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NFL Sunday Ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. NFL Network insider Tom Felicero. ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes.
Plus, your phone calls, latest news and more. And now, sitting in for Ridge, it's Andrew Siciliano. Hey there, hi there, hello there. That is me! So funny already.
What's so funny? Sounded like Bob from that Saturday show. You did Chris Myers and then you're like, hi!
No, that was not the impression you thought it was. It is just something that I say like, hey everybody, it's the weekend. I mean, that's, again, way too inside. Welcome you inside to this show. We're happy that you are here.
You get me for another day. Rich back shortly. As mentioned, Tom will be here. Mina Kimes will be here. There may be other special guests with whom I am fighting on text to join the show coming up later as well. Either way, I know we're going to have fun for the next three hours. There's going to be plenty of football. Plenty of, yes, even Olympics stuff as well.
You won't believe what veteran Hall of Fame rapper claims he's going to compete in LA 28. Is that a professional tease? Hey man, I worked at ESPN Radio 15 years ago.
They pounded into your head. It doesn't matter what the content is, just tease well. I'm kind of joking. They cared about the teases.
Coming up next, coming up next, there is a fantasy football player that if you don't draft, you're guaranteed to lose the season. And that's how they do it. And they're good with it. Either way, you heard the polite laughter of one Chris Brockman. Good to have you here, sir. One Michael Del Tufo who is angry that the Rams just tweeted happy birthday to their mascot.
I'm not angry. I'm like, mascots have birthdays. Mascots have birthdays. Like, I mean, it had to come from somewhere. I mean, there are mascot birds and bees, I'm sure, right?
They have to come from somewhere. Oh, so I found out I just got with Tony Karimis through the first pitch out on his birthday for the Mets. Oh, that makes sense. See, the Mets were on a winning streak after Grimace did it. So I had no idea. I did not know that. We didn't know it was his birthday.
I didn't know it was Grimace's birthday. He just threw out the first pitch. That's why he was there at the Mets game? Apparently so. That's what Mike Hoskins just informed our season around, baby.
I did not know that. TJ, what's the name of the Cowboys mascot with the big hat? Is it Rowdy? Rowdy. Okay. Do you know Rowdy's birthday? It's not in your Google calendar.
No, it's not. I would say, I don't know. I have no idea what Rowdy's birthday is. That's a good question. What do you get the mascot that has everything?
That's what I'm saying. A sixth ring would be nice. You know, a sixth one at some point. How about a C.D. Lamb contract?
Can you get him that? To that, all I have to say is LOL. LOL. Why isn't that in blue? I couldn't find a blue marker when I wrote it. And we're off. Why do I, TJ?
Right here. Oh, you took it. I knew this one. Don't mind that. Let me get that. Are we doing a show? Let's do a show. Here we go. Here we go.
Last night, Hard Knocks episode two. Decent, Roma Dunze, Good Stuff, Jalen Johnson locks down Keenan Allen. The headline today, if you're a Bears fan, D.J. Moore is back at practice.
There was a scare briefly. Patrick Finley, all the Bears writers there, Adam Johns tweeting away that, Hey, D.J. Moore getting his right foot and ankle looked at. He's down on the field. He leaves practice. We can happily tell you, D.J. Moore is back. OK, nobody ripped their pants off yesterday in Bears, in Hard Knocks while singing in front of the group.
But it was still a good episode. Roma Dunze can sing. Roma Dunze can sing. Not like Kobe Turner, the best singer in the NFL, Rams second year defensive tackle with nine sacks a year ago. Justin Tucker would like a word. OK, Justin Tucker's good. But Kobe Turner plays like five instruments and he can sing. He's really good. He's something else.
And I am biased. Absolutely. Stop yelling at me. OK, hold on. This thing amplifies my voice.
Do you talk loud? We also realized yesterday that Simone Biles from Hard Knocks was compared to, as I think Jalen Johnson said, so she's like LeBron and Michael Jordan at the same time. I was like, yeah, that's that was pretty funny.
That's a great question. Like, how would you describe the greatest gymnast of all time? Simone Biles. That's how you would describe her. Yes, that's the easy way to describe her.
If you had to write it on your whiteboard. Yes, she is all of those people. She is all of those arena tiger and Michael and Tom Brady all rolled into one. Or how about Katie Ledecky? I mean, with the number of medals she has. Yeah, Michael.
Michael Phelps is quite simply the greatest Olympian to ever grace. What is it? Twenty eight. Twenty three. Well, twenty three golds. Twenty eight.
Twenty eight total. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, is that good? It's not bad. Yeah.
Doesn't stay bad. I mean, Tasha, reading the story of the great Canadian swimmer. Canadian swimmer? Canadian swimmer.
Was flying home and going through security, leaving de Gaulle. And she had four medals in her bag and they stopped her. They're like, oh, what's all this?
They pointed to the screen. And she goes, oh, those are my medals. And they said, how many? Just four. And the guy goes, ah, you're good.
I mean, yeah, you're too cool for us. Keep going. Keep going. Keep moving. Keep moving. You nice young lady.
All right. Let's get to the NFL headlines here, because we always try to make this an NFL show because it's Rich's show because, come on, you like football and so do we. So a day ago, we sat here and friend of the program, Ian Rappaport, had a story breaking during our show that basically Brandon Aiyuk is going to go to the Steelers.
