Ian O’Connor: Aaron Rogers' Teammates Love Him

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NFL Sunday Ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. Ladies and gentlemen, this is The Rich Eisen Show with guest host, Andrew Siciliano. He is a brilliant, brilliant creator.

Hey, hi! Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show, MLB Network analyst, Sean Casey. NBC Sports broadcaster, Noah Eagle. Senior writer for the MMQB, Albert Prear.

Coming up, New York Times bestselling author, Ian O'Connor. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Andrew Siciliano. It has been a busy and interesting day already in the National Football League. Hope you're doing well. J.J. McCarthy needs knee surgery.

Disappointing. Such a promising start for the Vikings' rookie quarterback. He could be back soon. It's a meniscus. Don't know how long. Maybe three weeks, maybe three months. Simply don't know.

As Breier told us earlier, with a meniscus injury, once you get in there and under the hood, so to speak, then you'll figure out how long it will be. Disappointing. Hassan Riddick has requested a trade. Oh boy.

Yeah. He has not even been to the Jets building other than to take a physical. He already wants out. And we might have a trade by the end of the show for Brandon Aiyuk to the Steelers. According to a friend of the program, Ian Rappaport, although it's not done, and it's not done, and until he is on a plane and posing in the Pittsburgh airport next to the Franco Harris immaculate reception, which, by the way, was neither immaculate nor a reception, until I have that photo of Brandon Aiyuk.

Until I have that photo of Brandon Aiyuk, then, I'm sorry, five yards on me for my laptop ringing. You don't think he caught it? There's no visual evidence. There is visual evidence. What do you mean?

They've unearthed all types of videos. What are you talking about? There is an end zone view. There is no visual evidence. There is no visual evidence. Mike, how can you say there's no one?

I've seen it. There is no visual evidence. I don't think there's visual evidence.

You never see the actual clear shot. Listen, Steelers fans already hate me. I'm sorry, guys. I think he caught it. This is a Browns guy we're talking to. But I think he caught it.

But there's no evidence. I love Franco. May he rest in peace. Love that man.

Love it. And they moved the statue in the airport. It's not where it used to be. Oh, yeah, I heard that.

They changed it. Okay. That was number one.

It's by the T-Rex, I think, now. Okay. That's what it was. Also, it wasn't, I mean, it bounced off 15 different things. So, like, by definition, that's not immaculate. Immaculate means perfect. Tyree Ketch? Huh? Tyree Ketch isn't immaculate either, right? Again, I'm just being a jerk.

Lucky. I am just being a jerk. Just being a jerk. Yeah, you should have seen, like, the hate from the Steelers fans when Miles Garrett was ahead of TJ Watt in the top 100.

Well, if you think that was bad, you're questioning Franco right now, dog. I'm not. Turn your mentions off.

I'm not. Look, in all seriousness, TJ, like, sports is about myth-making, right? It's about storytelling. That is an amazing story. It is one of the great ones in the NFL.

Absolute great. It's not like Babe Ruth calling a shot at Wrigley, right? I bet you don't think that happened either. Well, there's been a lot of embellishment. Well, no, what I'm saying is there's a lot of embellishment on that one as well. There is. There is.

There's a lot of embellishment. Andrew Belize will only score 95 that game. Yeah. Yeah. Not only scored 50.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, no. Wilt Chamberlain, like, it's not Photoshop when he's holding up the 100 sign. That's actually real. It happened. I just, I joke with Steelers fans about that all the time.

It was either, it was neither an immaculate nor a reception. Discuss. They don't take it well. No.

No. They don't. Again, they took the top 100 way too seriously. Miles Garrett ahead of TJ Watt. I get it. There was an incident once with Miles Garrett and a Steelers quarterback. I understand it and you hate the Browns, but come on, like it's a top, it's off season programming.

Okay. It used to be having worked in NFL Network for many years. It used to be the show is you guys, TJ and Del Tufa. You guys work there as well.

Top 100. Great concept, right? Hey, let's get people to watch the network in the off season. We're going to stretch it out to like six weeks of shows, bring in big names to do the analysis.

You get all the social media. It's done in the first year of it. Fantastic concept. Great concept. Now it's, it's a little more streamlined. It's, it's, it's, you know, like NFL film shows for the first couple of shows with no studio element that you do a studio element react. It doesn't feel the same anymore, but it still gets a lot of discussion and engagement and clicks. And Steelers fans did not take that well yesterday.

I mean, last week I've lost track of days as mentioned. All right. So this is coming out a full disclosure, full disclosure. I have not yet read the book. There are a lot of times when you watch television interviews and the host goes, I absolutely love your book and they haven't read it.

