This is The Rich Eisen Show. The Elena Falcon Select, Michael Penix Jr. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. What has Raheem Morris told you about Michael Penix's role? The message to me was just, you know, nothing changes for you.
Just go to work and do your job. Earlier on the show, host of The Pat McAfee Show, Pat McAfee. Coming up, Apple TV MLS analyst, Sasha Kleschin. Host of The Dan Levitard Show with Stu Dotts. Dan Levitard, Super Bowl Champion quarterback, Drew Bledsoe. And now, it's Rich Eisen.
That's right. Hour number two of The Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Hour number one, we had a simulcast for The Pat McAfee Show. That was a blast. That was awesome. We had to do that more often. Positive feedback.
We're getting a lot of positive feedback. Very fun. That was cool. I mean, we had fun with it. We definitely did. That was great.
That was great. He's still on the air. We're still on the air. It went well. Everything's going. Yeah, nothing. Everything's going, right?
Fantastic. We're live on the Roku Sports Channel right now. Dan Levitard will be joining us in about 20 minutes time to discuss that soundbite he elicited from Tua Tungovailoa that is reverberating throughout the National Football League landscape. Drew Bledsoe in hour number three.
But we haven't done this in a while, guys. What's that? It's a Rich on the Pitch segment. Hey. Presented by Apple TV, where tonight you can watch the League's Cup Semifinals. Look at me in my kit right there. That picture is so good. Oh, my goodness gracious.
I look very good in that, actually. And to discuss the League's Cup Semifinals, the Philadelphia Union versus Columbus Crew in Colorado Rapids versus LAFC in downtown Los Angeles. It's always a party whenever LAFC is on the pitch, as they will be tonight. Joining us right now on the Rich Eisen Show, 13-season MLS veteran, two-time All-Star, Sasha Kleschen here on the program. Good to see you, Sasha. How are you, sir? I'm good.
I'm good. I'm ready for tonight. Some excellent games on tap. For those who might need a League's Cup refresher, I want you to lay out there for some people what this is about and what we're seeing tonight on Apple TV. OK, the League's Cup is a very unique tournament that you don't see anywhere else in the world where two leagues, Major League Soccer and Liga Emeces, which is the highest professional division in Mexico, have come together to play a World Cup-style tournament.
So all 47 teams. There's a group stage, then the knockout stage. We are down to the final four, which happen to be all MLS teams, which is a tip in the cap of Major League Soccer, because Liga Emeces teams typically over the last 20 years have dominated Major League Soccer teams. And it's a really fun tournament that is very unique because every game that ends in a tie goes straight to a penalty shootout. So it's been a really exciting, really dramatic tournament.
And now we're down to the final four. So there's no extra time? No extra time, Rich, because soccer is already too long, I think, 90 minutes. And I'm a soccer player and I love the sport, but 90 minutes is too long. And so an extra 30 minutes of overtime, it's boring.
Guys are tired. There's rarely any goals. So straight to penalties, bring in all the drama. It's the most exciting way to end a soccer game. Yeah, because managers like playing it close to the vest, right? When it's extra time, there's no very rarely going to take a chance because you just don't want to get beat that way. Exactly. At the end of the game, nobody wants to take a risk. It's all about not losing at that point, which takes all the excitement out of the sport anyway. So I really love this new wrinkle that Major League Soccer and Liga Emeces has thrown into this tournament to go straight to penalties.
Hopefully, maybe it's something we see in the future in soccer around the world. All right. Union versus Crew, break it down for me. Sasha, break it down.
Okay. Columbus defending MLS Cup champions, probably the deepest team in Major League Soccer. So they will be the heavy favorites tonight playing at home. But last seven games against Philadelphia Union, they have not beat Philly. So this goes back, these are two of the best teams in the East over the past four or five years in Major League Soccer. It's kind of a budding rivalry of two very good teams.
Philly's had a bad season so far in Major League Soccer, but they've kind of had a rejuvenation during the League's Cup to make it to the semifinals, a kind of a kickstart run for maybe their last third of the MLS season. But Columbus will be the favorites. They've got the best player on the field, Cucho Hernandez, and they're playing at home. I expect them to win tonight.
All right. And then Rapids versus LAFC just downtown here this evening. Rapids were one of the worst teams in Major League Soccer last season, finished second to last in the League. They hired a new coach. They spent some big money in the offseason to bring in some U.S. national team players back to the Colorado Rapids, and they've done very well. They've kind of been a Cinderella team in a way by beating four Mexican teams in a row in this tournament to get to this point. However, LAFC is probably the best team in the Western Conference. The last three times they've played Colorado at home, they've beat them by a combined score of 10 to nothing. So LAFC will be the heavy favorites tonight. Okay, fantastic.
