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I'm glad this game is over, you know, there's a lot of emotions. The Rich Eisen Show. Earlier on the show, three times Super Bowl Champion, Mark Schlereth. Coming up, sports radio legend, Chris Meddog Russo. NFL network host, Colleen Wolf. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Suzie Shuster. Hey everybody, Suzie Shuster back in the chair for Rich Eisen as he makes his way to Indy for the combine, which starts tomorrow on NFL network. It is for so many football nerds, the happiest day of the year. All those guys out there, Daniel Jeremiah and Rich will be sitting there, TJ, all day for five days.
It's going to be great. And just because he doesn't quite trust me in the chair, here's Rich Eisen zooming in from an airport with or without a Starbucks, Rich, I need to know. I already had one, Suzie.
Oh, but that's too close. What's going on? How are you doing? I trust you. Do you? I trust you. Yeah, I totally trust you. All right, just checking.
I totally trust you. Yeah, I landed. I'm here in O'Hare Airport. Gate H2 for those scoring at home.
Thank you. You know, I'm waiting for the plane. I board in 45 minutes, which means, as you know, 45 minutes from now, I'm ready to kneecap the elderly and members of the military to board first. You know me.
You guys, he has to be, as you know, first in line to get on. Why is that weird? It's not weird. It's not weird at all.
Why is that weird? Suz, the nuts don't get any warmer than they do when you're in 1A. You know what I mean? Oh, pal.
This is an air-length flight. There's no warm nuts. I've got the only warm nuts on the plane. See, that's for you, TJ. So this is how we start the second hour. The first hour, Rich, all these infinity sports people who are like, what is she doing there in the chair?
The first hour, they made a dirty comment about the tush push. Oh, Rich. No, no, no. Absolutely not. We did not. No, we did not. I may or may not have said that I've been doing some research on the tush push, and these dirty birds just got too excited. Rich, Rich. Good job, bro.
Delete your browser history. That's all we said. Wow.
Doing tush push. I'm just saying. How about these nuts? Anyway, so. Hey, Suz. Yeah. Number four. Oh, God.
Number four coming? Yeah. What are you, insane? All right, TJ. Back off. What are you, crazy?
What is this thing? Back off. This is the Roku Sports Channel, TJ. Damn straight. I'm here to talk sports and all these jamokes want to talk about it.
It's like, you know, stuff. I'm here to talk about Abdul Carter. How's it been going so far? I'm great.
Mark Schlerith was fantastic in the first hour. We have Mad Dog Uso coming up next. I call him Christopher. I don't go Mad Dog. I don't go nicknames. I don't call nicknames. I call first names. OK, but whatever. What do you sweet? Should we humble brag about your night last night?
I kind of mentioned that you were a basket for the LeBron dunk. I'm trying to get a tough time staying in frame here. What is going on? Do you guys keep moving me?
I mean, what is happening here? You're not doing that. Just just. Just don't move. I'm just trying to stay in frame.
We're going to get you. No, that's that's why I flew today because I went to the Lakers and Mavs last night. Fun, right?
It was great. I noticed, Luca, did you see Luca was doing push ups before the game? Yeah. With Nico Harrison on the floor, the GM of the Mavs, Luca got down and gave gave the Lakers 10 warm ups. I noticed that. And then and then he just was clearly locked in. I mean, he was staring at the bench throughout the first quarter.
And that was when they were on the defensive end. And right there, that shot right there was basically him all night long. And it was interesting that J.J. Redick didn't really play Luca and LeBron together for much of the game, except for the obviously the tip.
And then for the last eight minutes of the fourth quarter, they weren't on the floor at the same time very much last night. But you could see it meant a lot, obviously, to Luca, who I guess after the game said that he was glad that he was through all that. A couple of times when Luca went to the free throw line, there was some chance from the crypto faithful of thanking Nico.
There were some I've heard some of those when when Luca was shooting free throws and Anthony Davis, it was I don't know if that was that aired on the Turner broadcast or not, but they had a really nice thank you, A.D. video. And you could see he was he was very appreciative of that last night, too. The only other time he was on the floor is when I think Jared Vanderbilt started going at it with Kyrie and then Anthony.
There was a time out on the floor and Anthony Davis stepped up and told him to get back to the bench. That was a fun moment, too, last night. But other than that, you know, it was pretty neat towards the end of the game with the Mavs and Kyrie and and Clay pay it playing out of their heads. But in the end, it was it was definitely Luca's night for sure.
But it's funny you mentioned Clay because obviously his dad is there calling the games for the Lakers and in Clay Cooper said to me at one point, you know, Mom, Clay's at the end of his career and he doesn't have the hops anymore. And then suddenly he went off and started hitting buckets. And it was it was really fun to watch. But it was very much two different games, like the first half different so drastically from the second half. And what I actually got a kick at kick out of at the end was that jump ball, which looked like 11 year old girls playing basketball, like a total scrum at the end with that jump ball. And then basically it was a jump ball. And then LeBron got the ball and said, OK, this game's over.
And he basically shut the game down and was off the court before the game even ended. Oh, that one I didn't notice because I was already in my car. Oh, wow.
You know, it's the whole L.A. thing to do. My goodness. Actually, no.
No, I didn't leave early. I was just joking. I didn't notice that about LeBron. You know, but it was just it was it's just we still see Luca in a Laker jersey.
