. Do you buy that?

Potentially. I think he is the mystery of the draft. He's an x-factor, right? And the reason why he's the mystery is because you watched him win a ton of games at Michigan, but you never really saw him as the driving force of their offense. They ran the ball, they did a bunch of good things with their defense, so he just kind of managed the game. And at a time where game managers is kind of a polarizing term, he did a really good job in that vein. However, when you talk to the people around Michigan and they talk about his athleticism and how he moves and you watch him spin it, look, he can throw it with the best of them.

You just haven't seen him have to do it in games. It reminds me a lot of Justin Herbert when Justin Herbert was having that final season at Oregon, and you wanted to see more, and you really didn't see it until the end, the Pac-12 championship game, and then the Rose Bowl, where you saw him kind of utilize kind of all of his talents and tools. We haven't seen that from J.J. McCarthy, but, man, he's really intriguing because size-wise, athleticism, arm talent, leadership ability, and then just winning, he checks off a lot of boxes. And when it compares to Michael Pennix and Bo Nix, he's kind of the mystery that he hasn't been around enough, we don't know, but, man, what he could be makes you maybe take a chance on him over those guys who played a long time in college.

And, again, he's kind of a wild card here, and, yeah, I mean, if you like him better than Pennix, I mean, most people see McCarthy in the first round don't necessarily see Pennix in the first round. Bo Nix, I know you have him as kind of a wild card there as your sixth quarterback, you know, also in the conversation. Talking to Bucky Brooks, his list is up on NFL.com, the top five at every position, at least the preliminary view here three months out.

You have Brooks, Benson, Korm, Irving, and Estime, or Estime, rather, from Notre Dame as your top five backs. We don't see a first-round pick there, right? No, not a first-round running back. I think for years we talked about devaluing running backs.

This year I think the value is appropriate. I don't believe there's a first-round pick in the bunch. Okay, you and Daniel Jeremiah on the Move the Sticks podcast always talk about traveling together, meaning players are rated closely or ranked closely on draft boards and that they're going to be part of the same conversation throughout this entire process. I think it's going to surprise people that you guys have Roma Dunze right up there, the kid from Washington, with Marvin Harrison. Yeah, no, I think a lot of people will be surprised until they really look at the Washington standout. Dunze is a great player. I think you can liken his game to the game that you see from Jamar Chase in terms of just an overwhelming physical presence, plays with physicality and ruggedness on the perimeter, outstanding ball catcher, can win contested catches down the field, just kind of utilizes his leaping ability or just physically overpowering people.

Terrific with the ball in his hands after the catch. The comparison to me with Jamar Chase is about that. Jamar Chase isn't necessarily the route runner, he's the playmaker.

I kind of see Roma Dunze in that vein. With Marvin Harrison Jr., there's been a lot of fanfare and hype around his play and production over the past two years. He is a terrific route runner. He does have great pedigree, obviously a Hall of Fame dad who did it for a long time in the league.

He can do a bunch of special things. However, I kind of see him kind of like Larry Fitzgerald, like just solid overall player that can kind of win as a number one in a few different lanes. I think the trick will be let's see what these guys look like when they run at the combine. Let's see what they look like when it comes to running routes. I think the conversation is a little closer between those guys vying for number one than I think we've talked about for most of the regular season heading into draft season.

Fascinating. The rest of the list there that Bucky has on NFL.com at wideout. You've got the two LSU guys, Malik Nabors and Brian Thomas, three and five.

And Keon Coleman, obviously how fast he runs is going to be a storyline in two weeks in Indianapolis. He is sitting there from FSU at number four. Brock Bowers, Jutavian Sanders, I think clearly above and beyond everyone there at tight end.

Cade Stovers in the conversation. The offensive tackle is Bucky. This kind of reminds me, and your rankings by the way, Joe Ault, Notre Dame, Olaf Ushanou from Penn State, number two, Taliesha Fuaga from Oregon State, the right tackle at three. Mims from Georgia at four. And then J.C. Latham from Bama at five. Bucky, does this remind you a little bit of 2020 when it was Werfs and Thomas and Wills and Beckton?

And I think a lot of teams, they certainly had preferences, but a lot of them were just like, I'm cool with one of those guys, but they're all going to go reasonably early. You know, I think it's a really good offensive tackle class, and I think there are more names. The bad part about doing a top five list, it doesn't mean that you get all the first rounders or potential first rounders that could come off the board.

But when you look at the class from top to bottom, just rock solid. Guys that are plug-in and play guys, guys that have length, guys that have the physicality and toughness to move people off the ball in the run game, but they still have the patience and nimble feet to be able to do it in the pass game. I think if you're stuck, and when I look at this draft class, ton of wide receivers, ton of offensive tackles, there are a few edge guys, and then it's loaded at cornerback. Those are the strengths of this used draft. So depending upon where you're picking and what you need, you can get those guys early, or you can say the depth of the class is going to make it where I can circle back around and get them in the second and third round and address a weaker position.

