Jerome Bettis: Excited About The Steelers In 2024

This is the Rich Eisen Show from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. With guest host Kirk Morrison. I'm in your hood, I'm in your house right now.

Love it. Rich doesn't ever say hello to us, he just gets going and we're off and running. What's the name of the show?

I want to hear it please. The Rich Eisen Show. Boom! Earlier on the show, senior NBA writer for the athletic John Krasinski. Still to come pro football hall of famer Jerome Vettis. Yahoo sports college football writer Ross Dellinger.

And now filling in for Rich, it's Kirk Morrison. The future, the future of the National Football League. What are we talking about here?

We're back on the Rich Eisen Show. So much to, yeah it's a lot going on here. Yeah let me gather myself again from our in-break conversations because there's always a lot to get to especially in this hour number two.

You can listen to those on our Patreon. I know. I got some Dak sound I can't wait to get to because Dak Prescott is talking. That's right. Right. Anytime the Cowboys are talking we're always listening.

Oh yeah. Oh the haters are out like you and Brockman in our text. Yeah the haters are out. The WNBA they've got some haters out as well.

Kaitlyn Clark and the Fever. We're going to talk about that in this hour as well. Wake up call has come. Yeah we get a chance to ride the bus today as well. Jerome Vettis coming on the show in about 20-25 minutes. So I can't wait to talk to Mr. Jerome Vettis here on the Rich Eisen Show. But I did want to start here with it's a time during this this off season where it's about contracts for certain players. It's always a big thing.

I'm and we can have this discussion a little bit more later on but it's OTA. Organized Team Activity for people who don't know. Organized Team Activity. This is a fancy word for practice.

It's a fancy word for practice. But it's now come a time in the National Football League that if you don't show up to an OTA you're making a statement. You're making a statement.

You're saying something without saying something. Now a lot of players who are not currently at their team's OTA more than likely have a contract dispute or a contract issue. Whether it's a quarterback in Dak Prescott who's actually at OTA or it's Cam Hayward a defensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers who said I'm gonna stay away because of my contract.

C.D. Lamb of the Cowboys contracts. Justin Jefferson contract. T. Higgins on the franchise tag not getting an extension with the Cincinnati Bengals.

He's not there because of contract. So that's what the off season has now presented us in the National Football League that you don't have to talk. You just don't show up.

And what's the other thing that you do? You unfollow the social media accounts of every team. Now we have not seen that. It has not gone that far with some players.

But we do know that that's always something in the toolbox, the tool belt for a lot of players. But right now it's almost like your three favorite sons. And when I say three favorite sons it's Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, almost has to choose who's his favorite son currently in this version of the Cowboys. Is it Dak Prescott?

Is it C.D. Lamb? Or a guy who I said if you don't get it done now it's going to be 10 times more next year in Micah Parsons when it comes to the contract. So when you have these three guys who are I guess the new age triplets, even though one plays on defense, this is the core of the Dallas Cowboys, a team that won 12 games last year that was upset at home by a much younger Green Bay Packers team. But I do know that you need these three guys in order to win football games. So does that put Dak Prescott on the back burner?

How does he feel? He just saw Jared Goff, who was drafted number one overall in his same draft class in 2016. I look at the accomplishments of Jared Goff and I'm like, hey man, Dak, you got to catch up to that. But yet some people saw Dak Prescott ahead of Jared Goff for I would say a nice period of time, even though that Jared Goff has had postseason success. But Dak Prescott is your quarterback in Dallas. So why kind of keep the feet slow or slow footed slow footed in terms of getting the contract done. But Dak Prescott is there. He is in Dallas. He's not really worried about the contract.

And he spoke for the first time in a long time. Here's a little Dak Prescott on the whole contract situation. Never have never cared for it, to be honest with you. Yeah, would give it up just to just to play this game. So I allow that to the business people to say what it's worth, what they're supposed to give a quarterback of my play, a person of my play, leader of my play, I guess you can say. And for me, it's about, as I said, control. I can control and handle that part and the rest will take care of itself.

