Jon Machota: There's No Way Mike McCarthy Is Pleased By Micah Parson's Comment

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So far, so good. With guest host, Kirk Morrison. It's blocked! It's blocked!

The cheese blocked the cake! Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Wilson, oh my goodness, they got him.

The commanders to jump. Today's guests. Co-host of the PFF college football show, Max Chadwick. Co-host of GoJo and Golic, Mike Golic Jr. Plus, latest news and more. And now, sitting in for Rich.

It's Kirk Morrison. Oh yeah! Hut! Hut! Hut!

Hi! You already know I was ready for that. Yes, yes indeed. Again, every time it catches me off guard, I just forget that that's your thing now. That's my thing. That's my thing. Especially when I come and hang out with you guys.

It's always great to be home as always. Kirk Morrison here. Fill it in for Rich. Flying back from Germany as he was on the broadcast yesterday. NFL network. The New York Giants and the Carolina Panthers yesterday.

Panthers won that game by the way. But always great to be with you guys as always. Brockman, Del Tufo, TJ. Lot to get to. We got a lot. NFL week number 10. Well, one more game tonight. That'll be between the Rams and the Dolphins.

But week 10 will have concluded in the National Football League. And I've got a lot of observations. And I'll get to those observations maybe in the next... Well, throughout this three hour program.

But the first thing, I don't want to bury the lead. Because I mentioned that obviously Rich is not here today. Because he's flying back from doing all the work over in Germany. But he's not the only one who's flying back. You guys already flew back. Yeah buddy. So I wanted to get into, what did I miss? Because I just, I can only live through TJ. I can only live through you Brockman.

Seeing through the social media channels. Or whatever you decide to provide the people who aren't there in Germany. But tell me, how was the experience of bringing the show on the road? As you've done before. Dude, this was unlike any of the other remote trips we've done. We've gone to Super Bowls. We've done the Draft Day with TJ. We've done the Mike. We've done Kickoff in Kansas City. And that was awesome.

That was it? Taking it international, man. Just upped our game way up to here. You didn't know you were international player now, huh?

You was like, I ought to go Brock! I knew. TJ, we are worldwide.

You probably knew, but I didn't really know. Man, shout out everyone at BMW, Roku channel. It was out of this world how awesome it was. All the locals, everyone was so nice. My man Pavel. Everyone we made friends with at the Hofbrauhaus. And the Dubliner.

And everywhere else just walking the mean streets of Munich. It was beyond awesome. Hope you guys enjoyed the shows on Thursday. First off, so weird doing it at night. The show was at 6 p.m. It was dark. I'm like, wait, why is this show so dark?

I didn't know if y'all was doing pre-tapes or post-tapes. Chris and I would show up to set and we'd tell everybody good morning. And we'd realize, no, this is night. It's middle of the afternoon.

We're getting ready for dinner. We left one of the nights and the stage manager gave us all beers. We're like, what?

This is just how we're rolling here. It couldn't have been more fun. Like I said, everyone was so awesome. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the shows and the energy and the vibes we were having.

Kind of came through your YouTube channel or your Roku channel. It came through because we really enjoyed it and we can't wait to go back. I think people hear the international series, the games in London. We had a game in Brazil this year, Germany already. Second year having it in Germany. And for us here in the U.S., we don't want any more games over there.

We want to keep it. I've only played in one international game. I don't know if you want to call it international. I played in the Toronto series when I was a member of the Buffalo Bills. And even just going over to Toronto, the game just felt bigger. Like it was a regular season game, but it felt bigger.

It had more, I would say like energy, more passion. There's fan bases from all over who just want to see an NFL game. And I heard from Roger Goodell, saw some comments that they're going to go back to Germany. There's going to be more games. And I said, look, at some point every team is going to play one international game per year. The market, like those tickets go for astronomical numbers. They're not necessarily Super Bowl tickets, but for a regular season game, people who watch the NFL, who see these stars, who see all of the players and the commercials, and what YouTube has been able to do and Roku has been able to do, all these different platforms now that you can watch it internationally, NFL players. And the only time that you can go see them is that they play one game in Germany or in London. You're going to pay that premium. You're going to pay that price.

And that's only going to help out the players currently, help out the coaches, the NFL, the bottom line. And yeah, it gives me more reason to go hang out with you guys over in Germany. So next time, make sure you put me on PMO. Put me on.

Let me get some of that. It was amazing, man. And honestly, I think Chris will admit it was kind of humbling to have people in another country come up to you. Our guy, Konstantin, we met, you know, his girlfriend saying he keeps me up till six in the morning watching you guys. Like it's like, wait, what? Pause, but go ahead. You say that again?

This girl, this guy, we met this couple and this girl was telling us her boyfriend keeps her up watching us in the middle of the night. Just want to just want to. Hey, I need T.J.

I'm going to watch T.J. You don't have to turn it into something weird, bro. You know, I just said this was a humbling experience. I'm trying to be heartfelt here. Hey, I love you, bro. That's what brothers do, right? You know what I'm saying? Trying to reach out to these people internationally. Let them know it was it was it was like, wow. I'll say this.

