Peter King: I've Known This Day Was Coming

This is the Rich Eisen Show with guest host, Suzy Schuster. The best teams in the NFL, top to bottom, are the Dolphins and the Vikings.

Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The Chiefs were an F-. The Chiefs got an F-.

The Steelers got an F-. Earlier on the show, Chris met Doug Russo. Coming up, longtime NFL writer Peter King. Actor and Roastmaster General, Jeffrey Ross. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Suzy Schuster.

Hey everybody, Suzy Schuster in the chair for Rich Eisen. I am just recovering from our conversation with Christopher Russo. That was fantastic. And if you missed it, please go check it out on YouTube.

If you're watching on Roku, it'll re-air. It's fantastic. I loved having him on. First time, long time, and it was great to have him on. 844-204, Rich is the number. Please call in. You know I love the calls.

I will always take them. Thrilled to have you guys all on Sirius. Wherever you're listening to this show on the Odyssey app. Wherever you might be.

Twitter, Instagram. Thanks for watching. Thanks for checking in. Christopher, how are you this morning? I'm great. How are ya? How are you? Mikey D. Happy to be with you.

TJ. That was fun. That was a workout.

I gotta tell you, we did some nice ramping. And as we're sitting here in the commercial break, we're like, OK, what are we talking about now? Because I feel exhausted from that interview. But it was fantastic and thrilled to have Christopher Russo on. And happy to have him back on in the future.

Whew. Well, LeBron was pretty good last night. We could talk about that. Yeah, that was pretty good.

Yeah, that's fine. All right, we're moving on, Pastor LeBron. We were talking about Springsteen and about what our favorite Springsteen songs are in anticipation of Christopher Russo. I still love Jungleland, Mikey. There's something so special about when it goes on and on and on. It is a really, really good song. That's a very long song.

Really good song. Yeah. And then that morphed into weird things like, what was your first poster? And mine was, I had Bobby Orr and then Terry O'Reilly. And then the ice cream truck was coming and I heard it jingling and I had no money for it. And my brother paid me, I think, 75 cents for my autographed Terry O'Reilly poster.

Just saying. That happened. Chris, who's on your wall? I honestly don't remember. I think it probably had to have been Michael Jordan growing up.

Man, when I got to college, it was probably Paul Pierce and Tiger Woods and I had a Marshall Faulk poster. You did. That's cool. Yeah. Probably had a, I used to have this like Sports Illustrated to do the insert of the year and it was Tyra Banks and I'd put it on the ceiling hoping it would fall down on top of me.

And it actually did one day. What? Oh my God. That's not creepy at all.

I was 18 years old. What do you want from me? Yeah, that was perfect. You know what I mean?

Hoping that the poster would fall down on you. Fantastic. Yeah. Peter King's going to be thinking, what the heck are they talking about on the show today?

He joins us in about 17 minutes. Mikey, who's on your wall? We were I had a lot of bands, so that makes sense. We were like in the late 70s, it was bands. So it was like I think I had like Kiss.

Definitely the Kiss poster. Then I had a lot of movies. I had like all these like crazy movies from the like King Kong. Like I was a big like like that kind of movie guy. So I had like that. Then I went to like, of course, in the 80s, it became.

Women clad in bathing suits. So I had Heather Thomas, Heather Locklear. And all those like all the all the stars like that were like the stars of television, because that was like what everybody just you know, you can't have a movie poster on your wall. But that was like it. I had like a big like album covers. And then I went from that again to that. And then it got to a point where I was like, no posters on the wall.

We want just like blank wall. Was it the Heather Thomas red bathing suit poster that my brother had? Exactly. Yes. Yes. I told you guys, you know, I'm friends with her out here through, believe it or not, environmental stuff. Environmental.

Makes sense. Sure. Wow. This red bathing suit.

Yeah. And so she's a little before my time, but but I said to her when I first met her, I said, you know, you were on my brother's wall growing up. She said, Susie, I was on everybody's wall. I said, that's not something we have in common.

But, you know, hey, great to meet you. TJ, who's on your wall? Man, it's been a minute since I had posters on the wall. But, you know, being a kid, it was Dr. J.

It was Muhammad Ali, Charles Barkley, then a whole wall dedicated to Michael Jordan. And then I started subscribing to Sports Illustrated and the swimsuit issue started coming in. It shifted my perspective a little bit. So the next thing you know, there was a lot of Elle MacPherson on my wall and Karen Alexander and Kathy Ireland and Carol and, you know, people of women of that nature. You know, Vanessa Williams. Scott said something.

Janet Jackson. Scott said something about I guess someone was talking about maybe booking Kathy Ireland here or something like that. And you got very excited.

Well, I was like, he goes to me, he goes, the words Ireland weren't even out the mouth. They were like, yep, that's true. I just remember Kathy Ireland in the swimsuit issue with a Mets hat on taking batting practice on some island, you know, and you know, that like I said, that changes a young man's perspective. Well, as one does want to do if if you're on a desert island, of course, you have your Mets. Is that when you became a Mets fan? It was around that time, but that wasn't the reason I was already a Mets fan.