Somebody wrote questions and they were handed the book as a prop. I am going to read this, but yesterday when flying back to town, I emailed our great staff here and said, Oh my God, this is going to be amazing. If Ian O'Connor is writing this book on Aaron Rodgers, we need to have him on and bam, here he is.

Wow. Ian O'Connor out of the darkness, the mystery of Aaron Rodgers, the man who brought you Belichick among other great New York Times bestsellers. Ian, how are you? Andrew, I'm a very big fan of your work. I'm very happy to be on with you. Thanks for the kind words.

Well, thank you. And the feeling is mutual clearly here. This has been a bit of a journey to write this book, Ian. Aaron knew.

Tell us the story here. Aaron knew you were writing it, but didn't want to sit down with you until the very end. Tell me that. I don't know if that's 100% accurate.

I suspect it is. But I made a lot of requests before a sit down with him, obviously, through the Jets, through his agent. I directly reached out to Aaron. I sent him books I had written in the past on Belichick and Coach K and never really got any response, yes or no. And I actually handed in a manuscript in January without him and assumed that he was not going to cooperate. And frankly, he doesn't owe me anything.

And so that's fine. I've done books before with with no cooperation. And then in February, I get a message from the Jets that he's now willing to see me. So I had to reopen the book and I flew out to Malibu to sit down with him, had a bomb scare on the flight, ended up in Chicago, diverted for eight hours to survive that. And the two hours with him was they were more than worth it.

And he made the book better without question. It was really more of a fact checking process at the end of all my interviews and talking to his friends, his family members, his parents. His brothers did not talk to me, but I did talk to a lot of people very close to him.

And I think he wanted to know, what did you hear and what do I need to counter or put into context? And it was an enjoyable give and take. And and again, he made the book better and he did not owe me that sit down at all.

And I appreciate it. And I saw him on camera this morning talking to Boomer Esiason where he said that he actually Ian learned things about his family from you, specifically the first chapter here, where you tell the story of his grandfather, Edward Rogers, prisoner of war, served our country in Europe. And he learned things about his grandfather that he had not been told by his family. Yeah, actually, Aaron's father said that as well about his own father and the military documents. There's a gentleman named Dan Matthews in Minnesota who's an incredible expert in military records.

And he uncovered a lot of this. And Edward Rogers was an amazing combat pilot in World War Two. He flew 44 missions, which is more than double the average lifespan of a combat pilot in World War Two in the European theater against Hitler's war machine.

And he really was amazing on St. Patrick's Day in 1944. His plane's on fire, his plane is bullet ridden, and his squadron peels off because that was protocol. And they were on to the next stage of the mission. And he said, I was all alone over Germany.

It was the loneliest feeling in the world. And somehow with 10 men aboard, he got that plane safely back to the American base in Italy. So he was a hero without question, shot down on the 44th mission, beaten when he was captured, mistreated as a POW, gave a war crimes interview with a lot of detail. So I printed out that interview and sent it to Aaron.

I think he appreciated that. And yeah, but I told him, I don't want you to read about some of the disturbing details of his war experience first in this book. I want you to see it from me before you get the book because it's your grandfather. And so, yeah, that was my favorite chapter because I got a chance to write about one of the greatest members of the greatest generation. And anytime as a writer, you get that opportunity, you take it.

And anyone who just saw Masters of the Air on Apple, I think and appreciate the stories of that greatest generation and our airman over airmen, rather over Europe. And yes, we'll greatly appreciate that first chapter, which I was trying to read here in On the Way to Work. How did Aaron deal with the other family stuff, the mom and dad and the not talking and the relationships and all of that? That was the most tense part of the conversation I had with him. And the one thing I really appreciated is the fact that he understood that as a biographer, I had to cover this. That if I was writing the story of his life, the fact that he hasn't talked to his parents and his two brothers in almost 10 years, that had to be covered. And there are athletes, I think you would agree with this, who wouldn't understand that.

Why not just write about my career? So that helped. And the estrangement has gone on for far too long. And there's a lot of he said, he said in it. It's sort of death by a thousand cuts as opposed to one particular development that unfolded that caused the estrangement.

Very complicated. And as most family divisions are. And but he was candid about it. There were some things he wouldn't talk about.

But he did address some things about that division and estrangement on the record. And the parents and other family members, some blame Olivia Munn for much of this. I don't in my book because I think Aaron entered that relationship with feelings that maybe she notarized. But at the end of the day, he hasn't dated her in seven years and he's still carrying on this estrangement.

