Tom Curran: Patriots Offense Is Not Appealing To Players

Mom?

Dad? I humbly suggest you save some money and shop Amazon for back to school. It's for my growth. Meaning my body's growing at an alarming rate. And clothes you buy me this year will be very small, very soon. Plus, the clothes I love today will be out of style tomorrow. But at least your wallet doesn't have to be my fashion victim if you shop low prices for school at Amazon. Hopefully this is helpful. Amazon.

Spend less, small more. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Here we go boys, here we go. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. It's not just Caleb, they're ready to roll. That's what you want with a kid that you draft.

I guess the question is going to be, is the speed of the game going to be an adjustment for him? Earlier on the show, ESPN NFL reporter Lindsey Theory. Coming up, author and actor Jay Ellis. NBC Sports. Boston Patriots insider Tom Curran.

Actor Eric Dane. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number two The Rich Eisen Show is on the air right here on the Roku channel. This Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate Sirius XM, Odyssey and more. Coming up later on this hour from NBC Sports Boston, Tom Curran will join us from Joe Milton's Hall of Fame induction ceremony just outside of Faneuil Hall.

Let's just give it, for crowd purposes, you know what I'm saying? So that'll be later on this hour. But joining us right here to kick off this hour, the actor and author Jay Ellis is here. His new book, there it is right there. Did everyone have an imaginary friend or just me?

And Adventures in Boyhood available right now wherever you get your books. Jay Ellis is here on the program. Good to see you, sir. How are you? Good to see you, man. Good to see you. You look great, by the way. You look great. Thank you. I really enjoy, is that a corduroy, like, are you wearing corduroy today?

Rich, Rich. I wore this for you, man. Did you really? Yeah, I wore this for you. How did you know I like corduroy, people who wear the same color corduroy shirts and pants? I just had a feeling.

Is that it? Yeah. I just, I don't know. I feel like we're connected. There's a cord connection we have here somewhere. I don't know why, because it's like this. Because you were here years ago.

Was it in support of Insecure on HBO? Yeah. And so what did I say to you the last time you were here? You asked me if I was a referee.

That doesn't sound like me, does it? Cool. I had a white and black striped shirt on. And the first thing you said to me when I sat down was, so are you a referee per time or?

And here we are. I guess it's better than me saying if you worked at Foot Locker. That's probably the, right?

In between shifts. It does look like a referee shirt. I'm watching it now?

I'm looking at it right now. I'll take a shoe discount. It does look like a referee outfit. Let's not be disrespectful to Foot Locker now, guys. That's right, TJ.

TJ, back in the day. What mall was that? What mall was that? Oh, by the way, you know, when I went home two weekends ago, I went through Pittsburgh. The Foot Locker's gone, guys. It is no longer on Fifth Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh.

Four one out. I was hurt. I was gone. I was an athlete's foot guy. I worked at athlete's foot. That was my first job, was working at athlete's foot. In high school? In high school. Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Woodland Hills Mall. I needed a shoe discount. I understand.

That's one way to do it. So tell me about the book. Because you could tell from the book that you truly used to have an imaginary friend. Or do you still have your imaginary friend? No, he's gone.

He's not here anymore. But no, during the pandemic, I just kind of started. I was looking at some pictures and all these like kind of memories from childhood started to flash. And I started writing these stories down, partly because I just didn't want to forget them.

And I wanted to be able to like talk to my kids about my grandparents or my aunts or uncles or funny stories that may have happened in my childhood. And then all of a sudden, I just realized I was writing more than I had set out to write. And then it just became a book. And then from there, I just really started thinking about. What role does imagination kind of play in our lives and in our childhoods? And then where does it go? And why do we kind of lose it?

And then how do we get it back as adults? And your childhood imaginary friend is named Mikey. Mikey. Yeah.

Okay. He's kind of like Dwayne Wayne from different worlds. It's like Will Smith from the Fresh Prince. It's like if these two kind of came together. I wanted like an older brother.

I wanted somebody cool who could like, you know, show me the ropes and teach me how to be cool, I guess. And that's that's what he was. No kidding. Yeah. That's cool. Two good people to mash up right there. Two good people, right? Yeah. He had the glasses and everything. Well, I mean, that's thorough. Right there.

You take a look at the at the cover is right there over your shoulder on the cover right there with the flat top. Yeah. I like me when I was a kid, because we all had the flat top. It was the haircut of the time. My apologies. Is that kid or play who had it?

That was kid kid. Okay. Very good. Yeah.

I'm on. Hair is not my forte. But you knew one of them had it. Yes, that I did. He worked with Stu Scott so he had to know these things. That's true. Stu Scott's in the book.

Is he really? Yeah, man. About what?

I do. I tell this story about how like I was going to wake up. It was basically a nightmare and I was going to wake up and essentially like you guys were going to be on in the morning doing a play by play of this horrible decision that I made and is basically just going to be on replay on TV, like over and over and over again.

Because there was some witty word play. You woke up every single morning. Like that was the first thing I did. Pop on Sports Center.

Pop on Sports Center every single morning. How old are you? 42 now. Okay. Yeah, man. Damn.

Wow. So by the way, I love hearing stories about Stewart and how people used to just watch the two of us because we were amazing. By the way, you know when you were watching it in the morning, Stewart and I were dead asleep in real life. In real life? Yes, we were asleep because we would be walk off the set at 3.30, 4 in the morning.

