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You'll love sleep number. Hey, everybody. Welcome to this edition of What the Football. Amy and Suzy with you and the great Kevin Harlan will join us soon. Can't wait to have him as always. Aim, watching the game last night, I have to say watching the Cowboys game that he did call on Westwood One.
I was stuck wondering why Trey Lance didn't come into the game. That's what I was thinking as I walked away. And by the way, I do want to mention one other thing to you guys. We are aware as we tape this on a Tuesday that the Jets filed the fired the general manager. We know that. So I don't want you to think we're going on and not talking about the elephant in the room or the jet that is grounded, what have you. But honestly, we're sick of talking about the Jets like they're kind of irrelevant right now. I so I want you guys to know, we know, but we're moving on to a different team that's getting remotely more and more irrelevant by the day.
And that is the Dallas Cowboys. Aim, wouldn't you have thought that you would have seen Trey Lance in there last night, at least towards the end of the game? And Mike McCarthy today on Tuesday saying, Yeah, I think I made a mistake there. I should have had him in.
Well, it would have been smart for a number of reasons. Take a look at what you have. And also give him the reps.
So put him in, let him have the reps, and you can do some evaluation. Yeah, this is Jerry Jones from earlier today on Tuesday. Let's take a listen to that right now. Last two ballgames because we need to win to that degree and give ourselves every chance we can.
Now, that's 105.3, the fan. What experience does he want to stay with is my question. What experience do you actually want to be on?
And I thought to myself, when I hear about, Rich used to say something like the Rich Eisen Show experience. I'm like, oh, what kind of experience is that? What's the NFL experience? That's supposed to be fun.
It's supposed to be like when you go to a Super Bowl, there is a huge NFL experience outside and fans are lining up and they're running 40s and running routes, et cetera. This is not a great experience right now. So I'm wondering, Amy, what exactly is the experience that Jerry Jones wants to stay with? I can't answer that for you, Suze.
I'll tell you what grabbed my attention. When Mike McCarthy came out and said, and this is a quote, we deserve to win. What the f*** does that mean? You deserve to win? You don't deserve to win. You have to win.
What was it? Denny Green. We play to win the game.
Oh, no. Was that Denny Green or was that Herm Edwards? We play to win. Herm Edwards. Denny was. They are who we thought they were. Yeah, Denny was. They are who we thought they were.
And Herm was. We play to win the game. And now Mike McCarthy is, we deserve to win? I mean, what the f*** does that mean? You know, growing up, my mom always said to us, the world doesn't owe you a living. And that was her way of saying, go out and earn anything you want because nobody owes you anything. It's like, you don't deserve to win.
Go win. Yeah. I think- That was a little bit of a rant, wasn't it? No. Listen, I like angry Amy. Yeah. I think- It's actually my preference.
Cool. I also like slightly drunk Amy. That's a whole different conversation.
We should do another one of our podcasts with a little bit tipsy Amy. Look, I think that when you say we deserve to win, it sounds like when a kid says that's not fair. I mean, you either win or you don't.
You play to win. And you know, we saw, I mean, look, Joe Mixon was amazing last night. We saw, and CJ Strad may not be playing as well as he did last year, but that team's playing for their coach. That team's playing for their coach. And by the way, you mentioned Joe Mixon. Everybody's talking about Saquon from the Giants to the Eagles.
Cincinnati's missing Joe Mixon. You think? I do. A hundred percent, right? He was a beast last night.
The actual quote, and I have it here, Don Buiard, trustee producer, just sent this to me. We deserve to win. We deserve the opportunity to win.
And that's why I'm putting the best people out there. And right now they're young, but we need to do whatever the hell we need to do to win. And I would say, I'm so curious, like if that's the case, is Cooper Rush really putting you in the best position? Yes, he threw for over 350 yards, a lot of it later on in the game in garbage time. At some point, you have to look at this kid that was one of the top drafts, of course, coming off an incredibly short, short run at North Dakota State. Ironically, he was planning on going to Minnesota, but they wanted him to be a wide receiver or a DB. And he chose to go there and go on to have an incredible freshman year. And then of course, went one behind Zach Wilson and in front of Mac Jones and in front of Justin Fields, but obviously got hurt in San Francisco. Never much did anything there behind Jimmy Garoppolo.
