Sue Bird: Caitlin Clark's Bad Start Is Part Of Adjusting To WNBA

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In white pants. Earlier on the show, Senior NBA Writer for the Athletic, Sam Amick. Coming up, four-time WNBA Champion Sue Bird. Senior Writer for the MMQB, Albert Breer. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Hour number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Great chat with Sam Amick of the Athletic about the NBA Game 6 Western Conference Semifinal between the defending champion Nuggets and the Timberwolves last night he was there. Watched the Timberwolves win by 45. The second biggest boat race in NBA playoff history of a team facing elimination. That actually happened at defending champs last night. Albert Breer is going to join us in hour number three.

844-204 Rich is the number to dial right here on the program. Suzy Schuster sitting in for Chris Brockman. Good to see you, Suze. Happy to be seen. I'm thrilled to see you.

Good to see you, Jay Felley. Less thrilled to see you, but you understand. No, that hurts a little. No, it's okay. It shouldn't be. I mean, you're not my wife.

But you could never too late. Oh gosh. Oh wow. Getting crazy in El Segundo, everybody. Good to see you, TJ Jefferson.

Candleslit for hour number two. Live here on the Roku Channel. This Rich Eisen Show. Terrestrial Radio affiliate. Sirius XM. Odyssey and more. We say hello as always to our podcast listeners.

It's your right to listen whenever you darn well please. I last saw our next guest checking in for the Fanatics party at the Super Bowl. And it was a delight to see her a couple times. Ran into her a couple times at the Super Bowl. And thrilled now to have here on the Rich Eisen Show. Four times WNBA champion.

Five time Olympic gold medalist. I could go on and on, but I just want to say hello to Sue Bird. How are you, Sue? Good to see you. Hi. I'm doing well. How are you?

I'm doing great. Let's just jump straight into it here. The conversation surrounding Kaitlyn Clark, obviously front and center for the WNBA season, even though she's on clearly one of the worst teams that a number one overall draft choice got drafted onto.

But I'll just throw that in your direction. What have you seen over the first couple of games for her, Sue? Yeah, not the best start. I'm sure she's feeling that right now. But that's part of adjusting to the WNBA, right?

Maybe not having it happen this early, but part of professional sports is you're going to have some stretches that don't go your way. You're going to shoot bad. Your team's going to lose.

And how do you respond to that? So I'm sure she would like those two games back. Everybody's clearly got their defensive game plan built around her, which is a compliment. Well, I mean, when you first arrived on the scene up in Seattle, what were you facing coming out of Yukon for having lost only four games in college, Sue? Yeah, well, yeah, getting used to losing. I remember the first game we lost first game of the season.

We actually played the New York Liberty and they had Theresa Weatherspoon and Becky Hammond at the time we lost to them. And, you know, I'm in the locker room having a little bit of a fit, right? A little bit of a tantrum. I'm not used to this. And everybody's like, Oh, where you guys want to go to dinner tonight? And it took me a second to understand that that was also part of pro sports.

You got to kind of bob and weave and deal with it. Yeah. I mean, I watched Kaitlyn Clark check out of last night's game, I think for the final time. She looked pissed, Sue. She looked livid. You know, like she was like just barely slapping the hands of her coach and teammates. She looked really angry last night.

I mean, yeah, definitely. Let's not forget that she probably has arguably the most pressure that any woman's basketball player has ever had coming into the WNBA. I mean, sometimes it feels like the weight of the WNBA is on her shoulders.

That is both, like I said earlier, compliment and warranted in a lot of ways, but also maybe a little bit unfair to put so much on her. And then to not play up to up to her abilities in this early part would be frustrating. You know, the thing is, it's you watch the games.

She's not even really getting that many great looks again. Some of that is the other team's defense. So credit, she's played two of the top defensive teams in the league, but some of that is figuring it out. And it takes time, too, right? Like we see it in every sport. A lot of times you have these teams put together and people want to see it click right away.

It always takes time. Do you think the commentary is infused with a disrespectful tone, talking about how good the opponents are that she's faced over the first two games? Sue, like, you know, this is a professional sports league that's been around 28 years.

There are some really great professionals playing in it. I'm wondering how you take that part of the conversation here. That's definitely been the conversation. You know, there's there's been a couple of moments that have led to the narrative around, you know, Caitlin's greatness and it translating.

And there's been some people that that have, you know, basically put her at the top of the mountain right away. And I think that does feel disrespectful to current WNBA players. But at the end of the day, I mean, sometimes these conversations are good for sports. Like you want people going back and forth, even though it can be hard for the athlete at times.

I think it is good long term for the sport. But now everybody's saying the WNBA is obviously a legitimate professional league. I don't know what people expected. You know, Diana kind of touched on this. It's basically it's the adult grown woman part of this.

People have been playing this game for a long time. Yeah. And she took a lot of heat. You're talking to Diana, about Diana Taurasi. By the way, you're a mega cast, the two of you together. A lot of fun, Sue, by the way, for that.

You're very welcome. She took a lot of heat for saying reality is coming and kind of proven correct over the first two games. Again, this is just it's a long league. We're marathoning.