It's happening. But he also said, and by the way, if you're watching now on the Roku channel or the Roku sports channel, there is a flashing construction light behind me. And it is just blinking and blinking and blinking and blinking. And I apologize for that.
It looks like a front end loader and they're either putting out some kind of equipment for some kind of outdoor event here or cleaning up. I'm not sure. Regardless. Where were we? Hey, wait.
8.50 to start. Brandon Aiyuk. Ian basically said the deal was done, but he couched it as sometimes insiders have to do by saying, well, the Niners also have on the table what they think is a very good deal for Brandon Aiyuk and he hasn't said yes or no.
So in other words, it's on you, Brandon Aiyuk. There is a deal in place. We've agreed to compensation and terms with the Steelers. We will send you there. But we really don't want to trade you.
So here is our latest and greatest offer to you to stay. Now lost in all of that is do the Steelers have a contract in place for Brandon Aiyuk? Do they have a deal done, which he would be happy to accept? And how does it compare to the Niners' deal?
Can I translate? This is how I view it. Brandon Aiyuk would like to stay with the Seahawks.
He would, I'm sorry, with the 49ers, the Seahawks tweet from Greg Bell just came up on my screen about Lakin Tomlinson. I mean, that's like, Andrew, look over here. It's like, like the dog where you're like shaking the ball in front of it.
And then that's what I do. He wants to get paid. He also, understandably, he also wants to stay in San Francisco. If the deal in Pittsburgh is better than the deal in San Francisco, he's now in the position of, well, do I go or not? Like do I go into a more uncertain situation where it might be Russell?
It might be Justin Fields, by the way, keep an eye on that. Or do I stay here, like where I don't have to box up all my belongings and I know the way to work. I already have my key card and I know my quarterback and I know we're going to be a good team. Even though Trent Williams is still not there, right? And even though there are other issues with the 49ers, wouldn't I rather still be here? And it sounds like Brandon, it's your move. Now Tom Pelissero joins us in about six, seven minutes. We'll get more insight from him, but it sure sounds like Brandon, just tell us what you want.
I know you want to get paid. This is probably the best offer we can do. Maybe it isn't. Here's what the Steelers can do for you. If you go there, it's Arthur Smith and it's probably, oh, I like Arthur Smith by the way, but is it a run first offense in which you're not going to get the downfield shots, you're not going to get those rhythm throws that you're used to, even if it is Russell, right?
And I think it could be at least, let's put it this way. Both quarterbacks are going to play this year for the Steelers. I've said this from the day the trade was made. It seems like that's fair. Russell likes to hold the ball a little bit, not always in rhythm, although he was far better last year with Sean Payton in that regard. Brock Purdy, that ball's coming out, right?
Here's how Kyle drew it up, that ball's coming out. You're going to get fed, but you want to get paid. It sounds like, Brandon, just make up what you want. Make up your mind. Could be wrong.
Pelosero sets us straight coming up in a little bit. A whole bunch of joint practices today. I mentioned the Seahawks. They are in Tennessee practicing for the first of two days with the Titans and then they play on Saturday. You also have joint practice, the Eagles and the Patriots. Jarod Mayo said something, the new head coach of the Patriots yesterday, which I don't believe. Let me just say that. It's about fighting, and fighting is clearly an issue with these joint practices.
Rams and Cowboys, they begin at 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 o'clock Pacific in LA today. They get a second day of joint practice, so keep an eye on that one. Here's what Jarod Mayo said yesterday about fighting and joint practices. Do you have a plan in place if there are fights?
Have you and Nick worked that out? Oh, absolutely. I mean, you don't fight in a real game, you fight in a real game, you get fined, you get kicked out.
It's the same thing here. And look, my message to the players, if you get in a fight out here, if you're a starter, you're going to play the whole preseason game. If you're not a starter, you won't play at all. So that's kind of my mindset with that. Jarod, I love you, but bologna, that, come on. I kind of like that attitude, though. I like the attitude, and I am all for him laying down the law to his team in that manner.
Yes, absolutely. And there were no fights yesterday in the Patriots-Eagles practice. There were no fights yesterday in the Patriots-Eagles practice, okay. But are you telling me if, who's your favorite Patriot, Josh Uche, give me a name. Matthew Judon.
Okay. If Matthew Judon's practicing, but let's take Matthew Judon. You're telling me that if Matthew Judon were to get in a fight yesterday, tomorrow, today, that this weekend he's playing 70 snaps, bologna, that ain't happening. That is not happening. I mean, it wouldn't be funny. Come on.
It wouldn't be funny to see him get like eight sacks against a four string tackle. Sure. That isn't happening.
Jarod, I love you, but you're lying. That is not going to happen. I saw a great tweet. I'm not going to take this for my own, but someone said Drake May should immediately start a fight so he can play the whole game and get some reps. That'd be great.
Give my man more than one series. That's pretty funny. That would be great. They're not going to play Drake May the entire game, no matter how many hands he does or doesn't throw.
What'd you say about my mama? And somebody else. It's just not going to happen.
Oh, that's amazing. A lot of coaches have a very simple rule with the joint practices. If you get in a fight, you're getting ejected like it would be in a regular season game or any game.