And that's all going to be on Apple TV. So is there a way to read into the fact? Has the United States surpassed Mexico in terms of these leagues now that we're seeing a Final Four that's all MLS, or we shouldn't spike the football on that front right here? I don't think we're ready to say that we're the Superior League just yet, because you have to remember that all these games are played in the United States, so we have home field advantage. The tournament would probably be more even if we had more games played in Mexico as well. Typically the top four or five teams in Mexico, they spend more money than us. They don't have a salary cap, so they're able to add higher quality players throughout the entire roster than we are in Major League Soccer.
But the competition is getting closer and closer, and it's getting close to even in my opinion. All right, in the last couple minutes I have with you here, Sasha, you just missed Zlatan, right? When you went to LA Galaxy, he left, you arrived?
Is that what happened? He left and I arrived, yeah, but we had a pretty big battle on the field in Paris a few years before that. Do tell, please, do tell, please, please. This is my Zlatan story. So my best friend that I played with at Anderlecht was Swedish, and he had told me that he had played with Zlatan on the national team and knew that Zlatan was very self-conscious of the size of his nose. So we got into a little ugly and that I should shave it. And I said, you're talking about my mustache with a nose that big? And he blew a gasket and wanted to get in my face even more. It was hilarious. Then we played against each other in Major League Soccer many years later, and he remembered the incident and he scored a hat trick against my team to beat us 4-3.
So no fun playing against Zlatan. Did he say anything to you after he had tricked? He didn't say anything to me personally, but my brother has worked for the LA Galaxy in the front office for the past 13 years. And he let him know that he remembered the incident and he got his payback. But did you, did you, did he draw yellow when he went nuts on you though?
Or did you get him to draw red? No, no, no, no. We were face to face. And then, you know, it's a soccer fight. No one's going to throw a punch.
They call it handbags. It's just a little bit, a little bit of talk and trash, and that was it. All right. Fantastic.
All right. But before I let you go here, Sasha Kleschen here and Rich on the Pitch presented by Apple TV right here on the Roku channel. So tell me your thoughts on Mauricio Pocatino and how he might be the guy, it looks like he's going to be the guy, the former or recently former, well, there's lots of former Chelsea managers, but, and he, he might be the new steward for the US men's national team.
What do you think of that move, Sasha? Yeah, it looks like Mauricio Pocatino will be the new US men's national team coach. And I'm very excited about it personally, because I feel like the US men's national team players lost a little bit of the honor that it meant to play for the national team.
They got a little bit too comfortable under Greg Berhalter. So now you've got a coach who was a big time international player for Argentina and has been a big time coach for Chelsea, for PSG, for Tottenham in the premier league. He's managed some of the best players in the world, right? Neymar, Mbappe, Messi, Harry Kane, all these guys. So now he comes in and he's going to command a lot of respect from the locker room on the US men's national team. And also I think he's going to instill a little bit of fear in these players, which I think is needed.
So I'm really excited about this hire and I hope he really leads us into 2026 world cup in a really good way. All right, Sasha, thanks for the time. Really appreciate you joining us and getting us straight on what we're going to see in the leagues cup semifinals tonight on Apple TV and that fun Zlatan story, brother. That was fun.
Thanks again. That's Sasha Kleschen right here, rich on the pitch presented by Apple TV. Catch the leagues cup semifinals and finals with exclusive content available only with MLS season pass on Apple TV, the home of everything leagues cup right here on the show. I liked it. No extra time.
Having done a ton of soccer this summer, very rule. Well, now it gets you in your convertible so you could take your toothy selfies faster. I mean, why, why? What do you mean?
We're on the radio. This is, this is, um, I have to be descriptive. Yeah. Well done.
I paid for these. By the way, just in time for the fantasy season, Del Tufo's toothy selfies might be one last entry for us. I mean, some of these, we really need to decide. Well, don't worry. So, um, in advance of Dan LeBertard joining this program, he got to a sat down and the two was soundbite. Uh, I mean, he asked when you asked the right question and you get the million dollar answer like that. Um, I said it was a million dollar question.
You got a billion dollar answer, right? Uh, of two are basically talking about the difference between Brian Flores and, and, um, Mike McDaniel. And he, he said basically that Flores, to paraphrase here, made his life miserable, called him a terrible person. He said, what happens when a terrible person is telling you, you're awful at this, you're crappy at this or whatever. And, and somebody else comes in and says, you're special.
That's a big difference maker. So, um, Brian Flores is now the DC in Minnesota. I don't know how many press conferences he holds, right? Like coordinators don't hold a lot of press conferences, but maybe this is something that was scheduled or not. But, uh, you bet he addressed this. This is what he had to say on Tuesday about Tua's comments. You know, specific to, uh, you know, the comments that were made by Tua. Um, I just want to say, look, I'm, I'm, I'm happy, genuinely happy, uh, genuinely, uh, genuinely happy for the success that Tua's had.
