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Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com slash podcast. Terms apply. Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles. Oh my gosh. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. It's another hour of the program and it's great to have you with us on this jam-packed Monday. Short week for many folks not here on The Rich Eisen Show.
I'm Brian Weber. Appreciate you spending part of the first quote unquote workday of the week with us. Although I am getting compensated so I probably should focus more. I understand a lot of you have priorities beyond the world of sports so I do my best to make this entertaining. I am not at a lecture barking into the microphone. You must listen to me. Although I know I have strong opinions and I throw out some big words from time to time.
But the goal is to primarily entertain, perhaps inform, maybe even enlighten along the way. 844-204-7424. You can also hit me up on social media.
X me at B.W. Weber. Weber with two B's coming up in 20 minutes. We'll say hello to our first guest taking you across the NFL with Jared Bell who's been covering the league for decades.
You can read his fine work now. USA Today is the platform and he was in the house as you kids say in Atlanta checking out the latest horrendous performance by the Giants. Although the team of my childhood at this stage of the season has a very different philosophy.
Although they'll never say it out loud. Losing is winning. If you're a fan of the Giants because they are moving closer and closer to locking up the number one overall pick. Come draft time, looks like Shanore Sanders will be taking his talents to New York. Will it be a package deal?
Could the old man be moving along to the swamps of New Jersey? Because I see no way, even with the dreaded vote of confidence that Giant owner John Mara gave both head coach Brian Dabol and his beleaguered GM Joe Shane going back to hard knocks. And video and audio that will live forever every time Saquon Barkley rips off another long run as he did yesterday in what proved to be a losing effort in D.C. We're going to be close to making the decision official that Dabol's got to be pushed out when we're talking about the Giants muddle future.
And in terms of our immediate future, we're going to go through coaches who probably will not be enjoying the holidays and will tie it to the overall playoff picture because that intersected last night with the Sunday night game that was wildly entertaining in the fourth quarter. It's been 40 minutes because I went to the Mike McCarthy School of Clock Management. I butchered the time allowed, although I was happy to take a phone call and for no other reason to have another voice because I realized I can drone on and to prove I am not here to be Mr. Monologue. The goal is to be interactive.
8442047424. I've already hit my quota for next year by taking that call in the last hour of the program, but I have expansive thoughts on college football. I realized I had to move through that with some brevity. But the key takeaway is the entire system is broken with this 12-team playoff as presently constructed.
Because in what world does it make sense? And I'm not bashing Arizona State. I used to spend half my time in the state of Arizona. I have great, unbelievable admiration for what Kenny Dillingham has done at his alma mater. Explain to me, though, how Arizona State earned that by. I know you're going to say, hey, Phil and Hack, they won their conference.
That should mean something. I have Kirk Herbstree telling me that wins and losses shouldn't mean anything. We got to get past that so we don't get Indiana into the field so they can get abused by Notre Dame.
So we deal with the facts as they are. But I'm just laying out and it's my job to let you know if you have not taken the time to give this thought, nor should you, because these games don't come our way until January 1st. We still have the full slew of meaningless ball games that have become even more relevant day after day after day, although somebody watches because it's football after all.
But the early look on the lines for the quarterfinals, let's just go through some of these ball games. You have Texas, a two-touchdown favorite against Arizona State. Ohio State, slight favorite over Oregon. Remember, only lost by one did the Buckeyes on the road at Austin Stadium. Penn State, two-touchdown favorite over Ashton Gente, who should have won the Heisman in my estimation because Shidora Sanders, the number one overall pick, presumably was the MVP on his team.
Travis Hunter, wonderful achievement to have all those snaps. But if you're not the best player on your own team, how are you the most outstanding player in all of college football? And then Notre Dame, Georgia, projected to be more competitive because of the question marks under center for the Dawgs.
All signs pointing to Carson Beck, who was wildly inconsistent this year, not able to go with that elbow injury suffered on the last play, the Hail Mary of the first half in the win over Texas in the SEC title game. We will get to the college football coming up in just over a half hour from now. I mentioned Sunday Night Football.
We all watch because that is the top-ranked program in all of television. I say that enunciating every syllable because, unfortunately, the medium is dying and that's why Rich was such a visionary to have this simulcast structured the way he did it. If you haven't heard the news, we're going to the Infinity Sports Network coming up on January 6th. Check your local listings. You might have a new affiliate.