I'll get to week 10 of the NFL. But I would say this to having traveled internationally with buddies of mine who played basketball overseas. The one thing that I can always say is that a lot of people have some they don't get a chance to get to the United States. So a lot of the culture, a lot of things that we do and see, we're the closest thing. I remember my buddy was like we were out one day and the guy was like, hey, you like 50 Cent. Are you 50 Cent? I'm like 50 Cent. But my buddy was like, look, just be just be just relax. Understand that you are the closest thing to 50 Cent that some of these people will ever see or meet. And that's what the NFL is trying to bring and provide over there.

But I'll tell you what the NFL is also providing. And you never know if you're going to get it until it just kind of happens and you sit back and you're like, oh, this is happening. And you kind of feel it because it'll start off and you're like, oh, man, not again. And you just sit back and you start to watch more and more. And it's like, oh, this is starting to get good. It's like one of those series that your friends tell you about, like, hey, watch this series. And like the first two episodes are like, no, I'm not I'm not feeling it.

Right. Then you start getting the episode three, four, five. You're like, oh, and then all of a sudden you at that last episode, it's like, oh, and it was well worth it. That was me last night watching Texans in the Lions last night.

Because the first couple of episodes, that was just not it. It was a interception fest on both sides. Jared Goff threw five interceptions last night. Fellas, five, four, five. Yeah. One, two, three, four, five.

Yeah. Five interceptions for Jared Goff. And anytime we can we stop it, Jared Goff?

This is a message to you. Just because we put your name in the MVP conversation, Jared Goff, you still got to play up to that level. Like, we're trying to believe in you, John. We're trying to hype you up.

Let's go. And all you did last night was tear us down, Jared Goff. But on the opposite side, C.J.

Stroud, year number two. He threw a couple of interceptions last night, a couple of bad throws. You're like, oh, you know, I love sometimes when they show the angles of the throw and you can see the play happening and you're saying, yes, yes, yes, no, no, no, no, no, no. We saw a couple of those throws from C.J. Stroud yesterday. We saw two teams obviously in different conferences. But yet when you look at the way that they're playing football, last night proved to me a couple of things. I think number one for the Houston Texans, they've got a ways to go if they want to compete with the big boys of that conference. And I'm talking about the Chiefs, talking about the Ravens, right? Buffalo Bills. They got a ways to go on the opposite side in the win.

Twenty six to twenty three by the Detroit Lions. I saw a football team that just knows how to win, has an identity. And I saw a kicker, by the way. Let's first shout out to Jake Bates, by the way. Jake Bates, who was selling bricks like construction bricks. Oh, I was about to say, you can't do construction bricks by the way. You can't sell bricks in the NFL. He was construction bricks by Jake Bates. Kicked two 50 yard field goals, 50 plus yards.

What are you at, 57 and then 52 or 59? Look, these are this is it's like you knew Detroit was going to be like this is going to be their year that they weren't this underdog team anymore. They are now favorites. And I know Dan Campbell once saw we're still underdogs.

No, no, no, no, no. Y'all favorites now. But you got a good kicker and you got an identity. And here's Dan Campbell after the game.

Just about how things went down and having a faith in Jake Bates to go out there and kick 50 plus yard field goals. It's good. You know, inches are right down the middle.

I think as far as I'm concerned, it's right down the middle. So, you know, look, I'm excited. I was excited. That's a hard fought game. And so, you know, you're living in the emotions of that type of game. And, you know, you realize when you get in that one, you're playing the long game. You know, you've got to do it one possession at a time and just find a way to get this thing all the way down to the end of the game. Because you're not going to be able to do it as far down as we were.

You're not going to be able to do it within just, you know, a couple of possessions. So we hung in there and and for him to just step up and make those kicks, you know, it's good. And his confidence is growing.

His confidence is growing. But my confidence wasn't there last night. At halftime, it's 23 to 7. The Houston Texans are up.

They're at home. And I don't know if they really planned it last night. I don't know if you guys saw it. I thought that the election was last week and it was over. Like Donald Trump won the election. It was great.

It's fine. But watching the aerial shots of the Houston NRG Stadium and it was like half red, half blue. It was like the RNC, the DNC came together with all the Honolulu blue for the Detroit Lions fans. All the red from the Houston, Texas fans. It was like split. It was almost like an Oklahoma versus Texas.

You know what I mean? I got to say, I love those Texas uniforms. It was nice. All reds and the helmets. Dang, that was awesome.

They even had the little clips on the visors. The little details of the game. But I'm watching the game and it was just like, this is the Houston Texans night. This is them going into prime time. And we already knew they were a team that won a division last year. But this is also now beating one of the NFLs, what I think is an elite. This is what you're doing on Sunday Night Football. This is the game that we'll watch and say, you know what? The Texans are for real. And yet you get Jared Goff to throw you the ball five times. Not one, not two, not three, not four. Five interceptions.

Let's just put that in. He threw five interceptions. You got to win that game.

You have to win that game if you're the Houston Texans. And then at the end, Kymie Fairburn tried to kick a field goal. And it looked like those college kids kicking in Pat McAfee's thing on Saturday game day. That ball went. That was not even close. It was stadium pulsing on the NCAA game.

That thing just. Anyway, I say that because you had an opportunity to prove a lot of people last night, doubters, for the Houston Texans to say, is C.J. Stroud, is he really the real deal? Or is he in a sophomore slump at times? Now, he played great. But also, it also stood out to me that there is a void with Stefan Diggs now out for the season. Nico Collins coming back from injury in a week or two.