I know we were talking about that with Jeebus yesterday on yesterday's show. It's just it's I still can't believe it. It's just weird. It's just wild seeing him and LeBron, you know, with their uniform numbers that add up to one hundred, you know, in in in a Laker uniform. I still don't get it.
I still don't understand it. I still can't remember how he was on this team. And, you know, I'm out there watching this game and I'm wondering how much appreciably better is this team than the Mavericks team that we took to the finals last year.
And I don't know if it's it's definitely not worse. You know, I mean, last year's team, as we know, ran out of steam against your Brockman Celtics. And, you know, whoever comes out of the West may suffer the same fate this year. But I'm sitting there watching and, you know, the number of times Kyrie just went right around Luca and went to the hoop.
I lost track. And that is obviously going to be the question is is who is going to play rim protect if the perimeter defense breaks down as it did last night. And but that said, you know, Luca and Kyrie went to finals last year. Why can't Luca and LeBron and Austin Reeves and Rui Hachimura and the rest of this team do that? They damn well could, obviously, since they just broke up the nine game winning streak of the Nuggets over the weekend and won their first game in Denver in three years. There's there's no reason why they can't win the West is I'm just sitting there as I'm just remarking. Can't believe Luca is on this team and how how he took a Mavericks team or was part of a man which seemed last year that won the Western Conference finals that this Lakers team, I think, clearly counts.
Yep. And still the Mavs out so many players. They have they were so shorthanded last night. And you think as tight as the game was and the Lakers were up by 16, I think, in the first half and then they pulled within one or two at the half and then went ahead to win. But you have to think with with Anthony Davis coming back with so many other players coming back. Kyrie had thirty five last night.
He played lights out. You have to wonder whether or not. Yeah. I mean and then you look at this guy with so much talent as has he final finally settled down and is he becoming the player that he should be with all of his talent because his ball handling skills are so spectacular left right all over the place. I don't know.
I mean, it'll it'll be fascinating to see whether or not Luca was enough to bring this home for the Lakers. I don't know. Are you transitioning? I could see you're transitioning to a little subject. Well, I was going to do another subject.
I could tell. Well, if you really want me to, what I'll do is I'll put on my glasses and then I'll. Oh, that's part of the transitioning. There you go. What's next? Moving on. What's next? Moving on. Yeah. To the combine that takes center stage in the National Football League and a Penn State defensive end who thinks he should be number one.
Roll sound. It's very important for me. You know, it's one of the goals I made before the season. Something to always talk about is what I work for and I feel like I'm getting close to that. Just got to keep working, keep putting the effort in and I'll accomplish my dream. How realistic do you feel like it is to go number one this year?
I feel like it's very realistic and I feel like I'm the best player in the country and the best players to be selected number one. I hear you, Abdul Carter. I hear you. What do you make of that? I love it.
I love it. Again, it just comes down to how the Titans evaluate your lettuce and the order maps available on the drive. That's it. That's what it comes down to because if they're not completely sold on these quarterbacks in the draft and feel Will Levis is the guy that they can go into year two with, um, you know, then they can 100% just take out to Carter, rip the knob off and, and hope he turns into the next miles. Garrett or Micah Parsons, number 11, um, you know, the uniform number of Micah from the same, uh, institution of higher learning, you know? So, uh, that's, that's the question.
And he, he clearly is all that. He jumped off the screen every single time Penn state played, you knew exactly what he was and if you didn't, you just had to wait two seconds after the snap and you notice where he was, which was usually in the lap of the, of the quarterback or right in the backfield of the opponent. So, you know, listen, um, it's, it's really comes down to who is the best quarterback for the Tennessee Titans? Is he in the draft? Is he already on their sideline or can they go ahead in the next two weeks and make this decision obvious by snagging somebody from free agency?
And that's all part of the piece of the puzzle that we'll be talking about over. Um, you know, the first day of our combine coverage, which is the front second. And, uh, you know, obviously I'd be probably not going to be out there working out, but the question is do the Titans feel they have their quarterback right now? Um, and if they don't, do they go get him the second week of March?
And if they don't, what do they do or top this draft? And that, that has nothing to do with Abdul Carter's abilities. He clearly is the best, um, pass rusher available in this year's draft. Um, you may not be the best defensive player, you know, that could be Travis Hunter, um, who I assume we'll be hearing from tomorrow, uh, with the defensive bats out there, their say, uh, at the podium, but it doesn't surprise me to hear Abdul Carter say that.
And it's not, um, him being boastful. He, he is worthy of the number one overall pick. That's for sure. Yeah. And the Titans have said that they know that he can play both ways.
And so the question will be, if you're taking the best player out there, how do you pass over Hunter? I mean, I think that's, that's my question. Yeah, no, we have no idea.
Um, you know, it's interesting. I think, uh, Chris, you said before the end of the show yesterday, did Andrew Berry come out and say that they thought that the, um, that, uh, Travis Hunter was a wide receiver first. Yeah. Is he the one who said that? Yeah. Andrew Berry said they're viewing him as a wide receiver first, which is the first person to say that to do that. Right.
And, uh, you know, and again, I, I, I find that fascinating that he would say something like that and, um, and it's believable. And uh, the more I think about it is how do you not take somebody who is as unique as him? That said somebody like him who takes half of the field away defensively and lights up a scoreboard offensively. Is that better than going ahead and taking your future quarterback? Is that better if you're Tennessee, then the best pass rusher in the draft completely different from last year's draft. When we knew the first three players were going to be quarterbacks and wondering if it was maybe the first four players who are going to be pulled to backs as well.