Goes to Dallas. And what's he doing there? What's this experience right now? And why wouldn't you want to shift up the experience and just at least see what you have? Well, you could look at it in one of several ways, see what you have and or show other teams what you have, because maybe there's a trade value there for you. Yeah.
See, that's the thing is you're always looking at that from that perspective. And maybe there's a way too, unless he's just not good and they know that. But I watched him last night, he's standing there on the sidelines and he's doing the usual holding onto the skeleton. And I just thought to myself, he's just standing there.
The game is out of hand. Why not just toss him in there and see what you have? When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs. LinkedIn jobs has the tools to help find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. LinkedIn isn't just a job board. LinkedIn helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else.
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Learn more at American Express dot com slash Amex Business. And as promised, Kevin Harlan joins us now. And Kevin, I'm always amazed to see that you're actually showing up because your schedule is so insane and you always make time for us. So thank you so much for that.
My privilege. I'm so glad you've asked me back on. I think it was about a year ago we did this and I enjoyed it so much then and so I'm glad you've asked me back. Thank you. And we'll cover Cranberries for Motley as an Nantucket will be on the way right after this interview.
I do promise. We love that. We loved it.
Let me ask you this. What was it like in Dallas on Monday night? What was the environment like?
I can't even imagine. You know, there was, did you know there was a big sheet, sheet that fell from the roof and one of the roof open. It was a beautiful night in North Texas. It was gorgeous.
And, I mean, the whole purpose of having a roof that can, you know, open up is to have it open up and we don't get enough of that. And here was another great chance to do that and Jerry Jones is actually out there before the game looking up along with some engineers trying to figure out and that was looking through a binoculars. So it wasn't a part of the conversation.
But looking up there and trying, they were pointing out what had happened and why maybe it happened and so that will be an ongoing story for sure. But you know, everything, it's like when you set your dinner table and you've got this great meal planned and you've invited your favorite people over for a dinner and you got the right music, it's the right ambiance, it's the right everything. That somebody gets sick right before they can't show up and then someone isn't feeling good or has had a bad day and they're grumpy during the meal and it just takes the air out of the whole night. And that's the way it is at that stadium. It is so perfect. It's the best setting along with L.A. and so far stadium in the NFL. I'm not going to put green band arrowhead in there because those are my two favorites but the thing is just waiting to be enjoyed and has been over the many years it's been in existence. But they really thought this year was going to be the year. They had the quarterback, they had signed him, they got the receiver signed, they felt they had some depth on both sides and they were ready to kind of roll the dice in the division and felt like we could repeat. They won it last year, why not this year? But clearly this has been an incredible disappointment. You've got everything an organization could possibly want in that stadium, in their presentation and the football team just, it's not there. They're mediocre and they struggled against a good Houston team, there's no doubt. But Dallas without their starting quarterback and with I think some kind of bad body language as the game was getting out of hand shows that this is a situation that they've got a problem and I don't know what's going to happen.
The owner wants to win now, he's 82. The fan base is ready to go and make a good run after three straight 12-win seasons and it doesn't look like that's going to happen this year. So disappointing fans left early, fourth quarter, kind of surprising for a Cowboy game. It wasn't good. It was not good. Yeah. I mean, it's so funny. So much to unpack there.
You start with the building and Amy and I have talked about this a lot. One week it's the windows and the sun is coming in and it looks like a Renaissance painting and yet the players can't see the football. Body language, we've seen C.D. Lamb basically looking miserable on the field. We've seen some altercations last night.
Clearly the guys are getting a little chippy and yet we've got a situation with Mike McCarthy saying last night, yeah, I should have put in Trey Lance for a couple of downs to see how he would have done for a couple of series. It kind of just feels like, and this is a scientific way, Amy likes to say this is the scientific definition. It just seems like a hot mess down there. That is a very good scientific term, that is an exquisite scientific term, Susie.
That's the perfect one. As a father of three daughters, I've heard that term often, so I know that. Yeah, you know, Mike is a quality coach. He's got nothing to prove. I just don't know if the way that organization is set up and the way they put their roster together has been a proven model. When a team loses, there are many tentacles here and everybody is responsible, so you hate to say it's on ownership or it's on the personnel department or it's on the coaching staff or on the player. Everybody's got a hand in a season like the Cowboys are going through right now. It's hard to watch because they are such an attractive brand.