Do you believe him? Because the first part is that he's basically saying, I don't play for money. Like, come on, man. Like, I know we don't play for money, but we all know money, power, respect, right? The money gives you the power and the respect, especially in the national football.

Shout out to the locks. Yeah, got to money, power, respect, what you need in life. That's what Dak Prescott is looking for. He wants for Dak, the money. Well, then why isn't if he doesn't play for money, then why doesn't he, why doesn't he just take a five year, a hundred million dollar deal so Jerry can pay CD and Micah the max?

What are we doing? Because his agent won't let that happen. So fire your agent and handle the deal with Jerry yourself. If you want to be about it, if you want to say, speak about it, then be about it. That's what you have to do.

It's very simple. Those are the three things that can happen. Hey, agent, sorry, you're fired.

Oh, what's up, Jerry? I want to play for this and I want to take care of these two guys and now let's go win a championship. See, it's easy for a New Englander to say that when you had Tom Brady for so many years, taking hometown discount, but you saw the success with those hometown discounts.

You got a chance to win rings people. Yeah. But we're forgetting the one key part of that. You see when you have a spouse that's making more money than you, it makes it easier for the ex-spouse.

At the time though, they weren't ex and at the time she was bringing in more cash. You know what Jack is right now? Rich. He's already rich. He's a quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. He's in so many commercials. He just come off $160 million contract.

He got his. Are you serious about winning, TJ? We talk about it all the time. See, are you serious about winning?

We've talked about this though because see, there are so many other factors that go into it. If he takes that type of contract, it resets the market and if you reset the market, other quarterbacks go say, why did you do that? Because he wants to win.

Why do you do that? Oh, because he wants to win, but why can't as the salary cap go up, why can't I still get mines as well as pay everybody else? I just saw the Detroit lines. I just saw the Detroit lines open up the checkbook, right? For Amun Ross, St. Brown, Penacil and Jared Goff. Three pillars of the Detroit lines got paid.

I watched Howie Roseman in the Philadelphia Eagles. Just give Devontae Smith, give AJ Brown and last couple years ago, Jalen Hurts, a contract, they got paid. So why can't the Cowboys do it?

Like, where's the money going? By the way, look at those two teams. Been to a Super Bowl.

Correct. Been to the NFC Championship game. Dallas can't get out of the second round. Why can't they get paid? I just don't understand it. And each, what is it, yesterday's price? It's not today's price. It's not today's price. I look at CD Lamb, I'm looking at Micah Parsons. This is what's going on.

Like, you got, if you don't do it today, that thing is going to skyrocket. Micah Parsons is going to be the highest paid defensive player of the year. I mean, I'm sorry, highest paid defensive player in the National Football League. We know that.

And you have to do that. I remember a long time ago when the Rams first got to Los Angeles and this was kind of when Aaron Donald was going through his, finishing up his rookie deal. And I remember asking some, you know, Rams brass. Obviously, Aaron Donald has outplayed his contract. He's been to the Pro Bowl every year.

He's been to, he's been an All-Pro defensive player of the year. So, how do you pay that? How does the contract start? He says, well, we just give him a blank check and just fill it out. Because that's the kind of player it is. Like, that type of player. I think Micah Parsons is on that same trajectory. And if they don't do it this year, this is what it's going to look like next year.

That you're going to have to give him a blank check, which takes up the whole entire, not the whole entire, but a good chunk of money. And we'll see, especially with a new defensive coordinator, I got Mike Zimmer. So, that's what's going on with the Dallas Cowboys. I'm keeping my eye on it for the most part. But something that kind of came through the owner's meeting, I feel like the owners have a meeting every couple of weeks, right? Doesn't it feel like it?

It does feel like that. It's the owner's meetings in Nashville this week. I'm like, dude, the owners just be meeting to me. Do they all got to show up?

Like, hey, so how you guys doing? You're making money. This isn't an excuse for these 31 billionaires to go to nice hotels.

Just hang out at the Rich Guy's Club, man. I feel like once a month they're having owner's meetings. This is through Zoom. Is it not?

