I Don't Get The Shohei Ohtani Story Changing

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That's a great question. Guess what? Justin Fields would have been with the Bears and the Bears would have been happy moving forward with him. Today's guest, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero. NFL Network reporter Steve Weish, creator of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David. And now, it's Rich Eisen. That's right everybody, what a day it is on the Rich Eisen Show. We're so fired up, Larry David's making his way to our studio.

He's going to hang with us in studio hour number three. That's when the first game of the NCAA tournament writ large in the first round should be coming to a head. Michigan State taking on Mississippi State to kick things all off, tip things all off.

And then there's going to be one game after another. Duke Cain at BYU, Akron and Creighton. Long Beach State at Arizona, so much going on. And it's funny that Long Beach State at Arizona will be going on tipping off just as Larry David is here. Dan Monson, the coach of Long Beach State yesterday in his press conference, having been fired prior to the conference tournament. That Long Beach State went on and went on a run and won. He equated himself to a Seinfeld character.

And I think conflated two George Consanza plots that Larry David's going to untangle for us in hour number three. Nice. That's how we're rolling today. Good to see you over there, Chris Brockman, how are you? Great, great, great. DJ Mikey Diaz in Deez Nuts, good to see you. Good morning, Rich. TJ Jefferson, good to see you, sir.

Good to see you guys. And remember the brown paper bag thing from yesterday that we were talking about the sandwich? I got the Jets bag here, Chris, with their one ring and I got. Oh, look at him showing up today for all the Cowboys.

So just with him with that out. OK, when did you figure out what you were going to do this day? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

About 10 minutes ago. OK, great. Good job. Good job.

Good production value. OK, so let's just jump right into it here. Let's just jump right into it here, because yesterday when we had John Smoltz Baseball Hall of Famer on this program and I said to him, if you could take every Major League Baseball team and rank them one through 30 in terms of the team needing the baseball gods help to have a glove malfunction just at the right time to help them avoid an inning ending double play in the first game of the year to spark an eighth inning rally to win the game. If anybody needs that help the least in Major League Baseball to have the baseball gods put their thumb on the scale, it would be the Los Angeles Dodgers. And we're like, ha ha ha.

Isn't that crazy? Because Otani in his first game as a Los Angeles Dodger got an RBI single. He got two runs batted in in his first game and the Dodgers win. And they did have Jake Cronenworth's glove explode to help them. And, you know, but Smoltz is like anything can happen, though, Rich.

It's a long season. Anything can happen. Didn't think the anything would be Shohei Otani having four and a half million dollars of his money wind up in the hands of a Southern California bookmaking operation that's under federal investigation. Didn't see that one coming. But that was the story from ESPN dot com. Not on the bingo card. Tisha Thompson with a mind blowing story. That just lit everything up yesterday. And. I had to read this story three times to make sure I got it right.

Because the way it seems. Is that ESPN. Caught wind. Of this federal investigation being churned through and Otani's name being on two receipts that ESPN.

Put their eyes on with his name on it. Each of them for five hundred thousand dollars that wound up in the hands of this Southern California bookmaker whose house was raided in October of last year. And in all, four and a half million dollars went from Otani's account to this operator. And they reached out to an Otani spokesman or spokesperson who said that, yeah, Otani was just covering the debts incurred by his interpreter who he's been tight with forever and a day, who everybody says they have more than just an interpreter and person who needs that craft. They have a brotherhood. They're tight.

They've known each other for years. And. Mizuharu was the one who was gambling. And they in fact, the spokesperson for Otani presented Mizuharu to Tisha Thompson for a 90 minute interview Tuesday in which he laid it all out. He gambled. He's terrible at gambling.

He did not gamble on baseball because he knows he can't do that because. He's an MLB employee. He was a member, an employee of the Angels organization at the time for Otani.

And. As now or was now a member of the Dodgers organization. So, you know, he's not to do that, but thought, you know, everything else was on the up and up. He met this bookie at a poker game in San Diego in late 2021.

And he's already been betting on draft kings and this is all got to be on the up and up. But he just was terrible at it and he was chasing and he got in a deep hole to the point where he went to his buddy. And he's like, this is what's going on. And his friend is like, what the hell are you doing?

Essentially, I'm just paraphrasing here. The story is that he had Otani bail him out. And Otani's like, I will do it.

And Thompson asked Mizuhara. Why didn't Otani just give you the money and you pay off the bookie? Why is he doing it from his computer? Why is he doing it, wiring it from his account personally? Why is he putting the word loan?

Associated in the space that I guess that you provide the details of your wire, put the word loan in there. And Mizuhara said it's because the bookie said you got to write something down, just write down loan. And Otani apparently was the one who personally paid off these debts from his account and didn't give the money to his interpreter.

Because the interpreter said Otani didn't trust him with the money because he was afraid that he would just take that money and gamble it away to try and dig out of the hole himself. I mean, OK. And I guess all of this stuff does seem to square because you look at Otani, you don't think like this guy. Honestly, you never know anything about anybody anymore. But, you know, you don't look at him and say, oh, he is definitely locked in on the over under on that NBA game or he's locked in.

