Top 5 NFL Off-Season Storylines

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See terms at discover.com slash credit card. ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas, former New Jersey senator and two-time NBA champion Bill Bradley. Coming up, actor Maki Pfeiffer. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

Yes, it is. Hour number three, live on the Roku channel. This Rich Eisen show, terrestrial radio affiliate Sirius XM Odyssey and more. We've had a great first two hours of this program. Jay Bilas of ESPN hour one.

Bill Bradley was on this program in hour number two. And again, you can catch his film on his life rolling along in American Story right here on Roku through the Max app. And everything's available right here on Roku. And we're live every day on the Roku channel.

Every single Roku device known to man has us. Sirius XM Odyssey, also our terrestrial radio affiliations. We appreciate saying hello to everybody on our podcast, which is a way to catch up on our show.

All three hours are available through the Cumulus podcast network. Ove reaction Monday and what the football have taken a week off. We return next week.

Suzy and Amy have already booked their guest. Louis Riddick will be on the Tuesday before the combine. So, can you believe I'm going to the combine next week, brother? I mean, it's just, it's here. It's here. And today. The offseason is going to go fast. It is indeed.

It does every year. Maki Pfeiffer's in our green room. Just had a very nice chat with him. And I felt like I know him already, not just because I'm a fan of his work, but he's I lost my New York accent.

And it comes out if you cut me off in traffic. He's still got it, man. He's he sounds just like he's Harlem world.

Easy. That's that's that's where he's from. He told me he dated a girl from Staten Island back in the day. Oh, yeah.

So is that what meth said? That was Staten Island is the number one date destination. Well, he says it's where people go to go on a date.

I don't know if it's to find a date. Oh, that's my man, right? There is method, man. We got to get him back. He was in Vegas for the Super Bowl, wasn't he? He was at your. Well, they had a residency.

Who was at residency? And they did two dates the Friday night, Saturday night in Vegas. But they're also back next week. Listen, we didn't we were going to that, by the way.

We should we should. And I looked up tickets on our we didn't hit this because I I wasn't in last week because what's the word for it? You're lying. I started vomiting during Tuesday's program day to day. I caught influenza.

You were definitely influenza. Which had the whooping, but Las Vegas and the Super Bowl. Were absolutely made for each other. Las Vegas.

And let me just say it one more time. Las Vegas and the Super Bowl were absolutely made for one another. Because the best Super Bowl cities are ones that have the following.

Tons of. Hotel rooms. And they're convenient in terms of their location as well, where you can walk places where transportation is somewhat readily available to you.

Certainly wheels and, you know, hitting that button to get a ride or a hop in a cab. They were everywhere, everywhere. OK, and then I'd look down and it wasn't.

You know, they weren't gouging you either. And cab lines are quick. Sometimes in Vegas, cab lines are really long. Everything was moving. You move. You want to get a good meal. There's places all over the place for a good meal. You want also if you if you want to go hang out somewhere and meet people, you can. They're everywhere. If you want to go out and grab a drink.

Let me just put it this way. I didn't tell you this story. Steve Mariucci went to his first club of his life. He was at Shaq's party Friday night. Oh, the funhouse. And I'm like, how do you like going on? I mean, I think he called it a nightclub.

How do you like the club scene, Mooch? And all he did was he widened his eyes. That's it. He did one of those Mooch sort of eyes wide universal language.

And he doesn't know much. God bless him about the Vegas scene. As a matter of fact, you know, we as you know, on NFL Game Day morning, we have these cartoons that we throw to break. And, you know, they have us in cartoon form. I look like James Lipton from inside the Actors Studio. The other guys look like themselves.

James Lipton? Oh, it's true. It's absurd. Was it as bad as your big head running guy?

The big head, I looked like Pete Rose. It was not great. OK, it was terrible. And so this is just nobody. I'm undrawable, I guess.

I don't know what it is, but I don't look like that. But anyway, so we do what we do. What what they do is, you know, our producers hand us the copy. And usually it's being done at five fifty five in the morning, five minutes. They say come to the set a little early before we start game day morning, nine Eastern, six a.m. out here. And they give you the script and you read the script fast because you don't want to wait till after the once the show is over, games are on and it's not helpful to wait to do it afterwards.

People don't want to wait around in the production staff anyway. So you're reading it off. And so what they did for the Vegas version was have Mariucci talk about the celebrity element of the Super Bowl that was there. And he talked about prop comics. And they did have like a carrot top.

Nice. OK, even though I think he was referring to Gallagher, there there was a moment in the cartoon where he smashes a watermelon with a mallet. OK, but he does mention, you know, Bono of U2 who was drawn in the cartoon, because as we know, Bono is in and U2 is in the sphere right now. Mooch had to redo that line a couple of times over because he called him Bono. Like Steve.

Or Sonny. And he didn't. He called him Bono. And I had to stop and I'm like, Steve, this is like two minutes to air.

