Kirk Cousins: Always Room For Another Good Quarterback

This is The Rich Eisen Show. You are getting the best possible information. The Rich Eisen Show. Wow.

From The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. If you woke up every morning and I told you, you suck. And then you have somebody else come in and tell you who are the best fit for this.

How would it make you feel? You heard from Tua exactly what McDaniel means to him. Earlier on the show, host of Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio. Coming up, Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Plus your phone calls, latest news and more. And now it's Rich Eisen. Our number three of The Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Kirk Cousins about to sit down. And so let's get this out of the way before Kirk is sitting down. I could see on our screen, the Falcons. Zoom window is up. So I just went on on on on on the old X machine during the break here. I haven't seen the sound bite yet, but McAfee tweeted it out. Schefter saying I kicked Rich Eisen's ass. I mean, it's not a way.

Oh, and 40 and fanatics. What? Why not now? Now he barely beat you and you extended your chest.

He might not know. But he said that he but I also kicked my own. I wanted to dethrone him and I feel like I did. Oh, there's a rematch.

We see a rematch. And he beat you by like a half. This is you pulled up. I'm saying you pulled up at the end. I'm wearing lace up dress boat shoes, dude. You really think I'm going to go all out so I can leave the Fanatics Fest in a freaking wheelchair again?

I'm trying to help your cause here. But, you know, my my foot up because I'm now I'm now I'm on a rascal for the next three months. Make a great story, though. I should make, you know, Achilles references with with with Kirk Cousins about to sit down. But again, you don't want that.

He kicked my ass. Would you? I mean, no.

Would you? You were there when he challenged me. Yeah, I was there. I didn't have a great angle. The finish line. I was there at the start. He was pretty close.

I wouldn't say it was an ass kicking. Thank you. Yeah. Rich.

It's a photo finish, basically. Definitely. No, no. He definitely beat me. I knew where we crossed. I'm like, oh, God.

Now I'm gonna hear that chapter's faster than me. Two steps, maybe. But how am I supposed to take this sort of thing?

Not well. Well, I'm taking it sitting down. Not going to lie.

I like the Michigan on Michigan crime. Yeah, I mean, it's fun. It's all in good fun. And I'm sure he's having fun. I haven't I haven't seen him apart. I don't sense that you're taking this as good fun. I mean, well, I mean, it's tough to see on, you know, the the Twitter account of the three million subscribers of one of the more popular people on planet Earth, I mean, tweeting, I kicked Rich Eisen's ass. Well, they added me to so I could see it even as well. I wanted to dethrone him and I felt like I did.

There's a rematch. Really? This is wrong. Yeah. See, Chris, this is what Rich needed, right?

Which is what do I need? Well, did you have anybody like standing up trying to take that crown from you? I'm just saying, man. Like, what do you mean?

What am I talking about? I mean, train, train. But even if I did train for the 40, this would be my off season. You should never have an off season guy. Season never sleeps. Yeah. Season never ends.

Famous NFL Network in the middle of August. I'm at Fanatics Fest. By the way, you were there. I thank goodness you were there, because otherwise you'd be playing this up even more. OK, I was there. But you were there. You saw when I went over there. Yeah.

I had no idea what they were asking of me or what was going on. OK. And when I went over there, Michael Rubin was with an influencer. They were running a 40. He started at the 20. Remember that?

You saw that? They were having fun. They asked me to run.

I'm like, I'll run too. Why not? I was more into Alex Earl dressed as Braxton Berry. Correct. You were focused on that. I was focused on that. Your attention was elsewhere.

Yes. His attention was diverted. My sister didn't know who Adam Schefter was. That was pretty funny. Oh, but we don't need to go there.

She's like, what is he known for? So bottom line is, though, I step up there. He goes, why don't we just why don't we both run it? Were you there when he suggested that to me? Or you were not there?

I don't know if I heard that, but then I saw it. I'm like, this is a bad idea. And I thought to myself, this is a bad idea. Not good for either guy.

I wasn't planning on running it at all, let alone multiple times. Again, Adam was wearing, like, athletic joggers. Yeah.

And, you know, he was wearing Air Force One's actual athletic shoes. Which Sebastian Maniscalco would have a problem with. Right.

Because he's over 50. Right. Yeah. And so but the video does not show an ass kicking.

It does not. It shows you letting up at the end. And then Adam face plants. And then he showed us he skinned both his knees. Yes, he did. He did show us that later.

Well, I hurt myself. I know. So he's having fun with it. OK. And I know he's having fun at my expense. But to go on McAfee's show and call it an ass kicking. That's tough.

I mean, that's rich. Yeah. He's aggressive. Even the lower third on Pat, Shefty Questionable with Injured Knees. Well, he's only injured his knees because he's the Schmoe face planted into the... Why do they even have those things there? Exactly what happened there.

It's hurt full speed that, you know, you don't want to, you know. Oh, I mean that. Can we see the shoes? My shoes on there. They were. They're not running shoes. I have them. You even like wondered what I was doing.

I was like, what are you doing? These are not for athletic. Are those like the brown with the white? Like what?

