Jeff Francoeur: Not In Favor Of Robot Umpires

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And the damage you cause will be beyond repair. See, we didn't have to use crash or siren sounds after all. Speeding catches up with you. Brought to you by NHTSA. This radio commercial was made to convince you to stop speeding. We can't use siren sound effects on the radio, so we'll use other equally jarring sound effects to get your attention. Like telling you that whether you drive a little over the speed limit or a lot, you can crash just the same. You could hurt yourself or worse others. And the damage you cause will be beyond repair. See, we didn't have to use crash or siren sounds after all. Speeding catches up with you.

Brought to you by NHTSA. This is the Rich Eisen Show. What was that? The Rich Eisen Show with guest host Tom Pelissero. Tom, you don't put dirty drawers and melons to yourself. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Not a gift. It was Tom Pelissero, I underlined my name. That's all it needs to be.

And then I rode all over it. Laundry. Earlier on the show, Yahoo Sports senior NBA writer Vincent Goodwill. Coming up, TBS MLB analyst Jeff Rancore.

Plus, latest news and more. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Tom Pelissero. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show.

Tom Pelissero in for Rich once again today. We got more NFL training camps opening up. The Bears have fully reported they'll be on the field tomorrow.

The Texans are on the field. The Chiefs and Ravens report for duty tomorrow. And by next Wednesday, all 32 teams in training camp.

We're going to talk a lot more about that throughout the course of the show. But right now, I want to get to the Major League Baseball season. We kick off.

We start up the second half today. Who better to talk about it than a longtime MLB outfielder? He's now a TBS Major League Baseball analyst, co-host of the Pure Athlete podcast. Jeff Rancore, kind enough to give us a little bit of time today. Jeff, you played a long time in Major League Baseball.

I'm always curious about this. So, you have the ebbs and flows of the longest schedule in all of sports, right? It's 162 games. I got to imagine, especially for the teams that maybe aren't very good, know they're not going to the playoffs, you're kind of thinking the whole time, just get me to that All-Star break, which is now longer than it used to be. Just get me there. What are guys feeling like as they're arriving back and suiting up again tonight, knowing that they've got this, again, two and a half month grind left?

And for a lot of players, realistically, you know, you're probably not going anywhere here. Well, you know what? First of all, thanks for having me on. Second of all, I've played on the Phillies in 15, and we were about 20 games out at the All-Star break. And I remember getting back thinking, I can make my plans for October 2nd.

I'm going to go ahead and set my golf trip up, so you can look up something. It's not a lot of fun, but at the same time, you know, look, for the young guys, the guys trying to prove themselves, they have a lot to play for. But I think the cool thing, though, is with the extra wildcard team now having six teams, you know, there's really only, if you look at it, six or seven teams completely out of it right now.

So I do think they've done a better job of keeping these teams in the race later. So when you look at, you know, this All-Star game, I said it the other day, the next morning, if you told me it was going to be a Paul Skean start and an Otani home run, I would have said that summarizes the state of baseball at this point. When you look at Skeans, I'm very curious, what stands out to you about him and how and when does the game catch up to him?

You know, I'll be honest with you, poise for me is what's incredible. The only other guy I can remember looking that comfortable at a young age was Justin Berlander, man. He looked like he belonged the first start he was out there. And I mean, you saw at the moment was never too big for him. You know, and then the thing people forget is he does throw 101. But he has got unbelievable secondary stuff.

And I think if he continues to throw that, you know, he's going to be elite for a long time. But I agree everything was great about except the uniforms, man, I still know, I know it's my eight year old love the uniforms. And I'm like, man, those things were ugly. I, I have been a big proponent of going back to let the teams wear their uniforms that they were during the regular season.

You and I are about the same age. So we grew up watching and the special part of the All-Star game, besides the fact that pre inter league play, this was the only time you would see, you know, Randy Johnson facing John Crocker, whatever it might've been, but it was also seen all those uniforms on the field and the players would line up. I have like these vivid mind's eye memories of the introduce the players. And when it got to the guys from your team, I'd be like, yeah, it's Gary guy, Eddie, let's go.

You don't have that. Now I understand there's a marketing aspect and you're trying to sell the jerseys, but where I'm in the, where I'm in the BP, where I'm in the Homer on Derby, where the regular uniforms in the game, man, I'm, I'm with you on Monday at the practice of the Derby, where those exploit them, sell them if they're great. But I agree, man, there was some, nothing better on, on Tuesday night for the, for the, uh, you know, starting lineups when you'd see a giant standby Dodger, when you'd see a Yankee standby Red Sox. And, you know, even though they're on the American league, man, they'd get booed, you know, and that that's the fun of the all star game. And I'll be honest with you, hopefully they get enough pushback from this year, maybe they will change it.

And I think that that's, that's probably fair. The only thing usually that causes major league baseball to change anything is mass outrage. Just ask, uh, angel Hernandez about it and we'll see if we end up getting a, uh, as a hitter, would you want to see the fully computerized strikes on I've seen it in minor league baseball.

It seems like the challenge system works pretty well, but the full on robot strikes, are you in favor or not? I am not for the soul fact that I think what makes baseball great is the arguments that I played for Bobby Cox, right? There was nothing better than watching him go out there, scream, the fans go crazy. You know, you're getting tossed. I mean, I tell people this Bobby Cox got thrown out of 162 games, Tom, that is a full season of games every night. You're going to take away from that, you know, because it's going to be tough to argue that because they can switch it or do whatever. But, um, I, I, I think it's coming look between gambling and everything else that's gone on in baseball because of that.

But I, I will miss the interaction in the umpires. You know, I think though, the further we get in terms of the AI technology, like I have the vision that, you know, Waymo can produce a, like an actual robot who stands there. And if you can get far enough along again, in terms of understanding the English language, they're going to have to teach the robot a lot of swear words, but you could eventually have somebody you could argue with the robot. I think, I think we're underselling the possibilities here of actually having, you know, just a rolls out there and we need to get into it with them. You know, you can do it.

