Tom Pelissero: The Chiefs Have More Weapons Than They've Ever Had

My instinct right now is... Our number 2 The Rich Eisen Show on the air live right here streaming on the Roku channel and those who are listening on this Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate smart enough to have us, Sirius XM Odyssey, TuneIn and more, our podcast listeners, just because you want to listen whenever you're darn well pleased, it's your American right to do that, doesn't mean we don't want to say hello to you.

We're excited to not only have you watching slash listening to us live on The Rich Eisen Show or on demand, but excited to have in studio right here, hall of fame broadcaster in advance of co-hosting the exclusive viewer chat in real time throughout the PPview, payperview.com, pay per view live stream of the August 3rd Terrence Crawford Israel Madrimov World Championship event right here in Los Angeles, California. This very Saturday is Jim Lampley here on The Rich Eisen Show. Good to see you, Jim. How are you, sir?

I'm good, Rich. Great pleasure to be with you again and a privilege. Thank you. I greatly appreciate that. Also, we'll talk about your new memoir, It Happened, that's available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble coming out next spring, but it is great to see you here in advance. Have you been to that facility, the BMO stadium?

No, I have not. It's fantastic. You know, I've been living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina for the last five plus years now and very infrequent trips here to Southern California. So yeah, I'm in a new environment, getting ready to go to an arena in which I have not sat before. And it's a spectacularly well-stocked boxing card, which will take place there Saturday night. And of course, Crawford is a historically significant fighter, making a historically significant choice at this point in his career. So it's good to be a part of PPV.com.

What is the historically significance in your estimation? Well, first of all, he's a classic American River City fighter from Omaha, Nebraska, who emerged from not necessarily amateur obscurity, but he wasn't an amateur superstar to become what he is now, which is clearly the number one welterweight fighter in the world and very strongly, arguably number one pound for pound. And as number one pound for pound, he now faces a passage in his life in which he tries to decide, all right, what is the best and most efficacious way for me to translate number one pound for pound into number one dollar for dollar? Number one dollar for dollar is Canelo Alvarez. Terrence Crawford fights at 147 pounds. He began when he first emerged into public visibility at 130.

I covered that first major appearance a long time ago, and I watched his entire career develop. And he's a pretty sturdy 147 pound fighter, but he wants to fight Canelo Alvarez for monetary and economic supremacy in the sport. And Alvarez fights at 168 pounds. So Saturday night's business is that Crawford will now appear for the first time at 154.

It sounds to the layman like nothing. You were 147. Now you're going to fight at 154.

It's seven pounds. So what? Well, in boxing, it's not. So what in boxing? It's a significant passage.

And it's the first of the questions that Terrence must answer now to see if he can get into position to, within a reasonable period of time, because he's 36 years old, get to 168 pounds and present himself as a logical opponent for Canelo in what would be a massive, you can't count the money kind of fight. That's at 8 Eastern. This is every Saturday downtown here in Los Angeles.

Who is from Becky Stein. Very good on ppv.com. That's the pay-per-view live stream of the event. What's the first fight you ever called, Jim? The very first fight I ever called was Mike Tyson versus Jesse Ferguson, February 19, 1987 in upstate New York.

And Tyson was in the middle of the knockout streak, 17, 18, 19 of them, I believe, with which he began his prominent heavyweight career. And that was his first network television appearance. I had been assigned to boxing by a brand new division president at ABC Sports. His name was Dennis Swanson. Dennis Swanson arrived at ABC Sports to succeed Roon Arledge as Boston division. All he wanted to know was how do I get rid of Jim Lampley?

How do I get that salary off of our books? And he thought that the best way to do that would be to assign me to a position which would embarrass me. And he made the judgment that that would be boxing. No kidding.

That's the first story. That I would not fit in boxing, that boxing would not accept me and my particular style, that the audience in particular would resent me because I would appear to be replacing Cosell on the ABC Sports Boxing telecast. So that's how I wound up in upstate New York on a Saturday in February covering Mike Tyson versus Jesse Ferguson with the expert commentator, Alex Wallow, who was an executive in the sports division. At ABC, yeah, you're right. Yeah.

And I think that Dennis was trying to get rid of Alex too. So spiteful management is what you have birthed your 30 year Hall of Fame career with just boxing alone. It's ironic as any career path you can find. So obviously I had been this golden boy anointee at ABC Sports, winner of the talent hunt to become the first college age reporter, appeared on the sidelines of college football when I was virtually a teenager and now not that far down the road from there 13 years later, Swanson wants to erase my entire career and boxing becomes the vehicle for that. Well, I'm remiss when I say 30 year career in boxing, obviously your career is longer than 30 years and still going strong, but 30 years is the host of HBO's World Championship Boxing is what I was referring to right there in the shorthand. And I guess instead of... And HBO was a unique perch in boxing for the longest time because premium pay cable became the media entity that was the proper showcase for boxing. So just kind of going down a little bit of memory lane right here, we've pulled three of your, what we feel is some of your more iconic calls.