Flat. The boat shoes. I have them. They are. They were running those.

They were blue, the white by a very, very thin rubber bottom. And they're also it's for style. Because I was showing up to Fanatics Fest looking good. And Adam had regular sneakers on. That's so unfair. He did. And he barely beat me. And now he's going on McAfee Show and calling it an ass kick. I got to watch this video now. You should have been like Matt Collins of the Bills and went barefoot and ran it like that.

Or just gave him like an elbow while you were running. Now, here's the two things. How do I handle it? Okay. Do I handle it straight up with Adam offline? Oh no. Or do I invite him on this show?

Or do I demand equal time from Pat? There. Now we're talking. Okay. Yes. All right. Now we're done. Now that that's all buttoned up, let's class it up. Oh.

Yep. Because joining us right now on The Rich Eisen Show is Kirk Cousins of the Atlanta Falcons. How you been, Kirk? Good to see you.

I'm doing well, Rich. Good to see you. It's been a minute. I think the last time I saw you might have been backstage at NFL Honors or something like that. Maybe.

Could have been. We usually run into each other during Super Bowl week every year. So that's always fun to connect. Kind of rehash the Michigan-Michigan State season, kind of check in. But you don't want to do that now, do you, Kirk?

No. That rehashing hasn't been in my favor as of late. When they hired Coach Harbaugh, I thought the neighborhood just got a little tougher. But when Coach Harbaugh left, I think there's a glimmer of hope.

So we'll see how it plays out. I mean, how much are you in contact with the program in East Lansing, Kirk? You know, obviously a lot of change. When Coach D'Antonio was still there, when a lot of his people were still there, it was a little easier to stay in touch.

But now with the new regime, a little harder. But a lot of respect for Jonathan Smith for what he did at Oregon State. I think he knows football.

I've played with some guys in the NFL who played for him in college at UW and at Oregon State, and they speak really highly of him. So I think the Spartans got the right guy. But as you know, the Big Ten, Big Ten's only getting tougher. So it's not the Big Ten that you and I grew up in.

Sir, I am sitting in Big Ten country in Los Angeles. So you can... Exactly. You know what I'm saying? I mean, goodness gracious have things completely changed. And I guess before you do hit the here and now, just way back, I've never really spoken to you about this, because I'll never forget when I'm on the NFL Network draft set in Radio City Music Hall and RG3 had already been drafted by Washington, and then your name gets called in the fourth round. And I just looked around, I'm like, what just happened? And I'm wondering, were you surprised when you got drafted by Washington when you did back in the day, Kirk?

Yes, I think what just happened was the line that was going on in my family room as well. Well, I tell people that of 32 teams that were picking that day, I would have told you Washington was the 32nd most likely to take me. It was a head scratcher.

That moment where you would normally be celebrating with everybody in your family room, it was the opposite. It was just kind of a low energy surprise. I guess I'm going to Washington.

Feels like a dead end kind of a thing. So obviously, it all worked out. It took a little longer than I would have wanted to have it all kind of work out. But certainly, this NFL career has been an interesting journey, and it started with going to Washington.

Yeah, no doubt. I mean, you're entering year 13 now after six years in Washington and six in Minnesota. And the six years in Washington, you had to really earn everything that you got as well, opportunities and then contractually as well. So I guess just looking back then and informing you now, how were you able to make the most of what you got, not knowing when you were going to get it, Kirk?

Well, it was a major blessing to go to Washington. I did not know it at the time. I don't think too many people in the league knew it at the time. But to go into a building with Mike Shanahan as the head coach, Kyle Shanahan as the play caller, Sean McVays down the hall as the tight end coach, Matt Lafleur as my day-to-day contact as the quarterback coach, Mike McDaniels the low-level assistant basically helping out. I remember Rahim was the DB coach, but those guys, the guys I all named, when meetings would end in the spring and there was kind of some open time in the afternoons, everybody would kind of make their way to the quarterback room. And I knew if I just kind of hung around in the quarterback room, there would be some unbelievable football discussions going on from a bunch of young guys who weren't much older than me. And I guess I assume that's how every NFL meeting room was, but I learned that that was the exception, not the norm. So to be indoctrinated into pro football in that environment, it paid dividends immediately in my development as a young player, which is such a big part of having a successful career as do you get off to the right start. But then to this day, I mean, my head coach today is it was one of those guys.

So, you know, it was a major blessing to end up there, even though in my limited perspective, I thought it was a dead end. So McDaniel was getting you coffee? Is that what he was doing back in the day?

He wasn't getting me coffee, but I'm confident he was getting somebody coffee. And his office was pretty much like a closet. And, you know, and he worked his way up in my years there. He ended up being receiver coach. But there's no doubt that, you know, he was printing stuff and and going to the copy machines and, you know, getting call sheets made for for Kyle and, you know, the basic quality control stuff. But he also knew football really well. We would have some really good discussions off to the side, you know, during practice.