And then you became even more of one. What were you asking? Oh, I'm sorry. I don't even remember.

Something about a deserted island. I think I was just saying, like, she's she's posing, I'm sure, like looking over the shoulder right in the no, she was in a batting cage. She had a baseball bat in hand.

Yeah, I'm looking at it. Taking a swing. So so when one finds oneself on a desert island, there tends to be a batting cage. Is that what you're trying to tell me? I mean, I don't think it was deserted. There were people there. OK. You know, just checking. You know, the thing about the deserted island, it has to be deserted.

So there was inhabitants on this island. Well, I think this leads us to our poll question of the day. Eight, four, four, two or four.

Rich is the number. What was who was on your wall? Who do you like? Who do you need on your wall?

That's a great question. You want someone on your wall. Call us right now with your first movie poster. Eight, four, four. Poster period, right? Poster period. Yeah.

Two oh four, Rich. You want to know who the Bears are going to take? I don't know who the Bears are going to take. They're going to take Caleb Williams. They're going to take Caleb Williams. Let's move on. Exactly. It's more interesting who the commanders and the Patriots are going to take. I listen. The Patriots take. We're already sweating over here.

That's our whole future laid out in front of us. Did I mention Elle MacPherson? Did I mention 1980s Elle MacPherson? Wasn't she married to David Copperfield? She was married to everybody. By the way, Christy Brinkley. Come on, she was the first one.

Yeah, she was. Yeah. The swimsuit issues. This is great.

How you guys doing over here? You guys take a collective breath, boys. You took us into a... We're in a... Go to the gym and take a cold shower.

Exactly. Speaking of the gym, Kelly LeBrock from Weird Science. Is that the one who's in Whitesnake? No, that one. No.

No. No, that's Tawny Coutain. That's Tawny Coutain. Rest in peace, by the way. Who I think was the first time that Rich ever looked at me and said, what's wrong with you? Was after she passed and I mentioned something about puberty.

And that was the first time that Rich was like, what? Yeah. Tawny Coutain.

Do you think anyone's going to trade for Zach Wilson? Why would you? I mean, so, okay, this kind of goes into our conversation. This transitioning.

Do you like it? Have we exhausted this? Well done.

That would be one of those, like one of these ones. Moving on. To a quarterback without a home. We talked about this yesterday, about the psychological effect it can be on a quarterback.

Don't get that smirk off your face, Christopher. That psychological effect you can have when you just get no love. And there's been all this conversation about Mack Jones just needs a hug. Zach Wilson basically just his brain got fried.

Here's the problem. Who's willing to take a leap on these guys when they've been spit up and chewed out? And I'm not sure who's going to be willing to take Zach Wilson because obviously Joe Douglas yesterday said that the Jets are giving him permission to seek out a trade. Who's coming after him? I got a spot for him.

Okay, what do you got? It's kind of crazy. The San Francisco 49ers. Sam Darnold is going to be a free agent. He's going to go somewhere else. I saw somebody saying yesterday that could the Vikings tap Sam Darnold to be their starter if Kirk Cousins leaves a free agency?

Didn't they do it in the deep voice? It's kind of like not a bad scenario. But if you're talking about a reclamation project, a chance where you can go, there's no pressure on you to do anything. No one's expecting you to start. You're not coming in to be the savior or anything. Talk about a coach with a great system that's great for quarterbacks where you can learn and actually become a professional.

I think San Francisco is a perfect spot. Why wouldn't they flip the Jets a seventh round pick? Because maybe they don't want this kid because they think this kid is fried. I mean, do you think what I'm saying? I'm saying you're bringing him in to literally stand there and hold a clipboard because you have this kid in Brock Purdy who is under the best contract in the game. He just took you to the Super Bowl. You're a hair away from winning it.

And the sky's the limit for this kid MVP finalist. So you're just bringing in Zach Wilson. Hey, learn from us. We're going to give you all the hugs. We're going to give you all the positive reinforcement that we know you need because you're broken.

And just stand here, watch and learn. Let's get a few reps. Oh, and I'll I'll we'll fix you back up and then we'll send you back out into the wild where you can be a productive NFL player. OK, so my argument against that would be that John Lynch knows firsthand what happens when you need a deep roster of quarterbacks. Sure, but Zach Wilson also had a few moments last year. He has moments. We're also seeing where they're just letting him go.

He has moments. Sending Darnold on his way. Maybe if he had... Darnold would have to choose to stay. It was a one year deal. Maybe if he had a stronger offensive line, so what you're saying is the Jets offensive line was terrible. Terrible.

Didn't give him room to operate. So maybe if he goes to San Francisco, also just being jerked around like you're the starter. You're not. You're here.

You're not. Well, blah, blah, blah. Like, get him out of there. Right. He's got to go.