We'll see when his availability is. There are some things that last night showed about the Texans that they got work to do. They're still going to win their division because everybody else is terrible. Well, I don't know the Colts.

You never know sometimes. But everybody else is not as good as they are. So as I look at the AFC South, Houston Texans, you'll be fine. Got to get some guys back. Nico Collins comes back, figure some things out.

Down the stretch, late game execution. I am totally in for the Houston Texans. But are they contenders against the big dogs? Now. Buffalo? Now. Kansas City?

Nope. I think, Kirk, when I watch that game and I think about it, they were up 23 to 7. At half! At the half.

That half! Zero second half points. I mean, look at the last four weeks. This has really been an issue with Houston putting points on the board in the second half. Last night, zero. Week before, six second half points. Week before, six second half points. In Lambeau, three second half points. What are we doing? They're only kicking field goals in the second half. It's really an issue. Look, I know Stroud's been getting pressured, it's an up the middle thing that he's been dealing with. Not having Steph Diggs, I think, is so glaringly obvious.

I know a lot of people thought Nico Collins was going to play last night. That probably makes a difference. But come on, man. Like, you want to play with the big boys?

You've got to put some points up in the second half and close this thing out. I try not to give excuses. I'm not an excuse maker. But I do give reasons.

There's a reason. That offense is missing Stephon Diggs and Nico Collins. Nico Collins comes back, OK, you've got a number one wide receiver. Ting Dale, I think, is a great complementary receiver. Dalton Schultz gets involved.

Joe Mixon. We understand the hierarchy of wide receivers with the Houston Texans. But this was all about Detroit. Detroit found a way. And why, to me, they're the best team in the NFC. I'm not going in the field.

I'm not going on that bandwagon yet. But Detroit showed you why they're the best team in the NFC. Now, that being said, another team in the NFC we need to talk about. Or maybe talk about their best player who had some we say, hmm, some words that maybe got minced up. I don't know. I'll let you guys take a listen when we come back. Micah Parsons, Dallas Cowboys linebacker, had some words maybe about his head coach. I'll let you figure it out.

And John Machoda covers the Cowboys coming up next right here on the Rich Eisen Show with Kirk Borson filling in for Rich. And it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

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Learn more at americanexpress.com slash amexbusiness. Now you told him about how you are the Bill Walsh of audio executives. Exactly. You can't screw these up.

Your favorite catchphrase from the original Predator. Go ahead, here's one. If you please, we can kill it. Alright, that's number one. Here's number two. Okay.

Get to the chopper! I can't hear them at all, okay? You can't hear them, can I hear them? Yes. You can't hear them! So what I'm going to do, I'm doing this blindfolded. Wait a minute, did Bill Walsh not have the volume up?

Did the Bill Walsh of sound engineers not have the volume up for the segment? Oh my God. We can kill it. This is not going well.

I don't want to cause feedback. Oh, there's a method to his madness. Do you want to try one more time now? Yes. Okay, go ahead. We can kill it. Okay, if it bleeds, we can kill it.

If it bleeds, we can kill it. Okay, here's the next one. Get to the chopper! Get to the chopper. And here's the other one. One ugly motherf***er. Okay, there's that one.

Okay. Stark bench cut. Alright, get to the chopper, gets cut. Because it's only an incidental line, and the only reason we remember it is because he's Austrian. If anybody else said, get to the choppers, it wouldn't have been a line. It wouldn't have been a line.

It's only because he's Austrian. Cut, cut. Cut.

It's superfluous. We're going to bench your one ugly man effort. You're an ugly man effort. So what you're going to do is you're going to start, if it bleeds, we can kill it.

Because it's a succinct line, and it's done in a very naturalistic way. If it bleeds, we can kill it. Very well done. Now, for everybody else who comes in here on The Rich Eyes and Show, we're going to show them. I'm setting the bar here. We're going to show them this Stark bench cut, because you have raised the bar, King. Setting the bar right here. We're going to edit out Del Tufo.

We're going to edit that out. It's too good. Perfect. Welcome back to The Rich Eyes and Show radio network. I'm sitting at The Rich Eyes and 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. Well, if you stopped by the Cowboys locker room yesterday, after their loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, 34 to 6, everybody had something to say. Whether it was Jerry Jones, other players, but more importantly, their best defensive player in Micah Parsons.

I'm going to play this, because I want to try to figure out, what did he mean by this? Here's Micah Parsons, after the game, and his head coach, Mike McCarthy. You know, that's above my pay grade about if Mike is coaching again next year. But, you know, all coaching aside, coaching, you know, Mike can leave and go wherever he wants, but guys, you know, I kind of feel bad for guys like Zach Martin and guys who might be on their last year or on their way out, you know, because that's who I wanted to hold the trophy for.

You know, you want to win games and do great things with those type of legends who put in more time and work than Mike McCarthy ever did. So those are the kind of guys that I have so much sympathy and hurt for. I can try to decipher what Micah Parsons said, or I can go get some help. And that's what I did.

I went out and got some help. John Machoda, the Dallas Cowboys beat writer for The Athletic joins us. And I go right to you to decipher what I missed, John, because after a game, answering that question, I would have been okay with a no comment there. What is Micah Parsons saying after this game? And did we mince his words up? Because that's what he's saying. The media does.