I don't know. But what did come out of the owner's meetings is the NFL draft will be taking place in 2026 in the city of Pittsburgh. Love it. People have to understand that I love what the NFL has done when it comes to the traveling off season. I don't want to call it a circus, but the fandom of the NFL has reached parts and cities that would never be able to be touched. We know what the NFL's Super Bowl rotation looks like, right?

That's what we do now. It's South Florida. It's South Florida. Now Vegas is in the mix. Houston is in there.

Vegas, LA, Phoenix, San Francisco. If you build a new stadium, you might get it as long as it's not too cold. Roger Goodell already planted the flag that when Nashville Stadium is done, they can't wait. They're getting one. They're going to get a Super Bowl. Such a great Super Bowl week. Do you remember when the draft is?

But yeah, there's kind of like a four to eight city kind of southern belt rotation. But I thought the NFL finally did something. Remember we all said, and I was one of them, the NFL draft, that was for Radio City Music Hall in New York.

That was just for New York. How would it be? They're going to take the draft and move it somewhere else? You can't do that.

And I'm like, oh yes you can. Because I've attended a draft before. And I will tell you, if you can't go to a Super Bowl because maybe your team's not in it.

Think about it. The Super Bowl is really built up of a lot of our media folks. We always attend. But it's really two fan bases. You're not going to the Super Bowl if your team's not in it. So how do you help out the other people who want to be big fans and want to be a part of it in their cities that don't necessarily have that Super Bowl?

You can't get a Super Bowl. What have they done? The NFL draft has now been the next thing. I think the precedent has already been set.

Each year the numbers continue to grow. Whether it was Kansas City, whether it was Chicago, whether it was Philadelphia. Detroit just had their record number. We already talked about Nashville. Next year, Title Town, Green Bay. We're going to have an event in Green Bay, Wisconsin at the end of April. And there's going to be almost a million people there.

And there's going to be the whole state of Wisconsin going to shut down for that. The draft going on the road, Mikey, we were just talking about this yesterday. It's the greatest thing the NFL has ever done. The first few years in Chicago was kind of like the pilots thing.

I agree. And then they had all the events out in Grand Park. We could fit a lot of people out here. And then I didn't think anything would top the Philadelphia draft. Then we went to Nashville. And I didn't think anything would top the Nashville draft. And then we went to Detroit this year. And I'm like, man, if Detroit can do it.

If Detroit can get three quarters of a million people. And it was so incredible. Everyone was so nice.

We had such a great time. Just imagine what Green Bay and Pittsburgh, two of the oldest, the oldest, greatest football cities that we have in this country, TJ. It is going to be crazy.

Right. And think about how accessible Green Bay is, though, from Indianapolis, from Chicago, from Detroit, like Milwaukee. People are going to come in droves. And look, I've been in Green Bay, I've played in Green Bay before as a player.

I mean, as going against the Packers. But I've been there to do some features, do some training camp tours. People come to Lambeau just for the stadium tour. Just to see it. Just to see the stadium. Now, hey, let's go to the NFL draft. Let's go see the stadium. Let's go to the NFL has done a great job.

And I can only imagine what it's going to be like in Pittsburgh. Oh, and what you said about the Super Bowl is dead on. The Super Bowl is for kind of big money people. If you're not a fan of the two teams, it's for big money. It's for sponsors.

It's for friends of kind of corporate folk. But it's also the end of the season. The draft is kind of the, oh, football's right around the corner. And the hope is there. If you have a first round pick, the hope of getting X, Y, Z prospect and everyone's got their jerseys on and the hype and the expectation. All the jerseys, though.

It's all out. The draft is so much fun if you've never been to one. I can't wait to see where it's going after Pittsburgh, because it's it's just going to be bigger than that. Like the next two years will be bigger than the previous year and so on and so forth. And it's going to be awesome.

And T.J., you grew up near there and lived in Pittsburgh. Like, you know what it's going to be like and where everyone's going to go and how people are going to show out. What is it?

What is it? So what's the square down there again? How was the point point point State Park Point State Park Square? We were talking yesterday where they're going to hold it. I think that's pretty much going to be the biggest, most wide open space, unless they actually go and do it in Heinz Field. It's Acre-Sure. Maybe at the point, you know, maybe maybe put guys in a boat and have them go across the river. I mean, there's a lot of things.