You can always track everything by going to richisonshow.com. But Rich putting the simulcast on the Roku channel gave him the big window into a new audience on a streaming platform along with everything we do here on the audio side. Sunday Night Football is the number one show in all of TV, which reflects two things. We are addicted to football.
They could put a logo up of the shield and we'd watch. We'd gather around the tube saying, wait a minute, are they going to play football at some point? Or just watch like I do when I watch the countdown.
Numbers descending heading into the Red Zone channel. If that thing had a Nielsen meter to it, I'm watching because I don't want to get there late. And then secondly, there's nothing on TV anymore. Have you noticed? Because everything's not streaming.
Plus you kids are all over TikTok. So Sunday Night Football typically gets a schedule that's also going to draw eyeballs. And did you notice that NBC decided not to flex out of the Cowboys and the Bucks, even though they knew a few weeks ago this could have been a dreadful matchup. After all, the moment Dak Prescott went down, conventional wisdom said the Cowboys season is over. And it is over. When Washington put together that unbelievable comeback for the ages yesterday, I'm not going to say preposterous because Jalen Hurts was hurt.
You got to, no pun intended, you got to throw out that huge asterisk in any conversation regarding that game, which was insane. The fact that Washington overcame five turnovers with five touchdown passes thrown by Jayden Daniels is remarkable, but context matters. Still, here's Dallas finding a way, in part because of a couple insane takeaways, especially that crazy play that effectively sealed the game at the end with Baker was doing his David Copperfield impersonation and Mayfield able to avoid the rush, gets the ball off and then the Dallas swarming defense rips it away for the game ceiling fumble after they had an incredible INT earlier towards the business end of the game.
Dallas now at seven and eight, but they knew coming into the game, they had been officially eliminated from playoff contention, which felt like it happened effectively when Dak Prescott went down. And I know if I was really trolling you and just looking for clicks, I would throw out eight, four, four, two, oh four, seven, four, two, four, the number to call. Who would you rather have Dak Prescott or Cooper rush?
Give me a call. But I'm not doing that kind of lazy radio and it's just so inane to watch people go round and round on social media. Yes, you can argue Cooper rush outplayed Baker Mayfield last night. Although as much as I have grown to at least be open minded about Baker, I bashed him every step of the way because it wasn't his fault. I never thought he was worthy of being taken with the number one overall pick because of his physical limitations and because of his reckless decision making just throws into way too many tight windows. But that's a Cleveland problem, not a Baker problem. And I admire his tenacity. Remember this guy had to have a quarterback competition with Kyle Trask when he got to the Bucks after he was left for dead by Cleveland, cut by the Panthers, or they mutually agreed to part ways, had that cameo with the Rams on team number four, and he had to audition for the job. I'm glad he got the contract extension, but I would never count on Baker in a high leverage situation because he's just too reckless and throws into too many tight windows. But here is Dallas, despite a wave of injuries, getting hot quote unquote at the right time.
Well, for them, once they have nothing to play for her, we have seen this time and time again. Dallas puts it all together. They won four or five, there's seven and eight. And you're starting to hear the murmurs that started a couple weeks ago. And I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen, 8442047424. Two weeks ago, Troy Aikman went on the radio in Dallas and he said he would be surprised if Mike McCarthy didn't keep his job. Now let's not overlook the chronology. Mike is the ultimate lame duck.
It's not a personal appearance observation. It's a term that you're given when you have no job security because most owners would have fired him after last year's implosion at home in the postseason when they got embarrassed by the Packers. Jerry Jones is not most owners. I think the primary motivation for Jerry in that case was, let's be careful here because I know he's a very powerful man and Rich is Mr. NFL. He's careful with money.
In common English, he's cheap. He did not want to pay Mike McCarthy to go away with any other owner or anyone with any self-esteem or rational brain would have made the coaching change a year ago. The fact that Mike McCarthy even survived into this year was utterly illogical and the most cowboy thing ever, but we've been saying the same things about the dysfunction and mismanagement of this franchise for decades. And nothing's going to change until Jerry goes to that big skybox in the sky. I realize that's repetitive.