And then you can punish them however you want. But the idea that it is somehow related to playing time. Now, if you're a backup, if you're a guy trying to make the team and then you get in a fight, Jarod's saying that you're not playing in the preseason, that I get and that I stand behind, that, yeah, look, you're a guy at the bottom third of the roster trying to make the roster. And then you get in a fight, you mess things up in joint practice.
You're not playing this weekend. That I take him at his word. And that's a good idea. But the idea that a starter would have to play 65 snaps, come on, dude, that ain't happening. Yeah, guys, Robert Kraft, line one. No. No, Elliott Wolf, hey, hey, hey, we're on speaker phone. Yeah. It's the third quarter. Why are they still out there? Why?
Why are they still out there? Quick story about training camp fights. Many years ago, we are in Oxnard, I say we, the Rams and the Cowboys, I'm with the Rams or I'm just watching for NFL Network, whatever, we're there. Des Bryant was not practicing. He was injured.
He was still doing maybe some stuff with the trainers and whatever stuff before practice, but he was not practicing, but he was there in street clothes during day one of joint practice. These are the Jeff Fisher Rams, their first year here in LA. This team had Alec Ogletree and TJ McDonald and Aaron Donald. And I mean, they had some dudes on defense, right? They were a confident, Janoris Jenkins and Tremaine Johnson.
And I, they had some dudes. Des Bryant's talking the entire time. And when I say talking, Des is loud. I love Des, by the way, like I love the dude, but he talks, as you know, and he is talking bleep to the Rams, loudly and personally and forcefully. And the Rams were talking back except this dude's in street clothes and they're in uniforms with helmets on.
And to quote, Warren Sapp in the famous NFL films video, you act so tough, put a Jersey on, you act so tough, put a Jersey on, shout out, Mike Sherman, shout out to Mike Sherman. Anyway, moving forward, Des is not supposed to practice the next day, day two of joint practice. He's not supposed to practice. He's been told you are not practicing. Des Bryant walks out of the building in full uniform and Cowboys personnel were like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're not practicing. Back up.
He's like, no, no, I'm just, I'm in uniform. I'm just going to do my individual work. Okay. Yeah, right. So he's doing his, the, obviously it gets heated. Des throws himself into a drill and then all heck broke loose.
And when I say all heck broke loose, like nightly news, all heck broke loose, right? It turned into a melee. It looked like one of those, um, what are those, uh, like medieval fair things when guys are running at each other with fake, you know, jousting things and their masks and their arm. That's what it looked like. Braveheart reenactment.
Yes. That's what it looked like. I was like, whoa, I'm getting run over. All because Des decided to throw himself in a practice that he wasn't supposed to practice in after talking crap the entire day before where the ramp said, all right, you're also tough. Put a Jersey on.
You got to respect that. Let's go. And he did it. And it went right. Coming up next, the latest on Brandon Aiyuk as we know it, and if and when we're going to find anything out about JJ McCarthy and his Nate, Tom Hella, Sarah friend of the program, always well-dressed Tommy.
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Of course, that's game time takes the guesswork completely out of buying MLB tickets download the game time app create an account and use my code EISEN for $20 off your first purchase terms apply visit game time.co for restrictions again create an account redeem my code E I S E N for $20 off download game time today last-minute tickets lowest price guaranteed. It was 96 and it was the week before the Michigan Ohio State game, you know, I got to practice I wasn't feeling well. My back was a little tight and I told it the trainer, you know, my back is not feeling right. He was like, oh, you know what?
Don't worry about it. So, you know, we're in practice and he calls me over a couple of times coach car. Yeah. Yeah, you know, he was like, you know, you're not paying attention. He said, hey, if you're not going to pay attention, then you can just leave and I turned around or walked out the field walked into the locker room put my clothes back on and walk to the dorm and I was like, man, I'm transferring I'm out of here. You walked out on coach car and Michigan practice Ohio State week saying I'm leaving I'm gone going to coach cars office, you know, he asked me a question is how you think you justified yourself by walking off the field. I was like, yeah. I was like, I don't think you had to make an example out of me. He was like, you know what?
You're not playing this week. I walk back down to Vance Bedford's office told you just go down there and just apologize. You know what picks up the phone that I don't know what he's doing this Woodson. I told this boy to go down there and apologize and that's all he had to do here.
You talk to him. So I'm talking to my mom. She's like, what's the problem? Like, you know coat mom, you know, my coach wants me to go down there go down there and apologize. I'm like, I'm not apologizing.
She's like Charles. She said I understand I know I know you're mad and you're angry. She said if you're not going to apologize for yourself, then do it for me. Come on, man. So I said, okay, I get up I go down get it from mom.
I did it for mom, man. Apologize the coach. He said, well, you know what good Charles you're playing this week. Back of the Rich Eisen show. Hi, I'm Andrew Rich back shortly.
This is as you well know by now the Rich Eisen show desk it is furnished by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry Granger has the right product for you call or click ranger.com or just stop by. There are many interesting NFL contract situations still hanging out there. Trent Williams. People have forgotten is still not with the Niners. He would like a new deal Jamar chase, but not necessarily on the practice field. That is the low key under the radar one after Mike Brown said a few weeks ago, he doesn't see getting that deal done right now.
And then there is our daily update of branded iuke. I don't want to call it our great national nightmare or anything like that, but it seems like every time and I'm not going to go full Pacino here. You think you're out. They pull you back in during the show yesterday.
