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Savings vary, subject to terms, conditions, and availability. Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. This is the Rich Eisen Show. And she grabs her left knee. The Rich Eisen Show. How great is Danny Gurley's UConn team? So that call to be made at that point in the game was a complete joke.
Tone it down bro. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show, CBS Sports college basketball reporter Seth Davis. Coming up, host of Pablo Torre finds out.
Pablo Torre, two-time major champion Zander Shafale, four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Hour number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air.
And normally in between hours one and two, if we've got an in-studio guest in hour two, I'll go on the back and welcome our guests. But Rich Eisen found out that I think Pablo Torre is finding out how to get here. So Pablo is making his way to our studio right now.
He's going to hopefully be sitting here in this chair in 20 minutes time. The host of Pablo Torre finds out. Pablo honey.
What did Hank call at once? The city of off-ramps. What, El Segundo?
El Segundo, the city of off-ramps. I don't know. I think there's a new podcast called Pablo Torre uses ways. Yeah. Oh, you know, there might be.
Or needs ways. You guys probably don't know on Sapova this morning, I forgot there was a truck that tipped over. Oh boy.
That's probably a thing. Does he, does he drive behind the airport to listen, bro? The fact that I drove behind the airport is the reason I got here and missed the truck flip over. Okay. Good.
Okay. I come in front of the airport, different stories. I don't know why I find that so funny when you're like, I was driving behind the airport. It's the best way for me to describe to somebody where I live. So I'm driving behind the airport. It's just, I don't know why that makes it's just, it's like on one end creepy. It sounds really, and then on the good end, it sounds like he's shooting another version of the ending of heat, you know, with LAX. That's this side though. My front end is driving behind the airport at any rate, some planes flying overhead. And then, you know, you know, my favorite one day, rich had to go to Marina del Rey.
I followed him the whole way behind the airport to see the ocean behind the airport. Michael Johnson's coming in. I'm going to show them photographs of me running as a 55 year old man. Do we want to do that? Why not? Okay.
Yeah. He was part of your training once even though you said, well, no, I bring it up. I just, he doesn't want it brought up on shore because I, because it's, doesn't reflect well on him. The number of people I have thoroughly embarrassed, you know, Otto, Otto Bolden, I am, I embarrassed him. He tried to train me one year. Brandon Marshall trained me one year.
I am embarrassed him. He was running in a full suit. Go run another 40 in your suit.
And I did. So let's talk, let's talk, let's talk new England Patriots. And that that's, let's do it because I just asked this question of you, Chris Brockman is we mock you. We mock you like a hurricane here.
We have a latest mock draft and it's from Pete Presco of CBS. Wow. Wow. Okay. We played it earlier and it was like, okay, but that was when the second time was so much better.
It does get better each time the video helps. And you know what? I think the first time I didn't hear the dumb and dumber star and I didn't hear that. And so, yeah. Very good. Well, at any rate, I'm wondering, would you say dumb or dumber if Pete Presco is correct in his top 10 of his mock, which is all we'll show you.
Cause this is the food for thought. Christopher Cam Ward, Abdul Carter, Shador Sanders. We've heard, we've heard, we've seen that in many mocks, right? Titans, Cleveland Giants, if they don't move and they pack and they stick and they pick Cam Ward, Abdul Carter, Shador Sanders.
We've seen that. But then usually what follows is Travis Hunter goes to the Patriots and he thinks the Patriots would take Will Campbell, the tackle out of LSU and not take Travis Hunter. And then the Jaguars would say, thank you. And then the Raiders go take Ashton Gente like everybody thinks. And then the Jets would be able to take my Wolverine, Mason Graham and stick him directly next to Quinnen Williams and say, okay, try and run through that everybody. That would make me very happy.
I wonder how it would make you, Chris. What, what if the Patriots have, this is the first mock where the, I've seen in a long time where the Patriots have Travis Hunter sitting there and then they don't take him and they say to you, hey, trust us. We need to protect Drake May, which you would understand. But the best way, remember we had this conversation a couple of years ago when Burrow had been drafted and it was Jamar Chase or Panay Sewell.
Correct. And there was a, there was a, a meme of, you know, wide receiver, wide open Jamar Chase, but Burrow's down on the ground cause they took the wide receiver and not the tackle. And then, then the other one was Burrow's standing up cause Panay Sewell's protecting him, but there's no one down the field.
I think I still have that somewhere. It was funny. I feel like the Nathan Fillion, Jeff, where I'm just like, yeah, wait, like, yeah, right.
Oh, interesting. Hey man, Will Campbell's probably going to be good. The arm length thing has people kind of in their feelings, but I don't want him fourth overall. He'd be great eight or nine, you know, if the Patriots stray down, but if Travis, that's if Travis Hunter's not there, if he is there and they pass on him, that would be one of the most devastating draft day things since the Pats traded with the Cowboys for the Dez Bryant pick.