They minced up my words. So first of all, there's never any no comment with Micah Parsons, which I can't complain. I mean, for our job, you love that. So that's not happening. There's a reason he has his own podcast and he does it during the week. And I don't think there's a lot of players that would do that. And I don't think there's a lot of teams that want their star players doing that, but it is the Cowboys. So that's part of it.

And so this is some good promotion for his podcast later today. But with that being said, it's hard to whether you read that quote or you listen to it and not thinking it's taking a little bit of a shot at Mike McCarthy, especially because of where he's at final year of his contract. The team's obviously struggling. I don't think he meant it. I don't think he meant it as harshly as it sounds. But if you're Mike McCarthy and you hear that, there's no way you're pleased by that. And I get what he's saying about, you know, Zach Martin putting in the work on the field as a player. Mike McCarthy's never played in the NFL, but he's a longtime NFL head coach. He's one of the winningest coaches in the NFL. He's won a Super Bowl.

He's obviously put in a lot of work. And so I just don't think the timing's great for that. But that clip right there is exactly what the Dallas Cowboys are. Like, even when things aren't going well, there's always something else that comes along with it. And most teams aren't like that. Especially when you're most teams are three and six, you stop talking about them with the Cowboys, oftentimes nationally, especially if they get leaned into.

Yeah. But John, it seems to me that a lot of people are saying that Mike McCarthy may have lost a locker room. To me, if anyone asks me a question about my head coach, even after a loss, I'm going to defend him.

If I know the effort, the time, everything that he puts in, you'll find ways to defend him. But to me, I thought that these comments by Micah Parsons were kind of indicative of what's going on behind the scenes in Dallas, that this is a locker room that may have lost faith in its head coach. Yeah. And I can easily see how it would be interpreted that way, especially with the way that they're playing on the field. So he has a right to clear that up.

But with that clip, it's hard to sit there and say anyone's completely taking it out of context because of everything you just said. Things aren't going well. And so you're specifically asked about your head coach who is in the final year of his deal. I don't know what you want to hear if you're the coach or heck, if you're the front office or your other players in the locker room, and that's arguably your most valuable player saying that. And so it's not it's not a great look.

And I'm interested to see what Micah says to try and clarify it. But to your point, maybe that is an example of things behind the scenes being worse than we think right now, because there haven't been many players that have said anything that along those lines to make you think that. But the product on the field looks that way, especially the product at home. I mean, there isn't a team. How do you go from winning 16 consecutive games over a two season, two periods? And then all of a sudden you get blown out by the Packers in the playoffs and you've never recovered from that.

And then you just continue to get blown out at home like the switch like that. No one is and no one in the Cowboys organization to be able to put their finger on it. And that's the biggest question.

And no one has an answer for it. I'm glad you brought that up. We're talking to John Machado, Dallas Cowboys beat writer for the athletic. I'm glad you brought that up is that it's not as if they lose games bad on the road, right?

It's there. They're getting beat up at home. Like you're supposed to be able to defend home and they're not doing that. But that being said, John, with the news that Dak Prescott will end the season on IR, this is now a Cooper rush Trey Lance football team. I'm not so sure they can show me enough that Mike McCarthy will be awarded possibly another season or they resign him back as the head coach. So I say, what are the Cowboys possibly playing for now at three and six? Yes, I've seen teams come back from three and six, but I don't know if this team has the ability to. So what am I looking at now with the Cowboys sort of moving forward? Yeah, there's no reason for anybody to think that they're all of a sudden going to turn this around.

They haven't been heading in this direction for a while. And again, to your point, like there's levels to this, these are close losses where they're just not, Oh, you know, a different play here and one less turnover there. Their last two home games, they've turned the ball over five times in each game. And so I understand that the lions won last night doing that, which is, that's very unconventional. You're not going to, you're not going to win many games doing that.

And so you have, you have that going on. So it's, it's then the fact that you want to go with the storyline of Cooper rushes is one games for them in the past, but those teams in the past had a better defense. They had a run game.

This team doesn't have that. There's no real signs to think that they're going to win any more than maybe four or five games this season. You look at the rest of the schedule, they got the giants and they got the Panthers. Those are their two most winnable games. They should win those even with this team, but you can't tell me that that's even guaranteed.

And beyond that, they're not, they won't be picked to win any of those other games and they could get just as ugly as what the game was yesterday. Well, what about next week in the battle of the state of Texas, right? Dallas Cowboys at home taking on the Houston Texans.

Okay. That's the one where it's always been what the Cowboys have been by big brother and Houston Texans, your little brother. That's how Monday night football kind of feels like next week, John, that this could be one of those games where some decisions will have to be made because I don't know what the Cowboys kind of do going forward the rest of the season. This is still a brand, but when you're putting that type of product out and you're looking at a team that has a young quarterback and CJ Stroud, I know they lost last night, but they've have an opportunity. They're going in the right direction. And yet the Cowboys may be going in an opposite direction. I think their next game is probably the most critical game of the season. If you win it, you're kind of still in it, you lose it. It's all about next season now.

Yeah. In terms of the first part of your question about, you know, the big brother, little brother, I will say that just because it's pro football and the team, the players, everybody changes so much. It isn't the same as, you know, Michigan, Michigan state, Florida, Florida state, but for Jerry Jones, it'll bother him a lot if they get destroyed by the other team in state in his building again. So that is one of those things where it'll be interesting to see how he reacts to that because clearly the Texans are a better team right now. And there's no reason why anyone should pick the Cowboys to beat them. But I don't, I don't get the sense that there'll be many storylines of, from the players talking about how this is some big rivalry or anything like that.

