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That's it, baby! The Rich Eisen Show. Sam, he'll scamper out to the left, eyes into the end zone. From The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Why do you think Sam Darnold is performing as well as he has been?
I think everybody wants to always look backwards. Really from the first day we got him, solidified a lot of the things that I viewed him from afar. Today's guests, Yahoo! Sports columnist Dan Wetzel, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero, plus latest news and more. And now it's Rich Eisen.
That's right, it is. Welcome this edition of The Rich Eisen Show here on a Friday, a final Friday of September 2024. Thrilled that you are here with us, whether it's watching on the Roku Sports Channel or listening on this Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate Sirius XM Odyssey.
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It's all good in our hood. Official announcement comes next week. We got a lot of fun stuff coming on around these parts.
844204 Rich number to dial Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports on what is going on with UNLV football and all of the NIL and transfer portal world. And that's taken sort of a front seat in a sport that will feature Georgia and Alabama playing each other this weekend. When it's Tomy's ball tomorrow, that'll be a lot of fun. Dan will talk about all of this shortly.
And then Tom Pelissero, the latest on what's going on in the National Football League that's already one game into its fourth week of this regular season. Good to see you over there, Chris Brockman. How are you?
Hey Rich, I'm great. What's up, man? All right, Jason Feller is in the chair today. Good to see you, Jay Felley. TJ Jefferson, good to see you over there. What's going on? Well, guys. Jason? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I'm in charge of these blocks this morning, sir.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am so sorry. I am so sorry because, you know, when it comes to talking about the Dallas Cowboys, there's two ways that we handle it on this program. And I appreciate that you won a crow.
I appreciate that. I mean, that's what we do. There's two ways, there's two ways to handle the Dallas Cowboys.
There's the Jimmy Johnson way when the Dallas Cowboys win. There's that. You got that one right there, Jason? There you go. That's what I wanted. Okay, sure. Or there's the, when the Dallas Cowboys lose.
But we didn't. There's the Stephen A. Smith version. How about them Cowboys? I've got a new version of it.
I've got a new version of it. How about them Cowboys? Cowboys?
High raiser? Great job. How about them? Congratulations. There's that, too. That could have been the way that we got it last night. Listen, wins are wins, though. I hear you. It's better to be two and two than one and three.
Thank you. It would be an absolute hair on fire situation had the New York Giants won that game last night, and they had every chance to do it. They had every chance to do it. I mean, and you know, the Dallas Cowboys also got met lifed. I don't know what it is about that place, man. It's terrible. It's the worst surface in the NFL.
The number of people that just get carted off there. And we'll get the latest from Tom Pelissero in hour two of this program. And Micah Parsons may or may not have a high ankle sprain.
Tank Lawrence may or may not say, you know, he said he'll be fine. You know, at one point, Diggs left the field to go get an IV, sort of what happened to Kittle a couple weeks ago. Right.
I was just like, okay, it's a cramp, it's a cramp, it's a cramp. I know. Wasn't Micah massaging him on the field? I don't know if it was Micah, but somebody.
I don't know who it was. But he did come back in at least. That was good news because the fact that Daron Bland is out is beginning to take roost in that secondary right now. Although the kid they brought up from the practice squad did come up with the game ending interception.
And let us talk about the good stuff. Certainly if we're going to talk about Dak, you know, Dak and what he does. And we lionized Jayden Daniels on Monday night going 21 of 23. Dak went 22 of 27.
He was efficient last night in terms of finding receivers and hitting them in the hands. And and C.D. Lamb showed up.
C.D. Lamb had to. Showed up and he had an excellent night last night. Got in the end zone, made some plays. They were using him as a running back every now and then. And part of the reason reason why they did that in a seven reception 98 yard touchdown night is because they don't have much of a running game outside of that. And that is why I went, how about them Cowboys? Because when you've got your ninety four million dollar a year quarterback wide receiver connection and they did score. Right. And Rico Daddle did get in the end zone. He did. That was a nice.
You know, scheme. Bless the Giants, man. They pushed back the Cowboys to go.
Second and long instead of third and five, and they use that extra yardage to punch it in the end zone on that Rico Daddle play that had a flag on the field and then got picked up and there's a touchdown. But outside of that, man, it is not good news that your most reliable offensive player outside of all that is your kicker. And that's it.
I get it. Brandon Cookes flashed and we did see some flashes out of one of the Jalen's. But this team is missing something and the coach knows it. I mean, the coach knows it. We can all see it. And a win is a win, a win in division on the road to that is nice to have in your back pocket to avoid going to a one and three and have the Metroplex's collective hair on fire. But this was the coach after the game last night, Mike McCarthy summed it up. Absolutely. I mean, when he's always a great thing, especially on the road, road wins are the best division games.