I trust your judgment. Okay, well I think you can confirm it or deny, but the first one is in the Tokyo Dome, February 11th, 1990 when Buster Douglas shocked the world against the aforementioned Mike Tyson. Yeah, so the culminating line that I chose there was Mike Tyson has been knocked out and it was such an overwhelming and dramatic and unexpected event that I literally was conjuring in my mind, what can I possibly say that matches the impact of this for fans? And something inside me said, don't try, just deliver the most matter of fact understatement you can passively deliver on this and leave it alone. Mike Tyson has been knocked out.

I'm pleased that your people and you Rich intelligently chose that because yes, I'm proud of that line. Well, what happened on that day? I mean, now that we are so far removed from it, I still can't believe it. A thousand things happened. I mean, there are all sorts of things that go into fighters lives. And Mike took himself down a variety of precarious paths that made it harder and harder as time went on for him to focus and to work within the cocoon that custom motto had created for him. The cocoon was going away.

Custom motto was going away. This very ambitious actress woman had gotten functional control of his life. A whole lot of things went on. And, and one thing that went on was that while people were paying attention to all of these explosive and seemingly instantaneous knockouts that had defined his career, that wasn't everything that was happening to him in the ring. This was not the first time that he had been less than dominant against a taller, longer, differently equipped heavyweight. He went the distance with Bone Crusher Smith. He went the distance with Mitch Bloodgreen. He went the distance with Tony Tucker. All these things happened before Tokyo and people blithely ignored that people stuck to the perception that every Mike Tyson fight was a minute and 30 second knockout because he's the greatest knockout machine in history. That was true some of the time, but it wasn't true all of the time. And, and Douglas, if you looked at the other fighters I named with whom Mike had already gone the distance, Douglas was the tallest. Douglas was the most athletic.

He had been a college basketball player. There were lots of reasons if you were really careful about it to foresee difficulty for Mike going into Tokyo. And oh, by the way, just the event itself, it's, um, the date was correct on the graphic.

I loved it. February 11, 1990. Yes, it was February 11, 1990 in Tokyo. It was February 10, 1990 in the United States. If you see that date referred to here in America, it'll say February 10, 1990.

It was prime time television on HBO in the United States. It was 11 o'clock in the morning in a stadium with 47 something thousand totally silent spectators in Tokyo. They made no noise whatsoever. So Larry and Ray and I are calling the fight and we're literally modulating our volume down to something like golf channel type cadence because anything else would have felt absurd.

You know, these other 35 or 40,000 people around us, they're not making any noise. Wow. So we're so, you know, by the sixth or seventh round we're whispering, uh, as though Corey Pavan is coming up the, uh, to try to finish his attempt to win the U S open. So it was, it was a bizarre and unusual evening and that's how you got Mike Tyson has been knocked out. So, uh, here's another call of yours, Jim Lampley, November 5th, 1994 when, uh, Michael Moore got a hit, um, all night long by George Foreman, who finally made it, as you would say, happen.

Which is, uh, let me tell you where it happened. Came from Joe. Cortez is counting. And as Joe Cortez gets to four or five, six, you know, it's abundantly clear that Moore is not going to get up. Foreman was the expert commentator on our HBO boxing telecast at that time. So in the weeks and months leading up to the fight, I'd had a few occasions here and there to, to talk to George who was not always forthcoming and conversational about the upcoming fight with Moore.

And I asked him more than once, George, what's the plan. He's 26 years old. He's a southpaw. He's athletic.

He has footwork and, and, uh, speed and timing. He is not exactly what someone would choose as the ideal opponent for you. How are you going to beat Michael Moore? And at least three or four times, maybe more multiple times, George would give me his calm, uh, leave me alone. Look and say, Jim, you watch, there will come a moment late in the fight when he'll come and stand in front of me and let me knock him out. Always the same words.

He will come and stand in front of me and let me knock him out. So as Cortez is counting five, six, seven, I'm sitting there thinking, how did he know this? How, how could he have foreseen? How could he have been so certain that this impossible event was going to take place?

I don't know if I'll ever know exactly what was because George was not always the world's most voluntary conversational person. And as Cortez is counting to 10, once again, I got to come up with something, right? This is one of the biggest moments in the history of this sport. It happened.

It happened. Couldn't think of anything else to say, uh, turns out to be my most remembered and iconic call. And Oh, by the way, the title of my autobiography, which is coming out in the spring, you're getting emotional. Just talking about it, Jim, I can get emotional because it is the, the metaphor for my entire sports broadcasting career, going back to a ridiculous national talent hunt with 432 contestants, uh, in the spring of 1974 to find who was going to be the first person to stand on the sidelines of a college football game with a camera and microphone. And, you know, somewhat analogous to the call of Foreman Moore, uh, I who did not fit any of the qualifications that ABC sports said they were looking for wound up being the person chosen from that talent. I couldn't possibly be the person chosen for the quote college age reporter job. I wasn't college age. I was already 25 years old. It was supposed to be somebody who had never had any broadcasting experience, never had a microphone on. I had done a lot of that stuff. I had done broadcasting on campus at UNC and for university of North Carolina football and basketball radio network. I violated all the rules of the college age reporter talent hunt.