There's a lot of flexibility in that. The thing that everyone has to know, not only when it comes to offensive tackles and those things, I think a lot of people around the league will tell you that the draft falls off tremendously once you get to the fourth round or below. The lack of juniors entering the draft, the overall, I would say, the eroding effects of COVID and the way that it kind of separated all the classes has weakened the depth in this class. So you may see a lot of people punt on their late-round picks, accumulate more picks for future years, because Dish's draft is kind of top-heavy when we talk about the totality of the draft, not necessarily the depth that we've had, but the offensive tackle class is outstanding.

And let me put an exclamation point on that. We mean that this year more than any other year. You hear that sometimes, oh, this is not a deep class, like, you know, don't see many day three guys we'd want to draft at all. There are so many six-year guys in this draft, so many guys that should have been in the draft that went back to school, just so many guys with three transfers and older players. This is one of those odd drafts where you're going to see a lot of teams on day three trading down and trading out and punting until next year. Bucky, I know you've got an HBCU combine coming up.

You've got a lot of stuff in New Orleans as well, but just fast-forward to Indianapolis here. Give me one guy that you are looking forward to seeing work out, whether it's run, jump, spin it, three cone, let's get the three cone geeks in here. One guy that you're like, hey, when we get out of Indy, everybody is going to be talking about that guy and what he did working out.

Okay, we're going to talk about Daniel Jeremiah's pet cat, Quinon Mitchell, the cornerback from Toledo. And the reason why I'm excited to see him work out, because I didn't get a chance to see him up close and personal at the Senior Bowl. But the buzz coming out about the Senior Bowl was he not only looked like he belonged, but he looked like he might be the best guy there.

And if he is the best guy there, then he's going to have an opportunity to be the best guy at that position. I mean, this is a kid who's long, he's explosive, he's done it for a long time. You look at the production, the on-ball production in terms of breakups and all those things, he has that. The one thing that you want to see when you talk about a guy from mid-majors, that's what they were called in basketball, mid-major program, let's see what he looks like against the big boys. Well, we had a chance to see that at the Senior Bowl.

Well, now you want to see him work out. If he puts on a wow performance at Indianapolis, oh, man, lights out. You talk about how soon this guy could go.

You talk about top 15, top 10. He has an opportunity to go sky high in the draft, and it just would be kind of the accumulation of this guy just checking off all the boxes throughout the process. He has a chance to go ahead. I mean, you think he's got a chance to be the number one corner. I do, like ahead of Arnold and Wiggins, maybe. Yeah, I think so.

I think so. I think that that explosiveness that he could display could certainly make it where people are very, very comfortable with him being the number one corner in the draft. And, Bucky, I know you weren't there. You were in Dallas at East-West, but the battles between Mitchell and Roman Wilson, the Michigan wideout, those were fun.

Oh, yeah. Good wideout. Good wideout for Michigan. And it's a great test because he's a route runner. And so when you can see guys that can go nose to nose and cover route runners, those are the hardest guys to defend in the league.

That gives them a chance to have a lot of success as a pro. Bucky, I'm for Chris Brockman over here, as we say goodbye. I didn't even bring up until now the Syracuse Carolina game from Tuesday.

I don't even remember that. We've already turned the page. Our eyes are forward. We're already on. Yeah, we're on to the next. We can't sit there.

You know, Rich, I mean, Andrew, if you sit there and drive looking into the reviews, you're going to crash. We're on. We're looking out. We're gone.

Two hands on the wheel. Hey, you know what? It's okay. You lose by 36 and then you come back and you beat them the next time. I mean, look, man, you should give a warning that you're going to play the zone. They've sworn off the zone. They said, oh, we're a man-to-man team. We put that left with Jim Bayon, and then they decide that they want to break out the 2-3 zone.

Catch my guys completely off guard. Can't shoot. We can't do anything. The game is all slow and muddy. It's like an old Big East game. I didn't know what I was looking at. I was waiting for Pearl Washington to run out. You had Adrian Autry instead. I mean, just Bucky.

Actually, all three of us. What hit me watching that game was like we're aging. It's like Adrian Autry and Hubert Davis coaching the game. You know what I'm saying? I know. I know. I mean, Hubert Davis was there when I was there.

Not quite a classmate, but almost. I mean, geez, I remember when the Dean dome used to get huge when he used to hit threes. I mean, it's crazy.

College basketball is still fun. You just got to go look for it. That's all. And also, you should go look for Bucky's list. It's on NFL.com right now. Top five at every position, which Bucky will update. He'll update after the combine, update after the pro days.