We're not sprinting. But I think she's kind of been proven correct. Yeah. I mean, to me, the sad thing was just how it all played out.

Right. Having to have WNBA players, you know, myself as a former one, Diana as a current one and a lot of others being pitted against Caitlin. I thought that was really unfortunate because that's not the reality. Nobody was questioning Caitlin's ability. Nobody was questioning Caitlin's popularity, what she's done for the sport.

How could you? I think at the end of the day, it's just competitive athletes talking about what they've already been through. So that was kind of the unfortunate part of it. I don't think that saying a college player is going to have to adjust to a professional league is that crazy. But it led to this conversation.

And again, at the end of the day, the proof is always going to be in the pudding. There was just like that three weeks of agony where we had to kind of wait from when the college season ended to the start of the WNBA. We all had to wait and all you could do was talk and the narratives that got thrown around. Like I said, I think it was really unfortunate. You know, especially for someone like Caitlin, like who wants to hear that these WNBA greats are saying this about her when that wasn't even really what was happening.

It was just competition. Right. But she's also not showing up disrespectfully in her own right. Right. I mean, like she's not pounding her chest and she's not, you know, saying, yeah, I hope you enjoy your new flights, you know, like enjoy the planes you all have. You know what I mean? Like she's not saying that, right? No, not at all.

No. I mean, you can't say enough about how she's handled all this. It's really it's incredible. And again, I think the unfortunate part was it was going to all what, you know, whether Diana was right or the quote unquote new fans we keep hearing about all the time, whether they were right. It was all going to what?

Fall on this kid in her in her home opener. So it just it all it all got, you know, trumped up. It got it got bigger than than it was. But here we are.

And now we get to talk about it. Yeah, exactly. And, you know, and Brianna Stewart even said last night after the game that she loved playing of packed house, full playoff atmosphere, which I imagine probably would not have happened in Indiana had they not, you know, drafted Kaitlyn Clark. Right. Like coming off of an awful year like that.

It wouldn't have been a packed house is what I'm essentially saying. You know, so super here on the on the Rich Eisen show. So let's talk about the rest of the league here. Who do you think is we live in an aces world? Is that basically what we live in right now?

Sue, what do you make? Yeah, basically, I mean, back to back champs. They have pretty much everybody back.

So, you know, someone has to knock them off. That's always how it works. Chelsea Gray hasn't played yet. That is definitely something that I think everyone's keeping their eye on. She is a huge, important piece to that team. And then there's some other teams that I don't think we're going to see who they really are until halfway through the season. You know, just a reminder, something that's unique about the WNBA is how short the training camp is. So, you know, I already touched on this when it comes to Indiana, but it's really for every team that has new pieces, important pieces. It's going to take a second for these teams to click. And that's also where the aces have a little bit of an advantage. But yeah, like usual, it's going to come down to injury, sadly, right? It's like which team stays the healthiest? Right.

Just like, again, any other association. So, what was your welcome to the WNBA moment, Sue? Oh, man.

I actually just told this to Ramona Shelburne recently. So, we played against the Sparks. Michael Cooper was the coach. And I noticed their point guard at the time, Nikki McCrimmon, was picking me up full court. Basically, the whole game was just being like a little over the top about it. And I was like, what the hell was that? And she ripped me a couple of times.

Which, you know, any point guard knows absolute nightmare to get ripped at half court. So, come to find out, there's basically a bounty on my head. I guess before the game, he was like 50 bucks for every time you rip, Sue. So, she was richer that night.

Is that happening to Kaitlyn Clark right now, do you think? I don't think there's a monetary bounty. Oh, okay. I don't. I don't. I don't.

I don't think people want to get crossed up and have a Step Back 3 hit on them either. Yeah. Yeah. A different time.

No doubt about that. Did you ever deliver a welcome to the NBA moment for a rookie? Were you on the business end of something like that?

Delivering end, Sue? I mean, you've probably seen me play. I'm not really the one to deliver those. But I think I've had a couple. I've had some people tell me some stories. Come on.

What do you got? No, the one I remember is actually Kelsey Plum. And it's not even that serious, but she was guarding me. It was a very like run of the mill routine play, but I was able to kind of break free from her, come off a down screen, hit a jumper.

And I heard one of the vets on her team kind of yell out like, no, you can't do that. In almost like a slow motion moment. So, I know I got Plum that one time. Okay. Do you remember all four of your UConn losses?

Do they stand out? Yeah, of course. It was only to two teams.

Go for it. Who are they? I lost to Tennessee twice and I lost to Notre Dame twice. Isn't that amazing that you could lose so few times that you can actually remember who it was because it was only twice. I mean, that's pretty cool, Sue. That's pretty darn cool.

That's just college though. Don't ask me WNBA. Well, no, I mean, it's a different world, which is again, just the general sense of this entire conversation right here. Okay. Well, it's great to have you on, Sue. I would love to talk more as the season goes on.

Let me know. And if you like the BTS show so much, come on anytime. Will you please do that and invite me on? Yeah, absolutely. I would love to do it. You know how to reach out to me, for sure.