We've never heard him speak. That's the other point, too. And how does someone like that does that? You just don't know anything about anybody anymore. So that's the story. Told to ESPN.

Now, here's the twist. It does appear ESPN then went back to the spokesperson who provided the interpreter for this interview and provided the information to the spokesperson who had already said this was about Otani covering the debts of the interpreter. They went back and said, OK, we'd like some comment. And I guess they must have contacted Otani or whomever somebody contacted a law firm because out comes the statement Wednesday. That Otani was just flat out robbed of four and a half million dollars by the interpreter. And so there's that.

Wow. So there is that. And it's just like, well, which one is it? Otani was the good guy who covered the debts or Otani was the victim who got robbed. And why is there a story that's changed?

Like. I don't get that. And how is Otani a victim of someone he was robbed when an opening day Tuesday, he's just chit chatting with the interpreter like nothing's ever happened.

I guess he'd learned overnight. He got four and a half million dollars is missing. Was it four and a half million dollars he thought somebody else maybe in his orbit spent was robbed and given to somebody in Southern California or is it, you know, somebody in Otani's orbit kind of told Shohei that, hey, you're a good guy. But guess what? Four and a half million dollars of your money wound up in the hands of somebody who is a gambler. Who's a bookie and is under federal investigation. Doesn't look good for you, pal. And we need to cover your. A. Flank.

And suddenly your guy is now a thief. Or as everybody else in the world and the way you're looking at me, Chris, because again, you are a man who puts a little of your hard earned American dollars on on this or that or the other thing that maybe Otani is using his interpreter to cover for the fact that he gambled, which again. In this day and age, I can't rule that out, that that. You know what nature or certainly the media or those out there who comment on it abhors a vacuum. And there's still a vacuum because today Shohei Otani did not take reporters questions. After today's game in Korea and was ushered out of the clubhouse by the PR staff.

Answered no questions, and I'll just say this, it's a good thing he didn't sign with the Yankees or the Mets or the Red Sox, because I don't know how that would work in the Northeast in those states. Well, I guess so, too. But that's not that's not the point. Yeah, the point is, is is that Otani?

For. The last six, seven years, has not had to answer a single question, nobody's because the only thing, but well, people cared. I care to hear what he how does somebody do what he does so well, so effortlessly? You know, how does how does he spend his time?

Like, what's he like? Like that's sort of secretly married and just right. Exactly.

And we were talking about that with Smoltz yesterday, that he has like this magic power of of just like being able to silo everything out and do his own thing. And nobody ever just leaves him alone. Well, those days are over.

He stayed largely anonymous. Those days are over. They're over. And I don't because this story got changed, man, and that's the thing that completely confuses me. And any. That I don't understand.

Other than the fact the only way I understand it is somebody basically said to him. Hey. You might have been the good guy, but.

You know, to use the Goodfellas phrase, the babe in the woods routine is not going to cut it. When everybody in this day and age thinks everybody's gambling and you're personally wiring all this money in the accounts of somebody who might be in jail soon. This is no good. And so it's not good for you. It's not good for the Dodgers.

It's not good for baseball. The commissioner might get involved here. And, you know, I don't know the exact rules here.

You know, I'm not I'm not sure if I know the exact rules of engagement here, where is it like the steroid policy where it doesn't matter? If you knew or not, if it's in your system, you pay the price like it doesn't matter if you gambled or not. Your money wound up in the hands of an operator who, by the way, according to this story, 100 percent did not disabuse a single one of his clients. Of the thought that Otani was also a client of his.

Didn't say, oh, no, no, no. He's just covered his debts for his interpreter I met in a poker game. Apparently that didn't happen.

I don't know. This is the tip of the iceberg on this story, it feels like. Well, I even if but but it could be as simple as he was covering the debts for his interpreter friend. But then why couldn't that just and since that story's already been told to ESPN, how is it just like, oh, by the way? Everything that the spokesperson told you, everything that the interpreter made available by the spokesperson told you, everything that you've heard other sources tell you that he was just being the good guy. No, no, no. He was robbed.

And here's a statement from a law firm. And then there's Otani playing in a baseball game, not speaking afterwards. Oh, and by the way. The something how anything can happen in a long season. How does Yamamoto lasting one inning in his debut for the Dodgers got lit up? He leaves the game after just one inning of work in a forty five era. And the Dodgers lose the back end of the two game stint in Seoul, South Korea. Fifteen eleven to the Padres. And then Otani has this hanging over him.

And if he's been able to silo everything out, we'll see how he's able to do that. Dodgers don't have to play another game for a while. But this thing's going to marinate.

They come back here and play the Angels, this whole team. Oh, my goodness gracious. Man, this is wild. But the headline. If I was writing it in New York City would be. Oh, yeah, what did the post?

Here's what I would. Here's here's my guess. I have not seen. Come on.

I haven't seen him either. Say it ain't show. Well done. You didn't just really just now come out with that. Say it ain't show. Awesome.

All right. I like that would be the headline. And maybe that's the headline of this opening segment.

