Dan Campbell: I Love Where Our Team Is At

This is The Rich Eisen Show. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The Rich Eisen Show. Today's guests, Lion's Head Coach Dan Campbell, host of Glory Days Podcast, Johnny Mantel, BYU quarterback Jake Redslab, actor Nick Turturro, and now it's Rich Eisen. That's right, what a lineup. Welcome to this edition of The Rich Eisen Show, otherwise known as three crazy guests and a Jewish quarterback from BYU walking to a show. That's our lineup today.

Every good joke starts like that. I don't mean to refer to the head coach and potential coach of the year of the Detroit Lions as a crazy guy, but he's a great kind of crazy. Dan Campbell of the 5-1 Lions will be on this program in just about 20 minutes time. Then it comes Johnny Mantel, Nick Turturro, diehard nutty Yankee fan. He takes his shirt off every time they win despite being in public like in Cleveland in game five. He will be in studio on hour number three.

He's going to keep his shirt on. And then Jake Redslab of the BYU Cougars. They are 7-0. They're 11th ranked in the country.

And yes, we talked to Steve Young before, so Jake will be the first bar mitzvahed quarterback of BYU football I've ever spoken to. And that'll be later on in hour number three. It's a Tuesday, meaning it's an overreaction Monday on a Tuesday show. Chris Brockman and I recorded overreaction Monday.

The podcast version, please check that out. Later on today, Susie Schuster and Amy Trask. Once we are done here, we'll be taking care of business on what the football. Kurt Warner will be zooming in.

Can't wait to hear what Kurt has to say about Russell Wilson's first start as a Pittsburgh Steeler. That's later on in our podcast version. Good to see you over there, Christopher Brockman.

How are you? Rich, more importantly, Banner 18 gets raised tonight. Oh, that's right.

I'm able to do it. That's right. It's the opening night, the coronation with Banner 18. Let's go with the Knicks in town as well. And then you've got the Timberwolves and the Lakers, the downtown hoops dojo tonight. And then the rest of the NBA tips off later on. And, you know, it's an NBA season, which means Joel Embiid's got to miss a game.

That'll be that'll be Wednesday, though. Oh, hey, TJ Jefferson. How are you? Candles already lit over there. Good to see you.

I love how you take shots at a man's physical liabilities. OK, very good. Jokes out of it. Yeah, I saw him. Great. That's awesome. He's running like a deer winning a gold medal. So it was two months ago last time I saw him. It's great. DJ Mikey D is in D's nuts. Good to see you over there. Here, coach. OK, very good. He's got it going.

He's got his own drops and everything. Let's start this as we do every single Tuesday with a Monday night review presented by Lowe's. Let's hit that right now here on The Rich Eisen Show. OK, so now. On Monday's show, fresh off of the Lions beating the Vikings, I said the Lions were the class of the NFC.

That has not changed in my estimation. I also said Jared Goff was the clear most valuable player of the National Football League. And if you run back that video, you will not see me having my finger on the chess piece. But we can always delete that.

No, no, it's not deleting it. I had my finger on a chess piece, just verbally, not physically on a chess piece. It's figuratively on a chess piece by St. Jared Goff was the MVP of this league. I'd now like to amend my comments, if I may. As you should.

Thank you. Hold strong. Come on. No, Jared Goff is balling out, and I'll talk about that with Dan Campbell when he joins us in about 15 minutes time. But Lamar Jackson, I think, is in line to be MVP of this league again, because he is really good at the football. And last night, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came out and scored on their opening drive, and Mike Evans, making our Magic 8-Ball look pretty damn good, did in fact start, did in fact play, did in fact come up with his 100th career touchdown reception. And then the Buccaneers' defense went out there and three and outed Lamar, sacked him twice, got off the field, and then the Bucs are up 10-0.

I thought this could be a night for Tampa, even though I chose the Ravens to win it. And, you know, listen, guys, things can change. Momentum can switch.

Mm-hmm. And then Lamar started playing football. He is unbelievable. He can avoid the rush and now keep his head up and find the open receiver.

And then he can take off and gut you that way. He was relentless last night. You know, he was relentless in a similar way that we watch Josh Allen being relentless, that we've seen in the past Aaron Rodgers, when he was MVP, be relentless. We saw him as relentless as Russell Wilson when he was cooking. And by relentless, I mean, you can't get him on the ground when you have him surrounded or seemingly sacked. You can't get him phased.

He's the one who's just constantly coming at you and looking to steal your soul. And he has actually played better this year than his two MVP seasons. And in those seasons, it was one of those like, well, yeah, who's going to really catch the football from him? He's got Zay Flowers.

He has Rashad Bateman in the end zone. Guys, he now has four career, five touchdown games in which he has five or fewer incomplete passes. Four times in his career now.

Four. Do you know who's had that many such games in their career? Tom Brady. No, sir. Drew Brees. No, sir. Steve Bartkowski.