You can add another layer to it. So, yeah, we feel great about what we accomplished tonight. But I think it's, you know, for the fourth week in a row, we realized that we have a lot of work to do. Fourth week in a row, we realized we got a lot of work to do. Team doesn't look at all like the team that showed up in Cleveland week one at all. Before Micah got carted off, he's having trouble coming up bagging quarterbacks right now. The pressure is not there like it was in week one. And the offense in week one did just enough and the defense terrorized Cleveland and Deshaun Watson to the point where we weren't talking about whatever inefficiencies had shown up on offense that day. That may end up being a Browns thing. It may end up being a Browns thing.
You're not wrong. But you got to sit here and wonder against Pittsburgh. You know, you might have to come up with your first game that you win with 21 points scored since week one.
You might have to do that. I mean, the 25 that they scored against Baltimore, that was a lot of, you know, two minute drill, craziness, needing an onside kick to get that close. Detroit, you better score more than 21 at San Francisco.
We're assuming they're going to get healthier. Maybe McCaffrey's back successfully from Germany by then with a new lease on his Achilles. Kittles expected back this week.
Debo appeared at practice. At Atlanta, home for Philly, home for Houston. That team that struggled to put points on the board last night are going to lose a lot of those games. Certainly if they don't put pressure on Hurts or Stroud or Fields, you know. I'd be concerned if I were you, TJ, because that's not a Super Bowl winning team I saw last night.
A win is a win. You laugh all you want. They don't have a run game that you can depend on. They don't have a number two wide receiver they can depend on. They don't have a pass rush to depend on. At least they did stop the run last night. Can I tell you why I'm laughing?
Go ahead. Because we spent all off season, right, saying what the Cowboys were all in. They're not all in.
What did they do? They didn't improve their team. We had our other chart of the amount of players that they signed, which is only six. Meaning there was no one, in my opinion, who was seriously looking at this team as a serious Super Bowl contender throughout the entire offseason. All we did was slam them for not doing anything. Then we get one win against the Browns, which I think maybe people overestimated the Browns, and then all of a sudden we're a contending team. Like I thought we didn't do enough. Of course you're the Dallas Cowboys, man. Just because that's who we are. Like the Yankees are the Yankees.
Not every year they're they're World Series contenders. If we didn't do enough to improve the team in the offseason, my thought was like, okay, we're not close to being a Super Bowl team. Well, I mean, if that's the way you care to approach it, then bless you.
I don't think many Dallas Cowboys fans care to approach it. No, because honestly you don't. I'm giving you an honest assessment of. You showed up here smiling with your, with your, with your grease board. Yeah, because it's just one by 15 touchdowns. It's great to get a win. It's great to hold another NFL team without a touchdown in the game. It's great to win a game when you lose your three best defensive players in the same night. We're lucky to get the win. Yeah, but it's still, it's a win.
It's a road win. It is exactly that great. It is exactly that. It is.
We didn't look great. There was a point. If you want to be honest, I was like, wow, really? Like, is this really? Are we really going to do this? But you got the dub at the end with three days between games and now we have a little bit of a break to get ready. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I'm like, no, no, but you're, you're a fan and, and, and, and, and we always talk about, it's a marathon and not a sprint. And to be 500 at this point in time, I think is indicative of, of the depth of this roster and the lack of other weapons for Dak on this roster. And, and, and right now there are 500 team, which is better than being, you know, a 250 team because you're one in three, you know, and, and I understand we have to look at alternatives, but for a team that went all in and, you know, injury here, injury there, how deep really are they? And who else is going to be on offense for this team to be a problem? I haven't seen it to the four yet.
And I don't know who's going to walk through that door to provide a spark. I don't know, but they've got some rough games ahead. Their next six are against teams that are, are 100% considered to be or seven. You got the, at the Washington commanders who, by the way, based on the way they've performed so far this year can win this division.
I don't think anybody's running away with it just yet. We'll see what Philadelphia does, but yes, good news. They won because the bad news would have been worse. Bad news is they're now banged up. We'll see how hurt they are and we'll see who is going to start, you know, who's going to start scoring points and certainly let's get bland back and pick six and because that'll help.
That's going to help for sure. You know, scoring touchdowns on defense and special teams like they did in week one. That's when the Dallas Cowboys are going to look like world beaters outside of that, they're going to struggle on offense and we're going to wonder how they're going to stop people on the ground and thankfully for them last night they, they, they took on a Giants team that has trouble putting the ball in the end zone because the Giants moved it on them and let's talk about the Giants.
Rich, real quick, can I ask you a question? Sure. So the last three games, this team's only given up 22 points in the, in the second half of these three games. So, I mean, that's got to be something for them to kind of hang their hat on. Well, part of that is because it's the other team didn't need to score anymore. Game was over last two games by halftime. Honestly, you know, I mean, you got to look at the scoreboard. They were non-competing in the first half of the last two games at home. So, you know, two and O on the road, O and two at home, kind of like an exact flipped copy of last year. So maybe if they're doing the opposite, they'll actually win a couple of playoff games. And I'm not saying that facetiously.