Okay, great. Can I ask one question? Do you mind? I'm going to hop in here. Why am I asking you?

I'm going to ask it anyway, right? Hey, Sue, who do you like? Who's starting hot that you've been really impressed with? Because I do feel like all the coverage is on Kaitlyn, but there are so many other players that are starting to streak. And we know how hard it is to get in and start with a new team.

The chemistry is not there, et cetera. So who is impressing you? So I actually was at the Seattle Storm home opener. Obviously, I played there for forever.

I'm now an owner. So this is a little bit of a plug, but Nneka Agumike really impressed me. We have Jewel Lloyd and Skylar Diggins-Smith, also two guards that, you know, all stars for pretty much their entire career. They'll get going, but Nneka really impressed me.

Just like solid, solid. The other teams I've watched, it's only been like, most teams have only played one game, so it's pretty early. Arika Ngo-Bawale, somebody I always enjoy watching. She falls in my category of people I'd pay to watch, right? I feel like it's like a more of an elite group when you'd actually pay to watch them.

She had a slow start in their first half, but was able to hit like a dagger three late, had a big fourth quarter. So she's always something to keep your eye on, but it's still pretty early. You know, it's so funny. Rich, how much time do we have?

I'm so used to being in the other chair. Ask Sue. I don't know.

I mean, go for it. Because I remember when I was a kid at ESPN and Shemika Holzclaw was coming up, and I remember the excitement of having her there. I think she was the first woman to be on Slam, right? She was coming out of Tennessee.

She was so hot and so exciting. We are selfish about the WNBA now because we have a 10-year-old Hooper, and so she's into it. We're going to the Aces game. You don't know this yet. We're going to the Aces game.

Good to know. And we're going to see Kaitlyn next week. Hold on a second. Are we going to Vegas? Is that what you're saying?

No, they're playing here on the 9th. I'm sorry, Sue. This is a conversation we could have had earlier this morning.

Sorry. Continue on. That said, you know, we're selfish because we want to see the WNBA grow right now because we have a little girl who's watching and leading. And so, you know, my concern with all the talk about the first question always being Kaitlyn is that we are ignoring so many other women that are coming up. But will there be a point where you're just relieved that that's not the first question? Like, where's your level of frustration as one of the greats and with so many other women out there? So where is your level with frustration there as to that being the first question?

You know, I don't I don't have frustration around that. I think that superstars do ignite leagues. They do carry them on. We've seen it on the men's side. We've seen on the women's side as well.

So it doesn't really frustrate me. It's her moment. She's coming off an amazing college season drafted number one.

It's not really there's no way around it. Everybody wants to see how she's going to do. I think the way I've always looked at it, you know, as her popularity started to grow, particularly this last year, it felt like women's basketball in general. And then specifically the WNBA was already on its way. The WNBA viewership and, you know, all the numbers that that people look at that was already on the rise, probably over the last couple of years. And to me, Caitlin was just this this match that kind of ignited it and just made it bigger. So she accelerated everything quite a bit.

Obviously, the viewership numbers show that. But but things were already on the on a trajectory that was headed upwards. So I'm thankful. I'm thankful for her in a lot of ways. The excitement, the eyeballs. I'm really thankful for that. And then once they're here, you know, you hope that they're going to see other talent. You know, I saw Pat McAfee was at the game last night.

He's tweeting about the New York Liberty and Brianna Stewart and players like that. So it's just going to she's going to bring eyeballs. It's going to expand everybody's mind. But like I said, it was already on the up and up.

She just she just took it to another level faster than that. And you guys, by the way, together was ahead of the curve on this. I mean, you guys were out there really kind of securing your spot here and branding it.

We've seen the sweatshirt kind of blow up about, you know, about the girls where, you know, everyone watches women's hoops. But you guys were ahead of the curve. I have to give you a lot of credit. And you you you put your confidence there when maybe others didn't.

And now now you're reaping the benefits of it. Thank you. I appreciate that.

And just one last thing. I'm glad you mentioned Pat there, Sue, because he took a little bit of heat for talking to WNBA on his show and saying, hey, we're kind of getting to see a whole bunch of people here, you know? And and it's just like, well, welcome. We've been here for 28 years. And I totally understand that.

But, you know, Kaitlyn Clark is obviously in Indiana, which is where he is. And and and it is it is an amazing moment and it is a fun time to be involved with the WNBA and watch it and and learn and discover the, would you say, grown women, adult women league? You know, it is it is. And and that you're you're like, hey, welcome, even though you maybe could have come earlier, but we're here. And I think it's pretty cool. Very much so. Yeah.

Thank you. No, I secretly it's like two things happen, right? You're you're simultaneously thrilled to have this, quote unquote, new fan base. And then at times they can be a little insulting with their lack of knowledge, you know, but they're just telling on themselves. Right. With each comment, they just telling themselves a little bit. So you can kind of chuckle. I do anyway. I think I give it a little chuckle and then I move on.

It's all about throwing the game. Well, and I'm glad that you're here and hopefully of many times. And truly, I'm more than happy to be on BTS.

The Bird to Rossi show. Any time you invite me, I will be there. Sounds good. Thanks again, Sue. Great to chat with you. Thank you. What a great invite.

