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We'll do it live. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Jacob's plowing the middle to the end zone. Touchdown.
This is the Rich Eisen Show. Josh Jacobs brings a dynamic. What does he bring in your mind, Jordan Love? His mindset, the way he runs the ball. He's a guy who wants the ball in his hands every play.
He's not going to let anybody bring him down. Earlier on the show, host of pro football talk, Mike Florio, Boise State head coach, Spencer Danielson. Coming up, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Chris Mannix. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Now number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. We've had a fun first couple of hours talking to the head coach of Boise State football and also with the creator of pro football talk.
And, you know, it was a fun conversation talking college football playoffs in the NFL. And certainly we came on the air talking about the story of the day from the athletic about how the Jets are being run. And how Woody Johnson, according to the athletic, turned down the trade the Jets had going to acquire Jerry Jeudy because he had a bad Madden rating. I've never heard anything like that before in any sport. And that's the way I'm kicking off my conversation with Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix with his deep reporting on an NBA team filling out their roster based on the thoughts of Ronnie 2K, right? That's what happens in the NBA? I tell you what, you peel back the layers of any ownership situation and you do come up with some wacky stories. I think it was about 10 years ago I wrote about Robert Parra in Memphis. He had just bought the Memphis Grizzlies, a Silicon Valley guy. And he had some wacky ideas for how to run his team.
One of them I think I remember was he wanted his head coach at the time to consider, Dave Yeager, to consider wearing an earpiece during games so like either he or someone from the front office could communicate with him on the sideline. That's not legal, correct? That wouldn't be legal?
I don't know if it's legal. But in the NBA nowadays you've got an assistant coach, a bench loaded with assistant coaches. There are probably 10 assistants on that bench.
You don't really need to have an earpiece. But I thought that was amusing. It goes to the point like I'm sure every organization has an owner that has some wacky suggestions or outside the box thinking. No doubt about it. Well let's talk about the current state of the association. Lots being discussed about the ratings for the NBA. Are they alarmed by this or it's just early season or they're alarmed because they thought the cup would be something that would spike interest?
What do you think here? The NBA says they're not alarmed by it. I was part of a handful of reporters that talked to Adam Silver on Tuesday in Vegas. And Adam has been beating kind of the same drum saying, hey look, yeah, they're down a little bit but cable TV ratings across the board are down. We just had a polarizing election.
We had a major World Series featuring the Los Angeles Dodgers. He's pointing to a lot of different touch points there. For viewing fatigue? Viewing fatigue. That would drive viewership down.
I personally believe that there's more to it. I personally believe that the product is getting worse. And I think it's getting worse because the proliferation of the three-point shot is getting out of control. This year you're going to have the Boston Celtics break the all-time record for most threes per game. The record I think is around 45, 46. The D'Antoni Rockets averaged that a couple of times back in the late teens. The Celtics are over 50 now. There's five or six teams I think averaging better than 40 points per game. There's I think two or three teams that could finish the season with more than half their shot attempts per game being three-pointers. I don't think that's good basketball. I don't think that's compelling television. I don't think fans want to go back to the days of the late 80s, early 90s where the scores are 87, 85 in a competitive game. But I also don't think that they want to sit there, turn their TV on and witness a three-point contest. So this was something, by the way, when I asked Adam Silver about it, he wouldn't agree with my premise that there's too many threes. But he does agree with the premise that the type of play, the quality of play needs some evolving. So what would one do about that?
Let's just say you are onto something here and you can't take the three away. You can't actually penalize teams for taking too many of them. So do you move it back? Do you move the three-point line back? No, mostly because nowadays guys are pulling up from 25 feet.
From the logo. I know. I hear you. But if there are more lower percentage shots being taken, that will absolutely defray a product, that's for sure.
And then you throw on top of it more and more of these shots taken by guys that you don't know of. Because the guys you do know of might be out because there's a back-to-back. Might be out because they're maintaining an injury that they're coming back from a few months ago.
Or something. There's a—Luke is out with a heel injury tonight. This is after he hasn't played for five days. And he had a triple-double the last time he saw him. Now, hey everybody, go watch the Mavs because Kyrie's out too.
That's a problem. I mean, you want the stars on the floor and they're not on the floor as much. And those who are on the floor are taking more lower percentage shots.
Doesn't it all add up maybe? Well look, the argument that teams would make is that analytically they're higher percentage, right? Because their numbers suggest if you shoot 40 to 45 threes per game, you're going to finish the game with more points than if you take better, quote, percentage shots. Yeah, but that's moneyball stuff, man.
Right, but that's how teams are run nowadays. And look, my issue is that this is a trend. It's not an aberration. It's a trend. Whatever the numbers suggest about how they kind of flatlined the last few years and the NBA would push back and say that's the case, you're seeing seven-footers coming into the league either as three-point shooters or trying to become three-point shooters.