So just so grateful I got to cross. And I told Mike that when I saw him, you know, we practice against the Dolphins last week and post game after our preseason game, went out and shook his hand and just told him, you know, how much I appreciated his impact on my career and how much I, you know, respect him and I'm not surprised of his success as a coach. Yeah, I mean, and again, I don't know if you saw what Tua is saying, and I know this is not your table, but Tua talking about the power of a coach believing in you, you know, and saying that. And that's been a big topic of discussion in our media world over the last 24 hours. And I'm wondering, could you give voice to that?

And who those guys are? Please go for it. I absolutely can. You know, it never really was in the culture at some of the places I've been to, like, you know, really praise you or tell you where you stand. But when I got to Washington, I remember I got motioned into the head coach's office by the assistant to the head coach, and I thought, oh, no, I'm in trouble. And this was after, you know, seven or eight weeks of the spring practices. And Mike Shanahan said, just sit down, Kirk.

And I thought, oh, you know, here, I can't even go to the summer break without getting in trouble. And he said, Kirk, I just want to let you know that what you've done this spring has been really impressive. I think you're doing a great job with your reads, your progressions, your throws, really proud of you. Everything we thought we were getting when we drafted you, we believe we're getting. Just wanted to let you know that and give you that feedback, that we're really excited and we think you have a high ceiling and da da da. And he said, you're good to go. And I thought it was like a prank or something because I was just not used to that in my football upbringing. But I quickly learned that that staff, that culture was to give you that feedback. And that still permeates to this day with Rahim. He's a cheerful coach.

She enjoys coming to work and it reflects in the way he treats people and talks to people. And so I can agree with the two has said, I remember Mike McDaniel gave me a book when I went home for that summer break. He said, go read the book.

Talent is overrated. And again, hadn't had coaches who recommended books for me to read in my coming up. But Mike recommended that book. I read it, learned about what it means to have deliberate practice from that book. And to this day, you know, when I practice against dolphins, I said, hey, hey, Mike, thanks for recommending that book. You know, deliberate practice kind of changed my life and changed the course of my career. And and Mike said, yeah, when I recommended you read the book, I didn't realize you're going to take it to heart that much and live it out for the next decade. So those coaches continue to have a huge impact on my career. Oh, I thought you were going to say an actual current dolphin would turn around, go, wait a minute, he told me to get that book just last week because I'd imagine he could do that.

I'm sure he's still recommending it. You know, I love that. Kirk Cousins here on the Rich Eisen Show. How are you feeling going into the season?

Yeah. What's your feeling good? I think I turned a corner fully with the Achilles over the summer where I could really get back to my old self. And, you know, it's been a good camp.

I think it was really helpful during OTAs to still be able to go through the practice reps, even though I wasn't yet 100 percent and was able to kind of still get to work in and get to know my teammates on the field. So, you know, I'll keep feeling better as we go, but but I feel really good. And, you know, just kind of buying our time now here until week one. Yeah. So the plan is or you're definitely going to start week one.

We see you out there against Pittsburgh, Kirk. Yep. Yep.

Yeah. When I when I injured it, they told me it was a nine month deal, which would have taken me to August 1st. So even from the moment I went into surgery, I was expecting August 1st to kind of be the the clear date and with no setback.

You know, I always thought that was going to continue to be the case. And it really was. And and they told me that really it takes until about 12 months to, I guess, fully, fully be done. But but after nine months, you're pretty much ready to go. OK. Did you connect with Rogers in any way, shape or form to compare notes, talk about stuff? Yeah, we spoke the day before my surgery. We spoke over the phone. You know, he was about eight weeks in. And so I was basically able to ask him, you know, what are the first eight weeks been like?

What do you recommend from a modality standpoint? What should I be doing with my time? How should I be spending my time? Very helpful conversation. And then he checked back in in December right about when he was trying to hit the practice field again.

He checked back in just to see how I was doing. And and so we've been able to connect a little bit. And, you know, there's a lot of guys there because we got two or three on our team here with the Falcons.

I think three guys who have torn their Achilles and have come back and had great careers. So, you know, that gave me hope knowing how many guys have done it and have gone on to good things. So then obviously a new spot for your Kirk and new system, would you say?

Or is it similar to like what is your adjustment level here? Yeah, I think it's similar to when Kevin came to Minnesota from L.A. You know, my initial thought was, oh, I was with Sean McVeigh. Kevin's been with Sean McVeigh.

So, you know, we should be speaking the same language when he arrives. Little did I know how much changes over the years when I wasn't with Sean because Sean such a great football mind. It was constantly evolving. And so with Kevin, I felt like I was kind of starting over learning a lot of new good stuff, but stuff I hadn't done with Sean from five or six years earlier. And I think some of that, too, now with Zach, you know, it was a similar system. Kevin and Zach were together when they won the Super Bowl after the 21 season. But in just those two years, you know, Kevin had unique ideas in Minnesota and with the Rams, Zach and Sean had unique ideas and they kind of went their separate ways. And so now we're kind of reconvening after two years saying, hey, here's what I did in Minnesota. Here's what you did in L.A., you know, and how can we I wouldn't say meet in the middle, but how can we kind of combine the best of the two to do what we want to do this fall? And obviously, you know, you choosing the Falcons and you landing there and you being there and, you know, we all saw what happened on draft night with them choosing a guy who they're already considering as your successor right now, depending on timing and things of that nature. What is Rahim Morris told you about Michael Pennix's role and yours within it?