I was all excited about Dez being a Patriot and then trade with Dallas and they take him and Dez was awesome. That would be an insane bummer to not have Travis Hunter with him right there at number four. When you need a number one receiver and every person we talked to, Todd McShea all the way down, think Travis is the number one wide receiver in this class, the best at contested ball catches, like the dude is an absolute monster on both sides.
Like, how do we, how do they pass on this dude? And I get that Vrabel smash mouth, build the offensive, obviously built the defensive line and free agency. And now, you know, you got to fill some gaps in the offensive line, but you can do that in the second and third rounds. There's only so many top five talents, maybe number one player in the draft talents.
And if he's there at four, like we said yesterday, one minute to see who calls, minute two turn in the card. End of story because you're getting Drake May, the weapon that allows him to become the transformational quarterback that you believe in. A lot of people believe he can be, and Josh McDaniels would be able to scheme things up. Now, obviously protecting him is paramount.
Correct. But I can't imagine because you don't just get the best wide receiver in the draft for your guy. You get a guy that if fourth quarter's hitting and you need a stop, you put him out there too, right?
Like, let's just say you're going against the Dolphins, right? And you need a stop of Tyreek Hill. You could take your best wide receiver and say, go play defense.
Why don't you do that? Hey, let's shut down Tyreek Hill over there and he will do it. Right. And then figure out how to protect your quarterback another day, another pick, another situation. Oh my God. Second round pick, two third round picks.
You have the top 100 capital to take care of the offensive line issues and have a camp battle and figure out who's best. Oh my gosh. I would want to go pro on every New Englander if that happens. So you're telling me there's a chance. Well, I'll be recording my reaction to the fourth overall pick live from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Okay.
Cause that's what we'll be for us, for our show. Just throwing that scenario out there for you. While we're on the subject of the Patriots, Tom Brady, is he sub stacking? Is that what's happening? He's newslettering. He's newslettering. Hey, everybody needs to write stuff down and put their thoughts out and make sure that you provide your email information for future endeavors. I didn't know he was doing this. Tombrady.com and he posted my thoughts on free agency.
Interestingly, my is capitalized M-Y. Okay. And it starts with reflection. Second paragraph, cause he was talking about he was only involved in free agency once at the tail end of his career. And, um, he wrote for me, it was a creeping decision that lived passively in the back of mind for two to three years until March of 2020, when a whirlwind of a few days made me realize that a decision was coming sooner rather than later. The reality was after 20 years together, a natural tension had developed between where coach Belichick and I were headed in our careers and where the Patriots were moving as a franchise. It was the kind of tension that could only be resolved by some kind of split or one of us reassessing our priorities.
And that's in his weekly newsletter, one 99 on tombrady.com. And you know, listen, we all know the tension, whatever that's that hatchet has been buried multiple times, whether it was in the postgame locker room conversation, remember when Brady came back as a buck, uh, in, in, um, Mac Jones's first year where it was damn close close game. Yeah.
Right. The Patriots almost won that one week four. And then, um, and then Brady and Belichick met after the game privately. And then we all know the Brady roast has let every bygone be bygone. Cause they quite frankly turned the forum here in Los Angeles that night on Netflix into a therapy session for everyone to see every everyone we've had on talking about that has admit fully admitted. It felt that way. It was great from Bledsoe to Gronk to Edelman.
Like absolutely. It got everything out of their systems in advance of Brady's retirement, Jersey retirement ceremony in Foxborough a few weeks later where it was one big love Fest. So, and we all understand, you know, the reason why it was passive we've, we've heard it as well. Brady's contract wasn't being redone to his liking and the hometown discount ears were over.
It made complete sense for him to break up. But the reason why we bring this up is for the next paragraph. He said that when Tampa Bay came into the picture as a serious option for him, he asked himself as someone headed into their forties with school aged kids and 20 years worth of battle scars, what truly mattered. And he wound up with a list of about, as he said, 20 things that I then ranked on a graded scale from one to three. Now the difference between him and Aaron Rogers as Rogers is going through his first free agency of his career in life, that number one, he's already 42.
He doesn't have school aged kids, but he does have 20 years worth of battle scars. Okay. And so what I'd like to do is throw this out one to three, you grade it between the giants and the Steelers.
So let's try and use the Brady system for Rogers. Okay. Okay. Okay. And so this is what he said he did between Tampa and New England.
And it was done when he saw this on a piece of paper. The presence of skills skilled players was a three in terms of importance. He said, for example, the bucks graded out as a three because of Evans and Godwin big time. Okay. And I'm imagining he said this has been Tampa and New England. But he doesn't say that, you know, the chargers were also an option for him back then. Yeah.
Raiders Titans are a lot. Okay. Yeah. So what do you grade the Steelers and the giants in terms of skilled players?
One, two, or three TJ, you chime in as well. Okay. DK Metcalf is there. George Pickens is there running back. We don't know. Yeah.