What's that outfit? Have them come down the incline. How many cutaways of the incline throughout the draft? Get to Mount Washington and that's when you get presented.

You're overlooking the city like Cyrus from the Warriors. Also, if we don't have Bain involved somehow. Oh, it's going to be all out.

I mean, Pittsburgh has to. Trust me. I was born in the dog. Welcome to the draft. It loves its football. Yeah, like it's going to be. I get it.

So what I did think about, I know we got a couple minutes before I got to get ready for the bus to join us. Jerome Bettis, the Hall of Famer legend in Pittsburgh. What cities that we have not talked about could be in this rotation? What about Buffalo? A NFL draft in Buffalo.

Is that not a time? We haven't even talked about that before. So you got another city that we could talk about the NFL draft that is not in that NFL Super Bowl rotation. I got Buffalo. We just went to Kansas City. We just went to Cleveland. They just did a draft in Cleveland.

Yeah, they went to Cleveland. Dallas. Denver.

That's the number one. Denver. Denver. Denver draft because we just did a Vegas draft.

We just did a Cleveland draft. Seattle. It may be a little bit Seattle.

I mean, let's think about it. The Seattle Storm last night sold out the arena last night. Oh, and the Sounders are huge up there. Seattle will be fun. It's far. It's far for people to travel to. I mean, Seattle would be fun. Or do you want to?

I mean, that is. I mean, Los Angeles still hasn't had one yet. L.A. NFL draft.

You work outside. But we get the Super Bowl. We do get the Super Bowl. That's true.

But still, they're like drafts. I'm thinking of other cities. So right now, we got Buffalo, Denver, Seattle, DC.

We could do a New England draft. Well, the stadium is not really in this city. So where would you have it? In Boston? No idea.

I'm not sure. Miami. You can do the draft at Fenway. That'd be cool. We did it in the middle of baseball season at Fenway. We can do the Spurs.

Send them out, you know. Yeah. Does the NFL go back to Jacksonville? For the draft? I don't think so. Because Jacksonville is kind of sometimes in the Super Bowl rotation.

Just sometimes. No, they ain't going back to Jacksonville. But Tampa's in the Super Bowl rotation. Well, Jacksonville is going to get a new stadium and that whole facility in downtown.

So once that's done, they'll get a Super Bowl for sure. I don't know about a draft. Yeah, see, I'm just thinking around. I'm looking around.

See? Chicago? Well, they've already had Chicago. So I think if we're facing three cities right now, Buffalo, Seattle, Denver after Pittsburgh. Minneapolis, even though they just had a Super Bowl, it would be warmer in April.

You're bringing up old wounds, man. That Minneapolis Super Bowl. That was the coldest I've ever been.

It did not get above zero. Yes. So we'll see. I mean, I think the NFL is always about expanding. Probably going to 18 games. You know what?

That's what I'm gonna do. 18 games. I'm gonna ask somebody who played the position of running back. What does he think about 18 game seasons? The busts, the great running backs in NFL history. The Hall of Famer, the Super Bowl champion Jerome Bettis joins the Rich Eisen Show next. I'm gonna ask him about the 18 game season because you know what?

Would the busts make it in the 18 game season? I also want to ask him about the running back position. Why they don't love the running backs no more, Jerome? I got to ask him about that because look, if you had a Jerome Bettis on your team, he was doing all right. Now it's like four or five running backs trying to do one job of Jerome Bettis.

We'll see as I get to Jerome Bettis here. Coming up next, right here on the Rich Eisen Show with Kirk Morrison filling in for Rich. 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.

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Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. So excited because my next guest, he won't talk about his influence on the NFL, but I'll tell you his influence is loud and it seems to be coming like clearer and clearer, especially over the last couple of days. We had a Super Bowl in which he won in the city of Detroit. Then all of a sudden Detroit hosts a draft and then, oh, by the way, the Pittsburgh area will now host another NFL draft. Well, their first NFL draft in 2026.

