Kevin Stefanski: Feel Strong About The Vision For This Team

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You need a Q-tip? Let's go! Live from the Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles. Do you have any sense of what the Los Angeles Chargers are gonna look like? I think they're gonna look a lot like all of Jim Harbaugh's teams. Who's got it better than us? Nobody! What he does is so identifiable. Earlier on the show, ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Billis. Coming up, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski. Comedian Sal Vulcano. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air.

Just had a very nice chat with Sal Vulcano in our green room. He's a fellow Staten Islander. Many of you may know him of his time with Impractical Jokers, part of TruTV.

He's got a special out right now called Terrified that's available on YouTube. We'll talk about that with him. Again, we're from the same hometown. Chris Brockman, I told him that we have a game that you're going to host, me versus him. On how well do you know your Staten Islander, right? He said, oh, so you want to start your day off with a loss, is what he said. That's how you started the show, though! I told him, I didn't tell him. I guess he might hear it in the green room right now. I'm a former staff writer for the Staten Island Advance.

There's three community boards in Staten Island. I've been through every last inch of that place. He has no idea what he's messing with. This is gonna be great. I don't normally get aggressive with guests, but I will with Sal. We have four questions and then a possible tiebreaker. Just like the Seder.

And a possible tiebreaker. Okay, you got that. I got it. Jay got that. My non-Jewish friends did not get the four questions joke.

I knew what the Seder was. Joining us here on The Rich House, he was kind enough to call in during the Super Bowl shows where we were in Vegas after he won Coach of the Year. And here he is now, zooming in the day after he got a well-deserved contract extension in Cleveland. Kevin Stefanski, good to see you, Coach. How are you? Good to see you guys. I appreciate you having me.

I'm ready for any Philadelphia trivia, if you guys want to go ahead. Okay. Alright.

You want the 93 Phillies batting order? Oh, yes. You got that? Seriously.

Careful. You ready to go? What do you got? Mickey Melandini, John Kruk, Dave Hollins, Darren Dutch Dalton. Nice. Let's go Jim Eisenreich.

Nice. Left field, we'll go Pete Incaviglia. Shortstop was a call-up that year, Kevin Stocker. And then let's put Schilling on the mound. Kevin Stefanski.

Well done. Seriously, who would you go up against? You know, a Philadelphia guy. Who do you know from back in that day where, like, I would beat that guy in that game right there, Kevin? Who's that? You know, I was 11 years old during that 93 World Series, so there were many wiffle ball games during that summer. That batting order is etched into my memory. But, yeah, I don't know.

Get one of your guests. We'll go head-to-head whenever you can. And I know this may be a third rail issue with the Guardians playing so well right now. Are you still locked in on the Phillies right now? I have an AL team and an NL team.

Well done. Obviously, always love my Phillies. I love Rob Thompson, what he's doing down there. And what the Guardians are doing here in town has been incredible. Stephen Vogt's doing an awesome job as a first-time manager. I'm going to get down to see him, I think, next week to formally say hello.

But really proud of how they're playing. I love it. So, just jumping right into everything going on with you. Congratulations on the contract extension.

What went through your head as you put pen to paper on that for you, Kevin? Yeah, for me, Rich, as you know, this job, there's a lot of things that you love about football and why we do this, and it's a game. And then there's the business side of football, which is not always fun. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the business side. As you can imagine, when I walk in the building, that's like the last thing on my brain. But to be able to do this with the Haslam family, with Andrew Berry, to partner with Andrew, we feel really strongly about the vision that we have for this football team. And we haven't accomplished anything yet in our minds.

We have a lot of work to do, but excited about being entrusted with this responsibility from the Haslam family. When you mentioned Andrew Berry, the general manager was also extended. Were you aware that you and he together are the first coach and general manager regime, if you will, extended by the Browns since 1999, their reexistence? Kevin, were you aware of that? Yeah, I was not aware.

Obviously, I saw that yesterday. Listen, I was not here for a lot of that, as you know. And really, when I took this job back in 2020, there's a lot of people that tell you certain things about an organization.

And honestly, I didn't care about the past at all. And I continue to respect this. This is a storied franchise. We just spent time today talking to the team about this franchise and the giants that have come before us. So I respect that part of it.

But in terms of how it affects how we operate in the future and what we do in the present, it really didn't factor into our line of thinking. And so in terms of 2024, so much is predicated or hinged or placed into the baskets of some returning from injury players. What's your assessment of DeSean Watson right now and his readiness for this season and what to expect, Kevin? He's doing a great job, Rich. Really, from the second he had that injury and then got fixed up, he's been chomping at the bit, doing everything that medical tells him he's allowed to do.

He's always asking to do more. But really where he is right now is he's throwing at practice. He's looking good. I said it the other day, he looks like himself to me. I see what he, you know, he rips the ball.

And that's kind of what I've always seen from number four. So we'll continue to bring him along at the direction of our medical team and DeSean, obviously. But I really like where he is right this minute. And then we'll ramp him up as we get going through the season. And again, when you say looks like him, is that the Texans version of him? Honestly, because it's been a while since we've seen Watson healthy and looking like a top five quarterback in this league.