I probably should have said luxury box in the sky, but I was riffing there. So here we are, seven and eight, your Dallas Cowboys, not going to win anything again, not even going to sniff the playoffs, but because Mike McCarthy has done more with less and certainly you'd have to say, even if you are the biggest skeptic or quote unquote guzzling the hater raid of the Cowboys, this team is still playing hard for him. They beat a quality opponent and a Tampa Bay club that blew a monumental chance of Tampa Bay had won last night. They controlled their path to the postseason when the last two games they're in now, because they lost both of their head to head matchups against the Atlanta Falcons who suddenly now don't have to worry about a quarterback.
And I, yes, I realize I am overreacting to one game, but Kirk cousins was so atrociously bad. He left the Falcons, no decision, but to bench him. So long as Michael Pennix Jr doesn't have a Kirk cousins kind of series of ghastly turnovers, Atlanta should be fine because remember, as I mentioned, they swept the season series of Tampa Bay and now it's the Falcons who control their path to the postseason. That was a very significant loss for Tampa Bay and another step in the direction saying that Mike McCarthy is going to keep his job now, understanding that Jerry, even though he's a billionaire many times over is again, I'm choosing my words carefully, careful with money, fiscally responsible. I don't know why I'm parsing things so much other than riches, Mr NFL Jerry probably will keep Mike at a two year kind of deal.
You're not going to give him four years, nor should he pay a middle of the road money. And what's the conversation going to be next year? The same thing because it's Dallas.
We go through this over and over again. It's the hot tub time machine and nothing's going to change until ownership changes. And I'm not convinced even and I'm not wishing ill will on anybody, but Jerry's not going to live forever. Is anything going to change when Stephen Jones takes over? Is he as delusional as his old man? He's sitting there in the war room. Does he think he can cosplay being a general manager as well?
So just because the Cowboys are at least semi-relevant for a team not going to the playoffs, do not believe the problem has been fixed. I'm Brian Weber, Infra Rich Eisen, 8442047424 is the phone number. Coming up, how good did Michael Penix Jr. look in person?
Victorious in the starting debut, we'll find out from Jared Bell of USA Today, who was in Atlanta covering the Falcons win over the Giants. That is straight ahead as we continue on a jam-packed Monday. I'm Brian Weber, Infra Rich.
This is the Rich Eisen Show. You can get more for your business wherever it takes you. With the Amex Business Platinum Card, you can earn 1.5 times membership rewards points on select business purchases. And you can get complimentary access to more than 1,400 airport lounges worldwide, including the Centurion Lounge. So you can keep running your business while you're on the go. See how the Amex Business Platinum Card gives business owners like you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love.
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That's OReillyAuto.com slash E-I-S-E-N, O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, like Alo 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 ShopPay, that boosts 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.com slash Westwood1, all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash Westwood1 to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com slash Westwood1. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network.
Brian Weber back with you. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger, with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you. Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. 844-204-7424 is your choice.
Or hit me up on the X platform. B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. Let's keep the NFL conversation going. With a long-time football journalist, one of the best in the business, you can check out his fine work now. For USA Today, it's Jared Bell. Hey, Jared, happy holidays.
Thanks for taking the time. How are you? Pretty good. Just trying to do some last-minute shopping. Oh, come on. Now, you're a veteran. Why are you putting it off until the last minute, Jared?
You know better. Yeah, every year I find myself back in this situation. So I'm not the best when it comes to being timely on the gift shopping. But anyway. I understand my late father would do the same thing.
In fact, he would not buy a present until Christmas Eve. And the way he justified it was he made better, more efficient decisions because he didn't have time to waste. Yeah, yeah. I like that.
Maybe he was lazy and just a wordsmith and came up with a way of spinning it, but I bought it my entire life. Hey, I know you covered the game between the Falcons and Giants. I want your thoughts on Michael Penix Jr. in a moment. But I was just talking about Mike McCarthy, the Cowboys. Now, of course, they have nothing to play for because they've been eliminated from playoff contention. Suddenly, though, getting hot, they've won four of five. They've been a quality team in Tampa Bay. Jared, do you think there's a real chance Mike McCarthy is going to keep his job? Yeah, I really do.