Oh my God. And so were you living on the East Coast? I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the time. So an hour behind. An hour behind. Yeah. So like if you're watching the 8 a.m. Central time rear, okay, it's 9 in the morning Eastern time.

Right. We walked in the door of our respective houses at 4 in the morning. We were out dead to the world while you were waking up watching us, which is kind of wild. Can I just ask you about that time? What was happening?

Like was it just? Because I think about that time. I actually talk about that time in the book a little bit and how like all of a sudden, you know, we now have 24 hour sports networks and news networks. And like there's this big boom in cable television, right? And ad subscriber television. And all of a sudden, like, you know, when I was a younger kid, there may have been a handful of channels.

And then by the early 90s, late 80s, early 90s, there's this big boom. And so like you're getting all this like messaging now. I woke up, I truly woke up every single morning, watch sports and all my friends did. It's what we did.

I would literally iron starch my jeans and iron crease. Did you guys wear dickies? I used to starch my dickies and like put a crease in my dickies and literally be watching Sports Center every single morning before I went to school.

And it was religion. All my friends did it. But it felt like we were watching, for me anyway, it felt like I was watching two guys have the most fun on the planet with something they loved. It didn't feel like a job, although I was a kid. So it didn't feel like you were working. It felt like you were having so much fun.

Yes. And just getting to create. I can confirm that. Like whatever, like the stuff that would come out of your guys's mouth. I was like, who says that about basketball? It was just crazy to like watch that as a kid. We loved it. And it felt like you were also talking to, it felt like you were talking to like me as a kid on the other side, because that's how we talked with our friends. We were like two kids. Like Stuart out of, man, out of most anybody I've ever met was a child inside of a man's body.

Right? Like he was absolutely, he had the youthful exuberance of somebody, you know, who was your age watching it in a grown ass man's body. He really was just like that. And he, and he was exactly the guy you saw on the air.

And the two of us, we would just come together. You know, it's funny that you said I was required to know who kid and play was because I was doing sports center with Stuart. I probably learned who they were from Stuart.

You know, I shouldn't say that about kid and play. I definitely knew who they were, but there would be times where, you know, he would make pop culture references and I would, I would ask him, you know, and, and he would kind of educate me on, on certain facets of pop culture, which I was unfamiliar. And the two of us, and then I would bring that sort of stuff to the same table and the two, we just mashed together.

It was magic. And we like, we would open up our schedules because it was a job, you know, and, and there was management and there was a schedule and we would learn which nights we were doing sports center kind of at the last minute, right on the outset of a month. And, um, we, we would open up our schedules in like 1996, 97, um, and see that we were doing sports center together, like exclusively, like I was doing it with him. He was doing it with me and he came to me one day and he goes, are we a team? And I'm like, I don't know, should we ask somebody around here?

He goes, no, don't, don't ask anybody. And then, and then just to finish up the story, since you were curious about it, when Keith Olbermann left the sports center and Dan Patrick had a seat empty and there was, um, you know, there was kind of an inside, um, audition process going on, sitting who gets to sit next to Dan, who would take Keith's gig. And I wanted it. And Stuart got really upset with me because we were a team and he goes, we're just as big as those guys bigger. Well, I appreciate you saying that.

I mean, for me, bigger, right? So, so we, so he was kind of pissed at me for, you know, thinking about breaking us up when we're on the ascent, we're young and we're the ones who are killing it in the mornings. So why would I want to leave that battlefield is what he basically was telling me. And, um, I'm just glad that I had those seven years of, you know, it's amazing, man. It's interesting you say that he was like a big kid on the inside.

True. Because that's what it felt like. And I think it's part of like what I also try to talk about in the book is like how as an adult, how do you have that same play, that same imagination, that same play, that same creativity? Like, how do we find a way that was a job again, to me as a kid, it didn't look like it, but like for you, that was a job. And you guys were getting up and going to work every morning at crazy hours. But like, how do you find a way to still bring that out in your life today in a daily basis, in a daily basis, amongst all of the chaos and the craziness and kids and work and all of those things?

Like, how do you find a way to bring that into your everyday life? Did everyone have an imaginary friend or just me by Jay Ellis here on The Rich Eisen Show? Before we talk about a couple other things here, I do need a little bit of background here, because in the book, you talk about your grandpa driving instead of flying and taking you on road trips. And you said your grandpa Booker ran the minivan like Jerry Jones runs the Cowboys. No, he didn't care about anybody's opinion. It was his team, it was his van. He didn't care about anybody's opinion. Not a Cowboys fan.

But he didn't care about anybody's opinion at all whatsoever. He was the coach, he was the GM, he was the owner, he might have been the quarterback too in the minivan. But how does one run a minivan like that?

So how did it take effect? AC, music when he wanted music, AC when he wanted AC, he wouldn't stop unless it was one of his planned stops. You know, back then we didn't have like Tom Tom or Google Maps or cell phones that had computers? Actual maps.

Actual maps. So this dude would have, he knew his stops along the way. And he was like, this is where I'm stopping, this is where I'm stopping, and this is where I'm stopping.

Anyone who tries to deviate from the plan will get told no multiple times, and then you will get asked to sit in the back of the minivan as punishment for asking him to deviate from his routine stop that he had already planned out. Yeah, it was just, it was an amazing time. But you know, my grandpa, he didn't love flying. I think he hated, he would always get in his like brown suit with his fat yellow tie and a bag of chicken when we get on the plane, and he'd end up dropping the chicken on him and getting stains all over it. And he was tall. He's like 6'3", 6'4", so also sitting in a plane wasn't comfortable. But I think he also really loved taking me and my cousins on road trips and seeing this country.

