As many of you clearly know, I love going to watch football live.
There's nothing like it. Whether it's college football or professional football, there's nothing quite like the excitement of being in the stadium. And game time tickets and game time picks through game time is exactly your way and your gateway to getting the seat that you want and the experience that you'll never forget. Game time picks is a new curation feature that filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't waste a single second searching through thousands of tickets. The all-in pricing feature, that's my favorite. You get to see your total upfront, no surprise fees at checkout. With game time, you'll always get the lowest price guarantee or game time will credit you 110% of the difference. Take the guesswork right out of buying tickets right now with game time. Download the game time app, create an account, use my code of Eizen for $20 off your first purchase.
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Learn more at americanexpress.com slash Amex Business. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.
Like I'm just praying for the Lord to deliver me from pick sixes. The Rich Eisen Show earlier on the show. Host of Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio. From Showtime's The Agency, actor Jeffrey Wright. Coming up, Bengals head coach Zach Taylor. And now it's Rich Eisen. Our number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air here on this Tuesday. Already had the actor Jeffrey Wright here in studio hour two.
Great conversation. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk joined us in hour number one. Zach Taylor, the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, will be joining us shortly on the program.
The general manager of the Houston Texans, Nick Casario, has spoken about the three-game suspension of his linebacker Aziz al-Sha'ir. And speaking is one way to describe it, railing on the NFL is another. That's coming up in this hour as well. We just did overreaction Monday on a Tuesday. Daniel Jeremiah's take on what's going on with the Chargers team that he calls radio games for, as well as the upcoming draft order that we're seeing play out and who fits where. And the Heisman Trophy race is coming down and DJ is going to be with Suzy and Amy on what the football that gets recorded as soon as this show is over.
Overreaction Monday's out there for everybody. Trick Williams is your guest on the no contest wrestling pod tomorrow, too, Jake? The NXT champion.
Okay. Trick Williams. So that'll be on tomorrow's podcast, you and O'Shea Jackson Jr. Jim Jackson's show comes out Friday. He will have, I believe, Frank Isola chopping up what's going on in the association. So that's the Rich Eisen podcast world. Let's go to Derek in Missouri.
Been hanging on since jump. Derek, congrats on your Broncos winning another one, brother. Rich, I got to tell you, last night was one of those moments where I needed an oxygen take myself because that was, it was nail biting from beginning to the end, but I got to tell you, it was not perfect by any means, by the stretch of the imagination, but a W is still a W and people got to give credit to Nick Benito being the defensive stand up for this team right now, being the first player since one Miller in 2012, 10 plus sacks and a pick six in the same game. And it's in the season. And you mentioned that dime that next through to my remains before that eight men, I don't know if you overheard what he said before he threw that pass, saying that next wasn't processing the field and this and that. And he throws that diamond beauty of a touchdown pass.
And it's a good feeling right now. I got to say one more thing before you let me go, Rich. I got to add to Brockman over there. You have a bit of an anniversary coming up this Sunday, Brockman. It'll be one year this Sunday that you had your little rant from the Patriots-Steeraz game that you said it was the worst day of your life. And it was worse than the Aaron Boone and how they catch combined. So happy anniversary Brockman. That was Chris Brockman being very upset that the Patriots beat the Steelers.
Thanks to the call, Derek, and your fandom to remind us of this anniversary. You put out a memo. You wanted them to tank for Caleb. I did.
You had no idea that you really wanted to tank for Jayden, potentially, or even the guy that you got anyway. Well, our guy's better than the other two. So I'm very happy with what we have. That's not to say. In 10 years we can revisit this.
Drake made a better career. Jayden Daniels and Caleb Williams. Brockman, I pray to the Roku gods we have the opportunity in 10 years. Shout out to Joe and Charlie that we can. Huzzah. Huzzah for you to answer that way. Rather than go to the football conversation of it. You know, right now, right now, that's a hot take, I would say. Tell me you're going to let us do this for 10 more years.
Signed up last week, Rich. Come on, please. Like everybody, every just in terms of his mass hole fandom, we should just be nice to him right now because you could no doubt at some point during the months of June through August, if not September, fry an egg on top of his head, watching all this Chapman coming out of the bullpen from the left side, almost made it from the left side with that monster just standing there, five feet in front of a right handed hitter. Or as he walks, the base is loaded.
Trust me, sir, you will have these moments, but it won't matter if you land Juan Soto. I am quite literally living with a 13 year old boy. Who is spending his waking hours, refreshing every moment. Cooper is, and he's texting me, dad, the rumor is the Blue Jays have given the most money. Dad rumor is that he's already a Red Sox dad rumor is the Yankees haven't given enough money. And it's, I want to sit here and say, Coop, I'd like you to, you know, talk, by the way, he should talk to his mom about Scott Boris. Cause Susie, when she was covering the angels, hung out with Boris all the time. Because Boris, you know, is down there. He's the one who stands right behind home plate in his suite that, I don't know, named somebody probably, you know, what Jason Giambi paid for.