So it's not all her fault at all. And so, listen, there's a scene in the book that I was very happy to nail down and get on the record from both Aaron and his father. They hugged last year at the Lake Tahoe Celebrity Golf Tournament. And Ed Rogers told me he hadn't seen or spoken to his son in almost nine years. And when he turned and 15 feet away is his middle child staring at him, he said, I froze because I forgot what it felt like to have my son in my presence. And they hugged. They cried. Or at least Ed did.

Aaron had to go back to play the rest of his golf round. But that moment is very emotional scene in the book. And and both talked about it and said it meant a lot to each of them. And hopefully it's the first baby step towards reconciliation. And I think it will be.

Ian O'Connor's book is Out of the Darkness, The Mystery of Aaron Rogers. So after they hugged. He just went back to playing golf and they never Ian reconnected in Tahoe.

It didn't reconnect in Tahoe. And I just think this is one thing it's going to take Aaron even maybe more time. I don't know. He's trying to figure out a way to kill this thing off. And it's just easier to let it live and let it linger and confront this living organism that is the estrangement and put an end to it. And I do think there might have been some electronic communication in recent months brief.

But, hey, that's something. And I think that the road to a reunification of the family is going to run through the father. His father is his idol, was his idol in college when he gave an interview at Cal Berkeley. Aaron talked about looking up to Joe Montana and Steve Young as a kid. That's who he wanted to be. But he said, really, my idol is my father.

That's who I want to be. And Ed Rogers was his first coach. He taught him how to play football and was with him all the way and his biggest fan. So I think clearly if there is a reconciliation, it will go through the father.

It'll happen hopefully in the coming months. And then organically, the rest of the family will fall back into place. Just fascinating. I can't imagine. Listen, we all have issues with our family here. And some people do speak to their family and some people don't ever want to be in the same room. And I'm not just talking Thanksgiving dinner, but just in general, I know people who can't fathom being in the same room with their family ever again. They're gone.

But the idea of seeing my father for the first time or a family member, anyone with whom I'm estranged, knowing they are there, having that moment, and then just leaving again, I personally, I can't wrap my head around that. You're there. They're right there. Get it over with. It's true. He was competing at a tournament.

I think he finished ahead of Annika Sorenstam in that tournament. Which is amazing. But eventually you get back to the clubhouse and you sign your scorecard and someone offers you a beer. But my dad's somewhere here. Yeah, you're right.

And frankly, that's a question I should have asked them and did not. But I think he struggled with this. I think deep down, Aaron realizes that this has gone on five, six, seven years too long. And his friend, Jordan Russell, his best friend, who also was exiled from his life for about three years or so. And then Aaron took him back in. He doesn't take many people back in, but Jordan Russell was one of them. And Jordan's question, I think he raised to Aaron, but he also did to me, he said, does the punishment here fit the crime?

And it doesn't. So I think Aaron is really good at a lot of things and he's one of the greatest ever at football. But trying to end this, he's not so good at that. And I think your example of not following up at the golf tournament is a great example of that.

There's obviously Olivia on headlines that everyone's going to pick up and you get deeper into this than anyone has been able to get. There's also the I have been immunized thing here. I don't know, Ian, it wasn't a I was wrong. But he did kind of pull back the curtain on was there a little bit of regret there whatsoever in how he handled it?

Yeah, I think so, because the way I positioned it, Andrew, when I brought that up was I said, I can't guarantee this because I was not sitting in the room in August of 2021 when you said this. But if I were a columnist in Green Bay or Milwaukee, sitting there vaccinated and you told your truth and his truth was he was allergic to an ingredient and Pfizer and Moderna. And he was concerned about Johnson and Johnson side effects. And if you had said that, I would have found that to be a somewhat reasonable position. I really don't think I would have ripped you that day in a column.

And I think you would have faced less than half the criticism you did when in November it was discovered that you were not vaccinated and you tested positive for covid. So I think he agreed with that. And he said, if I could do it over again, I would tell the truth.

I would say I had these health concerns about the vaccines and I'm not getting vaccinated. And I just think the truth is always the best option. And he did concede that that was the best approach and that he wishes he had done that in August of 21. It's really interesting with him because like I've interviewed him over the years and I think we have a decent relationship.

I saw him at Santa Anita last year for the Breeders Cup very, very briefly here. Never had, you know, never more than just like a six, seven minute TV interview or seeing people at Super Bowl parties. I think Aaron has a little bit this need to kind of prove that when he's getting questions from reporters that like I'm a little smarter than you. Like I want to I want to like I want to test you to see if you really know what you're talking about. And if you if you push back on him right, if you meet him at his level, then he enjoys that. And then maybe there's more of a connection.

And I think that I'm immunized. And yes, he was trying to avoid it and he was trying to get away with it. But I think there was a little bit of, hey, like I'm smarter than you. Are you smart enough to figure out what it is, how I'm playing this kind of thing? Like I'm going to get one over on you guys and you're not going to notice. You know what I'm saying? Well, I would say, Andrew, how did that work out for him?