Our friend, our colleague, Ian Rappaport kind of sort of said the deal was done, but left himself some wiggle room understandably with this story you have to and then 24 hours later it is still not done. Tom Pelissero and Ian had fun with it yesterday on the insiders. You know, Tom, obviously from sitting in this chair quite frequently, Tom, what were you doing with Ian with the hands and it looked like he was making a pizza. He said, so they're here and they're there and we're not here.
Like what, what the heck was going on there? I think Ian is, you know, after doing the insiders for a couple of years here, I think he's beginning to explore the space, you know, to use the theater term, he's starting to play to this side of the room and to this side of the room. And then I don't know what was going on with this entire thing, but I immediately said on the air, we need to jiff that and our fantastic NFL network social media team had that jiff for me within mere minutes. In terms of the Brandon Aiyuk story, you know, Ian's tweet yesterday was really kind of summarizing where we've been for several days here. This goes back to last Friday when Mike Garavolo and I reported that the 49ers had re-engaged and they were trying to work out a long-term deal.
They had made an increased offer. Brandon Aiyuk at that point had not yet taken it. The Steelers were continuing to wait. Aiyuk then took to the Instagram comments because where else would this go to say, hey, there's only two options, stop dropping reports and make a decision, referring to the 49ers, not to me and Mike, but that's still where we are here. I mean, it certainly sounds like the 49ers are not far away from being able to get something done with Brandon Aiyuk. Mike said on the air yesterday, all things equal, Aiyuk wants to be in San Francisco and that makes a lot of sense. You're playing for Kyle Shanahan.
You're playing with Brock Purdy. It's a place that you know. He bought, I believe, a house there last year. He's got roots there.
He'd like to be a 49er. But it took months of these kind of on and off negotiations, sporadic trade talks to get us to this point. Well, the 49ers accomplished by reopening those trade talks a couple of weeks ago was really not just them figuring out where could they send Brandon Aiyuk, but also allowing Aiyuk to see what type of market did he have, not just in terms of the contract, but where he wanted to go. So you had New England. You had Cleveland.
Those teams were involved. It became clear Aiyuk would only want to go to Pittsburgh if he's not back in San Francisco. The problem with that is the Steelers are not going to give up a wide receiver as part of this deal, so that changes kind of the calculation for the 49ers. It's really hard to trade for somebody else's number one or number two wide receiver right now.
All focus for the 49ers it seems here for the past several days has been try to get this thing done with Aiyuk. And much like we've been Andrew for a week and a half now, could it happen before the end of this interview? Sure. Could it never happen?
Sure. We have to await because you've got several different parties here and the 49ers to a certain degree now, the ball is in their court, so to speak. And the compensation in return to me obviously is such a huge part of this because I think we all agree without Brandon Aiyuk, they're not a better team, right?
They're a better team with Brandon Aiyuk. And obviously having Amari Cooper linked in those Browns stories, that made sense because you're getting back a very good player, granted an older one, but a very good player. Are the Niners demanding a legit wide receiver back in return if they were to agree to some kind of deal?
Well that's what they were looking for a couple of weeks ago. And that's part of the reason that the Steelers were essentially out as of, let's call it, the start of last week. They were not going to get a deal done. But then again, Brandon Aiyuk, with the control he has, is any trade is going to have to involve a contract with the new team. So once it became apparent he was not going to sign a contract with the Patriots, not going to sign a contract with the Browns, then it became a single team that, from the 49ers' perspective, had the lowest offer in terms of the trade compensation. So that's where the 49ers, I can tell you, call it a lot of different teams. If you're a GM though, for any of those other teams, and you're going, all right, it's the second week of August, I'm going to trade you my number one or number two wide receiver right now and take that guy away from my coaches for maybe a draft pick in 2025 that doesn't help me right now.
It's a hard proposition. Now obviously that could evolve as we get into the season. You know, let's get a month in and kind of see what teams aren't any good, who might be available at that point. That happens every year, but in terms of getting somebody now, there's really nobody for them to go out and get.
And so that's where then the 49ers recalibrated here and said, okay, Brandon Aiyuk, we've always wanted him to be back here. Let's go beyond where we were willing to go before in terms of a contract extension. Nothing's done. Again, as of this second right now, Andrew, that could happen at any time. It doesn't sound like we're far apart here, but as we know, and to paraphrase Yoda, there is no close, there is only done. Do or do not. There is no try. Yeah, right.
I'm using that and spinning that. Yeah, I get it. I know you like Star Wars, so I figured I'd just like, take it, take it on that list.
That was very good, Tom. Found someone you have. As Brockman knows, I haven't really watched any of the Star Wars, but those first two movies. You have really grown old school. It's you and Dan Hanzus, the two guys that, you know, he's angry with it, though. He takes shots at people.
You just throw in the occasional Star Wars reference and go, I don't get it. Anyway, that said, also Tom Pelissero with the 49ers, there's Trent Williams who's not there. There's a Christian McCaffrey hamstring issue as well. So it's not as if this is the only thing hanging over their heads. There is a little bit going on there. Meantime, there's a lot going on in Dallas as well.
Obviously, they're still here in Oxnard getting ready to take the field with the Rams in about 90 minutes. Real quick, are we any closer? I know you're sick of this probably as a daily topic.
C.D. Lamb and Dak, is there anything imminent the more and more Jerry talks into an open microphone? There's still active conversations, negotiations going on on both fronts. I don't get the sense that anything is imminent on either end. There was some optimism, I think, over the weekend that maybe C.D. Lamb potentially could get done this week.