Yeah, as you know, we always talk about we want the best version of ourselves. And, you know, I want the best version of DeSean. He's constantly getting better. I see so many of these veterans, Rich, as you know, every single year you challenge them to get better.

Even the guys that you feel like they're at the height of their craft. Look at Miles Garrett coming off that defensive player of the year. He will be challenged both by us and I know he does this to himself. He needs to get better. There are things that he can do better.

I know DeSean is in the same boat. He wants to be better. He wants to play better every single game, every single year.

I also, even if you look back to last year, that Baltimore game is pretty fresh on my mind. Where with a bad ankle and a bad shoulder, he goes 14 to 14 in the second half and beats an unbelievably good team at their place. So I'm excited for where he is right this minute with plenty of work to do. And I know he's going to continue to get better and get healthy. But I'm excited about DeSean. Yeah, he was dynamite in that Ravens game. And then I was just totally bowled over, gobsmacked that he was hurt. You know, like where, when, right?

I mean, it was one of those things. And so what's Nick Chubb's status that you can share with us, Kevin? Yeah, he's doing great.

He's here. He's out watching practice. He's rehabbing every day. I think he's the first one in the building.

He gets whatever rehab he's prescribed. I think he's doing it twice. He is doing everything in his power.

I'm not putting a timetable on it. He's not. He's really got the blinders on and focusing on the work that's in front of him. But it's so fun to have him in the building, in the meetings, out of practice. And his teammates, and he was around last year, Rich, during that whole run we had. Nick was in the building. He was around.

So he knew, he saw it firsthand. He understands how much this team thinks of him. And he'll continue to push himself to be out there as soon as he's ready. When I appreciate you talking injuries, I know that's like one of the least favorite subject matters of a coach and crystal balls and figuring it out. So, I mean, is it possible we see him week one, September?

Kevin, do you think? I could go the NHL route and just say it's a lower body injury. Extremity.

Go extremity. Yes, right. Exactly. I don't, I can't, again, no timeframe with Nick. As you can imagine, the way I feel about Nick, the way his teammates feel about Nick, we're behind him 100 percent.

I would not doubt this young man. Well, and obviously, you know the way, the attention being focused on your team only ratcheting up and how successful you finished the season last year in the regular season and making the playoffs. The NFL doesn't just throw a team in front of a large audience in week one just cause. You know, last year we saw the Lions after years of them trying to build their reputation up, getting thrown on Thursday night kickoff against the Chiefs. What did you think of when you heard them say Browns hosting Cowboys week one, Tom Brady in the booth, Fox, whole country's watching?

What do you got for me on that? Yeah, we love that. As you know, we love playing those later in the afternoon games, those night games. We'll play at one o'clock too if that's what the league asks us to do.

Sure. Players love playing with a big audience. Obviously, that's a great, great challenge for us having the Cowboys come to our place. They're well coached.

They got great players. And then you got your Michigan buddy doing the game, which is an added bonus. But we're excited about really that schedule comes out.

You look at a lot of things. You look at where the bye week is, how many road games in a row, how many home games in a row. And then, of course, your eyes go to that first game. So we're excited about it. NFC East champs coming to our place. Yeah, I don't see too many teams have three in a row on the road, followed by three in a row at home, and then a bye. Is that a first for you? You know, I asked our crack staff here, our crack PR team led by Dan Murphy.

I asked them that, and he's sitting right here. Murph, was it Arizona? Arizona Cardinals a couple of years ago, that happened to them.

So you break right out of Murph's lips to your show. Okay, so it is a rarity, no doubt about that. Speaking of Michigan men, you drafted one, sir, and you drafted a special one as well. And certainly, you know, Zach Zinter's career at Michigan ended against a lot of Buckeye fans in the big house when he broke his leg. What have you seen in him and how is he doing in his readiness for rookie season, Kevin? Yeah, he's doing a great job. He fits in really well in this building. He just works hard, doesn't say much, does a great job hanging out with his teammates. He's just a good person. We know what he meant to that Wolverine football team, and you saw it when he was injured.

He was a leader for that ball club. So he's doing everything he needs to do right now. He's not 100 percent, but he's darn close. So we're excited about him. He's a young man that is going to come in and work. And fortunate for him, he has some incredible guys to look up to in our offensive line room, especially in the interior. You have Joel Patonio, Wyatt Teller, Ethan Posick, all vets, all guys that have done it at a high level.

So he doesn't have to look very far as to how to do it, but I would tell you he fits in really well. All right, and to be fair and balanced here, Michael Hall Jr. was your first draft choice selection in the second round out of Ohio State. You're going to stick him right next to the Grim Reaper or he moves aside as the Grim Reaper crossover dribbles over the center or whatever? What's your plan for him?

Coach Schwartz is cooking it up right now as we speak. We're excited about Mike Hall. He's an Ohio State kid. He's also a Cleveland kid, Streetsboro.

So he's right down the road. We really think his skill set, his talent fits what we do. He's a DNA fit for us in how we play and how we attack off the ball. So we're excited about Mike. He's a young kid. He's not yet 21. He's working very, very hard, but we're excited about Mike.

