Ian Rapoport: Not All Teammates Are Best Friends

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Visit Amazon.com slash Prime to get more out of whatever you're into. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Is that the belt? Did you hand out that Gronk belt to the winner? Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. That's what these college kids love. So is Coach Belichick going to love all this gimmick stuff?

Handing out belts, handing out a chain to a guy that gets an interception. Today's guests, NFL Network insider Ian Rappaport, Fox Sports college football analyst Bruce Feldman, actor Omar J. Dorsey, plus latest news and more. And now it's Rich Eisen.

Well hey everybody. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. We're live on the Roku Sports Channel. We're live on this Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate. We're live on Sirius XM Odyssey and TuneIn, and we're not live on our podcast, but you can check us out every single day whenever you want it.

You're right. All three hours to listen to us through the Cumulus Podcast Network. Suzie Schuster, Amy Trask recorded the latest episode of What the Football with Andrew Whitworth talking about the upcoming Rams and Niners game on Thursday Night Football. Big one starting off tomorrow night. The Overreaction Monday Podcast is still out there for you to listen to. TJ Jefferson and O'Shea Jackson Jr. will record the latest episode of the NCW, great no contest wrestling podcast that we're throwing out there every single Wednesday. The Jim Jackson Show on Thursday.

We love making you listen to stuff when you want to listen to stuff. Good to see you over there, Chris Brockman. How are you, sir? Hey Rich, I'm super, man.

Jason Feller. Hey. What's going on, man? Not much. How are you?

I'm great. What do the three of us have in common? All of us in this room? Yeah, no, no, just the three of us.

You're all Caucasian? Me, you and... Oh, yeah. Oh, we're playoff. We're in the fantasy playoffs. We're playoff bound. Hey, TJ Jefferson.

How are you? Is the candle lit over there? I've got hair. You're barely hanging on to that. That's always your comeback. Can anybody guess that TJ did not make the Rich Eisen Show fantasy football playoffs? Can anybody guess that? Well, they wouldn't have if you hadn't brought it up.

No, they wouldn't have known it. I'm sorry, I'm just still better over the Yankees losing Juan Soto. Yeah. Stevie Wonder has hair too, TJ. Oh, man. This guy's been bald since he was six. How are you, TJ? What's going on, man?

Charlie Brown looking. Hey, there he is. There he is.

That was borderline our word there, buddy. Good to see you. Good to see you. How are you? Good to see you.

Good to see you. All right, let's start this show. We're so loving today.

Well, I mean, you know what? We're a winning organization here. We're a winning organization here.

Let my locks down today because this guy's trying to talk trash. No, we're a nominated organization here. No, I think we're a winning organization. But sometimes, this is the reason why I started this way. Sometimes on its face, it seems like things aren't going very well amongst us. But deep down, we pull together and we're professionals.

We put on a great product every single day, if I may say so myself. And a lot of people from the outside looking in might've just heard that whole exchange saying, do they not like each other? Is there a problem with that? It depends what day it is. But TJ, I love you, man.

I don't care who knows it. No, I'm ready. I'm ready to squabble at the drop of a hat. And Felly, we're mishpoka. Let me look that up real quick. I believed him.

So the reason why I bring this up is- How would it be mishpoka? You are. We're all that. Oh, okay. You'd have to go the Rod Carew route first, but it's okay. 3,000 hits is the 300 hitter?

Look up the Hanukkah song. He converted. Listen, where am I going with this? Take a look at the Niners and the Eagles. Take a look at the wide receivers.

Take a look at Deebo Samuel and A.J. Brown. They're both out there going a little bit ham. We talked A.J. Brown earlier this week when he held a Curt talking through his teeth, but smiling every now and then. Press conference after the Eagles won their ninth in a row.

Deebo Samuel took to the old social media. And he tweeted kind of out of the blue, not struggling at all, just getting the ball. Just not getting the ball.

Not struggling at all. Just not getting the ball with a shrug emoji. Lots of exclamation points. He got community noted. Readers adding context. He leads the team and drops.

He is struggling. Wow. Do you find this helpful? Rate it. I'm wondering if Kyle Shanahan found this helpful. A.I. is going to be. Did he rate it?

Wow. He leads the team and drops. He is struggling is the context that readers that was more disrespectful than anything.

We didn't need the struggling part. It could have just left it a drop. I'm just wondering if that's I'm just wondering if that's why Debo deleted it. Not because he doesn't believe in what he tweeted, but because he got community noted. And he might have been concerned that he didn't find that helpful. Am I reading this right? Because he then after deleting it, popped another one out there.

Oh, just because I voice my opinions don't mean I'm hating on any of my teammates BFR. That's a B for real. OK. Well, I was wondering if it was an element on the periodic table. I don't know. Is it is that far? Can you look that one up for me? You know what I mean?