Yeah. Same thing with Mac Jones. San Francisco is a perfect spot for both these kids to just learn, heal all wounds, become a pro, learn how to be a professional, have some success standing and watching the team dominate and then boom, go back into the wild and see if you can get your career back. Yeah, I don't know if the San Francisco Reclamation Project, I don't know that John Lynch is running the rehab center.

It's a great spot for players to learn. And plus, Kyle Shanahan, such a good offensive coach, good quarterback coach is a good spot for these guys. I don't know that John Lynch is running a rehab center. I feel like he wants that.

He wants that trophy. Well, they don't have a backup quarterback, so they need somebody to be a backup. Wouldn't you rather have... I mean, let's go down the list of who's available.

How about that? They both showed flashes. I mean, they're first round picks. Zach was second overall. Mac Jones made a Pro Bowl a couple of years ago. Zach Wilson has had some moments in games where you're like, oh, maybe he's not that bad after all. Would you rather have Mac Jones or Zach Wilson? Zero.

I'd take a bullet to the head. Right. That's great. But I think at this point, I'd rather have Zach Wilson. But you just said Sam Darnold was on the one year deal. You think he's gonna wanna lead?

He's not gonna be a starter anywhere, so why wouldn't he just... What if Kirk Cousins goes to the Falcons and free agency and now the Vikings have no starting quarterback and they're like, hey, Sam Darnold, I know Kevin O'Connell. Come in. Boom.

You're a starter. I mean, I don't want any of those three. I don't want any of them. I don't think Sam Darnold's that bad, to be honest.

He's okay. But that's not who you want to build around. Why can't he do exactly what Kirk Cousins has done for the Vikings?

Perhaps. I just think Kirk Cousins had a lot more experience. And there's a talent difference there, too. You just can't be like, well... Sam Darnold was the third overall pick.

Yeah, that's fine. Because he's shown to prove that that was a good pick. What was around him in New York and Carolina? Okay, but the point is, how are you gonna say he can do what Kirk Cousins did? That's not necessarily true. There is a difference in talent there. Never played with any of the talent Kirk's played with.

Never had the coaching and never had the offensive resources around him. So we have no idea, actually, what Sam Darnold can do. But I think you do. You do. You know. Okay.

Well, you're better than me then. You know what the truth is? That there are so many unknowns with all three. And it seems to me that Darnold is the best of the three that we know of. Again, we just know that Mac Jones needed a hug. And maybe he'll revamp somewhere else. Maybe we'll be surprised.

Maybe we'll see these guys playing at a whole new level. But if you have to start going through the list of quarterbacks... I mean, so why wouldn't... Okay, correct me. I'm just saying, where's the spot for these guys?

It's not with their current teams. I think that'd be a good spot. But don't you think, San Francisco, will they entertain the idea of re-signing Sam? I'm sure. But if you're Sam and you can go somewhere else where there's a better opportunity to start and get actual playing time, he's not getting any playing time in San Francisco unless Brock Purdy gets injured again. Well, there's the unless. And that's the exact reason why I never bet on anything, because it's all about the unless. So I don't know.

I think... I mean... Or, okay, so do you want to go where you can start and be a bigger factor, or do you want to win a ring? Because there's a better chance for him to win a ring as the backup there than there might be for him to start. Everybody wants to play. Sure. I'm talking about Sam Darnall or Zach Wilson or Mac Jones. They're all young guys. They're under 25. So they want to play.

They want to prove that they can be the guy and worthy of their draft selection. Zach was second. Sam Darnall was third. Mac was 15.

So they're first round players. It's crazy. 844-204, Rich is the number, Susie Schuster in for Rich Eisen. Peter King will be joining us in about six minutes' time. Thrilled to have him on.

I can't wait to ask him some of these esoteric questions as well, if you listen to the interview with Chris Russo or with Christopher Russo. I also am very glad we clarified what he wants to be called. Christopher. It's deferential. Or Doggie.

You can go Doggie. I'm going to go Christopher. But we will ask Peter, in the formal, some questions for him as well. We should ask him these same questions because he probably has better insight than we do, sitting here like a bunch of Jamokes. But coming up next is Peter King.

Would love to have you guys stick and stay. Peter King, right after this commercial break. 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.

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Available wherever you listen. Mike Del Tufo, are you out there, Mike? Yes, I'm here, Rich. How you doing today? I'm doing great. So what are you revealing? You've got right here. You got right up here above me is a brand new Rich Eyes in show sign.

New Rich Eyes in show sign. Am I going to do it now? You see this? Yeah. Here we go. Here we go.

If it's going to be fun. Just hope it doesn't come down in your head. I can't do it because the way it's just set up to put down the microphone, dude, I can't.

This is the worst reveal ever. Take down. Oh, just put the microphone down. Good. This is good. This is the worst thing. Yes.

Pull both of the cords. No, we cannot have this as the reveal. He does audio. This cannot be the reveal. He does audio.

He does not do manual labor. It's the way it's lit. It's messed up up there. I can't. Look, I can't. Walk up the stairs. Walk up the stairs.