I appreciate it very much. So it's super here on The Rich Eisen Show. That would be so much fun. That'd be so great for Taylor to watch all the girls out there to watch. Plus, those girls are ballers.

That'd be so fun for you. Right. I could go on and talk about how Taylor Euro stepped. That was a great moment. It really was.

We've had a good week with Cooper yesterday. I got up out of the out of my seat. I damn near I damn near got a technical running on the floor.

Oh, yeah. She went to the line. She almost had an and one after Euro stepping.

I'm like, that's my girl. We had a Euro step. We had Cooper on. And Xander got a thirty point six out of thirty. That's a great week for us. That's right. That's right.

And the right wing is livid with us. All good. Listen, let's take a break. We've got we've got the what's more likely all teed up, right? And we also have phone calls. They're all lit.

All six lines. I hate it when people call in and get busy signals. Although I like it. So let's take some calls. OK, my God. Just I will. Let's go.

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Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Now I feel silly asking a Kaitlin Clark question straight out of the gate. Why? I don't know. Did she roll her eyes at me a little bit when I said that? The reason why I asked it, I think she kind of took that extra breath. Yeah, I saw the breath.

I saw the breath. I'm like, okay. Or maybe she's mad that you left out her five Olympic gold medals. I didn't. I said she was a five-time Olympic gold medalist, four-time W. She's just, I don't think she took anything personally. No, they just wanted to know that there was a WNBA award. Yeah, for 27 years. Sue Bird was putting in work. She wants people to recognize that as they should. 2002 first overall selection.

Yeah. I think Stacey Dales went second overall the next year, I think. Well, I can ask her on Monday. Oh, is she booked for Monday? She's literally moving her schedule around to be on, which is the coolest thing. The neat thing is you can talk WNBA with her, and then she'll give you the latest scoop on what's going on with Caleb Williams in that building. Yeah, I saw her reporting the other day saying that there's a whole new energy in that building right now. It's unreal.

It's great. Bears are going to go 17-0 right now. Speaking of that, it's time to play the win-loss game, everybody. All right, let's get somebody here.

16-0, man. I like it. Who are we going to go to first?

Who do we get the other day? All right, let's start off right now with Dark Side in Las Vegas. It's Dark Side. What's Dark Side's last name? Dark Side Don, everybody. Dark Side Don in Las Vegas is here on the Rich Eyes and Show. Are you listening to us in Las Vegas right now, Dark Side Don? Is that happening right now? Always.

Always, Rich. You know this is going to be my first time calling. This ain't my first rodeo. I got it. I like it. I like it. All right, it's time for the Las Vegas Raiders.

The autumn wind is a pirate. Dark Side Don. Well done, Jay Felley.

This is the only music that can be played. Okay, ready? Win-loss game for Dark Side Don in Las Vegas, Nevada. Look at me. I said home at the Chargers. I literally was about to say that.

On the road at the Chargers. I don't mean to disrespect. What's up?

What do you got? That's never a disrespect. That's home, but it is what it is. No, that's a win. That's a win at the Ravens. That's a loss.

Wow, that's a tough start. Visiting the Harbaugh's to start the season. Home for the Panthers. That's a win. Home for the Browns.

See, I got tripped up right here, so I'm going to go off a recency bias with high dishonor as of late. So I'm going to say it's a win until further notice. Three until further notice.

You're free to call back anytime you want, Dark Side Don. Three and one at the Broncos. The Las Vegas Raiders have never lost to the Denver Broncos, and that continues.

Oh, you want to look that up, TJ? Four and one. Home for the Steelers. That's a loss. At the Rams. That's a loss.

Oh, boy. Now four and three after a two-game losing streak. Home for the Chiefs. Time to take our stadium back. The Raiders are kind of upset about the last Super Bowl game, so that's a win. We need to get our stadium back. Yeah, Max Crosby is not going to lose to the Chiefs after the Chiefs picked out confetti out of their hair in his stadium.

That'll be an interesting one on October 27th. All right, so you got them five and three at the Bengals. That's a loss. Five and four coming off the bye at the Dolphins.

That's a loss. Five and five home for the Broncos. Do I give you a win since you say they never lose? The Las Vegas Raiders never lose to the Denver Broncos.

Okay, that's good. Six and five at the Chiefs on a Friday after Thanksgiving. Black Friday.

We skidded with them. That's a loss. All right, you're now six and six at the Buccaneers.

That's a loss. Home for the Falcons on a Monday night. That's a dub. Home for the Jaguars. That's a dub.

Do you go see Derek Carr? That's a dub. That's a dub. Three-game win streak going to the final game. Home for the Chargers. Harbaugh gets his win against the Raiders.

That's a loss. Okay, so you got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and eight, dark side Don. And Rich, the Las Vegas Raiders are indeed eight and O against the Denver Broncos. How about that? Dark side Don in Las Vegas.

Thanks for the call. Nine and eight. Okay, so the last two games that we've played, win-loss games, diehard fans seeming really realistic. Realistic, yeah. I like that.