And then also you can take a baseball bat to them and you won't get in as much trouble. You know, what you missed though, is going to be the debate, right? Like, I still think stay, I grew up in Atlanta, 97 Eric Greg, the strike zone he had when the Marlins and Braves played like, those are things that are still talked about in this day, Yankee stadium with Jeter's home run to right field, you know, against the Orioles. Like those are things that we talk about forever.

And I think you're going to lose some of that, but at the same time, I, I do understand, and I'm not stupid to know why it's coming. I mentioned the other day on the show that I went to Dodger stadium for the first time a week ago and, you know, went to a couple of games out there. It's, it's an unbelievable environment. I've been in a lot of NFL stadiums that are of that same era. And it just seems like the job they've done modernizing Dodger stadium.

And it's still the walk up the Hill and seeing it, it's such an amazing setting. And then you get in the ballpark and the Ohtani effect is so prevalent from everything from the jerseys you see walking around to the fact that I ordered sushi and ate it in a major league ballpark for the first time ever. It, when you look at, at Ohtani even setting aside the pitching aspect, cause he's not doing that at this point, what, what's the closest comp you can think of to what we see on the field from Ohtani?

I don't think there is one. I I'll be honest with you. It's incredible watching him, you know, me and Brian Anderson did the Phillies Dodgers two weeks ago, and we honestly had to get food delivered in because of the line to eat from all the media.

There was so long. But you know, for me, it's must see TV. I mean, this guy's going to have a chance to win the national league MVP this year and be at least one of the top two, if not, and he hasn't even pitched. So like I said, you might see a scenario where if he stays healthy pitching, he could win four or five MVPs in a row. He's just a, he's a generational talent, man. And when you think about it, I've always told this people, the one thing I love about the Japanese culture and, and Ohtani, they're so respectful when they come to the clubhouse, man, they love it.

But if you watch Shohei play, he plays with an edge, man. He's something you haven't seen. He plays with a lot of passion, a lot of grit, and you know, it's like anything, man, that the best part of that Tuesday night game was first at bat was Zach Wheeler versus Ohtani. And I just remember thinking like, this is what, this is what you want, right? Like, this is what all is still can be great. So what else has you excited? We're opening up the second half or the post all star break portion of the schedule later today, when you just look out over the next couple of months of baseball leading up to the trade deadline, as well as the pennant races, what's got you excited to watch the rest of the season?

Well, I just think there's so many storylines, right? Like the Dodgers, they got to get pitching. I mean, they have an unbelievable offense when Mookie Betts comes back, maybe the top five in baseball hands down. But between them, the Braves, you know, the Brewers are starting to fake. Can anybody honestly match what the Phillies have? I think the Phillies are the most complete team in baseball.

And then on the other side, I love it. You know, we're doing the American League this year. You know, with Baltimore and New York, I think it's going to be incredible, incredible run. And Boston, I think that's the biggest thing to look at. Boston isn't a place that I don't necessarily think they thought they were going to be at. But you've got to believe where they're at.

John Henry is going to have to add to that team. Those fans have been waiting a few years now. They've kind of been irrelevant. And they have a chance.

And then of course, the Guardians, they just keep winning. They have some of the most underrated players in all of baseball. And what Stephen Boat has been able to do there in his first year has been pretty darn impressive. Everybody always says baseball is better when the Yankees are good. I would argue baseball is best when the Yankees are good and then bad, which is what we've seen through the course of the season. When you have drama surrounding that team and people are trying to figure out, wait, the way they started and then how they played over the last month or so are so disparate. What's going on with the Yankees and how do they get the thing going the right direction?

I think they will. Look, every team goes through little slumps throughout the year. But, you know, I did that series two years ago, the ALCS, when Houston came in and swept them and just, I mean, embarrass them.

And then of course, they missed the playoffs last year. And we've done quite a few Yankees games this year. And walking in and talking to Aaron Boone, those guys, it's a different feel in that clubhouse. When you bring Juan Soto in, who I think is probably the most complete hitter in all of baseball, you instantly make that lineup better. And of course, what Judge has been able to do, the number one thing they're going to have to do, and I think Brian Cashman is going to do it, is get bullpen help. If they get bullpen, then to me, again, they match up with the Phillies, maybe it's the most complete team in baseball between starting pitching and of course, offense. There's no better two, three in the game than Soto and Judge.

So I think, but there's going to be a lot of pressure on Cashman to get some bullpen help because they need it. Who do you think is the most dangerous team? If there's one team you wouldn't want to see as we get down the stretch and into the playoffs, who is it?

Seattle. If they had a bad or two, man, people forget out there. That's, you know, it's like, remember when we were growing up, Sean Alexander had the most amazing year out there.

No one ever really knew about it because they were in Seattle and he was on the front of Madden the next year. But their pitching is as good as anybody. They're starting pitching is phenomenal. Their bullpen's great. If they add a bad or two at the deadline, I honestly thought Pete Alonso is going to be the guy that they go after. But now if you're the Mets, right, you're in a wildcard spot.

No way can you afford to get them up. So that's what's going to be interesting to trade deadline too, because the amount of teams that are in it, not out of it, there's a small, small amount of guys that all these teams are going to be going for. Who are you going to give up and how much are you going to give up? Well, I think also when you're talking about trading to Pete Alonso, there's always the clubhouse dynamics too, right? I mean, we were just talking at the top of the segment about, you know, if you're on a team that's bad, well then if you compound that by set aside Alonso for a second, because you said there's no reason for the Mets to trade at this point, but you trade one of the core guys, basically your captains.