The influence of Jerome Bettis is right here in front of us and he joins the Rich Eisen Show right now, courtesy of Air Serve. Jerome, just tell me, first of all, I got the news that Pittsburgh will be hosting, they'll be hosting an NFL draft in 2026. Just talk about what the people will see when they come to, when the draft comes to Pittsburgh. Well, I believe that the people and the whole country will see an incredible football town, people rapping about their team, and then because it's in Pittsburgh, you're going to have all the other teams, their craziest fans are going to come into Pittsburgh to try to show that they are the best fans. It's going to be hard to do, I promise you, because I don't think there's any better football fans than in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So it's going to be an incredible draft. Detroit, I got a chance to be there.

It was phenomenal. I do believe, though, that Pittsburgh will go to another level. No, I bet they will and I know we'll see Jerome Bettis all over the place because you will be in a high demand in Pittsburgh come NFL draft 2026. But speaking of draft, there's a bigger draft I think that comes up, especially as we get closer to the beginning of the NFL season. That's the fantasy football draft and I know that air servers, they're going to be hosting an ultimate fantasy draft and you'll be a part of it, man.

Jerome, talk first of all, tell me about the ultimate draft party with air serve and how you will be helping them out. Yeah, it's called the air serve ultimate fantasy football draft party. It's going to be in Nashville. It's going to be August the 10th. You know, just first and foremost, you can go to airserve.com slash fantasy draft to register is it's going to be one of those events that you just don't want to miss.

It's going to be really special. I'm excited about it because I've become a huge fantasy football fan. When I was playing, people hated it because people used to get mad at me because if I get on the one yard line, get it to the one, then Cornell Stewart would jump over the pile and I would lose the touchdown and they'd get mad at me and I'm like, they can call the play.

And so, I always thought that it was tough because on me, but now as a fan, I absolutely love it. You mentioned getting involved in fantasy football. Do you know when you started? What brought you to the fantasy football space?

That's a good question. It was just enjoying the game. And obviously the way I watched the game, I watched players, you know, obviously, you know, having played for Pittsburgh, I'm a Pittsburgh Cilla fan, but then I like individual players, right? And so it gave me the ability to follow individual players without having to support their football team, you know, and so I just thought that was the perfect scenario that I could follow, you know, the running backs or follows the wide receiver and kind of root for them without having to root for the team. We're speaking with the Hall of Famer, Jerome Bettis, here on the Rich Eisen Show. Kirk Morrison here filling in for Rich. And Jerome, I don't know your, you know, your thoughts when it does come to a fantasy football draft.

I know the position that you played, that you played at a really, really high level. So when it comes to drafting in that first round and Jerome Bettis is on the clock, are you going wide receiver? Are you going running back?

What position are you leading to come fantasy football draft time? It's tough. It depends. Here's what it depends on. First of all, it depends on where you pick it in the draft. Right?

That's the first one, right? Because I think there's, you know, two or three guys. First of all, you want to look at the, you know, the top two or three running backs and then the top two or three quarterbacks and the top two or three receivers, right? All of them really are interchangeable, but you would love to get those, that top running back or, you know, a quarterback who's going to run and who's going to score some touchdowns on the ground. So it's, it's, it's really a question of where you're picking in the draft, because if I'm picking really high, then I'm, I know I can get my running back, one of the top running backs and I'm going for running back.

You better believe it. And if I'm in the middle of the draft, I'm, I'm probably going to try to get one of the top receivers if they're still available. If I'm picking at the bottom of the first round, then I'm probably going to try to get my quarterback because those guys run off the board pretty quick.

So I'll probably try to get my quarterback and then double back and get the receiver next and then the running back. You know, Jerome, I mentioned that you're here with AirServe, an industry leader in HVAC and indoor air quality services. And I know that's just something that you've been really passionate about, especially quality of air, something that you dealt with, obviously in your career, and it's something that you've really, at your post-career, have really stood on, making sure that people understand what the quality of air has been.

So for you, tell us about the campaign and how you're ensuring that we're all breathing clean air, Jerome. So when I, when I went out to play football as a kid, I was asthmatic and, and I didn't know it. And so, you know, I was traumatized.