I think a couple of things. He'll be coaching somewhere next year, if not with the Cowboys, because his contract is going to be up. So if Mike McCarthy decides, hey, I want to go somewhere else. I mean, this is his opportunity. It's rare that we see a coach get to be a free agent.
I mean, it happens, but most of the time it's a different track for these guys. And with the Cowboys not extending McCarthy before this season, I think there is a possibility. But if you read the tea leaves and you listen to Jerry Jones on a week by week basis, especially last night, just gushing about Mike McCarthy. I think I think Jones realizes that if he does let go of Mike McCarthy, he's going to have another problem on his hand, really finding the person who's going to fit into what they have grown and what they want to accomplish. And so I think from the Cowboys standpoint, yeah, you try to extend Mike McCarthy. I think from McCarthy standpoint, you say, OK, let me stop for a second and see if there's something else out there. But I'll tell you what, you know, Mike, he said it. I'm going back to the NFL owners meetings when there was a lot of conversation about this. And the one thing that McCarthy said that really sticks with you and it really tells you a lot about him as a person. He said this is not so much about me being in the last year of my contract, but my assistant coaches, all of them are in the same boat in the final year of the contract. They've got family.
They've got, you know, situations that are just so uncertain. He was more concerned about his assistant coaches than himself. And so I think if McCarthy gets to a point here where he thinks the U.S. or do I do, I think the status of his of his assistant coaches is going to be a real factor for him. Now, he did get an agent. He's got Donald. He's got Don Yee, agent for Sean Brady.
Tom Brady for years, right, Jared? Don Yee is a high powered guy for listeners who don't know. Yeah, exactly. And so he had a Don Yee within the past several months to work this process for him.
And so, yeah, he's not going to take it sitting down. But again, if not the Cowboys, Mike McCarthy has helped himself really elevate on this next cycle in terms of who's available. If, in fact, he is available, he'll be a hot property.
I mean, think about it. If you're in Chicago Bears, wouldn't you love to have Mike McCarthy? Or Caleb Williams?
So anyway. Well, since we're talking about the coaching carousel, how about Ben Johnson to Chicago? We know that Ben was choosy and in an alternate universe might have been the head coach of the Washington commanders, based on how things went back and forth last year. Yeah, no doubt. And I think he knew that he would have another crack at it the next cycle around. Sometimes you got to take it when you're hot.
Take that opportunity. And I think that's the thing with Ben Johnson. But I also know that he felt very strongly about what they were going to be able to accomplish with the Lions, with him coming back. And that has come to fruition. And now he's in the situation again.
But you're right. The Washington situation was the one. He talked to Carolina, too, for the past couple of years. And so that was another possibility.
But Washington seemed to be a whole lot more alive for him a year ago. And now maybe it's Chicago or one of these other teams that's going to have an opening. But yes, Chicago's got the quarterback.
We've got the opportunity to go in and build where an organization is really trying to establish itself, reestablish itself. So I think they tuned on that one. Taking you across the NFL with Jared Bell of USA Today, you mentioned Chicago. So Caleb Williams, the number one overall pick, thinking about Jayden Daniels, who won the Heisman last year, started his career at Arizona State, balled out at LSU. Jared, yesterday, just an insane game in our nation's capital.
We have to throw in the jail and Hertz left with a concussion in the first quarter. That does not in any way diminish what Daniels achieved with the five touchdowns in a game in which Washington had five turnovers. How special, and you've been watching football for decades, how special do you think Daniels is as a rookie? Yeah, very special and just think that he's going to get better with time and experience and reps and, you know, recognition of what the defenses are doing to him. And so, yeah, it's been a treat to watch. You put it in the context, too, Brian, with a franchise that not only has been searching for its franchise quarterback, but has also really just been searching to reestablish itself as, you know, a desired franchise, if you will. That's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the Dan Snyder era and all that went wild with Washington. And now they're really trying to, you know, move forward with the new ownership. Jaden Daniels has been, you know, the perfect guy for that.
And so it's going to be exciting just to kind of watch how this thing developed. Like you said, yesterday's game, you don't have Jalen Hertz. And if he's there, maybe it turns out differently.