And so we got to see, you know, we saw everything from reservations in New Mexico to, you know, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to, we had a water ice, a Rita's Water Ice in Philly and Giordano's Deep Dish in Chicago. And, you know, we got to see so much of this country because, A, because he was afraid to fly, but then also B, because like he loved going on road trips and traveling and showing us the world. And so, so many of my like summers are just like road trips were playing in my head of all the places we went. Fantastic. And are these memories, good memories, 30 years old, just like TJ's memories were of the time when the Cowboys had those good memories for him? Wow. See, at least I got those memories, Jay.

As a Jets fan, he's never enjoyed the glory that I have. By the way, that's a legitimate question. That is a legitimate question. Thank you. I'm just doing the timing again. You know, you said you were 42. You were talking about watching me when I was, you know, a youngin'. Great moment. When I was covering the, you know, the back end of the triplets.

Those Cowboys. It's been a while. I mean, it has. It's been a while. Are you staying right there? It's been a while. Is that Knickelbacher staying?

He's a gentleman. As a 49er fan who grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I just want to be very clear. I'm tired of the Dallas Cowboys. I get it.

But here's what I find funny. Even though you have gotten to the Super Bowl, which is great, the Niners have a longer Super Bowl-less drought than the Cowboys. Last year. Have gotten. Last year. And then two years before that. Have gotten.

Yes. And then 10 years ago. And then 10 years ago, this year. You know who else has a 1-in-j. You know who else has a 1-in-j?

The Dallas Cowboys. We know that because it gets brought up every single day. So we're aware. I don't want to break the tradition. I don't want to break the tradition. There's a horse and it's dead and we've been beating this horse. But the fact of the matter is.

I didn't get a chance to stump it. I just want to put my foot on the horse one time. The Niners haven't won a Super Bowl since 94 and that was. Oh my word. It's nice to have a shot at winning a Super Bowl though, isn't it? Yeah. I mean after a while losing has to be hard though.

Oh man. For a while you just keep getting. We're back this year.

It's like Charlie Brown trying to kick that ball and Lucy won't let. That would be good. That would be good for you for sure. We're back this year. We talked about this the last time you were here.

But it's a different audience and you're wearing something different. You interned for the Trailblazers? I interned for the Portland Trailblazers. What was this?

During the Jailblazer years. Oh God. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Mo Cheeks was the coach and I was in the marketing. I was in the I was in a marketing and PR department. So I did marketing. Excuse me. I did PR during the day and then with the marketing team, I did all the on court stuff.

OK. And then we would help sell like group packages and stuff like that to corporations in Portland. But part of my internship was I would literally write press releases and apology statements for Mo Cheeks. For the players of this team.

So you've written an apology for like Sean Camp? For Rashid Wallace. OK. For Bonzi Wells. OK. For Damon Stoudemire. Reuben Patterson. For Reuben Patterson when he called himself the Coby Stopper and then proceeded to get 40 every time he saw Coby.

That was not a good idea. Yeah. It was it was a very interesting, you know, and I'm a kid.

Like, man, I must have been 20, 21 years old at that point. Yeah. And obviously these guys are like stars to me. And they are stars.

And they're the biggest thing in the city by far. And it was absolutely insane to be a part of that season and to watch it just unfold the way it did. And also, I will say, for as chaotic as that season was and troublesome as that season was. Yes. I do think there is also a very interesting narrative that was being spent about that team at that time where we've had other teams that have also been in trouble.

By the way, the 90s Cowboys. Yeah. Yeah. But they won. They did put three trophies in the case. But they won.

Yes, they did. So the narrative was different because they won. There was just as much trouble happening off the field back then. But I think it was interesting the narrative that was being spun about that team at the time.

Because I think those were young guys who were trying to figure out who they were in the world. Sure. I know. But it was an amazing time, man. So you were an intern there, huh? Yeah. Like, get me Jay. Ruben, you have no idea what Ruben Patterson said.

Get me Jay. Quick time wasted. What?

Quick time what? Literally, I would wake up in the morning. Like, literally, I would wake up and I would read the news about something that happened. And then I would go into my internship and they'd be like, hey, could you write a, could you draft a statement for Coach Cheeks?

Because he's going to speak to the press today about what happened yesterday. The guys got pulled over driving from Seattle back to Portland. Or there was a fight on the court or off the court, whatever it was. It was, it was an absolutely insane experience. So you had, you had one drawer with an off the court press release, that standard press release.

And then the other one, you got this one for on the court? I was also the year that KG won MVP, which was also amazing to see because he came into town and like getting to be there and watch that was insane to see KG go off like that. It was, I remember the first time they played, he had a triple double in the first half.

Yes. And I was like, oh my God, this is the best basketball player in the world. Like, this is crazy. Such an amazing time. Well, this was a blast, sir. Come back anytime.

You don't have to write a book just to come back. You know? Oh yeah. And what's your show? Yeah, I'm doing a live show Tuesday night in Inglewood at the Miracle Theater. I do like a 30 minute one man show. And then after that, I'm doing a conversation with Issa Rae from Insecure. Okay.

So everybody can go scream Team 16. She was great in American fiction too. She was great. She's great in everything. She is. She's amazing. But she's come on board and she's going to be my conversation partner Tuesday night at the Miracle Theater. It'll be a lot of fun.