And Bucky will be there all the way on NFL.org and NFL.com for those pro days and for the combine as well. Bucky, travel safely. Appreciate it. I know you're busy today, man. See you soon. Bye, man. Appreciate you. Yes, sir. Bucky Brooks, everybody. Speaking of that Syracuse, North Carolina game, did you guys ever rush the court when you were there?

I never did. You want to have this? You want to go there? You're a little ahead of me. But yeah, sure. Let's do it after the break.

Let's do it after the break. And let me just pump up Bucky here real quick. So there are few people that like have done what Bucky has done. Bucky was a second round pick and he played in the league at both wide receiver and defensive back. And as kick returner.

Okay. And then his career cut short, but he immediately turned to scouting. Right. He was on the road, like started at the ground level.

Second round pick started at the ground level. Right. Worked his way up as a scout.

Right. Into front offices. Notably there with the Carolina Panthers. He has been through all these draft meetings. He has been the scout. He has, you know, gone to campuses and, you know, and talked to coaching staff. He's done all of that. Right. Like road warrior as a scout.

The other thing too as well. Bucky is a championship high school football coach. Right. Bucky coaches here in LA. Won a city title last year. In his school's, what do you call it?

Division, class, whatever it is. Right. They threw one pass all year. One. Whoa. One.

Okay. So Bucky was a second round pick. Played in the league. Damn good scout. Like championship high school football coach. And he's really good at TV. Man of many, many, many well worn hats.

His numbers aren't NFL.com. Anyway, I digress. Storming the court. Good or bad.

And how does it compare to putting your feet on the wall of a plane? Coming up next on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk about DoorDash people. We are a huge DoorDash family in my household. As a matter of fact, my wife loves DoorDash so much she almost named one of our kids door and the other one dash.

I'm serious. We got everything DoorDash to the house. Kind of like what we saw during the big game. Right. DoorDash went all out for game day and DoorDash stuff from all the ads to one lucky winner. Cars, snacks, even tax software. What a football game that was for sure. It was one heck of a delivery for the winning team. And whatever watch party or anything party you've got coming up, get it delivered to DoorDash.

You're going to love it. We sure do in my house. Football season may be over, but we are still in the thick of basketball games. The school year.

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Get dinner for tonight, groceries for the week, or a consolation prize for your sad friends in San Francisco. All on DoorDash. DoorDash, your door to more.

Head to the DoorDash app to get everything you need delivered. On the BiggerPockets real estate podcast, co-host David Green and Rob Abasolo interview real estate investors and entrepreneurs about successes, failures and hard earned lessons. Joined by author Dave Meyer, who wrote a book. I did write a book. It seems like you're coming out with a book every four minutes. You're one to talk. You've released two books this year.

I've done half as many as you. It is more about strategy than it is about just finding whatever the new buzzword happens to be. BiggerPockets real estate podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen. Where did Stefan come from? Did that present? That came from two things. John Mulaney wrote that with me and John.

I deserve a lot of credit for Stefan because he wrote so much of the rhythm of that and the specifics of it. And clearly I found it funny because I laughed every time we did it. I don't think we ever did it where I didn't laugh. John will put in different things where he'll tell me as I'm walking out. I'll tell you, I know you're not supposed to laugh at this stuff and break in the middle of a scene, but that's I broke every time.

Yeah. The first time was we had a club promoter named Amnesia Burn Bernstein and it didn't really get anything. And then he goes, Amnesia Bernstein didn't really get anything. And he goes, I'll change it to something else. And then as I was walking out, he goes, I changed Amnesia Bernstein to Gay Leota. And I started laughing.

So the minute I roll out, I'm like. All right. The other one was the other one that made me laugh was he said he'll change the little things we had. We had we had written. Also at the club was a two year old ultimate fighter, Julie Lips Jackson. He's got fists like empanadas and he's addicted to ecstasy.

That's what we wrote. And then he wrote. So it was like two year old, two year old, two year old ultimate fighter, Julie Lips Jackson. He's got fence like he's got fists like empanadas. And they turn the cue card and he said, he's my best friend. So he turns the card and says, he's my best friend. And I lost it. I was like, John, I am laughing so hard.

And behind the cue card is Paz and I can see him and Sandberg up against the wall. Just watching and laughing like this, dude. Back on The Rich Eisen Show, everybody.

Again, I referenced the clip coming back into the Roku channel. I never got past season one of Barry. I need to go back and watch the other seasons.

Oh, man. Betty, Betty, Betty, Betty. Not a comedy. Not a comedy. Need to go back and watch the later seasons. I need to go back and watch Masters of the Air. Very good.

Right now. Also, criminal record on Apple. Anyway, I digress. Well, coming to Apple tonight, the Patriots dynasty documentary. We all hate tonight. Yeah.