Did he play for Mooch, Steve Bono? Of course. I'm sure he did. I'm sure he did. We're like two minutes to air.

It's like week 17 because they write these weeks in advance. And I'm like, Steve, it's not Bono. It's Bono.

That said, I played for Seifert. U2 is at the sphere. Maniscalco is at the win.

Bert and Segura are at the Aria. You know, Adele's doing her residency. So on and so forth. And that's the Super Bowl week.

And so many others, as you mentioned, this is why we're on the subject matter, Method Man and Wu-Tang did a two-day residency. So many people just came in just to be part of the Super Bowl world. Parties were everywhere.

The strip traffic got a little insane Friday night, and then Saturday it was just tail lights everywhere. But that's the Super Bowl city. It's the one time that Vegas was transformed by the event rather than just absorbing it.

I said it on our post Super Bowl overreaction Monday podcast. Vegas should be the host every year. Well, I mean, it's never going to be an every year thing because the NFL spreads it around because it is it's an economic, I guess, boost to many NFL cities. And obviously, if you build it, they will come. If you build it, meaning the stadium. So Nashville is going to build a new one.

They will come. I know Buffalo would be like, hey, how about us in western New York? I mean, there were there's another reason why Vegas is so remarkable. There probably is one intersection of of the strip. Name any intersection. More hotel rooms on that intersection.

Then there would be in some Super Bowl cities. Facts. Unreal. So and by the way, I didn't mention gambling at all because I as an NFL employee, I'm swear I just walked through casinos. I didn't. I didn't put a coin in a in a machine. They don't do coins anymore, but whatever it is, just by the way, I'm glad I'm glad I just said it that way, just in case anybody's out there like really rich.

I didn't do a thing because I'm not allowed to and it's not worth it. You know, play one hand, a blackjack and get a call from NFL human resources. Yeah, we like our jobs, Rich. So please. Also, one thing you didn't mention, the walkability, Rich.

When you can walk places. But there was a time I took a cab from New York, New York to our set and then realized, had I just walked 10 feet and took a tram, I would have been there in half the time and it was free. Unreal. Honestly, it should be in a rotation. There should be a West Coast city. It should be Vegas. It should be anybody wants to do, you know, a West Coast city, you know, Vegas.

Those are two because obviously we're biased towards Pacific time zone and and or, you know, obviously Arizona would be included into this. Then you want to include anything in the middle of the country. Obviously, we're going to New Orleans next year. You want to include anything on the eastern seaboard. Obviously, many people love South Florida as a Super Bowl site just and rinse and repeat.

And one year you just don't put it in some of those locations and you just throw it in somewhere that's new. End of story, Vegas should be in a vote. And by the way, Nashville will be a great Super Bowl city as well. Nashville was dynamite for the draft. Could you imagine what lower Broadway is going to would look like for Super Bowl? I know they'd have to probably beef up hotel rooms and things of that nature. I need a few more hotels, but hey, Nash Vegas. I mean, it's Nash Vegas.

I'm in. And just if we go karaoke singing in just Del Tufo can't curse immediately. There's literally a sign that says no cursing. And what's the first thing he does? What's up? Oh, my goodness.

And he's so bad, bad words, too. Today is kind of the first day of the NFL offseason officially. Today's the first day that you can start franchise tagging players. And that's that that gets that gets the ball rolling in places about intentions.

And it starts negotiations off usually on the wrong foot. As you know, franchise tags can either be applied or slapped on a player. They're applied if the player doesn't mind it.

They're slapped on the player if the player absolutely minds it. And so that starts today. It's a two week period when franchise tags are thrown out there. You then have until the middle of the summer to negotiate a new deal.

And if you don't, that player's got to play on the tag no matter what. So today is the first day, if you will, a figurative negotiations shot gets fired. And that's the reason why I'm going to choose today to give you a top five NFL spring storylines right here on the Rich Eisen Show.

Hit it. High five. One, two, three, four, five. Rich's top five. All right, here we go. My top five NFL spring storylines before Mackay Pfeiffer joins us in studio. Number five.

It's very simple. How will the Chiefs handle their roster? That is going to be of note franchise tags being handed out today. Does Brett Veitch go and sign Chris Jones to the richest contract in the history of defensive players? You make them you pay him like a quarterback. What is the various need going to get?

And then there's the interesting factor as well. Does the franchise tags get used in any way, shape or form with anybody on this team? What is the future for Travis Kelce? He says he's going to come back at any possible way over the last week. Plus, he starts sitting there thinking, how am I going to do better than two?

I know that agreed is, for the lack of better word, is good. Three is three in a row better than back to back. What does happen when free agency hits? Do they somehow some way go and get a significant free agent wide receiver to join this team? How do they handle this roster? What do they do with the tackles position? How do you make it all work? As you know, I said, you've got to go all in and that'll be a phrase you hear later on in this top five to get three in a row.