Shoot, if Devontae Smith catches that pass. Excellent point. Yeah, so many people overlooking that. Yeah, but all that to say, when you get your opportunity, you still have to perform, and you still have to make the play when it's there to be made.
And so Jaden Daniels, you know, major points for all of that. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich Eisen. We're spotlighting the NFL with Jared Bell of USA Today, who was in Atlanta yesterday covering the starting debut of Michael Penix Jr. Jared, I'm here on the West Coast.
I used to work for the Pac-12 Network before our conference imploded. So I saw a ton of Penix after he transferred from Indiana. I always loved the way the ball came off his hand. He can really spin it.
How did he look in person? And certainly he got a break from the schedule, beating up on the two-win Giants. Yeah, yeah, all that, all relevant. But again, to my last point, when the opportunity is there, you still have to perform. And he did that. You look at his numbers, and he threw the 200 yards, which is not bad for any quarterback in his debut. The one pick that he had really wasn't his fault. Now, in the press conference after the game, he kind of blamed himself saying, you know, we went in at the seven-yard line. He threw it to Kyle Pitts. Kyle Pitts bobbled it. It popped up for an interception. That's more on Kyle Pitts than it was on Michael Penix Jr. But the thing that he said he'd learned from it was that in that situation where there's, like, 15 seconds to go, you know you can get three points, you don't even make that pass. Because if Pitts caught it and they were out of timeouts, if Pitts caught it, it would have been a scramble just to get back to the line if it was a first down.
All of that was in the mix as well. So the way Penix processed it, he said, you know what, maybe I don't even throw that pass because it wasn't a sure first down, it wasn't a touchdown. And it would have been a scramble after that. But again, very, very impressive. And the one thing, you mentioned the ball zipping off his arm, yes, that was there.
And that was great to see in a live situation, no doubt. But the other thing that was very impressive was the fact that he made some plays that could have turned into sacks, could have been negative plays, and he just really looked to be very, very mature. Raheem Morris talked about it as well after the game, but I didn't even need Raheem to say it, to know it, that this guy played like he was not a rookie. And he pointed out, he played a lot of football in college.
He just mentioned it, Brian. He transferred from Indiana to Washington, and I think he had six years in college. Yeah, over 40 starts, Jarrett, and he's 24 years old, as you know. Yeah, yeah, and so I think when you look back at the history of quarterbacks and which ones succeed versus not coming out of college, I'm pretty sure there are cases where young guys didn't have that many starts, but when you see a quarterback have that extensive of a college resume, it usually bodes well for her to be able to make the transition. So, yeah, the Falcons, it's weird because they invested all the money in the cousins. It took a lot of criticism from even drafting Michael Pennington. Even if he had to sit for two years, which was, I think, their original plan, that wouldn't have been a bad one, but now when you saw him yesterday, you say, okay, this guy is ready now to at least try to move forward. Hey, big matchup on Sunday night at Washington, but Pinnix gave you no hesitation in terms of his abilities on the football field.
Jarrett Bell of USA Today, final thought, and I'll let you get back to the last-minute Christmas shopping. If we can go back to Saturday, as you know, the Texans lost much more than the single game when they lost in Kansas City. Even though Houston has already clinched a division, how much differently do you view them now after that gruesome knee injury suffered by Tank Dell, knowing they already lost Stefan Diggs, so that's a bad receiving core? Yeah, yeah, and that's it.
That was the thing. You say teams sometimes get, you know, rashes of injuries at certain positions. I mean, they did, you know, so much to go get Stefan Diggs, and knowing you got Tank Dell, who was a major, major player for them. It's tough. You know, everybody's got situations. It seems like some teams do a better job at Kansas City, case in point, of overcoming their injuries. But, you know, yeah, I think Houston is going to be challenged from that standpoint. But I think they were going to be challenged anyway, just in this, you know, crowded field of AFC contenders when you start thinking about Baltimore and Buffalo and obviously Kansas City. So, yeah, we'll see what happens. But now is not the time for self-pity, so they're going to have to try to figure something out.
But, yeah, tough place for them. Jared, always a pleasure. Greatly appreciate not only your time but your insights. Merry Christmas, and I look forward to chatting with you in 2025.
Okay, Brian. Take care. Happy holidays.