I don't even know if he's his agent. I'm just trying to, you know, come up with the proper timing of the historical reference here. I don't know. At any rate, I'm like, Scott, somebody must be whispering all over the place.
And when is Juan Soto? I mean, one, I mean. Make up your mind already. Like, what are we doing? I can't take this anymore. My hair's already gone.
Like, let's go. Chris, I've probably read no lie. This is no lie. Just today, 45 different tweets about Juan Soto. I Twitter search Juan Soto like a dozen times a day.
I just know Drake mayor, my two most certain is Juan is the wants. If you could wave a wand, have a little bit. Hold on a minute. No, no, no, no, no. He's going to do a, put me in a bind. No, I'm not putting you in a bind.
I thought you're going to make me choose. You could wave a wand. Any story. How about this?
Ballot check takes a job. Okay. Okay. What other story could there be?
That's so monumental. Something to do with Brady. No, no, no. Belicheck takes a job or Soto signs with one of our teams. One of the three teams during the show.
Which one would you, which ones are out? Sorry. There's four of us. Rich Dodgers are out. You can't say that. Cause if the Dodgers get them and there are four teams, I'm going to quit. I'm quitting. I'm quitting baseball.
It would not be great if the Dodgers, that's what I'm saying for like a breaking news. Cause we, you know, we were on the air when Ross got traded. We were on the air, you know, every big football signing. That was an amazing week. Dame got traded. We were on the hell going on right.
Brockman. I looked at each other at the same time. Like did you see that's right. That's when it's the phone digs tweeted out the hell going on. That was when Tyree kill God. Tyree was on the drive to work.
Am I reading this right? We had him say those words into a microphone just so we could have that drop. I think, I think Soto signing while we're on with one of actually it would be better if it's like with like Toronto. So we can all kind of be miserable together. I don't want you guys to get them.
I want to get them. Exactly. We all covered what we see to use the Hannibal Lecter phrase. I think we all know the bottom line is cousin Stevie's got the checkbook open. He's saying what number they give you that he's going to put 50 on top of it. What's the, what's, what, I mean, what, what, what's the, what's the wait for? What do we want? He wants seven Oh one. He wants a million more than Otani. So what? So somebody should give it to him and it should be my team. This would be the number.
This would be my choice for number one story to break while we're all on the air live. Soto? Yes.
Yeah. I think you want me to come to the Mets because that way you could see just the pure unadulterated excitement. You don't know what I'm going to do over here. Feller better have the dumb buck ready.
I'm the curse. You don't want him to go to Boston. That's for sure.
We can all agree on this. You do not want him to go into the Yankees, Rich. I'm okay with him coming to the Mets.
He shouldn't want to go to Boston. Why? We're a multitude of, let's see the most winning it's franchise in the 2000s. Okay. Okay.
Let's see. No one cares about what happened before they were born. You understand that? That is true. No one cares. It's not true. Why should you know that's won the most. Let me ask you this question. Let me ask you this question. Why should he not want to stand there in the batter's box with Aaron Judge protecting him? As much as you love Devers, it's not even in the same realm.
Sure. Three of the top 10 prospects coming up very soon. We have one of the best, youngest teams in baseball. Or he already saw what it's like to bat in front of Aaron Judge.
And to lose in the World Series. Or with all due respect to all of us, why shouldn't he want to be in the middle of what his team can give him? Well, that's what he should want, to be honest. To be honest. Oh, he'll just like, okay, so wait a minute. Oh, Tonny's a duck on the pond and then I'm in between Betts and Freeman? Yeah. That's what he should want.
I mean, when you put it that way. But in terms of where you go, like he could be in front of Lindor or Lindor is in front of him. Honestly, he already knows what it's like to play with the Yankees. He already knows what it's like to have Judge behind him. He already knows that Steinbrenner should already adopt him because it makes it cheaper.
Judge can't hit in the playoffs. Oh, God. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry facts get in the way of your fandom.
Okay. That breaking news one day. It's going to happen.
Steve Cohen has just signed. I do want to hit something here about the Pro Football Hall of Fame. You know I hold it near and dear to my heart, correct? For sure. Obviously, my relationship with the hall is something I cherish and not because for a fourth straight summer, I'm going to step up to the podium in front of all the Cantonians and all the Buckeye fans and dare them to whisper a syllable in my direction or say anything with the letters O-H-I and O in it. But that's not why I bring this up today.