Even if it does put the future a little bit on the credit card, you've got one of the best chances. I can remember that a team has the ability to go back to back to back. So how do they handle their rosters?

Number five, number four on this list. Where does Derek Henry go? And what does it mean for the running back market?

Franchise tags get applied today. Did the Giants throw it on Saquon Barkley again? What does happen with Austin Eckler is he did not have a terrific season, but does a guy who I believe is on the way to the Hall of Fame as he's hit 30. What does he command when he hits a market and meant the Dallas Cowboys go and get him? Do the Ravens go and get him? Are you hearing the Chiefs out there? I can't imagine. I haven't really seen that, but I mean, Pacheco is fine.

Clearly not. So I mean, but where does he wind up? Baltimore, Dallas, those are kind of the winners. I mean, how great would he be on either of those teams?

And if not those teams, then where does he go? This is fascinating to me because there's tread on him. Wow.

There's some tread on the tires. Number three on the list. We hit this on the Friday of our Super Bowl week with our first guest, Sean Payton of the Denver Broncos. Number three on the top five NFL spring story lines list is Denver's quarterback plans.

So what are they? Because Russell Wilson was benched after Christmas Eve. And the idea was we're not going to have him play meaningless football games, have him get hurt. And then that absolutely handcuffs our plans, even though his salary cap hit might sound like they handcuffed their plans anywhere. And they're still cuffed to him regardless of any decisions that they've already thought that we think they've already made about him.

Because he's so damn expensive. We asked Sean Payton what the quarterback plans were on the Friday of Super Bowl week. And he basically told us that any ideas that have already been ascribed to them, any ideas that they've already made their choice to move on from Russ, and they're going to move up in the draft, made no sense to him because they hadn't even had their meetings with their scouts or anybody on the quarterback position or their draft board at all.

He said that were going to happen the following Monday. We have our musts, our needs and our wants. Can we find that in free agency? Can we find it in the draft?

We pick 12th or is it in the building? And I think that includes Russ. That discussion has to include Russ. And I think there's this presumption that he's not going to be part of the plan. And I recognize why that exists.

And yet as we look closely, because here's the thing we've got to be careful about. If you just jump on the NFL train, then you're like, well, there's six quarterbacks. Take one of them. You know, take Joey Harrington, not Julius Peppers, right?

John Fox, Ernie, of course. You've got to take Harrington. No, you don't. And this idea that the NFL bust tells us here are the guys when you and I and all of us know there's only going to be one or two of those guys that we hit on.

The train's already left the station because you sat Russ, you know, to end the season. And that indicates where you're going. Well, correct.

But he and I have a great relationship and he wants to be back. And so that means something. But we'll see. We'll see.

A lot of folks heard that and said he's just not being straight up. But the bottom line is Russ is still in the building. And if they get if they can't get close enough in the draft to get somebody before the draft, or at least after the combine, decisions have to get made about new league year and how you pay people.

I don't even know if they can make it to the draft. This is a fascinating story because it does affect so many other. The ripple effect affects so many other ponds. Number two on this list. What did Jerry Jones mean by all in when he was speaking at the Senior Bowl in January? Quote unquote, when he talked about going all in. They'll be all in at the end of this year is what he meant. Meaning they're going to be all in on the playoffs.

Right. But then he went, well, it will be going all in on different people than you've done in the past. We will be going all in. We've seen some things out of some of the players that we want to be all in on. So I would say that you will see us this coming year, not build it for the future. It's the best way I've ever said.

And that ought to answer a lot of questions. OK, the only question is, what did you mean by going all in? Does it mean Derrick Henry? Does it mean DeAndre Hopkins?

Does it mean going and getting veterans and just saying, screw it? Because you're all in on Mike McCarthy. You got one more year. You lost your defensive coordinator, but you brought in Mike Zimmer, who, by the way, Dion loves.

So many former players love Mike Zimmer. So, you know, I'm the back to play. I believe a different personality from this predecessor, but we will see.

So you're going to see this defense, I think, be just as good. But what is it going to mean by going all in New League year? What are you going to do? Because he got to extend deck.

You got to. Because that opens up so many of your other moves to massage this roster. So what do you mean by going all in? That's number two and number one, the number one NFL spring storyline as it is every year. It's the quarterback free agent in draft carousel. What are the Bears going to do at one? They're going to trade it. They're going to keep it. And if they they trade it to who?

How far down do they go? Could they not like Caleb Williams? Could they actually like Justin Fields? What is going on with Baker Mayfield in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Is Kirk Cousins Achilles going to be? I mean, he did some nice dance moves in the NFL honors. That's one way to basically say I'm going to be fine enough for free agency. He's seemed to be moving around just fine.

OK, so maybe he speed bridged too. And and then what does happen with Russell Wilson? Is Justin Fields going to be made available? What is going on with Drake May and Jayden Daniels and and my guy, JJ McCarthy and Michael Pennix? And what are the Steelers really just going to be like? All right, let's bring back Mason Rudolph and have a competition with Kenny Pickett and we'll go. What is the deal? Is there another quarterback second third round that can be a shocker and be the next Russell Wilson and start and be terrific?