Don't you invoke me? Okay. The not revealed.

He's going to walk up the stairs. Oh, no. I can't. Because I can't climb to where that is.

It's called the not revealed. Yeah, you can. That's up in the second story.

You got to have a cable. You guys don't know OSHA rules. See, they screwed me. They did this on purpose. I'm convinced. Yeah, it's against you, Mike. I'm telling you. Del Tufo, just tell everyone out there you don't have any change for them. Just pull it. Give them good Jersey pull. Put them up.

Yeah, there we go. Watch. Put the microphone down and pull it. Pull the other one.

You're a big man. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it. Yank it.

Yank it. All right, welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show. Radio Network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for For every industry, Grainger's got the right product for you.

Just call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Susie Schuster in for Rich Eisen and I am thrilled to bring Peter King to the Rich Eisen show. Peter, you're so gracious with your time and thanks again for making it.

Hey, no problem Susie. Happy to be here. How are you? I'm great this morning. Peter, what was the emotion like for you when you pressed send for the last time on your last column for Football Morning in America?

I don't know. I don't really have much of any. I've known this day was coming for a while. I don't consider myself a particularly emotional person when it comes to personal stuff like that. I've probably gotten more emotional reading some of the things about me over the last few days and saying, wow, that's awful nice of people.

But I don't know, Susie, I always looked at my job like do the absolute best you can and then wake up the next morning and do the best you can on whatever is next. I just, as of right now, I just have no idea what's next and I'm kind of happy about that. I'm happy that I've got nothing to do for a while. Who sent in a letter of appreciation that surprised you the most? You know, I'm just literally like today, today is Thursday and I'm just going through like I missed it the first like 24 hours. I was really kind of tied up, but I missed a lot of the stuff.

But one of the things that came in right away, like came in Monday that I saw that I was really that I really was happy with it. I don't know why. I don't know Jared Goff all that well, but Jared Goff wrote me a really nice, really kind of sweet note. And basically, thanks for being fair and, you know, I just I really, really appreciated that.

I don't know why. I mean, I've heard from Brady and Peyton and a bunch of coaches and GMs and all that. But for some reason, Jared Goff taking time to write a fairly lengthy note was just really, really nice.

And I am I'm highly appreciative of him doing that. Who might have been your favorite player to deal with over your career? Well, I would say early on when I covered the New York Giants, I really love dealing with Phil Simms and Harry Carson. They were two just really, really good people. Very honest, told you everything that they could tell you about the team and about the game. And you know, as time went on, I had some memorable moments with Brett Favre.

That was cool. I would say, you know, in recent years, Brady and Manning have really been great to deal with. And I one thing I really appreciate about Brady is long after the time that he could ever even think that I could do anything for him, he would always give me time. And and I mean, a week after the Patriots beat Atlanta and came back in the Super Bowl from twenty eight to three down, you know, I spent almost two hours with him in a ski resort in Montana and and just, you know, he was in no hurry to leave. He just wanted to talk about the game and his life. And I was you know, those are the kind of things that you'll remember for a long time. I mean, I have to ask, is he a good skier?

I don't have any idea. I showed up at about noon and he was just coming off the slopes, but he didn't have a broken leg. So he must have been good. And the mountain was pretty steep. So he must have been pretty good. How could Tom Brady be bad at anything?

I have a feeling. Can you just imagine what Bob Kraft's face must have been like if he thought he was skiing bumps somewhere or like, I mean, back in the day. And you have to figure that he was doing whatever, whatever he wanted to do. What story are you most proudest of? You know, Susie, there have been a few of them, but I think probably one of the stories that I'm really, really proud of is I did this in 2013, a week in the life of an officiating crew. And because basically the, you know, the officiating crews in the NFL are behind an iron curtain.

You don't get to actually be with them or talk to them or see how they live. And what was so educational about that, I was with the referee, Gene Sterator, in his house in Pennsylvania when the grades from the previous Sunday's game came in. And he did not have a good game, according to the graders. And when he stood up from the computer, took a deep breath, he just walked away and he just said, well, there goes the Super Bowl.

I mean, he'd been having a really good year. But it wasn't only being with the referee. I went to the back judge's home, Dino Paganelli in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and sat in on a day of him teaching high school AP social studies. And it was, you know, it's just so cool to see that the officials, at least as of now, have other lives. And so I was with them. And then I was with them before and after the game that weekend, Ravens Bears at Soldier Field.

And that was such a great education because everything I was seeing was brand new. What's been maybe the best moment of your career where you said, you know, where you realized that you were special, that you had an impact, what story made it have been? I think it might have been the fact that, you know, this was, what, 28 years ago, Brett Favre was addicted to Vicodin and he was going into rehab the next day. And I got him on the phone the previous night. He was leaving crack of dawn to report to rehab in Topeka, Kansas.