Um, and I really wish him nothing but the best. Um, and you know, I think, you know, player relationships are very important to me. Um, they, I think that's kind of the foundation of coaching. And I got into coaching because, you know, I was impacted as a, as a, as a young guy, by my high school coaches, my college coaches, my going all the way to Pop Warner. Um, I got into coaching because, you know, I want to make that same kind of impact, positive impact, pour into young people, uh, help them become, you know, as KO says all the time, the best versions of themselves.
Um, and you know, that's really my goal always in coaching. So that was, uh, his opening soliloquy. Then the, um, follow-up question from a member of the media about Wolf. How did, how did the, the, uh, the terrible person comment hit you? The words you used were terrible person. I'm just curious how that hit you. Look, I'm human.
So, you know, that hit me in a way that, you know, wasn't, I wouldn't say was positive for me. Um, but at the same time, I, you know, I've got to use that and say, Hey, how can I, how can I grow from that? You know, how can I be better? Um, and that's really, uh, that's really where I'm at from, from that standpoint. Um, do I feel like, you know, that's me? No, but you know, how can I grow from that situation and create a, create a world where that's not, you know, the case that anyone says that about, about Brian Flores. So, you know, by the way, that would have been the first sound bite of saying, um, am I a terrible person? Absolutely.
I don't know. That'd have been a first. Listen, just, uh, and, and we'll ask Dan this, uh, when he joins us after the break we're about to take, um, you know, did Flores not want to at all?
I mean, it kind of always felt that way, right? Maybe he wanted Herbert. We was shuffling in Ryan Fitzpatrick too, during those years also in and out of the lineup. You know, I, I don't know because, and again, this is why if I'm an owner in the NFL and I say this with the ultimate of due respect to folks like, you know, Mike McDonald, who, you know, I'm very fond of from his one year in Michigan up there in Seattle, or for instance, um, you know, D'Amico Ryan's and also, you know, Robert Sala, just to name three, Jonathan Gannon, defensive mind. If I am, uh, an owner in the NFL, my head coach is going to be connected to the quarterback period. End of story. That's it. Cause I don't know how many quarterbacks Brian Flores has ever had to manage in his career in his entire time.
How many has he ever had to manage? And then you, and, and you have then have to manage personalities as well. So it's that simple. I, and again, I, I, I, I know I'm just all making it a cookie cutter situation. I, things are different. People's personalities are different. Coaching styles are different.
Flores comes from the Bella check tree. I told that story about Mac Jones telling me last year in a production meeting before he had truly the, the start that I think ripped up their entire relationship in new England. It was, that was the last straw, that performance against the Colts. He was talking about how Tua told him about his relationship with, with Mike McDaniel. And he's just like, would I want to have a coach sit down next to me and throw his arm around me and, you know, go to dinner together? Of course I would. Flores comes from that coaching tree where they don't do that.
Tua needed it. I'm telling you, man, if I'm owning a team in the NFL, I'm finding a quarterback minded coach and say, you're my guy. And if I already have the kid, I'm like, tell me how you're going to work with him. Or if you're about to draft a kid saying, let's talk about who we're drafting.
And I say that about even with Raheem Morris, who everyone loves too. We'll see how Harbaugh does with our neighbor across the street, Herbert, for instance, this year, the difference. Let's take a break.
Dan Lebertard will be joining us next. That outstanding interview discussed with the man who elicited the soundbite next on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts people. You love their jingle. You're going to love their friendly, helpful service even better. Cause they're in the business of keeping your car on the road and the parts knowledge they have. It's all you need for your maintenance and repairs.
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Last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed. What's the most pissed off you made Nick Saban ever? Oh when I took the sack second at 26 in the national champion. You mean the one that you immediately made up for with an amazing play that puts you on the map? Yeah. That sack?