That's for another day. The Hall of Fame announced its lists of finalists for the Hall of Fame class of 2025 in the coach, contributor, and senior categories. The coach that's made it, and usually when these people have come out of committee, it is frequent. I mean, they don't like it when you say it's rubber stamped by the voting group writ large, but the voting group writ large includes the people in many cases that are on these committees and they trust that the hard work has been done and then they'd like to leave their own hard work to the 25 players that are considered Hall of Famers potentially in the modern era. That's the one where, you know, Eli's up this time and Anquan Bold and Tory Holt who should get in at some point if not this year is involved.
I mean, so on and so forth. But the coach that came out of the committee for the coaching finalist is Mike Holmgren and he is beyond deserving. Beyond deserving. One for the Packers, as we all know, it had been quite some time since the Packers had won when he won and he had two rings as the coordinator for those 49ers teams that won it all in the eighties and that's how he got his job from the 49ers to Green Bay. And then he took Seattle to the Super Bowl, lost Super Bowl 40.
By the way, can you believe that's going to come up on 20 years now? This Super Bowl 59 lost Super Bowl 40. And Holmgren has a record of 174 and 122, ended the Packers 29 year drought of Super Bowl victories. There are others who are very deserving. The one that leaps out at me more than any is Mike Shanahan, who will have to wait another year. I mean, you take a look at all the coaches that are in the league right now that have the Shanahan coaching tree and he won two, which is usually the number you need.
But Holmgren, I hope they say yes, certainly since he's the finalist. Three senior finalists, Maxie Bond, an outside linebacker who played from 60 to 70. He came out of retirement in 74 and he won an NFL championship with the Eagles. He joined the Rams and George Allen was his coach. He's a nine-time Pro Bowler.
Jim Tyrer, who was selected as a member of the AFL's all decade team of the 1960s. And then this one, it's got to happen. Sterling Sharpe got a nod here. Sterling can go in.
Don't you think? I mean, the neck injury cut it all short from 88 to 94. He was the man. And if he was the man there, like three first team, all pros, five Pro Bowls, his 18 touchdown receptions in his final season, 84 had 18 touchdown receptions. That's still third best in the history of the NFL.
Talk to anybody who was trying to defend in that time. I'll tell you, Sterling deserves to get in. I hate to be the guy to pour the cold water on this. I don't think you do hate that though. I don't really care for that characterization. I think that being a Hall of Famer also is having a long career.
That should be part of it. And injuries and bad luck, that plays a factor in your career. And while we can all sit here and acknowledge, yes, he was a very great player when he was playing, a five-year career shouldn't get you into the Hall of Fame. And I don't really care what you accomplished during those five years.
It's really tough for me to sit here and be like, he's on par with some of these all-time greats. Seven years, but I understand what you're saying. Gail Sayers and Terrell Davis are in there. And I understand they won Super Bowls and things of that nature. MVPs.
No, I understand. But he made it out of committee and I... I just think it kind of tarnishes the Hall of Fame a little bit. I think if you talk to any of the defenders that are in that bus gallery room that played from 88 to 94, they wouldn't say it's denigrating the room.
Yeah, and that's basically what I'm basing it on. Just hearing a lot of these guys talk about playing him and how completely unstoppable this man was. Players really talk up other players.
They're not really fair. Well, let me talk about this one though. The contributor finalist is Ralph Hay. You might be wondering, who is Ralph Hay? Well, he sold cars and owned the Canton Bulldogs from 1918 to 1922. And he is credited with organizing a bunch of owners of professional football teams in his showroom in Canton in 1920 and forming an association that two years later was named the National Football League. So yes, his contributions were obviously very important since it led to the formation of the National Football League. And he has an award already named after him that Ralph Hay Pioneer Award, given to people who have made significant and innovative contributions to professional football. My friend, the Spanish speaking NFL announcer, Fernando Van Rossum, you won the award last year. It was delightful to sit next to him on the podium.
He particularly enjoyed when I clapped back at the Ohio State faithful. But I just bring this up to say the following here, because in the press release, it says his supporters have said that among all major professional sports, only football has yet to enshrine into its hall of fame the person or persons credited with founding its dominant league. And I'm saying, sure, we're correcting a, what, centuries long snub. But at the expense of Robert Kraft is positively absurd. While Robert Kraft walks the planet in his advanced age and his contributions to this league and this sport in the last 25 years is unparalleled. And it's like, can we correct the Ralph Hay snub another time? The guy also already, his name gets mentioned when an award is given out for him.
Well, what do people are walking around saying? It's an embarrassment that Canton hasn't enshrined one of the founders of, of the sport when Robert Kraft is waiting to get in. And if we're holding against Robert Kraft, any of the headlines that's been associated with him personally, or the Patriots with the gates, I will just say this, get over it.
Absolutely get over it. The number of banners he has with his organization, with his family helped hang in New England. What he has done in New England, talk to anybody. I'm married to one.
I'm married into the family. They will tell you what the Patriots were before he bought them. And he, thank God, this man reached out to Jeff Saturday in the middle of a lockout in 2011 and basically helped broker something.