I have to think that it's hard. You make things even harder on yourself when it comes to developing young players, trying to have some positivity down the stretch of the season if you make those types of moves. Yeah, and I agree, especially right if you're the Mets, you're a large market team, man, act like it.

And so when you think about it with a guy like Alonso, what are you really going to get back for two or three months that's going to help you in the future? And I think for them, you know, that's a big piece. And what are you showing your fans right now? I mean, that team has battled Carlos Mendoza. Let me tell you, that might be manager of the year for me if they make it because what he's been able to kind of hold together up there in New York, all the criticism early, you know, 0-5 starts struggling. He's done an unbelievable job.

So I think that's one of those that they're going to keep on and they could be a playoff team very easily. Jeff is also the co-host of the Pure Athlete podcast. Pure Athlete is a platform podcast that empowers parents, coaches, and the next generation of athletes to navigate the complex culture of youth sports. I watched a couple podcast clips this morning, Jeff, and it speaks to me as the father of 10 and seven-year-old girls because they both play soccer, they do gymnastics, they do other activities. But I remember three years ago with my then seven-year-old, now ten-year-old, and it was already with her soccer club. It was about the competitive tryouts and are you going to go in that direction?

And we, you know, did, she's like, that sounds awesome. But then it turns out it's four to five days a week. There's cuts, there's the possibility you're paying a ton of money and your kid's not playing or not playing much. One of her best friends went out, made the team, three months later had quit and not only quit the competitive side, didn't want to play soccer ever again. It's a really tricky balance because on one hand, these are kids, they're, they're in my case, 10 and seven years old, why would you push them? On the flip side of it, there is this culture now where there's an immense pressure that, hey, if you're, you're already behind, oh, you got a seven-year-old, she's not already, you know, playing in the competitive hockey league?

Well, she's never going to be able to play hockey. That is a hard thing on parents, especially if, you know, like me, you have other things going on in your own life as well. You'd like your kids to do different activities and there are limits of what you can actually accomplish.

For sure. And I started this with two other guys, Brit Lee and Brad Williams. And the whole idea of this was giving parents places to go a forum to talk about this, right? There's, I don't think there's any perfect science to it. There's not a perfect answer to it, but I do know this, that, you know, I have four kids, 10, eight, five, and three. And when I got, I kind of got in this two years ago, I saw the pressures, I saw the thing.

And at the end of the day, we're really doing this to eight-year-old kids, to 10-year-old kids. Now, look, I'm as competitive as anybody. And I tell my, I coach a travel softball team.

I tell them all the time, we go out there, we play to win. But I'm also not stupid. I want to develop these girls. I want to develop these young kids because ultimately, Tom, the great equalizer in this whole thing is puberty. You really don't know what you have till your kids go through puberty and come out the back end. We all know of instances where you played with that kid in third grade who was bigger, faster, stronger than everybody.

And by eighth grade, they were irrelevant. And so we want to give a forum to push multiple sports, you know, continue to drive passion. We got a lot of studies, specialized sports at a young age, the injuries in these boys and girls is growing and growing by the number. And, you know, I ask, the first question I ask parents, what do you want out of your youth sports journey for your kids? And it to me, if it's I want them to get a scholarship.

We all do right. But at the end of the day, I want my kids to learn work ethic, discipline, being a great teammate, being able to play in a system sometimes that you might not like, but you have to learn to adapt. And I just, we're trying to get these athletes and coaches on that have had success that have done it different ways, male, female, different sports.

And it's been a lot of fun. And I know for me, I've learned a lot from coaching. And, and, you know, from that, that's helped me become a better coach, a better dad, and realize that there's more ways to do it than just push, push, push, because I tell people, you're always gonna have the outliers, you're gonna have the Serena Williams, the Tiger Woods, but majority of kids are going to burn out and not want to play.

And I always say, then where does that leave your relationship with your kid as y'all grow older? You know, I, whenever I start to think about, you know, the idea that my kids can, you know, man, should they be playing like the competitive sports and stuff? And then I'll like, I'll take a step back and like, look out on the field and you can go around and like, see every kid is doing some kid thing in a youth soccer game. You got the one kid who like, wants to play goalie, but they give up six goals in three minutes and somehow they become entangled in the net.

And they have to be like, have their cleats pulled out of the net. You got the kid doing cartwheels across the middle of the field. You got the kid who their parent is yelling at them what to do. And so they're just standing there with the ball, unable to throw it in because they're trying to listen to their parent and listen to the coach. It's like, it's the comedy of these are children. And yet somewhere there's a kid trying to be the next 14 year old to play an MLS, which we got earlier today.

I don't know what the, what the firm answers are. Cause I don't know quite frankly, that I'm going to have high level athletes that I'm being the parent of. I do know though, that as I look across the landscape of the soccer field, 90% of these kids are just there because their parents signed them up and they like being around other kids and doing cheers on the sideline.

You know, it's amazing. I talked to all these coaches and they, these 12 year olds, 13 year olds go to these showcases and doing this, you know what I mean? College coaches really care about it.

I mean, the way college is now either probably not even going to be there or be. So my whole thing is right, right? Like enjoy the journey.

Yes. You want your kids to be competitive. I tell my kids all the time, we're going to work. We go to the cages.

You know, my son loves lacrosse. We go throw the ball together, have him throw against the wall, but at the same time, let them drive the journey. Let them drive that passion. If they want to continue to do it, come beside them and help them.

But there's gotta be parameters, man. You gotta let them be kids. And like you said, my, my best example was I had a girl on my softball team this year get back picked and I kind of lit into her a little bit. And literally two nights later, I don't know if you remember, this is probably right before Ronald Acuna got hurt. He got picked off twice in one game at first base. And I'll never forget this girl coming up to you the next day and saying, Hey, coach Jeff, did you see that?