Yeah. Okay so um walk me through how that uh what he said to you if you can in a certain way on a live radio tv broadcast. I mean I could only see it on camera you know um how mad he was that was probably the most pissed off though I think he's ever been. I mean he he was squeezing his headset so hard and then um you know like it was hard because the emotion was like so mad to so happy you know so fast for him and you know we got into the locker room when everything settled down I mean he was still still the same coach you know put me to the side like what were you thinking you know um so after you won after you won the game and you've picking confetti out of your hair he still took a moment in that moment to revisit yeah that yeah being who he is I mean you know he he put me to the side he said you know what why did you take the set right you know and I thought it was a good time to joke with him you know so I I mean we won the national championship so I told him I told him well you know we we needed more room to throw the ball coach you know and like he looked at me and like I was laughing he's like that's not funny so I mean I didn't know what else to do in that situation I was like okay I'm sorry coach I shook his hand and he just moved on I was like oh man that's amazing I love that story that made my favorite story the whole week so you just figured yeah hey I was like oh maybe yeah thought it was a good time to joke but it was no it's never a good time I guess in that respect it's two at the Super Bowl in Miami where we all know he toils back here on the Rich Eisen Show radio network on the Roku channel as well let's bring him in he is one of the best in the business and has been for some time and he is the host of the highly popular Dan LeBertard show he is Dan LeBertard good to see you Dan how are you sir rich good seeing you always good seeing you thank you for having me on your program it is a pleasure to have you sir we've had quite the day already so far and you now just help raise the roof a little bit so let me just jump into it here because Tua doesn't do this very much he doesn't he doesn't sit down he doesn't sit down he doesn't do one-on-ones so walk me through the process and him sitting down with you and getting him comfortable you must have known him obviously for some time but I'll just throw it out yeah the first time I talked to him we did a corporate event together and that was like uh taking a tire iron to his mouth and trying to get an hour's worth of content out of him because he was just out of college and he was guarded and he was a kid and he didn't he wasn't an adult the way that he is now with job security with children and so from the moment that he sat down it's a Tua I hadn't heard before I talked to him a couple of times but he wasn't guarded at all he wasn't careful in fact seeing him in that clip with you that's as relaxed as I'd seen him and that was still a kid right you were still talking to somebody who was a little more fresh-faced than the guy that we got a hold of but you can imagine rich right two years in the league feeling like your coach isn't actually back uh isn't backing you when you have a bad offensive line you've got no separation from your receivers you're gonna grow up fast uh he is and this is hard for me to say rich I can't believe I'm saying it uh as polarizing an athlete as I've seen outside of Lebron James in South Florida and my history here 35 years and it's super bizarre because he's decent he's not controversial but the whole sport has changed so much the people uh analyzing the measurements on what people are worth are changing and so it's just been fascinating to see him become a polarizing figure when you know this he's not a polarizing figure no not at all I mean he's actually a delight to talk to um and he's he's a good people he's a good human but you know our sports world uh narratives get formed and they're tough to shake and him coming into the league injured basically right or he was healthy clearly when he was drafted but coming off of the end of a college career injured um and uh Joe Burrow basically leapfrogging him and then Justin Herbert being drafted behind him and he's the one that gets benched for Ryan Fitzpatrick by his coach the the you you know this when McDaniel came in the the general sense was oh he's gonna boot him he's not gonna try to win with him and it was exactly the opposite and now we see a two-of that is his aid and and I maybe that's that's the guy that showed up he's like he's now got the ultimate respect of being completely paid and uh I I think maybe that's why you saw that too is sitting on your your couch Dan it can be it can be all of it right sure job security financial security uh that is the ultimate guaranteed belief uh you see the difference rich between uh and how quickly these things can happen in that sport particularly when the power goes from Brian Flores when he had it how he behaved to what it becomes when two has got the power and how Brian Flores has to react to it that's a pretty seismic shift right I think that what we have seen this off season rich I mean it can't be talked about enough the best coach any of us have ever known is unemployed he had to do multiple interviews with the Atlanta Falcons because whatever it is he was doing is not something that's wanted at present in this league he's got a whole lot of disciples who have tried to do it his way not a one of them has succeeded not Bill O'Brien not Charlie Weiss not any of them like there there's a whole bunch of people who've fallen from the Belichick tree and all that fruit is rotted on the ground so there's no daddy protector anymore on your style is the style that works there's a new generation of player he's younger and when you pay that player that player has real power and you just saw what happened to Brian Flores when he crumbled under it humbled because he's trying to stay around on the fringes of the league and two has got a guaranteed spot for a while yeah and the the the the one coach I think you you you would say and he didn't perform well when he was there in Miami uh as a head coach in the in the NFL um who is as you know successful as Belichick from his tree is is Nick Saban who coached Tua so you can't sit here and say Tua can't take hard coaching you know what I mean like it's not like he he would be a wallflower being coached by Nick Saban so the question is did Flores never want him is that is that basically it you know he behaved like he behaved like a coach that didn't want him and then you can imagine rich right like this one's funny let's think about what Brian Flores's reference point was for quarterback play let's think about like I mean what what's he comparing it to he's got his first job and he's coming out