I don't know. But be for real. Be for real. Yes. Thank you.

That's what I'm here for. These are like be real. It's be Francium. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't think you're saying be Francium. Be lithium. Beryllium. Honestly, I thought I thought of the Breaking Bad open when I saw that far. But long story short is Debo was asked about this at his locker.

Roll tape. You have a tweet that got a lot of attention yesterday. Do you care to expand on your feelings or what you wanted to convey with that?

I mean, you read what you read a little frustrated for sure. Colin Brock said that you guys talk just about daily is getting touches and things like that. Something that's discussed during those. Oh, yeah. 100 percent. Yeah. Do you see that? Do you sense that? I mean, as soon as you get the ball that there's like three or four guys out there on the perimeter. I mean, there's three or four guys whenever we don't matter who got the ball.

Let's take a poll of guys get in touches. You expect to come back around for you, right? In terms of when it comes, it comes. OK, so listen, headline. I love Debo Samuel, man. That's the headline.

That's headline for me. I love him. And for the radio audience, he was exhibiting a smile showing off those dimples, those Debo dimples and conducting an act that I do believe is universal for. This doesn't really mean much. I don't I don't really think this means much, which is chewing gum.

I think that that is a when you chew gum that gives off an expression like you don't treat this thing seriously. Oops. Really?

I think so. Well, I mean, he's standing in front of you spit out your gum on the program. Did you just do that? I just learned something. What do you mean you didn't learn that in grade school and teachers told you to spit out your gum? Of course you spitting because gum chewing is like you're not taking the endeavor that seriously. I take it very seriously.

That's the way I'm I'm I'm the son of two New York City public school educators. That's what I was taught a long time ago. It's just gum. I mean, you're chewing gum. Yeah, that's not miss spoken of you.

No, that's not the proper use of it. Don't worry, sorry. Sorry, you'll pick it up. Brock Purdy lended his two cents to the matter and and try to put this thing to bed and and sounds like he did a pretty good job.

Check it out. You and I talk all the time and he's like one of my best friends on this team. Like, I absolutely love Debo and what he's done for me and helped me out. We talk all the time.

And and yeah, I think he's right. Like he's he's doing great right now with what we ask of him in the offense and he's not struggling or anything, man. It's just it's just like I've said before about, you know, like guys like Ricky or last year with a uke for a little bit like there's just moments, I guess, throughout seasons where, you know, guys just don't get the ball, you know, just depending on like scheme or like what the defensive scheme is and, you know, got them taking guys away. So I want to get Debo the ball every play if I could. I want to have him break all the records as best as possible. I want Debo to do Debo things and we all do in this building. So that's just how the games have gone.

But I love my guy and I'm going to do everything I can to, you know, give him the ball. There you go. Good answer as they say on Family Feud, which they're apparently having a little family feud. Good answer. Good answer.

Give that man 60 million a year right there. That's leadership. Survey says. And the same thing was uttered by Sirianni, Nick Sirianni, the head coach of the Eagles when he was on his local radio chit chat on Tuesday on WIP in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where I think you as a Keystone Stater, TJ, you can confirm people calling the WIP pissed off quite a bit. I don't really know WIP. Okay. Well, that's right.

You're the western part of the state and the central part of the state in Philly is more east coast. I get it. Yeah. So listen, Sirianni goes on there and he's like, you know, AJ Brown. Yeah. He, he was upset about the passing game.

And when he pitched a fit on the sideline, he admitted it was over a three and out. But I'm taking this in a different way because I see what's going on here in the building in the same way that Purdie's like, he's my best friend. We're BFFs. So there's no beef. This is what Sirianni had to say in Philadelphia.

Yeah. I didn't, I didn't take it that way. And again, you can, you guys, you can do anything and spin it any way, but I didn't take it that way. And I took it as we want to get better as a passing attack.

AJ's part of the passing attack. Again, there's going to be speculation of what things look like because you guys don't have all the, let's be honest, you guys don't have all the information. You don't get to see it on a daily basis. All I can judge is on, and this is very similar to, you know, you know, when people are asking me about Jalen and I's relationship or whatever it was like, all I can, all I can judge things on is what I see on a daily basis. When I see, you know, AJ and Jalen communicating about the game plan, eating lunch together every single day, praying with each other before the game, like, and so like, there's going to be speculation and I get it, you know, I get it rightfully so based on what's happened the last couple of days. Again, I see it as everybody wants to get better.

I know there's room for an interpretation based off of some comments, but I can only go judge them based off of the things that I see on a daily basis. Well done. Good answer from the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. That's why the man who signs his checks can sell 8% of the team for four times as much as he paid for a hundred percent of the team back in 1994.