It's a word they'll hardballs like to say. No body. He's the first such guy.

Not way to ever do it. Lamar Jackson now has a fifth career game with five passing touchdowns and no interception. Brady and Brees have more than that. They have eight, but Lamar now has five tied with Rogers, Peyton and Ben Roethlisberger in that regard. He had yet another terrific game under the lights, 18 and five now in his career. Best primetime winning percentage in the Super Bowl era.

The only one with a better one is Steve Young at 23 and six. John Harbaugh had this to say about Lamar Jackson after he personally in the first half destroyed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last night. Just he's the ultimate competitor.

There's no question about it. He's I don't know if I've seen a better competitor than Lamar Jackson. And I've seen I've seen some competitors, you know, a lot of some great competitors. But he is he is he is in that level with the greatest competitors that I've ever seen. Maybe, maybe, maybe the greatest. We'll see, you know, just amazing.

And, you know, I'll say this here too. He's watching him perform as an MVP last year and then raise his game this year. And we'll discuss in a second why his game might be a little bit raised as well.

And I think you might know where I'm going with that one, right? Right. But after 17 for 22, 281 pass yard, five passing touchdown, zero interception, 158.1 passer rating game on Monday Night Football against the Tampa Bay team at four and two. That is the only team to have beaten the Lions this year in Detroit, by the way, too. And what what he looked like last night and what he's doing again this year.

First time Ravens have ever dug out of an 0-2 hole with a five game win streak, too, by the way. And so what he's doing in terms of his value and showing out how he's most valuable again. And in the spirit of the fact that another NBA season is tipping off tonight, the worst take I've ever had in the history of this show is that the. Miami Heat should not trade for Giannis and Ted Kumpel, right? I think that's in the that's that's in the clubhouse.

Almost made my head explode. There may be a new one in the fact that when Lamar Jackson was, in fact, available to be had in this league when he was saying, I'm holding out on the Baltimore Ravens and I want to trade. And I sat here and said the Jets and nobody else should trade two first overall picks for this guy that may be up there as one of the dumbest takes I've ever had on this program. Because right now, if anybody went ahead and now listen, the Ravens and again, I'll say in a second why obviously this is a great spot for Baltimore to have him and why he's in a great spot with Baltimore.

This said, I don't know if you would have had the same success, had Atlanta gone and done it, what what what a lot of people thought they should do and what they were apparently considering doing before Arthur Smith said the Arthur above the flow chart said, let's not do this. And and and the Jets who were, you know, kicking around Derek Carr and then Aaron Rodgers, as as Lamar stayed put, all told, I don't imagine anybody if this was the guy that they were going to get would be missing any first round selections by this point. Already forgot about him. Because he's just out of his scope.

That's how well he's playing. And this is exactly why John Harbaugh, when Lamar did ask for a trade as Harbaugh's butt hit the chair at a press availability at the owner's meeting, remember that happened, that it looked like Lamar hit send on that public request, why he said nothing. And the Ravens kept everything in house. Now, you did hear stuff about Lamar's work ethic and eating habits and all that sort of stuff.

But that is long gone, long gone. And yes, it does matter what might happen later on this post season when Robert Meets wrote and Lamar is going to have to win a go win or go home game that, you know, he has struggled in in his career. But it will definitely help to have a Hall of Fame running back at that point in time, because that's what the Ravens have. In the first half, where Lamar was just going off and it was only 17 10, they scored 17 unanswered points after the Bucks scored the first 10 unanswered. And then they got, you know, a field goal to go up 20 to 10. Then Derek Henry takes over. And what they've got in Derek Henry is the guy who through seven weeks leads the NFL and carries rushing yards, rushing touchdowns and 100 yard games.

Did I miss anything? His 873 rush yards through seven games of the season is his best such mark through seven games of a season in his career. So the idea of marrying Derek Henry to the Ravens rush game with Lamar Jackson, meeting him at a mesh point seems to have been a very good idea. And the days of us wondering through the first two weeks of the season of do they know how to make it work in this offense?

That's long gone too. The Ravens through seven games, the first team to average 250 yards passing and 200 rushing yards in the National Football League through the first seven games of a season. How do you like that, Apples? Right there.

Period. No one's ever done that before. Lamar and Derek Henry together. And how about this stat too?

How does Derek Henry potentially help Lamar? Here you go. YPA is a stat.

You got to look it up. It's yards per pass attempt, which I guess could be YPPA, but listen. Yards per attempt. Yards per attempt.

Okay. The Ravens are averaging 10.7 YPA yards per attempt after a running play this year. That's the best such mark this century. So they run it and you're like, uh-oh. And then they pass it and they get a first down.

How about that? It's amazing. They lost two games with these numbers, but it took a while for them to get their sea legs. It didn't look like this. Yeah. It took a while. It took a little bit, but they're on a roll.