of okay I've had Tom Brady you know running the Patriots for 20 years like I mean I that's what it's supposed to look like right it's supposed to look like Tom Brady looks well this doesn't look like Tom Brady looks so I understand why the pressure would make it so that Flores would think as a defensive coach well I'm doing everything I can I'm look that was a team that was said to be tanking rich that team overachieved Brian Flores might be the greatest success on the Belichick tree that isn't Nick Saban right like Brian Flores had you know he overachieved with what it is that he had but I found most interesting the reaction around Tua which seems unreasonable and insane to me at all times people calling him soft when look at what he does for a living and he you know had to have conversations with family and doctors over whether to continue playing that violent sport that caused him a brain injury that made us all recoil because it looked like he was having a seizure on the field the way that his hands were frozen in front of him so people are calling him soft as if this is participation trophy culture and we can politicize anything in the divisions of today so people are now fighting about all the things around Tua when I have found rich and I'm sure this is your experience too athletes are better at handling criticisms than media members are or human beings are because they come from coaching and they're always trying to learn and improve and you can imagine rich if we sat you down after your show or sat me down after our show and then everyone picked apart all the things we did wrong in film study in front of everybody else like they're used to criticism this is not a soft human being he would not be at the top of the survival of the fittest sport if he were a a weak human being in any way Dan Labotard here on the Rich Eisen show so maybe we're going to see just a different Tua on the confidence level right like he's now he's now freely sharing this stuff you mentioned how he's got the power and and he's got the certainly the horsepower surrounding him and a coach who adores him and knows how to scheme the horsepower around him I mean I don't know everybody thinks the sky's the limit at this time of year in the NFL but what's your two cents on him this year being paid for the Dolphins Dan well one of the many interesting things here rich and I would defer to your expertise right because I can't untangle in San Francisco Brock Purdy's greatness and his value from Deebo Samuel and you getting Trent Williams and McCaffrey and and Kittle and all of the overwhelming talent that surrounds him but Tua is kind of to me Brock Purdy on steroids and I would say to you that the Dolphins best window to win was when they had Tua at value now they're paying him more than Mahomes and they still have to go through Mahomes and Mahomes is cheaper and has lost the weapon that Tua needs in order to make him as confident as he is but I would say to you that wherever it is that confidence resides inside of sports or in human beings it is successes stacked atop each other and I would assume that this man's confidence is real having a coach who backs him a system that clearly supports him he gets the ball out very quickly so he gets to play a Brady style he's not as good when he doesn't get rid of it in two and a half seconds but he gets to play a style that's less violent than the others and on top of that you tell me rich I don't think you can lead the league in passing yards by accident like we could say kiss them we could say coaching we can say Tyreek Hill but I would think that there's a real confidence in knowing wait I just did this for a full season healthy and when I did I threw for more yards than anybody was throwing for so my confidence is real I can do this I it's not a belief it's not a hope there's less doubt like I've done it I can do it if you give me these pieces I'm gonna get better doing this because he's not yet at his prime is he like he's he's still learning he's going to improve yeah I'm listen I'm not a system quarterback guy I'm just not everyone Brady's a system quarterback you know Peyton Manning was the only guy who could run his system to the point where when he went down for the season for Indianapolis with that neck injury nobody else could operate the system the way that he could operate it Aaron Rodgers perfect example last year he's the system he's the guy calling plays neck up and everything else so when when you've got somebody like McDaniel who can bring in a scheme and knows I just need speed and I know I need smart receivers that know how to get open with their footwork and just to follow along what I'm trying to tell him and I need just somebody who's really whip smart who can get the ball out quickly no doubt he saw too and he goes that's the guy I can do this here and the dolphins were smart enough to say we'll hire you even though you've got no head coaching experience and we don't know what you're going to do when there's three minutes on the clock and you got to throw that red challenge flag so on and so forth it's just to me the dolphins out of anybody in the NFL need a home field advantage they just you know obviously nobody wants to go and play in sub 20 degree you know negative 20 degree weather but this system needs to operate right there in southern south Florida and and stay there that's the way I look at it and I mean everybody stays healthy and doesn't have any non-contact injuries like the defense suffered last year I do think the dolphins are a force to be reckoned with Dan I really do the things that you're saying injury and December's that have been collapses those are things that happen in football and they make the measurements difficult I would ask you this question if I simply put in front of you from the last two seasons and this is just the way that we're doing this empirically now that everybody has a fantasy team everybody every everything on hard knocks with the New York Giants is let's study the executives everybody's an architecture expert so it becomes about value for Tua and Purdy if I gave you just their stats and told you nothing else if I said rich here are Purdy's stats from last year and here are Tua's stats from last year is that one of the five best quarterbacks in the NFL yes or no don't look at the uniforms the systems nothing I'm just giving you numbers your answer is what yes and so I don't know what we're doing with our obsession with measurements when we have to disentangle who's responsible for credit and blame on something that's empirically numerical like I don't know what we're doing I we're obsessed with it but I'm just asking you because nobody I can't get consensus on whether Tua or Purdy are actually as exceptional as I think they are but the