Okay. And you're back in Top Gun Maverick too? Yeah, man. You're crushing it. You're killing it. Been a fun ride. You've been killing it.

Thank you, man. And then the Hoops show that you're in called Running Point? Running Point. That's coming next year to Netflix?

Next year, Netflix. It's a family that runs a basketball organization very similar to Our Lakers. Yes, indeed. Very similar to Our Lakers. Jenny Buss is actually an EP on the show.

But it's the comedic version of, you know, it's an office comedy, but the family runs this office and what the chaos is of running a basketball team. And the lead actress? The lead actress is Kate Hudson. I've heard of her.

Incomparable. The phenomenal Kate Hudson. Well, you know what? I've been in a scene with her that might be coming soon to a television screen near you in this actual program. So I saw Jay.

That's where we posted. That's the last time I saw Jay. You don't tell us anything, do you? Wow. No, I don't tell you anything.

You tell us nothing. I honestly thought we were friends. We didn't tell you the Cowboys. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Jay, look around the room. Why don't let them pick us against each other. It's the cowboy thing, though.

But this is not how Americans should be in 2024. We should not be on each other right now, Jay. I feel no cowboy thing. Even though you're a Niner fan.

No one's pitting. If you'd have said Eagles, I would have been okay. I would never say Eagles.

I would have been okay. I'd say that team that gets their uniforms from linens and things before I say the Eagles. Linens and things, it's been called. So again, in that show that I saw Jay in, Jay plays a referee. We have his headshot. There it is. Come on, Jay. Jay.

Come on. I love this. How could I not say something?

I love this. Like, you put that on, you didn't think? It didn't go on?

No, man. I never saw it. I never saw it until you said it. I'm being serious. Wow.

Real line spotting. I never saw it until you said it. Jay.

Let me get that Jordan 11 and a 13. By the way, look at the accomplished man in the smaller square on the screen. And then the man who was here before wearing something from the Scott Foster collection.

Is that wrong? You took my whistle from me that day. You were like, sir, give me your whistle. You were demoted.

I did not say that. Oh my gosh. It was great. They had a basketball hoop in there with like a scoreboard.

I used to dunk on people religiously. Oh, okay. Amazing.

Did everyone have an imaginary friend or just me, Adventures in Boyhood, where all books are sold right now at JR Ellis on Twitter and Instagram. Thanks for coming in here, sir. Thanks for having me. Good to see you. Come back anytime. That's Jay Ellis right here on the Rich Eisen Show, back with Tom Curran on what happened last night in New England, live from the Joe Milton Hall of Fame Induction Center.

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See store for details. This guy over there, Brockman with his Red Sox cap over there, do you have the David Price sound when he was bitching about David Price after the Yankees beat him up in, what was that, game two? Play it. Go for it for Bill Burke. I want him to quit. I want him to retire on the spot. He's not going to do that. I didn't go that hard.

That's what I want. He was terrible. Part of you, so furious at David Price, but you were kind of feeling good though. Like you're getting it off your chest.

It was therapeutic. See what I'm saying? Is there something about- Name another sports fan that sees that guy. I don't know.

It's just like, maybe I'm just a much more sunny disposition type guy. Were you screaming at Harbaugh? Oh, this is about him.

This is about how great he is. Now I see where this is going. I was confused. No. You know, Rich, you spoon fed it to me.

I want to tell you something, Rich, out of all the sports shows I go on, I think you are the nicest, most even keeled, pleasant, respectful to other fan base. No, I just think it goes back to like the tea party. You know, it goes all the way back to like, you don't feel represented. You feel like you're taxed. You feel like a taxed sports fan.

Do you feel the general? Don't you love that? You haven't been represented in the sports universe.

It's always great when I, when I have another teammate come in to studio, cause I'm teamed up against two on one with the New York. Don't you hate anytime? Like there's a big Boston game, what they show. They always show like lighthouses, lobster fishermen and Paul Revere like, Oh yeah, that's Massachusetts. I didn't see, I never saw any of that. You know, who goes to a tourist attraction in your own city?

Exactly. You only do it when relatives come to town. Oh, do you want to go to the USS constitution, do you have a great time? I'm going to go to a dive bar.

Where do you want to go next? You want to go to cheers? Just to let you know, it doesn't look like that when you go inside.

So just take a picture outside. See Bill Burr is going to be on Broadway and Glen Gary, Glen Ross, sign me up back on the rich eyes and show radio network. I'm sitting at the rich eyes and show desk furnished by Grange with supplies and solutions for every industry Granger has the right product for you call click Granger.com or just stop by. Uh, he's one of our favorites and he's back joining us from just outside the Joe Milton hall of fame induction ceremony, uh, is none other than NBC sports Boston's Tom Caron. How are you Tom? Good to see you.

Great. Keep that mass whole vibe going back to back. So, uh, is Joe, is, is Milton getting fitted for the red, the red jacket, Tom, what do we got there? Milton is getting fitted for the 2024 training camp MVP and they're probably going to bring Malik Cunningham back for the ceremony. Nate Sudfeld will be here. A guy named Ralph Webb will be here. Patrick pass.

He actually is the chairman. Yeah. So all those guys will be here, but he was great. I mean, look, he has been captivating. Like you know, when you talk about you go past the batting cage and somebody just sounds different when they're taking BP, he looks different, throwing one on ones, everything. You just, you just stopped to watch him throw the football because it's just, it's electric to watch him throw.