And then I guess to finish the Buckeye portion of this conversation to show I am fair and balanced. How's Mike Vrabel doing over there on your staff as a consultant? What does he do for you?

What doesn't he do? You can see him. He's soaking wet after every practice because he's running the scout team. He's the middle linebacker. He's the heart of the defense and the scout team.

He's helping out special teams. He's an asset for me. Vrabs and I have known each other over the years, and we would talk, but when you're in the same conference, I can't pick up the phone and call him and ask him a question. Now I can, and he's down the hall. So I'm so thrilled that he's up here.

Speaking of Ohio kids, this is another Ohio kid, Walsh Jesuit, down the road. So he's just a good person, a good friend. I'm thrilled he's up here. Is he going to do stuff with you during the season?

Is he going to be on the sideline? Yeah? Yeah, and we're going to work. He'll be here, and I told Vrabs, I said, I'll take as much as you want to give us.

You want to give us one hour a week or 100? That's your call. So we're working through it because I am mindful of stealing him away from his family as well.

But he'll be up here this fall, yes. All right, last thing here. You've got a big night tonight. The Keeper's Foundation.

It's your family's charitable organization, keepersfoundation.org. What is happening tonight in Under the Lights? Yeah, we're excited about this, Rich. So we've got two events in our inaugural year, and we're going to start with a flag football event down at our stadium.

It's Under the Lights, and as you know, our players love to play Under the Lights. And these young kids, these young boys and girls are going to get to play flag football at the stadium where their heroes play Under the Lights. So we're going to have an event down there, raise some awareness for our foundation. And then we have an event next Thursday as well, a unique one.

We're calling it Night Out by the Lake, where we'll have some food and drink and live music and some very, very unique auction items for people. So all this is to go to a good cause. And this Keepers Foundation, which we've started, is looking out for the kids in our community that need them to look out for the most. That's why it's called the Keepers. We are our brothers and our sisters keeper, if you will. So we're looking out to help kids in our community, and we've got a couple events that we think will be a lot of fun to raise some money for a good cause.

Yeah, educational opportunities, mentorship programs, essential resources and services, keepersfoundation.org. And so anybody who's listening to us or watching us in the greater metropolitan area there in Cleveland, go there and they could play tonight Under the Lights on the same field? Yes. How cool is that?

Under the Lights, nothing like it. Okay, and is Vrabel there giving him crap? Is that part of it? Vrabel won't be there tonight, but I'll put him to work. I got some stuff that he can do.

Well, send my best to him. Kevin, and thanks again. Congrats on the contract extension. I always appreciate when you answer the invitation to come on here.

I don't take it for granted. Thanks. Of course. Appreciate you, Rich. Have a great day. Thank you.

And by the way, thank you for the first mention in the almost 10-year history of my show of Mickey Morandini. You're the first. That's a first for us. Second baseman. There you go. And Rich, he choked up on that bat real high.

Well, I mean, yeah, he wasn't sitting back in the batter's box ready to just take somebody yard, that's for sure. I remember that. Take care of yourself, coach. You be well. Thanks, Rich.

See you. That's Kevin Stefanski, the reigning coach of the year in the National Football League right here in the Rich Eisen show. I love it. Amen. You didn't want to tell him you had him seventh in the. Oh, could you imagine? Hey, coach, listen, I have you seventh best in my June power rankings. Honestly, could I sound dumber to an NFL head coach saying something like that?

Hey, coach, I had you seventh. I think you'd be like, cool. No, he'd be like, why not first?

Why not sixth? Or he'd just be like, OK, really? Is that why I'm taking time out of my schedule? I probably he's probably he's probably now late for a meeting because they kept it too long.

Phillies ninety three batting order. He had time. He's probably he was right, too, wasn't he? Oh, I believe so.

Mickey Morandini on a triple play. Oh, see, that's would have been his reaction to me saying I had you seventh on my June power rankings list. And since your boys are cool, you know, so.

All right. Let's take a break and bring out our next guest who thinks he knows more about our hometown than me. Well, I mean, we'll talk about more than just Staten Island with Sal Vulcano joining us next right here on the Rich Eisen show. This will be fun. I would not miss this.

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Slows full turns at Mint Mobile dot com. Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, just saw a clip of Terrified, which is available on YouTube via the 800 pound gorilla. Already a half million views in just a few days. And Sal Vulcano is here on the Rich Eisen Show. Pleasure, brother. Thank you so much. I'll tell you how excited I am to be here, really.

It's great that you and I are from the same area. We'll get to that in a second. And so where where was Terrified shot? Where do we see the theater in Chicago?

OK. Yeah. What a theater it was. That was a big choice to figure out where to shoot it, you know.

Sure. I wanted a space that was a theater, but played like a club. And it's like just a wonderful space. They're like right on top of you.

That energy was really there. Yeah. I mean, so when did you first do start doing stand up? I did some out of college. Where did you go to school? Sixty years ago. Where did you go to college?

St. John's University. OK. Yeah. All right. Absolutely. Big East.