Listen, you might be sitting there saying, well, why are you bringing this up if there's no there there? Well, the truth of the matter is they can be BFFs in San Francisco or praying before the game as they do in Philadelphia. They can do all of that.

That is absolutely possible. They can have lunch and talk with one another while lunching. They could be lunch buddies, text chain buddies, but if this is simmering to the point where Deebo's very famous thumb hit send and AJ Brown can get triggered in the middle of a tight game against the Carolina Panthers. What happens on Thursday night on Prime Video right here on Roku when the Rams come into town? Or even more so for the Eagles when the Steelers come into town on Sunday. If you don't think Mike Tomlin hears all this stuff and thinks to himself in a quiet moment, if there is a touch of a wide receiver on the other side of the field who is looking for his touches and I can help prevent those touches to make him more touchy during the game, I'm gonna do it. You don't think he's telling Joey Porter Jr. or whoever's gonna be marking this guy on Sunday that you have a job to do? That's the point.

When you make it public, you're letting those outside the family hear about it. And in the NFL, any edge that you have will be exploited and any weakness that you show will be targeted. But this is a story as old as football being played. Wide receivers in the 20 some odd years I've been around this sport are the most vocal in this manner because they are the most ball dependent position in the NFL furthest away spatially from the actual ball. Quarterback is going to touch it every single time unless it's a wildcat which is when the only time when the running back is not standing next to the quarterback and having it placed right in his stomach. The receivers are all the way out there. Happens all the time and I will just counsel here just in the same way when a story happens in March, April, and May, we talk about it but I put a pin in it and I'm like let's see how it manifests itself during the season.

The all-in cowboy stuff for instance. It's manifesting. Daniel Jones manifested. These are the ones that were manifesting or looking out for it.

These two things keep an eye out for it. If I'm Sean McVay, I'm talking to the defense and saying let's let's make sure Deebo doesn't get his touches in the first quarter and see how that one goes. You know, hey Jared verse why don't you get to Purdy real fast so Deebo sits there and simmers. Hey TJ Watt and Cam Hayward and Highsmith and Herbig and Porter and Queen. Let's try and figure out a way to pressure the quarterback and then make sure AJ Brown doesn't get his touches. Let's make the defense dictate where the ball is thrown and see how that one goes.

And see how that one simmers. Unbelievable that there's a nine team with a nine game win streak that we're wondering if everything's all right with them. And then the 49ers, you know, rubbers meet in the road.

Rubbers meet in the road. That starts Thursday night. Bill Belichick has apparently been offered the job in North Carolina. And then there's that Thursday night game. Isaac Garendo, your fantasy football waiver wire darling. He might have made you a playoff team in fantasy and you might be wondering if you can win your game this week.

Is he gonna play or not? Those subject matters and more when Ian Rappaport joins us next from the owner's meeting in the Metroplex. They are meeting now and then Bruce Feldman will ask him about North Carolina and how he reads the 12 team bracket in hour number two. Hour number three, Omar Dorsey from Bookie.

You might have loved him in Ray Donovan and obviously some other tv shows that he's been in eastbound and down road trip back in the day. He's in Bookie with Sebastian Maniscalco and Omar Dorsey will join us. He's a Falcons fan which means, Chris, you might want to intercept him before he comes to the set. Wow. We're all friends though.

You don't want to bench him for a younger actor? Oh, interesting. I see what you're doing there. Thank you. Okay, we'll take a break here.

Ian Rappaport, rap sheet. What does he know? I demand answers.

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That's OReillyAuto.com E-I-S-E-N O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. 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 AmexTravel.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. Not all purchases will be approved. Terms apply.

Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash Amex Business. 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. Terms apply. Visit gametime.co for restrictions.

Again, create an account, redeem my code, E-I-S-E-N, boom, $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it?

Game time. What are you guys talking about? What are you talking about? What are you talking about? Yeah, we're talking about us and then Pat's showing this video of Paul Bissonette getting jumped by those dudes in Arizona.

What happened? Biz Nasty? Yeah, Biz Nasty got jumped by these like six golf bros at a restaurant. Is he all right?

Yeah, yeah. He held his own. I mean, he's a hockey player.

I was an old school, I was at DP and I think that was a big show line, Dan and Keith. He would return, he's a hockey player. Somebody would get hurt on the ice, they would say he would return, he's a hockey player.

Lower body injury, just nothing specific, just like lower body. That's what's up. All right. Yeah, that was a thing last week. Yeah, he got jumped by these dudes and held his own. Okay.