So it's every Friday for the next five weeks, two episodes a week. OK, I am sitting in the Rich Eisen Show desk. I believe Brockman's desk also like this desk furnished by Grainger. They're beautiful, solid, amazing desks, supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger is the right product for you.

Call or click Grainger.com or just stop by. Coming up momentarily, an update on Jason Kelsey's Luchador mask. But before we do that, you, Brockman, when we went to break, we're talking about Syracuse stunning. Well, I don't know if I want to say stunning.

Get to that in a second. But beating number seven North Carolina at the Carrier Dome this past Tuesday night, three nights ago is great. Like, awesome. I was happy. I don't scream and yell and jump on my table anymore for SU basketball because it's been a rough couple of years.

I still love them. Right. I'll get back to that. It's not being a fair weather fan.

As you temper your expectations. But that game, that game was great. And the kids rushed the court at the Dome. Before I say what I want to say, you brought up the you you brought up the question. So why asked if you had ever done it in your I never did in your years.

I normally also was was calling the game on student radio on WAER 88.3 FM. Do you remember if the students ever did rush the court in your year? I don't remember. And the big games that we had at the Dome, we certainly wouldn't do it for a conference game. We had like Arizona come in one year.

I think with Damon Stoudemire. I don't remember if we won that game, to be quite frank. We had Kentucky come in.

No, I don't remember a rushing of the court. And I was there all all age myself. I was there 92 to 96. So my freshman year was Lawrence Moten and my senior year was John Wallace.

And the run of the Final Four. We did not overlap. I was 98 to 02. I do remember. I can't remember if it was my freshman year or sophomore year. UConn was, I don't know if they were number one, but they were definitely in the top three and we were not ranked. And I remember we upset them at the Dome and stormed the court. I do remember that. Were you on the court? I did. I did do it. Everyone was doing it.

Student section. Also, you can kind of feel it happening and you do get kind of caught in the wave. You just kind of get pushed down, which is scary, which is pretty scary. And then the game's over and you're like, well, I'm on the court now.

And I mean, there was no cell phones back then or anything, no camera phones. So you're just kind of on the court and then the players go by and you're patting them on the back like that was awesome and great job. And so you kind of get caught up in the wave of it. Then it's like, I got to go home. And then it's like, well, OK, I got to get out of here and get sucked out the Dome doors. Because there are airlocks. That's what he means.

Airlocks at the Carrier Dome. Anyway, like so here's my thought of this. And this kind of goes back to the Pat Summitt conversation or the women's basketball thing that we opened the show with.

And that was when I was a younger, I would say angrier, more immature sports radio host I used to do. I had my material. We all have our go tos. One of my go tos was like, don't storm the court. Act like you've been there. Right. Expect success.

I have moved off that now and I have gotten to, hey, they're kids. If they want to have a good time, college is college. Like storm the court as long as nobody gets hurt. Right.

And be safe. Those things can be scary for both the fans, as you said, and for the players on the court. Yeah, definitely. I mean, we've seen bad things happen. So as long as everyone stays safe and everyone has a good time, I have no problem with kids storming the court. That said, there is still part of me that says for a program like Syracuse, expect victory. Right. Expect victory. You shouldn't be elated and stunned and shocked that you won a game on your home court. The other team, regardless of their rank, should be the one celebrating when they win on your home court. Right. You pack 32,000, 33 sometimes in that building.

It is loud. Right. Your home court should be defended and you should never storm your home court when you beat any team.

Any team. Unless for some reason, like it's the final four, which the final four has never been there. Opening rounds obviously used to be the carrier dome a lot more frequently than they are now. I've been to some of those. That's different.

All right. SU would never be in their own building there for that. It would never happen. It's not like Carolina and Duke always getting to play in Charlotte or Greensboro because the ACC had preferential status and no one from the ACC ever had to play a tough game until they got to the final four. But like the old ACC, when we were still in the better conference, the biggies, and not subject to ACC basketball. But I digress. Oh, biggies.

Did I just get angry there? I love it. A little bit.

Anyway, I did. I'm an old biggies guy. Yeah.

I love it. We all are. Expect. Expect victory.

And back in the day. I say we, I went there, I paid tuition. Well, someone did. Like expect victory. Like no, no, no. They should be happy if they win here. We expect to beat you guys. We expect to beat Ray Allen and UConn. We expect to beat Terry DeHair and Seton Hall.

And what's his name? Adrian Griffin, right? You expect to win those games, to beat Howard Isley and Donny Abrams, right?

And BC. You expect to win those games. Donny Marshall.

Yeah. Donny Marshall and UConn. Donny Marshall.

Jerome Schaeffer. Those guys. Like you're supposed to win those games.