You too. Jared Bell, USA Today, longtime football journalist, kind enough to call an audible, as he's out there doing last-minute Christmas shopping. I mentioned my late dad in passing. I think we all get nostalgic during the holidays. My father was renowned, slash infamous in our family, for not doing any Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve.
Now, as I've gotten older and a better understanding of the dynamics of my parents' marriage, I think a lot of that was by design. He had the day off. He just wanted to get out of the house, probably a break from me and my sister as well. But the old man would disappear, and a couple hours later come back with bags, and he would say Santa gave him help when I was a kid. But he got it all done, and finally, when I got to the age of buying presents for my parents, I said, are you nuts?
What are you doing this for? And he said, it helps me clarify. I don't stand there and ponder, oh, does my kid want gloves or a scarf? I grab what comes to mind, and in some ways, it's not a bad philosophy to have in life. As I get deep as the fill-in host, I think we all tend to overanalyze things, especially now with social media, and you can do all the comparative shopping. Now, I'm not justifying Dan Campbell's insanity like the outside kick that finally he had to apologize for and everything else, and I realize he's changed the entire culture in Detroit.
But listen to my father speaking from the big Macy's or Bloomingdale's in the sky. You can get it done. Pressure sometimes yields good decisions.
844-204-742 for the number to call. Coming up an hour from now, we will have college football analysis provided by Stewart Mandel of The Athletic, and that will set up what I'm going to do presently. I have more detailed thoughts and takeaways from what went down on campus, which was a massive upgrade to have those four first-round games, places like Austin, Notre Dame, especially on a Friday night, Happy Valley was rocking as well, and the Horseshoe, even though there were better than 30,000 volunteer fans wearing the burnt orange, they had nothing to cheer about because Ohio State absolutely crushed Tennessee. But was it a blunder for college football to have their playoff games go head-to-head with the NFL on Saturday?
Were there other ways they could have approached things? And we'll give you early thoughts on the quarterfinal matchups. To me, just following the money, the rematch of Ohio State, Oregon, clearly the most interesting. I'm Brian Weber, appreciating you spending part of your Monday on this holiday week with us. We continue right here on the Rich Eisen Show. This year, Santa's bringing the power of Energizer into his workshop. Whoa, the Energizer Bunny's got so much power. Wait, he's powered up all the toys. I think that means we're done for the year. I love this bunny. He's the hardest-working helper the North Pole has ever seen, and he wants all your gifts to have the power of the number-one longest-lasting AA battery.
So this holiday season, stock up on Santa's and the elves' favorite battery, Energizer Ultimate Lithium. This episode is brought to you by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. Catch every moment of your team's playoff push with NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. You'll get amazing features like multi-view, and right now, it's only $49 for the rest of the NFL regular season.
So give yourself the ultimate gift this holiday season. Get NFL Sunday Ticket for $49. Sign up now at youtube.com slash sundayticket. Device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV.
NFL Sunday Ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. I'm Brian Weber, always a delight to try my best to uphold the integrity of the brand that Rich Eisen has worked so hard to achieve. You can have at it on social media. My handle's B.W. Weber. Weber with two B's. Our thanks to Jared Bell of USA Today for the NFL analysis and confirmation from Adam Schefter within the last five minutes of what we were discussing, although if you watch the game between the Chiefs and the Texans, it was apparent on Saturday in real time that it was a significant injury for Houston wide receiver Tank Dell. Confirmation from Texans head coach, D'Amico Ryan. Tank tore his ACL.
Other substantial damage. He needs surgery. He's done for the rest of the season. 844-204-7424, the number to call.
The content gods must be smiling on me. I took a call in the first hour of the program. We're going to double up here in hour number two. Let's hit the phone lines. Here's Jeremiah in Alaska.
Hey Jeremiah, you're on with Brian Weber. Merry Christmas. What's up?
Merry Christmas, Brian. How are you doing today? I am doing well. What's on your mind? Well, I was watching the Lions-Bears game.
Now, please understand I'm a Raiders fan. I'm sorry to hear that, by the way. That's a challenging admission to make at this time of the year. It is.
It is. It is every year this time. For years with Derek Carr, we were great in September and October. And they're like, well, November is, you know, Thanksgiving.