I think they're, they're pretty frustrated that they, they can't get a win, that this thing is sliding in the wrong direction. They are getting some players back healthy, but the problem is even early on in the season, when they did have just about everybody, they were still getting blown out. And the worst one really is that game against the saints. You got blown out at home against the saints. You had all of these players were talking about that were injured or are coming back. They were out there, you got destroyed by the saints and they were the first team to fire their head coach.

And for a period of time, didn't win another game until they fired their coach after that. And so that's the one that will stand out of where there's really no coming back from that. It would, it, I understand sports, crazy things happen.

There's nothing crazy path. That's about the change of this Cowboys season, Dallas Cowboys beat writer for the athletic John Machoda joining me, Kirk Morrison here on the Rich Eisen show, a tradition unlike any other. And I say that because daylight savings time, we know when it comes, it comes around every single year, twice a year, you lose an hour or you gain an hour. But during football season is fall back. So when it falls back, that means that the sun usually is setting at a much earlier time than expected. We all know that the 3 25 PM central kick in Dallas is sometimes one of those games where the sun is peaking right through those windows at Cowboys stadium, John and up.

There's every single year. There's a player who loses the ball in the sun just so happened. It happened again, like a traditional, like any other CD lamb loses a ball in the sun that could have helped the Cowboys.

I'm saying that was the would have changed the game around, but definitely would have put them in a better situation. He loses the ball in the sun. And the first question Jerry Jones is asking, Hey, why don't you guys put the curtains up on?

Why did you build a stadium this way? It happens every single year. But what is the defense from Jerry Jones on why this continues to keep happening every single season? So this is interesting. So he talked outside the locker room for about five, six minutes and was done and went walking away.

And a few of us that have covered the team for a while know that it's never really done. Just keep walking with Jerry. He's probably going to keep answering questions and for our business, he's been great at that. And so as a few of us start walking with him, he brings it up himself. He started with, he gave you a curtain call, he turned around and he said, he said, by the way, he wanted, he had somebody wanted to get off his chest. He said, by the way. And so you're just sitting there like, Oh, okay, well, where's this about to go? He brings up that the curtains had no different, no impact on this game and not having curtains down and the sun coming through, it's not an issue because both teams have to play.

Yes. And exactly this picture right here, both teams have to play in this, but see, I'm glad you brought this picture up because Jerry likes that. Look at the official on the right side.

I'm sorry for the viewers, for the listeners, but for our viewers, look at the official, he's got a hand. The official can barely even see and officiate the game because of that, the light that's coming through from the stadium is crazy. So this is, this is a stadium that I'm not, I'm, I'm from the Metro Detroit area.

I've lived down here for 14 years. And so the thing I always say about AT&T stadium that stands out to me is that it's, it's an amazing stadium. It's if you have never been there and you get a chance to definitely go, it's a great place to watch a football game. But the thing is that there's not a lot of history in the stadium. Like when I moved down here, I'm thinking, oh, there's going to be a lot of like Roger Staubach and Troy and Emmett and Tom Landry and stuff like that. And there's like a Tom Landry statue outside, but there's just not a lot of that in the stadium.

In the same, there's a lot of artwork and they are very proud of the artwork. And I bring that up to say that I've always believed that Jerry likes the way that that looks on TV and in different images, the way the sun is coming in and setting like that. And I can give you one example on it in that Tom Brady documentary, I think it was in 2021.

I think it's called like man in the arena. One of the main shots that they have is Tom playing there in that, in a very similar shot to what you just showed where the sun is kind of setting and it looks cool for a picture. But if you're the owner and general manager of football team, it shouldn't matter what looks good for a picture. It should be about winning football games. And the thing that bothers Cowboys fans the most, because as you mentioned, this comes up quite often is I've been to concerts there.

I've been to NCA basketball tournament games there. They have curtains. They put them up for these things. So he's choosing, it's not like he's being cheap and I just don't want to put up. I don't want to buy curtains. They have them.

He doesn't want to put them up. And here's the other part of it. The way Jerry Jones is the reason that this thing keeps becoming a bigger and bigger topic.

And the reason it won't change is because it's become such a big deal. And now it would, if Jerry puts that up, then it proves that he was wrong and he is not going to admit he's wrong. Came back with an encore, right?

I was just laughing about that. Walks away, comes back. Hey, I got one more thing to tell y'all, uh, John Mcconaughey covers the Dallas Cowboys for the athletic couple more for you, John, because, um, obviously we're all awaiting, um, this podcast from Micah Parsons, where he's going to clarify his statements a little bit more from yesterday, but at the end of the day, Micah Parsons is still going to be a Dallas Cowboy kind of also, he kind of threw that in there. Did he just retire Zach Martin too? Like Zach Martin last year, I'm like, wait, does Zach Martin tell us he's his last season? But moving forward, Micah Parsons does have a contract situation that will still need to be resolved.

And so I ask you, what do we see happen first? Is the contract for Micah Parsons coming down or obviously a new head coach, uh, for the Dallas Cowboys? Oh, I mean, with the way things are heading, it's going to be tough for them not to go in a different direction, a head coach. And so I think, like you said, Micah knows he's not going anywhere. Uh, Jerry Jones loves Micah. He loves, you know, he loves players that can stir it up.