Yes. Very good. And they were pretty good when I was there, actually. I was there. I graduated in 98. But but yeah.

And then, you know, this is Chicago show. It was the right. They just always come out, you know, because I made the right choice from that. So why did you first start doing Senate with people say you should try it or what?

What happened? I just from a little kid always wanted to do it. I don't know. I mean, I was so watch, you know, like when I was little, you know, just I was watching a comedy all the time. Somebody was want to do. And I got into it like backed into it because I started an improv and then sketch comedy. Right. I started television writing.

Right. And then out of college, I did some stand up. But I really I really have gone in hard maybe the last eight, nine years. When did you first meet the rest of the impractical joke?

When did that happen? Thirteen years old. We were all the same age. We met freshmen in high school. Where do you go to high school?

My senior, Farrell. Yes, sir. And you went to Port Richmond, right? No, I did not. Listen, he doesn't know his Staten Island.

If he's getting that wrong. Oh, well, someone told me that you did. Someone close to both of us. Hold on a second.

OK, I clarify. Who do you who do you know? Dom DeBartolomeo is I met him in 1990. Dom is one of the greatest people. His Beverly Hills cheese store.

Beverly Hills is fantastic. He is just a great human. I do love him. Port Richmond is where my dad taught. OK. I went to Susan Wagner. Oh, OK. Oh, he messed that up then. OK. Blame it on.

My sister went to Wagner and I actually I lived around the corner from there at a time. So I know it well. So you guys voted. You guys.

And that's where I got vetoed. So you and your the rest of the guys met in high school. Yeah, man. So were you were you that way in high school? We you know, we weren't like a clique together in high school, but our school was small. We only had like 300 kids in our class.

Right. We're all friends. We started all doing improv in high school together. And then we all went away to college. We all I was pursuing acting stand up and we came back and form this comedy troupe. We started doing sketch comedy.

We're on 2006. We started like filming our sketches and putting up and it was like the Myspace era and actually really the YouTube era. And when it first started was the boom and they started just putting us on the home page and we got more and more views. And then we got an agent. It just all stemmed from that. And it just started exploding. It was wild.

We could never. What puts you on you guys on the map together? Sound like what would you remember what it was? The moment where you finally like it became different for all you guys. Remember that?

Well, I mean, we once we got an agent, we started like pitching shows and things like that. You know what it was? We it was this online competition, NBC theater to find a best sketch comedy troupe in America or whatever. Right. And what they did was a way for them to like call content because you would upload sketches. It would give you a topic.

You'd upload sketches and then it would be voting on the Internet and you could win, I think, a thousand dollars a sketch. And they were doing it every single week. And it was their way to find talent on the cheap, I think.

Yes. We won out of like 30 weeks. We won like 11 times. And this was 11 grand split between us.

It was like 2007, I think it was. And this was like we couldn't believe this. And then what they did was they actually made this like pilot episode hosted by Carson Daly, which is like the battle.

It's your show. And they got five of the people that won the most. We were one of them. And we all put up a sketch against each other.

And the winner would win one hundred thousand dollars. And we won. And it didn't air, but they still had to pay us. So that was the important part. We won one hundred grand, which I couldn't even believe it.

I was like, I'm basically going to buy my own island now. And so from that, we got an agent and then it just kind of took off from there for the practical Joker show. We had pitch meetings set up. We had like these generals, they call me just terrible.

But we were like, so for people who don't know what a general is, it's just like you're just meeting somebody. They don't have a job for you in this town. They don't have a night. They're just getting to meet you on the off chance that when they do finally get a chance to put a show on the air, they think of you. And it's just it's just it's not the estimate. And nothing comes of it. And I'm like, hey, no, we'll get back to you. You know, but it was great meeting you. Nice to meet you. Yeah. Never hear from again.

Never anything. So we want to go into those meetings prepared with like ideas. And yes, like the one week before they were all scheduled, we just sat down like, let's get a battery, like a whole bunch of ideas. And we came up with jokers in that meeting. We had this meeting scheduled before the idea. And we just went in and said we had some ideas. We pitched them. And so the general actually did lead to something. It did. Yeah. Oh, here I am. Crap.

First time. I mean, we said we have we have stuff to pitch. It was a general. But then we're like, we'll bring stuff to the general that became a pitch, I guess. And then that's how it wound up on true TV. Yeah, man.

MTV offered to buy it in the room, in the room. And then which I mean, if you don't know this now, not only does no one ever buy offered to buy anything in the room, but I'll pitch and I pitch another 100 shows after that and haven't gotten one. You know, it's like that difficult. I mean, it's that difficult.

It rarely happens. It's like the Jets winning the Super Bowl happened once. And we felt like the Jets that day. And I you're like name if you walk off with the fingers in the air, the whole business. Yeah. And then true TV, same thing.

They offered it in the room and they were like, MTV wanted to take our concept and make it for just a rotating cast, like just a game show. Yeah. And then true. We were like, no, we wanted people to come back for us and like, like root for us. And like, that's the reason they come back.

It's about our friendship. And she was like, we'll give you that. We'll give you that. And so we did it with them.