And eventually, you know, I got a call from Dick Ebersole in New York on August 8, 1974 and said, we need you in Knoxville, Tennessee on, uh, September seven. And, um, and I got off the phone thinking, how in the world did this happen? You know, I'm going to have to find out the story. At some point, the story ultimately was simple enough.

Sure. Roon Aulage got cold feet about putting a completely green person onto the air in what had now become a publicized network television role and asked his staff, did we interview anybody who's actually had a camera and a microphone around them? Yeah, we did. We interviewed one guy. Uh, he was kind of abrasive.

We blew him out of the process that was back in Birmingham in spring time. Uh, and Aulage said, let me see him. So I wound up going to do an audition tape for that. Wow. It happened. It happened.

It happened. And yeah, and that's how, that's how I chose those words while Joe Cortez was completing the count. Just, you know, thinking about, it was really me talking to George. He had said that to me, you know, repeatedly and kind of with disdain, like, why wouldn't you believe me? Recognize he's going to come and stand in front of me and let me knock him out. Look at the video sometime. It's bizarre.

We did today in advance of this. And I honestly thought like he just, he's standing in front of him in round 10 and he'd been taking, he'd been taking the same beatings with the same punch all night long. Why is he standing out here?

He is finally asking for decisive trouble once and for all. It's only you can say Michael, Michael is offended if you try to suggest to him that George had anything like a plan or any construct that said he knew what he was doing to Michael. It's necessary. And I respect this. It's important for him to believe that George got lucky, but I don't believe George got lucky. I think George knew what he was doing. Last one for you, Jim Lampley.

I guess this is your life as we're playing here. This one, again, it's different from the other two in the fact that it's not a seminal knockout moment that you're meeting that moment as a broadcaster, because you never know when the knockout punch is coming, but you might be prepared for it, obviously, as, as, as you would be. I don't know how you can be prepared for a guy flying into, uh, an arena with a fan attached to his back. Here's that moment on November 6th, 1993 in Caesar's Palace of Bow versus Holyfield II. And somebody in a parachute has just landed on the edge of the ring, has been pulled away by security guards. The fight has been brought to a halt. There's a massive melee at ringside as this fellow with a motorized parachute has landed right on top of spectators and officials at ringside. Fan man moment.

Mondo Bizarro. Yeah. And you know, and, uh, I get, I get about, oh, probably 15, 20 seconds of preparation. Um, producer in my ear, Jim, uh, our cameras are tracking something really strange. There's a guy in some kind of a whirly contraption, uh, who is circling above the ring and he appears as though he's going to aim to try to land this thing in the ring. And so just be aware, be alert while you're calling the fight here that it's quite possible as far as we can tell.

And from what our cameramen are telling us that somebody is going to try to land a flying contraption in the ring. And he did. And, and, and all sorts of chaos broke loose, uh, as the result of that second fight between bow and Holyfield first fight had been, uh, a stunning and unforgettable fist to fist, uh, uh, battle that, uh, that bow had had one with a, a great and spectacular performance. Uh, Holyfield had hired my dearest friend in the world, my closest male friend, Emmanuel Stewart, to try to figure for him a plan to beat bow and get the heavyweight championship back.

Emmanuel had come up with a genius plan. Uh, and now Evander was in, uh, in the process of executing that Judy Bo Riddick's wife was, I want to say seven or maybe eight months pregnant. She was pretty close to delivery. Fan man came down within about five or six feet of Judy Bo.

Yeah. And I mean, he could have landed it on her, uh, if he had lost control at the end or something like that. So Judy Bo winds up getting taken to a hospital in an ambulance immediately. And now from that point forward, we're trying to call the fight. And at the same time, wonder what is happening to Judy Bo who is ready to deliver a child and is now at the emergency room in the middle of the fight. And Riddick must have known that, right? And I am very convinced that Riddick knew that. Yes.

Uh, which could, which could not have helped him in the closing rounds of a pretty close fight that was headed toward a pretty close decision in Holyfield's favor. Wow. I just love that. I guess, you know, um, you, you get all sorts of heads up from your producers in your ear, in your career, never like, well, somebody's got a fan attached to the circle in the stadium. There's the show that the public sees and there's the show that we hear in our ears. Okay.

And the feedback is not always the same. Before I let you go, Jim, I want to talk Larry merchant with you a little bit here. Uh, I'm a big fan of his and I know obviously you are too. We have, we have, um, a, an audio drop that I don't know why we, we, we have this for years, but whenever we play it, but every now and then we play it, go ahead.

I wish I was 50 years younger and I'd kick your ass. I mean, I can't get enough of that. Well, and here's my favorite part of that.

Sure. And I have a lot of favorite things about Larry because yes, obviously he's, he's one of your most unforgettable characters in life. Uh, if you've, uh, if you've met him, but, um, that's a great photo. I like that. Uh, had dinner with him last night. Nice. The 94 year old Larry merchant.

Yes. Um, but, um, uh, he delivered that line at the end of a contentious interview with Floyd Mayweather. Uh, and Mayweather had said something really abrasive to Larry about, you know, I don't even know why they let you do this stuff. You don't know anything about boxing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And, uh, it was offensive. And Larry turned to the camera and kind of raised his eyebrows and looked at Floyd and said, if I was 50 years younger, I'd kick your ass. If I was 50 years younger, I'd kick your ass. What a great line.