And he told me everything. I mean, he almost died in this off season. And he told me the whole story, including really one of the most memorable things I've ever heard an athlete utter, which is essentially, I don't have the exact quote in front of me, but it was essentially, you know, everybody looks at me and they say, oh my God, I'd love to be Brett Favre. But would they really love to be Brett Favre? Would they love to be going into rehab tomorrow?

Would they love to be addicted to Vicodin? I don't think anybody would really love to be Brett Favre if they knew what it took to be Brett Favre. So that's what I'll always remember. And then I think, Susie, I've told this story a couple of times this week that I was 32 years old and I was covering a game my first year at SI. Eagles were hosting the 49ers. And theoretically, I wasn't supposed to write that day.

But Joe Montana threw four touchdown passes in the last 14 minutes. And I went from not probably not writing the game to writing the cover that week with one of Montana's iconic covers that said on the front, Joltin' Joe. And to me, that was an incredible memory for me because I was one year removed from covering the New York Giants for a paper on Long Island. I was 10 years removed from sitting in class at Ohio University. And that something like that happens and you think to yourself, time to grow up, kid. You're not a kid anymore. And so that was a memorable day also.

Peter King here on The Rich Eisen Show, Susie Shuster in for Rich. Peter, I asked you for your greatest achievements. What are your greatest regrets? You know, probably my greatest regret is that I messed up the one bit of reporting on the whole Deflategate incident in 2015. I confirmed I wrote that I confirmed an ESPN story that was wrong. And so I was wrong and I blame nobody but myself. I admitted it. I offered to resign from SI in 2015 and, you know, it's come out a few times over the years, but that's the kind of thing that I really have a lot of regret over.

When people read me, they should trust me to tell them the truth. And when I don't, it's a black mark for me. So even though I've apologized multiple times since, it's still the thing that I probably regret the most. But, you know, Peter, personal accountability is a big mantra in our house.

And the fact that you even apologized or took or said that I did wrong to me is worth everything. What are your concerns with journalism moving forward in that manner in a world in which very few people are personally accountable? Well, I'd say I have two concerns. Number one, just the fact that, you know, there were so many ways for people like me, 21, 22-year-old kids graduating from journalism school, I wasn't necessarily going to be a sports writer.

I didn't care what I was. When I was at Ohio University, I wrote news. I was the managing editor of the paper, not the sports editor. And so, and I had multiple opportunities for jobs when I left school. I mean, kids today, even the best kids at Northwestern, at Missouri, Syracuse, Ohio, the really top journalism schools, they're all having trouble getting jobs. And so I fear that a lot of the people who are good students and very good college journalists, five years into their career, they're going to get sick of batting their head against the wall and they're going to go sell insurance for State Farm or something.

I don't know. And I'd say the only other thing is the fact that, look, media around the country is under attack and newspapers are closing down. Local newspapers are closing down. In many cases, they're the only watchdog for, you know, local city, small local governments. And they don't have any watchdogs anymore. And that's bad for the country to not have watchdogs on public figures and in our public institutions.

So I think those are the things that probably worry me the most. Peter King here on The Rich Eisen Show, we had Christopher Russo on in the last hour. I asked him about the Mount Rushmore of media.

Who would you put on there? And that includes the print, radio, television, you name it. Wow. You mean forever?

Hmm. Let's go sports world. Unless you want to put, you know, Imus or Howard there too. I would say I think probably the best sports columnist, you know, of the early days. This is like if you asked me about football, I'd say, well, Otto Graham has to be on and a lot of people would say, who's Otto Graham? So it was the old quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. But I'd say Red Smith should definitely be on it. He's a longtime sports columnist. He was so great at it. I would say, I mean, I would put I'd really probably put Chris Berman on it because Chris Berman was at the forefront of really popularizing the National Football League more than anything else.

And look, I'm going to go football centric. I would put my mentor at Sports Illustrated, Paul Zimmerman, on there, Dr. Z. I think he was the first person who really taught people the inside of the NFL. And then I'd probably put Peter Gammons on it. I think Peter Gammons has been absolutely awesome for so long. And he deserves to know that people like me read him.

I read him when I was in high school and said, man, if I could ever be one tenth of Peter Gammons, I would be incredibly proud of myself and proud of my career. So those are four who I think belong on it. Well, since he already looks like an old president, I think it's a perfect person to put up there.

So that makes a lot of sense. We were just sitting here in the studio talking about Zach Wilson and Mac Jones and Sam Darnold and some of these other, you know, these quarterbacks who for Mac, who needed a hug for Zach, who's I mean, you just don't know how the kid stands up every day after the beating he took from the New York media. Where do you think these kids should land? Well, I know what I would do if I were Zach Wilson and I were his agent. I would campaign to get with Sean McVeigh, Matt Leflore, Kyle Shanahan, Mike McDaniel, Andy Reid. I would want to get with people, even if I if I'm Zach Wilson, I would say you can pay me minimum and you can make me the third stringer. I just want to be here for the next couple of years and learn everything about being an NFL quarterback.