And as I said, kids go ahead, have good, clean fun as long as nobody gets hurt, right? But when I was there, we had an institutional arrogance about our basketball program, which carried on, right? Like 03, not long after you and I both left, won the Final Four, won the whole stinking thing. And then you and I have gone to subsequent Final Fours, the one in Atlanta, one we lost to Michigan on a Saturday night. I'm still angry about that one.

And then you and I went to Houston, we lost to Carolina on Saturday night, still angry about that one. Yeah. Expect. And the same goes for any other classic program, UCLA, who had a big win last night, or Kentucky or Kansas. If you're a blue blood program, expect success.

Don't rush the court. But when it does happen, I think it's pretty cool. I like it.

But yes, both can be true. As I said, I'm no longer the angry... Yeah, I think it's cool. Like I used to go on rants about this in sports.

Like it doesn't really matter. Have fun. Kids, have fun. I think it's cool. TJ, have you ever been a part of a court or field storming?

I think the only time that I did that jumps out was my high school and a playoff game the year after I graduated, but they were playing near Pittsburgh. So I went in. Oh yeah, I also did in college and I think about, so yeah, it's fun. I'm sitting there listening and I don't know, Andrew, sometimes I think, maybe take things a little too serious. Well no, but I just think I'd have fun, like I don't care. You get caught up in that emotion, bro, and it's just fun. You're there with your classmates and it's the energy. TJ, that's what I just said. I am all for like, have fun.

You get sucked into it. Like totally have fun. Like I said, I used to be the, I used to be the, how dare you do that? I'm not going to say that anymore, but I do think that as a program, you should expect those victories. I mean, look, you probably remember this.

Like both can be true. You know what I'm saying? You probably remember this, 98, the season finale of the football season at the dome, Donald McNabb's senior year, the throwback pass to Bruminski to beat Virginia Tech.

All of a sudden everybody rushes here. It was the most amazing thing ever. It was so great. Were you there for that? Yeah. That was awesome. And as a freshman in 92, I was a freshman back then, when Gino Toretta and Miami and Rohan Marley came into town with, Miami was top five at that point, and it was Marvin Graves and the late great Chris Gedney and Kadri Ismail, and it came down to the final play of the game. Missile.

Yeah. And if they had won, we would have stormed the court. Although I was so hung over, I don't know that I would have made it. There is no way.

There is no way. I'm not proud of this. I was quite young. I was a freshman. There is no way I would have made it to the field and I was in the lower deck.

Oh yeah. The student section was in the end zone back then. I was weekend at Bernie's. My friends on brew 11 carried me to that game. You were Travis Kelsey at the parade? I couldn't even get the lyrics out.

There were no cell phones then. They carried me weekend at Bernie's style to that game. Right?

Yeah. They probably would have stormed the field. Pitt stormed it against us when I was at Seton Hall, Andrew, and it was nuts because I was doing the radio broadcast. Our entire table flipped. I held on to the broadcast thing to keep us on the air.

It was nuts. But that's the stuff that's dangerous because they could have hurt all the guys that were doing that game. Like all the announcers that were sitting there. Right. Like I remember doing a game when I was in college at the McHale Center, University of Arizona in Tucson, and I have never had a crowd, Syracuse we won that day, but have never had a crowd closer sitting at the press table. And I don't know if it's still the same set up there, but I had students or first row like when I say, I mean like you were cued up shoulder to shoulder in line to get into an like that close to you.

And if like those people had stormed the court, yeah, you're gone anyway. I digress. Let's get to the Jason Kelsey thing. Yeah.

Andrew, one more thing. Because it can be a safety issue, you know, Kaitlin Clark recently got ran over by someone. And I guess I am surprised. I know we're going to move on to hear that more people don't kind of get injured or sucker punched or something bad happening because, you know, especially football, there's so many people, players frustrated that an opposing team and have the fans come in.

LeGarrette Blount did that once, but that was to another player, not necessarily a fan. But I guess I am surprised that you don't see more like people getting hurt when this thing gets happy. It is a free for all. And if you're a player, it can be kind of scary as well. All these people rushing at you, everybody wants a piece of you.

Yeah. So moral of the story, kids have fun as long as it's safe. Don't be a knucklehead. Don't be a knucklehead. Don't be a knucklehead.

Always good advice. Exactly. Speaking of knuckleheads, one of our most lovable knuckleheads is Jason Kelsey. He is having a moment. He is one of my favorite people. I have the pleasure and honor of working with him during Broadcast Bootcamp this past year where a bunch of NFL players come in to NFL Network and we, as the alleged professionals on the broadcast side, do like a three day seminar with the players. So like Cam Hayward comes in, Cam Jordan comes in, Jason Kelsey comes in, Kevin Byard comes in, all kinds of players. Alec Ingold comes in. It's really a cool experience every year. Richard Sherman has come in.