What is going on with the quarterback free agent and draft carousel? That is the number one spring storyline. Do you think we need one more? I will give you one more. All right, we'll get one more. And it's a simple one. There is not surprising that we haven't heard of boo or a peep or a word.

And by the way, my ear is to the ground in this part of our business as well. For sports TV. What does Bill Belichick do? What's he going to do? Forty nine straight years on the sideline as an assistant or a head coach in the NFL. Are the Niners calling him out right now and saying, hey, Bill, how about just coordinating the defense force?

You want to you love being an X's and O's guy. You know, I'm you know, I'm sure he just doesn't. We'll find out. Does he want to he could be the defensive coordinator for the 49ers right now if he wants to. I'd imagine.

I would imagine that's the case. Does he want to just coach and he'll go somewhere and and coach at a smaller level, smaller school, different stuff? Will he just be a consultant? Is he going to show up on TV? What's he going to do? Wants that record, Rich? Well, I mean, I know he wants that record, but he's not going to add to his head coaching win total this year. No, I can't imagine someone will fire a coach and he'll be in a midseason pickup for somebody. He could just chill and wait for the I know.

But in terms of next year, what does he do in terms of Chile? Because I bet you every television network, I don't want to come out and say it, but I heard there were some television meetings involving some Super Bowl players during the Super Bowl week. I mean, I hear so much about what TV and sports TV executives are doing. The rumor mill is everywhere.

Everyone haven't heard a thing about Bill Zero. And then maybe it's because like Fight Club, because if you talk about it, he's he ain't coming. Maybe that's my top five NFL Spring storylines list. Let's take a break. Mackay Pfeiffer is here in studio. We are going to talk to him about his remarkable career.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Looking for an assist with your credit card but can't get a hold of anyone? Luckily, with twenty four seven U.S. based live customer service from Discover, everyone has the option to talk to a real person any time, day or night. Yep, you heard that right. You can talk to a real human in customer service any time. Sounds like a real game changer if you ask us. Make the right call and get the service you deserve with Discover. Limitations apply.

See terms at Discover.com slash credit card. Radio audience is back with our Roku channel audience. We just saw a clip of Lights Out, which is again, as I mentioned, available on demand on digital. And right now in theaters near you, one of the stars, Makai Pfeiffer is here.

Great cast with Frank Grillo, Jamie King and Donald Mulroney right here on the Rich Eyes and Show. Good to see you. Oh man, good to see you. Always. Did you jump into this fight scene to, you know, sort of investigate what you would need to know about this character? No, about this character?

Oh no, this character. Well, you know, you know, I've always been a fight fan. You know, MMA, boxing, even when UFC was in its infancy before they had even weight classes.

When a 600 pound guy could fight a guy 185 pounds, you know, people could be in there with their shoes on. It was a whole thing. The rules were still sketchy. But so I didn't really have to do a whole bunch of research on the underground aspect of it. I get the underground aspect, I get the betting aspect, I get how people make their money, the odds and all of that kind of stuff.

It's pretty straightforward. But what I do with each character that I portray is I just try to just find what motivates them, what makes them interesting and what humanizes them. I don't play good guys or bad guys. I play human beings that have made certain choices and have had certain experiences that have shaped their lives. You know, so in this movie, Frank and I are not necessarily good guys, but we're kind of like anti-heroes, if you will.

We're guys that are not necessarily doing good, but we're better than the worst guys. And, you know, you want to empathize with their journey and hopefully see them have a positive outcome. Yeah. And again, like I said, Frank's been here before and I'm thrilled that you're here too. Frank is my guy.

And Lights Out is available now in theaters on digital and demand. So you're from Harlem. From Harlem. OK, so are you Knicks, Yankees?

OK. What are you like, what's your what's your through line here? Well, New York sports. I fell off the wagon after 90s, early 2000s. It was tough.

That was a tough road, tough torch to carry. Yep. The Knicks are doing well now. They are indeed. They're doing very well.

They made playoffs last year. I'm liking their trajectory. OK. So, you know, so I like I loved it. Now, it's not that I went to somebody else. I just it was just tough being a Knicks fan. It's not like I went to the Lakers or went to the Clippers.

It wasn't that. I just was like, come on, guys, we're in New York. Supposed to be the greatest city in the world. You know, our teams suck.

What's going on? So but I've always been a Yankees back in the late 80s, early 90s. I was more Mets. The bad boys of, you know, baseball. Strawberry good.

Strawberry good. I mean, you could beat those guys. I mean, those guys were tough.

Keith Hernandez. Yeah, exactly. And if one got into a fight, they all came out of the dugout.