Um, it's a totally different year, completely different where free agency plays a massive role in how the draft plays out in late April. That's two weeks away. Um, so good thing we got to come by and keep this occupied. Yeah. Speaking of the Browns, Rich, our buddy, Andrew Soiano, Brown's radio voice, uh, tweeted out a few minutes ago that the Browns have met with both Shador Sanders and Cam Moore this morning. So it makes sense.
It makes total sense. I mean, they're going to meet with all of them, but the, the key thing with them is what's happening with, uh, the miles guy. And, uh, what happens when, when miles gets impatient, um, with the, the, we, we don't have any plans.
We don't intend right now, all the, all the conditional Swayze and you wheel from Andrew Barry when it comes to their plans to trade or not trade. What happens when miles Garrett gets answer? Uh, does he, does he make more of an interview round?
Does he become a little bit more vocal? All I know is in the short term last night, miles go, it was not the Lakers athletes game in Los Angeles. He was in fact there. I did not see him, but, uh, I know he was there and um, although he was up in a suite, he wasn't down on, uh, you know, last night's a celebrity row is a little light. I'll be honest with you. I'm surprised. I know.
I thought it would be, it would be pretty heavy. I saw, I saw Jack's kids. I saw Cuban. Um, nobody else, just the usual suspects, you know?
Yeah. I saw Lou Adler in his seats. Lou Adler was there. The usual suspects, uh, the guy you call, if you get into an accident was there. Jacob and you know, he was there from Los Angeles. Um, also, um, Kareem was there. Oh, I did see him. I'm kind of burying the lead.
They, the top two scores in history, the NBA were in the building last night. Um, what else can I tell you about? Oh yeah. Uh, Luke, Luca wasn't the only one, um, dropping dimes.
Uh, Kurt Ramis, his kid had a dime right next to him. Um, and uh, you know, uh, what else? Um, yeah. Um, yeah. So Luca had a triple double. Um, LeBron had a double double and Kurt's kid had just said a double. Um, and Kevin, I know you're name dropping, but Kevin Stefanski just spoke about mouse Garrett. Let's just listen to the sound. Oh, okay. I think the world of miles, uh, you know, I understand the business of football and I understand these things happen from time to time, but, uh, I expect miles on our team this year, next year, the year after that and so on. Uh, he's part of the present. He's a part of the future. Oh my goodness.
Oh my, do you have a J Felley? Can you give me what were they really thinking? Can you give me that? Wow. I always love doing that when it comes to a coach. Don't mean a really good.
Could you write on it? Okay. Here's what he's really thinking.
Kevin, Kevin Stefanski, two time coach of the year. This is what he was really thinking. You really think I want miles Garrett trading? Do you also think I have any control over the situation? Of course I have no control over the situation. This is just me using this microphone and using you folks in the media to let miles know I love them. I don't want them going anywhere.
And this is me telling Andrew Berry, I don't want him going anywhere. Fix this thing. Can you fix this thing?
Can you fix this thing with my guy, our guy? Of course not. I don't want him going anywhere, but unfortunately I can't control any of this stuff that I really want to Sean Watson's Achilles to bust and said, I want him to be a bust almost pretty much before all that.
Of course I didn't. I'm a tea time coach in the year. I know what I'm doing here. I need a pass rush.
I'm to win and I want to win. I have no control over it. So next question. That's what it was. Yeah, but there's nothing worse than an unhappy player with, and you know that.
So I know that I know that, but what are they going to do? They listen, the guy's 29 years old. He's at the top of his game. He's got three or four years maybe at the top of his game left potentially.
He probably knows his body better than anyone else. He also went to the pro bowl and he was hanging out with everybody who's just coming off of great playoff seasons. He also got a taste of it last year. He sold what was going on with Joe Flacco two years ago and even that went bust. Um, so, and he knows that this coming year, the Sean is out, who's going to be coming in and who's going to be drafted and are they rebuilding again?
And whatever answers he got at the end of the season, certainly weren't enough for them. Uh, so the Browns are in a complete rock and a hard place and that is exactly what's informing what's going to be done at the number two overall selection. Um, so again, this year's draft last year's draft was rookie quarterbacks. We knew a ton were going to be taken.
The only question was how many to start the draft. And then we knew Marvin Harrison jr was available with Malik neighbors. You knew there were a top flight wide receiver and a quarterback faces of franchises, future faces of franchises galore this year. You're wondering if the top quarterbacks would even crack the top 10 from last year's draft. The top wide receivers are, are, are not, um, in the neighborhood of Malik neighbors and, um, and Marvin Harrison jr and free agency plays a massive role in what somebody is going to do first overall, second overall, potentially third overall with the giants jump in and decide that, uh, they're going to go with a free agent. Um, and then which free agent is going to sign and wind up being, uh, this year's Kirk cousins finding out on draft night that a look is coming anyway.
I think that's the setup to the combine coverage and the draft with guards. All right, rich, they're boarding your flight. You got to go.
No, they're not actually. I gotta be honest with you. I gotta be honest with you.