Say it ain't show. It'll be a YouTube title. Tom Pelissero is going to join us next, though, talking about everything going on in the National Football League world. The pro day he was at Alabama, the pro day of Caleb Williams.

So much more. Larry David making his way to the studio as well. Welcome to talk about all the ultimate small rewatch podcast. Title Transference aired October twenty seven, two thousand four.

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Find out more by searching the Stacking Benjamins podcast wherever you listen. All right. So the first points of the first round are on Michigan State. Five too early. Yeah.

Bands are playing. We all pick Michigan State, right? I. Oh, yeah.

Of course it did. I'm not going against Izzo. I picked him to go to the final four and you guys laughed at me.

It's five four. You're about to maybe be down. I'm ahead of the curve. Just too early to start predicting Michigan State's fortunes. Seventeen minutes into the first half.

It's fine. We're not even at the first TV timeout. Because I know that under 16. Well, I want to see what our final numbers are. How many people we got. Yeah. How many we got in the pool.

It was close in and 400 people last night. I think it's put in two brackets. Oh, that's cheating. This first week could theoretically be you're rooting for different results. Do you know how many people put in multiple brackets? I allowed to see. I allowed up to three. I allowed up to three. You're just rooting for different things to have one each.

That's all we get. You don't have multiple fantasy teams. Yeah, of course. But I hate it.

Because then you're rooting for the whole NFL. Yes. That argument doesn't. That does stink. Wait a second.

Yeah. You're rooting for everyone to score touchdowns. Cooper has a friend, a sweet boy named Ryan. And he comes over sometimes, watches games with us.

And every single time somebody has a catch or first down, he goes, I have that guy. So I finally say to him, I'm like, how many fantasy teams do you have? He said eight. Oh, that's nuts. We got we had six, seven, six, twelve.

Now it's the train. He's twelve going to thirty. Yes.

How many you should have. He has a lot of free time on his hands, right? It's also easy. He's a boy who loves football. He loves his Denver Broncos.

Seriously, like every single first down, everything. Oh, I have that guy. Oh, I have him. Ryan's not worried about paying bills.

But it's funny. He says it with an air like he's a real general manager, like he knows his name. Mr. Eisen. I got him.

You got eight teams back on the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call click Grainger dot com or just stop by. All right. We just unpack the whole Otani thing just to kick things off. Chewed that one up. Now let's turn our attention back to the National Football League and one of our favorites. Tom Pellicero. Tommy. The fellows in the studio there. I was I was reading the Otani story last night on the plane back from from Birmingham, Alabama.

I was in Tuscaloosa for Alabama Pro Day. And all I could think was take the biggest star in football, whether that's Patrick Mahomes or whoever you want to say, and put them in the same position. And how much of a story it is at that point. You know, baseball is a little bit of a niche audience in twenty twenty four.

I can just imagine how completely wild this would all get. And we've had, you know, a dozen or so gambling suspensions of players. It's not yet been a really, really high profile player, though. Obviously, you know, Calvin Ridley, very good player. Got paid this year.

Jamison Williams missed time. You're talking about whatever the explanation is and the whole weirdness of the interpreter gives the interview. And then takes it all back the next day. I mean, if you play this out in the NFL, this is the biggest, weirdest story since probably Deflategate. No, I'm with you, Tom. Like this is and I imagine the nightmare fuel for every commissioner of a major sport is that one of their people reaches out, taps him on the shoulder, calls him up, texts them and says the biggest star in the sport is involved in some way, shape or form with wiring a million dollars to a bookie. You know, and that's that that is one hundred percent the nightmare fuel for Rob Manfred right now in Major League Baseball. And even if you take the the interpreter's original statement at face value, OK? Let's say it was, hey, I got in too deep.

Can you can you cover my gambling debts and Otani's, you know, wiring the money? Even then, you've got all these layers of, again, baseball is different because it's a one on one game. And, you know, there's not injury information the same way that there is in football.

But just imagine that even if you took that explanation, it's a massive, massive problem, which is why there have been NFL team employees, too, who have been fired. And we get the gambling policy every year and it keeps getting updated. And it's very clear.

It's very stringent. It's the whole idea. Again, baseball is different because there's only so much. I guess you could know whether a star player was not going to play in a game, you know, have an off day on a Sunday or whatever it is. But, you know, the strategy and the other things that someone who the equivalent of an interpreter in the NFL, let's say it's an athletic trainer.

Let's say, you know, it's one of the media relations people. That alone could be such a major type of a scandal that this is absolutely. But this is the reality. The NFL is a microcosmos society is 40 states where we've got legalized sports betting right now. It's a matter of time until you have something, which is why when everybody sits back and goes, oh, Calvin Ridley was making small bets. They weren't even on his team.

Yeah. But if you don't come down hard on Calvin Ridley, don't come down hard on Jamison Williams and Quintez Cephas and whoever it might be, the next thing gets bigger and bigger. And that's where the NFL and the NFL P.A., especially since Lloyd Howell took over the union, they've had a lot of discussions about where should these lines be drawn, which is why the NFL in concert with the NFL P.A. has scaled back the punishments for gambling on non NFL sports from inside the team facility or at the stadium.