And it was it was mayhem. And then Gary Carter is the captain America of this whole thing. Exactly. Exactly. But, you know, I'm always rooting for New York teams. Always. Right.

OK. So I root for the Giants. You know, I mean, Jets are tough. You know, the Giants are tough, right? I mean, it's just tough. The Jets are a bridge too far. I mean, and you know, the funny thing is.

The bridge and tunnel too far? Yes. They give you a hard way to go. But, you know, I love watching the hard knocks, you know, training camps. I love seeing the preseason and even the mid-season because I really get to kind of get into who these players are, even the players that don't have the big names and, you know, people that are trying to come up. And so you wind up kind of rooting for them because you feel like you get to know them. Yeah, sure. But they can be disappointing. But, you know, hopefully we'll see, you know, a brighter day.

Okay. McKay Fifer here in the Rich Isaac Show. That's a die-hard Celtic fan over there. Tell them who you saw in the Bahamas on Friday. Oh, man, I saw Tatum. We were hanging out, man. We were hanging out in the Bahamas. I was there with my wife and bumped into him at a club in the hotel.

Okay. And then we chopped it up. I rooted for him. I said, yo, man, I'm rooting for you in the All-Star game.

And, you know, and life was good. So he left his defense in the Bahamas? You're saying? I think everybody left their defense in the Bahamas.

I think so, right? You know, look, I love the games where it's really challenging. It's interesting because when I was growing up, the East versus West was a real – that was a serious – when Kobe was there, even before Kobe. I mean, it was when Ewing and Jordan, I mean, Dominique Wilkins, I mean, Spud Webb, whatever. That was a real rivalry.

You know, Isaiah Thomas. I mean, that was real. That was real – people wanted to win. Well, everybody wanted to beat Isaiah. Oh, I know. I mean, but, you know, hey, man.

And that's what I loved about it, you know. And people – you couldn't just go through the paint and score and make a layup. And now it's like a three-point contest slash let them make a layup. Nobody touches them. Everybody's walking. What is that?

What's this four and five steps nonsense? You know, growing up, I played a lot of ball. You know, being a New Yorker, so I was always at the Rucker. I was a part of many teams.

The Yes tournaments, Douglas tournaments, all of the contests in school, everything. And two steps. That's it. I don't get the three, four steps. I just don't get it.

The double dribbles, when you come off the pivot, that's a walk. It's called a Euro step, actually. We're not in Europe.

We are in the United States of America, damn it. And I wanted to stay that way. Who did you see play at Rucker? Oh man, everybody. Rafer, you know, skip to Malou, Escalade. I mean, all of the – the Professor, all of those cats, man. I mean, all of the dudes that played great street ball.

Rafer made it out, obviously. But man, that was some of the most dynamic ball players. What was it like?

Man, it was awesome, man. And I knew the guys that sort of ran the Rucker. So we would come with our own little chairs, you know, that you get from a sporting goods store or whatever. And they would let us just sit right there on the ground and, you know, with our chairs. And then you had my man on the mic who always gave people nicknames.

And the people climbing, they would be on the fence, you know, just stuck on the fence watching the games on the roofs of the school. It was – it was – there's nothing like the Rucker. There's nothing like the Rucker.

I mean, nothing like it, you know. Makai Pfeiffer here on the Rich Eisen Show. It's time – you want to do some celebrity true or false? Let's do it. Here we go. Let's do it. And again, as always, we're very proud on the Rich Eisen Show of our production value.

Hit it. Celebrity true or false? True or false?

You can't handle the truth. Okay, there we go. All right. Makai Pfeiffer, celebrity true or false?

Yes. Okay, true or false? You had never taken an acting class before landing the starring role in Clockers with Spike Lee.

And you went to the audition on a lark only with a small passport photo instead of a head shot. That is absolutely unequivocally true. Really?

Absolutely true. What happened? Well, I was going to College of Electrical Engineering. And I was a big math guy, you know, the calculus, the whole thing. And because while I was in – I went to Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics in high school.

And while I was in high school, I went to Columbia University as well to take college credits. And I went to an open casting call with my cousin, who I talked about with you earlier, my cousin Sly Pfeiffer. And we didn't have – they said you had to bring a picture because what happened was Spike Lee was doing this open casting call. He was looking for the new lead in his new movie, but he wanted an unknown. So he did all of these open casting calls in, like, Philly and L.A. and New York.

It was in the paper on the radio. And they said you had to bring in a picture, like an eight-by-ten, like a normal head shot. I didn't have any head shots, you know. What I know about – all I had was family photos. So the only photo we could get and the only thing that we could afford, I think between me and Sly, we had $4 between us. So we went to Woolworth to get the passport photos. And it cost $3, and you got three pictures. And we put the $3 in the machine, and I sat in there, took the picture. And then he ran in, took the next picture, and then we took the last picture together.