And now the video got leaked, so now we're kind of seeing it spill out into the parking lot. Is that literally what you guys were talking about? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. And we were talking about this, you know, Cage and Brockman. We came out.

What's going on with Cage? We have a handshake now. Oh, nice.

What does it involve? A lot of this and then we salute and then we swing and then he added the big like tiger fist bump. Oh, fantastic.

I love that. Enjoy that because one day that will change from your child from handshake to shakedown. Right. Okay, so enjoy the handshake days.

The shakedown days are coming and it's money. I need a ride. Can you do that? Yeah. Last night, last night, Taylor was doing her homework in her room, so I was just chilling out, right? She turns around, she goes, dad, can you go all the way down? She's just all the way downstairs, unless she was straight forward all the way downstairs. Get me the laptop I need. And also while you're there, some water. Okay.

And you're, and then she goes toodles. No, there's the steps. Yeah, exactly.

Good job. Back on the rich eyes and show radio. The rich eyes and show radio network. I'm sitting at the rich eyes.

Yeah, that I did. Welcome back to the rich eyes and show radio network. I'm sitting at the rich eyes and show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call click Grainger.com or just stop by. Joining us right now from the NFL owners meeting, my colleague from the NFL network, NFL media group, blurring his background as the pro that he is when he zooms into the show. Good to see you, Ian Rappaport. How are you, sir? I'm good.

How are you? Yeah, I don't want you to see where I am. So I got the whole background board so I could be literally anywhere in America. That's really impressive.

And by the way, you are doing right now the outside. Oh my God. Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's got windows. It's got windows and artwork.

And a ceiling. It's OK. I know.

Well done. And by the way, you're also this is an old school trick of the television trade that you're pulling off right now. You may not even know it, but it is you are so busy at what you are doing and you are so busy conducting the business of information that you don't have time to tie your tie all the way up. It's just down and you're just on the move. And that is what a visual indication that you are a busy man. And that's it. I would say. So what's going on here, Rich, is I just left the trading floor. It's four p.m. or five p.m. whenever the thing closes.

Yes. And I've just done a lot of, you know, it's like trading places where I've just been yelling at people, waving tickets and trying to get my stocks bought. And now I'm done. I'm going to go have a bourbon and smoke a cigar.

So I got to put the tie down to make sure the bourbon goes down properly. Nicely done. And, you know, and let me just continue this one.

Let me continue this one right now. Jeffrey Laurie is sitting somewhere cheersing Lewis or Valentine's Valentine because eight percent of the team that he sold today is worth four X of what he's basically spent 100% of the team on. Yeah.

Back in nineteen ninety four. And that's some of the news that's there. It's interesting you mentioned that part. So there's there has been some ownership news, you know, several teams, the bills, the Eagles, the Dolphins have sold small parts of the team to limited partners, basically getting an infusion of cash, adding some members to the ownership group, you know, maintaining control, but basically just getting cash. So that's interesting. But to me, the more interesting part is we basically got a valuation of some of these teams, including the Eagles.

And if the valuation of eight point three billion is correct, that is obviously a massive number. Now, we don't know for sure what is the next team to sell me. People think it's going to be the Seahawks. I'm not so sure about that.

I really am not. You know, it could be it could be obviously it could come from anywhere. But if that valuation is correct, obviously that would represent a massive, massive jump at a very good thing for, you know, owners who are already doing well. But, you know, this would show just how well they could potentially be doing. Do the Players Association look at that and go, let's put some of that in the cap? I mean, does that does that raise a level of interest, do you think, from the P.A. or this is just part and parcel of doing business in in the 21st century of major North American sports or worldwide sports right now? Yeah, I mean, I think as far as the P.A. goes, you know, that would not that would not be revenue that would be split with the players. Now, there is revenue going up.

The cap is expected to jump. I reported this week with a guy named Tom Pellicero, who works with the NFL Network. He's one of our he's one of our insiders.

He's got some weird hair, but he's a good guy. Live somewhere in the Midwest. I think maybe Oklahoma. I'm not sure. Anyway, reported that the cap is expected to go up. Teams are plotting for about 270 to 275. That's a 20 million dollar leap. It might actually be more just based on where revenue is. That's something the players are interested in. And, you know, what revenue raises goes to the salary cap. Everyone gets rich. Players get more money.

It's all good. But I think that's more what the players would be concerned about. Ian Rappaport here on the Rich Eisen show from the NFL owners meeting in the in the Metroplex. What's the latest on Belichick? Is it is it possible? Is it? I mean, this sounds real. Belichick in North Carolina. Ian, right now, I would say the interest is real.