We have holidays. Who wants to play football? But back to my point with the end of the Chiefs game with the Raiders, and there was the false start. But I mean, wait, it was an illegal procedure. Are you talking about the Black Friday game? Yes, that game where there was a kind of a muff snap, you know, and most times when that happens, it's called a false start by the center. I've seen many games where that's called. But in that game, it was weird and different because the clock was stopped, apparently.
So rewind to yesterday. I'm watching the Lions-Bears game. It's almost halftime. The Lions are driving down the field to get into field goal range. They call a timeout with one second left, and they line up for a field goal.
And the center must have snapped. He snaps it a little bit too early. They call to play dead, and they say false start by the center. And they move the ball back 10 yards. There's no 10-second runoff. Move the ball back 10 yards, and it can't hit from that far. Missed field goal going to halftime. But I'm just like, why didn't they call the illegal procedure? So, Jeremiah, is this a conspiracy thought that the league wanted to screw the Raiders or the league is in bed with the Chiefs or both?
All the above, yes. Okay, I get it. Well, thanks for the phone call.
And our skilled technical producer, Art Martinez, bleeds silver and black. So I'm going to tread lightly here. If I say anything too inflammatory, he's just going to pull the plug, and we'll have dead air for the rest of the week. I understand those of you who believe that the NFL, and I'm not going down the Taylor Swift road here, but those of you who think the NFL now is doing everything in its power to build up the Chiefs because they want them to make a run at a three-peat to have even more gargantuan ratings, I get what you're saying. I don't buy it, but I understand your thought process because you could have, and you did, say the exact same thing about the Patriots dynasty, and I think the better cop is Patrick Mahomes gets every single call that Tom Brady did.
Now, I have to read my resume again. Obviously, the content gods I keep referring to do not want my thoughts on college football, and it's a good thing because I've been ranting too much about this playoff in my one-bedroom apartment over the weekend. I covered the Oakland Raiders in the same portion of my career when I was giving you my stories about covering Ricky Henderson in the 90s in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I spent time next to Al Davis on the practice field, and he was kind to me because I played the New York card and told him I went to high school in the Bronx, and he reminded me about Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, et cetera, et cetera. I believe, Raider fans, going back to where do you want to start? The AFL-NFL war? Mr. Davis suing Pete Rozelle repeatedly? I understand every thought you have that the league has it out for the Raiders. I don't have a half hour to go through the tuck rule, thankfully.
It's not a podcast. So I understand what you're saying. I just don't buy it every time you bring it up, but I do think there is some substance when it comes to the old-school battle between 345 Park Avenue and the new Raiders. The problem for your new Raiders is this.
They don't know when to lose, and I understand organizations can tank. Players do not and coaches do not because they're auditioning for their next gig, and Mark Davis was ecstatic that they finally won a football game yesterday. If you actually watch that game, give me a call at 844-204-7424.
You deserve charity from the Salvation Army. If you sat through the entire game, unless you were wagering on it or had a relative playing in it, every time the red zone went back, I got up to get another beverage. But obviously, I'm not telling you anything you don't know, Raider fan, you had to lose that game because by winning, your odds to get your Doris Sanders or if you want to go Cam Ward, whoever you want with the number one overall pick in the draft, went down to the sixth spot. So right now, the Giants have the inside track. They solidified it by doing their job, losing again on the road in Atlanta. With the win in a meaningless game, the Raiders drop to currently owning the sixth overall pick, and this is not a great quarterback class.
And last time I checked, the Raiders desperately need a quarterback or two. Tom Brady is not walking out of the broadcast booth as much as I would like him to. And another sidebar, Brady was brutal this weekend. Did you catch that act on Saturday? My goodness, how many times did he say chunk plays in calling the game between the Steelers and the Ravens? You could say it was a short week.
Oh my goodness, he had one less day to come up with the cliches. But Tom, in my estimation, likes the notion of being on television, but does not want to make this his sole passion and drive. And he's got the out from the league because he can't show up at the facilities and go through the meetings that every other broadcaster, producer, and director does. I know he gets notes from Kevin Burkhart and the rest of the crew.
It's not the same as being there. You cannot tell me he can pull off being the lead announcer for Fox, a part owner for the Raiders. There's inherent conflict of interest there.