So this is going to be, this person to say he's already, he's already got it. And I gotta be honest with you, honey. I'm going to dump you for Chris Russo right now because he's up next and I got to get to commercial. So, uh, love you and leave you safe flight, honey. Say buddy.
Wow. It's rough, but someone's got to steer this ship. I mean, I got Chris Russo waiting for me.
I gotta be on time for him. In the NFL. There's no margin for error.
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That's OReillyAuto.com slash Eisen. This is a little early. I don't do lunch martinis. You're pouring a martini now into the martini shaker. I poured just a little martini.
It looked like there may have been some icing. You won't complain. Don't send the drink back. The olives are already in the glasses. Don't bruise it. Don't bruise it. Some people at home, what about stirring?
There's a great bar called the Edmond over on Melrose. They like to stir. I like that. I like to shake a little bit. So are you more like Bond, shaken, not stirred? I prefer actually bruising the vodka, making it ice cold.
You know what I'm saying? Sure. These are vermouth washed glasses. We have a little vermouth in there earlier. Okay.
And then. Worn it out. I'll take that one. This is my friend Rich Eisen. Are we toasting? I just want to toast seeing you again. You want to toast the Espen, correct? We're toasting to ESPN's 40th anniversary. There's a big event going on this weekend.
My invitation is probably where yours is right now. So we just figured why not just do it ourselves? What a nice thought. You know what I mean? I haven't seen you in a very long time.
My arm's getting sore. I like to toast. I haven't seen you in a long time, Craig, and I've been cultivating this caper to try and get you to come on this show. What if I only do your show? I'd love to just do that because you're smooth and natural that I compliment you. I like Rich. I like Rich. Let me just see what this is.
The ice was sitting there. Cheers to you. Nice to finally meet you.
Cheers. It's watered down. Don't say anything.
It's watered down, but let's pretend it's not. This is what I say at a bar or restaurant, the big four up in San Francisco and Knob Hill. I take a sip. I go like this. I go. This is the greatest moment of my life. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network.
I am Suzy Shuster sitting in for Rich Eisen here on the Roku Sports Channel. The joke about the martini with Craig Kilborn is Rich doesn't drink martinis. I think he probably took a sip of that and spit it out. Like, anathema.
No doubt. Hates hates a martini. He always says to me, like, why would you want to drink that? It tastes like straight alcohol.
And I'm like, it absolutely does. But I was going to say I like mine dirty, but then you guys are in such moods today. I was afraid that you might get a little cray.
Don't put that on me. A little olive juice. Blue cheese, olive.
Delicious. You a martini drinker? Absolutely not. You don't drink much at all. I don't really. TJ, do you? Are you a cocktail guy? I'm not. Just some of most of Fridays. That's about it. Are we going to do Margarita Thursday, though? I don't know. I actually would enjoy that.
Our lime tree is in Fuego, as Dan would say, so I can bring in fresh limes. We can make this happen tomorrow because Rich is going to be on the air. He doesn't know what we're doing. True.
And Roku Sports Channel is stuck with me. So I think there's no reason not to do it. I mean, I just think, I mean, I'm not a margarita drinker, but I'll take some limes.
That is the saddest thing I've ever heard. I want a margarita tomorrow. I don't drink like that, but I will take limes. Like I said, OK, I think in honor of Marshall Faulk's birthday, we're definitely having margaritas tomorrow. We should 100 percent do a blender. Do we have a blender in the back or can you bring one?
Oh, that's so lame. That's like a very girly drink. I like a straight margarita. Not blended.
Not blended. Oh, that's like for a vacation. If we were with Marshall on vacation, thanks for the invite. Then we'd have a blended, which is a Mai Tai drinker. Marshall should pour under right now somewhere. By the way, he's had four margaritas somewhere is what he's doing.
I think we should definitely have a margarita Thursday. If I make you a really good one and I don't add sugar, I don't put any of that sweet stuff in. But I do squeeze. It's a Kara Henderson's need move. Oh, yes. It's an entire line. Yeah.
It's very strong. You know, the sugar and the sweet stuff all you did was really made me not want to have one. I like sugar and sweet stuff.
OK, so I will bring the agave syrup that I have. Yes. And you know what I mean? You're a big comedy guy.
Yes. And we need we need the yes. And some of these segments, man, you're bringing us down. How am I bringing? Because I'm sitting here telling you, I don't want to drink.
I'm bringing you down. Yeah. Just say yes. Just say yes.
And you just do the L.A. thing where we're doing it for show. And then afterwards, it was the first one who brought up drinking mimosas. You said you didn't want to drink. I said I don't want to drink.
He drinks mimosas. Pay attention. Just say yes. No.
Keep it moving. I'm not going to say yes. I'll drink both. By the way, are you here the next two days? I'm not here tomorrow, but I'm here Friday. OK, most of Fridays, Jay. I mean, God, God forbid, Del Tufo's here for more than a day in a row. And I'm saying that, you know, I always protect him.
But you need to stop doing that. But Feli's my guy on women's sports now on the sports channel. I'm just saying he's going to be sitting in there dealing with this.
It's going to be a lot. Del Tufo is a new ally in O'Shea. So I don't know if you want to be aligned with that anymore. Oh, really? That's they're like an axis of evil.
O'Shea and Del Tufo? Yeah. You don't want them as teammates.
Not when it comes to L.A. sports. No. All right. Fine.
Not good for us. We are efforting Chris Russo, in case you're wondering why we're tap dancing over here. We're trying to get his audio worked out.