Kirk? Yeah, I think he I think his message to me was, hey, we would like to think that we're not going to be picking very high in the years to come. You know, hopefully we can have the kind of seasons we all want to have where we're not going to have the chance to pick high and get a quarterback down the road. So we kind of need to get ahead of it now. But, you know, the message to me was just, you know, nothing changes for you.

Just just go to work and do your job. And honestly, Richard reminds me of when I went to Washington and I thought one thing about what would happen there and then it ended up being very different. And so I learned a long time ago not to presume something to just understand that this league, you know, every year is is is a long year and anything can happen and just go out each day and work as hard as you can. I remember, too, when I was a freshman at Michigan State and Nick Foles and I came in the same class and I kind of felt like it was maybe a dead end for me because of of Nick Foles and the high school career he had had for us to be there together at Michigan State. But it all worked out.

We both end up having good college careers. You know, Nick's become a Super Bowl MVP. So, you know, I think I think there's always room for a good quarterback.

And and I think that's true for both me and Mike. So are you saying in that analogy, like you're in the role of, if you will, RG3, where the franchise expends a lot of capital to bring you in and then then somebody else is brought in and Pennax is in the role of Kirk Cousins in that analogy? I don't know if if if Pennax was drafted one hundred and second overall on the third day of the draft, maybe we'll hear some similarities. I'm not talking about actual draft order. You know what I mean?

I'm just yeah, I think I think going to go into the top tens a little different. But but yeah, we you know, I think we both know that this NFL career is a marathon, not a sprint. You know, Mike's been through a lot, you know, through his six years at Indiana, then at UW. He's been through injuries. He's had to fight through a lot. So, you know, my story, his story, we both know that this journey takes a lot and it goes every which way. And you just take it one day at a time and keep putting good things on tape, you know, playing well when you get the chance and believe that if you do that, you know, good things are in store and we can win a lot of games and we can both, you know, have great careers.

Couple things left for you here, Kirk. You've been around a lot of talented players. Give me give me a glimpse of Bijan Robinson.

There's so much buzz about him and, you know, good human, great human as well. But what do you what do you see from him that that might lead to thinking this is a breakout, this is a star, this is this is an offensive juggernaut that you can quarterback, Kirk? Well, I think that, you know, his movement skills are there. That's that's undoubtedly, you know, undoubtedly true that when you watch him run, get in the football, you just say, oh, you know, I've been around Dalvin Cook, who is elite as a cutter and had great movement skills. I think Bijan's, you know, in that class, you know, his ability to catch the football and run routes is something you don't often see from a running back. And then you mentioned that just the caliber of person, the quality person, the smile he has on his face, the positive attitude he carries, you just feel like that's going to serve him really well over the course of his career. So the challenge right now is because we're not taking people to the ground.

Practices aren't live. What you don't get to see is the ability to really make people miss and break tackles and turn a, you know, a two yard run into a 12 yard run or a one yard loss into a seven yard run. And I think that's an ability that he's shown on tape that I haven't gotten to see until it's live football. So I'll be excited like everyone else. And that's true of not just not just Bijan, but several guys in our team.

I can't wait week one to kind of see their ability when it's the real thing. And if I'm not mistaken, a belated birthday wish is in order, right? It was yesterday, correct? Yeah, 36 yesterday.

The big three six. Is it true that you were allowed to, I guess, work the music for the team yesterday in honor of I'm glad you brought this up. So so back when there's the playlist. So back when I signed, they sent a message out on the team app that said, if you want to suggest songs for practice, you know, send them here. So I went back to the, you know, the drawing board and I submitted back in April, like, you know, 100 plus songs probably. And I just, you know, was hoping to kind of balance out, you know, the other genres that we're going to get. So I was just kind of trying to create some variety.

And then usually the music played at practice would be my first choice, you know, most of the time. And I always kind of asked for, you know, sprinkling in some of my selections. And yesterday it was just one after another. I kept saying, man, I used to listen to this song in seventh grade or I listen to this in eighth grade or I like this song. You know, we got like four in a row.

That's like four more than we ever get. And so the end of practice, I went over to our DJ who is a coach's assistant, Madison. I say, Madison, I got to give you an attaboy. That was quite the playlist today. She said, well, it was your birthday. I had to play all your songs. And so somehow it got out that that was my curated playlist. And I say, well, you know, if I actually was going to curate a practice playlist, it'd probably be a little different. But we're in the general ballpark. So I said next year, next year I'm actually going to curate the practice playlist and every single song is going to be well thought out and handpicked by me.

But I got 364 days to figure that out. You sure do. One of the members of our team, RJ Herrera, who's our jack of all trades at the Rich Eisen Show, he has a theory that a lot of your songs on your playlist are guitar hero or band hero or maybe Madden songs and that this is sort of an insight to you being a gamer back in the day.

