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Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. Freehold Monday for Eric Judge. Earlier on the show, Missouri head football coach, Eliad Drinkwitz. NFL Network analyst, Scott Pioli. Coming up, former NFL quarterback, Matt Castle. Co-host of Mostly Sports with Mark Titus and Brandon Walker, Brandon Walker. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Bobby Bones.
That is correct. We have another hour. Thanks to Rich Eisen for letting me host. I'm going to clap for myself because I've done a heck of a job. Bobby, you're crushing him, man.
I've done such a good job. I refuse to read the comments. Because I know I never read the comments. Never read the comments. Well, I mean, also sometimes read the comments.
Never read the comments whenever you're the guest host is what I've learned through my years. So, I do want to bring on one of my friends and my co-host on our NFL podcast called Lots to Say. I could say many things about him. He was drafted in the seventh round. He never started a game in college that was still drafted. He's the guy that when Brady went down, he stepped in and was the superstar for the Patriots. He then went on with the Kansas City Chiefs. He has a long storied career. Pro Bowl quarterback, here he is. Ladies and gentlemen, Matt Castle. What's up, Bobby and boys?
How are we doing today? We've talked a lot of Patriots. Not for my choice, but Chris has talked to all Patriots all day long. He's talked Tom Brady a couple of times.
We had your boy Pioli on. So, I think because of that, Mr. Castle, I'd like to start with a question that is reflective of our day so far. Can you give me one of your favorite Bill Belichick stories? Favorite Bill Belichick? I've got a lot of them.
A lot of them pertain to me, but this particular instance was pretty classic and one of the most memorable stories. It really starts with one individual. His name is Larry Izzo, and he was our special teams Pro Bowler, just absolute stud. We're in Atlanta.
It's my rookie year. He's on every special team unit, so he runs off the field and he's yelling at our trainer, Jim, Jim, I'm cramping. So, what do they do when they're cramping, right? They give them Pedialyte. They give them these salt tablets, all this stuff. Well, he comes off the field and he's like, Jim, what'd you give me?
My stomach's, it's going crazy. So, he literally, they get this little plastic trash can. He has to, he crapped his pants. He pulls his pants down, takes a dump on the sideline in like those office trash cans.
I'm not kidding you. Pulls his pants back up, wipes it with like a Gatorade towel, pulls his pants back out and runs back out for another special teams. Well, the best part about the story is we ended up winning the game.
So, on Mondays, what do we do? We hand out game balls. So, Bill gets through the offense, the defense. He goes, now, this one, I haven't seen any of this type of mmm in the 30-something years I've been playing. And so, he got Larry Izzo a game ball that says to Larry Izzo for taking a massive dump on the sideline. And then in small block lettering, it said, and making a few tackles. And he throws it out there and everybody's like... Amazing. It spoke to Bill Belichick's humor because he actually was funny.
He just has a super dry sense of humor. Whenever these quarterbacks or any position player, they're watching the draft this year, and I'm sure you did this many times during your career. Do you watch the draft wondering if your team is going to try to replace you or bring someone in to compete for your job? Hell yes, I did.
I did that every year. I sat there and I watched, especially particularly when you're young and you're fighting every single year for your spot. And you want to know, well, are they bringing somebody else in to compete with me? What's going to be the dynamics of the room?
Everything like that. Now, when you get into a position where you become the main starter and you're looked at as the franchise player, you're not probably as threatened as much. But early on, I would always sit there and kind of watch and be like, okay, who are they bringing in to replace? I remember when I was in New England, I'm sitting there and this is my last year of my contract. In New England back then, they had Tom Brady. He's obviously the face of the franchise. And they'd kind of rotate the backup quarterback in every so many years, develop them a little bit, but then let them go and go get somebody cheap again.
So of course, Kevin O'Connell, who's now the Minnesota Vikings head coach and still a good friend of mine, but they drafted him in like the third round. I remember watching that going, oh no, this isn't good. I think I might be out the door here.
You got to get to work. And then I also remember being in Minnesota. It was my second year in Minnesota and they drafted Teddy Bridgewater in the first round. And I just resigned to come back to, I was guessing to be their starter because they gave me a pretty decent contract. But I figured I was a bridge guy, but didn't anticipate them taking a first rounder.
It's always somewhat of a gut punch. And you got to realize that you got to go out there every single day and compete and win your job. Matt Castle is on with us, former NFL quarterback. I was looking at your stats here in 2010 with Kansas City, you played 15 games, you threw for over 3000 yards. You had almost 60 percent completion percentage. You went 10 and six that year. Did you feel like that season was the season you had a firm grasp on what it was like to be a starting quarterback?
I did. And I think part of it also was we were able to do it in New England and when we went 11 and five that year. But then you go to a new franchise and you're always trying to prove yourself at that new franchise.
The first year it got off to a rocky start. We won four games. But then that next season I was able to come out and we were able to win, win the division, win another 10 games that year as a starter. And it kind of it felt like, OK, I not only did it in New England with a loaded roster, but I also was able to go to a new organization and help lead this team to 10 wins. And that was one of those situations that it gives you confidence moving forward.