Audio issues. I wanted to ask him about the facial hair issue with the Yankees, because, you know, after all these years, George Steinbrenner refused to have even a speck of hair on a face. And now apparently the Yankees are seeing you face what you want to be, who you want to be. Well, well, well groomed, right? Well, groomed, well groomed. George Steinbrenner somewhere is I mean.
He is furious looking up or down, depending on who you are. Can you imagine? There were so many guys.
I remember there were so many guys who did not want to go play for the Yankees because they were not going to lose their beards. I understand. So I will have to ask Christopher about that. I wouldn't. You wouldn't?
By the way, how much would it take? In free Jason Giambi was kind of the biggest one, right? He had that bad boy image look on Oakland and then and then signs with signs with them for, you know, hundreds of million dollars. And he finally got rid of it.
But I don't know. Oh, I got Giambi stories for days. Christopher, I got to ask you, how do you feel about this new facial hair situation with the Yankees? Well, whatever whatever is going to make them a little better. Devin Williams. And good to have be on again, guys. Good. Devin Williams, of course, says he would not have signed if they didn't fix that, you know, make that change. I don't have a major problem with it.
Obviously, that's a George thing from a long time ago. It's a lot to do about nothing. Join the Times.
How low a Soto? We can't lose any more players based on a freaking mustache or a colored hair. So from that standpoint, probably the right move for the Yankees to join the 21st century. No kidding.
Let me ask you this, Christopher, and thanks again for for joining us, because, you know, I love having you on whenever I'm in the chair. We get a Yankees fan here. We got a Red Sox fan here and a Mets fan here.
Who's going to have the best year of all? Well, I mean, the best year, you know, took my regular season or if you're going along, the problem the Mets have is that they are in a league where the Dodgers are playing. And so the NL is so much harder than the American League with the Dodgers, the Phillies, the Braves, San Diego, Arizona is pretty good. While in the American League, there's not nearly as many good teams. Houston is not going to be as good.
Seattle didn't add anybody. AL Central is bad. So the Yankees, from a standpoint of a path to the World Series, they have the easiest path. But who wants to root for the Yankees?
So I will say the Red Sox. They get Bregman. He's going to help their offense.
They got crochet. He's a big left handed starter. He give their starting rotation. You know, he anchored that rotation.
Maybe Bueller has returned to form. Giolito will come back. I mean, I think the Red Sox, you know, story will stay healthy. I think they would be the funnest team to follow the team with the least amount of expectations in a shaky league. So from all that, when you consider that going to win the World Series and the Mets could, Yankees could. But from a standpoint of having a fun season, I think the Red Sox would be the team I'd root for. Oh, Chris, he already says you're not going to win a World Series. How do you feel over there? Oh, we have a better chance than the other two easily.
Come on, Chris. We had the sneakiest best off season in Major League Baseball. Got the top left handed pitcher via trade. We bring in the clubhouse guy, a known winner like Alex Bregman. And we have the three of the top 10 young prospects that could be called up at any time. Figure out the Devers mess at third base.
Shouldn't be an issue, but maybe work out, get his feelings, let his feelings not be hurt anymore. And then let's move on. A lot of offense in that and in Boston this year. And we know this guy's performing the playoffs. Judge can't play in the postseason.
That's fair. He hasn't, but he's not been great. And they're going to miss Soto in those kind of games. But the American League is so bad.
I mean, think about it. I mean, the American League Central never beats the Yankees. Houston is a shell of what they used to be.
They lost Tucker, they lost Bregman. So that's not going to be the same team. Nobody thinks the Angels, Seattle, Oakland, Sacramento.
So I mean, I don't know where you're going for another good team. Tampa's playing 47 of their first 69 games at Steinbrenner Field. The Orioles did absolutely nothing and lost Corbin Burns in their right fielder.
There's just not a lot of teams in the American League. So that, as you said, that will help the Red Sox, their rotation with crochet. Bregman will help their offense. We'll see how this whole thing with Devers works out at third base because they seem like they got a very good young prospect at second. So the ideal thing would put Devers as a DH, Bregman at third, and then a young kid at second base. I don't know if they want to do that to Devers, sort of put him as a DH this soon in his career. But the Red Sox have a chance to be pretty good. Now, I don't know if they're going to win a World Series, but they got a chance to be pretty good. No question.
They're already printing a Dodgers World Series championship banner out here. Christopher, NFLPA team report card, Jets the only team to get an F in ownership. Your thoughts on that? There probably should be a couple of others, an F in ownership. You know, is Jerry Jones doing anything that significant? I mean, geez. You know, I love Arthur Blank, but you know, he didn't hire Belichick, bought Raheem Morrison here. That's not, that's not the answer.
I don't know. I mean, I think there's probably more than one, but Woody Johnson has been the owner of this team off and on. The Johnson family did go the four years at the ambassador of Great Britain, but for the most part, they got the longest playoff drought. This is a bad team. They don't have, I think they got a good coach, but who knows about the GM? Probably not a great team. They don't have a quarterback. He's run a lot of people off his decision to fire Salah after five games was not the right one as it turned out.
Yeah, I have no problem with that. He's got to be considered the worst owner in football. I'd have to think of this, probably a couple of more. I hate to put Atlanta in that spot, but you know, they haven't done anything in a long time. The Saints ownership situation isn't great.