They must be butter to use the phrase of a friend. They're on a roll. And now they're at Cleveland.

Oh boy. They might put up 70. Home for Denver, home for Cincinnati. Then they start playing their division schedule before we see a Monday night horrible to wrap up November. That's how good this team is, guys. That's how good the Ravens look right now.

Mark Andrews is scoring touchdowns. They're getting, you know, Kyle Van Noyne was a defensive player of the month for the AFC in September. Now you're seeing Marlon Humphrey pick off a couple passes. Roquan Smith, as we all know, is a wrecker of games and unfortunately for the Buccaneers ankles. And that's how good the Ravens are.

They just showed it last night in four quarters of football. Yeah, they're really, really good. Lamar is really, really great. But cool. I need to see it in the playoffs. I know that.

And that's an absolute. He's really fun to watch. He's so dynamic, but it's like what happens in January? Where is that guy in January? Well, that guy's got 22 this time around and I don't mean to say it, but you have to keep reminding it. You have to keep saying it.

I am sorry. Jerry Jones brought it up today, apparently unsolicited in his Tuesday media session that he normally has locally on the radio. Derek Henry would absolutely be looking great next to number four and whatever ails the Cowboys would be better in the regular season. And then when it all comes down to it, rubber meeting road, it's 20 something degrees out. You want to tackle that guy? Unbelievable. When he gets ahead of steam 81 yards last night, last night, it just it looks like a cartoon. He looks like the biggest roadrunner ever.

You just you just again, you hear the whoosh noise as he runs down the field at that size. He's the anvil that falls on your head, right? Yeah.

From the ACME tool company. Yes, sir. He can be both actually the roadrunner and the anvil. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. I mean, again, that was last night. That's my take of what I saw from the Ravens last night. That was our Monday Night Review presented by Lowe's, official partner of the NFL. It's easier to make the right calls with the right team. So kick off your next home improvement project with Lowe's.

Lowe's knows home improvement. Dan Campbell is coming up next. Johnny Manziel after him. Mick Taturo, diehard Yankee fan from the NYPD Blue Days back in the day. He's in studio in hour number three.

And Jake Retzlaff, the quarterback of the 7-0 BYU Cougars. We will talk with him in hour number three. It is also an overreaction Monday on a Tuesday, and it's a time for you to call in if you wish to at 844-204-RICH.

Back with Dan Campbell when we return on the Rich Eisen Show in a moment. 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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Our Rich Eisen Show Fantasy Basketball League has been drafted yesterday. Yes, sir. Took an hour and 10 minutes, which as you know is 10 minutes too long for me. Yeah, we all know. You're a strange person.

I'm not a strange person. We know because we saw the text. I complain about it.

I text about it and complain about it. Yeah, we know. We know. Yeah. Doesn't matter. You're not going to get your way.

This isn't- Oh, I never will. I understand that. I got Luca. Make it longer. I got Luca.

I'm not going to make it longer. Luca. Yep. So now I got to come up with a...

He might be the best name you can have fun with. Do like puns off of your- Yeah. I've got two. I've got two. Okay.

The Luca Bratsies. Yeah. It's pretty good. I mean, you'd like that one, right? Yeah. Sleeps- What's your avatar though? Just like- Well, it's Luca.

It's just him. I think being choked, like the very best spoiler alert. Or it could be a fish wrapped up because the rest of the league will sleep with the fishes when the Luca Bratsies have... Or if I win, the other one is Luca, what you made me do. Those are good. Great. You know?

Those are good. Xander came up with that one. I believe that. Odd that he would come up with the Taylor Swift one.

He's very proud of that. Oh, I didn't get it. Yeah. Luca, look what you made me do is a- Oh, okay.

Luca, what you made me do. Okay. Not a bad one. So it's up in the air.

Yeah. I like yours, TJ. Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network. Best team name in the league. We'll talk about that later on. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. This man's team is five and one for the first time in back-to-back years in the history of the Lions in Detroit. Welcome to the Lions in 1934. They've never been five and one in back-to-back years as this man has, but he's marathoning. He's not sprinting. He's back here on the Rich Eisen Show.

He's Dan Campbell, head coach of the Lions. How are you, coach? I'm doing good.

I'm doing good. Business as usual. On to the next one.

I know, I know. But we in the media, we always, we can't turn the page so quickly. So what do you make of your five and one start so far, Dan? Yeah, I think we're right on pace. You know, there's always going to be ebbs and flows to a season. You know, we hit a little rough patch, you know, after we won the opener and got in a dogfight with Tampa.

Couldn't quite overcome a couple of errors, one of them being my own. And so we dropped that one, but we learned from it. We got better.

And you just take it as it comes, man. And I love where we're at right now. I love where our team's at. Your quarterback's on a heater.