I don't know that that's going to happen. Structure has certainly been a part of the conversation. The Cowboys like to do long contract extensions, five, six, sometimes S. Tyron Smith, eight-year type deals here.
And C.D. Lamb's agent, Torrey Dandy, prefers to do short deals. He's the king of the three-year wide receiver contract.
So at some point, that has to come into focus here. They're going to have to figure out, could a four-year deal make sense? Would the Cowboys be willing to do that? And then in terms of the money, it's going to be how close to Justin Jefferson's $35 million a year does C.D.
Lamb get? I still believe that there's a fairly good chance that the Cowboys are going to work this thing out. They're going to get something done with C.D. Lamb prior to the start of the season. And that he's going to be out there in week one.
If they don't, you know, you really have to wonder, C.D. is already sitting out all this time. You can pay back the fines. You know, the team can waive the fines if you get something done coming off a rookie contract here. What they can't do is give you back dollar for dollar the game checks you'd be missing if you get into September. Now, obviously they could eventually pay more money and that all kind of evens out here.
But that's the looming question is what would happen if something does not get done with C.D.? In terms of Dak, you know, he's got an unbelievable level of leverage going into this because they had to use that second franchise tag back because they needed to buy time to get the paperwork through when he signed his extension back in 2021. Now he's set to hit unfettered free agency, which almost never happens with a franchise quarterback not named Kirk Cousins. And so, again, the Cowboys are making some level of an effort here. They are seeing if they can get something done with Dak.
But in terms of anything getting done, you know, really soon here, getting done today, I don't foresee that. Talking to Tom Pelosaro here as we get closer and closer to the preseason, Jayden Daniels sure looks like he's going to be the guy in Washington. It sure does not look like J.J. McCarthy is going to be on the field anytime soon.
We just don't know when he could possibly be back until they get in there and they look at the knee. And then there is the curious case of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tom. I don't think that's a Steelers hoodie you're wearing, although I can't see entirely.
I don't know why you would be wearing a Steelers hoodie. Look, it's not like Justin Fields, you know, lit it up last week, quite the opposite. But the more and more time he gets in camp, how much more likely is it that he could kind of, I don't want to say steal because he's an experienced starting quarterback, but kind of weasel his way in in a good way to that job? Well, let's see what happens with Russell Wilson over the next couple of weeks here because he popped that calf in the conditioning drill, pushing a sled on the first day that the Steelers are hoarded to La Trobe.
Can I cut you off there real quick? Like that always, sorry about it, like the way it happened is their frustration from his camp as to how he got injured because that's a new thing they were doing this year with that sled. Yeah, new strength coach, new drill, you know, maybe just not the smartest idea to have your 30 year old quarterback, I don't anticipate we'll see Russ doing that drill again if he's a Steeler in 2025. But it's also, you know, Russ is somebody who's always going to jump at any challenge and hey, you want me to push that sled? Just tell me how far, you know, he feels a little something. If we're up to Russ, he would have been out there the next day.
He felt like he could go. But the Steelers doctors who are traditionally conservative have been just kind of pumping the brakes, bringing him along slowly and that's where you've seen him integrate into things gradually over the course of time here. I know Mike Tomlin hasn't said who's going to start the second preseason game.
I know this, the Steelers organizational philosophy is giving people every opportunity and standing by your people, whether that is the Steelers extending Mike Tomlin's contract without a playoff win in the last six years or it's Mike Tomlin sticking by Mac Canada for as long as he did, sticking by, you know, certain players and coaches through the years. With Russell Wilson, when Mike Tomlin has been saying since the spring that Russ is in pole position, there's a level of respect that Mike Tomlin gives to veteran players in the locker room here, which has all made me believe that one way or another, the likely scenario here was that Russ at least gets to start the season and Tomlin will stick with him for as long as he humanly possibly can. The X factor in this is the fact that Russ wasn't healthy coming out of the gate. Let's see what he looks like if and when he's able to get preseason game action.
I'm not saying it won't happen, that Justin Fields can't overtake him. I also don't put everything that happened in that preseason opener on Justin Fields because you know, the poor her big kid at center who couldn't make an exchange to Justin Fields. It's hard to judge when that type of stuff is happening here, but for Justin Fields everything I've heard in camp is kind of what Fields has always been, which is that the highlights are awesome. He will make some crazy plays and there's other times you see certain things. It's like, oh yeah, that's kind of what we saw in Chicago where maybe the ball's not coming out quickly enough.
He's not seeing it soon enough. He's extending plays where really you could play within rhythm. I think that this offense, what Arthur Smith wants to do in terms of running the football, it's the deep play action, it's the shots down the field.
This plays to the strengths of both the quarterbacks that they have, but based upon Russ having that calf issue right out of the gate here, we really haven't seen it be a head to head style of competition. So let's see what happens over these next couple of weeks and in the preseason games. I saw what you did there, by the way.
Can I pull the curtain back? I'm going to assume something. Tell me if I'm wrong, because I do this all the time. You can't remember which her big it is. And so you said the her big kid is in Nick.
Right? I'm going to guess Nick. I don't know.
It's an eight. Nate's the center. Yeah.