You'd have to consider that. I mean, they, they spent all that money on car. They, you know, Dennis Allen, they haven't, you know, you'd be, and let's be honest, Jerry Jones, now they've been competitive and they've had some good years, but you know, that team is, you know, their coaching situation is always spotty.
Brian Schottenheimer, really? You know, they had some chances to make a run at Bella check in and get them. I'd be a little worried about the Cowboys too.
They're not as desperate as the jets are, but the Cowboys aren't great. At least they're being selectively aggressive. I mean, what the hell does that even mean? That's a good point.
Who the hell knows? I mean, last year, you know, they let, again, everybody screamed and yelled about Derek Henry. I like what Parson said in his podcast. Even if they had Derek Henry, they probably still wouldn't have won.
And he's right. But yeah, they got some problems. That's not a good team. They're not a great, not a great defensive team. They got some good defensive players, but they're not a great defensive team even in the post season are not great. And you know, Prescott's pretty good.
He's not great. They only got the one receiver. They don't really have a running back.
Zach Martin quits. They got problems Dallas, and I don't like to coach. So if you put all of that together, Dallas is a mess too. You know, the Giants coaching situation isn't great right now either. I mean, I know they won four Super Bowls, so you can't put John Mara in the Woody Johnson phrase, but I mean, he hired Pat Shermer. He hired Joe Judge. Dables had two bad years after the opening good one.
He's had some GMs. The Giants, no quarterback. The Giants aren't exactly thriving. So I put the Giants, Susie, in that category.
Not as bad as Woody, but I put him in that category too. Yeah. And you got to wonder what they're going to think they're going to do at the draft too, because I mean, they need so much help in so many places. It would make sense to try to get Abdul Carter no matter what, because they need to fill.
They have so many holes to plug. Well, they got to get a quarterback. I mean, it sounds like they want to take the Penn State kid. Maybe they will take him with that third pick, but they have to get a quarterback. There's not a quarterback there on campus that they can rely on. I don't think they're getting, I don't know if they love Sanders and or Cam Ward.
Stafford's $50 million. Of course, you got to make a trade with the Rams to get them. They're not bringing Rogers in.
Donald's not coming back to New York. I guess they could try Kirk Cousins, but you know, I don't know if they really are in love with that either. A mess with the Giants at the game's most important position. You're 100% on the Jets too. Both of them.
You're 100% right. I'm watching the clock for you. So let me ask you quickly before we lose you. Tush push, pro or against? Oh, I'm against it.
Um, and I think the competition committee is against it too, but I want to make sure before they bring it to the owners, they have the 24 votes. It's a non-athletic play. It's a rugby play. It's not an execution play.
They can't tell me in the Ford dealership in Canton, Ohio, in 1920, they envisioned this kind of play where you push people behind a lot of scrimmage to get a first down. Um, I don't like it at all. It's nothing against the Eagles.
They've perfected it, but Washington made a joke of it in the championship game, jumping off sides all those times trying to time it, time they hit right. I don't like the play. I really don't. I like to see him get rid of it.
I know Goodell, I've heard doesn't like it either. We'll have to wait and see. They got to get the votes. You got to get 24 votes and obviously Philadelphia is going to vote for it. So, you know, you got to get, um, out of the 31 votes, you're going to get 24 owners to go along with it.
We shall see. But I hate the play. Susie, I hate the play.
Last question. In all of sports, what would you ban? Like it could be a play in anything. I don't care if it's hockey. I don't care if it's baseball. You're now the commissioner of all sports.
Christopher Russo. What do you ban in each individual sport? Just one.
You give me one. Every sport you get to pick one. So one thing fantasy. I hate the fantasy angle. Players rooting for people, rooting for players instead of rooting for teams. The fans, the fans who bet money getting annoyed that they're running back. They selected that week, didn't get his 46 yards rushing and he got 43. And so he texts him after the game.
He puts on his Instagram. He kills the player. I think the fantasy and that's not where I grew up from as far as following sports. You know, that's not, you know, I, it's always about the team instead of the player. I hate the fantasy and I'd also in every sport I'd shorten a regular season. I think it's the second thing I would consider that the NBA regular season is unbelievably way too long.
So is the NHL football. They're going to add more games. I like to take them less. 16 is perfect. We don't need 18. We're going to have that down the road. And baseball has got 162 games. I think we can live with 154. So I think, and the seasons just never end.
So I think that lengthening the length of each regular season is too long and I don't like the fantasy. Those two things, Suze. I just wish you had an opinion. I just wish you'd come on here and say something. Chris, thank you as always for your time. Love that you always say yes when I ask you to come on. I appreciate it greatly. You got it. Keep it up. Appreciate you guys have me.
Have a great day. Uh, you know, I, I'm not, I kind of like what he had to say. I don't get fantasy. I don't play it. I don't understand it. Last night, Xander was setting his fantasy for basketball. This kid is not a basketball guy, but he's doing it anyway because he wants to beat his brother. I don't think it's great.
I'd rather root for a team, not for like money or numbers or what have you. You were in the mind. You're going to, you're losing this in this room.
Also mad dogs, a gambler. What does he mean? He doesn't get it.
He gets it. So I do understand like you're taking away your love of a city, your love of a team, because now you're like looking at a bunch of people are not even watching the game. They're just looking at numbers now.