I had to go to the doctor and everything. And so, when I started working with AirServe, a neighborly company, it allowed me to now have a voice and say, listen, guys, you have to understand there are issues in your own home that are working against you. And a lot of times people don't realize that you have, you know, the dead skin from yourself, from the animal pets, if you have pets, the dust.

And so there's so much that's in your home that is working against you. You need a company like AirServe that can come in and help you, but also help you maintain your systems that are in place because it's nothing like having good air to breathe. And for a person who struggles at times to breathe, good air is, you don't realize how special it is until you don't have it.

And so that's why it's given me an opportunity to really talk to people, really want to let them know, hey, you need to be more conscious about the air quality in your own home. You know, Jerome, speaking of air, it's new air or maybe era in the National Football League with Roger Goodell. Didn't say it just yet, but when I hear the NFL is possibly thinking about expanding to 18 games, and I'm thinking to my mind, wow, we thought 16 was a lot. Then we got to 17 and there was gripes about 17, but that's what happens.

You go through a couple seasons and we forget about it. But now the possibility of 18 games. How do you see the NFL navigating to 18 games? Is there some concessions that you have to have in order to get to 18 games for player safety?

Yeah, there are some concessions that you got to get to. You've got to open up that roster. You've got to have more positions because in an 18 game season, you're inviting more injury into play, right?

Before you even get to the playoffs. So now you need to have more bodies that you can now put into a football game where you don't stress out a football player's body because really it wasn't designed to play one, much less 16, now 17 and possibly 18. So I think if you enlarge that roster, allow for more players that gives the teams a little bit more leeway and not running down your star players. Now you're able to finish out a full year and be healthy enough to go into the playoffs because at the end of the day, it's about the playoffs. But if you can't get to the playoffs without being injured, you know, what is it all for? So I think teams, the NFL first has to understand really the pressure that's put on each player from a physical standpoint. Now you open up that, you give them more opportunity, which entails gives more players opportunities as well. So I just think you have to, you know, open up that roster, put more guys on there. We're talking to the Super Bowl champion, the Hall of Famer, Jerome Bettis here on the Rich Eisen Show with Kirk Morrison here.

I'm filling in for Rich. The one thing that I was just kind of thinking about is that over years past, we know the Mike Tomlin resume, right? Since he's been the head coach in Pittsburgh, he's never had a losing season, right?

And I get it. And then this may be the more, the most trying season upcoming with having, you know, eight games against playoff teams and divisional opponents in the last 11 weeks of the season. But then on top of that, there's new quarterbacks inside of that locker room in Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. Just from what you may have heard, what you may have seen, Jerome, well, what's the, what's your outlook on the Pittsburgh Steelers of 2024?

I'm excited about the Steelers in 2024. I just think, you know, you got two quarterbacks who are hungry. Both guys have something to prove.

Both guys want to be out there, you know, running the show. And that's, that's a beautiful thing because I believe when you have that type of competition on a daily basis, it's going to do nothing but help your football team. Because if, if these players see their, their, their quarterbacks in this battle, what do you think it's going to do for those other individual battles, for those other positions, those guys are going to raise their level, right? To meet the level of your, of the quarterbacks. And so whichever quarterback they do decide on, I think you're going to get the best version of that quarterback.

So I'm excited. The one thing the Steelers had been missing was really, really high level quarterback play. And I think both of these guys have the ability to provide that. So if you, you, you mix that in with an outstanding defense, incredible pass rush, great running game. Now you've got a championship caliber football team. And I think that's what, I think the potential is a championship caliber football team with, with high level quarterback play. You know, last couple of minutes with you Jerome, because a question I was kind of looking at throughout football in terms of the running back position, I saw that Najee Harris didn't get the fifth year option with the Pittsburgh Steelers. They also have Jalen Warren on the roster as well, but I look around the national football league and the position that you play.

And so many people loved watching you play, but we knew the importance of what a Jerome Bettis type player meant to an offense, meant to a defense as well, having to go up against you. But you look at the NFL now and the running back position is just not the same. The money's not the same.