Well, that would be nice. So, you know, and we'll talk about the Giants later on here because we're, we're up against it. And we got our friend Dan Wetzel zooming in shortly because this story, I don't think people can get enough of this story of a kid from UNLV basically saying I'm three and O, but they're, they're the, the O in the loss column matches the bagel that I'm seeing from whoever promised me a one with five O's after it. And who did? And who did? And who, who said to Matthew Sluka, you come here from Holy Cross, you get a hundred thousand dollars. And why can't they be held to account other than the kid quitting on his team, which is the way people look at it. Is this the kid who ordered the code red? I don't know. You know, it's kind of a mystery. And the problem is that there's nothing in college football that is going to hold anybody to account here.
So the, the young man in question felt he had to hold these folks to account by saying I'm leaving and becoming the face of, in many ways, what is ailing this sport? Now we'll forget about it. I will too, when Georgia and Alabama meet each other tomorrow.
I will. When, when the Brown Jug's on the line tomorrow between Michigan and Minnesota, the only way I might be thinking about it is if Michigan's quarterback struggles to put the ball downfield. Well, you have a benefactor. And I'll be like, you know, we're all this guy. Chris, I don't know if you saw, there's a Michigan benefactor who said that he's willing to.
I got three mil for a quarterback. I got friends of mine who are like texting each other saying, is he, is he in the, is he in the collective? And if so, why not? Yeah.
And if not, then why? Just think about that. Here's three mil. Listen, if everybody's using the advantages of their, you know, alumni base, you know, how much you put down on the rich, who connects with teenage kids better than, you know, in many ways than Barstool?
I mean, that's their target, right? Who wants a pod? Do you have a rocket arm and do you want a podcast? Well, then the University of Michigan is perfect for you. It's the place for you. Pardon that take. Get out of here. We've got Michigan alum Rich Eisen. That's what's happening in the college football world right now, college athletics world. And so we'll talk about it with Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports. When we come back right here on the Rich Eisen Show, it's a What's More Likely Friday. We have not one, but two top 10 lists. I've got one. TJ's got one. You've got a phone line to light up.
844-204-RICH. Let's talk DoorDash people. If your family's like mine, it probably is. You want something to eat, your kids want something else to eat. How do you handle it all? How do you make sure everybody's happy? DoorDash.
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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Back here on the Rich Eisen show on the Roku sports channel. Did you just sing that? I did not. Is it a new jingle? It was close. Let's sing songy. We're back on the Roku. Okay. I can't sing.
We are here. You got a top five list, right? I do. Okay, you do?
Something that happened earlier this week kind of made me think. Okay. And I'm also just now looking at this shirt because I've lost some weight. It's too big on me.
Yeah, you have. See? Like get a little clothespin in the back. You know, you got to Joe burrow that shirt, Rich. I mean, talk to a fella. You know all the wardrobe tricks.
Because his mom was a master wardrobe. Put a pin back there. I got one. I got safety pin over here. You bring it over. Let's do this.
Couple of bagels. See, honestly, like that shows that's better than this. He's going to clip it right now. Yeah. I mean, it's not great.
Why not? You got to wear, um, you got to get the swim cut. It's like a legit clothespin. Like we're hanging laundry on a wire. I know my mom's watching right now.
She's probably so proud. Look at me. Now. Let's see it. Now. Look at this.
Come on now. The problem is, is that now I've got a clothespin on my back. Can't lean back.
Thank you. There we go. Lean back.
I feel like a new man. Let's start the show over again. Mulligan. Rewind.
This is the rich eyes and show taper down on the rich. I was going to have to let me, uh, add that to my resume for just what? Clothespin. Joe Joe. What union is that? More you can do.
I got to stay employed in this town somehow. There is no I and TJ Jefferson. There isn't. There's one in Temujin back on the rich eyes and show radio network sitting at the rich eyes and show desk furnished by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Granger has the right product for you.
Call click ranger.com or just stop by. You're on this program. Who's Syracuse playing this weekend? Oh, uh, Holy cross. Holy cross.
Oh, Matthew Slook is former, uh, place of business. Hopefully, hopefully a get right game after last week's kind of home debacle against Stanford. And then, uh, we're in Vegas next week. I'll be there. So let's go.
So you're in Vegas next week on a Friday night where there is no Matthew Sluka playing his former team and his newly former team. So this whole thing can go on for another like 10 days as far as I'm concerned. Okay.
As long as he doesn't come back in the next week. Okay. We're told that Dan Wetzel is dealing with technology issues. We have those sometimes. Tell me about it. Like literally about a half an hour ago again, my word, Penn state, all right. So let me, let's, uh, let's talk about the giants here.
Lots of like, let me just say this. Daniel Jones has definitely improved from last year. Yep.
Okay. Malik neighbors is outstanding. Currently, you know, he's got a game up on everybody. He does have, he's got 32 catches that leads the league. He's wide receiver one right now. He has been special.
Chris and I have him on our fans. He can run all the routes. He is an outstanding route runner. Really good, man. He is really, really why people had him.