I'll give you an example. I was at a Grizzlies game early in the season and I was watching Zack Eady warm up. He's warming up behind the three-point line. Zack Eady was a paint player in college basketball, one of the best college basketball players during his time, jacking up threes because he gets it. His team wants him to be a corner three-point shooter.
They want spacing, all those things that you hear about all the time. So it's going to continue to trend in that direction. Now, you asked what you can do about it. Moving the three-point line, that's not going to work.
It's not going to change anything. I think there are things that the NBA can do within its current rules, right? Like you can allow more physicality on the perimeter. You can bring back some hand checking.
I saw Rick Pitino suggesting something similar on social media this week. I also think that you can enforce some rules on the outside. Like how many times do we see a guy take what's probably an illegal step back, right? Like you're dribbling, you're inside the three-point line.
All of a sudden you take this giant step back that could be construed as a travel. You can start enforcing some of the current rules to try to bring some of those numbers down. You could also try a radical approach. Like one thing I've suggested to other coaches, been largely laughed at, but say you cap the number of threes that you can make per game. You can say, hey, you can make as many as 15 threes per game. You're not liking it either.
I got that same reaction. Well, yeah, because people in the stands aren't going to be like, well, we're down by six. It's now a three-possession game because we're out of three-pointers. You're 100% right in the sense that- So who's keeping track of that in the stands in the fourth quarter, you know? When I brought this up after the presser to Adam, that was one thing that he brought up.
He's like, we don't need to confuse our fans any more than they already are at times. Already, like the NBA cup, to bring it full circle there, nobody really understands it. Nobody understands what game- I mean, they know what games count because the courts are different in all these different games.
But you don't know. I just had to vote for the all NBA cup tournament team or whatever they call it. And the NBA, to the credit, sent me all the stats because I don't know what the stats were for the five or six cup games that most of these teams played. You were locked in on pool play stat lines? I was not.
I was not locked in on that. Giannis definitely gets a slot. Damian Lillard gets a slot. Shaygills Alexander gets a slot. And the other two guys, I don't know.
It's a complicated question with no clear solution. But I do think the NBA is trending in a bad way. I think the three-point shot is hurting the league. And I think that some of these lower viewership numbers are a reflection of that. Maybe not all of them, but I do think as many of the young kids that love 40 to 53s per game or 63s per game, I think there's also a section of people, the grassroots basketball fan, that doesn't love it. And it's getting turned off by some of these games. Well, how about more star players playing? That's what I'm- I don't know how you force that issue. I don't know how you do it.
I think that's less an issue now, though, than it used to be. Perfect example again. This might not have been seen because it was the last game on Monday night. There were two NFL games. Nuggets and Kings played a spectacularly fun basketball game. What was the final score?
It was like 130, 129 or something like that. Jokic was out there. Murray was out there. Gordon was out there. Porter Jr. was out there.
Fox was out there. Sabonis was out there. Monk was out there. The only guy missing, I think, was Keegan Murray. I think he was out. Going all the way down to Malik Monk.
By the way, he was lighting it up. But star players, people that are really good at basketball, actually playing and not being managed and just having- But again, I don't know if these are the same guys with the stars who then get to the all-star game and then treat it in a certain way that now they've got to come up with some four-team tournament. I don't know what the answer is on all of this front, but I guess the long story short is New York City is paying attention to it, is what you're saying. It's two separate discussions, all-star and availability. I do think they've addressed a lot of the availability issues. Over an 82-game season, you're going to have some stretches where Aluca sits out for rest reasons, Lebron.
Top guys are not going to play all 82. But the elimination or the reduction of back-to-backs, the reduction of three games in four nights, the spelling out to teams that if you have a national TV game on the schedule, your guy better be in an air cast if he's not out there playing. So they've done some of this rich.
You're never going to be able to legislate it out completely, but I do think they've done some of it. But what I'm getting at isn't just that. It's the competitive spirit of some of these players. That does tie into the all-star game. Back in the day, and I know I sound like that Dana Carvey character, like, we loved it back when I was there. In my day, these guys would play defense in the all-star game, and they wanted to win. Yeah.
Yeah. You didn't have to come up with any gimmicks. You didn't have to come up with any gimmicks in the 80s and the 90s and the aughts. You didn't have to come up with a gimmick when Kobe was in Madison Square Garden. You didn't. You put these guys out there, and they want to beat the crap out of each other.
They really did. And there was a certain way of the Hall of Fame athlete was just like, I'm not losing to you. I'll see you in Springfield one day when we get our jackets. But today is not the day for you.