Their setting in that stadium is virtually perfect. Their fan base is as fervent as any in pro football. It's hard to see that brand suffer the way it is right now, but clearly there are issues.
I think there isn't a spot in that organizational chart that doesn't have some responsibility for what is going on right now. You lose your starting quarterback, first of all, in this league. It's almost irreparable, especially one like Prescott, who's in the upper half of quarterbacks' toughest position to play in sports. It becomes difficult. Now, Cooper Rush played well last night, got a lot of yards, a lot of them in garbage time, but they moved the ball, but he's not Dak Prescott, and that's the face of your organization. So yeah, these are tough times in Dallas and hard to watch really, very, very hard to watch. I think Daisy Rees is a good point, which is given what was going on in the game, should they have given Trey Lance some snaps just to give him the opportunity to be on the field to see what he can do and or just to give him the reps?
I'd love to know your view on that. Were you expecting to see him? I was. I was, yes.
Yeah. They traded a fourth round pick to San Francisco to get him. Dak was upright last year.
These are times when you probably start to begin to look for other answers, other guys you can go to. Lance would have been a—listen, a couple years ago, the 49ers thought so much of them, two very smart people, Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch, the GM. Very smart people thought that Lance was worth a very high draft choice. He has seen very limited time, injuries as rookie or you may recall, but they sacrificed a lot of draft capital to make that deal to move up in the draft to get him.
There are many people that would tell you he just hasn't had a full-bodied chance to experience that position with the day-to-day preparation and the things that go with being a starting quarterback, and you're never going to know until you give him that chance. In this, what appears to be a lost season, I'm not saying they'll quit, I'm not insinuating that, but clearly at three and seven, they've got some problems. The way that Philly's playing and the way Washington's playing, there's not a lot of breathing space in that division. They kind of are where they are at this stage of the season, Thanksgiving's around the corner when you pretty much got to dial in on what you are, and this might be a great opportunity with no Dak coming back to try and see what Trey Lance is all about. At the very least, when Dak does come back next year, he gives you, A, a quality backup, great competition against your starter, maybe even a guy that you could trade to get more draft picks and build your roster because there are probably six to eight players that are needed on that team overall that will have an impact. They've got a couple guys that have blossomed in the wake of some significant injuries like Demyka Parsons. They lost two guards last night, both pro bowlers, one who will probably be in the hall of fame one day because he's a seven-time first team all-pro left guard.
Now is the time to really stretch your imagination and see what you've got. If Lance can produce the way people projected three, four years ago, he might give you a nice bargaining chip come draft time. You send him some place for a team looking for a quarterback. Now they've got some tape on them.
We just saw this with Jordan Love last year, final eight games. He became the richest quarterback in pro football, and they saw a guy go on the road and win games in the playoffs, one in Dallas, and they almost beat San Francisco. They found out in the last half of the season. That's what the Cowboys really have a chance to do with Trey Lance, to see if he has anything right there.
I don't think he'll unseat Dak, but what he could do is he could give them some draft capital in a trade, and they could build and fortify the roster. Great point. Amy, you mentioned before we were talking about Mike McCarthy saying, we deserve to win, and that really stuck at you. It really did, and I was going to raise that as well. The two of you just mentioned body language that was seen on the field. The thing that stuck out to me the most was Mike McCarthy's comment after the game, we deserve to win. I beg your pardon? You deserve to win? Nobody deserves to win.
You have to go out and win. Am I overreacting to that comment, Kevin? Am I reading too much into it?
It really grabbed me. Well, I think it may have been maybe more in support, Amy, of the preparation the team had put in, his staff had put in for that game, how even with this record, they take none of this lightly. This is incredibly serious. Jobs are at stake, and knowing Mike kind of the way I do, I would say that maybe his intention was our players prepared. We had everything buttoned down, and we were ready for that moment, and listen, they took points off the board last night when they could have made it a one-sport game. That was so painful to watch.
Yeah. I mean, you just don't know sometimes, listen, they got that there was a penalty, and instead of counting that 64-yard field goal, which I think would have been the third longest in NFL history, they took the ball to 31 feeling, listen, we got to get some stuff going. We need touchdowns.