Those are now down, I think, two games as opposed to four, six, whatever it was before the gambling on the NFL games, though that is still sky high. And, you know, a lot of inside information to just because I've talked with agents about this. A lot of it's just guys texting each other. Players texting guys on our teams that they know. And you might not be thinking this is gambling information. I'm giving inside info. But if you're like, man, I'm not playing this week.

That can be used. And so these are all different things that the NFL continues to stay on top of. Again, I get where people are like, oh, the NFL makes millions and millions of dollars off gambling. Why can't players gamble? This is literally why. Because even someone in the orbit of a star player having money wired by a player to a bookie, it's got so many ramifications and the NFL just can't allow itself to get too far down that road. I guess the good news for the NFL is the only player that requires an interpreter is Rob Gronkowski, and he's not playing anymore. So, you know, I guess. All right. So listen, let's let's move on now to to the next order of business in the NFL, which is the owners meeting next week.

And lost amongst the Caleb Williams. Pro day hoopla was the competition committee making official what is exactly going to be presented to membership to the 32 owners of the NFL to vote up or down on. What are the rule changes that are out front and center for next week's owners meeting, Tom? Well, the swivel hip drop tackle is a big one. We know that the NFL, the competition committee, everyone wants it out of the game at a league level and team level.

However, the union has said in the past and doubled down again in a statement yesterday saying they oppose any efforts to outlaw it. And there's multiple reasons for that. You know, among them, just, you know, the consistency of whether or not it gets called. You already have players being fined and players having to appeal and the union being involved in those appeals.

And here's one more thing on officials plates. But it's also, you know, the hip drop, the swivel hip drop tackle, whatever they're calling it now, evolved out of taking the head out of the game. It evolved from Pete Carroll and Hawk tackling.

That's 10, 12, 15 years old. And that was all about, you know, came from rugby. And it was about get your head to the side, grab them, twist your body and basically roll.

You know, it's a grab and roll type of a technique that then evolved into, OK, guys now dropping their weight onto the back of the ankle. And, you know, the NFL give a presentation to all of us back at the combine, you know, trying to explain kind of how these would be officiated. And there's some they showed like a dozen of them. And there were some where you're like, ah, man, like that's clearly, you know, the way Logan Wilson tackles Mark Andrews. We all can look at that and go, you don't want to see that. But there's other ones where it's like a quarterback in the pocket and the pass rusher grabs him from behind.

And because he can't drop his weight on him, instead, he kind of sinks back and pulls him down. And they're saying that now is also going to be, you know, a penalty and a fine. When they began to outlaw this style of tackling in rugby, they actually started with fines, not suspensions in terms of international rugby leagues. And so could you see guys getting fined as opposed to penalties within the game as opposed to suspensions? This is all part of the conversation. Usually when the league, when Roger Goodell, when the competition committee wants something, they end up getting it. And so they're saying that it's, you know, it's three components.

It's the grab, it's the swivel around the side and it's dropping your weight on the back of the ball carrier's legs. And they'll probably over enforce it in the preseason, which is usually what we see. And then by regular season, it kind of, you know, evens out a little bit. So that's going to be a big one that's going to be discussed. I would anticipate, though, that they're going to push that rule through. If anything, maybe gets tabled till May, but I don't think hip drop tackles be allowed in the NFL by the time we get to the fall of 2024. And then kickoffs is another huge one. Before you get to the kickoffs, though, Tom, before you get to the kickoffs, though, didn't the NFLPA already send out a statement saying the language for the hip drop tackle?

Real change that's out there is it's confusing. There's no way you're going to be able to officiate it properly and therefore they don't agree with it at all. I mean, they have a seat at the table in these discussions, but ultimately they don't have a vote.

They're in there. They're representatives that are in the meetings of the combine so they can influence the process. They can make public statements. But if the league wants to do it, the league will do it.

And they've made abundantly clear that that's that that's their intention. The kickoff play is something that special teams coordinators have been tackling for about a decade now because of the injury data and the concussion rate, the injury rate on kickoffs relative to any other play. And it's changed like for the last five years. There have been different kickoff rules. What the NFL had last year was a noncompetitive play.

And there was something like, I don't know the exact percentage, but it was really, really low in terms of kickoffs that were returned at all, including zero kickoff returns in the Super Bowl for the first time ever. So what they've done, they don't want to be called the XFL rule because we're the NFL. We're not talking about XFL, but it's a variation thereof where essentially the kicker is still back at the 35 yard line. But all the setup players are on the plus side of the 50.

I believe it's the 40 and the 35. And so what you're trying to reduce is all that run up that creates the force and the velocity that can lead to awkward collisions and can lead to injuries. You're taking that away. And there's all these different permutations of what happens. You know, if you kick the ball into the setup zone versus if you kick it short of the setup zone, if you kick it through the end zone, you're essentially penalized for that. There's unsportsmanlike conducts if certain things happen on kickoffs.