I had a Marvin Harrison. I get it. I see it. And the giants are exploiting it. And he's only going to get better. And he is a playmaker.
That is terrific. He got concussed at the end of the game. Wasn't on the field at the end of the game where the, you know, the giants, because Aubrey missed his first field goal, you know, and, and that, that had a few people ripping up a ticket or two in the country, apparently.
Not me. And good. I thought you took the giants. And you know, who's second?
Wandale Robinson. Yeah. Yeah. There were just some, there were some, you know, when, when Jones did the deep ball, he wasn't, they're just a little off. His deep balls weren't crisp. Some of the other receivers on the giants dropped catchable footballs, catchable footballs. You know, the defense is doing its job. Jones is seeming to avoid the, just the, the mind boggling, like, did you, did you really go to Duke type plays? You know what I mean?
Like, you should be smart enough to not do that. Wow. Honestly, like that's the sort of, they used his legs from time to time to pick up first downs. Yeah.
I was surprised he didn't run a little bit more yesterday. Dude. Yeah.
This was Daniel Jones after the game for the giants. Very frustrating. Very frustrating. We're expected to score touchdowns and put points on the board. And in a game that I felt like we were able to do a lot and move the ball well and, and you know, execute a lot of stuff well, we didn't execute the red zone stuff and didn't punch it in.
So that's frustrating. Yeah. If they didn't have their kicker get hurt in Washington, they potentially win week two. Mm-hmm. You know, if they were able to score in the red zone last night, you know, and they, they, they win the game.
Yeah. Seemingly just punch one of those in. They win the game. They have an opportunity to be three and one instead of one and three. And that's just, there's a difference in the NFL between being two over and two under that.
That's it right there. You know, one game that unfortunately lost their kicker and they couldn't get it in the end zone. And they lose another game. They do get it in the end zone and their defense overcomes a turnover on the first play of the game on the kickoff and the brown score and, and the giants absorb that on the road and win that game.
That's a tough, that's toughness right there. And then last night they just didn't get it in the end zone and dropped some balls here. And, and, and I didn't blame day ball for kicking the field goal instead of going forward on fourth down inside the red zone, because then, you know, you're now within another field goal of, of winning that game. Unfortunately, Brandon Aubrey just keeps making them from 60 yards away.
Right. And, and so if you defensively give up a couple of first downs, you're going to, you're going to lose that way. And trust me, the Falcons on Sunday night could have used that extra three points that they did not go ahead and get, because they decided to go for it on fourth down where he, Mara said, I'm not going to let Patrick Mahomes beat me. So I'm going to go be aggressive and had the kick to field goal there later on, instead of going for a touchdown at the end or needing a touchdown at the ending, they could have kicked the field goal and won. Same thing with Philadelphia, but guess who bailed Philadelphia out? And that is something I kind of, I'm, the fruit hangs low and I know it may sound unfair, but if you had a different 26 running, and I know I'm laying it at the feet of somebody like Devin Singletary here, who, who was, had a nice first couple of weeks, but do you think they would have won that game last night if they had Saquon Barkley? Without question. What about in Washington in week two? I'm just saying, and I know it's, it's, it's easy to say, and the fruit hangs low, and I do not know who would not be on this team right now, who was making plays last night for Dallas to put the Giants in a position to win because Saquon would have eaten up the cap space that they used to sign that guy. It is so easy for somebody in my position to say these things, because I don't have to back it up by saying, well, you know, I'm, I'm thinking about the guy that they currently have that made plays last night.
And who would that person be? We will never know. Just like we will never know what Saquon have done for the Giants last night, what he did for Nick Sirianni and bailing him out in New Orleans last week, or what he would have did for the Eagles in week one. Would he have done it for the Giants in week one against Minnesota?
Would that have made a difference or anything like that? But it's just, they are missing that extra spark and that extra, would you imagine if they had Saquon to go with Malik Nabors and Wandale Robinson and Daniel Jones was playing like he's playing? You got to sit here and think that if you're a Giant fan, and I'm sorry if you're not as a Giant fan, you think this is unfair. I'm seeing the Giants in Munich. I might even hear a little bit from them if I sit down with them. Well, I will sit down with them. When I sit down with them, maybe so.
I'm just telling you how I'm sitting there wondering, oh, that's right. They gave Singletary Saquon's number to actually crystallize this. That's my take on the Giants. Better, unfortunately, instead of three and one, they're one and three, but they're competitive as opposed to last year when they were having trouble competing and staying in games. And next up for the G-Men, they are taking on, oh, they're in Seattle before Cincinnati at home, and then Philadelphia, that Saquon game at Pittsburgh, home for Washington. Let's go before Munich.
Okay, some interesting games for them coming up. Rich, can I just give you a quick... I'm sorry, before you do that, we got to get going because Dan Wetzel has, in fact, zoomed in here. Good to see our friend from Yahoo Sports. Good to see you, Dan. How are you, sir? I'm well, Rich. How are you? I'm well.