It didn't work out well. Yeah, I think you're right, because he said his strategy was if they're smart enough to ask the follow up question. Right.

Does that mean you're vaccinated? He would have been told his truth. Well, it just caused. Frankly, I don't think he's recovered from that moment. At least his image hasn't. Because before that, he was one of the good guys in the NFL. He was socially aware. He backed Colin Kaepernick. He backed protesting athletes. He there was a fan at a game who yelled out an anti-Muslim slur during the national anthem.

And he rebuked that fan and was thanked by President Obama for doing that. Those things meant something to Aaron Rodgers. And so he was looked as as one of the good guys.

And then all of a sudden, yeah, I've been immunized. Those four words change everything, becomes a villain. He adds on to it with conspiracy theories, the Jimmy Kimmel thing. And now he's in a place where, listen, we all know it shouldn't be this way, but victory sometimes equals virtue.

I think if he does happen to win a Super Bowl with the Jets, improbable as that might be, that a lot of the on the field and off the field unforced errors go away. And I think deep down, he probably knows that. And I really can't wait to read it. One last thing here.

I know this is hard. Was there is there one big surprise, like one one thing you learned about him in this journey where you go, hmm, I didn't see that coming. I just think his teammates universally, almost to a man outside of maybe a couple love him. Yeah, I just that's never talked about is like the people who spend the most time with him, see him as a great teammate, a great leader. Again, a couple of exceptions, but it's been a long career, a couple of decades. And I think that's underreported, under talked about, underappreciated, under everything, because those guys know. And to a man, and it's unbelievable what I saw with the Jets last year and even this year, the way they look at him, the way they talk about him. And the vast majority of his teammates in Green Bay, the same thing. And that really needs to count for something.

And I don't think it does in the public discussion of who Aaron Rodgers is. And that love and that mutual respect has the potential, if they could block form here, to maybe write an interesting story here this year for that team. I hope it happens just for the sake of the story.

I mean, it'd be amazing. And I remember when he got hurt last year, week one, I was in the postgame show on NFL Network that day, like the collective disappointment of everybody. I felt for Jets fans, but the entire league had this, oh, no, because everybody wanted to see it. They wanted to see how the story ended.

The circumstances have changed, but we get that chance to do it this year. Again, the book by Ian O'Connor is Out of the Darkness, The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers. Ian, when can we get it? I know this is an advance copy. Is it out yet? It's on Amazon.com now for pre-order.

It's officially released next Tuesday. Awesome. Ian, like I said, looking forward to it. Thanks for taking the time.

I know you're busy with doing a bunch of these. Best of luck to you, sir. My pleasure. Thanks, Andrew. Got it.

Really. I have done a lot of book interviews over the years where you're like, all right, all right, guys, can we get some questions here? We're going to promote the book and feed the beast and do this. All right, let's go.

This is one where it's like, I didn't have time because literally it was just handed to me. But yeah. It's going to be great. Aaron's an interesting dude, man. I remember.

Do we have to break Hoskins? You want to do that and come back and finish this off on the back end here? Okay. He's an interesting dude. I really like him.

But that whole conspiracy theory thing in his head for everything. It's just, it's not. But I get it. Anyway, we'll continue this in a minute. The Rich Eisen Show. Back after this.

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Click Grainger dot com or just stop by one of their local branches. We call it start bench cuts. You can have to start somebody, bench somebody and cut somebody. You have a Game of Thrones theme to it. Yes. All right. What's the first one, Chris Brockman? What do you have for our first one is your favorite Game of Thrones character. Khaleesi, Jon Snow, Jorah Mormont. You have to start bench one and cut. I'm starting Khaleesi, Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains. I'm benching Jorah and I'm cutting Jon. You can't have any rivalry, Jon.

He's trying to hit his hand, but he's trying to get in there. The nastiest M.F. are on Game of Thrones. You have to start one.

You have to bench one and cut one. Ramsay Bolton, Walder Frey, Joffrey. This is nastiest. I mean, you got to start Ramsay. He's the worst. He's the worst of all time. I'm going to bench Joffrey because he's close. You know, the stuff that he did.

I mean, Sansa has put up with all this crap from the men in her life. Exactly. Exactly. And so I want to bench Walder Frey.

He's up there, but his death was exciting. So you cut him. He's out. He's out. Okay. Well, which he actually was, in fact, cut. Right.

Literally from all that. Okay. And then we'll just do one more favorite movie.

Okay. The three choices are Shawshank Redemption, The Fugitive, You've Got Mail. Start bench cut. I'm starting The Fugitive. I mean, Tommy Lee and Harrison Ford. Fantastic.