And it's wild in 13 years. Damn. And again, there's the true TV and practical jokers, the drive, drive, drive, drive, drive toward.

I got the five drive. Absolutely. Yeah. That's right.

And people get tickets right now. It's salvo, Connell, comedy dot com, Orlando, Florida, Atlanta, Mobile, Alabama, Graniteville, PA. That's coming up in June and July. What's the one, I guess, impractical joke, for lack of a better phrase, that went the most awry and got you guys wondering, oh, this is awkward. This is dangerous.

We got to pull back. What was that? Yeah, we did one in a in a park one time where we had to baby talk to adults. So the idea was that the idea was that we would we chose a park as the kids are there. And the strategy was that we'd start off being like, oh, like talking to the kids as big and then transition right to adults and not, you know, and keep it going. And the idea was who could baby talk to an adult the most before they're like, what the hell's going on here? We didn't realize, though, that we were middle aged men strolling the park without children and just going up to kids, like because initially and just going like, hi. And they called the cops within like 40 minutes. Where was this?

It was a park in Manhattan somewhere and like West Side or something. So in the New York City, Upper West Side, maybe you're just strolling up to kids without children. Middle aged men just start baby talking. We realized that that we caught on right away. So we started to try to mitigate it by being like, Billy, get down on it, like yelling to no one. Yeah, OK, because they don't know whose kids is, you know, figure out make believe he's my kid or whatever.

Yeah. But now the cops came shut it down immediately. Luckily, the cops knew us.

I love that. The cops have been called to set it in 12, 11 seasons. They've been called to set like five or six times every single time. They were like, oh, no way.

So we're like, oh, thank God. One time I was playing. I was at a register in a supermarket and I took this woman's credit card. I took a picture of it and I gave it back to her and I was just like, I just it's just for my records or whatever. And she was like, she called the cops and they came and then they were like also like, oh, no, it's good. It's all right. You know, you just walked up to a woman just to just I was ringing her up.

Oh, I just got my phone, took a photo of her. And I was like, this is just my files or whatever. And then, you know, usually people roll with it. But even when we told her, no, no, it's cool. It's like it's a show.

She was like, I don't care what it is. You know, like I'm calling the cops, you know. So five or six times over the years, the authorities have been called to the set.

Yeah. One time, Murray James almost got killed. What he a guy, you know, every once in a while you'll find someone on a day that's just not their day. And also they might already be primed to just be that type of person.

And they just don't see anything about it being amusing. And there was this guy. I mean, he must have been about six, five. He was chasing James all over this this like odd lot store, like through the aisles, like trying to literally get him.

Yes. And he was like running. We have one security guard off to the left, you know, like that said. That's just like, hey, everybody, let's calm down now.

So it's like, you know, I was out there. But yeah, this is our fifth tour with the guys is the last leg of this tour. It ends in August. OK. The last time you could see this tour, we've been doing it for like a year and a half.

And then my brand new solo tour with all new material starts in September. That's fantastic. Yeah. Well, that's great, man. Sal Vulcano here on The Rich Eyes and Show Terrified is on YouTube via 800 pound gorilla. Right now, your first hour long special shot in the famed Vic theater in Chicago.

Everyone should check that out. So, OK, you are born and raised Staten Island. Born and raised. Born and raised.

Still there. OK. Technically, I am not a native Staten Islander. I was born in Brooklyn. OK. And my parents, both New York City public school educators, as I mentioned, my dad taught in Port Richmond High School. My mom taught in Brooklyn for a long time, mostly in kindergarten and things of that nature. When the Verrazano Bridge got built to span Brooklyn and Staten Island, that's when we moved. You were part of that migration? I was part of that migration in 1969. Wow. Yes, sir. So so, you know, one day my obituary in the Staten Island advance, I won't be called a Staten Island. I'll be called a Staten Island resident, not a native.

I love that you claim it, though, because a lot of people don't claim it. Christina Aguilera. But whatever. Oh, she lived there for a hot minute.

Alyssa Milano. We have a short list of people. Did Steven Seagal have like a place there? I forgot about that.

Dude, you have no idea what you're about to trifle with. OK. Yeah. Because I was a Staten Island advance as the only way to put it. That's the local newspaper, Staten Island. Yeah.

I was a staff writer there for three years. And I was also. What? Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, no way. Oh, yeah. As was Colin Jost, my good buddy, too.

Colin Jost. Yeah. We both have history of the Staten Island. Excellent. Right.

Except I I I deal with the real news, not fake news. But I was also a summer intern there for two years. Oh, yeah. I spent my I've I've been all over that that rock. So we decided to come up with a game here. What is what are we calling this, Chris Rockland? What do we got here?

Do you know your Staten Island? I said that's as simple as that. The simple is that what is the construct here? Because by the way, I am new to this. I don't know what they have planned. So what do we have for questions? OK.

If there if you are tied after four, we have a tie breaker. So you ask the question. I'm going to ask a question.

I want Sal to answer. But I want you, Rich, I want you to write it down and then reveal your answer afterward. I had no idea I needed you know, it's a paper works just fine, right? I mean, I'm going to watch you write it down.