Field goals are fine. But at that particular moment, it may have rewarded a team that was building a little momentum, made it a one-score game. You just don't know sometimes when it gets that close second half on the road, how a team will react, speaking of Houston, and in this case, may have given a little push to the Cowboys.
It didn't. They lost it on downs, as we saw, and the game kind of spun from that point on. Houston was mowing their way right to the other end and scored. So hard to say, but my feeling is, when Mike said that, that it was like our preparation was of the highest caliber. We were ready and prepared to win with what we did. Now, all teams can't say that. We know the NFL. There are a lot of teams that, you know, you get into December and you've won a couple of games, they shut the door and say, I'm going to worry about me.
I'm going to put good stuff on tape, but I'm going to worry about me. I don't sense that with the Cowboys, but, you know, they're getting into a very interesting part of where they are in their schedule. They got three games beginning last night in 11 days, and that includes Thanksgiving next week.
So this is a very tough time. Now we have seen teams that for some inexplicable reason have turned it around and not saying they can't. They've got enough playmakers that can make that happen.
But right now, what we saw last night says against the better teams in the league, like Houston, it's not going to happen. And the result was indicative of where they are right now. I understand your point, which is I'm hearing we deserve to win. And I reacted very strongly and very poorly to that. But what I hear you saying is perhaps just a poor choice of words. Had he said we prepared to win or we were prepared. So maybe just a poor choice of words, but I will let you know it almost exploded my brain. I'm sure with your background and what you expect out of the people that you led and organization that you worked for, and listen, the Cowboys had the same kind of field.
Their history is like the Raiders amongst the best in the history of the game. And so you expect to put out your best performance, you expect your best preparation. My guess is Mike was referring to that element as opposed to, and I don't know that he said, I don't think he felt they quit. I mean, when he said that makes that kind of statement, I guess it feels like he said, we checked our boxes. It just was not our night.
I think it's really interesting the body chemistry. And Jerry has said on his radio show that he doesn't believe that the team has lost their faith in McCarthy, but this doesn't seem to be a team that's playing for their coach the way a team should. And maybe it's the contract year. Maybe it is some kind of conflict of personalities or what have you, but you can feel it.
I mean, when you're around teams, you see it for like, you know, Ryan's, you see like his team wanting to play for him and there is something off there and we're going to, I don't know what it is and we have half a season left to find out, but there's just something very strange there. I had a question about the head slap. How often do you call a head slap penalty? I don't know. A strange moment in the game last night.
Yeah. You don't see it often. I don't know that I can actually go back and say, I remember a game last year or earlier on and I, listen, there are so many things that are going on in that game and these officials are constantly, you know, trying to keep up with a game that is faster moving, more quick twitch than at any other time. How they see what they see half the time to me is amazing. I don't know that I have seen something like that, but it is what it is and there's a precaution that these officials coming down from the league take with these players and their well-being is paramount and they're going to be very vigilant about that and there probably is more of that around the corner.
I think he's right, but I think you're right about more of that around the corner. Hey everybody, let's talk about game time tickets. If you haven't noticed, basketball season is right around the corner and I'm really looking forward to seeing all the great action and now with game time's new feature, game time picks, it's even easier to see your favorite teams play live. Game time picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets and here in Los Angeles, there's not one, but two pro basketball teams with two different arenas. So you need to see the view from your seat. You also need to all in pricing feature I've been telling you about.
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Game time. Let's talk LinkedIn people and small business owning. I'm a small business owner. Yeah, I might host the Rich Eisen show, but I run it too. Rich Eisen productions is a small business and when you're hiring for small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. And that's why you've got to check out LinkedIn jobs. LinkedIn jobs has the tools to help find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. It's not just a job board. This LinkedIn LinkedIn helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else. Even those who aren't actively searching for a new job, but might be open to the perfect role in a given month, over 70% of LinkedIn users don't visit other leading job sites. So if you're not looking on LinkedIn, you're looking in the wrong place. LinkedIn knows that small business is wearing so many hats and might not have the time or resources to hire.
That's why you got to use them. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash Eisen. That's LinkedIn.com slash Eisen to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. So let's go over to Lion's Jaguars. What's it like to call a massive blowout like that? And were you kind of just hoping a streaker might break out and you'd have some distraction?