There's no doubt. There's no doubt that a lot of those songs I do think showed up on Madden around 2004. But for some reason, I kind of gravitated towards pulling songs from like my high school middle school years. And so most of those songs were songs that were played like when I was middle school, maybe even like the high school weight room, like the songs that got played. So but the sad reality is that most of my teammates have heard and know none of those songs because there's like a 12 year age gap and they were all born in 2000. So when I was in middle school listening to them, they were like four years old.

So sometimes you just got to teach them about what the 90s were like and hope for the best. You're the OG now, Kirk. You're the OG.

It's true. Honestly, when I was a rookie, Mike Shanahan brought Shannon Sharpe in to speak to our team. And one of the lines he said that I liked was he said, keep cleats on your feet. And so every year I have a birthday during training camp and I remind myself I still have cleats on my feet on my birthday. And so I'm trying to stretch that into my 40s if I can.

But that's certainly a goal is to keep cleats on my feet as long as I can. Kirk Cousins, great chatting with you. Great catching up with you. Great to hear that you're going to be out there week one and look forward to seeing what you could do in your new digs. Appreciate the time.

Absolutely. Great hopping on with you and catching up. And Super Bowl week, if not sooner, we'll see you. Well, maybe I won't see you Super Bowl week. Well, we're going to see you one way or another, either media role playing in the game.

That would be preferred. Yeah, I think I've seen enough of you not playing in the game. I don't take the offense to that, but you do realize in your new digs that if there's any spot that an Atlanta Falcons fan would want to win the Super Bowl in other than their home stadium, it would be the Superdome. So they could tell all the Saints fans who won the championship in that building. You're aware of that rivalry, I'm sure. Oh, yeah.

No, you're and you're well aware and I'm well aware. And the Super Bowl was in New Orleans my rookie year. So I thought, hey, you know, let's take it full circle. My rookie year was kind of my introduction into the NFL. We've talked about my rookie year here in this interview.

And why not go win the Super Bowl when it's back in New Orleans where it was my rookie year? Best of your family, sir. Thanks for the time. All right. Thanks, Rich.

Let's see. That's Kirk Cousins, the quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons right here on the Rich Eisen Show. I love that. That was great. You remember when the Super Bowl was in Atlanta, New Orleans almost made it. It was that moment of the passive interference call that didn't happen. And Atlanta Falcons fans all throughout that I ran into all week long in Atlanta went back and forth about, you know. Well, they went back and forth about if New Orleans had made it, they would have loved to have seen the Patriots just wax them. And then the other way to look at it was at least they're not here. It would have stunk to have New Orleans fans throughout their city all week long. And the fact that they lost it in the most gut wrenching heart ripping out of their chest way made them filled with spite, which was 100% counter to their default of trying to roll out the welcome mat for everybody in town that week. Yeah, that's some true disdain.

Watching them go through hate, a rivalry that is completely underrated. Yeah, it's low key. Like you don't hear it all. It's not low key in terms of national discussion.

I didn't know about it until we went down there and didn't realize how deep it was. I mean, we don't talk about it enough, but I remember being in New Orleans in the winter of 2017 and they had a billboard of the 28 to 3 scoreboard in New Orleans trolling the Falcons just apropos of nothing on the way to the airport. There was just a billboard of the 28 to 3 scoreboard.

Right. Just because they're haters. I mean, in the same way that Raiders fans, it makes them very upset that the Chiefs celebrated in their building the ultimate championship, right? And that's when Irv was saying years ago when it was Chiefs box in Tampa saying he was the only one on the game day morning set who said Tampa is going to win the Super Bowl because there is no way there is no way they're going to lose a Super Bowl on their home turf. So every single time they walk into this building, they will remember they didn't win the Super Bowl and it would ruin their home field. And he said the same thing about the Rams against them. Yeah, two years in a row it happened. And that is powerful enough to just remove X's and O's from the conversation as to who has matchups. So, I mean, the Falcons being able to go and win a Super Bowl there first in New Orleans and be able to stake that claim in that building.

Kirk Cousins, if he's the quarterback for that moment, he would be able to have a reservation in Atlanta the rest of his life in the same way Sean Payton still does in New Orleans, I'd imagine. Take a break. 844-204-RICH. All phone lines are lit.

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See store for details. Herm Edwards on October 30th, 2002, after a week eight loss for the Cleveland Browns. Here is Play to Win the Game, as told by Victor Numanee. This is great about sports. This is what's the greatest thing about sports, is you play to win.

Hello? You play to win the damn game, right? You don't play just to play it.

When you start telling me it doesn't matter, get your ass out of here, then retire, because it matters. Well done, that's number one. Next up, on October 16th, 2006, after the Cardinals blew a 20-point lead against the Bears on Monday Night Football, Dennis Green, they are who we thought they were, as portrayed by Victor Numanee. Bears are who we thought they were, you know? That's why we took the damn field. Now, if you want to crown them, then crown their ass. But they are who we thought they were.

And we let them off the damn hook. Very good. Very well done. All right, last one for you. I can feel it. I can feel it.