Good Lord, NFL network doesn't exist in many ways without him either. And Brady's going to be a first ballot hall of Famer and Belichick's going to be a first ballot hall of Famer. And we're going to hold the flake gate and spy gate against this man. Is that what it is? Is that what it is? This is crazy.
I don't know what it possibly is. And then one last thing here, too, because I am so, again, it goes against my, every fiber of my being to criticize anything that comes out of Canton, Ohio and its processes. Okay. And this just goes to show you how much I love this weekend and I love this event and I love this place and I love going to Canton and I love seeing all the folks there just pour their heart and souls 24 seven, 365 and making sure this event goes out and goes out, goes off well. Okay. But it is also a television show. All right.
There are eyeballs out there and there's a fight for relevancy in this world. And with all due respect to the Hay family, who probably won't be pleased with me right now, or whoever is pounding the table to say, as it says in this press release, the, uh, his supporters craft gets in, it will be a parade of Patriots showing up from Brady to brewski to will fork, who might get in to name it. They'll all be there. All of them. And name all the celebrities that he's friends with. They will all be there. Bon Jovi pride does the concert.
It will be any event in Canton, Ohio, but the Ralph hay snubs fixed. I've said my point. That's a good one.
8 4 4 2 0 4 rich number to dial the coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. When we returned Zach Taylor here on the rich eyes of show for business owners like you, the American express business platinum card works just as hard as you do to help you pursue your passions with its world-class business and travel benefits. You can get more for your business wherever it takes you. The Amex business platinum card offers a flexible spending limit that adapts with your business, enabling you to flex and adapt as your business evolves. And you'll earn five times membership rewards points on flights and prepaid hotels booked on Amex travel.com. So that going that extra mile for your business is even more rewarding. See how the Amex business platinum card gives business owners like you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love. The Amex business platinum card gives you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love. Not all purchases will be approved. Terms apply.
Learn more at American express.com slash Amex business. Let's talk sleep number people. There's a reason why sleep number is the official sleep and wellness partner of the National Football League, because in the NFL, there's no margin for error. One mistake can change the outcome of a game and science proves quality sleep can help boost reaction time, recovery time, and overall performance. Imagine what it can do for you. I know about it. My sleep number setting is 60.
My wife's is 70. It's just 10 numbers of different, but it really does make the difference. We can adjust our side of the bed the way that we want and get the perfect quality sleep that we need to be more ourselves and work around the kids. It's awesome. Get ready and get yourself to a sleep number store.
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Take it from me. You'll love sleep number. As many of you clearly know, I love going to watch football live. There's nothing like it, whether it's college football or professional football. There's nothing quite like the excitement of being in the stadium and game time tickets and game time picks through game time is exactly your way and your gateway to getting the seat that you want and the experience that you'll never forget. Game time picks is a new curation feature that filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats. So you don't waste a single second searching through thousands of tickets. The all in pricing feature.
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$20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? Game time.
The AFC North Hard Knocks is coming. Tonight? Yeah.
Kind of excited. Yeah. I think I will decline to ask Zach Taylor about that.
I think that's wise. Okay. But someone asked Mike Tomlin about it. Oh.
Asked if he'll be tuning in. Oh. Oh. And I'm told his response is priceless. Oh, I believe that.
I'm sure I can guess the answer. Hard Knocks? Absolutely not. All right, we'll end on that. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, guys. Are you watching Hard Knocks? Absolutely not. Can we replay that one more time, if you don't mind? Are you ready?
You ready? I just want to hear this thing in all its glory just one more time. Mike, you gonna watch Hard Knocks? Absolutely not. All right, we'll end on that. Thanks, guys. Okay.
What was the follow-up question? I couldn't tell. I couldn't really tell.
These Zoom things are tough to understand. Absolutely not. Oh, the PR, Stewart's PR ending though. Oh, okay.
Ending it, yeah. Hey, on behalf of all of our friends at NFL Films, though, please watch their hard work. Please watch. It's awesome. And Mike's not denigrating that work. It's just like, you know.
He lived it. He's got other things to do. Mike, you gonna watch Landman on Paramount Plus? You should.
I mean, I might suggest that if you get some free time. I think we do have a new drop, though. Absolutely not. It's a new drop. I was like, what? It's a new Tomlin drop, right?
Absolutely not. I thought it was Billy Bob Thornton's daughter. I thought that... Oh my God, this guy.
Wow, you're really toeing the line today. It'd be like three versions of him saying no. You have other what Tomlin knows?
You got other ones? Never say never, but never. Okay, that's all right.
I can't give you all the ingredients to the hot dog you might not like. That's right. Absolutely not. And absolutely not is a new drop. Love it.
Without a doubt. Stay by the phone, man. I may need... That's priceless. Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger.