I mean, and I think I might be understating it right now. So what do you see from Jared Goff right now compared to other quarterbacks you've seen on heaters in your career as a player or a coach, Dan? He's playing at a high level. Look, I was fortunate to be around Drew Brees as a player, but as a coach, you know, for a combination of six years.

And, you know, when you're around that type of player, it's rare. And to see the professionalism, the work that goes into it, the process, the competitiveness, and there's things about Goff that remind me of him. And, you know, he just, man, he's got a workman's attitude. He's blue-collar in that way, a quiet confidence. He doesn't get frazzled. He's tough.

He's just, man, he's seeing it. And because of that, we put a lot on him. Ben Johnson's done a hell of a job. Ben asked a lot of him. And, you know, we just, that Minnesota game now, the defense does a lot.

And they give you a lot of different looks. And if your quarterback can't handle it, you're going to struggle against them. So our guy's playing at a high level. I'm really not surprised just because I know what he's put into it. And he's an accurate passer and he's a dude, man.

He's one of those guys. So we're fortunate to have him and sky's the limit for him. So is his accuracy, is that Breeze-like to you?

What is Breeze-like to you when you're watching Jared right now? Yeah, I think it's the accuracy, man. I think it's the ability to process what the defense is doing to you. And in a split second, to be able to make an accurate throw, you know? And I think what, you know, to be able to, I said this the other day, what certain players have in their head and what they've got in their heart is what separates guys in this league.

And so there's a lot of players that have ability. But when you start talking about the quarterback position, man, if you don't have it up there and you don't have that drive and that competitiveness and that spirit, man, you'll break. You'll crumble. You can't do it. It's too much pressure.

There's too much put on you. And our guy's got that. He's a winner, man.

That's the bottom line. Your quarterback, the first description of a good quarterback is a guy who can win. And this guy's a winner. So I'm glad we got him. Yeah. And when you did get him, I mean, this is when you arrived in Detroit, too, Dan. You know, in your famous speech that you gave when you first arrived, talking about how this team was going to mirror the city's identity.

It's kind of crazy. That's a kid from Northern California, right? Who does do exactly that at the most important face forward position in this town at the quarterback spot. And I'm wondering what you said to him when you first arrived there and he first arrived there. And a lot of people thought he was just being cast off by the Rams to Detroit, where he would just kind of have a little bit of a way station for you and him. Well, first of all, I know he's a California kid, but that you know where he comes from and his folks, his dad. I mean, he comes from blue collar roots now. I mean, so it's not like he's, you know, he had a silver spoon in his mouth. So he's had to earn what he's gotten.

He's had to work for it. But here's what I said this from day one. I said it when Brad talked about acquiring him, I was all for it.

And here's why. Because if you want to know my first experience with Jared Goff was standing on the opposite sidelines for three years in a row and watching one of the top defenses I've ever been a part of as a coach or a player, which is New Orleans Saints. Give that guy fits and watch him get hit and get up, make another accurate throw on the money, get hit, get up, make another accurate throw.

NFC championship game at the Superdome just freaking brings that team back and ends up, you know, defeating us. And I just saw the environment, the type of pressure that he was under and just thinking, this guy won't break. And I would have swore he would have broke. I'm just like, this guy can't handle this.

And I don't know many quarterbacks that could. And it was impressive, man. And that's the type of thing that sticks in your memory. And you don't forget those moments. And you're like, I don't know this guy, but I know enough sitting here watching on the sideline that this guy has found a way to win and he just won't give up. And he just keeps coming back for more. And there's a quiet competitiveness about him that, man, you want that type of guy on your team. So you're saying if he's a wine drinker, he drinks it straight from the bottle.

So what you're saying, coach? Oh, I'm sure he has at one point in his life. When did you do that? I heard this whole exchange yesterday. Oh, I'm just throwing stuff out. I mean, it's happened before.

I wouldn't say that's something I major in. Red or white? Was it a red or a white that you drank?

It was red. OK, that's a good one. OK, I approve that message then.

I approve it. Dan Campbell here on the Rich Eisen Show. How's my guy Hutch doing? How's Aiden Hutchinson doing right now? Listen, he's doing all right and he's doing all right. You know, he's still, you know, that's tough, man, when you're playing at a high level like he is.

And he's, you know, one of the one of the outstanding players in this league on a really good year, having a really good year. And that type of injury happens, it's tough. It's tough to process. It's tough to process the injury itself. You know, how bad is this?

What is this? Am I going to be able to come back? What am I going to look like when I come back? Can I come back this year?

Is it next year? And then you start thinking about, man, the year I was having and, you know, the aspirations our team had. And it's a lot. And it takes a while.

You know, it takes a while to get through that and just kind of start finding your finding your way back. But I would say he's in good spirits. You know, Hutch, you know, if he's down, he doesn't stay down long and said it before. If anybody's going to come back better than before, it'll be this guy.