Who's love kids today. You have three of them that you won't rank. Uh, they can root for players, not teams. That's just the way it goes. Why would I be stupid enough to sit here on national television, international YouTube, infinity sports and rank my kids.
I'm not, I mean, give the other two some motivation to get up to the top spot. Okay. Maybe clean your room. Maybe do some dishes every night. Every night. Cooper says, I know you love her the most mom.
Every night. You let her get away with it, mom. It's called a girl.
It's a girl. I like to have my girl with me. I have three kids. I refuse to rank. I never will.
I will rank you guys. You just told us he was number one. No, Cooper says I do. You just said it. It's because she's a girl. I didn't say I ranked her number one.
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And it does without me lifting a finger so I can get in more squats anywhere I can. 123 Will that be cash or credit credit for Galaxy S 25 Ultra, the AI companion that does the heavy lifting so you can do you get yours at samsung.com. Compatible select apps requires Google Gemini account results may vary based on input check responses for accuracy. I believe you are a fantasy football player. Is that a true story?
Jodie Foster. I am. I did not play last year because of the present administration was, you know, I had to be on the top of that and you can't get all those alerts all at once.
So just too much for me. Too many badges on your phone. Yes.
Alerts on your phone. I had to choose. I don't know.
I think next year. I think this year I'm gonna choose fantasy for sure. Well, I mean, it's an escape though, right? I mean, when you say I would not call it a mistake, an escape. I would call it a, a, you know, a hyper focused art form. Interesting. Yeah. Fantasy football is a hyper focused. If you're gonna do it, you want to win.
Okay. Have you, have you been so fortunate to win a fantasy league? Who are you in a fantasy league with? A bunch of 16 year olds randomly. Yeah. And I, and I have to say I do enjoy, none of them will trash talk with me because you know, you can do that thing where you sort of type in like you're going down or nobody will do that. They're just very polite.
16 year olds being polite in a fantasy. Now that, so what's your team name? What was your fantasy team name? I can't tell you. I'd have to kill you if I told you.
And plus I don't even remember. Okay. Cause I would love to know, I mean, cause that's most of the fun that we thought. Is it? That's most of the fun?
It kind of is. Okay. Yeah. So, but you finished in second. I did come in second. Do you recall who was on your, on your team? Well, I, I got seriously burned by Todd Gurley. It was his first, you know, season with the round.
So he, he just, he disappointed me pretty severely. That was a bad year to be holding Todd Gurley the entire time. Do you have a real football team that you love? Yes.
I love the Green Bay Packers. How'd that come about? Jody? Somebody gave me a cheese head and it was all over. That's it? Yeah.
That's all it took. Who was it? Was it De Niro? Did he ever give you a cheese head? Who gave you the cheese head?
I have a friend of mine who has like an in with them. So it was not just a cheese head, but it was a cheese head everything. So there was like a cheese mug and there was a cheese ring and then it was a cheese headband. Okay. So you got into that.
That cheese like dog, dog outfits. Have you ever been to Lambeau Field? Have you ever been there? I never have. It's unbelievable.
That's what I've heard. Cause it's, you're just in there. It's a Midwest town and you're driving down a road and there's a gas station.
There's a Kmart. There is the, there is the, there is the cathedral of football where Lombardi used to play. I can dream. I can dream. If I do well, you know, if I do pretty well in fantasy, maybe I'll head out there.
Maybe you can, you can do such a thing. I had, you know, I've decided I discovered Devante Adams. So, cause I had him the whole year. So he's my, my guy.
I call him my man Devante. Does he know that? He doesn't know that.
Maybe he'll know it now. Okay. And you know, the draft of course, being in Green Bay this year, Jodie Foster, if you want to go, I'm sure that the people at Roku Sports Channel will be delighted to fly her out there to go sit on the show with Rich a couple of times. That was one of my favorite shows that we've ever done. With Jodie Foster? I love Jodie Foster. Yeah, my man loves Jodie Foster. What's your favorite Jodie Foster movie? Silence of the Lambs. Oh yeah, it's so good. You know what's really good? And it's a baseball movie.
It's a love story. Oh yeah. The, the Billy. Stealing Home. Stealing Home. Yeah.
We've got the bat signed by her and Mark Harmon. Oh, I love that movie. I've never seen that. That, that, you've never seen it. It is beautiful.
I don't think that should surprise people. It's about baseball. It's about baseball. Christopher Baseball. I mean, I love baseball. It's got Mark Harmon. Just saying.
Yours is 88. Yeah. All right. It's a great movie. I think anybody should go see it. It's one of my very favorite and Jodie Foster. Oh my goodness.
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That is incredible. Cooper would be so bummed though. He'd want to go check out every single car in the lot.
He's a big fan, but you guys know that. 844-204, Rich is the number to call. You know when I sit in the chair for Rich Eisen. I'm Susie Schuster sitting in for my husband, Rich. I will take those calls because I love talking to callers. So Ben in Austin, Texas, let's talk Mavs and Lakers. How are you Ben?
Hey Susie, how you doing? Thanks for calling in. I appreciate it. What do you think?
Good, thanks. Well, I feel like I could use some of Marshall Faulk's tequila right now because I'm a little bummed out. Yeah, I'm sorry.