The interest and intrigue and conversations, they're all real. I think Bill Belichick has sincere, legitimate interest in potentially being the North Carolina coach. I believe North Carolina has interest in Bill Belichick being the coach. And it does seem to me, based on my understanding of the situation, that if this is something he wanted to do, that North Carolina could make it work, that they have told him that, you know, you would be someone we would love to have as head coach, provided they could agree on all different facets of this. I do not sense as of right now, as of right now, like this very moment that anything is agreed to or imminent, you know, could it happen in two seconds?

It could. All it takes is someone to say yes. But, you know, every I'm very leery of talking to people who claim to speak for Bill Belichick. I've known him for a very long time.

I've known how tight he keeps his circle. He is not in this would surprise you. He's not exactly someone who emotes a lot to other people, especially people who would then go talk to reporters. That doesn't happen that often.

So I am very leery of taking people's word to be like, oh, well, Bill Belichick is obviously thinking X. We don't know. But there's a lot of things that have to go right to make this happen. I don't get the sense that it is happening right now. I know there's a alleged UNC board meeting or meeting planned. I'm not even sure if that's related to this. It might not be. So we are sort of in wait-and-see mode until we figure out what Bill Belichick wants to do. You mean the UNC board might be meeting for something like academics? What the hell?

I didn't say that. It could be another sport. Okay, very good. You know, and I do have Bruce Feldman on later on for those out there checking out this program. I'll ask him a little bit more from the college.

Road Meat Market, great book. No, but the reason why I mentioned that is I want to hit you on the professional football angle of this as well, Ian. Is it possible that we look at his interest in UNC as the fact that he's kicked tires around the league already and he's getting the sense that the job search for him this year might, despite all of us not understanding it, might go the same way as it did last year for him, Ian?

Yeah, yeah. That's kind of what I was thinking. That's basically my sense of this thing.

Now, look, we have three openings now. There are other jobs where people are sort of saying, like, all right, there might be a change here. I'd say Jacksonville is certainly one that I expect there to be some sort of change at some point. Thought it would be before the buy. It was not, but I expect some sort of change on some level in Jacksonville.

There's plenty of others where I think people expect some change. So he's not going to know for sure, but there's three jobs open. My sense is if Bill Belichick felt like he was definitely getting one of those jobs, one, those teams that would not have conducted real searches, which is lame and also not allowed, but two, he might not be going down this road.

I will say this. Last year, he got interest from the Falcons. It did not work out. I'm not sure that he left that process feeling like it was a really good and positive process and situation. I think at some point it was certainly out there way more than, you know, like people were talking like he was getting the Falcons job last year, then it just didn't end up happening for a variety of reasons.

I don't know that that was a great experience for him. I think he is a football coach. He would like to coach football.

And if he has an opportunity in North Carolina to do what so many of his good friends from Nick Saban to Kirk Farrens, to many others, Greg Schiano have done, I think at least he's very seriously considering it. What are the bears thinking, Ian? Like what can they think right now?

What are they doing? Because that is obviously of the three jobs that are open, the one with the coveted spot because they have a very talented kid at quarterback already in-house and under contract for a while. And it's also the Chicago Bears, Ian. So what's the thinking there from ownership and the setup there and what coaches might be interested in in terms of joining? Let's start with the Caleb Williams part. That is a big part of it. And, you know, if you're someone who is going to take over a franchise that's bad, which obviously the Bears are not good right now, they just fired their coach. If you have a quarterback, that's a lot of it.

Because you're going to want to go there to a place where you can win. And one great way to win is to have a good quarterback. Caleb Williams certainly has the potential to be that. The roster is good. The offensive line needs work. The rest of the roster is pretty good. So it is at least an opportunity you could maybe make a quick turnaround. The Bears believe, and this is something they said in the press conference a week or so ago, whenever that was, that they have the most coveted opening.

I have not polled the candidates. I don't know, you know, where it ranks or whatever, but at least it is a favorable job situation. So, you know, they're going to have a lot of really good candidates interested. Mike Vrabel, you know, who really, in my sense, comes away with one. I think Vrabel has got a really good shot to be head coach next year.

I think he will be one of the top candidates, if not the top candidate. And you've got some other good ones. You've got Aaron Glenn, who's a great leader and a great defensive coordinator. You've got Ben Johnson, who's a little bit different, but really good.

Why is it different? Oh, hold on, hold on, hold on. Sure. Uh-oh. Who's coming in here? Oh, Tommy. Hey. Hold on, wait, wait. No, no, no. It's okay. You don't have to unblur him.

It's all right. He's on Friday, Ian. We're keeping you.

Oh, so they don't want you. He's on Friday. He's on Friday. Listen, I let him know the story. You don't want him. It's fine. I'm also free Friday, by the way, in case you want to replace... Oh, no. Okay.