I mean, he's a workaholic. He'll grind on it. He'll do whatever it takes to come back better than he was. And so that's why I feel good about where he's going to be when it's all said and done. So it's not going to be long.

We talked about this about a week ago. He's going to start getting the itch in about a month. He's going to start feeling better. It's going to start healing up.

And I just I can see it. So he's hanging in there. He's doing well. When do you think you might be able to get him back around the team if not be cleared to even be on the sideline? Obviously, it's dicey with the injury he had to be around guys who might fly out of bounds. But what do you think on that front?

Just get around? I mean, it's hard to say. Look, anytime he wants to be around when he feels right and we do feel like he's going he's in a position where he doesn't get wiped out or something on the sideline. He knows he's wanted here.

So we'll figure that out. If we have to put him in a cage off to the side, we'll do that. He might say yes to that. He might.

He might do that. And, you know, obviously that was quite a downer, but you were able to say the least. But you were able to come back and win that game.

And your team has been on a very nice roll right now. And in that game, when you're taking on Dallas, a lot was made about some of the play calling and how you had a whole bunch of tackle eligible plays settled for that game. And was that intentional? Were you going into that game and saying we're going to run a bunch of plays with some formations similar to the ones that everyone was talking about because of the way you did not win the last time you're in Dallas?

Is that intentional? Well, one of them was the fact that we didn't get Taylor Decker's score. We went into Dallas in 2023 saying we're going to get Taylor Decker a touchdown. It didn't happen. So 2024, we got to make up for it.

And it didn't work out. We've been cooking the one with Sewell for a while. We felt like that was the week to do it. I told the team before we went in that game, we were going to use everything we had. And we weren't saving anything. And so we kept that promise and we're playing to win. And that's really the bottom line. And what do you think that's intentionally sending a message to your team? I imagine. Is that what you're doing? You're sending a message to your team that you're plugged into the sort of stuff that they know what they would find fun, but is also a winning strategy. I'm just wondering, trying to get into your game of chess that you play as the HC of the Detroit Lions.

Dan? Yeah. Well, I think the don't you want to be predictably unpredictable? Isn't that the whole point of all this? So I don't know if I want to give you insight into my head.

I'm not even sure I could tell you what's in there. No, I think, you know, look, our guys, man, we don't just throw this stuff up against the wall. I know it looks like it at times.

And when they don't work, it does. It sure looks like that. But when we have these ideas, Ben does a great job.

And they're offensive staff. And we talk about it. And, you know, what do you think? Is this the week? I said, yeah, this is the week. Let's do it. And so we'll work it. And if it feels right, we use it. If not, we save it for the next week. And if it's not ready, then we'll save it for two weeks after that. But we continue to work it every week until it feels right.

And we feel like we can handle any look. And so when you go in saying you're going to use it, that to me, for the most part, I'm not always 100% that way. But if I promise the team I'm going to do something, we're going to do it. So if I tell them we're using everything, we're going to use it. And I just I don't know, man. I take that. That means something to me.

And that is what it is. I just want to ask you about a couple Alabama players on your team in the few minutes I have left with you. Dan Campbell of the Detroit Lions here on the Rich Eisen Show reports in my world are that Jamison Williams is facing a two game suspension.

I know as you and I are talking right now, you can't talk about it. But what can you tell me that you do know about Jamison Williams right now? Well, I do know that that we are prepared to not have him for the next two games. And and the guys that we that we have here are going to be ready to roll.

And they've been here. Guys, we trust. Khalif Raymond.

I'm in Ross St. Brown. Tim Patrick. Allen Robinson. You know, and and then we got Gibbs. We got Montgomery. We got Laporta.

I mean, so we'll be just fine here. Next guy will step up and and we'll be good to go. Yeah, I know Gibbs wasn't the other Alabama guy I was referring to. The other one is Brian Branch, man. I mean, what did you see in him that we're seeing in him right now, Dan? Well, Brad and I both, man, when he was coming out, we fell in love with him immediately. And because the way he plays the game, I mean, he's a football player. He's instinctive. He's tough. And, you know, we went through all we went through his whole season. We're like, OK, did anybody see a missed tackle in there?

We couldn't find a missed tackle in his college tape. And the guy is as sure a tackler as you're going to find. He's a ball guy.

And so that's what we saw. We saw a guy who we felt like could impact the game. And and he's done a hell of a job with him. He really he's really thriving at the safety position for us. And Nickel, he was outstanding last year at Nickel. But we always talked about, man, if we could put him at safety and really let him go in our defense, he could really, really thrive because you have a little bit of freedom. You know, there's there's things that that that you're allowed to do.

Use your instincts, play ball within the structure of the defense. But and he's just grown every week. He's gotten better and better and better.