Ronald Acuna got picked off twice at first base. And I'm thinking if here's the best, one of the best players in the world doing it and here a 10 year old, like it gives you a lot of good perspective and realize like, man, let's have a lot of fun. Let's work hard, but let the passion develop. The pure athlete podcast available. You can check them out at pure athlete on social media.

The website is pure athlete, inc.com. He can also be seen on TBS. Jeff Frank core, our guests, Jeff, thanks a lot for the time. I really appreciate it. Hey, anytime, man, I got the subway series this week, so it should be a lot of fun. There we go. Beautiful.

Enjoy it. Jeff Frank core, everybody. Great perspective there on major league baseball games beginning again today for the home stretches. Jeff said a heck of a lot of playoffs spots these days. A lot of teams still in it. As we head into the second half, I'm glad the Mets held on to Pete Alonso because ever since grimace showed up, we've been 21 and nine. Who knows, man?

I thought the season was over. The grimace thing is very bizarre. Can you just give me the rundown of what the origin story was? I really don't know how it came to be, but grimace throughout the first pitch in the Mets game, the Mets won and ever since that time, they've been 21 and nine, Tom. So and this is the McDonald's grimace, the big purple guy. Yes, grimace came out through the first pitch. I'm not sure how, like I said, what brought that about, though.

What happened to this birthday? Perhaps look at that thing. I mean, that's truly grimace. That's truly grimace. That that glove looks like it leaves something to be desired there.

Gloves on the wrong hand. But what happened to the mascots of every fast food chain? Every kid geared place? Did that, like, become a lawsuit of some kind? Like, you know what? Joe Camel with cigarettes?

Like, could they not do it anymore? But every you remember that every cereal, every fast food place, everything growing up in, you know, the 80s, they all had some pitch like this. They all had some like, hey, Chuck E. Cheese, go look at the weird animatronic band with the drummer goes like this. They all had it. Nothing.

Nobody's starting that anymore. I can't sit here and tell you what the mascot is of Burger King or Arby's King. The king is the Burger King.

I guess. OK, that's the king. But he's not in there.

You don't see him at the restaurant. You had in McDonald's the Ronald McDonald statue. You had a grim.

You know, a lot of places had the grimace statue in the Hamburglar and all that. We just we gave up. We just run out of ideas. They blow up Jack in the box.

That is true. They brought him back, but they brought him up at one point. They blew up Jack in the box. Why did they blow him up?

I have no idea. I was pretty young at that point. Did he eat some Jack in the box?

Because that sometimes blows me up. Back in the day, coming home from the club at two thirty, man, Jack in the box. I was always Taco Bell when I was out here a week ago for going on those Dodgers games, going to the Blink 182 concert.

And the first night I was here, we got back to the house from Dodger Stadium and my buddy orders Taco Bell. It's like midnight. I haven't eaten midnight Taco Bell in forever. And I forgot it does.

How glorious that is to just hoon down three. You've already eaten dinner. I never like other than like some popcorn.

I never eat late night snacks to try to, you know, 43 years old. I got to keep the figure. Late night Taco Bell remains absolutely undefeated.

It is until until an hour later. OK, let's get it out of the bathroom after this NFL training camps underway. I think TJ's got some questions he would like me to answer. And if not, there's still some in the helmet from the other day.

We'll break down some football right after this on the Rich Eisen Show. You could hear the beeps of a heart monitor. You could hear doctors and nurses in an emergency room as you're being treated for your injuries. You could hear the sound of worried family members in the hospital waiting room hoping to hear that you're OK. You could even hear the sound of people crying at a funeral, because if you drive over the speed limit, whether by a lot or by a little, you could do damage that's beyond repair.

You could seriously injure yourself or worse, you could hurt and even kill someone else. When you speed, you put everyone on the road in danger. One way or another, speeding catches up with you.

Paid for by NHTSA. This radio commercial was made to convince you to stop speeding. We can't use siren sound effects on the radio, so we'll use other equally jarring sound effects to get your attention. Like telling you that whether you drive a little over the speed limit or a lot, you can crash just the same. You could hurt yourself or worse, others. I'm at the scene of the collision. And the damage you cause will be beyond repair. See, we didn't have to use crash or siren sounds after all. Speeding catches up with you.

Brought to you by NHTSA. What's great about these, you know, we do a lot of NFL, NBA shows on Family Feud for celebrity. It's great, man, when regular people discover that celebrities don't know nothing. They don't. You think cause a person is famous, they know more. They actually know less. They know less than anybody else because they're exposed to less. Rich people don't know how much milk costs. You get out of touch, man. And when they come on Celebrity Family Feud, you find out how out of touch they are.

They don't know anything, man. Like one of the questions for the NFL team was, and we were asking a guy running back for the Packers, can't think of his name, but the question was, complete the sentence. Strip and use, you know, like strip mall, strip poker, strip sack. I said, name, complete the word strip. He said, per. Strip per. I went, hold up, man. I quit breathing.

How is that your point of reference to complete the word strip per. That was it. I was done. That was one of my great moments.

And again, you just walk away and you just, you realize that in the moment, like, okay, this is it. And I'm going to let this thing go. After the show, he asked me, he said, Steve, is there any way we can edit that out? I said, sir, we're not editing that out. Matter of fact, we're going to embellish you. You're going to say per so loud.

Per. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show radio network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call click grainger.com or just stop by. Tom Pellicero in for Rich. Once again today, phone lines open. 844-204-RICH.

That's 844-204-RICH. TJ Jefferson right now, refilling the helmet of destiny with some questions, but let's go to the phone lines right now. How about Dylan in Vancouver?

Dylan, what's happening north of the border? Tommy P. How's it going? Doing great, man. Happy to be here. Happy to be talking to you. What's up? First, a shout out to the TJ Driver over there, your co-host.

Yes, co-host. Thank you, Dylan. You get it, bro. It's been such a great week on the show, you guys. I would go as far as to say it's been an Emmy-winning week.