Well, good to know that. But why is Ben Johnson different? Why is he different? Well, I just mean like, look, I think Ben Johnson is a really, really, really, really good head coach candidate. It's just, you know, you have Vrabel who's sort of more of like front of the room leader of men, hard driving, disciplinarian type dude. Um, Aaron Glenn is kind of like, obviously he's done an excellent job as a defensive coordinator, but more of like a rah-rah spiritual players type guy. Ben Johnson is, I would say clearly the, you know, just scheme offensive play calling wise clearly the top, um, you know, is he a front of the room leader of men type? Like maybe leaders come in all different forms, but I would say Vrabel is more of kind of like the classic in that, in that realm. Now, again, you don't have to be a classic, like quote unquote leader of men. Like Mike McDaniel is not in Miami. And I think everyone, you know, would sort of say, um, certainly deserves to be a head coach and has done some good things. So they come in all different forms.

I'm just saying there's different ways you could sort of go with it. I see. Uh, Ian Rappaport here on the Rich Eisen show, a few minutes left with the insider, one of them, uh, from NFL network and NFL plus. So what is happening with the Philadelphia Eagles?

Nine wins in a row. And the conversation is AJ Brown's, uh, chat with the media after the game. Is there any, there, there, is there something that, uh, should be checked for smoke and fire?

Ian? Uh, I would say, you know, yes, because players feelings about each other's is real. Like, I don't think it's BS.

Like, I don't think it's nonsense. Like clearly there's, you know, he feels a certain way and if him and Jalen Hurts aren't best friends, like, you know, it seems, seems real. Um, I don't know that I care that much about that specifically because like there's 53 guys on the team, there's practice squad guys.

They're not all going to be best friends if they're not all hanging out at each other's houses. Like it doesn't really matter. It's really just like, are they functioning properly on the football field?

That is important. And a lot of times they are. Now the other part of this thing is the Eagles have sort of morphed before our very eyes into a different kind of team. They're a run first play defense, physical in your face type team.

You know, the passing game is going to have to be there, but like they look different than maybe what the, you know, high flying passing attack we kind of thought they were, that might be something that we need to kind of get through. But I think that's more important than like whether or not AJ Brown and Jalen Hurts are going to be like riding home together and going to get pizza and milkshakes. Well, but if he, it's, it's just a pressure point. One that somebody like Mike Tomlin would, would, um, press upon one would think on Sunday.

That's what I'm saying. Just to kind of play on the, play on the kind of like, uh, tension there. Yeah. No, I would say Steelers would want to take AJ Brown away anyway, but like, you know, as we've learned, and this is one, you know, there's a lot of reasons that I like hard knocks, but we get to learn more about the inner workings of Mike Tomlin. Yes. Um, you know, I could see this being something he would, he would play up a little bit and it's kind of fun. All right.

Uh, all right. Uh, before I let you go, uh, injury notes, Isaac Garendo, a lot of people are hoping he goes, certainly if they picked him off the waiver wire or spent a bunch of their remaining fantasy waiver wire dollars on him, could he, will he go on Thursday night? Do you think? It'd be nice to have a fantasy team that's still alive. Nice. Um, I mean, it's a disaster, total disaster. I'm the last in my league in points. It's real funny, real funny. But anyway, um, just the whole season sucks.

Anyway. Um, most of my, I blame my players and the ones who got injured. Um, Isaac Garendo, I would say he's got a foot sprain. It didn't seem to me to be serious, but it has not practiced yet. And I would say, if you guys don't practice a little, probably not looking good for Thursday, it was described to me as a little bit of a turnaround, um, but we'll see for sure where it ends up going a little bit later today. And any other injuries that you want to throw out there that, uh, of note for you that you think, um, would be Jermaine? Yeah, I would say for, you know, one of the most, not for Thursday's game, but one of the most, one of the best games, um, Phil Zions on Sunday at 425, I think, you know, learning earlier today that Keyon Coleman and Doug Kincaid are both expected to practice fully.

That means they're probably getting them back. And I would say that is a very, very good sign for Buffalo. Okay. Good to hear about that.

All right. Uh, Ian, congrats on Soto. Uh, congrats on him. I don't know if you've been celebrating that over the last night. Every, every second it's, uh, I mean, look, Mets are going to be awesome.

It's not my money. Um, I, you know, I wish all bad things for the Yankees. Um, just horrible, you know, everything moving forward, just as bad as it could be. Um, so taking the Yankees best player, um, is great. Um, and I hope they don't recover. Wait a minute.

Is there breaking news? Aaron Judge went to the Mets. No, no. Best player, rich best player.

He's the MVP of the American league twice over in the last three years. Ian, what are you talking about? I don't understand the American way. Yeah. You know, it's more of a media situation.