That's what if I were any of the people you just mentioned, that's what I want to do. But particularly Zach Wilson, who I think is one of those guys who just needs to be for a while and we need to find out whether one day maybe he would be able to be a great quarterback. Look, I I had a stat in my column, Suzy, maybe about a month ago about about Trey Lance. And I said, you know, Patrick Mahomes threw more passes this year than Trey Lance's thrown combined.

In the last seven years, which includes his senior year at Marshall High School in Minnesota. There's a reason why Trey Lance has failed to this point, and that's because he's so incredibly young and inexperienced in the job. And and look, I think he's in a pretty good place right now in Dallas. And Mike McCarthy is very fundamentally sound.

But all of those guys, they need to get somewhere and train under brilliant coaches, in my opinion. Bill Belichick. Why did the next five years look like for him?

Great question. I would think, you know, as Suzy, as you know, I've told the world this, that Rich Eisen had the best line about about Bill Belichick this year. He and Nick Saban ought to do exactly what Peyton and Eli do. And instead of the Manning cast, it should be the coach cast. You know, rich. And, you know, what would be great on that, honestly, I doubt he could do it. I'd love to see Rich sitting in the middle of them and just have them on for a game. Maybe, you know, maybe CBS or Paramount Plus or Peacock or somebody.

They do one game a weekend and they do it on a streaming service. Who knows? Maybe.

Are you listening, guys? Great idea, Peter. Great idea.

I love the idea. And I think Bill Belichick needs to rehab his image a little bit. I think the fact that he got one interview out of seven openings, not including New England, is a disgrace, in my opinion. If I were Josh Harris in Washington, I have no idea why he wouldn't have wanted to sit in a room with Bill Belichick for four hours downloading his brain about what he should do with his head coaching job, even if he were to decide that he didn't want to hire Belichick.

Yeah. I mean, even with the reports that he's sitting in with all the quarterback interviews today, clearly he's an owner who wants to be in the room. Why not pick Bill Belichick's brain? I don't get it. I want to tell you quickly, since you mentioned that, when I told Rich, I was reading your column right before he was getting out of bed, and I said, Rich, you're not going to believe it. You're in Peter's column. And he was honestly so touched and over the moon that he was in your last column. It meant so much to him. So thanks for that. That's right. Chris, what do you got?

Peter, I know this matters to you as much as it does to me. What are the Red Sox doing? I don't know. I might go to one of their games next week in Florida. I'm going to go to spring training.

I don't have any idea. It looks like they're trying to become, you know, the Tampa Bay Rays. I don't know why they haven't gone out and got Jordan Montgomery and obviously Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell. You've got to ridiculously overpay for him. But they've ridiculously overpaid for a lot of players in the last few years, and I wish they would ridiculously overpay for just one. It's just so frustrating to watch all the bats leave town, the Mookie bets trade, and now they get rid of Verdugo.

So it's zero. They gave away Mookie for nothing. Yeah, I don't really mind them getting rid of Verdugo. I didn't hate him, but he certainly had proven he wasn't going to be an answer.

Really nice player. To me, he's always been kind of a filler, but I guess I look at this and say, Craig Breslow's a really smart guy. I hope he can figure out what's really important, but I just hope they win 70 games.

But I think that might be a lofty end of it. Peter King here on The Rich Eisen Show. Peter, do you think we'll ever know why Malcolm Butler didn't play in the Super Bowl? I think in my opinion, and this is going to sound almost ridiculously elementary, Bill Belichick very often went on practice and went on effort. What I had always heard about that week and that period of time is that Malcolm Butler was getting killed in practice. Does it matter? Should it have mattered? I can't tell you, and I don't know that to be a fact.

That's the thing I had always heard, but I don't know. It's hardly the biggest mystery now with the documentary out about the Patriots. It's hardly the biggest mystery of about 20 mysteries that have been brought to the front of that series. Did you learn anything watching this documentary?

It's been phenomenal. Yeah, I haven't watched very much of it, but the one thing I learned is how much seeming enmity there was between. I knew that there was some bad blood between the Kraft family and Bill Belichick, but it seems like there was a lot more than some. I think it comes down to this fact that when Bill Belichick did not want to continue as the HC of the NYJ back in 2000, back at the turn of the century, nobody else wanted him but Robert Kraft.

Nobody. Nobody in the league wanted him. I don't know where he was going to coach, if he was even going to coach in the year 2000. But having said that, Bill Belichick was wanted by one man, and that was Robert Kraft. He ignored all of the people in the league who said, man, don't hire this guy. He'd be awful. And he did a very, very intelligent thing.

He didn't listen to the noise. He hired him, and the rest is history. And I believe, I've always believed that Robert and Jonathan Kraft had basically said Bill Belichick forgot January of 2000.