All these people now graduate to broadcast jobs. It's awesome. You make good relationships. And Jason Kelsey and I worked together last year. He was awesome.

He's going to be amazing. You know, I told him last year, like you should have taught because there's a podcast breakout session. You should just teach that class here.

You shouldn't be sitting there taking the teaching. But anyway, Jason Kelsey on his podcast, New Heights, with his brother Travis, told the story of the Super Bowl celebration and that mask he was wearing. On the mask, on the dance floor at the first after party spot, I went out there to find, we had some friends in the crew from Cleveland Heights. Shout out to Cleveland Heights. Shout out to the Heights, baby, and everybody that showed up, man, I love you guys, man. I left the little VIP area to go find those guys.

And in route, saw something on the floor that was being trampled over. I do, but I picked it up and right away I was like, oh hell yes. Did you at least like, just give it a quick rinse under the sink?

No. Where was I going to rinse it off, Travis? The bathroom just did it just amazing.

You see a luchador mask, you don't ask questions, you just put that thing on, baby. That is so funny. I want to know who it was. Sorry to whoever I stole that from. Exactly.

Whose was it? Like they probably went back in there looking for it. That's part of the beauty of this whole thing. It's just like it appeared out of nowhere. Like pink eye can't stop us. I'm for sure a pink eye.

There's no chance I thought I was getting out of that mask without him, a pink eye. That is amazing. And there are so many IG videos of like Jason Kelsey up on stage with Marshmello, the DJ who's got like the huge Marshmello head on and Jason is there with the luchador, the lucha libre mask, just shaking it. Living his best life. Just hammered. So good. Like there's the one video of like, here's Jason on stage with the mask and then it pans and there's Travis dancing with Taylor to a Taylor Swift song that Marshmello was remixing on the...

It was unbelievable. Anyway, so we showed you the photo in there. We threw the photo in there and he said, I don't know whose mask it was. Turns out it was that young man who you saw in the photo. His name is Elijah Smith.

He's an eighth grader in Dallas. Elijah, Jason would like his mask back. I tweeted the story at Jason this morning and he allegedly has responded. I think he's going to get the mask back, but there it is. Operation get Elijah his mask back is underway. I appreciate everyone bringing this to my attention. Look forward to uniting Elijah with his mask once again. Your mask indeed brings great fortune. I owe you big time.

Sorry. It was kind of weird. Like that's why he's the most amazing person. The way we found out this morning and actually ran last night on local TV in Dallas that it was Elijah's mask is that NBC five in Dallas did a local news story, the local news story of all local news stories, like bad framing and just like, you know, getting facts wrong. But they did a story with Elijah and his mom and dad sitting on the couch.

And Elijah was cool. He's like, I just want my mask back because evidently his parents roll and you know, they, they, they take care of him. He's been to all four Superbowls and the mask has been to all four Superbowls and he wants the mask back for good luck.

And that's where Jason said, clearly it brings good luck and good fortune. I will bring you the mask, but I wish we can't show it. It's not cleared for, for us to show it. But if you find the link, I tweeted it earlier this morning find the link and watch the local news story.

Cause it has everything that is local news, like setting up a story that sounds really serious, but really isn't getting, getting some kind of fact or vernacular wrong in the lead because it's a sports story and no one really knows how to talk about sports and local news. Right. And then they, they have the family sitting on the couch and it's the classic, here's the kid and mom and dad, mom and dad on either side. And they have on the coffee table, all their chief's gear, like all their hats and like a chief's wrestling belt and like all these other chiefs, bits of memorabilia. And they wanted that all in the shot and to set up the shot, then they have to pull out really wide. And because they're pulling out really wide, this is way too inside local news, but they have the whole living room in the shot.

And so they're way in the distance and it's not framed right. And then, cause you need the hats, right. And then it should just be with the kid, but mom and dad are there and dad's cool.

That's totally cool. Says all the right things. Mom's cool too, but mom clearly is enjoying her star turn.

Right. So every time the kid says something like, Hey, you know, Jason was really nice and like, I got a picture with him and then like, he, he, he went away and like, we tried to run after him and like, it was really loud and I saw it on Instagram. Kid's great. But like, mom is sitting there going, like laughing at everything the kid says, because she's trying to like, interject herself into, Hey, I'm on local news in Dallas. This might be my big star turn, right. Like laughing and like laughing at the kid and like turning back to the camera, right. To be included in it, everything that kid says, which wasn't necessarily funny at the time. It was just awesome.

15 minutes. Mom and dad fad and Sarah, are you seeing it now? What are the chances that he really still, do you think he kept that mask? Jason Kelsey? Oh, I'm sure. Do you think? Yeah.