Oh, well, thank you. There it is. Finally. I knew it.

Pushing over the top. Been talking lots of baseball, and obviously in Western Canada, we don't have a team here, so I'm a very casual baseball fan. It's actually the only big four league that I haven't seen live until tonight, because I've been so inspired by Tom Pelissero that I downloaded the Game Time app, used code Aizen, got tickets to Mariners, Astros tonight. So as soon as I hang up here, as soon as we're done here, I'm getting in the car and driving down to T-Mobile. Love it. Awesome. You're breaking out the passport, Dylan. Let's go. The question is, what's the best way to enjoy a baseball game?

Do I need to be one of those program people? Do I need to bring my own garbage can to knock on? That's a fantastic question. Here's what I'd say to you, Dylan. Be prepared for the experience to be shorter than it's ever been, because with the pitch clock, with the new rules that are in place, what I've found is going to a game, I have substantially less time to walk around and do anything else. If you go and get in the beer line, you are missing about 20% of the game. So my recommendation, I don't think you need to keep score.

I think then you're not looking. Again, you have less time. The game might be two hours and 10 minutes if it's a good pitching duel.

It could be really short. I think that the best they do, get there when the gates open. You might be able to catch the tail end of batting practice. Get in early, walk around, see the sights, get yourself something to eat and drink. Then get back to your seat and actually take in some of the baseball game. Am I right?

I agree with you and then I disagree with you, Dylan. It's your first time, right? So I say, do all the things, bro. Get there early.

Check out BP, like Tom said. Buy the program, keep the score, eat the hot dogs, do the wave. Take it all in, bro. If he's holding the hot dog and a beer and a program, how's he doing the wave? There's a cup holder there, Tom. So he's going to put the beer. Yeah, but there's one and there's only there in between each seat in front of you. And so there's the whole thing. If one person messes up the right or left, all of a sudden you don't have a cup holder. You can't bank on it.

Guess what? That's part of the experience. That's a good question. It's not like airplane etiquette. We really haven't touched on, I guess, ballpark etiquette. I think it's to your right. I think it's to your right. I think it's the cup right directly in front of you sometimes. The seat in front of you on the bottom right usually. But they're usually, but they're not centered on the seat.

They're like kind of in between. And so is it to my right or my left? Yeah, look at the aisle. See where it starts. That's the correct one. When you go in, but then if there's not one on the end seat, okay.

Now if the other person messes this up on the other end, everybody's bouncing over. Plus there's nowhere to put your food. So you got to eat fast is my point. I would eat, drink before the game.

There's not as many vendors as there used to be. I would, I would, I would get in there for the pregame, the pregame experience. I, I say, look, Dylan, wherever the cup holder is, is not that big of a deal. Just take it all in, bro. Do all the things. I'm very, I'm already stressed out for Dylan.

He doesn't have the cup holder. And the company was irrelevant though, really to the big scheme, bro. This is your first game. So just take it all in and enjoy everything. That's what I'm saying. It was, it was very hype hearing Jeff hype up the Mariners. So I'm hoping I get the, the product that Jeff was talking about.

The, the best, the most dangerous team in baseball, according to Jeff Francore, the Mariners, especially if they can make a move or two in the next 12 days. And Dylan, we knew you were going to drive to the game because unfortunately no planes are going right now because of this global idea. That is a good point. Make sure you have your passport card so you can get through. Dylan, thank you very much for the call. Let's go to Dylan, another Dylan in North Carolina.

Dylan, it's Tom. What's going on? How are you guys doing today? What's up brother?

Doing great. I'm going to do the bangles. All right. We're going to take and do the bangles schedule, right? Let's do a bangles schedule game. Win loss. Let's bring it up here.

All right. For Dylan in North Carolina, week one home against the Patriots. That's going to be a dove at Kansas city. Yeah, it's going to be a tough one.

Kansas city can't win every game. I think we start season off two and O bro gets another one out there and bro head home against the commanders on Monday night football. It's going to be a blowout.

Probably be a whiteout game. I think Cincinnati starts off three and O. At Carolina. That's the first NFL game I ever had.

Uh, things burrow and the boys, they handle business in Carolina. A lot of firsts on this show today. Uh, home against the Ravens. Uh, I think that'd be our first loss of the year.

All right. At New York giants. That'd be a dove at Cleveland. That'd be an L. Home against the Eagles. Uh, lost a lot on the defensive line. I think Saquon and the boys will be too much to handle. I think that'll be our third loss of the year.

All right. So you're, you're five and three with the bangles as we approach the midpoint home against the Raiders. That'd be a dove at Baltimore on Thursday night football short week.

And that was also the game that bro got hurt last year. I think the boys rebound. I think they make a statement. I think they get a win in Baltimore. All right. At chargers. That'd be a great game. I think that'd be another w. All right. So it's into the buy now at eight and three.

All right. Home against the Steelers. Uh, that'd be a win.

Boys don't come out hungry at Dallas on Monday night. That'd be a win at Tennessee. I know a lot of people hate on Tennessee.

It's going to be a lot of motion. You got the former office coordinator there. Uh, also went to, uh, Tennessee and all the best of us.

They also took them whoop their butt last year. So I'll say Tennessee gets the win. All right. Home against Cleveland on Thursday night, man, another short week. Uh, that'd be a win.

All right. Uh, home against the Broncos. Uh, that'd be a win and week 18 at Pittsburgh. And I think it might be enough to quench the purse seed. I think they sweep Pittsburgh this season. Wow. So we've got 13 and four for Dylan in North Carolina. Thanks for the call.

Dylan. The I would for a Bengals team, they were nine and eight last year playing with Jake Browning for most of the season at quarterback, but the predictions for the Bengals that we've gotten 13 and four, 14 and three, 13 and four, those are the, those are the predictions so far in the schedule game on the Bengals that, that, that division man is going to be wild. It just every single game, of course, can be chronicled on the in-season hard knocks as well.