The best, right? I'm going to bench Shawshank. Phenomenal movie as well. And I'm cutting You've Got Mail. Well, you've got you've got mail.

Not even the best Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan movie. Exactly. Yeah, but it's modern times. Online and all that stuff.

Yes, Sleepless in Seattle. That was like a phone call on a radio show. Yeah, but you've got dial-up.

You've got dial-up email. Come on now. You guys are wrong. The Rich Eisen Show, half hour to go. Hi, I'm Andrew. Back tomorrow as well. Tom Pelissero will be there to tell us that the Brandon A. Uke trade fell apart again. I'm kidding. We'll see.

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Call or click Grainger.com or just stop by. For those of you watching on the Roku channel, right, or the Roku Sports channel, you might have seen there coming back from break a great clip of when Aaron Rodgers was sitting with you guys, with Chris and with Rich, and you're going through Game of Thrones stuff. Like, that's the awesome Aaron Rodgers, the defensive guy on McAfee spewing the conspiracy theories.

Not good. Yeah, don't like that guy. I don't like that guy, but I was talking with Ian O'Connor before. You know, I think there's always a little bit of Aaron, and this is where you get the conspiracy theories that kind of wants to prove that, hey, I'm a little bit smarter than you. I see the world better and bigger than you. I know things that you don't know. Therefore, you should look into these conspiracy theories, because I know more. I know more, and you don't. I remember the first time I interviewed him.

It's just real, you know, basic stuff. He was at Lake Tahoe for the Celebrity Golf Tournament. I was in the studio. It was 2011, I think. It was 2012. I was a year into NFL Network.

I was still kind of the new guy. We had just had Donald Driver in the studio a week ago, and he had made this big point, like, hey, man, we've got to run the ball more this year. Like, we can't have the offense we had last year.

We have to run the ball more. And so we had Aaron on, and I'm doing the talk back with Aaron, and I said something like, hey, you guys got to run the ball more, don't you? Like, you know, I think I referenced something, you know, last week or whatever, and he looked at me, and he goes, do we? Like that.

You're questioning? And I said, and I looked right back at him, and I went, no, Donald Driver did. He was sitting here last week and said that, and I had the quote. And there was a little bit of delay on the satellite, and he goes, oh.

And then totally opened up and it was a totally different guy. It was like, all right, like, I parried. Bad. Like, we're fencing here. Like, you got me. He's like, okay, cool, we're good.

We're good. And from that point on, I never met him in person, but, you know, I ran into him plenty of times after that. He was cool. And it's like, he wants to be challenged, right?

He wants to see that you care. And I respect that. Like, I respect that a lot. Sometimes it comes off the wrong way.

The defensiveness, the conspiracy theories, you know. But that guy you just saw right there doing Game of Thrones stuff, that guy's awesome. And this book is pretty darn good as well. You should go check it out. Okay. What else am I missing here before we get to the Olympics in our final segment?

Because I want to unpack some stuff there from three weeks covering the games of the 33rd Olympiad. NFL headlines, we're still waiting for Brandon Aiyuk. Ian Rappaport says there's kind of sort of a dealing place to send him to the Steelers, but there's still some moving parts.

This one feels a little more real going by the way I know Ian likes to word things. However, it ain't done. And because there have been so many false starts on this, I'm not going to believe it is done until it is truly done.

Who said that? Malik Nabors, thank you Michael Hoskins in my ear, says there is no doubt that he'll be ready week one. He looks like the real deal for the Giants early on. I'm not saying you need to take him the first round into fantasy, because you could be a really good football player and have a nice rookie season and still not win your fantasy league.

Like I get stopped all the time. Hey, what do you think about fantasy? I'm like, I do think Malik Nabors is a good player. Like, is he going to win your league for you?

Yeah, not all rookies who have really good seasons win your fantasy league. There are exceptions like Puka Nakua, right, fifth round pick. Also, when it comes to Puka Nakua, if I could just say this, and yes, I'm a Rams homer, nicest human on earth, nicest kid on earth. I have never ever been in a room with him where he wasn't smiling and put on his best face, like he's an all pro smiler, he is always happy, like where his feet are and living his best life.

I wish more people could be like Puka Nakua. There's been an arrest this morning for another rookie, third round pick, Mike Hall. Uber talented coming out of Ohio State. It is domestic violence related. Do not yet know the details. Don't know. Allegedly an incident with his fiance.

They have a small child. Immaturity was always a thing coming out of Ohio State, not you're a bad guy, immaturity, but just a little bit immature. But the people at Ohio State will tell you he was probably as talented a human as there was in that building, not named Marvin Harrison, like that good. Third round pick from Cleveland drafted by his hometown team. Don't know the details.