He's, he's, I don't know. I guarantee you, I guarantee you, Jason Kelsey at one point at four in the morning, got into an SUV that was waiting outside. There's the still.

And he's wearing the mask. Yeah. And then he passed out and woke up and it was on like his nightstand or the floor of the hotel room. I hope it was. And then I could see him leaving it there when he left. Maybe. I mean, then he, he threw it into his suitcase and I, but like there's, there's the shot you could see on screen here, all the hats and the pom poms, right.

We are super famous. And like take it out super wide where it's, you know, it's kind of weirdly backlit as well because they like, it just. Well, you just think that was cooler that Jason Kelsey had your mask and like, like, Hey, Jason, Kelsey has my mask. Keep it. Keep it. I got, I got the photo.

I've got eight hats. Knowing the kind of guy Jason is, I have no doubt that he's going to a send the mask along with probably get Trav to hook, hook the family up with some seats for the open or like, sure they'll get taken care of because I know there's a lot of pushback against Travis and all the attention and his girlfriend and it's, it's the classic, they love to tear you down because you're on the screen too much. They love you. Then they hate you.

Then they love you. They are both two really, really good dudes. There's there's really, I mean, there's no other way to say it.

And if you're pushing back to me right now by saying, well, you're too, you're, you're just, you're, you're trying to say that to protect your relationships. No, I've done, I've worked with them both. They are both really cool dudes. And their podcast is like, I actually, next time I see Jason, what I ask him, like how you get so comfortable with your sibling, like my brother and I are great. Like my brother's one of my best friends, but I don't know that I could have that conversation.

He's my first best friend. I don't know that I could have that conversation like on a weekly basis, that open with him. You know what I'm saying? You probably could.

Have you tried? But it's just like where we're both, you can put, here's what I mean, TJ. You can put the stress, excuse me, you can put the, we all have stress and anxieties and we're all getting pulled in a hundred different places in our lives, right? Family job, all this other stuff. Like it's hard to find that quiet time where you can put all that aside and truly connect.

And the Kelsey's have a way of doing it. It's why their podcast is that good to putting all of that aside and living in the moment and truly connecting and being able to be vulnerable enough to share it with everybody, not just themselves. And that is really hard to do, to be that authentic with someone who you are that close with.

I'm not getting choked up about my brother actually just got a frog in my throat. That close with a family member, excuse me, on a weekly basis. Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah. They've got a lot going on and to find that time, like you said, to make it that authentic. And they're very real. Like yesterday when we saw Jason kind of chastise Travis for what he did to coach, he's like, you can't do that. You know, when he was holding his brother accountable and they were deaf, they definitely keep it real.

It seems. And a lot of people say, Oh, we see that on reality TV all the time. They're real housewives.

Is this a bologna? That's all fake. That's garbage. And fake. That's fake.

Kardashians real housewives. That is garbage and fake setup. Okay.

The zombie piece of those shows are the editors. That's all fake. This stuff is different.

Anyway, I digress. Um, we have, uh, wow, if we're playing the, I digress drinking game, you'd be hammered unable to drive home, but coming up next, we have legitimate, um, good, good things to tell you, or at least updates from Kansas city and Wednesday. What's next America starts the day with America in the morning. Hi, I'm John Trout, your host for the latest news, politics, entertainment, business, and weather.

Our staff of correspondence provide a fast paced look at the world with specialized reports from where news happens in New York. I'm Sue Allard. I'm Charles. So that's my saga.

I mean Washington. I'm Jennifer King. I'm Clayton. I'm Kevin Carr. I'm Archie. Zara Letta concise, accurate, and fresh each day America in the morning, the podcast available wherever you listen.

Hi there. Sorry for the interruption, but are you enjoying the show on Google podcasts? You should know that the Google podcast app is going away this spring.

That's right. Going away, gone as in no longer available. You can still enjoy the show elsewhere though. Try out Spotify or Amazon music, or maybe tune in is more your style.

Whatever app you switched to be sure to follow so you never miss the next episode and thanks for listening wherever you listen. Put your hands together for the most recent Heisman trophy winner, where is that trophy right now? I sleep next to it.

It's on your nightstand. Yeah. So it's good morning. Heisman every day. Yeah. Tight.

Seriously. It's it's right there next to it. Like there's a night table next to the Kyler Murray's bed and the Heisman trophies resting. Yes, sir.

That's amazing. Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and you've had it in your arms like you've been spooning with it? There's no spooning. There's no, there's no Heisman spooning. And by the way, I would absolutely spoon with the Heisman if I won the Heisman. Now taking part in the Rich Eisen show throw challenge, Kyler Murray, is this the first NFL Duke ball that you have thrown? That's an NFL. Oh my God.