I'm glad that we got it rolling, because here's the last one. I can feel it. On May 7th, 2002, the famed practice press conference of one Allen Iverson, as recounted by the man who plays Victor Numanee, Eric Braden, hit it. I mean, listen, man, you're talking about practice, okay? Not a game. Not a game. Not a game, all right?

Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it's my last. I know it's important. Yeah, I do. I do. I do.

I honestly do. But we're talking about practice, man. What are we talking about? Practice.

You're talking about practice, man. Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger. With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger has the right product for you. Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Let's go to Tony in Oregon. First in, first up. What's up, Tony? Hey, thanks for taking the call. Hey, I was thinking the next time you have Shepherd on, it definitely needs to be on an overreaction Monday. Dude, you didn't kick my ass. By the way, I spent, just so you're aware, Tony, I texted McAfee during the break. I demand equal time. Schefter most certainly did not kick my ass. And we got a response?

He's on the air. Okay. So are we. Don't worry. You got support here. In honor of overreaction Monday on a Tuesday, I got to say Hard Knocks has got me falling in love again. Okay.

So Eberflus just announced no starters for the bears Thursday night, which is the sound you hear as a NFL network folks kind of going, Oh my God. All right. So Tyson Bajant.

Is that where we got going on? All right. So what's on your mind, Tony? Tony?

I would love to do the win and loss record for the bears. Okay. Oh boy, Tony. And plus Tony just said, guys, this is the, this is not the way to go into a win loss game.

I'm sorry not to talk like you're not listening. He's feeling good about his team. He's fired up.

This usually leads to skewed results guys. It's like the eighth person to do that. I know that. This is the most popular one. Bears fans are jacked. This is the, I've run out of room. Like take a look.

It's, it's, it's like a 15 inning baseball game, right? You know, I've run out of room on my scorecard. Okay. Tony. Tony. In Oregon.

Rich, we get, we get used to it. It's okay. Home for the Titans.

Home for the Titans. Oh, wait. Right. Okay. Very good. At the Texans.

Okay. At the Colts when home for the Rams, the loss was an exhale and a loss home for the Panthers when in London against the Jaguars, when off the buy at the commanders, when that's five and two at the Cardinals lost, Oh, the bears are not who we thought they were home for the Patriots to win six and three home for the Packers. We got to get those Packers.

That's it. That's a seven and three home for the Vikings to win eight and three at the lines to kick off Thanksgiving, the loss eight and four at the Niners, the loss eight and five at the Vikings on a Monday night, the wind nine and five home for the lions when 10 and five home for the Seahawks on a Thursday night, the wind 11 and five at the Packers. I'm going to win that's a sigh and a sweep of the Packers, 12 and five, Tony and Oregon. Thanks for the call. Tony. Appreciate it. Call back. So by the way, here are the, I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight bears lost games.

Okay. We got Tony and Oregon 12 and five Ross with PBR and Woodland Hills was PBR like his dog or something like that. He's 12 and five Musab in Chicago, 12 and five Mike in Illinois, 11 and six Zach in Dallas, 12 and five, Sean and West Palm eight and nine. But didn't he reveal himself to be a Packer fan or something like that? Yeah. That was the guy that did the flip. Somebody did a flip Connor in Norway, 11 and six. I think that's what it says. Cause this is Susie wrote this down and she's got the worst handwriting.

She knows all rich. And then Kyle in good morning football, Adam 13 and four, I love it. The win loss game is undefeated, man.

Well, win loss game is undefeated. Oh my God. All right. Tori and Michigan.

Let's be fair and balanced. What's up Tori and Michigan. You there Tori? Yes. All right, brother.

What do you got in mind? Oh, I am a Lions fan, so I'm going to go and let's do some win loss. Here we go. Fire it up. Tori and Michigan. Let's fire up the win loss machine.

Only the third one in my book here. Here we go. Home for the Rams. Well, our secondary is new Stafford and those receivers aren't high scoring game. I think Stafford pulls out some Ford field magic and we lose.

Wow. What a, what a, what a bummer. What an M Mike Shyamalan twist to start 0 and 1 home for the bucks. Oh, we win. 1 and 1 at the Cardinals.

That's a win. 2 and 1 home for the Seahawks on a Monday night. This weird losing streak against Seattle ends this year. It has been something. The fact that they play each other every year for some reason and then the Seahawks keep coming in and the games are like crazy nine point totals, right? Over time. Yep.

All right. So 3 and 1 off the buy at the Cowboys. They're ain't going to come down to no tackle to a two point conversion this year.

We're going to put some smack down on the Cowboys. 4 and 1 at the Vikings. Win. 5 and 1 home for the Titans. That's a win. 6 and 1 at the Packers. I think our, I think our unfortunate winning streak in Wisconsin comes to an end and we lose that one. 6 and 2 at the Texans. Oh, Hutch isn't going to lose to that Ohio state guy. That's not going to happen.

You're talking my language, Tori. 7 and 2 home for the Jaguars. We're going to win that one too. 8 and 2 at the Colts.

Yeah, that's a win. 9 and 2 home for the Bears on Thanksgiving. Oh, this, the losing streak on Thanksgiving definitely comes to an end.