Giants lost otherwise. I know. Are you a G-Man fan?
I didn't know that. No, no, no, I'm not a fan. Okay, very good. I felt for you. Okay, no, no, no. I'm just...
I have no skin in that game at all, but let's jump in here. What can you tell us about Matthew Sluka and his decision, and then we can sort of get into what you think it means writ large for the sport, Dan? Yeah, Matthew Sluka is a kid who transferred to UNLV after four years at Holy Cross FCS program, and won the starting job this summer, became the starter at UNLV. They're 3-0. They're doing really well.
They're ranked for the first time in a long time. Big game against Fresno this week, but on Tuesday night announced he was going to redshirt, preserve his final year of eligibility, and transfer after the season, and there's a lot of back and forth, but essentially, he and his family and their agent believed they were going to get about $100,000 or $100,000 if they were going to play at UNLV. UNLV said that's not the case. They only received about $3,000 from the UNLV collective, which is basically like a booster group that gets together to pay quote-unquote NIL money, and there's a dispute of whether they deserve it or not. There was nothing put in writing, and UNLV saying as a program that you know they can't pay them. The collective said this was never agreed to in writing, and we were never really going to give you $100,000.
There's a lot of confusion, but Matthew Sluka has transferred from UNLV and caused a lot of eyebrow raising around college football, I'd put it. So, you know, I can't imagine those in charge of college football, whoever the hell they are, wherever they sit, that they can't want a kid saying I was promised this money by somebody, and I'm now going to redshirt to leave, and then local concerns like a casino reaches out to the school saying we'll pay the $100,000, and the school admits that we did get that phone call, but we did not accept that offer from gambling concerns. I mean, this is an absolute holy hell of a mess, Dan, and the question is, is how does it get fixed?
How does it get fixed? Yeah, it's certainly not the way they would love the public attention on this. Look, I'm of the belief this really isn't that big of a deal. We've had NIL for about three or four years. We've had two cases of publicly players saying I was promised all this money, I didn't get it. The other was quarterback Jayden Rashada, who thought he was going to get $13 million to play at the University of Florida with a collective and actually had a contract, but that collective dissolved and he didn't get it.
He then went to Arizona State, now he's to Georgia as a backup at Georgia, and now we have the Sluka case. Now, there are other cases where people didn't get what they thought they should get or promised. There's always a lot of confusion with these things. Collectives will say things like, look, you're going to get a $100,000 car and a player will, instead of getting a car, doesn't get ownership of the car, gets to drive the car and then has to give it back.
And so there's different things like that that come along. But one thing we know about college football and college sports in general, Rich, is they've been paying players, boosters have been playing players for generations. And in the past, Matthew Sluka had no way out. Once he took the three grand, you could be promised 100 and boosters would do it, coaches would do it all the time.
They'd give them three grand and then you were blackmailed and stuck because if you admitted you took the three grand, the NCAA would end your eligibility. So this has been going on a long time. I think it's going on less now. We just have some public cases of it where you have it going.
I see two cases over multiple years and I don't see a big concern. I think there is a lot of people in college athletics who either want to declare everything a disaster or in the media make a lot of ratings and money off of declaring everything a disaster. And I actually think two cases kind of prove the system's working pretty good.
No kidding, Dan, because I'll offer a little pushback here. There's got to be multiple cases around the country of kids we don't know who left a school, who left a program, who went somewhere, was promised something and their lives are completely upended. Or they had no idea that they owed taxes on this stuff and now they're in debt. And I understand it's caveat emptor, let the buyer beware and what have you. I understand that. But the fact that there's a few rules, hardly any enforcement that it appears can only seem to create an issue. If a coach leaves and he goes somewhere else, there's an actual contract that's in a central office that a judge can actually uphold. There's arbitration, there's all that stuff.
With these kids, there's a transfer portal window and good luck. And now a team in the middle of a season needs to switch quarterbacks. I consider that a problem. Well, Luca should have signed a contract. That was his problem. He didn't sign a contract. So you can sign a contract with the collective and then he would have the ability to go to civil litigation and remedy the situation.
He didn't. A guy in Vegas promised you one hundred grand. You know, that's a heck of a good luck. Good luck with that. The house always wins.
So good luck. But he had he should have signed a contract. I mean, they did.
They did a poor job. That is. Yeah.
Buyer beware. Got kids not knowing you pay taxes on earnings. It's 15, 16 year olds in this country working fast food. They know you have to pay taxes.
First time you get a check there. It's you know, this is unfortunate that it happened. It's not great for you on LV. You would absolutely be better off if they if the college athletics wants to recognize the players as employees, have them form some kind of union or group and then collectively bargain with them and have contracts and things like that that could protect some of the stuff. But at the same time, this is what's going to happen. The NCA has a very pro player rule where you're allowed to play four games and then determine you want to redshirt and preserve your your eligibility. And they did this because there were a lot of unfair and unfortunate cases where, say, a kid was going to you know, you only have four years to play and you were going to redshirt your season.