What an amazing line. It's nine hours, no more. Yes. Nine hours from the moment that took place until you could buy on the Santa Monica pier, you're behind us a t-shirt with Larry's face, looking into the camera and the caption.

If I was 50 years younger, I'd kick your ass. Please tell me those exist. Still.

I'll take a size large. You got to find it somehow within 12 hours, you could buy the t-shirt on the Santa Monica pier. I mean, that's, that's why Larry merchant is an icon. No doubt about it. Hey, Jim, this has been a great chat. Uh, look forward again to the ppv.com pay-per-view live stream this very Saturday, Terrence Crawford, Israel, my dream of, uh, the world champion event that's in downtown Los Angeles. And of course, everybody go to Amazon or Barnes and Noble right now and preorder your copy of it happened.

The new memoir of yours, Jim Lampley, it's released in April. Great to see you. My privilege. Great to see you again. I got you. And of course, Susie Schuster, who, uh, adored her time working with you on real sports, sends her best to you. She's, she's an adorable person. Thank you.

Uh, I'm sure that all of your various wives have been adorable, but this is the one you will keep forever. That is correct, sir. Uh, thanks for the time.

Appreciate it. Jim Lampley right here on the rich Eisen show. We'll take a break. Tom Pelosero will be in studio when we come back. It's that time of year.

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Power 2023 award information, visit jdpower.com slash awards only at a Sleep Number store or sleepnumber.com. And then Mahomes, the memories of you just sitting next to Mahomes, just sitting right next to him as soon as he comes off the field just chit-chatting. How do you think that helped his development and did lead to the guy who's like, let's use the wasp, you know, in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl trying to turn things around?

Yeah, listen, it's a trust thing. I know he wants to be the best. He's not going to sit there and boast about that and tell people, but he wants to be, he wants to maximize all of his potential. As a coach, you love that. So he wants you to give him one more thing that's giving me greater than what he already is and you can appreciate that.

He's going to do nothing but get better rich. That's what's so great. I know it's crazy.

It's crazy, right? I mean, what does he have to improve on, Andy? What do you think?

Well, I joke him. I say, listen, quarterbacking is a lot like being a farmer. Like the work's never done. There's something in the game that you can work on and then it's our responsibility to give them new challenges. And so there's so much you can do offensively in football right now.

And there's no rules as far as, I mean, there's certain rules. We still got to stop at red lights, but there's a lot of ways to get to it. So the expansion, I guess, of offenses with the way the colleges are playing now is greater than it's ever been. And we're able to utilize more field than we've ever used. And so let's explore that and let's not say anything's impossible until we prove it's impossible ourselves. Let's try that. And then we'll see where we end up. Who knows? And that was four years ago.

And how much better he's gotten. Unbelievable. Right here on the Rich Eisen Show, back on the Radio Network, Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. I'm at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry.

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My colleague from the NFL Network, NFL Media Group, rocking the team issued gear, Tom Palacios. So here's the thing. I reached out to Erica Booker yesterday and said, hey, I'm actually here. Cross the streets?

Yesterday. I'm right down the street going over to the Chargers. I should come in. By the way, thank you for letting us know.

No, of course. But then so I immediately went, I have no pants in my bag. Oh, gosh. And I have nothing for shirts that doesn't have a logo on it. I got like a couple of T-shirts, three pairs of shorts. At this point, seven polos left.

That's what I got. So I'm a walking advertisement for NFL Network's Inside Training Camp Live coverage. Kicking off again today at noon Eastern Time, 9 a.m. Pacific. Here's why I'm a team player, Tom, because on your behalf and on the behalf of your lovely wife and family, I must point out that you do travel with pants. It's just it's the training camp season. So I'm imagining you just wear shorts when you're out and the 100 degree weather. Well, I recall at the draft when I came in with, you know, I was wearing a suit with sneakers. You seemed borderline offended by the amount of ankle I was showing.

So I thought if I rocked the entire pasty white bird legs on your show, I might never be invited back. And again, not to correct you, I wasn't borderline offended. I was flat out offended. No, you seemed it. It was about half the segment.

It was way past the border of offense. It was just look at your ankles right now. I'm just I just look out for you as I'm trying to look out for you. I appreciate it. So you have yet to go to the Chargers facility at the bolt. Got it. Shortly here, we're hosting the training camp show and the insiders is back tonight as well at Eastern Fort Pacific.

Fantastic. So you have been to the Lions, Packers, Chiefs and Broncos. Let's start with the Broncos. Is this the Bo Nix world?

We live in it. I'll tell you what, I would be extremely surprised, borderline shocked if Bo Nix is not the starter week one. It's everything that Sean Payton was looking for in the quarterback.

How so? They stood in in terms of the coach ability. He started more games than anybody ever at the college level.