Koop Tani. Koop Eisen said eight and nine for the Patriots. Although that, I told him when I saw him yesterday after he came home from school. I'm like, that might be a little bit of the optimistic view of things. Brockman thinks they're in line for a first overall pick.

And dark side Don goes nine and eight. Right there. All right, let's do What's More Likely here. And then we'll come back and maybe do a win-loss game before taking a break. So it's right in the middle of the show.

We're halfway through. And are you ready for it, Suze? Yeah, I'm good. All right, hit it, hit it, hit it. What's more likely?

Never say never, but never. All right, what do you have over there, Suze? Hey everybody, how you doing? Hey. Hey, what's up, Suze?

How you doing? It's just like Brockman, huh? I do listen in the car sometimes. Did he write that down for you to start that way? No, I was just planning on doing it, just to be snarky. I'm just wondering if he's just like wanting to make sure that the, even in his absence, that sort of stuff continues.

Wouldn't it be funny if he had? That's a respectful tip of the cap that you just had right there. Thank you.

He's not just a guy, he's a co-host. That's right. All right, which team is more likely to be back picking in the top five of next year's NFL Draft, the Commanders or the Panthers? Who's more likely to be picking first overall, picking top five? Okay, next year's draft again, I'll go the Panthers. I think the Commanders are going to have a season that threatens people.

I don't know what that means, but I'll just say Jayden Daniels has some tools around him that a lot of people aren't talking about. Terry McLaurin and Brian Robinson Jr., with Jayden Daniels showing up the way that he can possibly perform based on last year's results at LSU with his Heisman Trophy and the way that he's showing up right now in shorts at a rookie camp. I don't think the Commanders are picking top five, so I'd take the Panthers right there. All right, continuing with the theme of who's more likely.

Who's the more likely Super Bowl team to start one and two or worse, Chiefs or Niners? He just wants to just mix this thing up. He's a mixer.

So the Chiefs have those two games at home against the Ravens and Bengals, and then they have the Falcons. Did you see somebody laminated this? Somebody actually laminated this. Oh, it's not just somebody.

It's not just somebody. Is it co-host T.J.? It's co-host T.J. Jefferson.

Oh, no, no, no. Co-host T.J. Well, I mean, in this case, I'm the PA. I was the PA. No, you're not. No, you weren't. You were an executive who decided to do something special. You volunteered to do it, and I appreciate it. This is great now because you can even hear it on the radio. Sorry, I freaked you out this morning because I didn't tell you. He took all my stuff. Amazing audio there.

Rich was like, where's all my stuff? Jets at home at Minnesota at the Rams. I will go.

Oh, how am I going here? I'll go with the team that's got two on the road, even though I know the Niners fans will get very upset with me for saying that they lose. They don't lose against the Rams in so far, I guess, unless it's an NFC championship game. Rich, don't you know at this point, no matter what you say, somebody's going to get upset solely?

What can you do? I don't know, but I think they beat the Jets and they win at Minnesota, so I'll just really upset the Kansas City Chiefs fans and say it's them. Remember when you upset them like two years ago? I know. They came for you, Don.

I know. Well, in the same way that Atlanta Falcons fans say that Michael Penix's drafting is going to light a fire underneath Kirk Cousins, as if they never thought that Kirk Cousins needed a fire lit underneath him after they signed with a four-year, $180 million deal. They only thought that that fire needed to be lit until it was time to spin the draft choice in proper direction. In that same way, I think I lit a fire under the Chiefs.

Because they needed that. And they've won two Super Bowls in a row ever since I said the Raiders would win the division. These are facts. Some. So, hey. Correct. What else, Chris? So, is that like an Andy Reid, you're welcome? Is that like your little like? Yes, it is that.

He doesn't like to toot his own horn. Hey, even after I did all that, the Chiefs invited me to host an event for them at the NFL Draft in Kansas City. So, there were no real hard feelings? That jersey that's over Jay Felley's shoulder. That's a gift from them. They gave you confetti, man. Confetti, at the bottom right there, that's confetti that was on the field after Super Bowl 57.

They put a lot of thought into that. Exactly. Everything's good. And it's here and not in your homework. That's right. Because you did not want it in our house. Like most everything that's hanging on a wall here is due to you saying, you know where that would look better?

If you're great in the studio. That's right. I just said you need a man cave. But you have a man cave. This is it. This is it. I'm very happy.

We allow women and we're very happy. What does Chris have on that piece of paper, Suze? What else we got? Here's some mixing.

What's more likely to be the higher total? Jets prime time wins or Patriots total wins? Ooh. Such a New England show. Trolling from Northern Florida, Chris Brockman. So the Jets national champ, I mean, nationally televised games, prime time wins, which means London is not part of it. OK, so the Jets have all these colored rectangles on there. They got us Monday night at San Francisco. That ain't one. OK, so beating New England on a Thursday night.

That's one. Then beating Buffalo on a Monday night. That's that's that's going to be a tough one. I believe they're playing Buffalo on a Monday night after coming back from London. Then they're at Pittsburgh on a Sunday.

That's a loss. Houston. They got a Houston.