Next, the linebacker. That's why I didn't say it. And then you just called me out on it. But it's a her big. I know there's more than one. So I just, I glossed over. I wasn't trying to make you look back and saying, I see what you did there by the way.
Right. You wouldn't be wearing a Steelers hoodie. You live in Minneapolis. For Pete's sake, you generally don't wear team gear for teams. I mean, I don't care. I'm sure we all get a lot of team gear, right? I generally would not wear team gear from like only team gear in my house belongs to either my kids or it's like packed in the stuff that my parents eventually dropped off like in those big plastic bins, you know, with childhood jersey. So it's probably like a Dwayne Rudd jersey or something in my garage. But no, nothing.
Nothing recent. I don't get so much Rams and Browns team gear from doing jobs for them, right? Or it's like you have all this team gear.
And so that I will wear. Sometimes you walk into a building and somebody says, hey, you want to share? I'm like, oh, sure. Then I give it to somebody like a fan of the team that, that is a, is a friend. I'm sorry for the name.
I had something with the Olympics last week as well. I couldn't remember. And I just said, oh yeah, the, the so-and-so and you can just make up any name though in that.
And no one's going to call you out on it. Just make up a name. Yeah. Well, the Georgian wrestlers and Judoka, those, those names, names from the Balkans, they just got me every single time.
Real quick. Hassan Reddick, anything? I mean, like that thing is just. It's a very, it's a very unique situation. And I think that it's fair to say that there were assumptions made on the both on both sides that didn't end up being true. So the Jets, you know, position on this has been Hassan Reddick needs to show up in order to have them look at his contract again, which is something they tried to do back before the draft. And he turned down, or, you know, back before the trade and that he turned down the offer that they were willing to make.
They didn't really re-engage quickly on that. And now, you know, here we are, he's, he's lost like $3 million or so in fines already. You get into the season, now you start losing game checks here, whatever, you know, set aside the idea of a long-term extension. Even if you're going to get a one-year bump, you've kind of mitigated some of that by the amount of fines you've already racked up and you're a veteran player, so, you know, those can't be waived.
There's still some questions about how the signing bonus is handled and things like that. But yeah, I mean, this is, this is something different. I don't get the sense that this is a distraction in the most common sense of the word for the Jets, just because most of the guys on the team have never met Hassan Reddick. You heard Aaron Rodgers saying about it yesterday, like, yeah, I think I played against him, but I really don't know him.
He really does. He's never gone through a walkthrough with the team. So, you know, to the extent that when it's a guy that everybody knows and a locker room leader, like you feel that absence, these guys don't know Hassan Reddick, you know, one way or another, I anticipate that they're going to figure something out, but it's a matter of, you know, is he really going to play this out into the season? He's already given up a lot of money and he'd be, you know, potentially throwing good money after bad, but it's right now just a bad situation for everybody involved and you know, until he comes in, I don't know how much progress is going to be made to get on the same page. He showed up and did the physical and did a presser and that was it and said, hey, everything's going to work out.
And then it hasn't. So yeah, Tom Pelissero, we thank you kindly, sir. Safe travels and good luck with all those flights. We've all been there and yeah, sorry for accusing you of wearing a Steelers hoodie.
I knew it wasn't. Take your nap on the floor of the San Francisco airport and raise you a nap on in the lobby of the Salt Lake City Airport. Andrew, we all had problems.
We all had problems. The Salt Lake City Airport is lovely and I mean, it is actually very nice. Yeah.
They've redone that other terminal. Yeah, it's great. You know, there's nowhere you want to have a 14 hour delay before the flight is canceled.
But if you're going to Salt Lake, not bad. Oh my Lord. Yeah.
Tom had to drive halfway across America and he survived. All right. Good times.
Talk to you soon. Thanks, Andrew. Kind of like Clark W. Griswold driving halfway across America, but solo and in a rental car and not in a Winnebago. He told that story, obviously, with the whole CrowdStrike thing. What he was alluding to, which I don't know if anyone knows, I did sleep on the floor of San Francisco International Airport that night when everything went down and then ended up, well, I got home eventually, but lucky for me, I had just, I was on my way home from a summit attempt on Mount Rainier, which didn't happen because at 11,000 feet, I got too warm the night before and the ladders all fell into a crevasse.
That's an issue. And on the way home, got stuck at SFO and flights canceled and, you know, all the hotels. And I'm like, wait a minute. I have my pack, like my big climbing pack on my bag on my back. I have a sleeping bag in here. So I took out the sleeping bag, just like pitched a tent, right. I didn't have a tent with me, did not have a tent, but I did have a zero degree sleeping bag. And so rolled it out on the floor between two terminals up against the window and, you know, put on the mask and got in bed, took me a little nap on the floor of SFO. You know, worried about somebody like... Totally was.
But it was, it was to describe the, yeah. Somebody was just worried about how they were going to get home. So I was in the same boat as the rest of you. I thankfully got home that night. I didn't have to sleep in an airport. I got home eventually by taking a surge insanity, a hundred and after tip $70 Uber from SFO to Oakland at three thirty in the morning after rebooking because Southwest wasn't necessarily affected because they're still running Windows 95 with a hamster and a wheel. And I rebooked a one way ticket on Southwest at six a.m. out of Oakland. It took forever to get that Uber, got across the bridge, got to Oakland, walked into the Oakland airport. It was a madhouse, massive humanity at security.