Well, no, I wasn't. Wait a minute, what's happening over there? There's actually some action on the field. When it's on radio, you can pretty much use the theater, the imagination for your listeners and take them any place you want to take them. On TV, as you know, we take those cameras and we swing it to the other side.
We don't show any interlopers. Actually quite frankly, watching the precision of the Lions offense and the way they were operating was kind of mesmerizing. I never felt like there are some games you have when you're just slogging through and you look at the clock and there's only nine minutes left in the third quarter and it's a 30 plus point game and you're counting the minutes. This game never felt that way. And I don't know if it's because the Lions are so new to this world they find themselves in and the fans are just eating it up after decades of deployments that they revel in all this.
I never felt like it was piling on. They were just playing their game. It wasn't the trick plays that maybe we saw them execute in Dallas when they were beating the Cowboys four or five weeks ago. They were just playing football and they were doing it at the highest level and sharpening their tools. They know they've got a tough road ahead of them. There's nothing easy about facing the elite in the NFL at home or on the road and you've got to make sure that you are constantly advancing, evolving, becoming better, trying new things, seeing what you can do.
This is not a social experiment. This is professional football and in professional football, you are always giving your best and you are trying to constantly be your best every Sunday. You have one game a week to do that and what Detroit is going through right now with their fan base, with their team, the environment at Ford Field is really special. You see this occasionally, it happened with Kansas City five, six, seven years ago when they became this powerhouse under Andy Reid and became a perennial Super Bowl contender. Detroit is just entering that and when you see a team enter that stage of their evolution of their development, it's fun to be a part of and watch as a broadcaster and certainly as a fan of that team and those players are being rewarded and they're in turn rewarding their fans for all the patience they have shown, all the dollars they have put into buying those tickets and buying those jerseys and those caps. This is a league of professionals and if you don't bring your best and Jacksonville didn't on Sunday, you're going to get hit and that's what Detroit did and that's what they are doing with the best record in the NFC right now. They're fun to watch and they are what we all are reading and hearing they are.
They are terrific. Do you believe that they are the best team in the NFL right now? I think because of the parity in the league and because it is such a week-to-week league, to see that they would be the best in the entire NFL may be a bit premature, but they've got all the markings of being that kind of team. Listen, as you both know, in Kansas City last year, that team just kind of slugged their way through the division, slugged their way through the regular season and it took a Christmas Day loss at Arrowhead to the Raiders to wake them up and then they went on a tear. We've seen Green Bay do this, we've seen the Giants do this, we've seen Pittsburgh do this in the history of the league once we get past Thanksgiving and the holidays. So right now, I can't think, even as good as Buffalo played against the Chiefs, even what we can see from a Pittsburgh team which has been reignited with Russell Wilson and even as good as I still think Baltimore is, now the Chargers are becoming a little bit of an interesting story with their team and their 7-3 record and what they're beginning to do. You could probably put eight teams, right, in that category that have got eight wins or more.
I think that's the number I saw last night. Any of those teams could win it, but the optics are so strong for the Lions right now that I would not have any problem seeing it, but my experience tells me, let's hold on, we've got seven more, eight more games to go and we're not past Thanksgiving yet when to me the tell-tales really begin to show. You become even more entrenched in that road that you're on and they've got to play Green Bay yet, Detroit's got to play Minnesota yet, and they've got a game in San Francisco coming up late in the year on a Monday night out in Santa Clara. They've got some tough games and the Vikings are just in back of, even though Detroit has beaten Minnesota, the Vikings are only one loss away from Detroit and Green Bay is two, there's seven and three.
That division itself is going to be treacherous, let alone the rest of the NFC, but it feels even as good as Philly is, it feels like Detroit has got every box checked right now. You used a word that has me smiling ear to ear, which is parody. And for those who don't know, and I know you know this, and I know Susie knows this, that's the way the league is designed. The league is designed around the concept of parody. We discussed this in league owners meetings that I attended for almost 30 years. The league wants every fan of every team to believe that his or her team has a chance to win in every game. So parody is the design of the league and you're absolutely right. We see a lot of that on a week to week basis. And don't you love it? Like in baseball, and I love baseball, but in baseball it's the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Red Sox, it's the teams in the big markets with all the money because they can go out and buy these players, right?