It's my day. And right now, it's just like, oh, let's swap jerseys. Who cares? Honestly, I really feel that way. And I think that that is a sensibility that might lead to a fan go, again, just to bring it full circle, our mutual friend Dan Patrick, I think he's right on his head, right on the head.
He said, if you don't care, why should I care? And the general sense is, do a lot of these athletes really care to play all 82 and make sure that the person gets to see the product? I don't know when it comes down to it. I think a lot, again, one of the things that the league has done is putting that 65 game threshold in to be eligible for rewards, which affects pocketbooks, which is another step. Again, you're never going to get all these guys to play or want to play even 75 games. They'll want to be in that 70, 75 games per inch, especially when they're anticipating a long playoff run. As far as the all-star game and the competitiveness there goes, the CD player and the flip phone competitiveness in the all-star game is not coming back. It's gone forever.
The CD and the flip phone. Doc Rivers was talking about this the other day, because Doc actually played in one of those hyper-competitive all-star games you're talking about. Doc was playing in one of them, and he actually coached in the one last year, which was really the straw that broke the camel's back. Last year was an abomination. Adam Silver was kind of embarrassed by that game, because he spent weeks talking about everything that he had done to make sure these games were competitive, and it wasn't. It was one of the worst all-star games of all time. Just to jump in to finish your sentence here, we have a drop of Adam Silver. When he handed out, was this the MVP award at the all-star game? Well, congratulations. That was it. We use that all the time.
To back up your point, I don't mean to interrupt your flow there, but that's what he's saying. Congratulations. Well, congratulations. We use that all the time. The NBA has literally tried everything to juice this all-star game. Now they're going with a four-team format, which nobody seems to like among the player ranks.
Kevin Durant weighed in on that earlier. Look, the all-star game, you can't kill it, but you can't save it. It is still a game that draws an astronomical rating by NBA standards. It's still a really highly rated game, so they're never going to get rid of it.
But you're also never going to solve this problem. The players, one of the things they push back on is they say, all right, you want us to be competitive on Sunday. How about you take all the crap off our plates Friday and Saturday? Because the NBA does get them involved with a lot of their corporate sponsorship. They've got a lot of obligations during All-Star weekend. The league's tried to address that, but given them extra time off after the all-star game. But because the NBA needs these guys to do so much before the game, they're never going to take that off the table.
So this is where we are, Rich. On February 22nd or whatever the day after the all-star game is, I guarantee you we'll be sitting right here complaining about how terrible it was because there is no fixing this problem. Well, and the NBA is not alone in that regard either. Major League Baseball made the all-star game significant as to who got home field advantage in the World Series. That was a massive flop. They've also homogenized the uniforms, make them look like they're the Savannah Bananas more than the actual all-stars of the Major League Baseball.
By the way, Savannah Bananas are terrific. And money doesn't work with these guys either. Because everyone that makes an all-star team, or 90% of them, is on a contract that guarantees them a quarter of a billion dollars a year. Well, it used to matter for the NFL Pro Bowl game, where NFL Pro Bowlers realized in the fourth quarter of that game that winning and losing was the difference between breaking even or losing money with their families all in Hawaii for the week. That actually did happen. I've seen Pro Bowls get competitive in the fourth quarter, but then obviously the NFL had a major Pro Bowl problem on their hands.
And if I'm not mistaken, I came on the air. Mike Hoskins, our coordinating producer, was telling me this year's Pro Bowl games, as they refer to it, features like a game show, like newlywed-type setup with how well do you know your teammate. So everybody's in that same all-star game mosh pit. Before I let you go, what's the scoop with Jimmy Butler, man? Why is he on the block?
Why are people talking about it? He's as good as ever, so what's going on with him? Well, he's on the block because he's effectively, in the last year of his contract, the expectation is he'll opt out and try to get a long-term deal somewhere else. And even though Miami's having a good season, they're not a title contender. And long-term, Jimmy Butler doesn't fit their timeline. The core of that team, including Bam Adebayo, they're all age 27 and younger.
So you're looking to get guys that fit into that demo. Look, if he wanted to re-sign Jimmy Butler, they could do it right now. They could give him a two-year deal about $113 million.
They obviously don't want to do that. Now, nobody really knows how motivated Miami is to make a deal like this because somewhere in the recesses of Pat Riley's mind and Eric Spolcher's mind, they believe like, you know what, we get to the playoffs, we can beat anybody. 2022, we went to the finals with an eight seed.
We can still get there. But the reality is they're in a situation where they could gin up kind of a bidding war for Jimmy Butler, and they could come away with a top-level young player, multiple draft picks, or both. So I think over the next couple of months, we're going to find out just what kind of appetite the Heat have for dealing it. And if they do, you're looking at Golden State, you're looking at Denver, and you're probably looking at Houston, which could use someone with Jimmy Butler's closing talent, closing the game type of talents, making a run at Jimmy Butler.