Don't know. There's the JJ McCarthy injury. There is Nathan Peterman signing as well with the Raiders. And there is the story that Jim Harbaugh will not be an honorary captain when he goes back to Michigan and that it looks like he's not going to back going to go back to Michigan as had been reported as they were going to have a big deal with the returning conquerors. But the story here reading from football talk, the school last week said he would return to serve as honorary captain for their August 31st game against Fresno State Tuesday. However, Michigan says Harbaugh will not be there. He says that he wants to focus on the Chargers. Interesting, interesting, interesting. The cynics will say, well, there's more dirty laundry being aired. He doesn't want to come back or Michigan saying we should probably not roll out the red carpet considering everything still hanging over our heads.

There is also there is also this angle. The Chargers didn't look good Saturday. It is only the preseason. It is only the preseason. And Justin Herbert, even if he had been healthy, wouldn't have been playing Easton stick.

It was rough to watch. And I'll say also say this, the Seahawks came out with a purpose. It is a different vibe. I was in that building yesterday and saw that practice and talked to Mike McDonald and Gino Smith and D.K. Metcalf and and Julian Love and Tyler Lockett and John Schneider.

It is a different vibe. That team played with a purpose that the other thirty one teams did not have for the most part. The first preseason weekend, brand new head coach.

They not only wanted to impress the new teacher, but that brand new head coach has them doing things with a purpose. Not a shot at Pete. Please don't read it.

Read it the wrong way. But that team was focused. That team played it starters defensively for the first two series and a lot of twos for a lot of the first half.

And that team dominated. Again, the preseason. I said this yesterday in overreaction Monday, wondering your thoughts about the Chargers. Should they call Nick Foles? It depends how good they think they're going to be. And it depends how long they think Justin Herbert is going to be out. If your idea is we need to save our season, we think this is a playoff team, then yeah. Then every week counts. Not saying they need to mail it in.

But I'd have the conversation. I think the quarterback here. None of their quarterbacks looked good, to be honest. No, none of them do.

I want to get into the Olympic stuff, so real quick. And this is a conversation I had yesterday in Seattle. It's not Nick Foles. It's Ryan Tannehill.

Oh, interesting. Ryan Tannehill is unsigned. And he is the name that kind of hangs over everything here in the NFL. Quarterback injuries will happen. They're inevitable.

Inevitable. We've seen 60 plus the last three years. There will be a team in October that has a beeline for the playoffs that loses its quarterback.

Last year we saw plenty of them. Ryan Tannehill is in a great position. If he's staying in shape, and I assume he is, he can sit back and he's the next guy up.

He is this year's Joe Flacco. The phone will ring and he has the opportunity to wait for the best call and the best offer and the best option. That may be in September. It may be in October. It may be in December.

It depends how patient he wants to be and how badly he truly wants to get out there. But that's the guy right there. If I'm him, I don't answer the phone in August. Yeah, I wait. I wait. Yeah.

Not what I'm doing. I wait. I wait. I put my feet up. I stay in shape. And I wait.

Because he's going to get a call. Anyway, I digress. Coming up next, you love the Olympics. You love LeBron. You love Simone Biles. You love Steven Neterosic.

You loved so much of it. Noah Lyles. Sha'Carri Richardson. All of it.

I'm going to count down the five under the radar amazing moments you might have missed. But you need to know that is next coming up on The Rich Eisen Show here. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts, people. You love their jingle. You're going to love their friendly, helpful service even better because they're in the business of keeping your car on the road and the parts knowledge they have. It's all you need for your maintenance and repairs. They've got thousands of parts and accessories in stock, either in store or online.

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That's OReillyAuto.com slash E-I-S-E-N. O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. Let's talk about sleep number, people. We all know in the NFL there's no margin for error.

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Sleep Number is the official sleep and wellness partner of the National Football League. See store for details. When did you first know that you were part of something that was huge and becoming big? I'll give you one that I, this will seem an odd answer and I haven't said this. I haven't thought of this until you asked me this question. It's all incremental like, ooh, you know, you went out to eat in California on a vacation and because I did the Late Show. Well, what does this Swami want to drink, you know, in 1981?

Like, what? But that's more incremental. 1983, you will laugh, the America's Cup race that we lost off Newport, the seventh race, the wing keeled land down under, okay, sailboat racing, right? Right. But it was like a Tuesday afternoon, don't quote me on that. And one of the Providence stations had a helicopter that they were televising in Rhode Island and some sort of commentary. And we picked up the feed at two o'clock when it was on the big seventh race of Australia's United States. The sailboat race, two in the afternoon. I want to say a Tuesday with no, we didn't tell anybody. I think they arranged it at one forty five. You know, typical.