Juan Soto was now making his trip around. What if he goes to the Dodgers and they become even stronger? But my point is that what hope is there in Kansas City and Cincinnati and Milwaukee and some of the smaller markets, but in the NFL, Green Bay, the small markets can not only survive but thrive and be a championship caliber team.
I love it. And that's not the case in the NBA. I don't follow hockey as closely.
I'm assuming it's not the case there, but maybe there is more parity in hockey. The point is that the way the league is structured from a salary standpoint and the compensation you get when you do lose a free agent and on and on and on, all the different layers that are there, make this league just so compelling and the ratings say it, the revenue says it, the interest compounds it like the full stadiums, every seat taken every Sunday reaffirms it. You cannot take your eyes off this league.
And Amy and Suzy, aren't you amazed? Every week there's a different narrative. Every week, one week it's, oh, this team, this guy, the next week, ah, forget them.
It's so great. It is like a book, right? Every chapter is different in a book and you don't know what's going to happen in chapter eight after reading chapter seven.
You think you know, but you don't know. And then in chapter nine, you're surprised again. And that's the great thing about this 18 chapter NFL with the 17 games. Every week is so different. And you're absolutely right. It is not happenstance.
It's the way the league is designed. You mentioned Kansas City and that's obviously where you live. Thinking about the bills, handing them their first loss. I was actually looking at the schedule, looking ahead to week 15 and thinking for the lions, that'll be a really fun game to watch. Yes, it will be.
Yes. Well, before we go to Kansas City, what do you think of that look ahead for the bills lions? Um, I think that will be another great test, perhaps a preview of the super bowl. Those two teams could easily be in new Orleans in February.
There's absolutely no doubt. The win over the chiefs just fortifies what they've been trying to do. You know, they had a huge roster revampment. They recreated their safety position and changed their secondary. We know that they changed their wide receiver room, getting rid of two prominent players.
And that refresh has clearly paid off. And you've got your mainstay and the quarterback who is just more impressive every time you see him. Isn't he, Josh Allen? And every year he's always in the conversation early for the MVP and then they fall back and then they kind of cobble it together and they make the run at the end. But this is the year that you really kind of feel, you know what?
We've talked about him. This might be the season that he actually becomes the MVP because he's, he's playing at an incredibly high level right now, as is Jared Goff, the Detroit quarterback we were talking about a little bit earlier. So it may come down to those two. It may come down to those two teams. That game will be must watch TV. Is that a Sunday night game? Is that a Thursday game or is it a late afternoon game?
Checking, one second. On Sunday. I'm not sure when that game is. I did see that and I didn't look.
Something tells me. Sunday late game? Sunday late game? On Fox maybe? I have a question for both of you about the Chiefs-Bills game and the Chiefs loss.
I have what some have labeled a bit of a controversial view on that. If the Chiefs go on to secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs, and that's a big, big, big if, but assuming that the Chiefs do secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs, my view is that losing to Buffalo could be a good thing. Losing to the Bills could be a good thing because it takes off their shoulders the pressure of will they stay undefeated? Will they stay undefeated? Will they stay undefeated?
I think if they get that home field advantage, this loss could help them. Do you think that's nutty? No.
No. The Chiefs won in Buffalo last year in the playoffs and they won in Baltimore in the playoffs. So they have proven to themselves in what was kind of a wonky season last year that they can win on the road and Mahomes' record on the road in the playoffs is terrific. I do think that there was building a pressure of undefeated season talk. No team needs that. There's already enough pressure on the Chiefs as a two-time defending champion trying to make a three-peat happen, which is in itself a season-long venture. They don't need, on top of that, an undefeated trying to match the 72 Dolphins, an undefeated regular season on top of trying to repeat and do something no team has ever done in the Super Bowl era. Green Bay did it twice in the 60s and in the 20s and 30s, but no team has won three in a row. And in breaking news, Kevin Harlan just stated far more eloquently that which I tried to state.
But you know, it's funny, exactly what you're saying as I'm listening to you. We did see precision in Goff and in Allen. We haven't seen precision from Mahomes, but he seems to be a quarterback that everything changes in the playoffs anyway.