He probably doesn't mind at all that he's doing this podcast. Jerry doesn't mind any of that. I've always believed some of his favorite players are the ones that not only are there are some of the best Cowboys players, but the ones that like to stir it up the most, you know? And so because of that, I know I don't see a time where Micah has gone, there's a lot of talk, you know, over the last, you know, year or so about what if the Cowboys tried to trade Micah and get a boatload of picks and try and rebuild through that.

Jerry's not doing that. Jerry's not getting rid of Micah, Micah Parsons and Micah Parsons knows he's not going anywhere. And let's be honest, Micah Parsons loves the Cowboys for their brand as well.

He doesn't want to go anywhere else. He was crying in the draft room when it was becoming possible that the Cowboys are gonna be the team that got him. He wanted to go to the Cowboys more than anywhere because here that's the thing.

Like the brand is also huge. Like there's a lot of things like Micah Parsons does and says that if he's doing this in Jacksonville, they're not as big as of a, of a headline. And but with the Cowboys, it's a big deal and he feeds into that.

Now the argument can be made. I don't know how much that lends itself to winning championships, but you can also say since they drafted Micah Parsons up until this season, they were 12 wins, 12 wins, 12 wins. He clearly is a good player on the field, but there is a part where you're wanting, you wonder is this causing more distractions than are needed? You know, John, I hate to throw salt on the Cowboys wound, but I'm going to throw some salt on the Cowboys wound because yesterday, obviously Ezekiel Elliott, six carries, 22 yards. And you look on the opposite side, Saquon Barkley had 14 carries, 66 yards, and you see how impactful of a running back that acquisition was for the Philadelphia Eagles. And it also points back to the Dallas Cowboys and not acquiring Derrick Henry. I know you've heard the storyline, this narrative all season long, but in a team that was going supposedly all in and to that be something that has really held them back as they're rushing attack, what do the Cowboys think or how do they handle that going forward with Ezekiel Elliott, which seems to be sort of a problem that he said, he's missed meetings.

He's just not all in. He's not the same Zeke anymore. And also it starts to seem like he may be a problem within the locker room. How does, how does this end this, this reconnection between Ezekiel Elliott and the Cowboys? Jerry loves Zeke.

So that's a big part of this as well. The owner and general manager wants him there. So the owner general manager is going to get what he wants. So I, because of that, I don't see, I see Zeke making it at least to the end of the season, but pointing back to the off season, you bring up Derrick Henry. I mean, they obviously made a huge mistake by not putting more resources into running back. Whether it be the draft the last two years, they knew last year that they were only going to have Tony Pollard for one more year. They probably should have drafted running back earlier last year. And when they didn't, they probably needed to do it this year.

And that was a huge mistake. And I'm not saying that Derrick Henry would be having the same season he's having in Baltimore, but he'd be a lot better than what they have right now. And the fact that even if you couldn't afford Derrick Henry, the fact that they didn't talk to him or talk to his agent about signing him when he clearly really wanted to come to Dallas, he has an off season home in Dallas.

It's hard to look past the fact that, that he has the same agent as Dak Prescott and Dak Prescott's agent has won two massive battles against Jerry Jones that I wonder if anybody in the business world has won the battles that Dak's agent has won against Jerry. And so there was definitely a period in the off season where there wasn't a lot of communication back and forth. And so it's hard to believe that they just didn't pick up the phone too, because they're like, we're not dealing with this situation right now. And so it looks bad. It really does, especially in every week that goes by and you see Derrick Henry playing as well as he is that it just makes it worse. And then also just the fact of other teams that added running back in the off season. And so, yeah, that was a huge swing and miss by the Cowboys, but it wasn't just running back. They needed to do way more in the off season. And other than really bringing in Eric Hendricks at linebacker, they didn't do very much to replace the guys they lost in free agency.

And that's certainly one of the biggest reasons that they are where they are right now. Unfortunate for the Cowboys, but we still going to talk about them Cowboys, John, I appreciate the time. I know you have a appointment viewing or listening later for the Micah Parsons podcast. So I appreciate the time and we'll catch up with you soon. All right. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. It was fun talking to you.

Appreciate it. That was John Machado. He's the Dallas Cowboys beat rider for the athletic. Yeah, that's a lot with the Cowboys and you got to bring it up. We haven't even talked about the other team that they played against yesterday and how they just dismantled them. That's 34-6. I didn't want to bring it up, TJ, but that's just, no one's talking about the Eagles right now.

And I like that. I like how they're kind of under the radar where before the season it was like, Sirianni and Jalen Hurts, their big grand back and forth. Jalen Hurts doesn't turn the football over. You're seeing what this team can be. They're winning games. They're one of the top defenses in the league and nobody is saying anything about them, which is perfect. I think this is where the Eagles, pun intended, fly under the radar and then get ready to be one of those teams that can contend in the NFC.

Also think about it. They got at the buzzer by Kirk Cousins or they're 8-1 right now and we're thinking, oh, I kind of like them better than the Lions in the NFC. If they execute that play that they ran earlier in the game to Saquon Barkley. Right off Saquon's fingertips. They ran the play earlier and they converted. They run the play again later on.