And so it was these little photos. And we brought them down to where they were holding the open casting call. And I filled out a data sheet, and I sat there. And then one of the casting associates asked me to sign my name. And long story short, they asked me to come down to the audition, which I did. They didn't call me back for four weeks. I went about my business. They called me back. They said, come back. And then when I came back, Spike was in the room.

Oh, boy. And he said, okay. And Spike is playing. Spike is cool. Spike is cool. But he's still Spike.

He's still Spike. And so he didn't give me much. He's like, okay, let me see you do it again. So I was nervous as hell.

I didn't have any water or chapstick or gum. I was way behind the ears, and I'd never auditioned for anything before. And then I did the scene. He said, okay, this is good.

Come back on Monday. And then I did that. And then he said, okay, that was good.

Come back on Wednesday. He just kept giving me different scenes. And then all of a sudden I had to read with Isaiah Washington and do improvisations. And then he said, okay, that's good.

Come back again. Then I had to read with Harvey Keitel doing improvisations. And the funny thing is I didn't even know who the hell Harvey Keitel was.

I wasn't intimidated at all. I was like, who's this old dude at this point? I didn't know who he was. I hadn't seen Mean Streets or any of that stuff. I hadn't seen that. I was in a movie buff then.

And so I just did it. I was like, okay, he got me reading with this guy. And then ultimately, I know, but it's Harvey Keitel. Now I see his body at work and it's like, what were you talking about? But I wasn't in the film business. And then lo and behold, I came back the last time.

This is like my eighth audition. And I come to 375 Greenwich, which is owned by, I think, Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal. And I come up there and Spike is downstairs. He has a limo downstairs, but he's talking to Jane Rosenthal, who I didn't know either at the time, who was Robert De Niro's producing partner.

And I think they own Tribeca together, the film festival. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

That's what I'm saying. So I'm thinking I'm going upstairs and he's like, no, don't go upstairs. You know, wait, and he brings me in the car and I'm like, you know, what's going on? I'm ready to audition. And he's like, no, I just want to let you know you got the role, you know?

And he gave me, and I was like, it was like, you know, mind blowing. And then now you're in a movie with Keitel and Turturro and Spike's directing you. And Delroy Lindo in this and that. Oh, my God.

Delroy Lindo, I forgot about him. Oh, I love him. Yes, yes. Wow.

What a story. Well, first up, Mackay Pfeiffer, true or false, you almost turned down the role of Future in 8 Mile because you were just cast in ER. I did. I did.

You didn't turn it down or you didn't? Listen, to my agents, I turned it down and then they were like, no, you're not turning this down because I was due to start ER. I was really looking forward. And ER was already ER at that point in time? ER was already a mega show. And I was joining at the end of season eight, the last couple of episodes of season eight. And I really wanted to play a doctor. And ER had won all the Golden Globes, the Emmys and this and that. It was ER. And 9-11 had just happened. So, you know, people were scared to fly, as everybody was. You know, I'm a New Yorker. I saw what happened to the towers, you know. So, they said, look, it's Curtis Hanson who I did know his work, L.A.

Confidential and one of the boys and all of that great, great, great director, rest in peace. But they flew me out to Detroit and I met with Eminem. And we spent a few days together and chopped it up. What was that like? It was great, man. It was great.

We hit it off, I mean, immediately. And I saw how serious he was. They didn't give me the script.

I had to read the script in Curtis's office because they were being so hush-hush about it. I loved it. But it wasn't what you see on screen.

But I knew I could bring a nuance to it and something different, a certain energy, a certain spirit. So, then ER, John Wells, who was, you know, King John Wells, he said, you know what, go do the movie. And as soon as you finish the movie, you come and start ER.

And then that green light's the whole thing. I wrapped the movie. And then a week later, I was on the set of ER. You went from 8 Mile to ER? To ER. Within a week?

Within a week. That's crazy. But I'm glad I did it. I mean, you know, Eminem threw my name in the song and won an Oscar.

I mean, it's one of the most popular downloaded songs ever. Well, that was my next one. Is it true that he completely surprised you by including your name in it yourself? Absolutely.

That is true. How did you learn that you were in the song? We were shooting one day. Eminem had three trailers. He had his trailer for, you know, him to sleep and stuff like that. Then he had a studio trailer because he was doing his album and the soundtrack at the same time. And he had a gym trailer.

So, we would go in between takes and work out or whatever. And around two in the morning, we were shooting one night and he came back to the set. He said, yo, Makai, after this take, I want to take you to the studio.

I want to put your name in the song. And so we all, the whole crew, we all went to the trailer and he played the song and it was raw. It wasn't mastered. It wasn't mixed yet. And we got to the part and he said, there's no movie.

There's no Makai fighter. And everybody erupted. But I didn't know it was going to be, listen, I didn't know 8 Mile was going to be 8 Mile.

You know, you never know. And I didn't know the song was going to be as impactful. Well, I mean, Brockman was with me. Chris was with me when I was the honorary captain of the Michigan Wolverines one year. 2016 it was.