But obviously my tongue was firmly planted in cheek. Uh, but, but, but the general sense that, uh, has trickled across the country here to Los Angeles, Tom was at the outset of training camp and throughout the first couple of weeks, uh, Drake May has set off a bit of an alarm bell to having a conversation with some folks that live back East. Um, is that, that's obviously an exaggerated, it's just two weeks here, but what, what is the real deal? What is the real aspect about Drake May's first couple of weeks in training camp? Honestly, the, the, the Joe Milton title wave of enthusiasm was just irresponsible and shoddy opinion offering by others on the beat to become candid, not feeling like on a Friday name and names, but why bother, why pretend that a guy who's running with the third team who literally isn't getting any reps at all with the ones when he comes out and throws the ball brilliantly, which he is act like he's going to leapfrog not only the third overall pick, but the $8 million a year journeyman quarterback who actually has looked pretty good.

Yeah, because it allows people like you from the outside or Colin coward or anybody out there to say, Hey, I got people in Boston saying it looks pretty, it doesn't, he's fine. Joe Milton's fine. And honestly, Drake May is on the arc that he's supposed to be on. He was the third overall pick, but everybody understood that there was more work to do with him, then Williams, then Daniels, maybe even than JJ McCarthy. So as a result, you're seeing a guy who improved greatly in the spring. When the pads came on, he leveled off and plateaued a bit.

And now he's on an arc again, that is of improvement. He looks fine, but he ain't ready. What what have you gleaned talking to him at all, Tom? On the upside, I've gleaned the fact that he really, really, really is into it wants to be good.

It's not just show. He will bust his ass to be a good player. He's big, strong, physical. He doesn't kick rocks and mope around when things don't go well. He's dealt with the with the the obstacles that have been put in his way.

We watched Mac Jones in our very close rearview and he would get in his feelings a little bit when things didn't go his way. And we're not seeing that with May. He makes throws that other players have not been making for this team. Even pre Brady. I mean, you know, he runs throws on the move, throws from different platforms. But what I've also seen is the Patriots weren't ready to draft a project. They now have the roof and still have to build the foundation, which I contended throughout the draft process was probably not the way to do it. And so what what do you think the expectation level for May should be entering this season, Tom?

What do you think? If you see it before, if you see before Halloween, Rich, that's that's him ahead of the curve. And I just go by last night. The Patriots used him for one series against the Carolina Panthers. They used Jacoby Percette for one series. The reason they did so was because they didn't want to leave their first offensive line out there for too long. And their twos are so bad and so inexperienced that they didn't want to risk having Drake May out there. So poor Bailey Zappi was cannon fodder the majority of the game because they didn't want to risk Drake May's development. And that's when I contended, you know, the team's not ready for him.

If you can't block for him in practices, which they have not sufficiently done, nor you use him in preseason games because you're not sure you can block for him, maybe your team wasn't ready to take a project. Tom Curran here, host of Patriots Talk podcast, also NBC Sports Boston here on the Rich Eisen Show. Take me through the Brandon Ayuk attempt and then withdrawal.

Tom, what do you got? Well, they got a massive amount of cap space. That's one thing that Bill had done, which is really interesting, you know, here in Boston, at least to me. Bill had a rebuild in 2021, he spent 172 million dollars in guaranteed money that year on free agents. He also drafted a first round quarterback and a second round really good defensive lineman Christian Barmel.

Three years later, the whole thing had gone belly up practically. Judon worked out. Hunter Henry worked out.

But John Smith, Nelson Aguilar, Kendrick Boyne to an extent, those guys didn't work out. And Mac Jones obviously didn't. So Bill had squirreled money away to say, coming after it again in 25, 24.

And that's where the craft said, no, you had your shot and we're not going to do that again with a 72 year old coach who just ruined the other quarterback. So they had this massive amount of money, Rich, but they just didn't have anybody to spend it on. There were no left tackles on the market. They tried to spend it on their own core guys, but they still have 40 million dollars in cap space this year and 78 next year. But they were so bad under Bill and for two years have been so bad offensively that they are repellent. They are wide receiver repellent for the rest of the league. They look at this place and go, my God, they average 10 points a game. Why would I want to go there with a first year head coach? First year defensive coordinator, first year GM, an OC who has not been a full soup to nuts OC and take the risk of having a 45 catch season. So the Patriots have to overpay their suck tax and they're not doing so.

When Ayuk gave him the high hat, the Patriots finally said, you know what, he's just not that into us. Let's get out of here. Right. And the, you know, supposition that they were doing that to develop their own, you know, was interesting.

I mean, it, you know, it, listen, I understand, I think it's, it's, it's true. Okay. They like those guys.

I don't think they're hiding behind. Yeah. We didn't want them anyway. Right.

I think they're more saying, okay, he doesn't want to come here. That's fine. We got some good players here. We're not desperate. Right.

No, I understand that. But I guess the way to describe it fairly is of course they're desperate. They're desperate to not suck again. Right. Like this is not, nobody's used to that around there over the last 25 years.

They don't want it to be another struggle for points where you just want to just, you know, stick needles in your eyes watching it. Right. I mean, I called one of those games last year in, in, in Frankfurt and that, that were zapping. A seminal game. Well, that was huge, man. That was where, you know, a lot really turned and, you know, Robert Kraft really wanted it and didn't get it. And we all understand what happened after that. But I, I, but in terms of being desperate to be good this year, we, we all, we all know that this is going to be a process and building.