Fryer Muth, Joe and Warren's still there. Maybe, maybe they take one in the draft. I would say the Steelers are too high and wide receiver talent. Then you got the John Southern. I'll put them as a two. Yeah.
I don't want to give anyone a one. I would say the stevers, stevers three giants too. You really think so? The giants have got my neighbors.
If you talk about talent, I mean neighbors. Okay. But kind of nobody else after that. I don't know. Tracy, he balled out. He bought out.
He's a thousand year rusher. Pretty much the J and Warren are kind of the same. No, they're not. Oh, interesting.
Okay. I would put the giants running back situation above Pittsburgh. Jalen. Warren's never been a bell count his entire life. Well, this was the first time Tyrone Tracy had the opportunity.
The Johnson balls out too. If you want, you could put, how about this? Put the Steelers two and a half to giants at two. Okay. That's fair. Okay. I was thinking at two and a half.
Okay. I didn't know we were going to coaching head coach. He said he gave the the bucks a three because of Bruce Arians. I think they're even. I think that it's two, two at this point giants and okay.
Would you do the same thing as well? You put, you put Tomlin and I don't, I don't think Tomlin. I put Tomlin above. I would give Tomlin a three and area and pardon me, um, day ball or two, just because of their status and ability to stick around. Yeah.
That makes their security. Tomlin's living off reputation. He, you know, average coach and average coach, but average coach the last five years, but you don't know how long he's going to be. You don't know how long the giants coaches can be there. You just don't go there. I guess if you go there, you know, he's going to stick around. Yeah.
I have them even to do. Okay, fine. Uh, game day weather. They're both, they're both the same, right? Yeah.
Practice rev weather. They're the same. Yeah. I mean, a little colder in Pittsburgh compensation was on the list, but obviously it wasn't a first. It probably wasn't even top 10. Didn't even rank as a three in importance. I can't imagine Rogers is getting more than 25 million a year.
Probably right. He doesn't list any of the other metrics in which he graded one to three. So you would give the edge to Pittsburgh over the giants based on this. Just I liked the wide receivers better.
Um, TJ, I agree with him on the wide receivers. I really, I can't speak of what giants nation is all about. I know they have a huge fan base obviously living there, but living and being from Pittsburgh and knowing, man, you went in Pittsburgh, you are put on a pedestal like none other. So you want to take all of that into, you know, into your thought process being a Pittsburgh, but then again, the giants they're, you know, they're legendary too.
So I still give the Steelers the edge. I mean, if there's one thing that he didn't put here and I'm sure Brady had it on his list, he just didn't mention it here. Chances to win a ring.
Yeah. Cause that's what Tom Brady's about. Chance to win a ring.
That was the end of the story. New England was at the end of a run and the bucks were right there needing someone like him to just be added into the mix. What division is tougher, the NFC East or the AFC North? Oh, great question. They're kind of even, I think, but the giants are clearly fourth in that division. That's the problem. That's why you're not going to, you're, you're closer to winning a ring in Pittsburgh than you are in New York. Yeah.
I mean, you can go on a magical run. AFC being harder than the NFC film. Does that cancel that out?
Um, I don't know. How was the, you, you could say that, but the NFC proved to be toughest. Don't you think that's true? But I just look at top end quarterback talent and it seems like it's a little deeper in the AFC, I guess, unless you think a Jalen hurts is a, I mean, don't, don't get a Morris chestnuts started. Jalen hurts is now elite folks. This just in and Jayden Daniels, um, it's on his way. Uh huh.
Right. Goff finished as an MVP candidate. Stafford is at the end of a career that is just killing it.
I might be hunting and pecking for just push back there. Uh, AFC, NFC East has got the champ, the two, the two teams that finished in that lasted longest in the NFC last year. I don't know if you want a piece of that when you can go to the AFC North. And I understand there's a two time MVP sitting in Baltimore and there's Joe burrow. And then there's what Cleveland, which is up in the air.
Totally. I I'd want to go to Pittsburgh again. Another thing that's on Tom Brady's list that maybe in real life that wasn't here revenge factor. I don't know how that played in. Cause obviously he knew Tampa was going to go to new England.
I think it was in his right here too. But the bottom line is Rogers gets to play against the NFC North. Right.
And the AFC East. No brainer. I mean, when you take that into consideration, no brainer and you feel he's Richard, the King petty. No brainer. Yeah. That's right.
Then you're like, what's the holdup? I don't know. He's just Rogers. Yeah.
All right. Pablo Torre has found out how to get here. I'm going to tell him how to get behind the airport. Don't do that.
Straight down Imperial highway. Thoroughly unnecessary. And him saying, what's that all about at the Hyundai getaway sales event going on right now, get deals. So right.
It almost feels wrong. Perfect time to get that Hyundai car or SUV you've always wanted. Plus every new Hyundai comes with America's best warranty. Three years of 36,000 or 36,000 miles of limited complimentary maintenance. The Hyundai getaway sales event that's going on right now is a must visit. So visit your local Honda dealer today. It's a great day for a new Hyundai. Pablo Torre is in our green room. No more coming out here on the rich and show.