There's there's all kind of stuff. But the bottom line is what the special teams coordinators wanted to create was a reduction in the speed and space. But preserving enough space, you can at least have strategy and you're going to get real returns. And so they were tasked with how do you increase returns while decreasing the injury rate to a palatable number.

They think that they've gotten to a good place on this moving forward. You know, onside kicks, you're going to have to declare it that the the surprise onside kick is going to be dead. There have been proposals put forward a number of times, namely by the Eagles, about a fourth and 20 alternative and things like that. The league generally is viewed that as gimmicky.

Doesn't mean that you can't get there eventually. But, you know, essentially, if you declare an onside kick, everybody's going to come back. It's going to look like what kickoffs look like last year. So there's a lot there and there's going to be a lot of discussion about it.

But all 32 special teams coordinators were met in person at the combine to go through this. And it's basically, hey, we can't go back. We're never going back. We want to have a kickoff in the game. We have to find a way to make it safer, but also encourage returns. And, you know, in talking to a bunch of the special teams coordinators, I can tell you, on one hand, they're very annoyed because they literally have to create entirely new strategy every year because the rule keeps changing every year.

On the flip side of it, now they can earn their paychecks and they can have a little fun and show some creativity and come up with ways you can have returns. I think it's gonna be really interesting to see what it how it plays out. And if anything, you know, there's no way it can be a whole lot worse than last year where the kickoff is basically a ceremonial play. What else is expected at the owner's meeting? What else? Are we going to get the usual announcement of schedule? A couple of major announcements on the schedule front or any business deals?

There's usually a couple of those. There's business-related matters. A big part of it, though, too, is, you know, the coaches and the general managers, namely the coaches, all speak to the media. In a lot of cases, it's the first time that any of them have talked about free agency moves, trades. You know, I know I'm talking to Matt Eberfluse before the coach's breakfast, I believe, on Tuesday morning. And so, you know, first time talking to him about what exactly is going to happen with the number one pick in quite a while.

It's been fascinating from afar just to watch how this has played out. Obviously, Caleb Williams is approaching the process differently than anybody else. I saw, you know, Eberfluse and Ryan Polis and company, you know, dapping up Caleb after his throwing session at the pro day at USC. We still got 35 days till the NFL draft. I think that the feeling within the league is still that they'd be shocked if it's anyone other than Caleb Williams who goes number one overall.

But still a lot of time left for various conversations to happen and for Caleb Williams maybe to declare his intentions a little bit by seeing what what buildings he's willing to get on planes to go into. Yeah, I mean, you know, there's all this conversation that, you know, he should pull an Eli Manning or might he pull an Eli Manning. And I got Steve White, Sean. Later on, he was at the pro day with him.

I want to I want to hit that with him. I got Tom Pelissero here on the Rich Eisen show. You were at the Alabama pro day. What was that like without Nick Saban? Was Nick Saban there? Did you see him?

Nick Nick was not in the house. I think he probably wanted to, you know, let let Caitlin DeBoer and company kind of have their their moment. Always weird when you go into one of these pro days, Rich, and you're sitting down with the head coach and you can't ask him about any of the guys who are working out because he's like met him for five minutes. I know he addressed those players at the pro day yesterday beforehand. I asked him more about Michael Pennix than I did about Dallas Turner.

And he certainly is a big, big Michael Pennix fan coming from Washington. But yeah, I mean, I asked a couple of the DBs, Taron Arnold and Kool-Aid McKinstry, best name in this draft, you know, and they were both just like, yeah, it's different. Like the whole vibe because they had, you know, they've been away training. They came back for the protein like it is really different.

Like it's a different energy at practice. They said it's good and you know, they're excited for the guys and you know, the young players who are coming up through the program. But yeah, I mean somebody like Nick Saban leaving college football that has a massive, you know, a massive impact on everybody. It's just it's a different era in college football.

They're going to do some things differently. I'm sure at Alabama, but then you, you know, you look at the athletes that are working out the pro day and you remember in the end. It's still about however, you're getting them there through NIL through opportunity through development through the NFL. There's still dudes who go to Alabama who won't go many other places.

And as long as Kaylin DeVore can keep recruiting the way the Nick Saban did that. We just find a few minutes left with Tom Pelissero the trade rumors involving teams that need quarterbacks in the NFL draft focusing mostly on the Vikings now because they traded for a second first round draft choice. Not because they wanted to I imagine put themselves in the best position possible to choose the best player available late in the first round. So what are you hearing on that front and who else is thinking of moving up Tom? Usually when there's a trade this early it points toward they're going to package the picks move up to get a quarterback. The only time in recent history.

I can remember that wasn't the case was the was two or three years ago. The Saints traded up with the Eagles in like the first week of April because they needed a tackle and needed a pass rusher and they didn't think they could get them. So they got to first round picks. They ended up using them in the Vikings case. There's still a lot of different scenarios that potentially can play out.