And if I'm Josh Allen, I'm happy with that win, but I'm just thinking ahead and I'm not resting on any laurels because we've seen this happen over and over again. They play winning football, right, and they use all three stages of their team, the special teams and both sides of the football. And that component, playing winning football is kind of a nebulous thing. With a quarterback and a passer rating and a rushing average and a yards per catch and yards after catch, you can grab those and make them work in whatever point you're trying to make. When you say play winning football, that is like a level, I've used the comparison like in that movie, The Matrix, where Keanu Reeves is, when he gets to that state, I don't watch him.
I just watch him over my airplane seat and my neighbor ahead of me who might be watching and I just keep seeing him turning this way and a bullet goes whizzing, in slow motion goes flying by like that, then another bullet comes at him and he goes like this and he watches it in slow motion go back like that. And that's kind of where I think the Chiefs are. I don't think they've lost anything by losing in Buffalo except on the slate, but their mentality is that everything is in front of them and it's like happening in slow motion.
We hear quarterbacks say, well, things are really slowing down for me and I was able to throw darts and see things develop before they developed. And that's kind of where the Chiefs are. They find a way, they rely on all three phases of their team to do it and they don't really get choked up, they don't spit the bit, they are accustomed and built to withstand whatever they get. They had an incredible performance against them by Buffalo and nothing should be taken away from what the Bills did, but to perform the way the Chiefs have after winning two straight Super Bowls in this environment in the NFL with all the parody and everybody gunning for you, they circle that game every single week, the X is on their back and to perform the way they have and find a way to win, winning football. That is something that few teams ever capture, but the Chiefs are in that dynastic period of their existence right now and they have, I think, achieved. I think Belichick's Patriots had that at a couple different stages and I think the Chiefs are kind of there right now. I think they just feel so confident about the plays they get, about the preparation they go through each week, about the game plan that's presented to them Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, that they just know, yep, if I do my job, we've taken a Belichick comment, if I do my job, stay in my lane, I believe in the coaching, the philosophy, the way the play has drawn up the scheme and it has shown that that is winning football and that's where they are.
And they get Isaiah Pacheco back and they've got Carolina coming up so they can kind of retool and reassess and doesn't feel like a terrible threat, so maybe the timing for them is just looking even scarier for them, I don't know. And you used a great expression about finding a way to win and that's something someone told me my very first month in the league, which is good teams find a way to win. Whatever that way may be, good teams find a way to win. Yeah, he won. He won.
He won. May I ask you about basketball, if you don't mind? Just wondering about you're calling a game in San Antonio tonight and what's your future like with Turner as you look ahead? I've got the remainder of this season with Turner and I'll finish this out and we've just seen our pregame show, halftime and postgame show, the acclaimed Inside the NBA go through a very diligent and extensive and rewarding process and that ESPN is going to take a hold of that show but it will still be produced by the TNT folks and no one's going to lose their job that's associated with their show and Charles Barkley actually said that. A lot of people are shifting off of the NBA and going to the NHL where they know that once the league leaves Turner's broadcast, they can go to the NHL. Some of the people that are on the NBA making the switch to Major League Baseball and doing some of the other college things that Turner is doing and then there are some of us who are just finishing out their contract and we'll let the things happen the way they're supposed to happen.
Sometimes I think in this business, if you try to manufacture too much, it ends up backfiring. Sometimes you leave and it's not as nice where your new address is. Sometimes a change is needed and luckily I've got a very smart wife who's right with me as we take a look at what's out there and we'll hopefully have decisions to make but right now, I'm with TNT and I've got a full schedule of games ahead of me through the Eastern Conference Finals and we'll look forward to that and try to finish strong for a company that has held the rights to the NBA for almost four decades and I've been there. This is my 30th year at TNT during the games and when I first got there, I worked with Dick Stockton and Vern Lundquist and then I was a teammate with Marv Albert, so I've worked with legends in this business and there's not a day that goes by that I haven't felt incredibly grateful for the chance they took on me to join that group in 1996.
Well, they're lucky to have you. You're a legend as well. I mean, Kevin, as your resident greatest fan of all time, I can't even imagine watching basketball without you there, so I hope that we're going to be listening to you call basketball games for so many years to come and you're right, it's a special place there. I got to do games with Dick when I was doing the playoffs on TNT and it was just an absolute fantastic experience and wherever you are, I just want to listen to it. Last week, by the way, our son Cooper is going with Rich to Monday Night Football because it's here at SoFi and he might be your second biggest fan and so, I mean, the Shuster Eisen household is just going to be over the moon next Monday, but thanks again for your time. We always love having you here. Always a big, big, big treat. Aren't you guys? You're so sweet to me.