So allow me to pontificate a bit. Last night was really the final slap in the face for me as a Mavs fan, right? Like seeing Luca playing his former teammates, putting up the standard ho-hum triple-double and getting hugs from the entire Dallas roster after closing out the game is simply more than I can take. It still absolutely shocks me that a single decision by a GM, one who had made incredible moves up to that point no less, was enough for me to walk away from a team that I've absolutely loved since the 80s. But it's clear to me that the new Understood group simply doesn't care about the fan base or the legacy of the franchise. And sure, Dallas sports teams have seen it all and experienced it all over the years, but somehow this trumps everything else in my lifetime. And unlike TJ and his Cowboys, I know when to walk away from a toxic relationship. Right. So this is it for me. I think it was a great run, but I'm just so disappointed. And last night really, really drove that home. I have two questions for you, Ben. So as Cuban sitting there watching and we know that this is a new ownership, I mean, do you really believe so?
OK, I guess I'm going to back up. Yeah. Cubans watching has got billions of dollars from the sale, right? But he loved this team. So for like I look at you, who wants your team to win. And by the way, they made it to the finals last year and they could go again because ADs hurt and he has hurt a lot. And you guys are missing so many players. But Kyrie put on a clinic last night. It hurts to lose the best player, arguably one of the top players in the game, clearly. But do you think it's all over?
No, I don't think it's all over for the Mavs, you know, and props to to all the players and coaches and staff over the years that got us to where we were with Dirk and where we were last year, back in the finals. Super exciting. I really love the makeup of this team, especially when healthy. Obviously, that's a problem. And even a bigger problem now now with Anthony Davis, though, when he is healthy, man, do I love his game.
And I like Max Christie, too. You know, the move on paper isn't insane. I have significant problems with what we got back in total. And it just it feels like the way that it was handled. There's just something else going on here. And I really, really don't like the way that Luca has been treated on the way out the door. It seems to be like just so different than the way that we've looked at things in the past. I mean, you go to the quote on Dirk's statue, right? And like thinking about how important legacy and commitment is to or was to this franchise. And it just seems we're in a much different place with this new ownership group. Yeah, I would if I could send you a bottle of tequila through this microphone, I really would.
And I would say put an extra lime in. I feel your pain. It is crazy. And thanks again for your time. And I hope that you'll call back in more often. It is crazy to me that this caper came off, Chris.
And, you know, we're going to go to break in a second. But with Jeannie here yesterday talking about how this she knew about two weeks ago that this is happening, it's just we'll talk about a lot more in the third hour because it just feels it feels incredibly sneaky. And I'd love to know what the heck happened. Be a fly on the wall. Much more ahead on the Rich Eisen show.
I'd love to know what happened. I mean, the athletic if she knew two weeks ago. Right. Right. Why would the new ownership say, let's take the most marketable player arguably in the league besides LeBron and take away all those jerseys and sweatshirts and swag? Why?
What's the upside? Sounds very petty. You know, we're hearing stuff about wanting to move the team or build casinos and not having the right to build casinos and then getting upset because, I mean, you know, there's a lot of, you know, power struggles, you know, hearing that from sources, you know, like Luca and Nico not getting along and one guy not maybe working well with others.
There's so many things and all of it kind of seems to make sense. And you hear about players being maybe tired of Luca not being in great shape or complaining about, you know, the refs or any. And by the way, he looks for a call by breathing. I mean, watching him last night.
He does that every five seconds. Yeah, none of the greats. Tim Duncan, Kobe never committed a foul.
They always get fouled and they've never committed a foul. I mean, the athletic has a story this morning about, you know, all the things that of course the Maverick Slander, you know, leaking to try to make it seem like it's all his fault with the lack of professionalism and his weight and the hookah and the beer. Like the dude, the dude's European.
What do you think you're different? By the way, Shaq loves a hookah. But the guy's been a professional since he was a teenager.
Fourteen years old. Like what do you think this guy? I just it's the dumbest trade baby in sports history. And Susie, like Chris knows I have a friend who has some knowledge of what goes on with the Mavs. And like Chris, four years ago, he came in here and he was telling us that like, yeah, they really had to have a talk with him about like his overall attitude with the calls and his weight.
But you know what? When you're like Jimmy Johnson said, right? Certain things that happens, you treat players different. If Troy Aikman's late for a meeting, he looks the other way. If player 54 is late, you can cut. You treat certain players differently. Just how life is. And guess what? If Luca wanted to have a hookah or a beer or, you know, skip out on conditioning, as long as he's getting me to the finals, I don't care.
Vlade Devos was lighting up a cigarette in the locker room. I mean, sometimes you just have to understand European players have a different mentality. Right. I mean, and it didn't look like there was much love lost, like or they look like they were seeing their guy and giving him hugs. I mean, would you have rather him gone out and he did a lot of staring down at the bench? We know that.
But then he would laugh afterwards like you can't quite take him all that seriously. All right. We we've got Colin Wolf coming up here, which I can't wait to have her on. Then she heads out to the combine. We have a little bit more tush push conversation ahead here on The Rich Eisen Show. YouTube personality Benny Johnson has cracked the code on a new era of newsmaking. Got to be music to your ears. It's like the angels singing.
Listen, learn and laugh. I had a feeling I had a feeling you'd be in a very good mood. Oh, it's going to be a glorious day on Capitol Hill for you, sir. It's a new cultural landscape. So it's an important moment right now. Does this deserve another look? The Benny Show sees it in all of its glory. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.