Hey, rich Eisen here. I hear from a lot of business owners like you about the work it takes to pursue your passions. So I know how important it is to have the tools that can help keep you moving forward. And with access to world-class business and travel benefits, the American express business platinum card helps you take your business to the next level. It offers a flexible spending limit that adapts with your business.
Plus you'll have complimentary access to more than 1400 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. Not all purchases will be approved terms apply.
Learn more at American express.com slash Amex business. Some people just know they could save hundreds on car insurance by checking all state first, the same way, you know, you've got to make sure your lucky Jersey is clean on game day or your team might lose. Checking first is smart. So check all state first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with all state savings vary subject to terms, conditions, and availability. All state fire and casualty insurance company and affiliates.
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Visit McAfee.com cancel any time terms apply. Back here on the Roku sports channel radio audience will rejoin shortly, but the first of two times I say hello to the man who brings you Pablo Torre finds out every single day available on the Pablo Torre finds out YouTube channel, wherever you get your podcast, the award winner in that regard, Pablo Torre. Good to see you here, sir. Thank you. An honor, a genuine honor. I've been getting a scouting reports on you guys from your friend, David Sampson.
Okay. My friend, David Sampson, who is jealous of all those, all of the things you do and the ways you do it. Why would you be jealous?
There's no, there's no reason to be jealous. You've met David Sampson though. You're familiar with the hiring. Now I'm, now I'm, now I'm familiar with what you're saying. I'm picking up what you're putting down.
The ultimate compliment. I appreciate, I appreciate you saying that now, but you're, you're, why are you in LA? What did, what are you doing out here? I'm finding stuff out, rich. I'm finding stuff out.
Not to sound like a CIA agent. No, I try to come out here once for like a good week, once a year. Okay. I'm just so many friends fled New York. I'm a New Yorker.
Okay. And a lot of my friends went out here and a lot of people that I just long to see, okay. Refuse to see me in New York.
And so I got to come, the mountain goes to them. You know, where are you from originally? Born and raised in the city in Manhattan city. That's how you know I was born in Manhattan.
I say the city as if it's the only city Pablo. Thank you. No, no, no, no. Don't drag him in.
I'm not dragging. He's just confirming what everyone around the world knows the city. They mean Manhattan. Yes. When Staten Islanders say the city, we mean New York city because Staten Island is part of it. No, it's not.
Look. So I had to tell my daughter that there's this borough called Staten Island. Oh my gosh. And look, I, man, fresh kills, Colin Jost.
These are things that I grew up knowing and appreciating you. New Yorkers. Truly. You named two people from Staten Island and a garbage dump.
And by the way, fresh kills. I was not referring as a garbage dump. Okay. Just want to be out there for everyone to know, but you take a boat to school. Well, I mean, by the way, is here on the rich. I saw our radio audience just rejoined. We can continue this conversation. Pablo Torrey finds out, uh, is, uh, in an award winning podcast, by the way, we're both up for an Amby award.
Yeah. The best sports podcast, this show on yours. I forgot that I'm here to also assassinate you. Boy, you take this seriously. Rich Sam awards, awards are I, so I walk into your green room and it's decorated with many, many trophies and medals and honorifics and deserved because you've built an institution here. I appreciate that. And what I think about when I see awards like that, shiny Emmys and all sorts of things is I am so trying to transcend external validation, which I don't feel things when I see your trophy case. And yet I just want to assassinate you.
Well, you shouldn't feel anything. Seeing my trophy case, that Emmy award, when you go back into the green room, you will see it is, it's not as shiny as it once was because it was from my first year on sports center, 1996. And I haven't won another one since. Well, okay. I, you know, I, I, I'm kind of like Dan Marino. I made the super bowl really early and then never made it back.
But you won that award while I was going through puberty, learning about sports. And so that means something special to me, even if it doesn't, 100%, 100%. So again, surreal, fun, scary. Also, uh, want to assassinate you. Yeah.
It's the third time he said restraining order. I'm not going to lie. Wow.
Now I'm finding out. How did you get started? Uh, I had a panic attack while taking the LSAT and realized I should probably do for a year. The thing that I was doing for fun in college, which was writing about sports, uh, grew up a sports fan. Of course, uh, one of those kids with the tiny little notebook in which I wrote down all statistics for NBA players and collected baseball cards and all that stuff. But for me, there was a fork in the road where it was like, I'm a first generation American family from the Philippines came over to New York and I was supposed to go do something that had stability and a predictable roadmap towards success. And instead I got into this business, you know, what school were you going to Harvard? You went to Harvard, Harvard, the Michigan of the East. Oh boy. That's right.