With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger has the right product for you. Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. Joining us now in advance of the Monday night game, he's taking on the Dallas Cowboys. The head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, Zach Taylor, back here on the Rich Eisen Show. Thanks for joining us, coach. Good to see you, Rich. Appreciate you having me on. You got it. Listen, I know it's not your table.
I'll start with this one. Do you watch Monday night football when it doesn't involve your team? Do you check it out, even though you're trying to find a W for your own coach?
You know, it's why we're doing our own work. It's on the TV behind me. And, you know, you can hear a little bit what's happening. You'll peek back at it.
Okay. And so, I mean, when you watch a game like that last night, do you do how do you look at it when whenever you peek at the screen? Because, you know, we're sitting here talking about what's entertaining and what's not and what's this and what's not. I'm wondering how a head coach in the NFL views a game like Monday nights, Zach. Yeah, well, we play both those teams coming up, you know, so you're paying a little more interest because, you know, just the personnel you might not be as aware of if it's a team you haven't played before. You like to hear the announcers talk a little bit, but our focus right now is on Dallas. So you're trying to make sure you're staying on task with them as well.
Obviously, no doubt about that. So right here and right now, what is your biggest challenge as a head coach of this? Find a way to get a win. You know, it's been it's been a month now since we felt that feeling and it's not a feeling that we're comfortable with at all. And so our focus is just going Monday night football at Dallas, finding a way to get a win, get that feeling back in our system and then continue to build off of there. How much of your job is managing emotions right now? That's part of it. I think we've got a good team that doesn't stray too far that way. Certainly, when you're not winning and it's in December and you have high expectations for yourself, that's a hard pill to deal with right now.
But our guys have done a good job picking themselves up, picking up the guys around them and just continuing to work and try to find a way to get this thing right. And you got a quarterback who's got a sensibility about him where this this has got a rankle. He doesn't show emotion very much ever with Joe Burrow.
You can't tell. And that's obviously part of his superpowers when things are going well. But do you have conversations with him to make sure that he's not mentally or emotionally going to places that you rarely see him go to, coach? Yeah, I talk to him.
I talk to him as much as I talk to anybody in this building. And he's done a great job. You know, he's got power a lot of ways. Elevating his team, seeing how he responds, can elevate the guys around him. And he's done an excellent job understanding that from a leadership standpoint and trying to get the most out of everybody around him. So he's playing at a high level. We need everyone to continue to try to match that.
And he's done a great job doing his best to elevate everybody around him. Now, I know he doesn't speak, you don't speak for him, but there's a quote I'd like to read you from something he said after the loss this past weekend. He said, I think we'll learn a lot about who we have in the locker room, the guys we can count on going forward and the guys we can't. The next six weeks will say a lot about who we can count on and who we can't. What do you think about when you hear that?
He's dead on. I mean, that's what adversity does to you. You get a chance to see what people's true character is about and who can endure it because we've faced it here in six years. We've had the roller coaster. We've had bad seasons. We've had great seasons.
And what you learn is you find out a lot about people when you're facing adversity and times are tough. It's easy. It's easy when you're winning. It's easy when you're playing for AFC championships and Super Bowls and that part's easy. It doesn't take as much management, but it's times like this when you really find out about people and who you want to go through it with.
And so again, it's a great time to observe people that way. Are you taking notes for future years? Again, I know you're focused on Dallas.
You're focused on getting wins and stacking them and finishing up strong. But what about you as the HC of the Cincinnati Bengals, Zach? I take notes every day of every week since I've been here for six years. So this is no different than times we've had before. And we just got to continue to learn from them to make sure it doesn't happen again. What have you learned about yourself? Not to turn this into a therapy session, but what have you learned about yourself through the first 12 results this year? Yeah, every year is different. You can go in with with anticipation and expectations for yourself and every week's a new week. Whether it was year one for me or year three or year six, there's always new challenges and you got to manage different ways and continue to evolve and not get too comfortable.
And I'm good with all that. It's exciting for me to go through this with players that I like being around and coaches I like being around and excited to find a way out of this thing. Do you hear from ownership at all during this? Every day. Talked to him every day since I've been here. And what does he say if you wouldn't mind sharing any of these conversations? What's the tenor of these conversations that you have? We're all in this thing together. That's the beauty of the Cincinnati Bengals is we communicate every single day and so we're always on the same page through good times and bad times. And so it makes it very easy when that communication is so streamlined and it's constant and so there's never any surprises on either end. And so it's a good relationship, a great communication.
Zach Taylor here on the Rich Eisen Show. The challenges the Cowboys present to you are what? They got excellent players. They got really good coaches. Michael Parsons, when you look at their defense, is the starting point. Disruptive player, game changer, and they got a lot of pieces around it. Always had a ton of respect for Mike Zimmer, Mike McCarthy, Brian Schottenheimer, John Fossil. So they're well coached. You know that.