I'm talking about like actual people who like really felt like he's, he was their best player and now he's our best player. Wow. He said, rich, he said what he says. Okay. Look at that.

Aaron Judge seems to be, you know, a very nice guy though. Okay. Ian, thanks for the time, brother. Be well.

I really appreciate it. So Ian Rappaport off he goes, off he goes. All right. Let's take a break here. That was therapy for him.

When we come back, the latest of me talking with my chest based on the wildest story involving sports of the day, if not the week, and if not in a very long time, how's that for a tease? Oh, H N O that's next. When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, like aloe or skins, sure. You think about a great product, a cool brand and brilliant marketing, but an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making selling and for shoppers buying simple for millions of businesses. That business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify with shop pay that boost conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts are going abandoned and way more sales happening. So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell whatever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed and everywhere in between businesses that sell more sell on Shopify upgrade your business and get the same checkout skins uses sign up for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify dot com slash Westwood one all lowercase go to Shopify dot com slash Westwood one to upgrade your selling today.

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The number of people that retweeted it and said they thought it was real is alarming. It's the only way to put it. So God bless him. You know how much we love SVP. Is Scott on the line now? Is Scott there? Yeah.

You thought it was real? Well, I mean, as you as you said, it's you are a guy that has a reputation. You work at the end of the network. You got sources. When it was brought up to me in our meeting, hey, did you see the letter Hockley wrote? And I thought, well, that's funny. And then later, as I'm trying to write this script, I'm not finding it anywhere on like Google searches or whatever. But I'm like, where did y'all see that? And then the producer that had it is like, oh, it's on Isensby. So I read your feed and I'm like, there it is.

I see the quotes that work and I just just I just slam it in there on the script and read it on television. Fake news. Fake news. Hashtag.

Yes. Hashtag. Fake news. I'm mortified. Apologies to Mr. Hockley.

I'm sorry. We did not. That was not our intent. We didn't know it was going to happen like that.

That's entirely on us for not for not vetting. It goes off to me that I'm not able to find this anywhere but there. But again, and this is where I'll turn it and point at you and blame you, Mitch Isen, when you're a source of information and you've got stuff no one else got, you think, yeah, sure, I've got the Hockley retirement letter.

And it's, I guess, believable that he's got his own stationery with himself on it when there's a watermark of him as a rat. As believable as it is that he's going to go sort out the lactic acid with this regimen. Vigorous regimen.

Vigorous regimen. I beg your pardon. You're the best, man. You're the best. I'm sorry. You're the worst. Don't don't don't spoof me like that. One of my favorite humans, Scott Van Pelt.

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It's tough to choose it. The game itself or the aftermath. And in that, I mean, like I told you guys last week when I was really talking about it, you might be wondering why are you talking about it still? I'll get to that in a second. When I was telling you last week, I told you, Buckeye Nation has lost its mind over this loss. Lost its mind. They're going through 10 stages of grief if five of them are anger and five of them are delusion.

Okay. The delusion part is, wow, all that stuff that happened against Michigan, it's not indicative of our chances to win it all. We've got the best roster in the country, the best receivers in the country. We're Ohio State. Of course we have a chance to win the national title. And then there's the anger, the path that they've gotten. They got to take on Tennessee when Penn State's got an easier path and the anger part of it.

Well, that stage of grief of anger is still prevalent. I'm holding in my hand a bill that is being introduced in the state assembly of the great state of Ohio by, let me get this gentleman's name right. The state representative from Sylvania Township, Republican Josh Williams, has placed a bill in front of his colleagues to be enacted. And it's to prohibit planting a flagpole and flag in the center of the Ohio Stadium football field on the day of a college football game. And to name this act, the OHIO Sportsmanship Act. HB number 700 states, no person shall plant a flagpole with a flag attached to it in the center of the football field at Ohio Stadium of The Ohio State University on the day of a college football competition.

I believe that's how you pronounce the word the in the sentence, whether before, during, or after the competition. Whoever violates this section is guilty of a felony of the fifth degree, a felony. A violation of this section is a strict liability offense and section blah, blah, blah, blah. This act shall be known as the OHIO Sportsmanship Act.

A couple of things here. So it's just the Ohio State football field. Go ahead and plant the flag in Toledo or Akron or Cincinnati or wherever. It's just Columbus that this state representative cares about, even though he's in Northwest Ohio, where a portion of Toledo resides in this man's own.

Go plant the flag there. No problem. Also, a felony.

I looked it up. In the state of Ohio, a fifth degree felony is a fine up to $2,500 mandatory probation in up to a year in jail. May I make a couple of amendments? First of all, it should be a crime to lose to your diehard rivals when they have five losses and a walk-on quarterback. And by the way, a defensive lineman or two who are going to be drafted in the top 10 of the National Football League draft who you keep running at over and over and over again. Also, you want to make it an offense? Just call it an offense. It's up to you what you want to term it.