The rating we got or the amount of people that saw this who just, well, if it's on, it'll be there. But that's 1983. We only started in 79, Rich. So a sailboat race in the middle of a day. Yeah.

Of a week. And people were looking for us because if they don't have it, nobody will. Right. And so this isn't what, oh, now I know we're going to be big time.

But this is what I knew that people knew who we were, what we stood for and what potentially we could give them, even without any promotion. I hadn't thought about that one in a long time. I would not have. You dug it out of me. There we go.

I like it. Interviewer man. Let me cry on the show.

All right. The Rich Eisen show down the stretch we come. Do you know about game time at a Rich has told you about game time. Can I take a minute here to tell you about game time?

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Check it out. It's easy to use. Believe me, I used it over the weekend. You could use it here in L.A. I was in Seattle yesterday. You could use it in Seattle.

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Lowest price guaranteed. All right. We've kind of dabbled in the Olympics a little bit here. For those who don't know, I just hosted a show for three weeks basically on Peacock called Gold Zone. By the way, you crushed it, bro. Thank you, sir. Awesome. Gold Zone was so fun to watch. Much appreciated. Much appreciated.

I loved it. Honestly, I've always been an Olympics fan. I work Sochi and Rio. We did the same show, Gold Zone, but no one saw it because it was only on NBC Olympics dot com.

And back in 2014 and 16, to be quite frank, streaming was an annoyance, not a necessity. Oh, what are you doing? You're doing a show for Sochi? Yeah. Where can I see it?

Wait, I have to use my computer? Yeah. It didn't get a lot of pub. And to be quite frank, we had restrictions. We couldn't show the figure skating or the skiing or the big stuff or the gymnastics because that stuff you had to save for eight o'clock Eastern time, the prime time. This year when they called up and they said, hey, cause we didn't do it for the last couple of games.

Time Zone's not good at Asia. We want you back. We're going to do Gold Zone and we're going to do it big and right. We're going to do it live.

Everything is live. We're going to do Red Zone. We're going to do it as you know it and love it. And this is going to be big. I said, hell yeah, I'm back in. Absolutely. We're doing it. And I cannot say enough about the team that Molly Solomon and Gary Zankle and Becky Chapman and everybody, everybody put together there, Amy and Dusty and Sully and Arch and Josh and Jared and Sebastian.

There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people to thank because Red Zone is easy to be honest with you. I know that sounds crazy, but I could watch 10 football games at once. I did it for 18 years. It's like riding a bike. It's like, I'm not patting myself on the back, but Scott would tell you the same thing.

After a while, it's like a beautiful mind with Russell Crowe. The numbers are just floating off the chalkboard and like, it's, we got this. It's football. I know the names. I know the numbers.

I know the teams. Let's go. Yeah. There are times where you're anxious. You're trying to like, we got to get there before they snap the ball. There's that. But it's football.

It's riding a bike. This is 39 sports, 10,000 athletes. You think I know the intricacies of fencing, team saber, individual AP, you think I know how they're scoring judo? I still don't know. If you do, please tell me, somebody tell us. There's the velodrome. Do you know what the Madison is in the velodrome?

Of course you don't, right? Can you describe modern pentathlon? Uh-uh. So NBC's research staff, it's not like, Hey, the middle of the summer, we should get some notes together. They work on this year round all year. Like they didn't take a break after Tokyo.

You just keep working on the Olympics because the Olympics are there every two years and this is what they do. So I had a researcher, Dan Meyer. Scott had a researcher, Kirk Meyer, not related by the way. And those guys, Marvin Pittman at the control room, invaluable. They had to tell you about 39 sports and 10,000 athletes. They had to be in the control room saying, no, no, no, no. Don't go to that sailing event because that's a prelim.

That doesn't matter. Right. But we do have to go over there because there's going to be a repassage for Freddie Crittenden.

He's going to get a chance to run to try to like all these things where you're like, okay, let's spell this out. And we're trying to make sense of it. We're happy that you loved it. We loved bringing it to you. And I learned to love the Olympics again. I've always liked the Olympics. I've always enjoyed working the Olympics. But this year, honestly, I fell in love with the Olympics again. Not only because we were doing a fun show that people like, yes, that's part of it, but people like the show because the athletes were amazing and the performances were amazing. I always say on Sundays, we do a good show when we have good games. We did a good show for three weeks or two and a half weeks for gold zone because the games were amazing. Because Simone Biles is a force of nature because Noah Lyles is fantastic. Sha'Carri Richardson, Mano de Plantis, like all of these athletes and all of these stories were great. And you know what?