numbers I can't argue with it's narratives Dan it's narratives Purdy was the last pick in the draft for a reason right supposedly and um and and Tua like I said he was the the the minute he threw that pass to win the national championship game for Alabama it was well Nick Saban even had to bench Jalen Hurts because this kid was going to go to the transfer portal and he's one of the special kids ever and Joe Burrow wound up being drafted over him and Herbert had a much better few first years and again Tua can't shake that for so many people that's that's all that it is I think but when it all comes down to it the question is is do you have the rest of the system around you and the players around you and I think both organizations do and there's a reason why you're mentioning both of these teams also McDaniel came from Shanahan and they they run similar worlds and um again just I guess to bring it all full circle here Dan were you surprised that Tua said what he said I mean and so what I was because I'm expecting um a quarterback at any point in my lifetime doesn't bring or welcome or invite those headlines uh around the locker room the quarterback position hell I've seen this for so long down here Rich you have to understand the power struggle at the top of the dolphin organization as soon as Jimmy Johnson got here he wanted to run off Dan Marino he had a problem doing it he could not do it because there was a quarterback coach power struggle so for Tua to be as careful as he's been his entire career because he has not been a scintillating interview what I just saw at the beginning from you yes at the beginning from the Super Bowl is as good as I've heard to another circumstances he's pretty pretty careful and that position is also careful so we don't have a lot of going after active coaches right before a season so yeah I was surprised by all of it but it wasn't just that rich it was the entire 20 minutes like this was a confident human being this is not this was not a person who was being guarded I'm telling you that the other times I've talked to Tua I've always felt like not necessarily that he's a child because I don't want to infantilize him but when you're obsessive compulsive at that position and to be that good at it you're gonna come out of college as sort of a lopsided individual right you can't it's hard to be a fully formed adult coming out of college when you've had to get to the top of that and some of the other things that are adulthood you can put off to the side I was talking to a very confident adult that was not bluster now you can say it's the contract you can say it's the numbers he's put up you can say it's the growth through the fire of two years of hell when your coach doesn't support you and you think your dreams are going to collapse because your receivers can't get open and your offensive line stinks like I don't know what it was but I'm telling you that's somebody I haven't heard before I have talked to him a number of times that relaxed is not something I've seen before that was awesome Dan and I appreciate you joining us before I let you go let's get to the most important question is do God still accusing me of stealing his dumb ideas well he'd be curious to hear that you introduced me as the host of the Dan Levitare show with Stu Guts I did that purposely you knew what you were doing purposeful that was on purpose see you cut him you cut him and then you object you're passive-aggressive about why is he why would he be mad at me this is not a process question this is a yes or no is he still accusing me of stealing dumb ideas that I would never know was coming out of his mouth in the first place Dan is that happening he hasn't he hasn't done it in a while no he has not done it in a while but he I think he's afraid of you because you're lashed out and and he's just afraid of your razor your talents your talents no I'm a nice guy I wouldn't do that to him so all right good to know tell him I said hi I will pass it along all right that's Dan Levitard the host of the Dan Levitard show with Stu Guts very good hurt you hurt you I just a little piece of me died yeah uh thank you thanks Dan take care of yourself sir there he goes there's Dan Levitard heading off too good that would assume Stu Guts showed up to work he doesn't show up is he like me I mean a lot of controversy on that show what's going on oh okay lots going on long time listen to first time callers yeah good times I mean I I know sometimes fans will be like well media types are are trying to make bigger things out of what I believe it to be just because they're trying to enhance the conversation around their work sure but Dan Levitard is not off by saying Tua doesn't talk that way he never has talked that way he doesn't do one-on-one interviews very often and he when asked the direct question about talk about Brian Flores and the difference between him and and Mike McDaniel and the answer that he gave is I believe a concrete example of how different things will be for him that he has a confidence level now he's been paid and truly this is 100% a respect measurement this is a measurement of respect in a salary cap driven world how will you parcel up your salary cap for me and in the salary cap world there are certain payments given to quarterbacks and the Dolphins bestowed upon Tua Tungovailoa the highest respect and the guy who was drafted over remember that LSU Alabama game it was like who's gonna be drafted first overall in the NFL when it was Burrow versus Tua you remember that one Burrow gets drafted first overall Tua is like well you're gonna run the risk of taking that guy after that hip surgery and how's he really gonna do and then the Dolphins draft him over Herbert and you're hearing you know our friend Mike Lombardi called him just a guy right yeah because you just take a look at him and you see his stature you want somebody like Herbert who's gonna stand in the pocket take the hits and be that stand up quarterback guy and now here's Tua hearing all this stuff and he had his coach saying what he was saying to him and Ryan Fitzpatrick is taking over for him and he's wondering what the hell's going on and then Mike McDaniel comes in and he says you are special and I'm gonna show how special you are to you and guess what we're gonna do we're gonna get Tyreek Hill we got Jalen Waddle let's go to work and we're gonna keep drafting these kids out of the running back position who are faster than fast to use the Lightning McQueen phrase I am speed and now he has overcome at least for one year the concussion conversation and he has now been paid and he's just like forget the salty Tua because you know honestly the whole conversation about salty Tua is like a wink and a nod he's a guy who's just never will say anything to to ruffle