I would not have made it without clear. Got through, got on the six a.m. We went wheels up and I got home, but then somehow got my bags back at another time because I had to check a bag at SFO with, you know, ice ax and crampons and all that stuff. So what a mess. I was one of the lucky ones. Right. I just a couple hours on the floor of SFO. Fun times.
Anyway, I digress. Coming up next, Mark Andrews in a car crash today will give you an update. It's not as bad as it seems, but injury updates and other stuff from around the league.
As we continue here, meet at times coming up at about a half hour as well. Let's talk about sleep number, people. We all know in the NFL there's no margin for error.
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See store for details. Are you tired of losing your fantasy football league year after year? Lindsay Rhodes, Emmy winning sportscaster and football analyst, is your new secret weapon on the Believe Fantasy Football Show. Watch the quarterbacks and his ADP. I think he has massive high end upside. Get expert analysis on player rankings. Wide receiver, 22 in fantasy. Cecil Schwartz. That kid can run.
So I'm thinking he can have a breakout season this year. And you can too by searching the Believe Fantasy Football Show. That's BLEAV wherever you listen. I do believe it was the first time that we met. I'm going to bring this up. It was in the city of Houston. It was the first ever Super Bowl the NFL network had ever covered. But you and the entire Manning family strolled into the Gatorade suite. And who did you hear singing karaoke in the Gatorade suite that night?
It was a beautiful voice. Would you say like in terms of like an angel bringing us in there walking and we see see Rich Eisen karaoke dominating to basically, by the way, nobody else in the room. Just solo.
You get a little practice. There was me and my buddy. There was nobody else. What song? That's a good question. Sinatra. Sinatra. I forget which one it was. Okay. Did you have to ask? Yeah.
Seriously. It was me and my buddy. I remember. We walked in and yeah, we joined.
But we joined right then. You did sing, right? You guys all did get on the mic. We got up there.
You know, we can't turn that down. No, I know. It was honestly me. It was obviously like pre cell phone, pre cell phone, but pre like no one had a camera. You don't worry about anybody filming.
There's no video. You get up and sing. You saw karaoke.
You sing. You don't think twice. It was just a moment. Yeah.
That's it. You didn't have to memorialize it. It was me, my buddy, Doug. And then it was, I think your entire family, your mom and your dad, you and you and Peyton and Copper.
Copper. Yeah, exactly. Uh, and um, what do you have a go to karaoke song at all? It's changed over the years. Obviously. Yeah. You kind of go with the time.
So, you know, Footloose has always been one, you know, just cause you can kind of dance with it. But now, you know, it's, it's tough to do karaoke now. You're just kind of worried. You know, people are filming all the time and they judge and you know, I get judged enough. I don't need to be judged.
On my singing ability. That's, you know, that's, that's fun. Everybody's made it too serious. Hey everybody, hey everybody, we're back.
We're back on the Rich Eisen show. 13 before the hour. As we do the old news radio thing, Chris Brockman, Mike Del Tufo, TJ Jefferson. My name is Andrew Siciliato. Traffic guy. I used to do sports at 15 and 45. Yeah.
The old news radio 670WMAQ. The statement I told you before, an auto accident. I was not trying to make it sound dramatic. I told you he is okay. The Ravens released a statement that Mark Andrews, their all world, maybe even future hall of fame tight end, was in a car accident while driving to work Wednesday. He was evaluated by the Ravens medical staff. He is okay and he's back in the building and back in meetings. This the Ravens say was going to be a veteran rest day anyway for him. He is going to come back to practice in the coming days. Mark Andrews with a statement there thanking everyone for their well wishes and everyone's help.
But scary there. Yeah. Mark Andrews in a car accident this morning. DJ Moore, seemingly okay, left Bears practice, came back to Bears practice.
So that is good news. They were looking at his right foot and his ankle. So Juwan Taylor was carted off today, the Chiefs offensive tackle in St. Joseph. That sounds scary. They say it is a shoulder injury, but early indications are not the end of the world.
Not that bad. So listen, we're in that part in training camp where honestly, and this goes for the preseason as well. And this is why when you hear the commissioner talk, whether it be in Sun Valley or in Vegas at the Super Bowl, he talks about extending the regular season, which is a whole other can of worms.
But he also talks about cutting back the preseason because the preseason games, and I'm doing Rams Chargers this week, we're going to have a lot of fun. You're not always seeing the big names. You're not always seeing the big crowds and you're not always seeing the best play. I think they're fun. I think the storylines are fun.
Looking at the rookies, I get into it. And I think football geeks, football fans, fantasy, like we get into it, but I mean, they're not the greatest three hours of entertainment, obviously. I also think they serve a great purpose for fans that maybe can't get there during the regular season. Maybe the tickets are too expensive or they don't have access because they're sold out. Like they could take their kids and have that experience in the preseason. That's cool. Like I always try to give my tickets to friends and family to bring their kids in the preseason because those are cool experiences.
Anyway, I digress. We're to the part of the preseason where it's like, let's just get through this healthy. Let's just get through this healthy. JJ McCarthy, knee injury, not good. Don't know how long he is going to be out.
You just hope you can get through these healthy. And it looks as if the chiefs have avoided a big scare with Juwan Taylor on the shoulder. Whole bunch of joint practices today. And as mentioned, the Rams and the Cowboys are doing one in Oxnard here in Southern California. I surmised yesterday that a big part of why the Rams had canceled their previously scheduled joint practice today with the Chargers and instead switched to the Rams was traffic related. Spoke to Sean McVay yesterday.