I think Rich as much as anything. There's probably an acknowledgement here that forget the top three quarterbacks not that they have and there's still a possibility that could have maneuver in the top three. But even after those three if you want the fourth best quarterback, if you want if JJ McCarthy's the fourth one on your board, he may not be there at 11. And so a Quasi Adolfo Mensah has done here and he's thought ahead on this and the whole time even when the Vikings were trying to get Kirk Cousins back and they made him a strong offer. It just wasn't as strong as the Falcons offer. It wasn't two years fully guaranteed.

It wasn't 45 million dollars per year, but they were still trying to get Kirk Cousins back at the same time. They had plan B. They had plan C and somewhere in there was the scenario that we talked about on game day morning back in the Super Bowl, which was signed Sam Darnold and probably draft a rookie quarterback. Well, in order to do that, you can't just think the board's going to fall to you and you're the guy you want is going to be there at number 11. So Quasi is giving himself options depending how this entire thing plays out.

Again, we don't know for sure what might happen at two and three. We know Monty Austin forward is sitting there at four is saying that the phone lines are starting to heat up and why would he not say that? I mean, you look what Monty did in the draft last year. I mean, he did, I think, as good of a job amassing resources as any GM I can remember in his first draft. I mean, acquiring multiple future, you know, future second round picks, future one like I mean, they've set up the Cardinals for success here. Why not try to do it again, especially when you just allowed 18 million dollars in 2025 to vest on Kyler Murray, who your social media team keeps tweeting out is your franchise quarterback. That'll be the pick that would be up for bid.

But again, there's so many different things that can happen. I think realistically, the commanders, the Patriots, they know they're not one player away. They also know they don't want to be drafting two or three in the future here.

So there's a lot of big time decisions to be made. The Vikings are certainly a candidate to move up. The Raiders are still a candidate to move up.

And maybe you still got a surprise team that's lurking somewhere down there in the teens or even the 20s that in the right scenario might be thinking, hey, we might have an opportunity here to go up, shock the world and take somebody. Well, I mean, I had Mel Kiper on yesterday, Tom, and he had Bo Nix and his mock draft going to the Broncos at 12th overall and Pennix just dropping down. So, you know, to to wrap this up, you said moments ago when you were at the Alabama Pro Day, you spoke to Kalen DeBoer about Pennix.

I'm sure he table pounded. But what are you hearing about Pennix and what did he tell you? The biggest thing is going to be the medical grades on Michael Pennix. And, you know, he played last season and he's gone through the whole pre-draft process and the combine is doing pro day. There's nothing like there's not a ticking time bomb with Michael Pennix, but every team now, you know, you have 32 different teams with 32 medical staff and 32 degrees of risk tolerance.

And so with a guy like Michael Pennix, who has such an extensive medical history, you know, you're going to get grades. Some guys, some teams are going to red flag them. Some teams are going to potentially say we're not taking them at all in the first few rounds because of medical risk.

There's other teams that are going to go, you know, there's some bad luck involved and he's probably fine and we'll just, you know, we'll protect them and we'll cross our fingers on this thing. That's what's going to drive it as much as anything for Michael Pennix. I know there are some teams that had really high grades on him coming through the fall. He's obviously, you know, left-handed quarterback that looks a little bit different.

You got to kind of wrap your mind around that, you know, on tape. But, you know, he's certainly somebody who I know has impressed teams through the interview process. He's, you know, a very positive type of a force. That's something Caleb Voor is going to talk about, too, is just how good he is in the program. You know, Bo Nix is the other one who's a little bit of a mystery. You know, if he goes somewhere between 20 and 40, I think that's probably the most likely projection with Bo Nix. Every year, you know, we always go in, I think in recent years, we're just thinking all these quarterbacks, they always get pushed up. Last couple of drafts, sometimes that hasn't happened. I mean, go back to the draft that was Kenny Pickett and it was Malik Willis and Desmond Ritter and Sam Hull. They all, except for Pickett, went later.

And so with a Nix, like if you want 20, I wouldn't be shocked. If he went in the second right now, I wouldn't be shocked. And I'll dig in more after the pro days like I always do and write my story for NFL.com talking to all the scouts and coaches. But I would say right now, if you ask me what the league-wide view is, Caleb Williams is pretty clearly the top quarterback. You're going to get some debate between Drake May and Jayden Daniels for different reasons. And then, you know, J.J. McCarthy, some scouts I've talked to have him closer to that top three. Others have him a little bit further down just because, I mean, you watch as much Michigan football as anybody, Rich. You know, J.J. McCarthy performed at a really high level. He won a ton of games. He also didn't have to be the guy who drops back and throws it 40 times a game. So, those are the things that people are going to be, you know, sifting through through the course of the process.

Everyone seems to love him as a guy. You know, is that enough to push him into a top ten, top five type of a pick? Pennix, again, is the medical. Nix, it's, you know, a little bit all over the place. There's other guys like Spencer Rattler who have really helped themselves in the process.

Does he go somewhere on day two? This is the fun of this process, Rich, too, because, you know, as much as we all try to project it and we listen to our guy, you know, Daniel Jeremiah, and you listen to Kuiper, who I got to think, I still would guess I have the best hair of any guess you've had this week. No question. No doubt. I'd be interested, though, to the gallery's thoughts on that. But as much as we all try to project it out, every team's going to have different opinions. There's different schemes.