You won't even answer that. Wow. Go for it, Kyler.

Go for it. That's one, two, three, by the way. That's four. Those are all Duke NFL footballs.

Just wanted everyone to know that first overall pick that's four, that's five, the footballs Kurt Warner complained about, that's six, that's seven. That's oh my goodness. Let's get some up.

Oh no. Here we go. Keep going. I'm off.

You got one more? Hold on. This is getting bad. Here we go. No.

Yeah, it's getting bad. You got seven for first seven. Good enough.

Seven out of 10. Kyler Murray. Congratulations, he won the Heisman and it seems the Rich Eisen throwing contest in the same year. That's a first.

No one could ever take that away from you. Real quick before I tell you about game time, you guys were playing from the Atlanta Super Bowl there from the Rams losing to the Patriots, Kyler Murray making the rounds and he did the show here. One of these days, and I mean this, there may be like an oral history of 30 for 30 made about- His interview day? His interview day. It was insane.

No joke. And I was part of that interview day as well for NFL Network. The whole thing was awkward that day. It sure was. There was an NFL Network sit down as well, aside from the one that Terrell Davis and I did, there was another one that had its drama.

There was the Dan Patrick one as well. Henry behind the curtain, he taped with us first before he did Dan. And so Dan obviously was live and we ran ours later in the day, but he was super awkward with us. Then went to Dan and it was doubly as awkward. It was a bit awkward with us, but not super.

Some of the awkwardness was cut off before we got on. I mean, it was talked down. Yeah. Yeah.

Weird day. His people definitely were just like, don't say a word. And you could see it in the clip that we showed of him just throwing footballs and stuff. He wouldn't even answer the question if he had thrown a Duke football before.

Right. Because at that point he hadn't declared for the draft. They told him not to say anything.

Anything about anything. And then halfway through Brockman's like, oh, he's playing football. I was like, he's going to be the number one pick. Well, and we, TD, good friend, Terrell Davis, good friend, bless his heart, kind of got his words twisted.

And when we came on the air, Terrell Davis said, I introduced him, I threw out the first and then TD jumps in and is like, all right, so, you know, you're heading to the NFL draft. Oh gosh. Which he just didn't hear it. It was loud. It was like, whatever. Just whatever.

We all say stuff. Sure. And you should see from Kyler and then everyone offset, like, yeah, it was, it was interesting. Anyway, real quick here.

It was that gorgeous to figure out. Like, come on. What I tell you about game time, because with game time you could like go buy a ticket to see somebody like Kyler, you know? Frustrating ticket experience. We've all had them. We're all going to have them. So may I introduce and suggest game time to you to find your way around that frustrating ticket experience.

It's going to make things a heck of a lot easier. Download the game time app right now. You see everything on the screen here, the game time app.

Go do it. Game time app from your app store and find a game, a tournament, a concert, a show, the theater, whatever it is you want, because game time takes the guesswork out of it and it makes it easy. It's so easy to use. And plus you get money back here. Here's a 20% coupon or a $20 off coupon, I beg your pardon. The promo code is RICH, R-I-C-H. After you set up the account, after downloading the app, use the promo code RICH, R-I-C-H, for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.

Create an account and redeem the code for $20 off, R-I-C-H. Game time, last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. We have news out of Kansas City, encouraging news only in that it is a step forward here in the process of bringing justice to those who were killed, one dead, and those who were shot. 22 shot on Wednesday. Kansas City police say two juveniles have been charged with crimes connected to that shooting after the parade. A news release from the Jackson County Family Court says the juveniles are being detained on gun-related and resisting arrest charges. Two juveniles have been arrested and have been detained facing charges. Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, obviously all members of the chief's organization were able to get out of there safely, visited kids today.

This is awesome. Visited kids at Kansas City Children's Mercy Hospital. The good news is all the kids that were admitted are going to be okay. They're going to recover physically. Physically is the key word here, but Pat and Brittany were there.

Taylor Swift has donated $100,000 to the family of the mother of two who lost her life, Lisa Lopez Galvan. And that is how we end our week. A triumphant week, a sad week, the week that we hope gets better next week. For Chris, for Del Tufo, for TJ, I'm Andrew, and for Rich as well.

So long, everybody. The Rolling Stone Music Now podcast gets inside the biggest stories with Rolling Stone's senior writer Brian Hyatt. And here's Lil Yachty with T-ara Wack. I've never been to a fashion show.

I never did any Paris fashion week, New York fashion week, and I'll tell you why. Because I would always go to events and people would say to me, oh man, Yachty, man, I love your music, bro. And I should be like, what song? I didn't even, at the time, I didn't love my music. I always feel like I'm in a room with all these artists and they all respect each other. I feel like no one respects me. Rolling Stone Music Now, wherever you listen.