Okay. Read the next, because now we're post-cup? Post-cup. Post-cup. Read the Lakers' tea leaves between now and the trade deadline.
So that's the next, what, six to eight weeks that I'm laying out here for you right now? They're on the lookout for a center to fill out that rotation because right now it's like, I mean, whenever I see Christian Coloco getting minutes, it's like, oh, that's not good. That's not who you want. Playing alongside or instead of Anthony Davis. LeBron's made it clear he likes Jonas Valanciunas.
The Wizards are going nowhere. Jonas Valanciunas on a movable contract. I could see them making a run at him.
Robert Williams up in Portland, if they can... Time Lord? If they can duct tape him together to stay healthy for like a month or two months in a row, he's on another movable contract as well. Those are the two guys that I think are piquing the Lakers' interest right now because they play a position that the Lakers... I mean, they've got holes in a lot of places, but that front court alongside Anthony Davis, when Davis is out, they need some kind of veteran presence and those two guys, I think, are the most available. Okay. And so then the story of the NBA Post-cup is what? Outside of all the other stuff that we had.
What do you think for me on this front? Over the next two months when we're leading up to that trade deadline? I don't know. I mean, I don't expect a busy trade deadline. You don't? Because it's really hard to make deals in this new NBA that Adam Silver has created.
With the aprons and all that? Aprons and hard caps and frozen draft picks. There's just a lot that... There's a lot of hoops you have to jump through to make a deal, especially now, because the new TV money kicks in next year. And that's going to expand the cap.
But right now, the cap is still what it's been, largely. And that's really tough to fit a Zach Lavine salary onto somebody's books or a Brandon Ingram salary onto somebody's books. So I would expect there to be deals for guys like Cam Johnson in Brooklyn. I mean, Brooklyn right now is probably going to start jettisoning anybody that might help them win.
They want to be really bad. Same thing probably can be said for Portland. Same thing certainly can be said for Washington. So you look at that, those rosters, and look at those guys that are making 12, 13, 14 million dollars, very movable deals in today's league.
The Valenciunas, the Williams, guys like that. Those guys, I think, will be on the move before February. But even a guy like Jimmy Butler, very hard to deal, unless you're sending back a big salary in return. TJ already has visions of Cooper Flag in Philadelphia. That's what he's thinking about, right?
Yeah, Chris, because give me some reason to keep watching the season as a Sixers fan and then tell me how good you think Flag will look. Because that's all I got going right now. I mean, rubbernecking a car crash is fun sometimes, right? I mean, that is true. That's true.
In this case, no. Spoken like an East Coaster right there. I actually saw Cooper Flag play against Kansas. I went to the game they played out there.
That's a pretty good game. I think Cooper Flag is really, really good. I don't know yet if he is that kind of transcendent talent we've seen in some previews. Like, he's not Victor Wabunyama. Like, nobody is, but he's not that. He is a really solid 6'9", super athletic, really good defender, really good playmaker, kind of a busted shot caliber type of player. He's still, to me, number one overall.
I think teams will be tripping over themselves to get into that position. Is he a franchise-changing guy yet? I think the jury is still out on that.
What did you think of that one, TJ? I mean, I'm okay with that. We have some parts there, right, Chris?
So, just that. We're not getting him anyway. The season is a loss. I would be shocked if the 76ers, who have a top executive and a head coach with a lot of pressure on them, I would be shocked if they pulled the parachute and said, You know what, Joel?
You can sit the rest of the season out. Paul George, take it easy. Let's let Tyrese Maxey make an all-NBA team, and let's rebuild next year. The window for that team to succeed is two years before George gets too old, Embiid already dealing with a litany of injuries. I mean, that's a fascinating team to watch the rest of the year. You want to talk about having to duct tape somebody. Joel needs that, man.
We got the league's best TikToker, though, so there's that. Ladies and gentlemen, before I let you go to the last one, You mentioned rubbernecking and it being an entertaining rubberneck. Which would you rather rubberneck, an actual accident on the mass pike, or Logan Paul versus Conor McGregor? First of all, I'm impressed with the mass pike reference. I'll be cruising down the pike this time tomorrow.
What do you think? Which would you rather rubberneck? I don't like rubbernecking a car crash.
You're just kind of magnetically drawn to it. No one's hurt in the car crash. No one's hurt. It's one of those things, there's a lot of sirens and there's a lot of people standing around, you know, stalled cars.
Maybe one's folded up like an accordion. No. Or Logan Paul versus Conor McGregor. I would still pick the, I don't know where you're going with this. I'd still pick the Logan Conor to rubberneck that.