How would you describe it? Is there a way to improve what once used to be a commodity that you have to have now? It just seems like it's a rotational piece and no one wants to invest in that position. Yeah, the problem has been college, college football. So when you look at college football and where it went, you know, that, you know, 15, 10, 15 years ago, what happened was you started to see teams go to three, four wide receivers every play. And then the quarterback went from under center to now, you know, every play is a shotgun play.

Well, now it's more 60, 60, 40 throwing the football to running the football, 70, 30, if you will. And what you've seen now is a different type of running back in college. You got a smaller, a shorter, smaller running back that's quicker because the holes aren't the same way that it's not a punishing style of football. So now you don't need that big running back. Well, the problem is in the NFL, they still want a big running back. And so you can't find them. So now it's hard to really go out and get that first round running back because he's not there.

Right. But, but you do have three receivers on every team. So now you've getting this influx of wide receivers that are coming in. So I expect to see every year somewhere like, you know, five, six receivers getting drafted in the first round because they're going to be plentiful. Well, the problem is you don't have the running back. So the running backs are going to become an issue because you're not going to have the quality there.

And that's why they're going with running back by committee because you just don't have those bell cows that can be stars. But when you do find one, then you sign them. And I think that's what the Eagles did. They found one. They say, Hey, we're going to get them. They got them and they're going to be better for it. So there's still a need for the running back position.

You just can't really find them. Well, I'll tell you this. I know if I'm drafting behind you in the air serve ultimate fantasy football draft party, the top rated running back may be off the board after Jerome Bettis goes up into the draft. I, Jerome and I appreciate the time. Thank you. And look, you'll be co-hosting the air serve ultimate fantasy football draft party.

Go to www dot air serve.com slash fantasy draft. Hey, Jerome, always appreciate the time. My man. Thank you.

Thank you. Oh man. Great to have the bussy on Jerome.

Jerome was in the house. Oh man. Like we don't like I truly appreciate the running backs before I would say about 2009, 2010. We won't get those types of bell cow running backs anymore. Right. I think about Jerome Bettis and Eddie George, Emmett Smith, like, you know, those guys would come in and they were 300 plus carry guys a year.

And for length five, six, seven years, not just DeMarco Murray, like one hit wonder. It was, I was looking, you know, in the we're looking up. Derek Henry seems like he's kind of the last of that breed. Yeah. Yeah. He's a highlander.

I'm the last of my kind. There is only one, but did you know Jerome Bettis is the sixth all time leading rusher NFL history. Sixth.

Yeah. Look at that. Look at that number Brock only because you would never think that, but he's there. And I'm looking at his numbers.

I believe it was what 13,000 yard, 13,000 yards over his career. He's down to eight. Now he's pushed down to eight. Now he's pushed down to eight, but who's who's who's in front of him because I'm looking at you guys should be able to guess we don't have to play the guessing game, but with Daniel Tomlinson is seventh.

Okay. That's a, he played 11 years. Yes. Curtis Martin played 11 years. Adrian Peterson will be, who's still trying to play, right?

I guess. Barry Sanders, Frank Gore, Walter Payton and Emmett. I keep forgetting about Frank Gore and, ah, you forgot about Frank Gore. Weird because his career is not that memorable. Yeah. Yeah. If people talk about hall of fame for Frank Gore at some point, I'll only say that because I really feel like that, that 16,000 yards dog. I mean, maybe not first, second ballot. Oh, I'm going to eat that out. But everyone deep down knows I'm right. I don't think so.

If you, I mean, like, I honestly want to sort of think about this for a second. Like that top 10 now that Adrian Peterson, you know, has been out of the league for a couple of years. I don't think he's coming back last played in 2021. Who's the active NFL leading rusher right now? Would that be, it has to be Derrick Henry, right? Derrick Henry or Zeke.

Derrick Henry is your active leader. He's 36th all time at 9,502 yards. I would say it's a good safe bet to say that the top 10 in rushing probably won't change for a very, very long time.