I think they beat Indianapolis at home on a Sunday night. That's two. I'll give them a third. I don't know which one it's going to be, but I think the Patriots will win more than three games. So I'll give them Patriots total wins, but just by a smidge. OK, nice, nice one. What else, Suze? They do play each other in week one on Sunday night football.

Who's more likely to win a playoff game this season, the Rams or the Lions? Oh, gosh. He always likes putting on a plate something where I can say both to that I'm not allowed to because of the construct of this endeavor. Come on. He's very good at this.

I know he knows how much I love the Lions, but he also knows that Blake Coram is number one in my heart. Blocking. I don't know what is it.

What is he in the program? What number did you choose there? Let me pick that. I don't know if that's already been assigned or anything like that. Oh, my God. Team to win a playoff game this season.

I'll go with the Lions because I think they're more likely to win their division. How does that sound? OK. Damn it. Man, that's it. Did you just go against.

And Kara. I didn't go against him. It's called more likely. Right. But the idea is I think both of them are going to win a playoff game. So everybody just needs to back off. It looks like Blake Coram has the number of the greatest running back of all time in the NFL.

Twenty two. Yes. OK. And I'm glad you knew the correct. Well, he has the most yards of all time and he's your favorite. So you put together the numbers and me knowing you as a co-host. And he's a friend of the show.

That's true. Damn it. What else, Suze? Which team that finished last in their division is more likely to make the twenty twenty four playoffs.

The Chargers or Bears. Come on. Get out of here with this noise.

You sounded like Al there. Come on. Get out of here with this.

That sounded so much like Michael's. Get out of here. Get out of here. The Los Angeles Chargers, coached by Jim Harbaugh, will find out that the day of the playoffs is today. It's going to happen.

Please. The Chargers are one hundred percent. When we did the schedule release show, I was late to the mix. They'd already spoken to both Mike Rob and Maurice Jones Drew. And when they give an option, say, hey, which team is most likely to go worse to first in the NFL this year now that we know the schedule? And of course, one of them chose the Chargers. One of them chose the Bears. What are you going to do? Choose the Patriots? You know what I mean?

The Patriots are suddenly going to go from third overall on the clock to beating the Bills for the AFC East. Right. So I'm not allowed to choose either one of those two. I had to choose another one and I declined. I said, I'm not going to do it. I don't think that's how the game works.

But it does when, you know, you turn the lights on in a network, you know, employee number one. So I said no. But in this case, in this case, though, even though I did help turn the lights on here, I'll take the Chargers.

You know what else? What's more likely Steelers finished with the winning record or Falcons win the NFC South? The Steelers have a winning record. How dare he put me in a wedge in between me and Mike Tomlin?

How dare he do that? Thank you. Yeah, the NFC South, I think, you know, the Falcons are in good shape to win it. But there's still my boy Baker down there in Tampa Bay.

Let's not forget about them. And by the way, their schedule, they have to be really happy about their schedule. Tampa begins the season with three of their first four games at home and their bye is week 11. And they have only one trip to the West Coast.

One. And that's not till they take on the Chargers in week 15. That's it. San Francisco comes to their house. Vegas comes to their house. You know, that's that's a really nice schedule for them. So let's not sleep on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this year because they also Todd. I mean, they are they are. Todd Bowles is getting it done.

And Jason Lightman signed a ton of players back when everybody thought that wouldn't be possible. Got one more over there. I got one more. OK. Is there a drop for one more? Oh, you want the drop? Way to give Felly that sort of show.

I love it, but not as much as George Clooney. So go ahead. What else?

See, I put a hitch in her giddy up over there. Just mention the clones. OK, go ahead. Who's more likely to have the higher average salary in 2025, Dak Prescott or Brock Purdy? Oh, it's going to be Dak Prescott. Absolutely. It's going to be Dak Prescott.

He kind of like absolutely. Yeah, well, that also no, no, he but but before Chris left for the week, we were talking about how Purdy is going to wind up the number one paid quarterback in the NFL. And I just don't think he will be by the end of the day, because Dak, when he becomes the highest paid player in the NFL at the quarterback position, it will be because Dallas does it so damn late. It'll be longer than anything else it takes for anybody else to sign their guy. So it might be one of those things where you remember how Jalen Hurts was the highest paid quarterback in the league for 24 hours.

I'm on Ross. St. Brown was the highest paid receiver in the league for 24 hours. I think that's what will happen.

But it'll be Dak over Brock. Eight, four, four, two or four riches in number two dollars, one phone line open will play more of the win loss game with some and whatever else you would like to talk about. Albert Breer in our number three to talk about a lot of these subject matters we just covered on what's more likely. Afford Anything talks about how to avoid common pitfalls, how to refine your mental models and how to think about how to think. Paula, while certainly you can mess up on a million dollars a year, it is far less likely than it is on thirty thousand dollars a year. I would meet wonderful people that were struggling with a budget that was super tight.

It was 100 percent. You need to make more money, make smarter choices and build a better life. Afford anything wherever you listen. What's up, everyone? It's reality Steve, your number one source for all things Bachelor Nation and reality TV. Every day I'm giving you the behind the scenes juice and your info on all your Bachelor Nation stories and also interviewing some of your favorite reality stars. My name has been synonymous with spoilers, but I'm so much more than that. Give me a listen. The Reality Steve podcast, part of the Believe Network.