But you look at the quarterbacks in the division, you look at the quality of the teams in the division that might be top to bottom that are the NFC North probably would be at the top of my list of top to bottom, most stacked divisions. And also one thing we've talked about since we've been doing this, it seems as though everyone who plays Tennessee just automatically gives their team the W and there's a rare case where Dylan saying that the Titans are going to take out the Bengals. That's right.

That is a rare Tennessee, a Tennessee win on somebody else's one loss game. All right, TJ, you got, you got the helmet of destiny over there. I pulled the, had the helmet, just pulled the questions. We're gonna make this more interactive today instead of me awkwardly holding the helmet on camera. You're going to ask me the questions.

These are some written by Brockman and Del Tufo. I don't know if Jason's got any in there, but right now, Jason, give me anything, NFL or otherwise, any question you want to ask me. All right, TJ, bring it on.

All right, well, I'll go with this one. With all of the Devontae Adams talk, who are the players we should keep an eye on between now and the trade deadline? It's a great question because obviously a lot is dictated by what teams are bad enough that they are looking to make trades. We'll see how the Brandon Iuch situation plays out in San Francisco. To this point, the 49ers have shown no inclination to trade him. If you get into a world where he starts sitting out regular season games, obviously that can potentially change the dynamic. He's got to show up one way or another.

He's got to play the back half of this season or else his contract is going to toll. He's not going to become a free agent, though he's probably gonna get tagged by them. Anyway, Devontae Adams certainly, again, depending how things play out on that list, I think that he has to be in that category. It's hard to pick because, again, who's going to be bad enough that they're going to be looking to move on from players?

I'd have to give that one some more thought if I'm thinking top to bottom within the league. The teams that I think a lot of people expect to be down there would be a team like the Patriots, but who on the Patriots roster is getting traded? Jacoby Bressett mid-season, if you're in a spot and somebody's desperate for a quarterback, something like that. He's probably going to be the starter out of the gate.

Who's that? Remondre would be someone who if you were a team... Yeah, they just re-signed Remondre. I don't foresee them trading him. I mean, a lot of the time you got to look toward the potential free agent. So if I'm going, and yes, I already have a spreadsheet on this for the 2025 free agents, the quarterbacks aren't getting traded unless the world in which Russell Wilson gets benched at some point could be traded. Again, I don't think you can go into the season anticipating stuff like that. If the Chargers are not in it, Khalil Mack is in a contract year. DeAndre Hopkins is in a contract year.

That would be another one to potentially keep an eye on. You got some guys who are on one-year deals like Aaron Jones, but I anticipate the Vikings are going to be competitive through the course of this season. Javonte Williams from the Broncos, depending on how things play out in the backfield, depending on how Denver is doing.

There's some high profile guys like the Pat Sertan, who I'm sure you're always going to get calls on, but the Broncos want to make him a centerpiece of that defense moving forward. So it's a really good question. A lot of it though, depends how the season plays out. Absolutely. Okay. This one is kind of a two-parter here.

I'm going to take this and combine it. Buffalo Bills lost their top two receivers last year, so they got a whole new crop of guys coming in. Khalil Shakur, he's a returning receiver. So question one, can Josh Allen make these new receiver stars? And the second part is the Bills championship window closing, in your opinion.

Well, in the first one, he has to. If the Bills are going to be competitive this season, he has to bring along the Keon Colmans of the world and find a way to get something out of Chase Claypool, who's there now. I mean, they've added a bunch of receivers, but none of them are those kind of frontline types of guys. You're going to go to the tight ends a lot. They've invested a lot in that position. So this could be a big Dalton Kincaid season, Dawson Knox season.

That wouldn't surprise me at all. They like the running backs that they've got there now. So maybe this is James Cook doing more in the passing game, which is certainly a skill set that he has. And in terms of the championship window closing, I think it depends how you look at it. On one end, you could say one window already did close because you moved on from Micah Hyde and Tredavious White and Stefan Diggs. This Bills team is going to look substantially different. But if you look at this year as the transition year, what you're hoping is you can do kind of what the Packers did last year. The Packers are also putting, had a new starting quarterback, but they had every single wide receiver and tight end on the roster was a rookie or a second year player. The Bills have some veterans that they brought in, but there again, they're going young and they got to rely on those guys. What we saw with the Packers last year, and it's a credit to Jordan Love above all else, as well as Matt Lafleur, who does an unbelievable job at the quarterbacks and the offense, it's also those receivers stepped up.

And all of a sudden you knew the name Dontavian Wicks. And you knew some of those young tight ends who went through Musgrave, went through some injury issues, but he started making plays down the stretch. That's what you're going to need in Buffalo is you're going to need to skip the part where you're rebuilding and you have a down year, especially because there's pressure. As long as they got Josh Allen there, there is pressure on them to be a title contender. We had Deion Dawkins on NFL Network yesterday, and I asked him about, you know, Savon Diggs is a big personality and he's a highly productive player.

How is that going to impact the dynamic in locker room and how do you make up for the production on the field? And he, he took a deep breath. He said, it's a great question.

And then he gave a four minute long answer. I think that's indicative of how much there is to take in here. I mean, these are the guys, right? These are, these are guys you've been around for a long time, and they're also some of your best players. All they can do though now is where people are looking at them and saying, okay, there's actually doubts about the bills going into a season for the first time in a while.

Maybe you're not, you don't have the same level of pressure when it comes to the expectations externally in the media and with fans, they're still going to be sky high and they're going to have to find a way to make sure that next window opens right now. Well, and you brought up the Packers. I was going to head there and it's funny you said that. Do you remember Breaking Bad where Jesse is crying about Walt and he's screaming, he can't keep getting away with this? Yep. He can't keep getting away with it. The Packers, right? They really found their next superstar quarterback for the next 15 seasons. I mean, how do they keep getting away with it, Tom? If Jordan Love continues to play the way that he did in the second half of last season and in the playoffs, the last interception notwithstanding, they are going to be a factor for the next 10, 15 years until they inevitably draft the next guy and Jordan Love is 35 and gets his feelings hurt and gets mad but then ends up coming out and having his best year. I mean, that's literally like the pattern of it.