OK, trust me. I'm an excellent word processor from my advanced. OK. It was word processing.

That's how I wrote all my college essays. I had like a suitcase, like the way how to handle. Yeah. Yeah.

I used to bring it to the cafeteria from home and do a day of. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They value some game show music. Oh, we have game show music. I didn't know that. Come on.

This is a high end production. Here we go. Our question number one, multiple choice. OK.

Besides being one of the five boroughs of New York City, Staten Island is also one of the five counties. What is the official county name? I've already written it down.

Rich is writing it down. Here are your choices. A, is it King's County? Can I just stop you there? I don't need the choice.

They don't need the choices either. What is the answer? What is the answer? So the answer would be C Richmond C Richmond County. Richmond right there.

It was C. By the way, my first bank book of my life was at the Richmond County Savings Bank, as was mine. Thank you so much. I still have it. Look at us right here. Look at us. Oh, my God. I couldn't have been more excited to see my like three cents of interest that was in there for my bar mitzvah money. It's fantastic. They used to print it out.

They used to run into the thing and print it out. Yes. Yes. This is this is going to be tough, by the way.

I'm looking at a five five tie. OK. Question number two is true or false?

Yeah. True or false? True.

The outer bridge crossing, which is the southernmost bridge in New York state, is named after George Outer Bridge. True or false? True. I say it's true as well. It is true.

Most people think that it was named because of its location, but it was really named after Eugenius H. Outer Bridge, the first chairman of the Port Authority of New York. It is true. And he also owes me twenty dollars. He owes me twenty dollars every time I cross that guy.

He owes me twenty dollars times a million. Number of times I would cross that bridge to go to the movie theater in Sarahville, New Jersey. That was the first multiplex of my life. The Amboy.

The Amboy. Look at you. That's maybe where I saw love at first bite. Yes, I saw. You know, what did you see?

I saw so many things there. But when we finally got ours. Yeah. Like it was when we finally got our multi one.

Yes. The first thing I saw there, I saw two. I snuck into it. I saw no holds barred with Hogan.

I think I snuck into red heat after that with a dude. This is great. Keep going.

This is great. We're toe to toe right now. This is a heavyweight fight. Question number three. Also true or false. Yes.

The Game of Thrones map of Westeros is based on Staten Island. You want to go? Are you going to write anything down? Oh, sure. Yeah.

I trust you, but I'm just. I believe that's true. That's false. Rich Eisen.

Sorry, it is true. George R.R. Martin grew up in Bayonne, New Jersey, and said that when he was young, he'd look out at the island and wondered what exotic mysteries and workers lurked on that island. By the way, he's full of crap. So when he finally started writing Game of Thrones, he used Staten Island's shape as the inspiration. False.

For Westeros. Even he knows it's even he doesn't he doesn't know the answer to that. OK, keep going.

I'm the exotic thing that existed over there. Get out of here. Question number four. Rich, you're going to need this to force a tie break. OK.

I believe in you, Rich. Name this famous Staten Islander. He played tight end at Wagner College before being drafted in the 18th round of the 1965 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings.

After playing for six NFL seasons, he pursued a career in coaching and eventually became an NFL head coach with the Eagles and Jets. Now, please. Sal, do you know this famous?

I feel like I one million percent should, but I'm feeling a little bit stumped. I know it's rich. I I don't like this man at all. His name is Rich Kotecha. His name is Rich Kotecha. Oh, my God.

We go to a tie break. Wow. Rich Kotecha comes through for me. It took four freaking decades. Finally worth a damn.

I forgot all about Kotecha. My bad. Bobby Cannavale once came up with this line that, you know, he called the Jets coat that it was the Jets were bad, but not as bad as that year. Those years that he says, he says they're not that kote tidy bad. And I thought we came up with that new jingle.

You're not fully bad unless you're kote tidy back. OK, we got it. I'm actually happy.

I'm actually happy. We wanted the fifth one. We don't want this to end. We want this to be exciting. Fantastic.

We go to the tiebreak. You both went to school and Staten Island. That's correct.

Can confirm. What is a school special? Multiple choice.

I have some options if you'd like them. Sure. Is it A, a wedgie? Is it B, a beat down delivered by a group of boys after school? Is it C, a popular deli sandwich? This has nothing to do with Staten Island. Is it D, marijuana that is sold on school grounds?

What did you say, C? I'm sorry. Deli sandwich.

A popular deli sandwich. But this has nothing to do with Staten Island. Correct? This is not specific to Staten Island. I believe it is.

I mean, our research show that's specific to Staten Island. You want to go first here? I'll write it down here. Absolutely. Sally, your answer.

I have purchased many a school special. And it is a bagel. It's a sandwich, actually. Correct. It's a one dollar bagel with cheese. I had never heard of it before. I wrote down D because I didn't do this in high school.

I figured that's why I thought that was completely without knowledge. I don't feel like this is a clean win, actually. The answer is C, a popular deli sandwich offered widely in the 80s and 90s, consisting of a bagel with one slice of ham and one slice of cheese, always sold for a dollar or less.