Just search BLEAV on YouTube or wherever you listen. You know what's crazy is is what sets fans off sometimes are the the throwback uniforms. Everybody's got an opinion on them. They're either throwbacks or throw outs.

Right. And I don't know what to make of the Giants who announced that this is their 100th season celebration. Twice in this season, they're going to wear these.

Oh, my goodness. Uniforms Montreal Canadians. It looks just like the Canadians.

People also can get past the the khaki tan pants. Obviously, you know, I pick up on the helmet. Yeah, it's like the Wolverine helmet. Somebody said something called it a Delaware blue hand helmet. Let me just say something to those people.

What's the matter with you? I'm aware the Delaware blue hands wear a similar helmet, but, you know, the reason why Michigan's fight song is champions of the West is because when Michigan started playing football and doing that, it was essentially the western part of the United States. As a matter of fact, the Big Ten's original.

Conference title was the Western Conference. Okay. You know, because there was some purchase out of Louisiana that had just happened.

I've heard it. At any rate, I don't know why I went down that sort of history lesson. Well, because you get very touchy with everybody. Well, not anymore.

I should be living my best life. I should let all that stuff roll off my back, but I don't know what to make of this. It does look like the Canadians, doesn't it? Yeah.

I don't know if you were about to say that, but it just came right to me. It's true, because it does look like a sweater. It looks like a hockey sweater more than anything, right?

Yeah, absolutely. And the socks. How many games are you going to wear this? Two, apparently.

Too many. Exactly. Yeah, because I think it's a blend of different eras of the team's garb. I get that. I mean, look, I'm not a Giants fan, but if you're paying, you know, homage to teams of the past. Maybe this is why Saquon didn't want any part of it. Oh, wow.

His thighs would look huge in those pants. Back on our Rich Eisen show here, 844-204-rich, number to dial. When I first moved out here to Los Angeles, and Suze had already been here for a few years, being from New York and always made fun of the late-arriving crowd for Dodger games, sports games in general out here in Los Angeles, late-arriving crowd, until I started going to games here in Los Angeles, and I started arriving late as well.

By no fault of your own. And then early as well. Always made fun of the shot whenever you see the Gibson home run in game one of the 88 World Series, and the NBC cameras widen out to show the arc of the ball leaving the stadium. You could see the tail lights of cars getting out of Dodger Stadium. Always made fun of them. They regret that. Until I moved to Los Angeles and became one of them. And then Suze, our kids, frequently are like, we can't go. And we're just like, yes, we can. They're a push-pull of parenting as well as just for us.

We wouldn't be stuck in traffic. Just can't. So I bring all of this up as to say there was a very early-arriving crowd in Los Angeles last night for last night's Reds-Dodgers game. Why? Is it because they want to see Eli Dela Cruz, perhaps the most exciting player in Major League Baseball, who we've been talking about since he started showing up? Being a dynamic player, wound up stealing four bases last night and attempting a fifth.

He got caught stealing after stealing four bases. I love it. He's amazing. No, it was because it was Shoei Ohtani bobblehead night. Oh, yeah, it was.

Absolutely. There it is. Home and away.

Home and away. And, man, if only the Dodgers told everybody, everybody who shows up gets one. But it was just the first 40,000. So everybody went to the game early to get an Ohtani bobblehead down. 53,000 attended.

That means 13,000 people showed up early for no reason. And one of them was Cooper's best friend Ryan's little brother Sawyer. Oh, my God.

Okay. And they showed up there. Was Kevin Bacon involved in that name? My gosh, that was quite a connection.

Well, there are six degrees of this story. Yes, correct. Okay.

Nice. And this poor little boy got there too late for the bobblehead and cried. Dodgers, you can't do that.

As a mom, I would say you have to have bobbleheads for everybody. You do. So I want the Dodgers. Lon Rosen, are you watching? Oh, look at you.

Name checking people. There's got to be another show. Hey, bobblehead night. You can't turn off all those young kids who showed up there early and maybe their dad had to go into his wallet and dig deep and pay somebody off to get a bobblehead. Oh, my God. How about this, though?

Because I'm sure that Cooper's best friend Ryan's younger brother Sawyer is not the only youngster who might have been left bobbleheadless last night. So maybe just maybe, you know, for everybody, the kids, the traffic pattern in the area. That's it. Okay. For everybody.

Just, you know, what's another 13,000 more bobbleheads? You got it. You have to have show.

Hey, for everybody. You can also go. You can go on eBay to get one. But not everybody can afford that.

The whole point that's ridiculous. Three hundred eighty bucks. Michael got a steal. But I have to say that five hundred thirty. Oh, my goodness.

I hope so. But Dodgers, why would you do that? Look at this. That's not right. Plus, it's just like that's not right. Sawyer would have had it for nothing, but that's not right. But to go what? Then sell the bobblehead. No, it's not right to have forty thousand when there's fifty three thousand that go into Chavez Ravine. But that's not right.