There's different cultural things that you're looking for. That's going to be a lot of the fun here over the next 35 days. Well, I mean, it's all on the longevity for you. You've got miles to go before you can catch Mel Kuiper, Tom, you know, in terms of the hair. It's the longevity. It's the long game. You know, you're still sprinting. 43.

Still all natural. Not bad. He's marathoning. You're sprinting.

And it is, again, just the long game. And in that respect, I'm glad to see you and that you survived your J.C. Latham eclipse at the Alabama Pro Day. Oh, my goodness gracious.

Wow. Look at your little feet on that little chair, you know. So so Latham walks up and we had Dallas Turner on first.

Latham walks up and he sits down. We got director chairs, right? Right. You've said those before.

Yes. They're not built for six foot five, six foot six and three hundred forty three pounds, which you measured in yesterday. So he Latham comes up and sits and I look at me, just goes like that over at me. And I'm like, yeah, I don't think I'm like, is that chair?

I'm just going to put my feet on the ground. So then I look like a jockey sitting next to him in the photo. I mean, he is a when you talk about this big dude, because we're all around NFL players is a lot of big guys. But this dude from just like the thickness of his entire body, how huge he is, size 18 shoes. He's got an 11 inch hand.

He is an absolutely enormous dude. Right tackle all day. And I know Mike Devlin from the Chargers and Chris Morgan from the Bears are putting them through the paces yesterday.

They had him sweating. They're only two linemen who's getting a ton of reps. He was a little bit worn out, but he is a he is an intriguing prospect.

And, you know, it's probably going to be one of the first first offensive tackles off the board. You heard the chair creak as he sat down. You heard the director's chair creak. I thought it was I literally was like it might break, which the TV perspective, I don't want to get hurt.

Right. But I'm pretty sure he's going to ride the ball. I'm just thinking, you know, I kind of want the chair to break mid interview because then we've got a viral moment. Then this is going to be all over Twitter. But at the same time, I'm like, maybe not the best. We're going to be interviewing this guy on NFL Network for like the next decade.

Maybe don't start out with the chair isn't big enough and you just flopped on on that. I love it. Well, we put together. Who did it better?

Tom Pelissero and J.C. Latham or Arnold Schwarzenegger and Andre the Giant. Who did it better? What do you think, guys?

Better right there. Oh, what do you think? I mean, Tom, I'll do respect. You're no Arnold. Yeah, I don't know.

I got to say, Arnold's far closer in size to Andre than Tom is. Yeah. So we might mind you. I'm five foot 10. Yeah. 55. OK, so I'm not like I'm not the smallest guy.

Eat a cheeseburger. Oh, yeah. Did you say you're one hundred fifty five pounds, Tom?

We did this morning. One fifty six five. I was high school. That was high school. I mean, I was ninth grade.

Maybe the last time I was born a yard and a half. I think. Oh my God.

I haven't been a farmer in about five years, so that that makes a difference. Tommy P, everybody just flexing on his way out the door. I'm going to hit up the tacos. I'm going to send you some ziti.

Wow. Come back up. I will. I'm going to be out there a week after the draft. He is great. Well, I'm at the Roku New Fronts.

Take a look at your your your Rich Eisen Show host. Tommy P's coming. Tommy P's coming.

And now he's leaving. Thanks for the time, Tom. Appreciate it. All right, brother.

Tom Pelissero must follow right here on The Rich Eisen Show. All right. A lot of fun. During that conversation, I received a text with two cents on the Otani story from a a shall we put it this way, an authority who would definitely know a thing or two in his opinion of this per source, per source.

It's my brother. That's next. Here's The Rich Eisen Show.

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. Larry David, you are now the new commissioner of the National. Really? Yes. Congratulations.

Are you kidding? There you go. Congratulations. This is a dream. OK. I quit curvy enthusiasm in a second.

If this is true. OK. OK. What do you do first as the commissioner of the National Football League? Larry David. Number one. And I really don't care if people like it or not. I'm losing the goalposts. Why?

Why are there goalposts? OK. Why? Why are kickers? OK. Who have. They don't have football skills. They're not football players. I'm sure they're wonderful people, but they're not football players. Why?

Why? Why are they kicking a ball through goalposts to decide games? It doesn't make any sense at all. So, first of all, goalposts are a relic from the old English rugby, I think. OK. You know, when they used to actually run and kick a ball through goalposts, but they don't do that in the NFL. There's no need for goalposts. Wouldn't the game be better without them?

Think about it. Why not just have leaping frogs to decide games? See if a frog can leap through a little goalpost that you set up, OK, on the floor, and if the frog can leap through the goalposts, then do that. Why kick it through a goalpost? Well, it's not called leaping frog ball.

It's called football. So you're saying take the feet out of footballs? Is that what you're saying, Leonard? Is that what you're saying?

Yes. Why? Feet are deciding games, and they shouldn't. Why should one player, one player with this skill like the guy on the Ravens. Justin Tucker, yeah.