An offense to have a coach just go, what happened? As the flag's being planted in the middle of your field? Another amendment. I would like somebody I would just love for one of state representative Josh Williams's colleagues to introduce this one. I would like to attach a photograph to this bill in case anybody needs help spelling O-H-I-O. How about that one? How about that one from the flag planting aftermath? That should be helpful to anyone who needs help spelling this sportsmanship act. Let me just say this too. You want to talk about the history of this rivalry?

1973. The Buckeyes and Woody Hayes are in the big house taking on Bo Schembechler. You know how they have this banner in the middle of the field under which Michigan players run and touch the banner for good luck? I attempted to do it when I was the honorary captain. You did too. I didn't get up there. I smacked it. That's an MP. That was eight years ago.

I was a little more limber. But they slap it. Well, in 1973 Randy Gradishar and the rest of the Ohio State Buckeyes came running out and ran underneath it and grabbed it and threw it down to the ground in 1973. Did they introduce a bill in the Michigan Assembly? I looked it up. They didn't.

Four years later, four years later, after the Buckeyes won the next year, by the way, 73 game was a tie. That's another thing. Don't worry about it. Look that one up. Google it as an Indiana coach would say.

Google me. In 1977, Ohio State ran underneath the banner again. And Michigan alums who were there and also lettermen, maybe from other sports or just didn't dress for the day, were afraid that Ohio State was going to go for the banner. And they started throwing punches and Woody got involved. Odd that Woody would put his hands on a student.

Never heard that one. 77. Now, of course, the kids today don't know from 75. Now, of course, the kids today don't know from 73 and 77. You know what they know from? They know from a few weeks before the game, the Ohio State band putting a Michigan flag on its field only to be covered by a poop emoji. That's what they see. And they saw it, then maybe had it in their mind's eye. And also maybe because in 2022, when Michigan beat Ohio State in shocking fashion, they planted the flag that day. Mike Sanristil came on the show last week and talked about it. There were no fisticuffs. Maybe there were fisticuffs this time around because there were some players on the Ohio the Ohio State who realized they were going to leave the program without having ever beaten Michigan in this rivalry game. Jack Sawyer is one of the best players.

He's a terrific player. He was losing his mind. This video of him losing his mind in front of Ryan Day and Ryan Day stood there doing nothing about it. Now, as for this bill, the House Speaker in Ohio, Jason Stevens, says it's unlikely they're going to pass it or even act on it because the General Assembly adjourns at the end of the year. But for it to pass, they'll have to reintroduce it.

Happy to reintroduce it in 2026 when they're back there. Maybe, just maybe, if Ryan Day is still there, he'll have the backing of the legislature to prevent the flag from being planted. Or maybe you do it yourself in four quarters, which is the way the rest of college football handles its business. Which is the way the rest of college football handles its business.

To avoid the flag planting, to begin with, with your actual play on the field. Oh, I'll be in Canton in August, by the way. That wraps up our number one. Bruce Feldman will join us on this program.

That was what's called a spinning curve in the zone for me today. What a gift. What a gift to talk about it.

That's one of the more embarrassing things I've seen publicly. How about that? Just how about the bill's own, but only the Ohio State Stadium? Plant your flag.

What do I care? The township doesn't have any other college football teams he wants to prevent having a flag planner on him. What do we know about this guy? Did he go there?

I have no idea. I'm imagining. I didn't look that one up. By the way, Toledo is the birthplace, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. Urban Meyer and Harbaugh were born in the same hospital in Toledo. A word?

Yeah. Right there on the border of the state up north. Let's not use the name. See, I can say the word Ohio. I can spell it.

And if I needed help spelling it, there's now photographic evidence. Please, somebody in the state assembly in Ohio, make an amendment that this photograph has to be attached to the bill. Please, please. Just for fun. Just for fun. Just for fun. Please. Please. Here. Assemblyman Williams, his help in having you spell your bill.

Here's a photograph to help you spell it. I figured you would say what they did with the emoji is what he could do. Right, exactly.

But they haven't lost their minds over this loss at all. At all. Oh, baby. My world with Jeff Jarrett takes wrestling fans behind the scenes, along with King of the Mountain Conrad Thompson. I wanted to ask you about what you know, if anything, on the new WWE ID program where they're apparently going to be working with some independent wrestlers. My encouragement to any independent wrestler out there, build your value and then understand your value. And then you create your own leverage. There's no substitute for hard work and getting over my world with Jeff Jarrett, wherever you listen.