And then at the end of the year, team had a bunch of injuries and you had to get in there for like a game and a half and you blew your your entire season because of something that really wasn't planned or really it was out of everyone's control. So they created this rule where it's like, hey, you have a four game window. Now that can be exploited. OK, if if a player I'm not going to say hypothetical player comes out and starts his quarterback at you on a V and starts with this great season and says, hey, I'm getting a hundred grand here, but I'm now got enough tape that I could redshirt save my last year and go to the power five for, say, a million dollars next year.
They can do that. That read that loophole is out there. But if you want to close that loophole, what are you going to force a kid to play?
Are you going to say, well, determine whether you're allowed to redshirt or you're allowed to transfer with mental health? It's just it's not going to work. So it's the uniqueness of college athletics and the limited time frame that this this window is open and and trying to close it would cause other other issues.
We have not seen a million of these things happen. You would also have other schools say, am I going to pay a million dollars for kids to just quit on his team? So there's sort of market forces that would correct it.
But yeah, this is an ideal. You're you've outsourced labor. You've outsourced labor to a collective. But college sports has always outsourced labor to a collective and to boosters. It's just now there's more openness to it and more remedy to it.
And we're not seeing a million cases. Does it happen? Sure.
Is this a is this a great situation? No. But if the slukas had signed a contract with the UNLV collective, then everyone could sit there and say, hey, you actually own the money. Pay them. They didn't. They took a potentially verbal agreement that I think people at UNLV would say we never made that deal.
And this is where you have the mess. Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports, national sports columnist here on the Rich Eisen Show. Where where are we headed towards an actual central office here that's not the NCAA? I know there's that working group between the SEC and Big Ten commissioners. There's a Supreme Court case being handed down. Where where are we on on heading towards actually getting closer to what you referred to? Contracts, employees, unions, some sort of uniformity amongst the maybe the big five. I don't know. Where are we on that?
Do you think, Dan? Well, there's there's various cases here at the the college sports. One of your things you said, the people who are in charge.
No one's in charge. That's kind of the problem. There is no Roger Goodell you can turn to. It's why we have conference realignment.
Right. The NFC East can't just say, hey, Steelers, join us. You know, like this is what we have in college sports.
It's supposed to be me. It's supposed to be mayhem. But the people that run college sports are bureaucrats. They love rules. They love rules. They love meetings about rules. They love rules about meetings.
They love rules. So they're always going to try to create a bureaucracy and regulations that can try to solve every problem. And they and they won't until they allow them to be employees, which they are adamantly opposed to and are lobbying like heck in Congress to try to avoid. But even we will have direct payment potentially within a year of schools saying we will directly pay you. So someone like Sluka would be getting a salary or some kind of stipend directly from UNLV, but that they cannot stop the collectives from offering additional money until until they collectively bargain with the players.
And even that it might be tough. The Sherman Antitrust Act is a real problem for the NCA. It's not new, but they're in violation of it with almost every rule they come up with. And the last time they went to the Supreme Court, they lost nine to zero. And Brett Kavanaugh, Justice Kavanaugh, wrote a concurring opinion that said, don't come back. Basically, you're going to lose.
You're going to get crushed here. So they are stuck trying to twist themselves into some deal where they're not employees, but they're not in violation of this rule, but we're not restraining trade and all these different things. And I don't really see how it works, but they are trying to come up with some kind of system. I just don't I don't know how it would possibly be legal.
So you see state attorneys generals coming up with rules saying you can't you can't enforce this. The NCAA college sports is blocked in. So I get look the popular opinion here. The easiest thing for me to do is pound the table says the biggest disaster ever. Everything's horrible.
Fix it in an easy fix. And again, two cases. One kid says I had a verbal deal to get 100 grand.
Why didn't you sign a contract? This is not Armageddon or some cataclysmic event for college athletics. Dan Wetzel here on the Rich Eisen show. So before I go, I guess let's go into the toy department and talk about an actual game. How do you see Alabama and Georgia playing out, Dan? Fascinating game.
Fascinating game. Obviously, big game for Kalen DeBoer at at Alabama. First big first SEC game, first truly big game for him trying to replace Nick Saban. Obviously, you can lose this game.
He's going to be fine. You could lose this game, still win the SEC, still win the national championship. However, Kalen DeBoer has been brought in and he does things different than Nick Saban. He's an offensive coach, not a defense coach.
He has different kind of style to do things. And he is trying to use his winning ways. He's been an unbelievably successful coach with the power of Alabama. He's trying to be sort of the post Saban success story. What's interesting about this game is they're going against Kirby Smart, who is essentially Saban 2.0. And Georgia was built in almost the mirror image of Saban's Alabama program. Same system, same competitiveness, same recruiting philosophy, all of that. So it's an interesting bit to watch kind of Nick Saban's impact. His name's not just on the field and he's not just on game day and up in the box, but his impact on this game.