And he's on terror right now. So the sky's the limit for Brian Branch. And again, just you have so many of these guys that that just mirror what appears to be the style you want to have and the city as well. Montgomery, too. I mean, he is unbelievable right now. And I'm wondering what you you saw in him from from Chicago to say this is the guy, because obviously when you get a a nice shiny object like Jameer Gibbs, you're going to want to try and give him the ball 30 times. But you're sticking with Montgomery and for good reason.

Well, I said this before. When you when you go against Montgomery, you know, it's fortunate or unfortunate, however you want to look at it, to have to go against him in the division. So, you know, you get a couple of years of going against that guy. And I remember all four times we played him, I'd come in age.

And I said, I know what they've got over there. But I said, this guy, this guy, 32, he was 32 at the time in Chicago. So this guy worries me. This is a guy we have to account for.

We cannot let this guy beat us. And it was because of his vision. He's strong. He's compacted, strong runner. And he's aggressive, man. The way he he runs the ball, the way you want an RB to run the ball, man. And and he he runs with attitude and fight and finish. And everything's about his demeanor, right?

Like he he wants to try to embarrass you. He wants to drive you into the ground and he's the one who's carrying the ball. So like to me, when you have a ball carrier that way, it inspires people around you. It inspires your blockers, right?

It inspires the old line, the receivers, the everybody. And so so that was my first look at him was in the division. And I said, man, that guy right there. And you always said, well, you see some of these guys sometimes that you have to go play against and every once in a while you're like, man, what would he look like with us? And we were fortunate to be able to get him. It actually worked out last one for you.

I'm going to take a stab at this one, thinking that you will have a good answer here. Obviously, you coached with Sean Payton. You one of the first free agent signings when Bill Parcells showed up in Dallas. You got a good Parcel story that is informs maybe who you are as a coach or anything like that. You got a little Parcels in you. Dan Campbell, man, I got a million Parcel stories. You know, there's.

Man, I mean, between both of them, and there's so much a shine that that is himself, but also that as well that you take. No, I mean, look, the only thing here, here's this sums up, Bill. That's why I love Bill. I'm a free agent.

It's not even a funny story. I don't know why I'm saying this. It's no, but I'm a free agent. I go to Dallas, and that was because of Sean. Sean vouch for me, and I spent all my career, most of my career, eight out of the 11 years as a player with Sean Payton, and then another five as a coach.

So my career is because of Sean Payton, but Bill. So he vouches for me. I go, and so I'm like, man, I'm free agent. I'm like, need to tie it in. I'm going to be a starter. You know, I'm going to start. I'm going to go to Dallas and start. And Bill tells me straight up.

I'm just telling you right now, he goes, we really like you, man. You fit here. There's a place for you, but you're a backup. All right.

You're not a starter, and you're not going to get starter money and want you, want you, you know? And I mean, it was straight to the point. And I remember I was so heated, you know, but it was almost that, you know what? Yeah, I will come here and sign as a backup just to prove you wrong, which is ridiculous, right?

It's like a mind trick. But Bill is the best, man. You loved him or you hated him.

I loved him. And he is one of these unique, rare coaches in this league, like Sean Payton, that you're, man, I'm fortunate to be around. I was fortunate to be around some great coaches, and I've tried to take the best of all of them. But I'm sure, are you that brutally honest with your players? Because he was that way with you?

I mean, is that sort of you try to be? Yeah, I don't ever want to lie to my players, and it may hurt and it may sting. But I wanted to know the truth because it's not fair to sit there and tell somebody you're doing good, you're doing good, and then you cut them or you're doing good, you're doing good, and then they're not playing. And so you just tell them, man, rip the bandaid off and let them know. And they may not like it, but they're respected.

I'll tell you before I let you go. My favorite Parcel story I heard was from Paul Tagliabue when I first took over with NFL Network about 20 something years ago. Tagliabue said he was standing at midfield of a practice with the Jets when Parcells was there. And Parcells, there was a defensive line drill going on at the goal line, 50 yards away. And Parcells is getting on a bunch of guys. And he turns to Bill and he goes, Bill, we're the same age. I can't see five yards down the field.

How can you see everything going on down there? He reaches into his pocket, takes out a list of 10 names. He goes, I had a list of 10 guys that I knew I was going to get on and practice today. I'm number three. Stick around.

I got seven more to go. That's coach. He's the best, man. That's one of my favorite stories I've picked up in 20 years doing this gig. Dan, thanks for the time. Greatly appreciate it.

Let's do this whenever you're up for it. And I called, so I appreciate it. Thanks. All right.

Sounds good. I appreciate it. And it's Dan Campbell here on the Rich Eisen Show. Really a delight again.

Man, that's great. Boy, Lions fans are out of their schools. Yeah, you see why everybody loves him.

Now, because when he started the way he started with a few wins, to say the least. And it was kind of like the Hoosiers moment, right? Where he's got, I've got a plan. A lot of people thought he didn't have a plan because he came in talking about biting kneecaps and all sorts of Hannibal Lecter type stuff. And like, is he serious or not? Right.