Many are saying, sorry, Pablo. That's where I was. So I went to high school with Colin Jost, who again, is a great Staten Islander who sort of proved that you could do unconventional things despite having credentials that suggested you should be more reliable. And, and, uh, but in all seriousness, this was a fact checker sports illustrated from the bottom of the totem pole and worked my way up through some strange and probably annoying at times, repetitive at times, uh, attempts to pitch stories and work my way up. And then ESPN, after I covered Jeremy Lin, I mean, not because of that, but that was the timeline was like Lin sanity. That was about me, rich.
I don't know if you know that at all. It was about an Asian American guy who went to Harvard, who grew up rooting for the Knicks, realizing that the sun in the solar system was suddenly a guy that put me on the cover of sports illustrated me as in my byline two weeks in a row. Um, and at some point he used to be in the magazine was like, who's that guy? Meaning again, the byline, um, and wound up becoming fast forward, speed running through all of this, uh, a gas bag on television who realized this is something that I really love doing. Yeah. And thankfully your career is a bit more staying power than the man that you were covering for that, uh, for that, for that, uh, for that, uh, NBA champion, Jeremy Lin, NBA champions, right?
His favorite son now, Jeremy Lin winning with the Raptors. That's right. I had an epiphany behind the wheel of my car on father Capodano Boulevard in Staten Island, New York city. And, um, where I was covering the police beat as a, um, um, a fill in cops reporter. And I didn't know all of the codes coming out of this walkie talkie.
I literally thought every code that was coming out of was some sort of massive news story I was missing. And I wound up chasing an ambulance through two red lights and I pulled over to the side of the road and I'm like, I'm literally an ambulance chaser right now. You cannot parse what I am right now. And I went back to school to Northwestern to start a career in TV. So I had an epiphany myself.
You had yours stay over an LSAT piece of paper, or that might've been just the culmination of you thinking about it, huh? The most inappropriate quotation of Pat Riley you will ever hear is me saying that when my LSAT score expired after five years and I was still at sports illustrated writing, doing what I loved. Um, I burned the boats. That's what Riley says.
Burn the boats, right? There's no way back. You've chosen your path. You're now here to sort of do the best you can.
And so when I say I had a panic attack at the LSAT, uh, failure provided me with another path and sticking with that path is honestly, as I think you, you clearly feel in the studio, um, the greatest gift I never hoped for. And so into that became everything else that allowed me to, I mean, when I say I'm here to find out stuff, I professionally follow my curiosity. I use journalism to solve mysteries.
I talk to people that I find interesting. It's on some level, uh, a job, no one in my family, my ancestry was ever so audacious to design and sports is my passport into that, into that world. So when you were a fact checker at sports illustrated, which was there any hall of fame writer who you've fact checked and save them from being wrong that you can remember? I just, well, I'm not going to throw Peter King or Tom Verducci or Gary Smith or Scott price or Rick Riley under the bus because they never made mistakes. Good one. The rule, it's kind of like working for, uh, the president, you know, like the president of the United States.
It's like you take whatever you got. Uh, you, you, you throw your body in front of that wrong statistic from 1979 before he could do any harm does any harm to the reputations of the men involved. But I literally had to cross off every word that was the, I mean, again, it's so quaint to think about that now rich in the era in which we live, in which no one does any of that.
And if you work the cops beat, there's a grind to, uh, and there's a value to the mundane, um, even if it feels and that's, I would say the cop speed is not quite being a fact checker, but trying to get it right down in the underbelly of something. Uh, I had to cross off every word, every number, every statistic until it checked out. Well, this now I've found out, um, that, that wrong fact in the Gary Stevens piece that William Nack wrote, wasn't his fault. So we're putting the bill Nack on blast on blast. He's sitting there going, wait a minute. Um, all right. So he introduced America to the giant eating heart of secretary.
I went deep for a joke that didn't land. Uh, what, what have you found out that you are, that even surprised you the most in the short history of your award-winning Edward R. Morrow award-winning video pod. Yeah. Um, thank you. Thank you for citing him by name. I love to associate whenever possible with Ed Morrow is a, is a, is a great journalist and now being played by George Clooney on Broadway. And so there you go.
I think there's some similarities between me and the people we just mentioned clearly. Uh, I was in your green room listening to you talk about Tom Brady and I know you're a giant jets fan and I know it's draft season man. How Tom Brady got drafted by the Patriots is a story I spent months of my life investigating because I'm all ears. If you want to boil it down.
Yeah. So you guys know, uh, what is on paper accurate, which is that it was the 199th pick sixth round, but Tom Brady was a compensatory pick and the compensatory pick rich is a black box that is so fascinating and like lots of things in the world of science covered in levels of arcane detail that are so indecipherable that people don't try to see inside. But the way comp picks work, the NFL league office has a secret ranking every year of every player in the league, according to value. So there's a secret fantasy football power ranking in real life that the league office maintains in which depending on how good the player is, if they were to leave as a free agent and then succeed to some degree with their next team, you get a compensatory draft pick in return. Tom Brady was one of these guys, but the secret about Tom Brady is that the year that they, uh, acquired the comp pick for Tom Brady, there were three candidates for a comp pick.