The latest with that is what? They're going to fight in some guy's backyard in India? There's some billionaire that wants to be a boxing guy. This is not boxing. This is not boxing. More power to Conor and to Logan if they can get like 30 million dollar checks to fight at somebody's Sweet 16 party or whatever it is that they'd be doing.
I didn't see the arrow. Sweet 16. It's a pinata and his name is? I don't understand.
Like if somebody's got that kind of cash and wants to lay it out there to watch Conor McGregor and Logan Paul. Sweet 16. 16 ounce gloves on. More power to him, but I don't know. Talk about a nightmare.
My daughter having a Sweet 16 and Conor McGregor being there. Whoa. Well, real boxing, Chris, you think there's a chance we might get Berlanga and Rosado? No. No. There was a fake tweet out there about that.
That's odd. Edgar Berlanga is going to fight somebody that is very, very, very, very, very low caliber. This is the Edgar Berlanga comeback show probably in Puerto Rico in early March, but I have been told pretty explicitly that it's not going to be Gabe Rosado. Okay. Thanks for coming in, brother. My pleasure. As always for letting us know you're in town and you always got a spot here.
That's Chris Mannix. Check him out on all forms of social media podcasts and so much more right here on The Rich Eyes and Show. Just to let you know before we take a break, you're your family's biggest supporter, so make sure they're protected today with affordable online life insurance through Ethos. Up to $2 million of same-day term life insurance coverage in as little as 10 minutes for as little as $2 a day. It's 100% online and there's no med exams, only a few online health questions. The mortgage, kids' education and other costs could all be covered through Ethos. Straightforward protection for the people who matter most.
Get a free quote at triethos.com. That's T-R-Y-E-T-H-O-S.com. When we come back, there's been a lot of crazy journey stories in the NFL this year.
I'll give you the top five in a moment. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts, people. You love their jingle. You're going to love their friendly, helpful service even better because they're in the business of keeping your car on the road. And the parts knowledge they have, it's all you need for your maintenance and repairs.
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Shopify.com slash Westwood1. We'd like to play a game with Chris Brockman and Mike Del Tufo over there, where I will read out the facts, they will guess whether it's true meta or false meta, and then you will confirm. Okay, let's do it. Here we go.
I wore number 37 for the Lakers because Michael Jackson's album Thriller was number one on the Billboard charts for 37 consecutive weeks. True meta? No way. Was it fake meta? That is 100% true.
That's true. I knew it was 37 weeks, but I wouldn't guess. Next one, right before his comeback with the Wizards. I broke two of Michael Jordan's ribs in a pickup game and delayed his comeback by three months.
I was so upset about it, I didn't leave my house for days. True meta or fake meta? I think that's true. I'm saying true.
That's true. I love Michael Jordan, probably my favorite player. You broke his ribs? It was on accident. It was a summertime pickup game. It was an intense game.
In 2010, an art show honoring me was held in Toronto, Canada, entitled Lovable Badass. False. True.
That's true. We have a tie. Last one. Last one.
In 2010, I was cited for driving a race car with an expired registration down a city street. True meta or fake meta? Based on his reaction, I'm going to say true. I got to go true, too. That's true.
That's true. It was an Indy 500 car. It was fun. How did you fit in that thing? I didn't really fit. I was real like this and hitting the gas with my one little pinky toes.
It was tough. Love it. Love it. From back in our day, all on our channel. Back on The Rich Eyes and Show radio network. Sitting at The Rich Eyes and Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.
Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Just some wild stories in the NFL this year, man. As always. And I just thought to myself, you know what? Let's make a top five list. Got my top five wildest journeys of the 2024 season.
Of the 2024 National Football League season. High five. One, two, three, four, five. Rich's top five.
All right. Here we go. And the first one on this list of the top five wildest journeys of the season in the National Football League this year. Number five on the list is a guy that everybody thought was on the scrap heap based on his career coming out of the University of Southern California. And he gets another shot. The head coach says, make it your best shot. And we are happy to utilize you and your skill sets.
And you utilize us as your springboard back into what you hoped your career could have been. Sam Darnold is number five on this list. He is a 12 and two quarterback in the National Football League. The only other quarterbacks to have at least a dozen wins this year are named Jalen Hurts, Jared Goff, and also Patrick Mahomes.
They are all Super Bowl quarterbacks who have played in the big game before. Sam Darnold is matching them and what they are doing and what he can do from here on out. His journey has been wild. Absolutely wild to even get the opportunity because the rookie that they drafted and J.J. McCarthy got hurt and it was Sam or Bust. He turned into their only shot and he's made it his best shot. It's been truly remarkable.