One guy trying to succeed him, one guy trying to imitate him. Really, really interesting game. If I'm picking a team, Alabama's at home and getting one and a half points.
They haven't been home dogs since 2007. I'd probably lean that way, but I expect a really heck of a game. All right, and what's your two cents as well about the season so far? Do you think Texas is a worthy number one? What's your opinion on the way everything on the field is played out, Dan?
Texas looks great. I was at the Michigan game. They played Michigan, obviously saw it. And they looked, you know, you watch the game and you just see they got playmakers all over the field. Both lines are tremendous quarterback depth.
I mean, they got Quinn Ewers out. Arch Manning steps in. They're going to Mississippi State. I'm almost certain this weekend. And we'll see if they can, you know, how if Arch plays. I don't know if they made that announcement yet today, but I think he's expected to.
How he'll handle that. But they have such depth all over the place. And they're one spot they're weak running back. They found some other guys that can run the ball.
So they're so good in the line. They remind me a little of the Michigan team last year when you just watch them. And a lot of times when you watch college football, you look and you go out, there's the weakness or that kid's not that good or, you know, they're trying to hide this. They don't look to be a single weakness in this Longhorn team. Yeah, I thought the same thing. It did remind me of the Michigan national championship team with a, you know, quarterback that's got, you know, NFL upside program coming off of a difficult to handle loss in the college football semifinal the year before.
A head coach with the pro experience. The whole thing. I mean, soup to nuts.
They do have echoes of all of that. Dan, I appreciate your time and you're always interesting. Two cents. Thank you. Appreciate it, Rich.
Talk to you soon. You got it. Yahoo! National sports columnist Dan Wetzel. Check out the college football enquirer pod that he hosts as well right here on the Rich Eisen Show.
Lots to unpack. We will do that when we come back. Your phone call is 844-204-rich. Number to dial as well.
Tom Posero dispensing information when we come back for hour two on what's going on in the NFL. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts, people. You love their jingle. You're going to love their friendly, helpful service even better because they're in the business of keeping your car on the road. And the parts knowledge they have, it's all you need for your maintenance and repairs.
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That's OReillyAuto.com E-I-S-E-N O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. Hey everybody, you know we're living in a new age of football with the expanded college football playoff, NIL, conference realignment, and increasing popularity of the draft. The landscape is changing and it's changing quickly and it can be confusing, but you know you're still into it. That's where the new podcast The Triple Option comes in. Each week, Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, host Rob Stone, and three-time national champion coach Urban Meyer team up to bring on the biggest guests in college football, pro football, and anything related to the culture of the game. They cover it all from top stories to recent changes and shifts in the game, the culture surrounding it, and everything in between. So get in the game today. Follow and subscribe to The Triple Option on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch The Triple Option on YouTube as well.
New episodes drop Wednesday mornings. I will say this. Yes. I am a man that knows when he's defeated. Yes. I was beaten this year.
Yes. So my businessman was supposed to have the hat for us. He did not. Oh, we're throwing. We're throwing under the bus right here. He did not bring that.
He was thrown under the bus by the bus just right now. See, he didn't even show his face. I was willing to wear this hat. He had it made up. Well, he told me that the hat that he made up had the final score. No, he had the hat on there. It was a hat. I don't know what that was.
The hat is supposed to read the following. I am going to listen to this. Hear this. Yes. Hail to the victors, valiant hail to the conquering heroes. Hail, hail to Michigan, the leaders and best. Wow.
That is for you only. I honestly did not want me to do that. I honestly can't have thought of anything else that you would do that would make me think that you would not have to follow through on your end of the wager, which is where I should have gone to Michigan hat on the vaunted field of Notre Dame with touchdown Jesus behind you.
But do I let him out of that end of the bet now? He's that was pretty epic, actually. And he nailed all the words. He grew up in the state of Michigan. He should know them. He should know them. I mean, that was like, I did not know them.
I had to look them up to make sure I was saying it correctly for you. Also, also I'm getting visions of like Jerome practicing before he came out here. Yeah, it sounded rehearsed. That was great. That took a lot out of me. That was awesome. That was awesome.
Check everything out on our YouTube channel, please. Back on the Rich Eisen show game time tickets, get tickets. It's so easy. And it's so simple to find the seats that you're looking for, for any event and see with a view from your seat, see how much the ticket costs before you purchase it. The game time picks new feature makes getting tickets to see your favorite teams play live even easier because it filters out the fluff shows you only incredible deals on great seats. You don't have to waste a single second searching through thousands of tickets. The game time ticket coverage is awesome. The purchase is covered with the most flexible customer service policy in the ticketing industry.
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Thank you. Let's go to Pat in Vancouver. What's up, Pat?
First in first out. What's up, Pat? Hey Rich, how are you doing? I'm well.
Your thoughts? I'm all good. I'd like to start off by just thanking all you guys for what you do. I just love listening to you guys. I'm actually from Ireland, but I moved to Vancouver about a year ago. Pat, I couldn't tell you at all.