And that's why I guess it's understandable why you could say no, thanks. It's just, you know, folks there, and I don't blame them are not used to, and I'm sure the franchise isn't used to be told you're, you're not, you're not good enough and we don't see a pathway for you to be good soon enough. And that's gotta be tough.

That's just gotta be tough straight up, man. They returned to obscurity really quickly. And they returned there because the legendary head coach was asked to leave, you know, that was the only draw. And I think that we all understood that last year when we were watching the team, but you'd say, Oh, well, Matt Judon on the Patriots. It's Bill Belichick. And it was Bill Belichick from the time that, that Tom Brady left. You could say maybe a little Cam Newton, but Bill has been the hood ornament for the franchise and the most gaudy, wonderful, you know, jealousy driving hood ornament that the NFL has ever seen.

Everybody would want a Belichick. But by the end, he had done so poorly with the roster that there's nobody worth watching. And now that he's gone, people are looking at it and saying, this isn't something that I'm interested in, meaning around the league.

And the only way to rebuild that, and it's interesting, Rich, the only way to rebuild that is to get wins. But the only way to attract wide receivers is if you start showing that, Hey, if I go there, this next Josh Allen slash next Patrick Mahone slash next Justin Herbert type player is going to be an attraction for me. But how long before Drake May gets on the field to show that he's an attraction or those wide receivers going to have to buy on spec next March when teams say he's going to be good.

You know, he's going to be good. Well, the question Juju Smith-Schuster got released during this conversation. Does that surprise you, Tom? It does not. It does not.

We didn't have it. Most of us projected that he would be released just because those, as they said, will concentrate on our young wide receivers. So it's good. It gives him a chance. He's been a good citizen, an unproductive player, but he's been a good citizen in his time here. So at least it gives him a chance to link on with another team that might have an opportunity for a veteran wide out who doesn't have much left. And so in terms of, you alluded to it before, Tom, Tom Curran here on The Rich Eyes, that you alluded to it before about the development of Mac Jones and how the generation of him could be laid at the feet of that in Belichick's final years there. What do you think about what Gerard Mayo has put together for Drake May now that you're seeing it in the process right now, just the first couple of weeks? Well, it's much more a division of power.

So it's certainly not, it's not a Gerard thing so much, Rich. It's Elliott Wolf is putting together the personnel around him and Gerard is putting together the culture and Alex Van Pelt is putting together the blueprint for the offense. And that umbrella notion of one guy at the top of the food chain from which all knowledge flows is gone.

So I think that it's a much more cogent approach. I mean, the Patriots had one of the smallest coaching staffs in the NFL and they plowed through offensive line coaches in the last five years at an alarming rate. And the continuity at those positions was bad.

I mean, I look back, the last two preseason openers, the Patriots had 12 penalties in each in 21 and 22, they cleaned it up a little last year, but would that lead to a sketchy year? Because this, we're not organized. I think there's, believe it or not, a feeling of organization and a fleet of department heads that are executing things now. It's I'm not saying it's cleaner, but the practices are harder. The practices are longer. The practices are not at the same temple as Bill. There's a difference there, but there's also, it's we'll see how it ends up.

I don't think it's going to be worse than it was the last two years, put it that way. What about the interactions with the press? How's that different? It's more open, but I think as we've watched over the last two weeks, he's become a little bit more guarded as the rubber meets the road and he understands having to navigate the Judon situation. And I, I did a show with Jerrod for like six years and I am able to sense his mood and his bedside manner. And I think I can tell that his football mind is starting to overtake his, Hey, I'm going to do a different mind and he started to put a little bit of a veil down. Yeah. It's not going to be conducive for me to explain this.

So I'm not going to do that. Whether it be with injuries or contracts or behind the scenes conversations. So it's, it's morphing a little bit, I think, but he's, his cult, the way he navigated the Judon situation, you got a guy who's sitting on an upside down trash can, just kicking his feet, watching the practice. You don't like it.

You go over and tell him you got to get out of here and it doesn't explode. That was an interesting way of navigating it. And also to get Judon to come back two days later and start partaking at practice. Unusual in 2024 to see that kind of an impasse, not get ugly, ugly. Could that be hand in glove with Judon getting what he wants or being told it's coming or what? Like what, what do you think?

Yeah, I would think so. You can't make the guy play for $6.5 million. I know suspend all disbelief to utter those sentences, but he should be making about 15 million. You have to give him a chance to make that top guys, top 10 guys are making 20. He's a pro bowl level player. He's got to be around 15. So I don't think, especially when you miss out on, especially when you've already missed out on Calvin, really you're sitting on $40 million worth of cash.

If he'll take a one year bump to satisfy him, then I think that that is absolutely something that can be achieved. Tom, I appreciate the time. Is that an Al Swearengen for you? Wow. That is really, I thought you'd like that. I knew you liked that. Awesome.

I was looking, I need a t-shirt for rich that he'd appreciate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I noticed that I got, we got our Deadwood hat here on, on the program autographed by all the Deadwood actors and actresses guests.

Don't hold it up too close to the camera, Chris, because they sign it with their favorite curse words. Yeah. You don't want to see him on TV, but I appreciate the, the shout out, Tom, the, and you, thanks for the time, man. Thanks. All right. See you rich.

Have a great weekend, bud. Everybody check out Tom current's Patriot talk podcast and the new England page. It's insider for NBC sports, Boston, what do you make of it? I mean, as always, Tom is spot on and, and, and reasonable and, you know, not caught up in the Boston sports radio complex that seems to go on those days. He won't name names.