Just the way that the. So 10th all time is one of TJ's favorites, Tony Dorsett, 12,739. Ain't nobody getting to 12,000. Think about it in today's NFL, a running back getting to 12,000 yards. I feel like the new age running back of the National Football League, you've got a shelf life of four to six years, maybe seven, maybe seven.

But after that, they rotate, they running right through. So Derrick Henry's at 9,500. Zeke will get to 9,000 this year. He's at 8,900. Then there is a large gap to the next active, which is Latavious Murray at 6,552. Melvin Gordon.

And they've been in the league for a while now. 6,543. Now you got Nick Chubb is at 6,511, but he's coming off a really devastating injury.

Yeah. Joe Mixon's right behind him at 6,412. That's quiet. He's kept too. How do you feel about Christian McCaffrey? He's at 6,200. Can he, I mean, think about it for him to even get into 10,000, he's got to have two amazing years. And we know in about two more years, we're going to say that he's up there in years. He just had his best year age 27, 1400 yards last year. But once he hits 30, once he hits 30, we already know. But if he goes, he goes the next two years, maybe he combines for 2,500 yards. That puts him where? So he's more all purpose though. You know what I mean? Like his rushing kind of gets taken away by his receiving.

So Christian McCaffrey is very unlikely that he gets to 10,000 career rush yards. Well, you know what? There's a big event in Los Angeles that may tell a lot. A big event in Los Angeles that's happening this weekend, actually Friday, that may tell us a lot about the WNBA. I'll tell you all about that coming up next right here on The Rich Eisen Show.

Kirk Morrison filling in for Rich. Well, you know what? Back here on The Rich Eisen Show, I got to talk to you guys about GameTime.co. That's right. GameTime.co is an authorized ticket marketplace for basketball, baseball, they do it all. And it makes getting playoff tickets right now currently for the NBA makes it even easier, but much more, it's faster. Prices on the GameTime app actually go down the closer that it gets to the tip off.

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The lowest price guarantee, that's GameTime.co. That's a mighty read there. That's my favorite part is that you can see what your view is from the seat, especially if it's a stadium or an arena that you've never been to. That's my favorite part.

You know what? It's my favorite part as a broadcaster, college broadcaster. The first thing I do when I get an assignment, because I get my assignments the week before. So if I know what city I'm going to, the first thing that I look at is what other major sporting event is going on in the city I'll be doing a broadcast from. So I go look at the NBA, I'll look at obviously baseball during the fall. And now I talked about a little bit earlier, the big event that's happening in Los Angeles this weekend. It's Memorial Day weekend and the Indiana Fever, the 0-5 Indiana Fever led by Kaitlyn Clark, the number one overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft. Her and the Fever are coming to crypto.com arena to take on the Los Angeles Spark. Now I say crypto.com arena because this game was moved from the pyramid. The pyramid where Long Beach State University, Long Beach State University is where the Sparks play their home games. They moved this game to crypto.com arena for Kaitlyn Clark.

And so I think this is huge. So you may go to that gametime.co app right now and go get you some tickets because this is going to be huge for me because I think in the Midwest, parts of the country, there's a big fan base for Kaitlyn Clark because a lot of people are focused on the indoor sports during the fall, winter months, or sorry, during the winter, early spring months. You come into Los Angeles, but I think that there is a big fan base of people who want to see Kaitlyn Clark as well. Now, the Sparks also have their first round pick in Cameron Brink as well, who's been, you know, turning heads. She's part of that New Balance crew as well. So she's got her own NIL deal.

She's doing her thing in the space of the WNBA. But what do you think the turnout is going to be? Dale Tufo, are you going to be there? I am going. You're going? A hundred percent.

Okay. I've worked her games when she's played and it's like, I want to see her live. You want to see her live? To me, yeah. She's like one of those people that I want to see like Angel Reese, her.

I want to see all these girls live in person. Is it sort of reminding us right now of like Victor Winbunyama? And one reason I say this because you have this generational talent and you remember the Spurs to start the season were bad. And yet Victor Winbunyama and the Spurs were like on national TV. We're like, it's the 0-5 Spurs versus the 3-0 Dallas Mavericks. Well you don't get the number one pick when you're good. Wherever you listen.