And the other thing is that you don't know the paternity because it's a secret list. So I was found, I was going to ask, did you dive in there and found out who the player was that, that was significant enough for Brady to, uh, materialize because the Patriots received the pick and insignificant enough because it was one 99. Right. And so, yeah, I mean, I confirmed this with the league office itself. The NFL confirmed it.
I confirmed it through a voice modulated NFL executive who explained how all of this stuff works on this. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Come on, Chris. You just got to know, I remember this episode. It was awesome. It's just, I go to let we take stupid things seriously and serious things stupidly.
Sure. And so you may or may not be hardened to learn that on levels that blew my mind, your New York jets are entirely responsible for why Tom Brady even got picked by the Patriots more than Mo Lewis blowing up the innards of true blood. So to first place Tom Brady on a field, there are levels to this story that I could not have scripted and it all redounds. And I will do a brief spoiler alert here to a gentleman named Tom Tupa, the punter slash quarterback from the Ohio state university, the man who first ever scored a two point conversion with Cleveland for bill Belichick, who you may recall went on to work for your jets, who recruited at every stop, Tom Tupa, who then in signing Tom Tupa to the jets, to the page, I mean, I don't want to spend all day reliving the episode, please go ahead, but in ways that cannot be scripted, Tom, remember when Tom Tupa came in and relief as quarterback for your jets, a kind of obscure thing in the year before bill Belichick was named coach and then departed. Was that the year that Vinny blew out his, in relief of Vinny Testa Verde in came Tom Tupa.
I remember that, um, that game it's, it's one of those stories where the performance on the field, as well as the decision to let him go and then get resigned by bill Belichick later at every stop, um, ended up resulting in the pick that became Tom Brady. So it's, it's just funny, man. I look a long wind up to say you did it to yourself cosmically.
It's just perfect because it's, it's the universe sometimes winks at you in the story of Tom Tupa becoming Tom Brady. It's just laughing in your face. Ah, yep. That's a shame. I know that.
Um, and w and let's put this way without Tom Tupa, they wouldn't have Brian Hoyer, who I think took over the two parole of going wherever Belichick was, which is new England pretty much. Yeah. Fascinating. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so the subject matter that you're, you, can you say what you're out here finding out or, or you, you like, you like holding off on, on previewing what you're, you're finding. So I would say that there is a mixture of serious out here where I don't want to say what it is because I'm investigating things that are hopefully going to materialize. Sure.
But there's also great fun. Um, one of the stories that I want to reference here though, just because I think it's useful for people who are familiar with the pain and trauma of New York sports. Um, you guys know the legend of the LeBron James Knicks recruitment video. Okay. Oh yeah. With the Carmelo and, uh, Carmela and Tony Soprano. Oh yeah. Okay. So the Knicks, when they're recruiting LeBron, some of the decision, um, they have to figure out how are we going to recruit this guy?
And they make the equivalent of a super two. In my universe, a super sweet 16 video, like here, all the celebrities saying hi to you a bar mitzvah video and more common parlance. I appreciate you.
You translating for me as, as, as a New Yorker, as a New Yorker, this is Jim Dolan making a gift for LeBron by summoning every friend he has. And this had been a rumor and a myth because no one ever seen the video. And we found the video, we found the video and uh, I don't think I'm allowed into the garden.
I think I should be afraid, frankly, of, uh, how the people involved may feel about us finding the video. But the beginning of the video to Chris's point there involves the last known scene of James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano after the Sopranos ended with Edie Falco. And they are in a room in an apartment and they are at a laptop acting as their characters. So by the way, into the Sopranos, guess what? They lived, ah, there's a Prano subreddit was so they cared about this episode more than anybody. I know, but sure.
They're looking for an apartment for their friend, LeBron, and they pull up a website and guess what? It's the garden. And into this launches a parade of friends. And just again, I don't want to just do my whole like episode karaoke thing for you.
Cause I love these things like they're my kids. I love it. But the first face you see is Donald Trump in this video. That's who James Dolan got to recruit LeBron James first face. And it proceeds from there, rich. It proceeds from there. And it's hilarious. Spoiler alert, like it's really funny and the names, uh, somehow get more absurd. And we found also that they made in the way that you do, they made alternate videos that are exactly the same for Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch.
And so we have the alts. So you'll hear James Gandolfini and Edie Falco say for your friend, Chris, for your friend, Dwayne, you see how they make it behind the scenes. Now is that tampering? Well, cause I'm sure, I don't know if it was, was Wade and Bosch available to be poached Wade by the Sopranos. No way. And if the Knicks were making this video, isn't that, I mean, and if you're Mickey Arison or you're, you're, you're like, what the hell, you know, I mean, is it tampering?
If you're using fake characters who are really actually your season ticket holders may not be dead. Yeah. Well, is it tampering to get Chris rock to custom make personalized messages for Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch, which we also have in this video, James Dolan invent cameo, honestly, well, yada, yada, yada.