I mean, I could name him if you don't have to, don't worry about it. It's super annoying to see that type of stuff, you know, when it's only been a couple of weeks and then obviously one preseason game, I would, I would like to see Matt Judon get paid because that would make him happy. And I assume he'd be a more productive player when happy, certainly knowing that the money's there, he's sitting there. They're just sitting on it.

It's sitting there. They had 32 million, obviously earmarked for Brandon. So where's the rest of that going to go? You know, it's interesting what they could do new England if, if necessary is they could pull like a bears type trade.

Remember they got Montez sweat last year and they weren't going, they got them at the trade deadline. You're like, what are the hell? Why are they doing that? Cause you're not using the trade deadline to improve your standings, to make a playoffs. Why are you doing that? If you're the bears, well, it looks pretty damn good right now.

Right? If you're somebody and then you sign him on the spot, maybe they could do something like that. Start building up that roster. Two months, you know, who's available eight four four two Oh four rich number to dial on the program. Our three Eric Dane in studio, what's more likely, but when we come back, your phone calls and, and, uh, and so much more right here on the program. This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better with NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV. You get the most live NFL games all in one place, every game, every Sunday, and you can even watch up to four different games at once with multi-view one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action, make your Sundays more magical. And also YouTube TV is great.

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Named one of the best personal finance podcasts, the stacking Benjamin show with Joe and his friends makes financial literacy fun. We see money of inefficiency OG around us all the time. We've got a few skeletons sitting out in the open and maybe we need to broom into the closet. You know what I mean? Take that out. Whatever you're going for. It didn't land right. Who's got a shovel and some lime.

Maybe you need to do that with your financial picture. I don't know. Find out more by searching the stacking Benjamin's podcast, wherever you listen. I used to know you when you didn't have what's going on. I didn't have hair. What's going on?

Back Mortimer. Do you think I should do this? Do you think I should do this? I do. You do?

I do. It will bring you back like no other. But where am I now though? When you say, bring me back, you're not really happy, but you're not really happy. Like you know what I mean? Like I'm happy with my head.

Zoom in on it. I'm happy with my head right now. I'm happy with life. My hats have been cutting down. They were up to five days a week.

Now I'm at two days a week now because I'm feeling good about prime right now. If I look at myself on social media, it's taken at least nine years off of my life. Nine years?

Yes. She's looking like a young prime right now, man. You know, I looked at a picture of me and my profile and all the things. I didn't know if it was one of my sons or me.

That's the way I am right now. You know, you know, Suze, you know, my wife, she's like seeing you on the air and she goes, huh? She's like, what? Is that Dion?

I'm like, yeah, that's Dion. You know what she's really saying? She's really saying.

It's almost like a guy. See, we can't do this. You know, if your girl starts to pick up a little weight, you really can't say it. You just, you know, like, hey, you want to work out day, baby?

Not true, but we should work. You can't say it. So she's like, is that Dion? Yeah. And she's just waiting for you to jump in there. It's like double dutch.

And you just sitting out there and she has the ropes and she's just doing the ropes and she just keeps looking on you like, come on baby, jump in there, jump in there. Come on. Rich, you can do this, man. No, I can't.

I mean, you got a lot to work with on the outsides. Is your expert opinion having, okay, so you have a lot of, uh, donor hair, they call it donor hair. Should I do it? Do it, Rich.

Rich. Don't do it. Do it. See, don't do it. Rich. Do it.

You should do it. All right. Happy 57th birthday, Dion Sanders, 57th birthday today. We just showed a clip of him and our, uh, a real cool only segment right there.

All right. Um, boy, there's so many phone calls here. Jimmy in San Antonio has got to cut to the front of the line here. What's up, Jimmy? What's up, Pop?

What's on your mind? Uh, first, congratulations to little Connor in long Island. He has surpassed Baker Mayfield as your favorite non-biological son. He was fun yesterday. That kid was fun.

And Brockman, why are you dissing the preseason players delivering packages like an Italian Olympic pole vaulter. Wow. All right. So I got that one. You missed. Okay. Thank you, Rich. You're a Michigan man. I expect you. I got it. A somber call for Chichi Rodriguez.

Oh, I know. Or as he was known once upon a time on the, uh, the newsman from WKRP in Cincinnati, Les Nesman once referred to him as Chai-Chai Rodriguez. Chai-Chai Rodriguez.

Was it Roger Wiese? Something like that. I played that clip today. Funny you see that. Did you do that?

Yeah, no. Oh, did he pass? He did. Chichi yesterday. The long game with, you had Dennis Quaden and my father was a caddy in the late fifties.

And when Chichi comes along and Lee Trevino comes along, Nancy Lopez, that's when Hispanics got into golf because they saw it happen. And I just wanted to give him a shout out and also Roy Acuff, uh, he worked with me and Brian Anderson in San Antonio. He passed away also, and he deserves it.

Ask BA about him. He'll tell you some great stories, Rich. I will do that. Yeah. And thanks for the time, Jimmy. Always great to catch up with you.

Take care, brother. One of our favorites right there. Yeah. You know, Chichi Rodriguez is always famous for using his, his putter as if it was a sort of a sword and he would, that he would make the putt and he would just put it right. He was great. I always enjoyed watching him character, uh, the old skins games when we were growing up. Yeah. He was always Chichi here in those. Oh man.