By the way, I remember someone's trying to sell it for five grand. Oh, my goodness. I'm cool with this. I'm not a shocker.

I'm cool with it. What is Josh? Put that back one more time here.

What is Josh? For five seventy eight's malfunction? Hey, Rich, you never know.

Somebody could pay it five grand. You know, get out of here. You know, Coop wants to go to bark in the park.

He's just been pushing me, pushing you to buy tickets to bark in the park and bring the dogs. Absolutely. No way. Right. We're not going to bark in the park.

Not early, not late, not in the middle. What does that have to do with bobblehead night? Nothing. OK. Oh, yeah. I was trying to like the connection here.

It's a Dodgers game. Kevin Bacon involved. Maybe she's like I said, paying for a bobblehead didn't take you. Listen, that is just absolutely nutty right there. You know, it's kind of crazy. I remember going to Yankee Stadium as a kid on bat day. They used to hand out Major League Baseball real bats to people in the Bronx, New York. Such a bad idea. Hey, come to the game and we will hand you arguably a lethal weapon.

There's no argument about it. Dude. And they were real bats. They weren't like those little mini ones. They gave you a real freaking baseball bat in the 70s.

And by the way, here's three beers. To kids, they gave the kids beers. I can remember those little ones. We would go to Fenway Park and hand out those little ones. Still mess you up. And it was just like those are dangerous. But the first like, yeah, it was the first 10,000 fans got a real bat.

You're going to be the same bat that Chris Chambliss is going to use to try and get to home plate after beating the Royals. That's gone. Howard Cosell's call. Never forget. Forget that as a kid.

1976. He's 10 years old. That's gone. And then I'm sitting there going, what the hell is happening out there on the field? He needed bat day.

It's like the baseball furies from the Warriors out there. Oh my gosh. Rich, come on. Use your platform for good.

Which is what? Demand that the Dodgers have 13,000 more. A makeup Otani day. You know what they should tell an Otani, listen, can you just defer another 50 grand?

No. And then we'll take that money and we'll make 13,000 more bobblehead dolls. 5,000. The chutzpah to say, I'm going to go and put five for $5,000 out there.

Somebody's going to get a showy Otani bobblehead that if you shut up early enough. You set your price high and then you work down a little bit. Can you make a bid or is it only a buy it now price? That's a good question.

I don't know. You can go on eBay right now. Just don't buy it.

That's all I ask you. Don't buy it. Don't buy it now.

Don't buy it ever. Oh my God. By the way, Scotty Shepler, as we go off the air in hour number two has just birdied again. He is eight under par on the tournament and he has birdied three of his last five holes and he was in lockup for an hour and a half this morning.

Maybe that's the key to success. This might turn out to be the wildest day in the history of the PGA championship or any open tournament. This guy is unreal, man. If he wins, can I ask Nance to come back on? You're going to ask, you can reach out to Jim anytime you want. That's all I think about.

I'm just wondering if there's some of these players in the tournament, they'll be like, I'm getting arrested. Can we not get released on? Can we not let him be released on his own?

How about our recognizance? If he wins, I'm getting locked up the next tournament. Oh my word. Albert Breer is joining us top of hour number three here on the Rich Eisen Show.

Lots to talk about with him coming up in just an hour. And let me just say this too, which I wasn't going to say, but I only need 10 seconds for the radio audience too, is making fun of this too. The fact, the reason what happened is beyond not funny. There are probably some people in the police department, in city hall there with their figurative hair on fire.

And then there's the matter of somebody who got a fatal accident. That's the bigger... I already saw somebody was walking around the grounds at Valhalla Golf Club with a t-shirt with his monk shot on it already. Come on.

People work fast. They really do. I love that.

That's ridiculous. And by the way, I mean, Xander Shoffley is about to... He's going to tee off in 45 minutes. He's only one shot ahead. But I believe Maura Kala is now nine under as well.

Kala. Okay. So there's going to be lots to talk about. Suze is already on the Monday show.

There's a third hour to go. I know it's your show on Monday and Tuesday. No, I'm here to support you. Oh, God. Stop.

No, I'm dead serious. I've got my PGA golf stuff up and ready to buy golf stuff at. What's your golf stuff?

What do you mean? What's your golf stuff? I don't buy golf stuff. Hold on. What did you say, Hoskins? What did you say?

Buy golf stuff. By the way, I don't know if Joff's 578 is listening to our show. He's dropped the price to three grand. He's still trying to put the bait in the water.

I am not mad at him. Still has no bids. We're going to...

So, hour number three. Contact seller. Let's contact him. Put an eye on the Valhalla leaderboard and Joff's for a 578 bid. John brings his skewed sense of humor. Jeff brings tips to cut strokes off your next round. Together, it's those weekend golf guys.

They'll pay a lot of money to PXG and Tylus and Calloway and on and on and on. How many yards do you think you're going to pick up with that extra driver? I think I can get an extra five to ten. What if I give you fifteen to twenty? You pay me more. Jeff Smith teaches on a sliding scale. These weekend golf guys. The podcast. Part of the Believe Network. Just search BLEAV on YouTube or wherever you listen.