Welcome to the NFL, Williams. 10 and 2 home for the Packers the following Thursday. Packers. Yeah, we're going to get them back because they got us at home last year. We're going to get them at home this year. 11 and 2 home for the Bills. This will be a great game, but Detroit's going to win. 12 and 2 at the Bears.

Wow. Outside in December, I think we look past the Bears to San Francisco. I think we take a hit on that one. Alright, 12 and 3 at the Niners on a Monday night.

Makes sense. Oh, this is going to be some revenge right here. We going to put some more smackdown on these boys. 13 and 3 home for the Vikings. And to cap off, making sure we got home field advantage, we're going to win that one too.

Alright, Torrey in Michigan has them 14 and 3. Now, if I could real quick, I wouldn't mind asking Mr. Del Tufo something as another fellow audio engineer. Yes, sir. Oh, you're talking his language, Torrey.

I like this, Tor. So, I listen, when I'm at home, I listen on my big stereo and everything, and I notice that you have a noise gate on two of the mics, and every time they open, which is Brockman's mic and the one next to the guest mic next to Rich, I hear a little ground hum come out of those. Every time?

No, no, no. Actually, actually, actually, that is actually Rich's microphone that has a problem in the connector underneath it, that right now you don't hear it. Now, what are you hearing? Torrey, what is the phrase that you're hearing? It's a ground hum. You guys don't understand. This is technical talk. Torrey, we'll talk.

No, no, no, no. Torrey's talking. It's a ground hum. It's coming from your mic. I hear it mostly when I sit at home and listen on the stereo, subwoofers on and everything.

That's right. Because I'm doing stuff at home. Good ears, Tor. Good ears. I like my fellow audio people.

Torrey in Michigan. Wow. There was also another problem that we fixed was a light ballast that was making a high pitch whine that some guy- I only noticed it because I hear it when Brockman, if Brockman's mic opens, he doesn't speak right away, I can hear it every time. His is in his bitch when it was on your mic.

Yeah, it was like last week too. I heard it again. Great album.

Rattle and Ground Hum as well. Thank you. Thank you, Tor.

Torrey in Michigan. There you go. Wow. Wow. Wow. That's great. He was done.

Come on, man. That's what happens. We're done. He was done. He faded the fader. He was done. He was done. Torrey, I love you. You call back anytime you want, man. That's messed up.

I take care of you real people. Yeah, there was something wrong with your mic. Do you think we can fix the Ground Hum before the 10th anniversary of this show? Rich. Rich. There's a lot of- have you ever looked underneath your desk? Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. All right.

You ever see those cables? Whose fault is that? It's not mine.

I've never filled this place. Remember, I came in- It's been 10 years. Can you do something about it? I know. It's a little harder than you think to do it.

We are fixing some stuff, little by little. Good to know. All right. Take a break. How about that?

Win-loss game and a little Ground Hum. I love it. Didn't expect it. I love it. Didn't expect it. Love it when the caller's gone. When we come back, there's a new team where people are freaking out about practice and what we're seeing in practice. Fucking mess. Oh, training camp season's not over yet, people. We'll be right back.

The Rich Eisen Show is sponsored by Grainger. Does this sound familiar? You're a maintenance specialist, and you've been squaring off with a leaky radiator at your facility for hours.

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Just go to LinkedIn.com slash direct and get started. Back here on the old program, good to know that we're all humming along. No, Rich. Ground humming along. See, you guys understand, I wear a badge of honor. I fixed another problem when I got back.

But if you know it's a problem, why hasn't it been fixed? I did. I went under your desk and repaired the ground.

Home is home. It's gone right now. But I'm telling you, if you kick something under here, it comes back. Yes.

And I cannot fix the cable because the cable's been there since day one. And to do that, we'd have to rip the whole thing. Oh, we can't rip. That's what I'm saying. We just can't rip.

It's like this thing that connects to the thing. What are you laughing? We can't rip. We can't rip up the day. I'm not ripping up the floor.

I have to rip the floor up. I got to figure out what to call it. What do we really got to figure out what are we calling our team name? Oh, are we back in that? I don't know. Are we back in that?

The fantasy footballers are supposed to come in at some point. We were too good last year, I guess. Have we not been invited back? I don't know. Why do we keep getting invited in all these leagues and then getting disinvited? Because we're too good. We keep winning. Is that what it is?

I think so. I've got about like 75 names on this thing. Just give me one. Long and distinguished. Give me one.

Just the first one you read. Elbowing out Gilbrand. You know what that's from? No. So that was, we were talking about, TJ and I wanted to get invited to the cowboy press party at Nobu.

And you're like, what? So you can elbow out Gilbrand for some sushi? But that's before he passed away.

That was before he passed away. Yeah. So it's, you know, elbowing out Gilbrand.

We're not going to apologize for winning. About sprinkle a little ursay. Sprinkle a little ursay. I like that. Sprinkle a little ursay. You guys got a lot of good ones. Murdoch's Sun Gods.