Who is this guy? What he is, is a coach of the year candidate. That's for sure. Perennial now.

Perennial. They are plugged in. He's plugged into the town. They're plugged into him and they just love it. I bet you, Lions fans here in an interview like that, they want to run through a wall.

So there's that. Taking on the Tennessee Titans this week, and then they're at Green Bay at Houston. At Houston is a Sunday-nighter.

Oh, that's going to be great. Home for Jacksonville at Indianapolis, then it's Thanksgiving against Chicago. Before a Thursday night the following week, home for Green Bay when both teams, because Green Bay has a Thanksgiving night game in Miami, there'll be a full compliment arrest all, both teams coming off of a full week. Then there's a Buffalo game at San Francisco finishing up against Chicago and Minnesota. So much fun, Lions football to come.

844-204 Rich, number to dial here on the Rich Eisen Show. And again, the Lions, as you know, I believe are the favorites to win the NFC right now. I picked them to go to the Super Bowl. Right now, five out of the first six wins, the only team at five and one other than Minnesota. They're the top seed right now through seven weeks. I kind of feel good about it.

We come back, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, how Monday night went for them and the lasting effect it will definitely have on their season. That's next. This is the Rich Eisen Show. with Shop Pay. That boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts are going abandoned and way more sales happening. So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell whatever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed and everywhere in between. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout skins uses. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com.

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Listen to and follow Talk is Jericho on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Do it now, says the Learning Tree. Thanks, guys. See Rich Eisen, karaoke, dominating. To basically, by the way, nobody else in the room, right? Yes, just solo.

Just, you know, you get a little practice. There was me and my buddy. There was nobody else. What song do you like? That's a good question. Sinatra. Sinatra? I forget which one it was. Okay. Well, I mean, did you have to ask?

Yeah. Seriously, it was me and my buddy. I don't remember. We walked in and yeah, we joined, but we joined right in. You did sing, right? You guys all did get on the mic. I think we got up there, you know.

We can't turn that down. No, I know. And it was honestly me. I was obviously like pre-cell phone. I mean, you had cell phone, but pre like, you know, I had a camera. You didn't worry about anybody filming.

Yeah, so there's no video. You get up and sing. You saw karaoke, you sing. You don't think twice. It was just the moment. Yeah, the moment.

You didn't have to memorialize it. It was me, my buddy, Doug. And then it was, I think, your entire family. Yeah, probably the whole crew, yeah. Your mom and your dad, you and Peyton and Copper.

And Copper. Yeah, exactly. And do you have a go-to karaoke song at all? It's changed over the years, obviously. Yeah, you kind of go with the times.

You know, Footloose has always been one, you know, just because you can kind of dance with it. But now, you know, it's tough. It's tough to do karaoke now. You're just kind of worried, you know, people are filming all the time. Then they judge and, you know, I get judged enough.

I don't need to be judged on my singing ability. That's, you know, that's fun. Yes, everybody's made it too serious. Things work in this National Football League, how things can change so fast, right? And end of the first quarter, Mike Evans, who's gimpy, is all get-out, scores his 100th career touchdown, and it's 10-nothing. And they're beating the Ravens 10-nothing.

And, you know, if only they could have stopped the machines there. Because after that first quarter, Lamar Jackson went off five touchdowns. The defense couldn't stop him worth a lick. And then even the ones where they did get a gift snap over Lamar's head that he did recover, they wind up giving up a Justice Hill 18-yard screen pass that allowed Justin Tucker to come out and get a free three points. And so the defense was on its heels the whole night. The fact that the score finished up the way that it did is a total mirage. And, you know, Mike Evans winds up having a ball go off his hands because it looks like he suffered a severe hamstring injury in the end zone.

He was screaming in pain. Right, and the Bucks also got screwed on a weird holding call that that took a touchdown off the board and things begin to spin out of control. They're down by 10 points with no timeouts left on their own. Let me get this right.

18 with a minute and change to go. This thing is over and wrapped and, you know, Chris Godwin catches one for a first down gets hip-drop tackled with what it appears by Roquan Smith. It's being reviewed right now this tackle by the NFL and Roquan might get fined for it. Dislocates Chris Godwin's ankle ESPN will not show the replay of it.

He's air casted and carded off. This could be the last you see of Chris Godwin as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer because he is a free agent. And Evans is out for who knows how long because that looks significant and Godwin's done.

Surgery coming up. This team was up 10 nothing on the Baltimore Ravens at the first quarter trying to go to five and two taking over first place in the NFC South and then that's what the NFL stands for not for long and Todd Bowles. Was asked rightfully so. Afterwards, why is Chris Godwin even in the game? And and and Todd got bowls gave a a quintessential coaching answer because the game was still on and here's what the exchange sounded like.