I had no idea. I kind of struggled with my mental health for the first year here. And you guys just, I put you guys on in the morning and you guys are kind of just put me at ease, you know, you just really helped me. Thank you.
You, TJ, Chris Brockman, you guys. I love what you're doing. I appreciate you saying that and we're glad that we're here and we hope that you're feeling more sunny, Pat.
You're welcome. It's been really good for me. Appreciate you, Pat. I'm living up here in the Pacific Northwest. I've gotten to a few Seahawks games. They're really great, but I'm actually like your buddy there, Chris Brockman. I'm a Boston guy. Pat's fan, Celtics fan. My man. Okay. Again, odd that an Irishman would root for the Celtics.
Very strange. Totally not on brand at all, Pat, but what's on your mind sports-wise today? So just a quick one maybe for you or Chris Brockman there. With the Pats, I think we should probably draft an all-night man, but what is the chances of the Pats drafting a good all-night man like Campbell or this Banks guy from Tennessee or Texas, I think, and then maybe signing Jamar Chase and T. Higgins in free agency?
What is the chances of that happening? Chris, you want to handle that one? Thanks for the call, Pat. Be well, sir. Thank you for calling.
Call back. New England's not exactly a free agent hotbed destination. They've got a ton of cap. But we have a ton of cap space. If and when Drake May gets out in the field and shows some flashes, I think some people are going to be like, oh, maybe I want to be the number one for that kid.
Maybe not. So it's possible that, you know, someone might be interested in joining in the offseason, but I think everyone get in the memo. Let's have a top six, seven pick. Let's take the best available lineman and let's rebuild.
New England is a home for a wide receiving free agent. Brandon Ayew cut a shot. He had a chance and he said, no thanks.
Didn't want to, but hadn't seen what Drake May can look like. Also, I don't really know if he really wanted to move east. I think he wanted to stay put. Probably not, but hey, look, Jamar Chase doesn't seem happy where he's at.
So, you know, come on over. Well, New England's going to be they're at San Francisco. That's as close to Pat as he's possibly going to get. He was probably right, right?
I almost was going to mess with Pat, but then he got a little serious too. When I said, how you doing? I said, I'm well, your thoughts. And then he started talking about what's on his mind. I thought, no, your thoughts about me being well. Oh, I almost went there and then it's just a little fun.
I'm glad I did not know. It's funny in the topic, he'd said he wanted to talk about Belichick, but I know he went to something else. He went to something else. That'll happen. So I'll just blame it on Adam.
Adam typed in the wrong thing. Also, Bill's going to Jacksonville so everyone can relax. Dude, what a big game Jacksonville at Houston is this week. It's arguably their season.
I know. And then if Jacksonville can come up with a win in Houston, suddenly they're just a game out with a back pocket tie break. That's the best one you can have in the AFC South. It's kind of a monumental game for the Jaguars this weekend. If you're in the AFC South and you can win in Houston, that's the stuff. That's why the Cowboys last night, despite not lighting up the world, it's like that's a road division win.
That's the biggest win you can have in the NFL, is a road division win. And now they can rest for a few extra days. They'll need it.
They will need it. Because you know, pressure makes diamonds. I've heard that. Pressure makes diamonds.
It also bursts pipes. Oh my gosh. Although I saw you can buy like a diamond maker on Amazon for like twenty thousand. I didn't know that really. Yeah. Can't be true.
Yeah, I saw it. They make lab diamonds now. They look exactly the same and they're a fraction of the cost. Oh yeah, I see a lot of ads on Instagram.
You can buy something for Amazon that gets delivered to your house and it's worth twenty thousand dollars. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Really? Yeah. Not in my apartment.
Let me double check that. The driver will just snap a photo of that twenty thousand dollar box. Here's outside the door. I left it behind a bush.
Good luck finding it. I got a note on my door yesterday that somebody broke in our mailboxes in my apartment so I don't think I want that delivered to my crib. Yeah. You know. Well, a piece of Prime Video that wanted to return something to sender last night was Al Michaels with the officiant. Al was on one last night. You know what? Al is zero F's left.
Honestly. It was also the anniversary. He didn't have many to begin with but he is out of them. His first Monday Night Football call was a Giants Cowboys game. Oh yeah. In 86 they showed the video. That was his 20th last night.
Yeah. Tommy P on what ails the Cowboys and what is going on with McCaffrey coming up. The Rolling Stone Music Now podcast gets inside the biggest stories with Rolling Stone's senior writer Brian Hyatt. Movie director James Mangold. I'd want to turn Bob Dylan into a simple character with a simple thing to unlock that then makes you go, ah, now I get him. First time I sat down with him he said, what's this movie about, Jeff? It's about a guy who's choking to death in Minnesota and reinvents himself in a branded place, becomes phenomenally successful, starts to joke to death again and runs away and you smile and he's like, I like that. Rolling Stone Music Now, wherever you listen.