a feather and he's not trying to stir it up and it would pop out it would just come out of nowhere like this sweet sort of you know cartoon character I say that with the highest of respect by the way he's just a sweetheart and he would just like you know all of a sudden I don't know about you it looks like money and he's just like I don't know about you it looks like money because everyone was giving him crap about his wobbly passes in in in practice to Tyreek Hill dolphins tweeted out the video I know and it's just like hey look at this you know Tua to Tyreek with the googly eyes and then the ball would be like I don't know about you but that looked like money after he threw a pass that looked really good and it's just like so he's hearing it he's seeing it and even then it would be like all right Tua like we were having fun here's salty too and I kept on saying own it own it Tua we need more salt in your diet and now here he is saying you're at that sound bite one more time if you don't mind just queuing it up just one more time what he told Dan Lembertard here he is saying the honest truth about how he felt and it landed in the lap of Brian Flores and and he had to account head coach in the NFL to account of like being called a terrible person is what he said this is something else and that's why I'm saying like could this possibly be a different guy because he has been paid hit it can you explain to us the difference in practical terms between having a coach who did believe in you the way that he did and the difference between that and what was happening with Flores yeah well to put it in simplest terms if you woke up every morning and I told you you suck at what you did that you don't belong doing what you do that you shouldn't be here that this guy should be here that you haven't earned this right and then you have somebody else come in and tell you dude you are the best fit for this like you are accurate you are the best whatever you are this you are that like how would it make you feel listening to one or the other you see what I'm saying and then you hear it you hear it regardless of what it is the good or the bad and you hear it more and more you start to actually believe that I don't care who you are you can be the president of the United States you have a terrible person that's telling you things that you you don't want to hear or that that you probably shouldn't be hearing you're going to start to believe that about yourself so the salt is out of his diet it seems to me in the fact that that looks like for the first time from what I'm seeing and this is not a way that I think he talks but I'll say it this is a Tua that is out of F's to give and I can't wait to see that every week will it translate on the field is a great season-long storyline arc for the Miami Dolphins this year let's take a break right here on the Rich Eisen Show we're back with more your phone calls drew Bledsoe top of hour number three this message is sponsored by Greenlight and let me tell you about Greenlight folks my wife and I use it for our oldest kid time is moving fast used to be you didn't have to worry about what your kids were doing with money but Greenlight is a debit card and money app for families where parents can keep an eye on kids spending and money habits while kids also learn how to save invest and spend wisely anytime my oldest son uses his Greenlight card I get an alert how much he's spending where he's spending it and he also knows the limit that he has so he learns how to save invest and spend wisely I use it my wife uses it my kids use it you should too sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free when you go to Greenlight greenlight.com slash rich that's greenlight.com slash rich to try Greenlight for free greenlight.com slash rich are you struggling to close deals business to business selling is tougher than ever and that's why I want to tell you about LinkedIn Sales Navigator LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a sales intelligence platform that helps professionals effectively prospect and engage high value customers drive higher revenue and increase sales performance Sales Navigator helps you target the right buyers surface key signals such as job changes or which accounts you should prioritize and shows you hidden allies so you could find those buyers that are most likely to convert fueled by LinkedIn's 1 billion member platform Sales Navigator gives you the most up-to-date first-party data enabling you to unlock conversations with the people that matter right now you can try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a 60-day free trial at linkedin.com slash direct that is linkedin.com slash direct for a 60-day free trial let LinkedIn Sales Navigator help you sell like a superstar today just go to linkedin.com slash direct and get started you said how Aaron Paul you were thinking of killing off his character by the end of season one the original idea was you know you always got to come up with a great season ender you want a cliffhanger of an episode to keep folks watching next year and and my thought early on before I even met Aaron before we cast Aaron was was to have this young guy a former student of Walter White played by Bryan Cranston give Walt his entree into the business sort of show him the ropes of criminality and then at the end of that first season that character Jesse Pinkman would get horribly killed in some very cinematic graphic way that I never quite nailed down but he would be murdered by some rival drug dealers and Walt would feel very guilty and then he would seek revenge and that would propel us into season two then I meet Aaron Paul and I cast this young guy and he's fantastic in the role and he's such a sweet guy to boot he's just a wonderful guy that I think we're probably shooting the second episode and I was hanging out on the set with him you know sitting in those chairs near the monitors and I just make a conversation I say you know I was going to kill you off that was the original plan he goes what nervous he goes what do we talk about no this is a good thing it's a good thing and I tell him the story I just told you but he's not hearing the compliment contained within he's just thinking oh my god it might get killed off and I told this story to Brian Cranston I think he wandered by uh as he's hearing the tail end of this and he he was relentless for the next six years he'd get every time he got a script for a new episode before Aaron did he'd look through and he'd read it and then he'd go up to Aaron he'd say buddy put his start massaging his shoulders it was it was uh this next one it's at least you're gonna go out with a bang how's our first day coming up on a 10-year anniversary that's our first in studio guest Vince Gilligan