He's a player with trying to win the ball game. I mean, we were still down 10 with trying to get extra points and kick another onside kick. It just happened.

What might going down? We don't have that many receivers receivers left as it was so we play what we got that even more perhaps important to preserve Chris for the Falcons and Mike's possibly not going to play. You can say that because he got hurt.

We don't second-guess. We got our guys. We're playing everybody we got and it's unfortunate. He got hurt.

We feel bad about that. But he's a football player and he wants me in the game just like Baker and everybody else wanted to be in the game. Do you have an obligation to protect your players from themselves?

I do protect my players all the time. It has nothing to do with why we left him in the ball game. We still have a shot to score some points and win the ball game.

It happened. It happens in football. It's so unfortunate because you know Bowles is at I mean, those are rightful questions.

Why is he in the game? The fact that Evans is out. Isn't that a reason why you should take him out and the coach is like, well, we're down 10. I guess what you get another chunk play after that bring out McLaughlin and kick a field goal and get another onside kick, which by the way was working. Yeah, they recovered one earlier, right? And and and then maybe a Hail Mary and you can tie the game.

I mean, it's kind of a dumb and dumber chance that you have to do it, but it's still there and I mean, I mean, you're right. You asked the questions fine, but football doesn't work like that. These guys are out there trying to win these games and the guys don't come out. It's not like basketball all the time where you sub a guy out when you're down 10 with 30 seconds left.

These guys are still out there trying to win and which is why which is why two is coming back and not wearing a guardian cap saying that it's is it's it's a personal choice. Because these guys don't go out there and think I could get hurt and coaches aren't thinking these guys could get hurt. I should have him out of the game, but this game was really over and I don't think anybody would have said to Todd Bowles afterwards.

Why did you take Chris Godwin out of the game? It would have been totally understandable, especially with Mike Evans out and then you look at the schedule. You got Atlanta coming in your house. That's a must-have because Atlanta has already beaten you in theirs. And then you're at Kansas City and home for San Francisco. Now without Evans and Godwin that bye could be bye-bye. And I say that knowing how much of a warrior Baker Mayfield is, man, I feel for him too.

And all the Bucks fans right now. You could see it on his face when he was squat down, but course because he's probably saw who knows up close. What ESPN refused to show in a replay and well, you could hear one of the players let out a believable word when he really looked at the leg. So yeah. Foreign to first quarter up 10 on the Ravens. That is we're going to look back at that moment is the last best shot for the Buccaneers season.

Maybe I don't know. You can't put them out of the boy by the way, they've got three really good running backs who can do a lot of yeah, they really do, you know, and we'll see what other receivers can step up. I mean, I'm trade deadline coming up, right? I got to think they're right. Maybe they'll be in the hunt there. We'll see what happens.

It's a couple. Anything can happen. You got a warrior Baker Mayfield, but right now, you know and kind of sit here and wonder if that snapshot of the first quarter score is going to be the Buccaneers high watermark, lots more to go though with some very, you know, lion-hearted veterans there. They got to play better on defense though.

That's for sure. Although Lamar make the rest of the league look like that to Johnny Manziel coming up at hour number two. Yeah, I was surprised at defense. I mean, obviously Ravens Lamar Derek Henry.

They're amazing, but I was surprised that they got shredded like that. It looked pretty easy with it's like every time we're doing the Ravens, you could see part of their Achilles heel is the number of penalties that get called on an offensive lines got a got a lot of holds, right? A lot of hold, but that just meant Lamar. We had, you know, 10 more yards to go get back and he did. Yeah, that was a play to they had scored a touchdown got called back suddenly. It's first and goal from the 20 and then immediately screen pass Justice Hill touchdown.

Yeah, like, okay, that was well, I guess that was that was easy. I know, you know, and I kind of knew how it felt like to be as helpless as a buccaneer fan last night. I was going against Lamar in fantasy. We almost got gotten sleeper up 40. I was up 40 and all how I got got last night.

It's my buddy, Doug, all sad Rashad white at one point, though, at one point though. Remember when Lamar threw that ball backwards pass and the Buccaneers recovered? Yeah, he Lamar had a run before that put Doug up on me and then the minus two had him back and I'm like, you know, stop the count rest everybody. Yeah, nobody was that that was like everybody stayed in the game and I was playing, you know, yeah, it but pretty well got his fifth touchdown pass after that. Yeah, they were up.

What 20 something is kind of still out there. I was like everybody's over to kept on playing last night. But yeah, Lamar it may just at the end of the day that that's just the way Lamar treats everybody now and so does Derek Henry. My God. What a combination right now.

Lamar Jackson two-time MVP playing at the top of his game and Derek Henry playing at the top of his ever together. It's been awesome Sims complete check us out on the Believe Network. Appreciate it. Just search believe bleav wherever you listen.