And the 27 other businesses, he's cramming down our throats on the Gram. The first time Tom Brady says something interesting, I will mark it down on social media because right now it is a blank canvas. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Isom. Speaking of painting, I painted myself into a corner, leaving only five minutes for college football thoughts. Probably better as I put together the rundown. Believe it or not, there is a road map here.
I don't just come in and start riffing like Dean Martin refusing to rehearse. Here are the takeaways if you did not watch the games. I'm looking for the college football ratings, maybe because it's a holiday week.
I've not seen them yet. Obviously, the NFL will control things head to head on Saturday. I'm guessing Notre Dame got a big number because it was standalone on Friday night. And after all, it's Notre Dame. And never forget, first and foremost, the college football playoff is a TV show.
So for all of you, we're back to conspiracy theories on a very special edition of the X-Files. All you people wondering how the field is sliced and diced, one factor that goes unspoken is they want to generate eyeballs because, here's the other thing that's not being discussed, and I don't blame ESPN for throwing it out there because they're going to have to bid for the rights. Next year is the last year of the current configuration with the 12-team playoff. You know what's going to happen in 2026? Going to at least 14, maybe 16, perhaps 18 teams.
And you know what that means? Even more blowouts than we saw. Now, I am aware because I have a brain and I watched the 14 playoff. I watched the BCS. We've had a ton of playoff blowouts in the history of college football. But it doesn't justify all of the obvious problems this system had from day one, like the fact that they don't reseed, like the fact that they give automatic buys to Arizona State and Boise State.
Now, I'm not burying either of those great stories. Earlier in the hour, I said if I had a Heisman vote, I would have given it to Ashton Jettey, who has a chance to set the new all-time single-season rushing record, breaking Barry Sanders' mark knowing he'll have a handful of additional games because they changed the rule. This is not an anti-little guy observation. It's just pointing out the facts. As we saw Friday and Saturday, home field advantage is hugely meaningful. Tennessee did not get destroyed by Ohio State because it was cold. The differential was Ohio State was incredibly motivated after being embarrassed on their home field, losing to a lackluster Michigan team for the fourth consecutive time. I don't think Ryan Day is going anywhere, but had he lost to Tennessee, I could understand the Fire Ryan Day conversation far more than I do.
Remember, his winning percentage is something I've seen like 8-12. The guy can beat everybody but Michigan, and that's the only game Ohio State fans care about. But since I watched all four games, I can't put a positive spin on things other than the atmosphere. The energy on campus was sensational. Fact, I'm not going to be the czar of college football, but if you care about my opinion, I'd play the quarterfinals on campus as well.
Not going to happen because we have to prop up the dying bowl industry as well. Did you see Steve Sarkeesian? Texas looked like the old Chiefs when they'd have a big lead and then blow it and have to hang on at the end. But Texas was absolutely annihilating Clemson.
They hang on for the victory. Postgame, Steve Sarkeesian is handed a trophy by the guy from the Peach Bowl in the lousy polyester jacket because we still have those dudes hanging around. And if you haven't looked, the quarterfinal between Texas and Arizona State, you guessed it, will be contested on January 1st at the Peach Bowl. But I'm not going to sit here and say SMU didn't belong because I didn't believe Alabama belonged. Head to head, SMU had a more convincing case. If we're going to reward the regular season and at least reaching a conference championship game. But don't be surprised in a match between the 6 seed Penn State and the 11 seed Mustangs in Happy Valley if you get the kind of beatdown then we got.
This was all fairly obvious coming in. Give me a sport that home field advantage means more in than college football. Because of the band, because of the students, and because of the elements in December.
But we have to deal with the facts as they currently are constituted. We got 4 games coming up on January 1st. Notre Dame-Georgia, excellent matchup especially based on the defensive strength of the Irish that we saw again. And Georgia, despite the question marks surrounding Carson Beck, unlikely to play loaded with first round picks on their way to the NFL once more. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen closing in on the final hour of the program. We've not spent a lot of time talking about the AFC in the NFL. We'll rectify that straight ahead. Appreciate the company on a Monday right here on the Rich Eisen Show. There's no substitute for hard work and getting over it. Buy World with Jeff Jarrett, wherever you listen.