Thank you very much and an honor to be on with both of you, who I respect. You're too much. You don't need a ride to this game, I think Rich is available to pick you up.
Your husband is a piece of work, isn't he? You know what? Wait, wait, wait, wait. Rich might be giving you a ride.
You need ice cream. You let me know. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate that, Amy and I'll drive Rich any place, anytime, anywhere. My favorite part of the video, here it is, here it is. My favorite part is, Rich, that you're laughing at Rich the entire time because it's ridiculous.
This video made my whole family so happy. Oh, that is fantastic. Look at this. There's a Hall of Fame quarterback back there, sprawled out like Uncle Joe, who you're trying to take back on a fishing trip or something. He's in the back of the minivan, which by the way, was a rental. I think that there was the impression that it was not my car. I have nothing against minivans, but I was just- They should make a whole movie out of that.
That should be an entire movie. We got to pitch that, Susie. Well, Rich said he will rent a minivan, maybe even stop it in and out in the way if you so want to ride. But I mean- Last night we did the game in Dallas and Kurt said, he looked at me, are you hungry? I go, I'm starving. We went to Whataburger, which is big in Texas, right?
So we had Whataburgers last night. So now we're going to be in California next week and I wholeheartedly will endorse in and out. That would be great.
We don't have that. I will make this happen. I want to know your order. Do you want to double, double animal style?
Do you want to go get something crazy? If you peruse the menu, one thing I'm really good at, I don't cook, but I make great reservations and I can call ahead. I can even go through a line and get food. I can cut a line, unlike the line that you cut getting into the stadium, I had anxiety watching that. I'm thinking, there's got to be a back way to go.
Like there's got to be a way to cut the line to get in there. We did go the back way. We went, the way we went actually, when I started doing the Chiefs on radio in 85 when I was 24 and I used to drive the same way I took Rich and Kurt and our crew, game one against Baltimore back in September. That's the same exact way that I went every year for nine years.
And when I do a Chiefs game for CBS or a game for Westwood One, I take that same route. So we are going a back way. It's treacherous. And I think, and this is, I got to look into this because I said it when we went by it. I think we drive by Walt Disney's boyhood home on this way. Yeah, I think so. I think so. It looks, and the house that I think that he grew up in, I'm probably way off on this, but I don't think so. It looks like from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the house looks like it could house Seven Dwarfs from Snow White.
And so maybe that's where all of the Disney magic began. I don't know. I am going to find out and I am going to tell Rich and he'll pass it on to you, Susie, and then you can pass it on to Andy.
But I believe we go by his childhood home. So these are the things you learned here on What the Football that you can't get on any other show. Kevin, as always, thanks again for your time. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you guys. A real privilege. Thank you. I always love talking with Kevin Harlan.
I mean, I could talk about just about anything with him and I can't imagine, again, listening to the NBA without him there with us. Amy, next week, Andrew Whitworth will join us. Another great guest. We're on a roll. We are on a roll.
Team P and then Kevin and Andrew. And that's Thanksgiving week and the question is, you're a vegetarian. Do you make your turkey out of ice cream?
That's actually a brilliant idea. I don't make the turkey. I'm a vegetarian. I don't make it. I don't eat it.
I just enjoy it and I'll stick with the ice cream. But my idea for you, though, is to get a big mold. I think that's brilliant. And I think you then freeze it and then you can carve your ice cream Thanksgiving turkey. You could even trademark that.
I think we should. Uh, alert, alert. We have the trademark rights for this.
Copyright rights. We'll call it a turkey. A what? A turkey. A Trask turkey.
A turkey. Oh, okay. I like that. I'm always coming up with great ideas here on What the Football. Thanks again for your time and we will see you Tuesday next week before Thanksgiving. Have a great week, everybody. 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 browse to the playoffs. Dude, why can't they win seven, eight games to finish the year? Why not? I'm not saying there's no why not, but this is a definitive statement that's clearly an overreaction and is 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.