Even though he's done great things for us and we are grateful, he's forgotten how he got here in the first place. So do you think that he is the coaching genius that he is spoken of, or do you do? I think he's a coaching genius, there's no question about it. And you know, it just goes to show over the years, I do understand everybody said, well, you know, he didn't win without Brady. Well, you know, you could say that about some of the greatest coaches in the history of football. I mean, an awful lot of the really great coaches did not win without a great quarterback or quarterbacks. And so that's why when I look at this, I think it's the dumbest argument, you know, since I've been covering the NFL. Well, how great is Belichick? He's never won without Tom Brady. So what? Did Paul Brown win very much without Otto Graham?

No. And so I mean, and we could go through a lot of this, a lot of these. I absolutely think he's brilliant. And I've talked to enough offensive coaches over the years, the latest in December, when I sat in Andy Reid's office after they beat New England in Foxborough when the Patriots were a mess. And Andy Reid is just shaking his head and he said, Oh, my God, how frustrating it was to coach today against that defense. So yeah, I do think he's, he's a genius as a coach.

He's not, he's not without flaw, but I do think he was a genius. Last question for Peter King. Peter, who's the one interview that said no to you, that you just can't shake the disappointment?

Gee, I'm not, I don't mean this to sound ridiculous, but nothing stands out. And I, cause I just, nothing, I'm sure people have said no to me, but quite honestly, I've never let that bother me too much. I'm going to write the story I'm going to write.

I always will. And if I can't talk to John Doe, I'm going to talk to 13 people around John Doe and I will get the story. So obviously there have been times when I've not been able to talk to important characters in a story.

I just shrug my shoulders and just say, that's okay. I'm still going to write a damn good story right here. Peter, you are a treasure. You are always so generous with your time. Thank you so much.

And I can't wait to see what you do next. Hey, thanks a million, Susie. Great being on with you.

Good luck. It's always a pleasure. Thank you, Peter. Thanks, Peter. That's the great Peter King.

And you know, guys, you just can't take time with these guys for granted. Now, TJ, I know you've been a long time S.I. subscriber, like I was, I mean, it was literally the first thing you read. What did Peter write this week? What's his story?

What's the cover? Can't wait to see the insight. Can't wait to see who he talked to.

What nuggets he he, you know, mined out of whatever the game of the week was that week. Yeah, it's absolute legend. I'm glad you mentioned Dr. Z earlier, you know, because he was a guy when I was younger and first started.

That was what I went to. But Peter King, definitely legend in the game and sat away with like, you know, yesterday, Pete Famel said something about Michael Pennix, right? And he said, I've never seen the ball leave someone's hands as violently as it does is. And I put that on Twitter and somebody responded, well, that's a weird way to put it. And I'm like, no, that's a writer.

That's someone who is a master with words saying something that you would have just said he throws the ball hard. And, you know, and just the way that some of these guys and Peter being near or at the top of the list, just the way with words, the way they broke down stories and just made you feel like you were sitting in the room with him sometimes when he wrote it. It's amazing.

Yeah. Let's take a break. When we get back, we'll talk more about Peter King. Let's wrap up this second hour of the Rich Eisen show. We'll be back in a minute.

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 switch to. Be sure to follow.

So you never miss the next episode. And thanks for listening wherever you listen. When did you first know that you were part of something that was huge and becoming big? I'll give you one that I, this will seem an odd answer. I mean, I haven't said this, I haven't thought of this till you asked me this question.

It's all incremental. Like, Ooh, you know, he went out to eat in California on a vacation. And because I did the late show, well, what does the Swami want to drink? You know, in 1981, like what maybe that's more incremental 1983, you will laugh. The America's cup race that we lost off Newport, the seventh race, the wing keeled land down under, okay, sailboat racing, right? Right. But it was like a Tuesday afternoon.

Don't quote me on that. And one of the Providence stations had a helicopter that they were televising in Rhode Island and some sort of commentary. And we picked up the feed at two o'clock when it was on the big seventh race of us, dragons United States, the sailboat race two in the afternoon. I want to say a Tuesday with no, we didn't tell anybody. I think they arranged it at one 45, you know, typical the rating we got or, or the amount of people that saw this who just took, well, if it's on, it'll be there, but that's 1983. We only started in 79 rich. So a sailboat race in the middle of a day of a week and people were looking for us because if they don't have it, nobody will. Right.

And so this isn't what old now I know we're going to be big time, but this is what I knew that people knew who we were, what we stood for and what potentially we could give them even without any promotion. I hadn't, I hadn't thought about that one in a long time. You dug it out of me. There we go. I like interviewer, man. I got it.

Don't make me cry on the set. Welcome back to the rich eyes and chose Susie Schuster in for rich eyes and Chris. Great conversation with Peter King. I think he vindicated what you had to say about Zach Wilson and Mac Jones and Sam Darnold. Well, as rich says, the greatest thing in the world is being right.

And so it was nice. It was nice to hear a professional and someone with the accolades and the gravitas to echo what I said moments before he's a professional in, you know, anyway. So you're not a professional.

Is that what you're saying? I'm saying I have awards and no one else here does. You do?

I do. What's your award? You wear a main sports main sports columnist of the year 2009.