And their players are getting healthier and they're going to be an excellent challenge for us on Monday. Obviously you don't need to circle 11 on behalf of your staff and also on behalf of your quarterback. But when you see him on film, you see him and he presents what, Zach? Exposure, relentless.
They move him around everywhere and so you can't fall asleep on him for one second because he can disrupt the game in a heartbeat. I've got Zach Taylor here a few minutes left with the Cincinnati Bengals head coach here on the Rich Eisen Show. Obviously you've got this Monday night game, but you do have some aspirations to finish up strong and see what's for the best. What do you take from these 12 games that you can point out that we need to fix X, Y, and Z?
Give me an X or a Y or a Z for me, if you don't mind. Well, on Dallas and on defense consistently, we have to tackle better and find a way to get some stops. On offense, we can't waste a single possession. We can't settle for field goals and got to do a great job protecting the ball in all areas. We'll put it together and have a great game from start to finish.
Once you can do that, you can snowball from there and find a way to get some wins. We've done this before, been in this situation somewhere before. Again, just excited to watch our guys play on Monday night football and put in a great week's work and be ready to roll. Before I let you go, if you don't mind, again, I know this isn't your table, but this is the sort of stuff we're talking about here on a show like this in the NFL. Trevor Lawrence slides Aziz Al-Shaheer, hits him. He gets flagged. He gets ejected. He's now suspended three games. Do you think there needs to be some change in the way a quarterback slides? Any change in any rule, shape, or form that might lend to a defender getting a better sense of when somebody's sliding or protecting the quarterback better? Do you have any opinion on this, Coach? You know, the truth of the matter is I have not yet seen that clip, so I've seen headlines on it.
I haven't seen it enough to educate myself I will at some point. And again, it's a slippery slope. There's a lot of situations you can pinpoint. They're all officiated a little bit differently, probably, and I don't have any real comment on that. Okay, do you have any rule change that if I could wave a wand, Zach Taylor gets to change a rule in the National Football League? I'll give you the floor. I just want to use the rules we got, you know, instead of continuing to change.
Let's get used to the rules that we got. Okay, Coach, I really appreciate your time, and I look forward to seeing you guys perform on Monday Night Football against the Dallas Cowboys, and I wish you the best of luck. Appreciate it, Rich. Thank you.
You got it. That's Zach Taylor, the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals here on the Rich Eisen Show. So, there goes Coach, and didn't see the hit on Trevor Lawrence from Aziz al-Shayyir. You know who did was Jon Runyon, who is in the league front office, former football player who's in charge of handing out these punishments, three games for him. Meaning, al-Shayyir will, if this stands, be home for Christmas, and the Texans are one of the Christmas games that are being played against the Ravens, and him not patrolling the middle of the field against Tua, Mahomes, and Lamar will leave a mark.
I shall say that. And I'm sure Jaguars fans are like, well, you know what left a mark? Him on our quarterback, who was clearly sliding, and it was obvious. Well, even it was obvious that he was sliding, but even if you're thinking he was sliding late, al-Shayyir gave him the business. There's some business that was, there was a message being sent. At least that's the way it looked to us as fans. And he might say, you know, and he apologized for everything, and he's been hearing it online as well in a way that he shouldn't, from fans who were getting mean, ugly, nasty, and potentially violent.
But it sure looked to me like he was getting the business. Three games, I think, is a little bit more than, I was expecting one, if not two, but threes a lot. I would have thought two at the most. And there's an appeals process here. There's the league and the Players Association have agreed on four different players who will get this appeals case. And one of them is Derek Brooks, who would know about being a defender, who's trying to take out a quarterback, and what might go through al-Shayyir's mind.
And he's going to be a defender, through al-Shayyir's mind. I don't know if he's going to be the one to receive this, but the league also said it was the way he left the field and what he's done before. And the warnings, I guess, he has received about his style of play before. Nick Cassario, the general manager of the Houston Texans, was speaking about it today and he fully accepted the league's decision.
Wait, I'm being told it's the exact opposite. And he was profane about it. And he's very angry about it. And he came with some receipts about what's happened previously to people who have been in similar situations for suspension.
Hit it. Nobody embodies our program more than Aziz, what he's about, what he's been through. You all know his story. They're not a more selfless individual, more about the team, who's earned the respects that represents everything that we want this program to be about. I mean, this morning he was at a United Way event.
So we're talking about some of the commentary that has been made about his character, about the person that he is, about what his intentions are for people that, quite frankly, don't know anything about Aziz al-Shayyir. And for the league to make some of the commentary that he made about lack of sportsmanship, lack of coachability, lack of paying attention to the rules. Quite frankly, it's embarrassing. So I think the big thing from our, and I talk about a player who's never been suspended, never been ejected.
So now we're saying that he's going to be suspended for three games. So look, it is what it is. I think the big thing from our standpoint, and all teams want this, just some level of consistency. And we've talked to the league, quite frankly, but we don't have a good explanation.