That is absolutely the case. It is not a McVay doesn't want to practice with Harbaugh again thing at all. For those who know LA traffic or LA geography, when the Rams were at LMU and the Chargers have their new building in El Segundo, I mean, they're just other sides of LAX. They're 10, 15 minutes away. They're 20 away on a bad day. If you get stuck in the tunnel under the 105, that's it, under the runway.
That's it. The Rams, because their new building isn't available, which is in Woodland Hills, it's not ready yet. They are back at their old building, which they thought they were moving out of all the way up in Thousand Oaks. The Cowboys are in Oxnard, you know, not that far on the 101, the idea of the Rams sitting in traffic. And Sean said it just like this, going over the Hill and buses having to get all the way to El Segundo and then turning around after the practice, it ruins your whole day. It's far.
Didn't want to do that. The Cowboys are so much closer and so much easier. I left here yesterday and went to Thousand Oaks to see Rams practice. It took me going back to the South Bay from Thousand Oaks to the South Bay an hour 50 yesterday coming home, leaving at five o'clock. Not great, Bob.
Okay. Not great. We hit Malibu Canyon and then went through Malibu and then cut around through Venice and the West Side and like, what a bleeping mess. So Sean McVeigh, in an episode of the Californians, does not want his team to have to go through that today.
And that is the only reason they are not practicing today with the Chargers of Los Angeles against whom they play Saturday at SoFi Stadium. But I digress. You guys wonder why I stay in the house all the time.
I know, right? TJ, I think you're onto something. Who wants to put up with that? But TJ, the difference is we're talking about like one-off situations where you're like, yeah, I don't want to go see game seven of the NBA Finals. It's too far.
I would never have said that, Andrew. The Cowboys are here. I went. I was there on Sunday. Okay, you did go. Yeah. Okay, good. I didn't know that.
Why don't you come say hi? Honestly, I didn't even think about it until like the third quarter. And I thought, my man was in the fancy Del Tufo seats.
Yeah, you know, I wasn't trying to move from those. I was right in front of the cheerleaders. It was great. Wait a minute. Hold on. Say that again. Say that again. Look at your voice. Oh, look at this. You brought the phone.
How dare you sit in my seats with that thing on. For those watching on the TV here on Roku or streaming, however you're watching. So here is a very well set up shot. This is our there's an artistic vision behind this shot. Your boy Jefferson wrapped in cowboy flag. Oh, my God. He was able to get it through security.
They had to sneak it down my pants. All right. I got to send the picture of me and K wrapped in a flag with the scoreboard in the back right now. You took that before the Cowboys lost. So it doesn't say 1312 on the screen. Yeah, I think we took that as we were walking in. Okay.
So the game hadn't even started. Can you can we put thank you talk to me about your artistic vision and how you set up this shot? And obviously you're doing the pose for the IG here. What are you staring at?
And are you deep in thought here? I got to be honest. You know, this is all my my dog, Dylan. Dylan Kenan, actor here in L.A., been one of my best friends for the last.
Actually, Dylan was the first person I became friends with when I moved L.A. So you've been kicking it for a while. And that was actually his vision. I was just standing there kind of looking around and he was like, hold it. You're not you're not looking around. You were purposely looking off cam for the shots, looking around, and then he goes, hey, turn around.
Okay. And then he started taking pictures. So I was like in that position and I just happened to turn and I was just staring. Does anyone just look at the camera and smile anymore? Why did you do that?
Why? Like with with Instagram and social media, everyone has to be staring into the distance. And I know that there are pictures that I have as well staring into the distance as you probably go to scour my place to put them up to embarrass me. And contemplating our game plan, Andrew, that's what I was thinking about.
Okay. Meena Kimes was also at that game. We took a photo just staring into the camera, smiling, see, but you didn't have the slide next.
And we're still on Roku. That picture's dope. I'm just saying it's a really good picture is cool. It is a very good picture, T.J. I am quite guilty of while hiking or going, you like to hike out and about, do you like to use that line of taking pictures of me staring into crevasses or Grand Canyons or things like that? I am guilty of that as well. I am trying to get back to these. Just look at the camera and smile. I'm happy to be here.
Photo here is my experience with the Rams game. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Love it. What was what did he say about the chain in Pukka? Again, we walked into the team store right when we walked in and he goes, I want that chain in New Jersey. He was like, because they had they had Stafford and Cooper Cup and Pukka, and he's like, Pukka.
I got him a Pukka, Pukka, nicest human ever. As I said, the whole thing with the change these days. I get it. The kids love it. It's so heavy. It's so heavy.
I came home last year right after the holidays. And my nine year old nephew love, you know, big baseball player, but loves his NFL and loves, loves that as well, wants to play both. He had on like a necklace, not a chain like that, but like a little, little gold necklace, which is not really something that like people in my family do. Right. And I'm like, oh, nice.
And looked at my brother kind of and he goes, Ronald Acuna. Yep. Oh, yep.
No. Yeah. Wearing a chain.
One of his favorite baseball players. Same with Cage. Once the chain. Yep.
Once the change. Cage wanted a gold medal from the Olympics. Yes, absolutely.
That's some put some great music behind that picture. 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.