A dollar or less, yeah. I do feel I don't like this win, if I'm being honest. I don't like it.

I just feel like that was way more subjective. Yeah, thank you. Sal?

I'm happy to tie with you and come back for a tiebreaker. Ladies and gentlemen, look at Sal. I don't want to like this, Rich. Not like this. This is like the fleet gate.

Yes, that was your ball deflation scheme to pull off the gaper. I like it. All right. Good to see you, sir. Thanks for coming. Come back any time. Right back at you.

Say hi to Dom for me, if I don't say hello to him first. Terrified is available on YouTube right now via 800-pound gorilla, Sal Vulcano. Everyone should go to salvolcanocomedy.com to get your tickets for the final leg of the TruTV Impact and Practical Jokers, the Drive Drive Drive Drive Drive Tour. And then for your own personal tour. The Everything's Fine Tour, which begins in September.

The first leg is up like 30 cities, but we'll be adding like 100 more cities. Attaboy. And come back anytime you want. Please let me know. I would love to. Sal Vulcano, everybody. Follow him as well on the dreaded X and Instagram at salvolcano right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Caleb Williams has spoken.

We'll wrap up the show with that and your phone calls when we come back. Are you struggling to close deals? Business to business selling is tougher than ever, and that's why I want to tell you about LinkedIn Sales Navigator. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a sales intelligence platform that helps professionals effectively prospect and engage high value customers, drive higher revenue and increase sales performance.

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Just go to linkedin.com slash direct and get started. Man, the hoops finals are right around the corner. How cool would it be to go to one of those games?

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Real quick. Do you want to ask a method man before he goes? Your question that you ask everybody about my hometown? No, no, no, no, no, no.

I give you I give you grief. OK, look, now, when people say, hey, I'm going to visit New York City, they don't mean visit Staten Island. Do you think Staten Island is really part of New York City? You know what? I just went through this with somebody.

I definitely went through this with somebody on Twitter. And they were like, you know, that's not even really New York, one of the five boroughs. OK, see, it's not a vacation destination of New York City. No one's going to Staten Island, you know what I'm saying?

But if you check for one, Staten Island is the highest point on the eastern seaboard. True. First of all. And second, we have the most. Well, let's put it this way.

Date night, Staten Island is tops to go for date night because we have the most restaurants in New York City. That's right. Holler at your boy. Yeah, yes. It's about food and love. Oh, and football because Curtis Rory has won the whole thing last year. OK, 12 and 0 went to the big one. That's right. Won that game at Yankee Stadium.

Brought the title home this New York City. Yes, I stand corrected. And I won my fantasy football yesterday. Oh, really? A lot. Congratulations.

What's the name of your fantasy football team? Supreme clientele. OK. It's pretty it's pretty supreme clientele took it down. By the way, that whole Staten Island chat could not have gone any better.

Fun stuff, man. Of our Staten Island days back here in the Rich Eisen Show. Sal has just left his buddy. We flipped his phone to drop the phone.

I said that was a bad omen. I think we fought through it. We fought back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grange with supplies and solutions for every industry. Granger has the right product for you.

Call click ranger dot com or just stop by Jimmy in San Antonio. Let's get him on. What's up, Jimmy? Jimmy. Oh, hey. Jimmy, let me tell you something.

You could run for president in the Schuster Eisen household right now. You're you're your donation to Cooper's bar mitzvah project. You was beyond generous. I cannot thank you enough. You're a good man. Thank you for that. Well, I appreciate that. And what Coop did for his community service for his bar mitzvah was extremely impressive.

Worthy of application to universities at his age. I appreciate you saying that, Jimmy. Thank you.

Yes. And it moved me. And I emailed Susie and I was like, hey, do you have a link? The boy did really good. And that means you and Susie are doing really good. We're just very impressive on the Isons. I appreciate you saying that. But most important with the time running out in the show is how well are you going to do playing the Cowboys win loss game?

Let's go. And we can compare and contrast with T.J. Jefferson. Is that what you'd like to do or not? Yes, exactly. Exactly. I just smoked a smoothie bowl, so I'm ready to go.

That's not the smoothie bowl in question, Jimmy. All right. Hit it. Hit it. Hit the music. Hit the music. I can make it.

I'm going to make it really easy for you, Rich. Oh, the differences between me and T.J. Week one. I have a loss at Cleveland. OK. Home for the Saints. Is that a win as well? Yeah, I'll get to the differences.

Oh, sure. OK. Week five. I have a W. Week five is the Steelers. But are you?

But you're the same like just to walk through it here. A loss against the Ravens, a win against the Giants. And you have them starting three and two as well. Just different losses. What about home for the Lions? Is that week six?

Yeah. OK. That's a win for me. That's four and two going into the buy. Then coming out of the buy at the forty niners. Same as T.J. Oh, you're locked in with a loss there. So now it's four and three at the Falcons.

Win with T.J. OK. That's five and three. Home for the Eagles. A win.

Tom Dean. Six and three. Now home for the Texans on a Monday night. Taking the W. Seven and three at the commanders. A win with T.J.