That's how I first got exposed. Rest in peace. Um, let's go to Jeff and Detroit. All the let's play all the hits. What's up, Jeff? How are you, sir?

What's going on, fellas? How's everybody doing? Great to see you. Wonderful, wonderful.

It's good to talk to you guys saying hi to all your back stage people down the mic and everybody on this beautiful Friday. We're good. Now I want to get to the preseason of things.

Yeah. Listen, for everybody that gets hung up on preseason games, let me tell you something. My name is Jeffrey law and once upon a time, my team went foreign on the precinct, oh, and six to rewrite history, the Detroit lions were the worst thing in the world.

So don't get hung up on preseason. Um, I got a question for you. Excellent cautionary tale, Jeffrey. Excellent. I know. Right.

Excellent cautionary tale. So many wonderful, wonderful female athletes bringing gold and bringing light to, uh, us Olympic events. And then we have this outburst of, uh, WNBA play. I mean, it just seems like an empowering time for women. Do you recall another time when women's sports was at the pinnacle that it's at right now? I believe this is probably one of the best years for women's sports because I can never remember me looking forward to the WNBA all star game over the regular NBA all star game. My goodness. Oh, you're not wrong.

You are absolutely not wrong. Um, and yeah, once the women finish up, we're expecting, uh, gold, um, it'll be back to the WNBA and then Kaitlin Clark and Angel Reese and the rest of the stellar rookie classes, first playoff run and playoff season. That'll be new, right?

During the NFL first month of September and have the WNBA potentially bridge the Olympics into the NBA season. It's cool. You know, but when I say the first time, obviously it's been done before, but with the eyeballs, the expectation for sure, uh, I am looking forward to that and the, the women's, uh, track world. Yeah. Chikaya, Richardson, uh, just anchored the four by one just to gold spectacular. She turned it on in the last hundred meters spectacular every last one of them. They're great.

Oh, real quick, uncle, real quick, uncle rich. I had a chance at the airport to see Paul Judah, Olympic gymnast come home with the goal. And as you know, he's a Michigan man and it was so dope to hear the entire airport terminal hollering out. It's great to be a Michigan woman. I love it. That's great. Jeff. Thanks for the time, man. Always great to chat with you. Hi, Jeff.

The Olympics have been just awesome, awesome Canada just upset and won the four by one men's. Oh, is that right? Just now. Yeah. You know what? Bad hand back in the day, handoff for USA back in the day, it used to be, you know, we're about to give you the results, turn away, turn your radio down, you know, Larry David's assumed tape used to be out there for everybody.

But I guess in this day and age, you're getting the alerts on your phone. So Goldman, a match soccer Spain up three, two were in injury time, five minutes of injury time right now. Oh, is that right? France needs an equalizer. France versus the United States. Awesome. I couldn't be more hype for 2028 here in LA. It's going to be so great.

I'm so excited. Yeah. You're going to actually stick around. Yeah. I'm going to go. We're going to go everywhere. Oh, France.

France has a penalty kick with a chance to tie. Okay. Oh my gosh. Here we go.

All right. Lots going on. Eric Dane making his way to our studio and our number three, more of your phone calls. What's more likely coming up next, keeping an eye on everything going on in the Olympics and so much more. The entirety of France is holding its breath for the radio audience will let you know when we come back. Let's see what happens here.

Is it without the express written consent of NBC sports in the IOC? We'll let you know when we come back on the radio, what happens in the meantime? Here we are. Do you think you could score PK in one of these moments? Definitely not. He's going to miss.

I'm taking out Alcaraz. Oh, wait a minute. Oh. He did score though, right? Yeah.

He made it. Tied. 3-3. 3-3. Man. France is going to have a big home court advantage for the gold medal basketball game tomorrow.

Yes. All the fans that are there and you. I might fly out to France tomorrow. You're not rooting for France.

You are not rooting for France. If Tatum's going to go DNP, I kind of am. Be honest. I kind of am. Be honest. Kind of a fun story. Dude.

Kind of a fun story. When the when Team USA was down 13 going in the fourth quarter yesterday, I'm not rooting for France. Everyone.

I was not worried. Seriously. Are you serious? Come on now. I told you in the text messages. Come on now.

I wasn't. Come on. I was one of the best basketball players on earth. And when you could see when they got locked in, it was a rat. Well, Embiid. Embiid. It was not a rat.

Embiid. When they got locked in, it was like, it might, what I'm saying, it was a rat that they were losing this game. When they were locked in the first three quarters. Well, let me just say, no.

No. You know what got locked in? And I know you've been carpet on Kerr, Embiid, Durant, LeBron, Steph, Curry, and Booker ripped the knob off.

Rip it off. It was a good lineup. With all due respect to Tatum. Oh, it was a good lineup. And by the way, True Holiday was out there too when the comeback started. Rip the knob off. I didn't think it was anything that Kerr was doing.

That's the best five that you can put out there. I think. Hour three coming up. Former Navy SEAL Sean Ryan shares real stories from real people from all walks of life on The Sean Ryan Show. Tucker Carlson, what is it that you think that people gravitate? I'm not self-aware. I refuse to be self-aware.

I don't even like mirrors at all, which you can probably tell from my appearance. I don't have a crazy high IQ or I really don't have that many skills. I would say my main skill is I believe my instincts. I don't hesitate to follow my instincts ever. The extent that I have, I've gotten in trouble. The Sean Ryan Show on YouTube or wherever you listen.