That's the part that's the most amazing. You think about, they make the trade. Brett Favre is a top draft pick, second round pick in 1991.

They trade a first form in 1992. He comes into Green Bay. I think it's week four. Don Mikowski gets hurt. Favre takes over and for the next decade, he's one of the best quarterbacks in football. Obviously, you know, the MVP years, 95, 96, 97.

That stretch, he is one of the best players of football. You get to the early portion of the 2000s. He starts to have thoughts about retirement. He obviously goes through some different difficult personal things during that time as well. By 2005, he's not been showing up for the offseason program.

He's talking every year about whether he's going to retire. You go out and you draft Aaron Rodgers and Favre's feelings are hurt and he's not super happy about it. They have an icy relationship initially and then they kind of, by 2006, 2007, they're getting along. They're, you know, having dinner together.

They're becoming closer. But Favre, with a lot of help from Mike McCarthy and the offense that he brought in, 2007, Favre's the runner-up in the MVP balloting behind, I believe it was Peyton Manning that year. It was your Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. But he's runner-up in the MVP balloting and then what happens after that season? They press him for answers. He decides he's going to retire. Then he changes his mind and ends up going someplace else.

Rodgers, meanwhile, has a decade there where he's one of the best players in football. He wins four MVPs. He wins the Super Bowl just like Favre did. Then, all of a sudden, he starts to distance himself from his teammates and he's not around as much and he's concerned with the contract.

What do they do? They go and they draft Jordan Love and they trade up to go and get him. That ends up with Rodgers having a couple of his best seasons and winning a couple more MVP awards before, you know, a down season in his case. Favre didn't have that in Green Bay. He went out on as high of a note as you can get but for the interception he threw to Corey Webster in the NFC Championship game. But you still have a very similar pattern here.

Now, Love steps in. What you have here, ultimately, is you have a level of confidence and fortitude, you know, intestinal fortitude to go and do the thing that you know is going to cause a ripple. You know it's going to disrupt your status quo with your franchise quarterback who's won MVPs and won a Super Bowl and done so much and everybody's got his jersey. This is Green Bay, Wisconsin we're talking about. I mean, people have Packer-themed rooms. They have posters of these guys. You know, people paint the fences around the stadium. It's just I lived there for three years. I worked at the Press Gazette.

I covered the Rodgers-Farr transition. It is a different type of an environment there. You also don't have an owner who might be more susceptible to short-term thinking than the CEO, the top executive, plus a board of directors. That is a different dynamic that exists in Green Bay as opposed to other places here.

They're always thinking about the long-term health of the organization that may be in ways that a single person, an owner, might make emotional decisions at times. Green Bay doesn't have that. The GM and the head coach have always had a pretty good degree of autonomy as opposed to doing what the people upstairs want them to do. So it's not luck. It's good scouting and it's been the same lineage of scouts there for 30 years, 30 plus years, from Ron Wolf who made the far of trade, to his disciple Ted Thompson who drafted Rodgers, to Brian Gudekunst who grew up under Ted.

It's all the same type of thinking. They build the roster the same way. They're not overly reliant on free agency. They're a draft and develop program and they believe in going and trying to get the quarterback all the time.

It sounds real simple when you put it that way, but it's hard to replicate in other places because you've got to hire the right people, you've got to draft the right people, and you've got to show a level of patience that outside of places like Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, that level of patience just historically hasn't existed. We'll go back to the helmet of destiny a little bit later on in the show. Phone line's up at 844-204-RICH. That's 844-204-RICH. Let's stick with the NFL coming up after this. Let's do some AFC West non-negotiables. Tom Pelissero in for Rich on the Rich Eisen Show. Where'd the nickname Showtime come from? My godfather, LaTroy Hawkins, him and my dad, but really him. They would watch me play and I would make the diving plays and stuff like that in baseball. It was Showtime when I was on the field and so they always used to call me Showtime, especially my godfather LaTroy.

LaTroy Hawkins, that is a name I have not heard in a while. Yeah. Okay, Patrick. Look, I appreciate you calling in here greatly and I appreciate the text exchange that I had with you the other day where you were gentle in rejecting my suggestion to give you a new nickname of The Patrel. I really appreciate that, Patrick.

It was a good idea. I just kind of was playing down the nicknames as much as possible at that point. Okay, great.

So you're saying... Whatever works for you. No, no, no. Hold on a second. You're saying that it's not a judgment on the actual creativity of the nickname. It's just you attempting to be humble, tamping down any of the accolades right now because you're focused on winning.

Is that what you're saying? Well, yeah. I mean, just for me in general, I mean, it's all about the football. It's all about the team.

And so I know that the nicknames are cool things to do with social media and everything that's around right now. But for me, it's all about just being a teammate and someone that's just a part of this organization and a part of a team that wants to win. So if you had an ego, let's just, again, let's put it in a box here. You have an ego.

You don't care about being humble at all. You're just pounding your chest. Nickname of the Patrick. Do you like it?

I don't know. There's been so many nicknames that came out lately, and I'm just going to kind of keep it at Patrick right now. You're being polite. I like it. Thank you, though.

I appreciate it. Let's talk about game time, shall we? Game time is an authorized ticket marketplace, which makes getting baseball tickets even faster and easier. Prices on the game time app actually go down. The closer it gets to the first pitch with killer last minute deals, all in prices, views from receipt and their lowest price guarantee game time takes the guesswork out of buying baseball tickets. So what all is involved here?