Do exactly what you want him to do. Bo Nix moves better than I think a lot of people might think based upon the numbers and all the passes behind the line of scrimmage and all that. Coach's kid, he's going to execute Sean's offense the way that Sean wants it to be run. Listen, I mean, that was a big part of the issue with Russell Wilson was just the adaptability. I mean, we all saw the the Russ versus Sean exchanges on the sideline last year on NFL Network. Sean is about as smart with offense as anybody out there. Well, the ball's not coming out in rhythm.

He's got a problem. Bo Nix does that. That's one of his strengths. And as much as you know, Jared Stidham from everything I've been told has had a really good camp. So is Zach Wilson. Actually, there's just there's no planet on which you're going to roll Zach Wilson out there as your week one starter. So they're not saying yet who it's going to be.

But if you just you watch practice and you kind of listen to what people are saying, how they're talking about Bo Nix, it's going to be there. OK. And again, I know you have not been to the Washington camp, but it's the same thing as Jayden Daniels. Right.

The same as I was out there with the ones the first day of pads. OK, so. So really, if you don't break it down, six quarterbacks taken in the top 12 picks. Yes, sir. Caleb from about February was QB one on the Bears depth chart.

Yes. You know, you go through the rest of the group here, you're going to have a starter with Bo Nix. We'll see on J.J. McCarthy. I don't think that that one is locked in just yet. What do you mean it's not locked in just yet?

Really? Like, do you think J.J.'s got a shot? I think we got to see what it's going to look like through the preseason here. OK.

This appears to be a real like, hey, let's feel it out here. What they don't want to do is put J.J. McCarthy on the field a moment before that they have to. I mean, I was really good back in the spring, right? I haven't been there through the course of training camp here.

But if you don't feel like the guy is ready to go, I mean, I thought it was instructive the other day. Steve Smith and I were in Green Bay. Steve was kind enough to join our Jordan Love interview about four minutes in, ran into the shocks. He was talking to his wide receivers over here. But Steve had asked a very good question to Jordan, which was about going back to when he was coming out of Utah State and how ready he felt, basically where was the growth from then till now?

And Jordan basically said there was so much new. He wasn't even looking at the defense. He was just thinking when he was out there about what the offense was doing. He said, if I started my rookie year, I don't know where I'd be right now.

It would have been a long journey. I think that that's important. Remember, as much as we're all like, hey, you got to go right now, if it's Drake May or even if it's J.J. McCarthy who's played in a pro style offense, he's as pro ready as any quarterback. If you look at it in the preseason, you go, you know what? I think it might be good for him to sit for a little bit here.

I don't know that any decisions have been made on that front. Drake May's offense, is there, I mean, I know J.J. may be a surprise on May for week one. Again, he was the furthest, talking to coaches and scouts before the draft. He was the furthest away from being ready to play because that North Carolina offense is so rudimentary. He's a smart enough guy. He'll pick it up. He's just, he's young.

He's like 20 or 21, just got a long way to go. Tom Palacero here on the Rich Eisen Show. What did you glean from Chiefs camp? What do you take away? This is, as I keep mentioning here all the time, the number one story going to the NFL season is a three-peat campaign. We haven't seen this happen in 20 years and this is as real as it gets. It's not like they've lost pieces or they've fallen off or they're dealing with injury, you know, knock on wood right now. This is real. So what did you glean from Chiefs camp? They are so fast. Hollywood Brown wasn't even out there.

He was ill for several days, so he wasn't practicing the day that I was there. But you watch the number of different guys. You get a ton. And Andy Reid's camps, they're very physical. They put the pads on.

They really work. But they also, you know, they'll chuck the ball deep. They'll have fun. They'll run gadget plays. There was one that I think you can find on social media that involved a lot of different stuff going on that apparently they drew up like in the cafeteria the night before.

They're like, hey, let's throw this in and see if this works in practice here. Is that the one Xavier Worthy were talking about? It's the one where there was a lot of the ball changed hands many times on the play. OK. I don't want to get I don't know what the rules are on saying the specifics of it, but basically you have so many fast guys on that team because it's not just Xavier Worthy.

It is Hollywood Brown and it's for she rice and it's Sky Moore and it's me, Cole Hardman. They've just got they've got they have to have the fastest team in the NFL. And I understand Miami is a really, really fast team. Yeah, I will take like if you did like a one on one right, like your top six, like sack it.

Stack it like a like a tennis tournament. You know, we have the top players in the Olympics. I might say Kansas City could beat Miami from top down.

He took the top six on each Tyree kill Raheem Mostert, Devon, A-Chan, A-Chan, right? Put them against Waddle and they just drafted a couple of kids to in the draft who are pretty darn fast, too. But the Chiefs have six or seven guys who are all just straight up burners.

And so they've got more weapons they've ever had. We'll see if she rises out there week one. That's still the driving case is still to be resolved, but they've just got so many dudes on that team.

And so you wonder, you know, what's this going to look like? Last season, the offense wasn't very good. And I talked to we had Isaiah Pacheco on NFL Network and we're asking him about it, you know, and they all acknowledge the offense wasn't very good for most of last season, all the way until the Raiders kicked the crap out of them on Christmas. But then they found it obviously at the right time and they won another Super Bowl. But if you think a team that the defense carried last year, it really took a while to find themselves.