That's number five. Number four on this list, much is being made about evaluating quarterback talent and how soon is too soon to jettison somebody and how late is it too late to be redeemed, right? Well this guy was drafted number one overall in the National Football League last year and you could say his wild journey began the minute the Carolina Panthers selected him out of the University of Alabama and he had two different coaches last year and wound up having a new head coach this year and Bryce Young got benched two weeks into the season and the sense was he was done in Carolina. He should ask for a trade out of Carolina. His career potentially irredeemable even outside of Carolina and he wound up sitting and watching Andy Dalton who wins a game in Vegas right off the bat and winds up performing in such a way that we thought Bryce would never get another shot until a car accident got Bryce Young the start again and he's been totally redeemed. I understand I'm saying this coming off of his worst game of his 2.0 version against Dallas but what a wild journey for this kid who when I saw in Munich I referred to his benching as a sabbatical and he laughed and goes I'd like to use that.
But I said it's all yours because it has turned into a sabbatical and Dave Canales and his offense and there are some pieces there guys and Carolina can finish up strong. I know Dallas again put a big curb stomping on Carolina last week but his journey has been nothing short of wild. That's number four on the list. Number three on the list is not an individual but an entire team. Top five wildest journeys of the 2024 NFL season.
Number three are the Chicago Bears. I watched them in Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. I watched them in Tottenham absolutely take apart the Jacksonville Jaguars in Caleb Williams' best game as a pro. Four touchdown passes, Bears go to four and two, they hit the bye week and it turned out to be Matt Eberflus' last win as head coach of the Chicago Bears because they come off their bye week in week seven to go into Washington D.C., come back to take a lead in that game and it looked like they were going five and two in the Hail Mary hit. The Hail Mary hit where Tyreek Stevenson is stunting and then comes back and tips a ball.
She arrives just in time to tip a ball in the Hail Mary instead of batting it down. Week nine they get blown out in Arizona. Week ten they give up, they only score three points against New England at home. They're just reeling in a way I've never seen a team reel from a Hail Mary loss. Finally in week 11 start playing like the team we saw in the first six weeks of the season, but they had a winning field goal attempt against Green Bay blocked at the very end. Week 12 they scored 17 in the fourth quarter, including points after recovering an onsides kick against the aforementioned 12 win Minnesota Vikings only to lose in overtime. Then week 13 was that Thanksgiving loss where they came back on the Lions only to have the most mind blowing clock management occur in front of damn near 40 million people. Eberflus loses his job and here we are, a four and two team at four and ten. As of 2022, Eberflus' first year on the job when they went from three and five to three and 14.
Did I lay it all out for you in terms of... Don't forget they were on heart knocks to start the year too. There's that too. Number two on the list, Russell Wilson. He gets dead capped out of Colorado. He winds up going on a job hunt that includes a visit to New York and a trip through Newark Airport to Pittsburgh, PA, and it's just like, OK, good luck. But he went on a job search and showed everybody that he meant business by flying through Newark, which again is a choice.
And it shows grit, it shows metal. And he wound up getting the gig in Pittsburgh and everybody thought like, well, why would Tomlin just hand him the job? He gets hurt by pushing a tackling sled in training camp, watches Justin Fields go four and two and have Tomlin turn to him anyway, and he's six and two and has the Steelers in the playoffs. They have punched their ticket as they're getting ready for hopefully for Steelers fans to punch the Ravens in the mouth. If I had told you that this was Russell Wilson's journey this year, you would have told me I was out of my mind.
Black and gold. Here we go. But he's going to be in the playoffs for the first time since his last time in the playoffs with Seattle, and he could potentially sweep the Ravens in his first time as the Steelers quarterback, which, as you know, automatically put you in line for potentially having a statue in the airport next to George Washington and Franco Harris. And the T-Rex.
And the T-Rex around the corner from the Fred Rogers exhibit. Number one, though, and I wouldn't have had this on the list last week, but he's now the starter and quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons. You all know Michael Pennix. Oh, I was going to say who's number one. Number one.
Come on. The way he was drafted, by whom, with the circumstances of his drafting. And then that guy balls out to the point where the team six and three and nobody's thinking that in the next five weeks it would turn so south that the Falcons would have no choice but to tell their four year signed veteran. For one hundred million guaranteed dollars, Kirk, you're taking a seat. Michael Pennix, you are now the starting quarterback in week 16. Dude, if you had told me that he would replace Kirk Cousins due to ineffectiveness in the 2024 season, I would have said that's believable. Week 16, I would not have said that. And if certainly if you told me in week 16, they're a 500 team that once upon a time did lead the division and has the tie break over everybody else in the division and they can make the playoffs. That's when they're turning them in week 16. After Cousins had a 500 yard game this year.