Why should this one player who does nothing but kick a ball be deciding games when you have 52 other players who are actually playing and this one person, this 53rd person is deciding games if it makes no sense whatsoever? And by the way, he's taking this crusade a step further. Wait till you hear later on. Oh, yeah. Back here on The Rich Eisen Show, 844204rich is the number to dial.

So the foremost expert in trusts in the States in the United States of America. I'm not lying. It's my brother. It's kind of crazy. My entire life, I've just been flying by the seat of my pants talking, and then on occasion he'll just come in and go, well, this is the real way of looking at it. So I gave my opinion at the very start, and I'm like, this is probably what it's about with Otani and how the reason why the stories change.

And you know, it's my gut and feel, and I think I'm on to something here. And my bro on his way to work heard the open, and he sent me this text. Ready? Here you go. I'm reading this from Jeff Eisen again.

The foremost. Here it comes. Thank you very good. No, it's okay. Ready? It's the beginning. There you go.

He texted me this. You take it face value. You can't just sit at your computer and wire four and a half million dollars wherever you want unless you can't send that much money or even a fraction of that money by wire without the bank's direct involvement and without the account holder personally verifying that this is what they want done and why. Moreover, you can't just transfer someone that kind of money and not have significant potential tax consequences to either the recipient or depending on Otani's resident status in the United States consequences to him as well. Saying that it was theft avoids a lot of those difficult issues, but something still doesn't add up about all of this. Bingo. Yeah, I agree.

It passes no sniff test whatsoever. Nope. I agree. Because here I am like, okay, yeah, so because the way the interpreter describes it is like he did it from his computer and just wired $500,000 like I said, there's two receipts of $500,000 like you can't just wire it, I guess, without I guess, yeah, if you ever wire money, you got to, you know, it's a certain amount that you could see it on the screen. You know, very rarely do you ever go over that amount, but Otani was doing that.

It wasn't like he was just going on his app and just sending it. Someone's getting my mother's estate when we did it. We received money.

And in getting that, everyone's notified. Did Otani send money? No.

No, but again, my brother is like the foremost expert on tax trusts and estates and this doesn't involve, but maybe it involves a trust and the Otani trust or something. I have no idea. But somebody's getting hit, like you can't just send this money without a bunch of people knowing. It puts off a lot of alarms with that dollar amount. But then, you know, how are you getting robbed?

If he has to personally kind of know if it's from his account, like you can't just like sneak into his password and just wire some dude $500,000. Let me Venmo you, I'll put that on private. Gif. Gif. Gif. Cash at me, bro.

Everyone who follows Otani on Venmo suddenly goes, loan? $4.5 million. Turn those illifications off. $4.5? Someone paid $4.5? What? Yeah. Thanks, Jeff. There you go. There's Jeffrey.

Rich, we should have like a segment for Jeff, like where he just comes in and he'll just maybe go once a month to explain something. Fun and games for you. Let me explain to you how this really works in the real world.

Honestly, we have a division of labor with my mom, like if she needs tickets, television sets or whatever, I'm the guy, you know, handing her real life stuff. That's it. You know, Jeff explains it all. That's a good segment. Jeff explains it all.

Right. Let me explain to you this. Honestly, I got that when I was in second grade.

Now I'm getting it here at age 54 on The Rich Eyes. Thank you, Jeff. Greatly appreciate it. He's going to join us. He was at Caleb Williams Pro Day on Wednesday. Larry David's still coming here.

That's just great. This story is going to get crazy. It's going to get even more nuts, man. Do you think any of this happens if he's still with the Angels living an anonymous life? By the way, that's an excellent question.

I think so, because if somebody is under federal investigation, you know. That's going to get out. And you've wired all this money to this individual. You know, according to, again, according to Tisha Thompson's report, when his house got raided in October, they found like cash counters and casino chips and a bunch of watches and fancy bags.

And it's just like, oh, and here's a couple of receipts. Show A.O. Tony. Oh, whoa. Right. You know, like even if he's just covering for his pal still, it's it's not what you want. Show A.O. Tony doing or is associated with, which may be the reason why it's all of a sudden he was robbed. But the you know, the whole idea of don't answer any questions and we'll we'll make sure you leave the clubhouse after playing baseball without answering any questions.

Those days are are going to be more and more difficult to do. You know who's loving this the most, Rich? Everybody. Sebastian Manasalco and Chuck Lorre and everybody at bookies right now, Chris, because that writer's room is probably like, oh, oh, yeah. Right. Season two ripped from the headlines. Also, what other names are going to come out?

Surely it's not just Ohtani. Evan for bed, man. Always.

Steve Weitch coming up. Movies, TV shows, books, podcasts and more. What women binge with Melissa Joan Hart and her friend Amanda Lee. We have Lauren Bosworth with The Hills. So what is like your number one question from fans? The primary question I still get asked was, what is it real in 2024 to me is a surprising question to get because I feel like everybody has been through the reality TV gauntlet at this point. What women binge wherever you listen.