Now, you are more talented on the offensive side of the ball because the investment that you made there, this might be a better Chiefs team than the past two years. That's not going to be going for the three-peat. Tom Pozzero here on the Rich Eisen Show. All right, let's take a break. For those who want to hold, don't worry, we're going to take some calls in hour number three in advance of John Owen Lowe being here in studio. Let's take a break and hit some of the other places that you've been to. And then, you know, it's now rubber meet and road for contract time over the next two weeks.

When does midnight strike on this sort of thing? And for the radio audience, Tom Pozzero just checked his phone. That's how people and the information, but we have breaking news? Is it something important? No, not yet.

All right, we'll find out. When we come back, we read Tom Pozzero's text live on the air. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. Shopify is there to help you grow. Shopify helps you sell everywhere from their all-in-one e-commerce platform to their in-person POS system.

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Tom Pelissero, also known as Baby Driver. Dude, did you drive back from here to Minnesota after doing the- How long have we got to the story, Rich? About 90 seconds here? You know the clock. So we spent that Friday show, TJ and I, talking about like, oh man, look at this, crowd's shut down. I don't make it back. So I get out of here, I get to the airport, we're boarding the plane, they go, ah, sorry, we lost the flight crew, the flight's been canceled, and there's no more flights until Monday.

And then the dude runs off, runs away. So I'm like, so I immediately get on the app, I rebook for Saturday. Wake up Saturday, that flight gets canceled. Rebooked through Salt Lake City, get to Salt Lake City, connection canceled. Make a call to Delta, one of about 15 that I made, and rebooked through San Francisco. Take a little nap on the bench in the Salt Lake Airport, wake up and been kicked to standby, rebooked through Portland, Oregon. That flight then is delayed, I get a notification on my phone, my bag is not on the plane either.

So I'm like, if I can find my bag, I'm driving. And sure enough, 1200 plus miles later, from Salt Lake City to Minnesota, beautiful drive through the hills in Wyoming. I made it back, Monday afternoon, hosted The Insiders from home on no sleep whatsoever. Nice time in Chamberlain, South Dakota too.

Underrated tourist city, Chamberlain, South Dakota. And then zoomed in with Susie on that Wednesday. That's right, I did, Chamberlain. Wow.

And Tom, it never stops. I believe that that was the first show ever in history that Rich and Chris both missed, so you and I pulled something off that had never been done before. You, you were the CrowdStrike duo. Wow. Well, good job, Matt. I appreciate it. 26 hours, 1200 miles. I made pretty good progress. Good job, Matt. Wow.

80 miles an hour on all those highways. Tom E. Peay, everybody, back on The Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. Tom Pellicero is here. I will ask you the same question about the Lions as I did about the Chiefs camp. What did you glean from that when you were there? You know, they weren't, they weren't in pads yet. And so, but just talking to people around there, I would say the primary takeaways are they really think Jamison Williams is in for a monster year.

Okay. He's in a much better spot. Remember the first year he's got coming off the ACL.

He wasn't himself. Last year he had the suspension. There were times, like you saw Jamison Williams do cool stuff, but it was almost like, let's just find ways to integrate him and try to get him a few touches every game. This is, they're expected to be the Jamison Williams. So it's as if they drafted a top 10 wide receiver.

That's what it looks like. I mean, the guy was the best receiver in the draft. He only went where he did because of the knee injury. So this is the first year that they think they're really going to see Jamison Williams. I would anticipate the backfield is going to be very similar. It's going to be Montgomery and Gibbs kind of rolling with both of them again.

And here I am sitting from my chair in El Segundo, California, telling a guy who is an information individual of the first variety, fresh off of being at the camp. When I say this, I just get the sense, Jameer Gibbs is about to take over. You want to talk about the guy to take over. And I understand, you know, Montgomery was the king of, you know, inside the five yard line and also had some really bruising runs when he had, you know, the you know, the 20 he could do it from the 20 to 20 as well.

I get it. I just think this kid, Gibbs, we were surface scratching a little bit last year. Oh, no doubt. I think when I was here, we were doing the the non-negotiables right on the on all the different teams.

Mine for the Lions was Jameer Gibbs plays like a superstar. I think he's got that type of ability. I also think they want they're going to be reluctant to just say, hey, all of a sudden he's getting twenty five touches a game.

It's still going to be a balance. They want to keep him healthy. But both of those guys are very important. Gibbs, I mean, I saw him in that game in New Orleans where he made a bunch of plays like I mean, he's a really, really talented player. They got some other guys they're excited about. Doris Fountain is one that everybody brought up to me because they're kind of trying to figure out who's going to be the other receiver, along with Jamison.

And I'm on Ross St. Brown. You might see that guy playing quite a bit. And then defensively, they feel like they're in a better place. The hair trail Williams is their D-line coach and they upgraded the secondary. They acquired a bunch of dudes. They haven't quite figured out who's starting and what it's going to look like back there.

Like Brian Branch is probably more safety than he was nickel last year. They think that that's going to be good. There's a lot of things that they're optimistic about is not like kind of the macro things, but there are reasons that they think this is going to be an even better team. And in terms of the vibe around that camp, the Dan Campbell training camp is always going to be the same. Sure. Your Packers were the last team that you have visited and you mentioned how you had a chat with Jordan Love.