And that he would be told he's got the starting job on the phone while he's shopping in Costco about to buy a hot dog for a dollar fifty. Name your wilder journey in the NFL than Michael Pennix Jr. And that's my top up. All right, we'll get one more now. You could say this team is on the wildest journey because everybody follows this team snap for snap on their journey, whether you're a fan of theirs, you're rooting against them.
I would say it's the all in Dallas Cowboys, but it's the fact that Jerry Jones is all in on the Cowboys. And I've eaten a lot of raccoon. One of my favorites is squirrel. Yeah.
He's all in on squirrel. That's the wildest journey. Delicious. Seriously. Yeah. Seriously. Seriously.
That's that's one of the wildest journeys I've ever heard. Going from we're all in on the season to I'm all in on squirrel. Didn't see that one coming.
If it was the Chiefs, I'd call it a bundle Ruski. Sorry, TJ. We didn't need one more, that's all I'm saying. No, I did. One more wasn't necessary.
For the rest of the season on power rankings and top fives, I'm going to go one more on squirrel every time. Well, you just ruined it. So now there's no need for you to do it. You're going to think that I'm not going to do it, but I'm telling you right now. I'm noting it now, so I won't be surprised. One more from now on is is going to do a bad and I just want Mike to play the right drop when it happens. That's all. That's all I want. I would just hope.
One of my favorites is squirrel. Were you doing this on a Friday most of the time? Because he probably won't be here. Delicious. No, seriously.
Delicious. Seriously. Seriously. He is shocked that anyone would think it's not delicious. The way he says seriously.
He's like, no, seriously. Maybe, you know, by the way, do I miss any journeys? There's some other ones, you know, I imagine. But wild. I mean, there's wild journeys. There you have it.
You know, I mean, I could name one more, I guess. Hey, Jamis. Jamis has had a wild journey. Losing a spot on the team because your Madden ranking wasn't high enough. That's a wild.
Yeah. I mean, that may be the wildest journey, the four and 10 jets at this point in time, the entire journey. And again, the top story of the day is what The Athletic reported, that Jerry Jeudy was all set to be a jet until Woody Johnson said, we can't have somebody with such a bad Madden rating.
And the jets have pushed back on that notion. But we have received confirmation. We have exclusive sound of that meeting.
We do? In which Woody Johnson told the GM at the time, Joe Douglas, about tell call the Broncos say the trade's off. You have a sports. It's in the game. There it is. That was the meeting right there. Is that legal for us to record that from from the I mean, if I don't have a conversation, I don't know if it's if one person assents to it, I guess.
I don't want to give away my sources. You can't do that. But there you have it. That's the way it all went down to talk about wild journeys. Anyone playing running back for the forty niners? Let's talk about that when we go out the door. Oh, and by the way, Andy Reid has spoken about his quarterback's ankle. The ankle watch. The ankle watch is back.
Mike, you were you were gone yesterday. We did it. We did it.
We did it. Rich, when you talk about journeys, I was sure this was going to be a top five Steve Perry song. Oh, song.
So listen. We got to take a break before we break any ASCAP rules. This episode is brought to you by lifelock. The holidays mean more travel, more shopping, more time online and more personal info in places that could expose you to identity theft. That's why lifelock monitors millions of data points every second.
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I can't believe this is part of the story, but why not? You know, Ocho is a Madden ratings adjuster. You know, I just I just saw that. So Jerry, Judy heard he's just waking up today going, I blame Ocho Cinco, you know, and then Ocho starts responding, I guess that he it's a good thing. Look how you shining now.
I mean, what does that mean? Like Rogers, you could have been catching passes from Rogers, maybe what Davante Adams would have been there. Probably.
Mike Williams wouldn't have been there. I don't know the timing of all this. He wrote, sir, you're going to improve my rating. Well done. What is Judy's rating? It's not ninety five next year.
Just finish these next three games off. Yeah. OK. OK. Very good, because those things are updated in real time. Yeah.
Right. He's currently at eighty three. That's low, isn't it? Last year, he was an eighty one. Isn't he top five and receiving yards this year? Jerry, Judy, is he tech? Check it out. I think he is.
Isn't it hard to get like a ninety five? Oh, I mean, by the way, do you know who's the third? He's fifth. OK. Do you know who's the third leading rusher in the NFL? I'm looking at it. It's Josh Jacobs.
It is not. It's Saquon Barkley after halftime. Oh, after halftime?
Yep. Second half, Saquon Barkley has twelve hundred yards. Third most rushing yards releases is going into Sunday. My goodness. We had that stat on game day morning last week.
It goes Saquon, Derrick Henry, second half, Saquon, Josh Jacobs. Wow. Yeah. Wow is right. That's great.