Eight and three. Home for the Giants on Thanksgiving. Win with T.J. Nine and three.

Home for the Bengals on a Monday night. I'm taking the loss with T.J.? No.

Well, he had a win there. I gave us the dubs. OK. Oh, you did? Yeah.

I thought my fault. Oh, we're going to have the damn same record. OK. No. So is that a win or a loss then? I have a loss. OK.

Wait a minute now. OK. Now five, six, seven, eight, nine and four at the Panthers. Win. Ten and four. Home for the Bucks. Win. Eleven and four at the Eagles. Lost. And eleven and five.

Home for the commanders. Win. All right. So you got them twelve and five. You got them one game better, Jimmy. Oh, OK.

So here's what I offer, T.J. OK. Whoever comes closest without going over. Nice. Fifty dollar donation in your name for Run Rich Run. That's it. Well, Jimmy, the thing I already donated to run rich one.

But I mean, look, you can never donate too much to such a great cause. So but you're not going to get you're not going to go over. So there you go.

Look, even though that is your M.O., I'm hoping we're 14 and three, to be honest with you. So I'll gladly take the L on Jimmy in San Antonio. Thanks for the call, Jimmy. Jimmy, thanks for the call, brother.

Thanks again for the donation and for the suggestion there. Very good. I'm a legend because of this. Stop fronting. Stop. Hey, this. Hey, listen. Oh, whoa.

The Chicago Bears spoke today. Dude, all in. First, Caleb or either flus dealer's choice.

What do you want? You're the dealer. See Caleb in the box. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. We're going to go. He flows because the guy he refuses in the box put the pomade in the hair today. It's really. Oh, what are we talking about?

Is he talking about his he's got to be talking about his quarterback. All right. Let's get heber flus talking to Caleb. Hit it.

Hit it. Well, look at him. Well, and again, we could do things differently where I say, hey, we're going to have the ones go against the twos and twos go against the ones. But I don't think I don't like that. I don't like it.

I think that Caleb is a talent, a very good talent, and his game will go to where it needs to be, because that's I want him to see that in front of him. The windows closing the variation of what we do on defense. And I want to see that day in and day out so that when he gets to play somebody else, it'll look OK. I've been here, done that. So that's how we're going to keep it. It's interesting.

He says he doesn't want to switch it up since that's all he's done with his look. Listen, here's what I love about what heber flus has done. They haven't played games.

They haven't been like, there's a competition here. They're just like, this is his show. And this was his show before we damn drafted him. This was his show at his pro day. It was his show. We showed up.

We brought his new teammate, Keenan Allen. And we're not we're not dancing around the subject of he's got to show this. He's got to show that. And we're not going to have him go one against the twos to get his confidence up.

He's Caleb Williams. He's going to go against the ones and he's going to go in the deep end of the pool. And he's going to thrive. He's going to swim.

He's not going to puppy paddle, you know. Let's get to what Caleb had to say. What's he talking about himself?

Damn straight he is. Hit it. How do you feel like you've done over your first couple of weeks as an NFL quarterback, maybe compared to what you expected? I didn't come in necessarily with expectation to, you know, to be and seem like a 13 year vet. I came in to, you know, to work. I work my tail off, show the guys that I'm here. I'm working my tail off. I'm progressing and, you know, trying not to make the same mistake again. That's the biggest thing.

Day in and day out, I was trying not to make the same mistake over and over and learn from him. And so I think that's been my biggest, you know, thing for me and also understand that I'm leading the organization and the team. So, you know, just just just having that mindset and being in that mind state and just trying to find my flow. I mean, this is this is the way it's going to be. This is the way it's going to be from now up until the beginning of the season. He's going to be like humble but confident. And that's the way he's going to play it. Like I know I have things to learn deep down.

I know I'm better than most and I'm better than most. That's come out of college and I just can't wear that on my sleeve. And the only thing that can be done and I say this with all sincerity and it can happen in Chicago, is that to just break up the monotony of this, let's just have at one point while he's doing this press conference, Kennedy Carter comes in and knocks him over and says, I do this to all rookies. Welcome to the NFL.

Welcome to Chicago sports. She's right there. She's right there. Bring her in and just have her knock him over and then have first take, go to town. Please do that. Well, please do that. I will pay the fine. There's no fine.

There's no fine, which means I'm happy to pay it because it doesn't exist. I tell you, please do it. If he lets her knock him over, the Bears fans are going to lose their mind. It might have no, it's just it's just she's six seven. No, no, no. It's got to be Kennedy.

It's got to be her. Yes. And then and Angel Reese hugs her on the podium.

Please do that. Just to break up the monotony. That'll wrap up this show. Hey, guys, welcome to the Candy Valentino Show. I'm Candy Valentino. I was a founder before I could legally order a drink. And for more than two and a half decades, I've built, scaled, acquired and exited multiple businesses in diverse industries.

Now my goal is to help you by sharing the knowledge that I've learned, the mistakes that I've made in the wisdom that I've developed over my journey. Biweekly episodes every Monday and Thursday. The Candy Valentino Show, wherever you listen.