Demiko talked to them yesterday. So, I mean, it is what it is. I'm sure Aziz will go through whatever process he's going to go through and then we'll deal with it accordingly. But I think what we take umbrage is, is just the picture that's been painted about Aziz, his intentions, who he is as a person. I mean, quite frankly, it's bull. And it's unfair to the individual.
It's unfair to the organization. I mean, we love everything about Aziz al-Shayyir, what he means to this team, what he brings to this team. Going back to the first thing I said, the most important thing is the health and safety of our players. And I'd say the health and wellbeing of Trevor. And, you know, hopefully Trevor's going to be okay. But to speak on Aziz's intentionality about what he intended to do, some of the comments that have been made, quite frankly, it's embarrassing.
The question is, what do you do next when this is all done? Dan Patrick had an interesting thought on his show today as I listened to my buddy DP quite a bit coming down for work. He thinks that instead of sliding, maybe you have a quarterback just do a fair catch. Like basically what, stop in the middle of a run and just stop and just wave your hand.
So they're running full speed and then they just stop? I guess. I don't see how that could work.
I don't either. I mean, just something that's more clear than I'm not to be hit. I don't know how you can make it more clear than I'm sliding and giving myself up.
Because when you're sliding, you're still running, you're still in a position where you're running. But you watch the rest of the games on Sunday, many quarterbacks did the exact same thing and everyone just kind of stopped around them. It just seemed like this guy made a concerted effort. It was the forearm and all that stuff. I'm gonna let you out. I'm sending a message, you know.
Please? Real quick, we, not even we, but I know the other week we were talking about how Mahomes runs down the sidelines and then you're saying like guys are afraid to hit them because they think they'll get flagged and thrown out. Like this guy actually went through with the hit. So it wasn't just that too, it was a forearm too.
It was the extra, I don't know. I know it's split second. Right, and it's so tough because it's always on the defender to make the decision.
Decision, yeah. I mean, I feel like how many hits happen? 2,500 hits a game every Sunday, or every Sunday, Monday. Kind of surprised that we don't see this more often and I kind of feel like guys have adjusted to the rules and they know they're going to get flagged. They're going to get fined.
They might get thrown out or suspended for this and he, for some reason or other, he went through with it. But I see what Nick was saying, like the stuff that I've read. Oh, it's awful. Yeah, I mean, and here's the deal. We know a lot of sports. I don't know anything about that man, to be honest with him. And so just to hear him being stood up for like that, I got more of an idea of who he was in that clip than I had and it's the entirety of his career.
So yeah, people get out of pocket sometimes. And it's great that he's being defended in the same way that it was great to see the Jaguars defend Trevor Lawrence. Certainly, if you're wondering how the locker room is together or not in this awful season, they're playing hard still for Doug Peterson and they backed up Trevor to the point where, you know, I think. You should be given a pass. You're not given a pass. Like you want to throw a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct on somebody that's defending their quarterback after a nasty hit like that. The thing that just drives me crazy through all of it, obviously there's lots to be driven crazy about, is the Texans didn't lose yards on the play. They had to come out.
So there was like a 10 minute delay. They cleared the field. They get Trevor off the field and suddenly it's offsetting penalties, third and one. Here's Mac Jones.
Try to take over the rest of the drive. For me, it's like clearly this is an ejectionable offense and everyone else's reactions, you know, are if they're not ejectionable, then it should be some form of you get the penalty, but it's superseded by somebody who has to be ejected for what he did. And that's 15 yards against you as well. Like the yards are important.
Yeah. And you shouldn't be forgotten. Because, you know, I understand that the justice is coming down now and it is severe. And that's part of the reason why Caserio is probably pissed. He's lost a terrific player for three very important games against three very difficult to defend opponents in Miami, Kansas City and Baltimore.
So I understand all of it. 844-204 Rich, number to dial. When we come back, Jerry Jones. It's Jerry Jones Tuesday. It's 105-3 the Fan Tuesday. So many days since I had to hear anything. Well, you'll hear it.
I guess he's talking about Mike McCarthy again. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts, people. You love their jingle. You're going to love their friendly, helpful service even better because they're in the business of keeping your car on the road and the parts knowledge they have. It's all you need for your maintenance and repairs. They've got thousands of parts and accessories in stock, either in store or online.
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Shopify.com slash WestwoodOne. I gotta find out what, why was he asking about that? I don't know. Called it garbage. All right.
The league sent out the ratings for Thanksgiving Day. Oh man, I've seen these. Oh baby.