2016. And Jim Harbaugh, the coach at the time, let us be with the team the entire weekend. And they had a choice. I forget what the other choice of the film was the night before the game. But that lost immediately to 8 Mile.

He showed 8 Mile to the team the night before they destroyed Central Florida. And the team was just locked in. Because it is iconic and it is, you know, something that will, in fact, live forever. Yeah. But so were you just like, wait a minute, was that my name? Like when you heard it?

Yeah, I mean, he did preempt me. You know, so it wasn't like, hey, I just want you to hear this song and listen to this. But he did say, I put your name in the song, you know, I hope that's cool.

And I was like, hell yeah, it's cool, you know. Because back then, you know, Eminem was crushing people when, you know, he was killing people. If he put your name in a song, usually it's not good.

I mean, it ends your career. You know, he smacked you around with his lyrics. So I was very proud of that and very appreciative of, you know, him being, of him making me a part of that in a bigger way than was initially, you know, it was going to be. And it is true the final rap scene was totally ad-libbed, right? My stuff was totally ad-libbed. Your stuff too? My stuff on the stage, all of the stuff that I said, because that wasn't in the script.

Okay. So all of the stuff, all of my instructions to the rappers, all of my audience participation stuff, all of that was all ad-libbed. You know, they wrote their rhymes because they had to have the rhymes written because, you know, for continuity.

So you can change the camera angles and things like that. Okay, I see. But my stuff was totally ad-libbed. So all of that, DJ Spin That and all of that kind of stuff, all of that was just, and the reason I say DJ Spin That is because I forgot the guy's name. So I didn't call him by a name. That's why I say DJ Spin That, you know, because I forgot the guy's name. So after we got one or two takes, I couldn't go, I couldn't start saying his name, you know, so it just had to be DJ Spin That, you know. What was his name?

Do you remember? I don't remember his name. But he's a good DJ. He's an American DJ.

Detroit, you know, shout out to Detroit and I'm sure he's a favorite in Detroit. I'm pretty sure that DJ was in a movie called The Salt and Sea with Val Kilmer. He might have been.

So that's just a little side to that. So we can Google him. Let's Google him. Then I'll know his name. All right, last one for you and then I'll let you go.

Mekhi Phifer, is it true or false, fans still approach you on the street about how your ER character, Greg Pratt's death affected them and you suggested to ER producers prior to the show final season about your character. Yeah. Well, yes, people still to this day, I was right before the strike, I was shooting a movie in Bogota, Colombia. Wow.

So this is just another great destination. But it was it was wild. But people still talk about it. They still were affected by it. My mother, you know, I was in Los Angeles on the West Coast. My mother was in the East Coast. And when that episode aired, my mother called me because, you know, obviously she saw the show before I saw it.

Yes, sir. Obviously, I knew what happened. And she called me crying like somebody died in the family.

You know, like what the what's the matter? And she was like, Dr. Pratt died. You know, so she was very it was impactful. And but what I was due to do, what I was due to start, I was getting ready to start Broadway. And I knew that season 15 was going to be the last season.

And I'd rather go out with a bang than than just sort of just leave the hospital. You know, it was it was a great episode with Steve Buscemi. And and it was it was it was impactful, you know, and and so people still talk about it to this day. And I appreciate everybody and their viewership. So the way you made your mom stop crying is like a mom, I'm going to Broadway. Mom, I'm on the phone with you. I'm on the phone. That's number one.

I'm here. You know, but no, but she she was she was very proud because, of course, she she loved seeing me on television every Thursday. You know, so she she taped every episode and she just and you couldn't talk to her while the show was on. I love, you know, so, you know, and that's what I love about television. It's like, you know, you can be in somebody's home every week.

I know that. And you can say hello to my mother right now. I think she's watching on the.

Well, Makai says hi at Makai from Harlem on Instagram, lights out available in theaters on digital and demand. Let's do this on the regular. If you're curious, you know, I got nothing but love for you, man. Thank you.

Right back. I've always seen all you guys, man. That's awesome.

So you're happy to be here. All right. OK, TJ, hit it. TJ. It's been a minute and a half years ago, probably like 2004.

I was asked to do a USC student film by a guy named Mike Mallet. Oh, hold it. Let's do this. Because we got to take a break. We'll come back. OK. We'll finish the show.

All right. Makai Pfeiffer is going to finish the show right here on The Rich Eyes. We're going to be back with more in a second. This episode is brought to you by Pepsi Wild Cherry. Pepsi Wild Cherry is bursting with delicious cherry flavor and a sweet, crisp taste that gives you more to go wild for. Getting wild may look different these days, but whether it's opting for a solo Friday binge watch or a big night out, everyone can indulge in their wild side with Pepsi Wild Cherry. Also available in zero sugar.

So grab a Pepsi Wild Cherry and get wild. 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. All right. Radio returns in two minutes. Makai Pfeiffer still here.