And what did you glean? What's your takeaway from being around that team? I think the biggest thing is from being there last year, every receiver and tight end on the team was a rookie or a second year guy. Now all those guys are second and third year guys.

They all came on, it seemed like, in various points toward the end of last season. So you've still got a really, really young team. I think this is going back to my Green Bay Press Gazette days, but that team last year reminded me of the 2009 Packers, where they were the youngest team in the NFL. They were the youngest team in the NFL perennially for like five years there because Ted Thompson didn't really do anything in free agency. They just constantly draft and develop. But that 09 team, it was Roger's second year as the starter. They go to the playoffs, they lose that wild shootout overtime game in Arizona.

But then the next year they won the Super Bowl. That's the vibe I get is they're young, they're working really hard, they got a really, really good locker room for what everybody's telling me. That defense, everybody was talking about it, including Jordan Love.

They picked him off in a, I think it was a two minute drill, that practice. They were playing really well. Jeff Halfley's just bringing a lot of different things.

They're pretty intuitive in terms of the scheme. But they're going to be, everybody always says we want to be aggressive, but this is going to be a more aggressive, they're going to have more of a lens through which they're trying to play defense. Where Joe Berry's skill was, he just rolodexes calls. You never knew what he was going to call because he'd call everything. This is going to be much more, hey, we're going to zero in on exactly what we do. We think we got really good players, turn those guys loose and let them play fast.

Tom Pelissero here in studio on the Rich Eisen Show. So listen, we know it's a midnight league, and by that I mean deals don't get done until midnight strikes or 1201 even. These business deals take forever sometimes, right up to the minute, last second to do. But it kind of feels like we're entering the midnight zone in August when padded practices are being missed by players that are holding in or out.

And then preseason games in which they might normally play, holding in or out. This is the time where things have to get done. When do we see CeeDee Lamb get done? He's got to get done, right? I mean, they've made an offer to him. Do we know? Is it in the realm of Justin Jefferson?

Or where are we on that? Here's the thing. So CeeDee Lamb has an agent, Tori Dandy, who's done a lot of wide receiver deals, and they're always three-year deals. They're always short deals. The Cowboys' history is they do the longest deals, the longest extensions of anybody. Strong cash flow, but in exchange they do five, six-year extensions. I don't really foresee CeeDee Lamb doing that. So that's the holdup is the late contract?

It's more about structure, from what I understand, than just the value of it. And those things happen between different teams. Dak Prescott's another one. He's in camp. He's participating.

He's going to be out there regardless. And once camp begins, he kind of turns it over to his agent, Todd France, and focuses on football. I know that they would like to get something done with Dak Prescott, but Dak Prescott has almost unprecedented leverage here. For however much leverage Kirk Cousins had last year, he was still a 36-year-old quarterback coming off a torn Achilles.

So then what's the... Dak... No, I hear you. Quite possibly is going to be the guy with the most leverage of all time. Of course, because he can't be traded and he can't be franchised. And if he goes into the season, he can then use the, I'm not going to talk about my contract during the season and hit free agency. And I think that's real. I think that if you get to week one and there's not been an extension, I think that he rides it out.

And so the next month or so here is going to be important to see if they can find a pathway for it. It's going to begin with a six. I would be shocked if it's not $60 million plus.

Maybe it's higher than that. And it might be a different structure again than we've seen in other quarterback deals, because the guys got the leverage. If you're Dak and you played out your rookie deal where you were on a fourth round pick contract and you're making the minimum in 2019, you played that out. You played out 2020 on the franchise tag, you suffered a devastating injury, you still come back and you get a new deal in 2021. Like the downside for Dak Prescott is pretty minimal. Like he's already gotten paid. And so now for him, I can afford just to wait for the exact right deal. And for the Cowboys, you have to figure out, okay, how do we get something done that makes sense for all parties here? It might be a shorter term type of a contract extension.

It might be something, the fully guaranteed type of a contract extensions here, just because that's the point at which we are with Dak. So then hold up is what the Joneses are saying, what happened to that space between 55 and 60? They're hitting 55 right now from Green Bay to Jacksonville. They've waited. They've waited on everything. That's the way they do their business.

Their organizational philosophy has kicked the can down the road. And what that's led to is with the wide receiver market, everybody now is getting upper 20s, 30s, 35 in Justin Jefferson's case. And in the quarterback market, everybody this off season got 50 plus. So what's the deal with Iuke and obviously they're one of the greatest left tackles in the history of the game was kind of waiting for an upgrade.

The Trell Williams one is unique because he's, I mean, pushing 40 at this point. He's looking for the type of upgrade that, you know, like an Aaron Donald got or even Matthew Stafford, who, if you broke down, I finally got, cause that contract finally got filed and I got the full breakdown on it yesterday. If you look at Stanford's contract, it's not nearly as much of an overhaul as what Aaron Donald got from the Rams a few years ago. If you remember Aaron Donald, he had, I believe three years left on his contract and they like put new money in and it was like a true three year deal with Stafford, they moved up money. He now has a $4 million guaranteed roster bonus next March. Basically it's a one year, $40 million deal cause he gave up his guarantees in 2025, which you don't see very often. So basically he makes $40 million this year and then if Stafford decides to play next year, then they'll have a discussion and they'll have to figure out a new contract. There's no way he's playing on this deal with Trent Williams.