That is a fact, man. Can't make it up. Talk about journeys, right?
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That's T-R-Y-E-T-H-O-S dot com. Andy Reid knows the state of his quarterback's ankle. He sees it practicing fully because it's attached to the guy who's practicing fully. Andy Reid on the short week Chiefs Texans game on Saturday in Arrowhead, the season finale, a regular season in Arrowhead, and whether Mahomes will play in it. He worked out this week full and will most likely end up playing.
We'll just see how things work out today. I wasn't sure. I've been through it with him before and he amazes me every time he does it. He's so mentally tough and it's a mindset that he has going into it.
So where he was a few days ago, yeah, I'd probably say it was a long shot but he's done well with it. That's the way Andy Reid can say he's not human. My quarterback is not human.
We know that, Andy. Coaches love talking about how tough their players are. You know what they don't like? They don't like talking about how people think their team isn't tough. Brian Callahan, did you hear this soundbite, JAG, did you hear about this?
I did. Brian Callahan was asked about the sense of his team's lack of toughness, look out. His team is soft physically and mentally.
How would you respond to that idea? I mean, you really want to get me going today? Yeah, I think, to be honest with you, I think it's complete and total bullshit if you want my honest opinion. These guys are tough ****ers, man. They go after it every day. They play hard as hell and there's at no point, at no point have we ever put on tape at any point this season that this is a soft football team.
I can't even wrap my mind around how that would even be a conversation. Just because we don't win games doesn't mean we're soft. These guys play their ass off, they play hard, they play physical. You can ask any team that plays against us that when they come off the field they know they played us. Yeah, that makes me relatively angry that that would be some presumption. That means you just don't watch the ****. You don't do anything about it that you don't know what you're talking about, I don't know what you're looking at. So I won't stand for, I'm not going to stand for anybody calling this football team soft.
I think that's bullshit. So if there's opinions out there that feel that way, then they don't know anything about NFL football. I'd like you to walk in there and call one of these guys soft and see what happens. This is not a soft football team at all, mentally or physically. And I think one of the things mentally that's really been impressive about the team is that the way that they keep fighting through the way that this season has gone. They've not shown at any point that they're not up to the task. They come out every day and work.
They have, I mean, you're going to really keep me going now. These guys come out here and they do everything possible to win games. And if there's any assumption anywhere that's outside of this building, again, we don't focus on all those things, but there's no possible explanation to say that this team is soft any way, shape or form, mentally or physically. And the way that they go about their work, it's insulting to me, to them, to everyone that works here. So I'm not that, no chance ever in hell would I ever admit that to be the case. And neither would anybody in this locker room.
So they can kind of shove that one right up the a** to be honest. Well, all right. Wow. Wow. That's tremendous. Son of a line coach right there. Yep.
You can go home now. He didn't hold back. I don't even, follow-up question, coach, what form of ice cream are you serving?
Not soft serve, is it? You know what I was thinking? I remember Jeffrey Simmons was here during the summer. You know what I was thinking while I was interviewing him? This guy's soft. I was just looking at him fill up this chair, talking about how he was going to be all over Caleb Williams in the first game. By the way, can confirm he was.
Remember the way that one went down? First week? Didn't look good for the Bears to start, did it? Didn't think they were soft. Pollard's not soft. He just didn't get very good, efficient quarterback play, consistent. And you got a quarterback that has turnovers in them. It's just not going to go your way. What are they going to do, a quarterback?
I don't know. That's going to be an interesting conversation, certainly where they finish as well. Where are they in the draft order? Check out the Titans on that regard. So don't call the Titans soft. That's the headline. That's the headline.
Now you're just going to ask everybody what the ratings are, the Madden ratings are. I can't believe that story. That joke is going to last forever. At least for the rest of the show, which has got 50 seconds left in it. Dude, I'm just.
The rest of the show, Rich. When you sent me that article this morning, I literally thought to myself, and I saw the headline, I thought to myself, no, I knew it was real because I saw the headline and I saw where it was from and I saw the athletic and I saw the bonafide professionals who were triple bylined on it. So crazy.
It's a little bit believable. What movie is that? What movie is that like when somebody calls it?
It's Tommy Lee Jones and the Fugitive. This is going to upset me, isn't it? Is this going to upset me?
This is going to upset me. Isn't that that line? Didn't you say that in the Fugitive? Yes. Right, right. Yes. He goes, don't. This information, you're going to tell me, this is going to upset me, isn't it?
I'm going to get upset by this, right? Just one paragraph in. I just, I literally said the words holy S out loud. It's in the game.
I literally did that. 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 it. My World with Jeff Jarrett, wherever you listen.
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