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guarantee. Excited for baseball to be back? We got baseball tonight. We got baseball this afternoon, TJ. We got baseball all over the place. Like I said, the Mets have went from ruining my summer taxing, making me go, maybe it might not be so bad.

So, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm excited. What'd you just lose over there? Something just went down.

What is it? No, no, I want you. I want to see you reel that back up. What did we do? We just knocked down while you were, I caught you off guard asking you about baseball right there.

And I think you're, it was just a, in a power adapter. Okay. You're good. We're okay. We're good. We're good. Didn't mess with your Jordans. Of course not.

You can't let anything mess up. Those are some white red four. I've got, I've got those exact, I have the exact same ones and I can't figure out how to wear them. Oh, you got to get yourself a NWL Wolfpack t-shirt. Don't worry. I'll hook you up and get you a Wolfpack shirt. Vince Goodwill said you're a loser for wearing the, uh, the black and red one. He thought about it. He didn't want a Wolfpack sting that should come, you know, repelling down his building and kicking his window. All right, let's get into some, uh, some AFC West Nondego, I suppose.

All right. We got football is back. Texans are in camp. The bears fully reported as a squad today. All the other teams report over the next five days, all 32 teams are going to be in training camp. I can't wait to hit the road next Friday to start my training camp tour from let's see if I can do this out top of my head from Detroit to green Bay to Kansas city, to Denver, to the chargers, to the Cardinals, to the Falcons, to the Steelers, the Bengals, the Colts, the 49ers, the Seahawks. Bang.

Nailed it. 12 teams, 12 days inside training camp on NFL network. Let's do some AFC West non-negotiable.

I've been doing all these in tribute to the bear, all those Emmy nominations here. Non-negotiable for the chiefs. They can't make it as hard on themselves as they did last year. I know that's easier said than done, but if you think back and Patrick Holmes and others alluded to this when they reported to camp, it was ugly. All the way through the Christmas game where they lost to the Raiders. It was, it was bad. Travis Kelce didn't look like Travis Kelce.

He looked like he did not have his legs underneath him. And then he found it in the playoffs. The wide receivers had struggled with drops the whole season. They found it finally in the playoffs. That's a high wire act. Even when you have Patrick Holmes, just don't make it so hard on yourselves.

Limit the unforced errors. They're still, they still have the best quarterback in the history of the NFL, quite possibly for the Raiders. Non-negotiables, non-negotiables, Jason, non-negotiables. Are you awake?

You good? For the Raiders. You know, he's a Raider fan.

So I was like, yes, that makes sense. Raiders wise. I mean, I think that there's, there's a whole lot here. I think again, it's cliched to say it, but start fast. I think just with all the Devontae Adams talk, that's going to go on.

If you get off to an 0-2 start or something, you got to come out of the gate. You got to show that you can continue what you did last year with Antonio Pierce as a coach. Now that he's on a full-time basis for the Chargers. I mean, play defense.

I think that's, that's the biggest thing that jumps out to me. And obviously Harbaugh brought along a defensive coordinator who he knows really well. I have no doubt they are going to be a force to be reckoned with on offense, even though they got massive questions at the wide receiver position. If they can get the most out of that defense for as talented as they are for the names that they have, the frontline guys, they've lacked some depth. They haven't played up to that level, stay healthy on that side of the ball, become a defensive football team, which is a big part of what Harbaugh had six success skew with the 49ers.

Non-negotiables for the Broncos. Bo Nix plays like a veteran, which he started at 52 college games. He's effectively a veteran. He's like 24, 25 years old at this point. He's got to come out because what he's got at the skill spots is not ideal at this point. He's got to ramp things up quickly and be their guy. Non-negotiable. Now is Bo Nix.

Thank you, Jason. Is Bo Nix going to be the starting quarterback? We don't even know that for sure. I think that's one of the unique things in this training camp as well. I think that ultimately it's hard to imagine the Bo Nix is not the starting quarterback. Jared Stidham though has played in that offense. You of course got Zach Wilson, which is a really unique project. Jets are paying half his salary. You give up a late round draft pick. Why not go and get Zach Wilson? I actually liked the move for Sean Payton.

Give it a shot. He was the number two pick three years ago. He is a really talented thrower of the football. It's been the consistency.

It's been the catastrophic errors. That's what's gotten Zach Wilson down. Maybe things break forward, but I think that this is ideally a situation where Zach Wilson sits for the year where he doesn't have to play. Every day Sean Payton is on him about the things he can do better and maybe we see a better Zach Wilson somewhere down the line. I don't think rolling him out there week one is likely. Frankly, I don't know that it's necessarily the best thing for Zach Wilson. I think he needs what he was supposed to have last year. Remember the plan was he was not supposed to play. It was going to be the project for Nathaniel Hackett and Todd Downing and those guys.

Just work with them behind closed doors. Four snaps and he's on the field. And then with Jarret Stidham, I think we just we know what Jarret Stidham is and we know he probably isn't. He can be a functional starter. He played pretty well when he got his opportunity down the stretch with the Raiders. That's why the Broncos gave him like a two-year, 10 million dollar deal, something like that. They benched Russell Wilson last year, took a look at Jarret Stidham. He's a fallback. If they don't feel like Bo Nix is ready, that's a pretty good fallback. But Bo Nix, number 12 overall, better be ready to roll.

Hey, the Bears are in camp today. Let's hear from Matt Eberflu's company next. This radio commercial was made to convince you to stop speeding. We can't use siren sound effects on the radio, so we'll use other equally jarring sound effects to get your attention. Like telling you that whether you drive a little over the speed limit or a lot, you can crash just the same. You could hurt yourself or worse, others. I'm at the scene of the collision. And the damage you cause will be beyond repair. See, we didn't have to use crash or siren sounds after all. Speeding catches up with you. Brought to you by NHTSA.