Still here. He and TJ chopping it up figuratively and literally about having the same barber. We have the same barber. Yeah. Benny Blades.

Benny Blades. There's a quote growing up. Yeah. My line ain't right. I got to have my line right to have my mind right. Understood. Absolutely.

And he had, you know, you got to look right when you come on The Rich Eyes and show us something. But trust me, I know. Well, I wish I had a line.

We'll get Benny in here, don't worry. You're doing just fine though. I appreciate it. No, I needed that. Thanks for coming.

You're doing just fine. And you know, TJ used to be a producer on Punk'd. Oh, he did? And he was a producer on a particular episode.

You, on my episode? I was a producer. That was fun.

I hadn't thought about it in a while till yesterday. That was fun. We did.

So we got you coming out to the gym, right? No, actually I was at Paintball. Paintball.

Okay. I was with the crew and cast of VR. We used to go as a unit in Paintball. And they called me with the Punk'd. Like they pretend somebody broke my window to my truck.

And I really loved this truck because I did all kinds of modifications to it. And the guy, they made it seem like he broke into my truck. And then the cops came and they tried to make it seem like I hadn't paid this ticket. This thousand dollar ticket.

And I was like, what are you talking about? I paid that ticket. Because what it was, I got caught speeding coming from Vegas.

Wow. So they really went deep. I was going over a hundred miles an hour.

You were deep on him. So I got a thousand dollar ticket. So I had to go back to Barstow to pay the ticket, which I did. I went back to Barstow, paid the ticket.

Everything was love. And so I had cleared that up. So they brought it back up and made it seem like I didn't pay the ticket and they were being extremely disrespectful. It's called being Punk'd. It's called being Punk'd.

They were being disrespectful. Fantastic. Wow. And they were naming movies that I had been in, but I didn't catch it because I was getting pissed off.

This is for your own punks. They were like, yeah, you went about eight miles ago and your ticket's not paid in full. Nice. That was the whole thing. Nice. Do you know who the guy was, who the robber was?

No. Who was that? It was Daniel Tosh. Really? The now comedian. Yeah. He's great. He's funny.

I think that was his first time on camera, if I'm not mistaken. He's funny. Yeah. Tosh.0.

Tosh.0. That's right. He also had Whitney Cummings in it, if you know Whitney. Look at that. Yeah.

Yeah. Whitney was really good at getting us getting a line that MTV wanted for the promo. So she came up to you at one point and said, because he stole your wallet and she's like, do you need to borrow money? And you just looked at her like, I'm rich, baby. What's the hell is wrong with you? I'm rich, baby. Wow.

These checks are coming in steady. I'm okay. Just leave me alone. I found a hookup on YouTube. I'm going to post it. I'm so glad.

I'm a kite viper stuck around. This isn't show desk furnished by Grange with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grange has the right product for you.

Call click ranger.com or just stop by. I'm just thrilled that you came by. Oh man.

We could fill a whole hour talking about it. But I'll be back. This movie is just one of four that I have coming out this year. So I'll be back. Damn. Including the one that you shot in Bogota?

That one? Including the one that I shot in Bogota. Did somebody come up to you and talk ER with you in Columbia? Is that what you said? Absolutely. People talk about it.

People have come up to me from Argentina all over and when I was in London, when I was in Cape Town, Africa, they talked to me about ER paid in full, eight mile, soul food this Christmas. It goes on and on since you know how it is. I mean, when you create a body of work, you know, it's a blessing. I've been doing this for three decades now. So you know, it's a blessing to be able to have the body of work and to be recognized for it. So I'm very humbled and I feel blessed.

Thank goodness Woolworth had the passport photo booth. I love that story. I love that story that you probably might not have performed as well as you did to get that role if you knew who Harvey Keitel was. You know what I mean?

Maybe not. If it was Robert De Niro instead of, which Robert De Niro was actually supposed to play that role, but, and that's why Martin Scorsese, he was supposed to direct Clockers, but he opted to direct Casino. So while we were shooting Clockers, they were shooting Casino and Robert De Niro was supposed to play Harvey's role and Martin was supposed to direct the movie. And now, so Martin wound up executive producing the movie and Spike Lee directed it. And that's how that happened. And then, and then again, it's just like that sports, sometimes a team doesn't know what it should know and they wind up winning the championship. Absolutely. It's kind of like.

It's Kesmit. That's amazing. Everybody check out Lights Out available now in theaters on digital and on demand. We're back to finish up this show on the Roku channel in just a moment. I want to thank Bill Bradley and also Jay Billis for appearing on this show and for you, Mackay Pfeiffer for coming on.

We'll see everybody else on Wednesday in a sec. The Rolling Stone Music Now podcast gets inside the biggest stories with Rolling Stone senior writer Brian Hyatt. And here's Lil Yachty with Tierra Whack. I've never been to a fashion show. I never did any Paris fashion week, New York fashion week, can I 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 would 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.