back on the rich eyes and show radio network and our roku channel sports uh roku sports channel feed um 844-204 rich is the number to dial here on the program make sure that you get the mobile app game time on your phone and start buying tickets to anything in your area concerts dj mikey d how important is the view in your seat of the stage at a concert i've used it it's you have to do it i mean you have to do it and i do a lot of concerts you know i go to a lot of concerts that's why i'm asking i'm not asking tj doesn't leave his house i mean here you go you know but it's amazing we already know the view from the seat for for him he doesn't need the tv yeah are we forgetting that i'd left the house that's true at any rate the point is this the point is this is we all use the game time app and you should as well takes the guesswork completely out of buying this for instance concert tickets with game time download the game time app create an account use our code rich for twenty dollars off your first purchase again you get to view from your seat so you can see exactly where the stage is before you buy your concert ticket terms apply visit gametime.co for restrictions again create an account redeem my code rich and you get twenty dollars off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed all right let's make it up to tj because i do believe jory in san antonio texas wants to talk about dallas cowboys what's up sir how's it going rich can you hear me good we can hear you just fine what's on your mind i was i'm hoping it's not too late i'd love to do the win loss game for the dallas cowboys oh okay where are you right now jory uh i am currently down to san antonio i'm working though so i'm actually closer towards laredo okay but where do you what where do you what are you working in are you driving around working like yeah i'm a truck driver oh fantastic we but but my hands-free device i was about to say thank you thank you i'm about to say hands on ten and two when you play the win-loss game because we don't want any problems all right let's get jack with you that's very good here we go the long arm of the the jones law right there all right jory in san antonio texas he's riding his truck he's on the job and he's trying to drive the dallas cowboys to the super bowl i'm assuming what happens when the dallas cowboys visit cleveland in a couple sundays well i'm going on a limb say cd will be there but i think it's gonna be a slow start i'm gonna give them the lock on that one all right home for the saints oh that's a win all right now you got the ravens coming into dallas oh that's a loss right there that's a one and two start it's a little bit of panic but hey good news is you got a game coming up just on that following thursday at the giants what happens oh that's our little brother right there that's a very that's automatically that's on the back two and two at the steelers oh that's gonna be a good game uh i'm gonna go with the sneaky win right there but i think it was gonna be a really sneaky good thing three and two home for the lions uh that's home correct uh i think the lions are gonna get screwed over again somehow so that's a win for now all right four and two off the buy at san francisco it's all on this game jory i'm going that we get over the hump this year i think we're going to be if they beat san francisco and have a four game win streak and they're sitting there at five and two going into atlanta they're right here for me uh what happens at atlanta atlanta we uh we own curt cousins as well that's a win oh it's five and two home for the eagles home for the eagles oh they can have our sloppy seconds to tell them more that's a win for oh wow by the way i miscounted that was five straight wins to go six and two that's now six straight wins you're seven and two home for the texans on a monday night the battle with texas the texans are still a little brother as well that's a win seven wins in a row at the washington commanders uh i will take that i don't think that's a loss right there i think it's actually gonna be a good team as well that's a very wrinkle in time right there okay then home for the giants on thanksgiving i mean that's that's a win that's that's nine and three home for the bangles on a monday night i think that's gonna be real good game uh joey beans better later in the season when he's healthy that joey bean takes that okay uh so at carolina now oh that's a win ten and one two three four ten and four home for the bucks oh that's another one eleven and four at the eagles i'm i we sweep the eagles this year i don't see it they lost too many good guys uh i think kellen moore is desperate at this point and he has take my place center for them 20 and then you finish up against the commanders oh that's a win wow wow so that's a 13 and four season oh yeah i like your style thank you jory keep on driving straight there you go i do not pass by the way do not pass jory on the right hand side no when he's playing the win-loss game right now open up and truck that's first place nfc east right there that's first place nfc that you might be right yeah that's unlike jory stop drew bledsoe is coming up on the program 13 and four what are the other cowboy um i have uh jake and phoenix had him nine and eight okay yeah he's um tj had them 11 and six i'm tj that's so realistic jimmy in la had him 12 and five oh jimmy and san atonio are jimmy yeah are jimmy all right i need to um jacob and fontana had him 10 and seven yep and um chris read as stephen a smith had him two and 16 because they won the buy yeah who was their one win other than the buy i didn't i realized where he was going with it and i stopped recording the l's i saw made it through like five yeah i know oh yeah he just said they're gonna win yours is the most realistic because i'm a realistic person and if anyone gives him crap for that oh they will i will though when you leave you know that's not gonna you know i saw chris red in uh new york he was at the stand comedy club where i was hanging out with jeffrey ross the night before our fanatics fest oh cool yeah did you grab a mic by the way another reason why i probably ran a touch slow against schefter is oh i made the uh steak of wine at dinner and a little bit of vodka oh just a little bit um yeah not much at the stand with the great jeff ross nice that's the roast master general watched him on stage and chris red went on after him fantastic speaking my language is that right what i'm doing oh that's your mic that's why you're smiling in your selfies as you know you're going home with some vodka or he's got it under his toothy selfie of mike del tufo takes us to break 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 got in trouble the sean ryan show on youtube or wherever you listen