It bounces off his fingertips. That's how different this football team is in Philadelphia. I like how they're kind of laying on the radar, but there's another team in the state of Pennsylvania that is putting in work, a lot of work and we got to start throwing some flowers out, man. Give them their bouquets because at 7-2, Russell Wilson, black and gold, let's go. Here we go.

Black and gold. Here we go. There we go. There it is. Here we go. Steelers.

Looks good, man. The win yesterday over the commanders, I just don't, are they really one of those teams that we're thinking of? Are they a Super Bowl contender? We'll talk about that next.

Coming up right here. We're not going to apologize for winning on the Rich Eisen Show. Kirk Morris is feeling in for Rich. Let's talk LinkedIn people and small business owning. I'm a small business owner.

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That's OReillyAuto.com slash E-I-S-E-N, O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. Well, I mean, and that's why I'm wondering why you would go by the name of Matty Ice, Mac. That's why I'm wondering, I mean, that's a beer-infused nickname and it doesn't fit anymore. Would you agree it doesn't fit anymore, Mac?

Are you, is the natural coming back or are we making a push for the natural here? No, I'm, I'm, well, I'm pointing out that certain nickname that you've had for a long time. Just, just, I like beer.

I do like beer. Right. So when it comes to it though, you just, you're not, you're not slamming them back, right? Is what you're saying? No, I guess I'm, I'm drinking responsibly. Okay.

Something that would be a natural light of some sort, man. Are you, what are you drinking? What are you drinking? It's been a long time. You keep making my point. Why won't you take the natural from me, man? Why won't you just, why won't you do it? I mean, how many times do I have to ask?

How many times do I have to ask? It's just, nobody else wants it. Are you aware? I offered it to Stafford, your buddy. Is that right?

Yes. He didn't take it either. Well, I mean, he. That's a no, Matt. Excuse me.

Hold on. He, I, I gave him full disclosure that it was a retread and that you had rejected it because I know you guys talk. I know you guys, you guys are tight, right? He forgot to mention it to me the last time I saw him.

I can't believe that wasn't top of mind for him. Okay. So just, just on behalf of all my loved ones who are cringing right now, just tell me to move on, Matt. And I'll move on. Just tell me to move on. Rich, you got to move on. You got to move on. I love you, but you got to move on. Thank you, Matt. Thank you so much.

Even if I gave you a t-shirt or anything, all right, Matt, I can take a hint after nine years or so. Back here on the Rich Eyes and Show, Kirk Morrison filling in for Rich and uh, hey friends, guess what? I noticed, I hope you've noticed that just not the NFL is going on. College basketball, the NBA, uh, women's college basketball. It's awesome.

That's in full swing as well. And also the NHL hockey. I am a hockey guy here.

Anytime we got a roof over, fellas, you know, I'm going to be there. I bring all that up because, uh, I want to tell you about game time. The new feature called game time picks. It's easier to see your favorite teams play live. Go to game time picks, the filter, and it filters out all the fluff and stuff that you don't want. And it gives you the incredible deals on the great seats. So you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets.

Look, I was trying to do that the other day. Now, you know what, if they don't have tickets, I'm just not going, you don't have to worry about that with game time picks because it's a curation is easier to save more on all of the sports concerts, comedy theater, many other events with the all in pricing feature. All right. You go right to the total upfront, no surprise fees at checkout with game time. You always get the lowest price guarantee or game time will credit you 110% of the difference. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time picks. Download the game time app, create an account and use code R I C H spells rich for $20 off your first purchase. So terms apply visit game time.co for details again, create an account, redeem code and spell out the word rich R I C H for $20 off. Download game time today.

What time is it? Game time back here, um, for some reason, every week, it's been appointment viewing for me. I sit back and I observe, uh, one of the great discussions that this person has every week, every Tuesday, it's been appointment viewing for me. And it's one of those things I just sit back and I listen and I see how someone can control the controllables or control an interview, control, um, the narrative. So every Tuesday and they call it Tomlin Tuesday because every Tuesday Mike Tomlin is going to tell you what it is, how it is, what went down, who's available. And now the practice will be the guide for who will be available for the week.

It's one of the great things I love watching. But when you're watching his football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, who now sit seven and two big victory over the Washington commanders, you start to think in a year, which people may have said, this will be the toughest year. Mike Tomlin has had to deal with this football team with uncertainty at the quarterback position with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields with players on the outside, not having a true wide receiver group, right?

Of guys who you can depend on. We know what George Pickens was, but they traded away Deontay Johnson, right? They didn't really have a group that you felt comfortable. They didn't give Najee Harris the fifth year option. So you had two running backs and Harris and Jalen Warren, and you're trying to figure out who is this Pittsburgh Steelers team. They go out and draft a couple of rookies over there.

The defense, would it be the same? They bring in Patrick Queen, a lot of uncertainty with the Pittsburgh Steelers and yet all they continue to do is just win football games. And they did that yesterday and beating a commander's team, which was one of the better games of the day because of where both these teams sit at with the commanders sitting atop the NFC East standings and in the number one team in the AFC North, the Pittsburgh Steelers. And I want to, here's a little Mike Tomlin just talking about just the victory and what it means for the fourth and one at the end, because everybody knew yesterday, everybody knew that the Pittsburgh Steelers were not going to snap the football. It is fourth and one, the Steelers got the football coming out of a timeout and they got to the line of scrimmage and everybody knew he was, they weren't going to run a play except for my man Newton on the other side for the Washington commanders.