It didn't work. Did you ever find out what LeBron thought of this video? We reached out to him. There was no comment, but, but I imagined so, but his camp, his camp.
I will say this generally when they saw that I had published the episode. Yes. One person with LeBron said, thank God, someone else can confirm what we saw. I mean, they all imagine it. LeBron sit down.
Did we find out where, where it was shown? So LeBron, during all of this, again, the mountain goes to him. Of course. And so everybody comes in SUV after SUV and it's the Clippers. It's the heat. It's the Knicks. And it's the, so imagine it's not merely the Knicks doing this in a vacuum. It's the next doing this in succession of all of these teams who have their own different proposals and they do press play. And it's everybody on the bronze team, everybody with the Knicks in a room together, watching what they thought is going to seal the deal and what LeBron thought to put it plainly and not, not a quote, but just my translation.
I cannot possibly sign with this team, which is by the way, a heartbreaker. Cause again, grew up in Knicks fan. We really did think for a lot of the summer, why wouldn't he come right to New York?
It's New York. And now we have what I found out was part of the answer. I think, wow, Pablo Torrey finds out, check it out on the Pablo Torrey finds out YouTube channel, wherever you get your podcasts. So if you've pissed off the Knicks, I think you, me, Charles Oakley, go to a game together and see what happens. I would love to get thrown out of an institution with you. And we have to figure out which one of us is the one that I think Oakley would be the one that's most provocative. I imagine. I think we might need to get like a giant trench coat and sit on each other's shoulders and put like Howard Eisley on the top or something, you know, great call. Good one. Great call. Yeah.
Reggie Miller, me, you, Reggie Oakley, let's go to a Knicks game together. I don't know how to make it work, but let's, let's find out. Well, that'd be great to find that out. We probably get, we'd probably get apprehended within four seconds. Dude. What tier are you on the facial recognition? I don't know.
Where would he be? Both of you guys, man. It's been years since I've bitched about Dolan, but I don't think the AI he uses forgets though. I think can I tell you something about, about, about, about Dolan?
Actually, you wouldn't do want to stick around for another segment. You want to do that? I would love to turn that into a possibly libelous tease. Yes.
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See associate or Lowe's.com for more details on qualifying items. Back here on the Roku Sports Channel, Pablo Torre is still hanging here with us. Radio audience comes back in a minute. I kind of feel like if you're, you know, do we want to tell that Dolan story that you want to go on the break? I don't know if we should. I forgot. Honestly, I don't know if we should. I'll hint at it. Okay.
To protect you guys and also myself, I guess. So the NBA board of governors is one of my favorite things in the world. So this is the owner's meeting.
And inside of that room, you get this collection. When I mentioned the word succession before, it's all of this I see as like kind of like a prestige comedy series. It's wildly wealthy people. And my favorite part about sports business is that these are people who have everything but cannot buy the thing they want the most. That is correct.
Which is a championship in this sport that they have invested a ton of money in. 100%. And so it's a place where everybody feels a fragility of confidence that they don't feel outside of the room.
Maybe that's why they do it. Oligarchy meets meritocracy. That's basically what it is, right? Absolutely. Absolutely.
And so you have all of these people who measured against their peers feel an insecurity and resentment. And so in that way, it is politics in that way. It's a place I wish one day they would allow a camera.
Oh, please. I've been in an owner's meeting and we did have a camera. They allowed the NFL network in an owner's meeting when we first launched and we called it NFL C-SPAN. And we would have conversations about, not about finances, but we had cameras capture the argument pro and con for instant replay.
The instant replay was made permanent and it was fascinating, fascinating, but there's no cameras in there anymore. No, I know. And I get why, obviously, because who wants to see Michael Jordan at one end of the table?
You know, but yeah, that's right. And I would say Jim Dolan at the other end, except what I can, I guess, semi reveal here is that Jim Dolan doesn't go to these meetings anymore. And what he does is he sends an emissary in his place who I will simply say does not make life easy for the rest, because guess what his job is to object and to object. I mean, that's the Raiders, honestly, except Al Davis would go and it would be at the same seat. And I don't know if it's been, I haven't been in an owner's meeting room in years. It used to be, it's like a shape of an E where the NFL executives would sit on the, I guess, the long side of the E and the prongs would be all NFL owners. And Davis sat on one end of the E every year. It's the same seat policy.
The Giants and the Steelers sit next to each other because the Rooney's and the Maras are all tight. And long story short is Al would basically go there and abstain. He would just, he abstain, he and the Bengals abstained on making replay permanent. And you're just like, okay, is that your point? But that's what he would do. It's perfect though. It's perfect. I mean, that's exactly right. So every, I mean, certainly like the big, the biggest sports have a version of this. But it's funny. It's so funny. It's so funny to think about how these guys are trying to prove this, that they're the alpha in a room full of people who all think the same thing.