Murdoch's Sun Gods. Don't even know what that is. No idea. That's the problem is we don't write down the, you got to write down, but we don't write down the context and we never remember the context. Last year I kept an extensive list where I did all that.

I didn't do it this year. Game time tickets. Get it and put it on a mobile device near you and start buying tickets to anything in your area. And we love using it because it makes it so easy to buy tickets. The best part about it I love is the all in pricing feature. Because when you use this feature, it shows you the total upfront so there's not a single surprise fee at checkout.

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Lowest price guaranteed. Guys, I know it's when there's a back together again weekend, is that what it is? It's back. It was back together weekend. Back together weekend. Back together weekend.

Back together weekend. Okay. The NFL likes coming up with dates and branding it now, right? Yeah. Yeah. Super wild card weekend. Super. I'm a planner.

I don't understand. The divisional rounds doesn't have a, you call it a divisional round, it kind of feels like it's begging for a name. Yeah, we need a name. That's for down the road. RES Consulting can work on that. We'll workshop it.

We'll put it in the hopper. So, but there's no like training camp is over date. I guess once the pre-season ends, training camp is over, right?

Like this is the last week of joint practices. Oh, I like that. Right. Right. Right.

Right. Joint practice. So there's joint practice.

I know a couple of people like, I'm going to joint practice this week. Fun. I guess. It's just a fight.

Start fights. So there's that. So once, once pre-season week three is over, the party's over for the folks who get to sit there every day and watch practices and parse it out and show, oh, that was a great throw here, or that was an incredibly poor throw there and boy, what a terrible practice we just witnessed.

And so those days are dwindling. So get in while the getting's good if you're part of the media and this team won a pre-season game this weekend, won a pre-season game this weekend, not starting many of the starters at all. So they kind of got burned with injuries last year and held a padded practice two days after winning a pre-season game and had one of the worst offensive practices of the year, according to every single person who was covering it.

There's the practice of the New York Jets. Oh boy. Oh gosh.

Oh yeah. You're even seeing Rogers went 11 for 26 in the practice after starting or 11 of 27 in the practice after starting five of six, six for his last 21 balls were on the ground. At one point, Robert Salah was going to call practice, but apparently Rogers insisted we can't end on the poor note.

We got to keep going at it. And even though those two extra plays didn't work very well, they had to call it, had to stop it. O-line struggles.

O-lines were struggling. There was some brutal showing. Oh, you've seen that? You've seen all that?

I've seen it. The Jets receivers can't sync up and practice. These days are going to end soon, guys. What are we going to do? We're going to have real football. We're going to have real football. Yeah. I'm excited.

I'm going to pop it. Robert Salah was talking about, you know, there's a championship defense on the other side. It's a nice way to parse it. That's true.

What do you say today, I believe, is what he said today, Robert Salah, head coach of the Jets. I feel like it's been great and the process will always be precedent. Actually, everybody wants the result.

Everyone does, but the result is a product of your process. So I think the way we've been able to approach this entire training camp, I think it's been great. I think our guys have been on it. They've been working their tails off, straining, taking the change in stride, the changes that we've made in stride, and I feel like they've been capitalizing on every opportunity that they've been given. So like I said, I'm really excited about where we're at.

We've still got a couple of weeks to finish off before we start full prep, but where we are, I'm very confident. Was that convincing? What do you mean convincing?

What's he going to say? I don't know. Practice is open. Hey, yesterday we sucked.

Yesterday we sucked and we're trying not to suck today. Let me ask you a question. I don't know.

When the Patriots were winning all the championships, did they have a bad practice, do you think? I don't think so. Not one. Not a single one, right? Well, we wouldn't know.

Not one. You wouldn't know. You know why? Because that tree could have fallen in the forest, but you weren't anywhere close. You were sitting on a moon.

Nobody was seeing it. Rogers has called it one of the most physically demanding training camps he's had in his last seven, eight years. Because he's 40 and it hurts more. That's what he's saying right now. He's speaking right now. He's talking right now.

Where is A.A. Ron right now? Speaking of which, do we have the, hold on. Let's finish this up here. Do we have enough time to play the sound bite? No? Okay. Apparently, we have the sound bite of Schefter. Oh, wow.

We could squeeze it in now? Okay. Let me say this. I kicked Rich's ass, but I also kicked my own because when I'm running there, I don't know what happened. I tripped and fell.

I had no idea what was coming. Here's the deal. A 57-year-old man should not spontaneously be running a 40-yard dash and being as determined as I was to beat the king of the 40-yard dash, Rich Eisen. He's trained for this every year to raise money for St. Jude. He's been unbelievable about raising all this money, but he's become known as the king of the 40. I wanted to dethrone him that day and kick his ass.

My knees are scraped up. We won. We won.

The king of the 40 has been dethrone. Oh, wow. Oh, wow.

By the way, I got like three drops in this. Do you think he's trying to flex for Pat? Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah.

All right. I demand equal time. I demand equal time.

Equal time. Does this look like an ass-kicking to you? No.

No, it does not. It looks like a guy in dress-up boat shoes pulling up so he can blow out in Achilles. Yeah.

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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.