Here's a little Mike Tomlin after the game. Despite the aggressive mindset, I might assume you weren't going to go for it there on fourth down? We'll never know, will we? You know I'm a degenerate. I need that as a strong yes. You never know.

You know I'm a degenerate. I mean, just kind of setting you up with what happened. It was a fourth and one, it was an opportunity for Washington to get the ball back. They had ran three straight run plays and they called three straight timeouts, Washington did. You got to a fourth and one, but the ball I think was right around, what, midfield, about 40, the 45 yard line I believe. And basically you just kind of knew that Mike Tomlin's like, nah, I am not going to run a play, but I want you guys to go out there and line up, and line up as if we're going to run a play.

And it was a play that just, as a defender I'm upset. It was a rookie. Newton, I know that was his last name, I ain't even got to his name, was it, help me out here Brock for his name, I forgot, I just know his last name was Newton, Jermaine Newton, Jay Newton. That's how I'm going to call him, Jay Newton. It was a J-E-R-Z-A-H-N. Exactly. An apostrophe.

I knew, I just didn't want to mess it up, but anyway. There's no way I can pronounce his name. Yeah, Jerzahn. Jerzahn. Yeah.

I didn't want to mess it up, because when I see it phonetically I know how to say it, but. Rookie out of Illinois. Rookie out of Illinois, outstanding football player, they got him, he's along the front, and he's ready to make a play. Oh, he jacked up. Oh, he's ready to go.

White knuckle. But what happened was, they got too cute, and when I say too cute was that the Washington commanders, they decided to stem the front. When I say stem the front, they lined up one way, and they all moved in unison. And now when you do that, you kind of forget what's going on. And all game long, the former defensive line coach that I was always around in my years would always say, you're a prisoner until the ball sets you free. That's always the mindset.

I like that. You're a prisoner until the ball sets you free. So the ball's right there, and until that ball snap, you can't move.

But young player, in a moment, big moment, trying to make all fourth and one, and then you stem the front. So you've already told everybody in the huddle, right? I've been in there as a linebacker, hey, break the huddle, hey, over cover three, ready? Hey, hey, watch the ball, watch the ball. They probably go, watch the ball, watch the ball. Don't jump, don't jump. And then what happens?

They jump. Jerzon jumped, and then the Steelers come away. Mike Tomlin excited after the game, oh, we got him.

The cameras caught him talking and said, look, we got him. And the Pittsburgh Steelers now improve to seven and two. And they fully put themselves in the conversation, not just as playoff contenders, we're talking about conference championship, maybe even Super Bowl contenders.

The addition of Mike Williams during the trade deadline, you got a lot going into that. Pickens, Williams, Firemouth, Van Jefferson, Najee, Jalen Warren, that offensive line. To me, the Steelers showed me, and they're proving to me that this is a team, and they got the coming up, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens.

They're still showing me. But what I've seen so far with that defense, TJ White on the opposite side, look at that schedule coming up. Baltimore, they got the whole division schedule. We're going to see it. Baltimore, they've got Cleveland, Twyke, Cincinnati may be done by then. Who knows? Eagles, Chiefs, man, it's going to be a lot.

But they've already done their work. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be fun. It's going to be awesome.

It's going to be great. But Mike Tomlin is showing a lot. You know what, in the next hour, I'll also show you or tell you what I think about Mike Tomlin. We should be talking about another award for Mike Tomlin.

I'll let you know which award that should be. Steelers are now a team that needs to be reckoned with in the AFC North, but more importantly for a conference championship. That's how things are going in the NFL in terms of teams who are, I guess now we're at the time, 10 weeks in, contenders and pretenders. We have to play that game.

I love that game. Are they contenders? Are they pretenders? I think we're starting to separate. We're seeing a lot of separation now.

Oh yeah. And the separation is like, oh man, is this team who we thought they were? Like Detroit?

Yes, they're there. Like a team, is Arizona a contender or a pretender? You know what I mean? Because yesterday they look like, well, first of all, the Jets are a mess and I'm just trying to leave it out of it, but I'm going to probably get into it throughout the show in a little bit.

Oh, you have to. We talk about Cowboys being a mess. Yeah, but they're an even bigger mess.

At least you got something for the future. They ain't got nothing. They ain't got nothing. They ain't got nothing.

They ain't got nothing. Like, woo, that cupboard is bare. Did you see Mike Williams' face? You know?

I just see it. He must have been so happy. He was so happy. Not with the Jets anymore. Oh man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

What a catch he made too, man. Things happen in the league. New faces, new places, it just happens, but now the Jets, oh, we're going to get into all of that. I like Arizona.

I do. I think they're- Okay. You believe them as a contender though? They're going to win a playoff game. Atlanta Falcons?

Are they a contender? We've got a lot to get to. Max Chadwick, PFF, coming up here next on the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, it's Rich Eisen here. Join me and my compadre, Chris Brockman, every Monday on the Overreaction Monday podcast. Rich, Jameis has taken the Browns to the playoffs.

Dude. Why can't they win seven, eight games to finish the year? Why not? I'm not saying it's no why not, but this is a definitive statement that's clearly an overreaction and it's perfect fodder for a show like this one.

I appreciate you coming out of the gate hot. Come react or overreact with us. Overreaction Monday, wherever you listen. It's game over. It's game over, man.