Well, I mean, you know, you just, they all measure what they think is longest and, and, and that's just, but it's a meritocracy at the end. I'm sitting at the rich eyes and show radio desk sitting on the rich eyes and show radio network, the desk furnished by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry Granger has the right product for you call click ranger.com or just stop by. And the few minutes we have left Pablo Torre, do you have any thoughts on Juju Watkins going down here in Los Angeles last night? Any thoughts on that? I was already mad that we weren't going to get Paige Becker's and Juju Watkins in a final four based on the bracket. I am, I am bummed by this. I got to know her dad, Bobby over the summer. I'd been fascinated by her as who replaces Caitlin Clark, right?
Who replaces the irreplaceable and Juju Watkins was my one seed in that regard. So a, as a sports fan bummed, we're not going to get her. But, but the second thing I think about is the transformation of this sport, a women's basketball.
And I know you guys know this because you're out here geographically. It's not a cause anymore. What do I mean by that? It's a business, damn strange. It's a real business and ratings up in the college game after Caitlin Clark is gone. The unrivaled league popping up to take the place that Russia and Turkey used to take in the off season for WNBA players. The WNBA now, of course, having its own ratings boom with Caitlin, but broader than that as well, negotiating their own rights deal. It's going to take us into lots of rooms where very rich people will elbow each other over what to do.
It's one of the most profound transformations I've, I never imagined, frankly, that you would go from a thing of you guys should watch this. It's I think useful for you to know that good sports are happening beyond sort of the, the, the watchful eye of, of mainstream attention to now you're late if you haven't invested in this thing. And that may be part of, again, the big bummer about Juju Watkins is this machine is built.
Yes. And you know, we could say again, it's still building, but, and, and so now it's ready for stars like Juju to be plugged into and make cash physically and emotionally and spiritually and literally and figuratively. And she's just been taken away by the basketball ACL gods.
It's it's awful. We see this in the men's game, by the way, the tournament really does matter as much as now everyone's an influencer. Everyone has an audience you can get and go direct the TV show at which America gathers in a way that we don't get any other trough of American life, not music, certainly not politics, but it's sports, the biggest tent available. And so you can't replicate the marketing, the platform of the tournament of a playoff. And so it's meaningful when you miss introducing Juju Watkins to America in the way that what happened to G league ignite rich, these other professional minor league systems meant to take away NBA prospects out of the NCAA pipeline. The NCAA, we could talk for days and years, and we might for just how they are a problem, but man, the TV show they make can't replace that.
Bob Lotori here on the program, still here on Roku, our radio audience just went away and that that's, yeah. You know, you could say again that with all due respect to the other teams and schools out there, elite eight against page backers, final four against UCLA, one more time for a fourth time this year. And then if they advanced against, you know, South Carolina, Notre Dame, Texas, right, gone, just like that, or USC can do it without her.
And we can see that go or any of the other schools, LSU, and even mentioned could could knock off UCLA before facing USC again, just seeing all that. And the fact that she's been removed, it's just not right, man. Yeah. It's not right. The characters, again, I'm in LA talking about television a lot as the metaphor for everything.
The development of the Judy Watkins character is now postponed. And as a sports fan and a TV fan, hate that, hate that. I'm with you. Okay. So hanging out here in Los Angeles, then you go back to New York City, my hometown, you know, so, and by the way, I know that you take a boat to school if you go to Stuyvesant, you know, if you do that sort of thing. You know, I got in and I decided not to go. Well, the two of us are- I stayed in my public school, my little public school, Susan E. Wagner High School in Staten Island, New York.
Okay, fine. But now, if I'm not mistaken, one of the boats that you refer to that potentially I could have taken to school, if I'm not mistaken, Colin Joseph is bought and turned into a club, right? With Pete Davidson, right?
And did Seth Meyerson on that too, even though he's not a Staten Islander? It's certainly Pete and Colin and a crew of investors. And also I am told reliably by sources close to the situation, about 20,000 rats. Oh, on the, on the ship?
Like literal rats, just like living inside. Shockingly, the ferry is, is, is- Yeah, man, it wasn't the love boat, pal. Actually, my prom date vomited off the side of one. Try to make it a love boat. The tall boys you could get- He's now finding out.
The tall boys you could get on the ferry. Oh, yeah. By the way, when Rich Eisen says he got into Stuyvesant and didn't go- Hmm, that's a flex. It's a flex- Yeah.
Bronx School of Science too? Oh, yeah. Said no. Oh, look at you. In that way, Rich, you and I are not so different.
How so? We both decided not to go to Stuyvesant. And look at us.
Look at- Look at us. Who would have thunk it? Yeah, but you would have just taken a train ride. I would have to take a boat. It's called a ferry, sir. This guy. Mr. Manhattan over here.
Mr. Finding Out. You should find out it's called a ferry. You're right. Good to see you, man.
It's a beautiful, orange ferry. Thanks for coming here, Pablo. Anytime. Come back.
My pleasure. Pablo Torre is finding out. Zander Shafale is next.