You loved it too. People say the Olympics are back. The Olympics are back because the athletes and Paris were so great.

And they're going to keep that momentum going into Milan in 26 and keep that momentum hopefully going into LA in 28. But I wanted to count down five moments that maybe you missed. Do we have it open? High five. One, two, three, four. Andrews. Top five. Yes.

Let's go. That is amazing. You make me look like I should be in the weightlifting competition, which I shouldn't. All right, Andrews, top five moments. Did you see Andy McDonald? Do you know Andy McDonald?

He's 51 years old. He's not like riding a horse in equestrian. He's riding a skateboard. Andy McDonald back in the 90s was a skateboarding legend, even at his own video game.

Like in the Tony Hawk era and Tony was there, Andy McDonald was a thing. He is a six time X Games gold medalist or champion. He won his first in 1996. He's 51. Team USA didn't want him, but he found out he knew his dad is from outside of London. So he got British citizenship and he showed up and skated with Tony Hawk in attendance as a 51 year old. Now, his score was like 77. There's Tony. He didn't make it to the final.

But what a fun story. Considering he has an 18 year old son who is older than every single medalist on the women's podium in skateboarding, their ages were 14, 16 and 16. The British skater won her second Olympic medal at 16. She won her first at 13.

And Andy McDonald was out there at 51 years old. Good for him. Do you know the story of Caleb Nemour, the French gymnast who won gold?

This one deserves its own movie. So there she is. One of the best gymnasts, if not the best in France. But she ticked off the French gymnastics folks because she didn't want to train at their facility. She wanted to train at home. Her dad helps train her. Well, they didn't like that. You got to come train with us.

So there was some animosity. And then she got injured. Needed multiple knee surgeries. The French gymnastics people thought maybe your dad is doing this. They're over trained to you.

You need to train with us. She said no. So she comes back from knee surgeries and again, she's the best that they have. Her doctors cleared her. The French doctor said, no, no, no, no, no. You're not cleared. We don't think you're ready.

You need to come train with us. She said to heck with you. My dad moved to this country when he was very young. He's from Algeria. I'm going to get an Algerian passport.

So she got one. He's going to go to Team Algeria, except this close to the games. The French team has to release her from their Olympic team. And they said, no, you can't go compete for Algeria. Are you kidding me? So her mother started this big campaign.

Let's get signatures, social media, put it on TV. And all the French fans said, let this poor girl go. So they let her out. Last second. She went to compete for Algeria and won the gold.

Unreal. To stick it to her native country or just win the gold for herself. Not trying to say it was mean-spirited. Big headlines all over the world. First ever medal for an African gymnast ever, ever.

The entire continent, except she's from France and has never really been to Africa. But, hey, it's fun. My number three under the radar story. Did you see Germany meet France in overtime and handball in the quarterfinals?

You probably did not. But it was Miracle at the Meadowlands, Minneapolis Miracle kind of stuff, right? It's over. They're celebrating. The crowd is going nuts. They're singing. They're chanting.

France has beaten Germany. Four seconds left. Just make one pass. Inbound the ball. They call a timeout. And then out of the timeout, they got the ball stolen and Germany scored no time on the clock. The game's over. They're going to go to overtime. And then Germany scored it. Ten seconds left to win in overtime.

Again, Herm Edwards, Pizarchik, Miracle at the Meadowlands kind of stuff. That was number three. Number two, Kristin Faulkner won the cycling road race, okay? Kristin Faulkner, you may not know her.

She's an American. She rode at Harvard, then went to work on Wall Street. No longer an athlete. One day a couple of years ago, working on Wall Street, being an Ivy League kid in New York, went to a cycling clinic in Central Park, went, oh, I kind of like this. Took up cycling and then won two gold medals five years later. The most stunning performance in the last 40 years of American cycling came from a former Harvard rower who just happened to show up at a cycling clinic in Central Park a couple of years ago. Amazing.

Unbelievable. And then finally, Teddy Renaire, the French judo legend. You might have seen him in the opening ceremony, one of the last guys to help light the cauldron. Big dude there in blue.

That's Teddy Renaire, legend in France, from Paris. Won a gold. He's retiring.

Swansong. Then in the final team event, they have something called the Dial of Destiny. They were tied. They needed to go to a fifth match and depict the two judoka for the fifth and final match. They spin a wheel right out of the Price is Right.

I'm not making this up. And then those two people pick your fighter have to come out and fight. And of course, they picked Teddy Renaire. There he is.

They're chanting, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy. And then he goes out and he won. And it was awesome. Those are my top five moments you might have missed. All those videos, by the way, available on NBC Olympics dot com.

So long. 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 towards? 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.