Yeah, I have I have a better one. So like whatever. I have an emmy's because you're a part of a team or or so standing sports reporting me by looking at it local. Hey, how are you? Well, Dave Canales was talking about his quarterback, Bryce Young today at the combine.

Let's hear what he had to say. No plan to fix Bryce Young. I think for me, it's it's about building an offense that we can be proud of, something that something that is tough, something that is smart, that that takes care of the football. Number one, we got to create more explosives.

And then and then, of course, we have to minimize damage with exotic pressures and things like that. So I think just elevating the whole group and and really asking Bryce to just do his part, you know, and that and that kind of, you know, without getting really into the specifics of it, you know, but I have had a lot a lot more chance to really dive into some film since the last time we've talked, you know. And so I have a specific plan.

Can't wait to put that into play. But again, you know, we're not talking about a guy that there's a there's a big fix for really, you know, you're looking at an accurate player, a really smart player. He's aware of what's happening.

And we've got to build the whole thing around him, the whole offense around him of something that we can really say this is our identity and our core. Did you were you listening to any of that or you just lost in his eyes? No, he's not my type.

I like I like I like bald guys with beards. Just saying, what is wrong? And J. Kelly just walked in. He's going to dump us for the last hour of the show priorities, Mikey. Come on.

I mean, I mean, again, Richard, be happy that surprise you. He says that Bryce Young doesn't need fixed. I mean, what surprises me is how nervous he looked up there. That has got to be the most stressful head coaching job in all of football with that owner. Yeah, he looks he looks a little jacked. You look a little jacked.

Well, too many Mountain Dew's this morning for breakfast, right? I mean, that's going to be an owner who sits in the meetings, right? We talk about like, oh, yeah, well, it seems like based on everybody's accounts, he's the owner that made the pick last year. He he wanted Bryce Young. He went and got a C.J.

Stroud and it went terribly wrong last year. It was kind of a disaster. So here comes this new guy. Are the lights too bright for this dude? But I mean, he looks great. Are you OK over there? And I was like, I was like, there's a mesmerized, like, well, do you think Dave rents and not owns?

I'm just curious about that. Carolina situation. Well, he's got a long term deal. He's got his money.

So we know Dave Tepper likes to spend. Look, man, you want these young kids to come in to good situations and be successful. The problem is, when you go at the top of the draft, you're going to a bad team and they're bad for a reason.

And so he talked about being able to create more explosives and have more weapons around him. Like Carolina needs a lot of help to give Bryce Young a fighting chance here. So it doesn't look like a Sam Bui, Michael Jordan situation with C.J. Stroud, who came out just looking so amazing and obviously won a playoff game. So, I mean, saying he doesn't need to be fixed. I hear you. How about the line around him?

How about some other weapons? Canales has done a good job the last two years. He was in Seattle and Gino Smith had his breakout two years ago. And last year with Baker Mayfield. So, you know, it seems like this is the right guy to to fix someone who doesn't need fixed.

Well, he doesn't need fixing. You heard him say that right there. You know, it's all about it's all about weapons and a good offensive line. So we'll see what happens in Carolina this year. Second hour wrapped up ahead. Rich will come in from the combine.

And Jeff Ross, the amazing comedian that's ahead on The Rich Eisen Show. And, you know, seriously, if we're doing coaching, hotness, power rankings. Oh, is that what we're talking about? Hold on.

Let me put my glasses on. Coach. Yes. It's it's McVeigh, the floor movies at the top. This guy.

I think all floor is kind of underrated. Wow. I can't believe this is how we're wrapping up the show. Hold on. I didn't expect. That's what Dave Canales looked like. J, you know what I mean?

You got like you got a little sweaty when he came on the screen. Hey, hey. Hello. Hello. Hi. So now that Pete Carroll's gone, obviously the Silver Foxes are I texted with Pete yesterday represented. Well, tomorrow he's hanging out with the grandchildren right now. Nice. I was kind of bummed because I love Pete and I wanted to have a hair.

Silver Fox looks great. Permitan. Always. Oh, yeah. Oh, it's Pete Carroll. He lives at the beach. Has never seen, I think, a tub of sunblock that he wanted. He looks amazing.

He's great. How old is Pete Carroll now? Seventy one. Seventy two.

So other than my hair going a little gray. Are we really going to do a power ranking? I was waiting for you to pick this. I thought you were looking up coaches right now. Is that what you were doing? No, I was actually working hard, Chris, trying to think of things to say for the Rich Eisen Show while you're looking at a bunch of guys.

But hey, you know. I'm just saying, Chris cut short my Elle MacPherson rant to talk about how hot the Panthers coach is. I love Elle MacPherson so much. She's my favorite. Her hair. It's amazing. Playboy cover, Mike. Whoa. That's what you thought you were going to get when you tuned into the Rich Eisen Show, isn't it?

You know, that's what you wanted. Rich Eisen, when we come back, we don't break his show. 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 Tierra Whack. 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's wrong? 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 now. I feel like no one respects me. Music Now, wherever you listen.