You have seen them? Cause I was going to ask you, which one do you think is the highest rated of the three? I mean, did we even have to ask that question? As I told you that when the Cowboys play and it's late afternoon, early evening and people are, you know, eating and watching football, it's the biggest rating, 38.8 million viewers. Fourth most watched Thanksgiving Day on record. Fifth most watched NFL regular season game on record. Second highest rated. There's lines. Man, if you are a coach in a hot seat and you do not handle the final 30 seconds of a game properly and 37.5 million viewers are tuning in, that's a witch's brew.
That's a witch's brew. Most watched early Thanksgiving Day game on record. Lions are ratings gold, man. So are the bears. A mere 34.2 million watched the night game.
That's a nice, I mean, you know, 141 million total unduplicated audience viewers. Everyone was just watching football on Thursday. Why not? You can't get off the couch.
You're full. That's why I was saying the Giants had to show up and compete in that game because if they had a non-competitive effort like we saw against Tampa in front of 38.8 million viewers against the Dallas Cowboys. Day ball probably would have got fired too. I'm telling you, that's the way things go south fast. So there you have it on that front. Back here on the Rich Eisen show. 844-204-rich is the number to dial here on the program. So Jerry Jones, everybody, he spoke today. 105.3 the fan. It's his usual Tuesday conversation. He was talking about Mike McCarthy in this one. Is that what it is? Is that what I'm being told?
Okay. Last we heard from Jerry, he said it wasn't crazy to give him a contract extension. Then he went out and won a Thanksgiving Day game. It went beat the commanders. 105.3 the fan. Beat the Giants on Thanksgiving. Now 105.3 the fan.
Hit it. He's steady as a rock. He basically has never wavered from his mantra of we didn't play well so we don't, I'm not gonna say don't deserve to win, but the reason why we didn't win is we didn't play well. He's a genuine. He's no BS with these players and I've never thought for one second that the team had quit recognizing what an outstanding coach he is.
So there's two ways to look at this. One is that he really doesn't want to fire Mike McCarthy. He's really thinking to keep him. Could be true. The other one is like A, I went all in on him and he doesn't have a contract and I really think we can pull something off right here if we just keep winning games like this one on a Monday night against the Cincinnati team that's four and eight or then at Carolina after that and then Tampa at home at Philadelphia home for Washington. We can't have the storybook ending and I don't want everybody in the locker room to just wake up and go oh that's right he doesn't have a contract why don't you listen to him.
Works both ways doesn't it? Those two green rectangles up on the screen indicating two wins after five straight losses gives them that chance because all they got to do is keep winning and then win that last one against Washington and they sweep them. All they got to do is have the same record as Washington. And right now they're two and a half behind them.
They could be two behind them with a win over the Cincinnati Bengals. I'm saying there's a chance TJ. I'm saying there's a chance. God if you listen and help. What's more likely TJ's real team or fantasy team makes the playoffs because his fantasy team right now in our league is En Fuego to use the Dan Patrick phrase.
Mike Evans, Saquon Barkley, Russell Wilson, Joe Mixon. Well he's about to hit by McGettin on this front but yeah what's more likely? What's more likely? I have a more likely fantasy.
Your fantasy? Neither. Oh I think TJ needs a hug guys. I think one game like I said I lost one game where Mixon came back from injury. I didn't realize it. That cost me in the standings. I just don't I need Brockman to lose on Sunday. Yes you do. And I need. This is delicious.
Then I need to outscore him by like 40 points on top of that. Oh my gosh. Who started 0-3 but has clinched a playoff spot with a week to go? I have no idea. That would be the host of this program who's living his best life. Aizen Palooza.
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Hey what's up guys? First things first Rich. I would much rather wear Rival's swag than eat a piece of Del Tufo's hat. That's true. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
That's factual. What else is on your mind? So Rich I had another great weekend.
Not really. My fantasy team stunk again so I'm in the boat as TJ that I don't think either of my teams are going to make the playoffs and the Niners got roughed up yet again. Again as we kind of talked last week I have faith in Purdy. I don't think we bring back Sam Donald. What do we bring in another veteran quarterback?
You know I don't know if that's a possibility. I really don't want Kirk Cousins because I think Alana is going to move on from him here either in the next couple weeks but most definitely probably next season and I just I'd rather see what we have in Purdy. I don't think he's worth the 60 million but to be honest I think he's earned the right to be our starting quarterback and I don't think this year's indicative on his talent.
All right Terzo appreciate the time. I just was bringing it up thinking that you know if Purdy and the Niners just fall apart and that's not the way you want to go into a negotiation where you're saying I'd like 55 to 60 million dollars a year please. That's all I'm saying. Well we'll see. We shall see. Tomorrow's program do you know who's first in first up? Breath of Fresh Air Ken Jeong will be here. Ken Jeong will be here. Bruce Feldman will be here.
Bruce. Right. These are guys.
They're our guys. Let's go. You know who will also be here?
Christopher Walken. Day three of me talking with my chest. Day three. Bruce Feldman's the one who said 70 could be hung. He did. Yeah they got 10 by the way. 10.