It's probably something along those lines. Do they shift some money up to get something done? You're not going to do like a big extension with the guy. I mean, I don't want to put it past him. Maybe he can play till 45 cause he's a, he's a rare dude and he did take some miles off his body just with the time that he ended up missing in Washington here.

But you're trying to figure out what's a fair type of a deal. Iyuk, the best thing that Brandon Iyuk has done for the past several months is not posting all the stuff he has on social media. It's just waiting and waiting generally doesn't benefit the club. If you were looking at what the argument would have been back in March to do an Iyuk deal, then you look at all the other wide receiver deals that have gotten done, including DJ Moore yesterday. Iyuk now is in a, I talked with one team person earlier this morning, not with the 49ers, but another team.

Cause listen, the 49ers are still getting calls. There's still interest in Brandon Iyuk. Nobody knows for certain which way this is going to go. And I said, well, what's the number on an Iyuk extension?

28. The answer I got was at least, I mean, it's going to be big, big money. It's going to be more of a CD goes first and it becomes harder and harder than for the 49ers to get that deal done. So does that lead to Brandon Iyuk playing someplace else?

But I can tell you, Rich, was before the draft, the price tag was really high on Iyuk. It would have taken a first round pick, maybe more depending where that pick was in the first round. When you're not talking about 2025 picks, you don't know for certain where a pick is going to land.

Right? So it's probably a couple of picks in that case, you know, is it a couple, two second round picks, something along those lines, it would have to be something really substantial. This is not the 49ers throwing off their hands and going, all right, forget it, you know, we're giving up on this. We're going to give the guy away.

That's not what, what's going to happen here. If they trade them, they're going to get something significant, but there's enough teams with wide receiver needs. The contract is the least difficult part of this for Iyuk. If he goes to a new team, it's more about what is that trade compensation? I just don't know why the Niners with a Super Bowl ready team would just trade Iyuk away right now. I, I don't, I don't, I don't know unless you can get a receiver in return, unless you can use whatever flexibility you free up, because I use counting like 20 million on the cap right now. Okay.

All of a sudden you've got additional money. Could you pull another trade? Could you get somebody who's part of a trade?

But I guess, okay, I mean, there's a lot of different things, you have to get creative in these things. This isn't Madden. Okay. It's not, hey, we're going to send you these three players for these two players. It's more, yeah, you're exactly right. Which is why would the 49ers say, yeah, all right, fine, we're just going to move on from a guy for picks next year that don't help us now.

Correct. When you can win a Super Bowl right here and right now, and as you could, you know, the clock, we're, we're, we're up against the, the end of the hour. I appreciate you coming here, sir, and letting us know, and then driving home after a great week of sitting in this chair, I really appreciate that. I got my fingers crossed. I really think my flight's going to take off tonight to get me to Arizona.

We still have the minute plus on Roku, so let me finish my sentence here. Give me the name of a team that's got a receiver that's even in the realm of Brandon Ayuk that would flip with draft choices to get Ayuk and pay that guy as much as he wants. That's the whole complicated thing.

Who's out, who's out there? I mean, you, you hear all the craziness out of Las Vegas, that Davante Adams is in that realm. Yeah, I don't, I don't think it'd be a Davante Adams. I think it's, I think it's something that like we're probably not contemplating right now in terms of, but John Lynch has that list in his, in his, on his desk.

You think? Well, think of it this way. Everybody knows who's available, right? Because number one, you hear things through the grapevine, you get calls, whatever, but also you can just look at the contracts. Look at, all right, who's, who's not going to be able to pay this guy who's going into a contract year? What potentially could we do?

I wouldn't give you a single name. I would just say if a trade happens here involving Brandon Ayuk, it quite possibly be a team you're not thinking of just because the unique dynamics around it. Well, the problem is, is if you're looking around the league and seeing you're looking for somebody who might be cap stress because they got to pay their quarterback or left tackle and could use a wide receiver, that team is a San Francisco 49ers, you know? So the perfect answer would be pay him and keep him.

You know, wow. Kind of crazy because then there's Jamar Chase that could go first in front of both of these guys too. That's a complicated deal to get done as well because the Bengals don't like to do deals early. And they got Trey Hendricks in there as well. Tom, say hi to everybody across the way. Hi to the Chargers. Hour number three, John Owen Lowe is here in studio. We come back with your phone calls and more for the third hour. Welcome to Talkville, the Ultimate Smallville Rewatch Podcast. Season four. I'm glad that it's over. I'm glad that it's over as we know now that season five is supposed to be one of our better seasons. Obviously the tattoo storyline. You know how I feel about that. You were hating that storyline, probably a lot of joy because I kept waiting to see how it was going to keep going and then how they would somehow settle it. Change seasons one through four of Talkville before season five begins, wherever you listen.