Now, with that being said, you know, in the NFL every year you've got to go out and prove it. And so the next year we had the lockout, everything else went on. We we lost our first three games and got on a roll. But then I broke my hand and went on I.R. for the rest of the season. So some of those things are out of your control.
But at the same time, it was a good two out of the first three years to win double digits in this league is hard. And it's something that I'm pretty proud of. Matt Castle's on with us from his podcast, Lots to Say. Matt and I are co-hosts on that podcast. And we talk. Greatest podcast ever. Greatest podcast ever. We're looking for our fifth subscriber.
So please subscribe. We talk a lot about your USC days, which you were drafted, yet you never started in college. And there were times where you tried to find your way in other spots to be valuable to the team, including like playing tight end a little bit. Like, how did you try to find your way through while not starting a quarterback? You know, that was the hardest thing is because I competed for three years, but I was backing up Carson Palmer, who was the number one draft pick, and then just thought that it was going to be inevitable that I'd step in when he left. And then there was this competition between myself and line art and he ended up winning the job. And it was one of those situations where Pete Carroll, of course, calls you in and goes, hey, Matty, you did a great job. You know, you've really been competing hard, but we're going to go with the other guy.
But if he messes up, just be ready. So one of those like, OK, well, I'm back in the same role. And then later on the season, I just want to get on the field. I was so tired of just sitting there watching these games because you're part of the team, but you always feel like you're not part of the big victories and stuff like that because you're not on the field actually playing football. So then when there was an opportunity later in the season, we had some tight ends go down and he came up and said, hey, would you have any interest in playing some tight end? And I was like, heck, yeah, because even my sophomore year for Carson, I went out and played a little bit of that tight end role, caught some passes in some games.
So I had a little bit of versatility in my game. So I went out and played tight end. And that was the worst decision of my life because they put me on special teams like in the wedge.
There's there's nothing worse than people running 50 yards at you and just blowing you up when you're wearing quarterback pads. But at the end of the day, it was one of those that I just wanted to get out and wanted to be a part of part of the team. When I say that, I mean really a part of it and be out in the trenches and on the field.
And that's the reason why I switched over and played tight end and some special teams. So talking with Scott Pioli and talking with other guys that were part of them watching you in college, but coming to your pro day and seeing you do different things on the field that led to you being drafted by the Patriots in the seventh round. And seventh round draft picks really show up and just hope to be a part of the team. What was the environment like as a seventh round pick showing up to the Patriots?
Intimidating as hell. I mean, you walk in the locker room and you've got Rodney Harrison, you've got Willie McGinnis, you've got Richard Seymour, let alone in your room. You've got one of the greatest of all time just coming off, what, three Super Bowls in four years with Tom Brady and just the aura that that place represented. And then also you've got Bill Belichick calling shots and calling you out in meetings right away and telling you, look, rookies should be seen, not heard and everything.
So you're just trying to filter your way in and put your nose down. And then all of a sudden they hand you this playbook that it's just a massive playbook and you're trying to understand the language, the lingo, what's my responsibility at the quarterback and trying to dive in and not make too many mistakes and earn your keep. And so that's what I did. Were you third string, second string? How quickly till you actually had a string? Oh, bro, if the string went on like numbers way down the road, that's what I think I was. Because the first thing it was funny, I got there and there's five quarterbacks on staff, Tom Brady, Rowan Davey, Doug Flutie, Chris Redman and myself. And of course, they love to put up, this is where you are. They let you see their depth chart.
Of course, I'm low man on the totem pole. I'm Matt Castle, number five. I was like, wow, that's way down there. I'm going to really have to work because these guys all had veteran experience, had played a lot. Rowan Davey had played in that system for four years. Doug Flutie was like 41 at the time, so he'd seen some ball to say the least. Chris Redman had started some games in the NFL, so it wasn't that I was intimidated by it as much as I was like just understood what my role was and how I had to go out in every opportunity I got. However big or little, I had to capitalize on it. What do you remember about getting the call in when Brady gets hurt? Oh, I don't. I blacked out. I'd say that all the time. It was like, what in the world?
No. I do remember it was like slow motion, right? Because I was watching the play down field. We had a reception down the field by Randy Moss, but he fumbled the ball, so I'm just kind of following the ball. And then the crowd just went absolutely silent. And I looked back and Tom was on the ground holding his knee. And I've seen him get hit before. He's come out for plays at times where I had to go into the game and spill him for like a play for him to catch his breath after he got the breath knocked out of him or took a hard hit. But never like this. He had to get help getting off the field. And I just remember sitting there watching it, and my heart starts to pound. You know, you start to hear it in your ears.
And Belo checks so nonchalantly, comes over and says, hey, Castle, grab your helmet. Start warming up. That was it. Not like, hey, you ready to go, bud? We're going to need you. It was like practice. Castle, you're in. Boom.
That's it. It didn't make the moment bigger than what it was because everybody understood the situation of Tom Brady going down. And then I just remember running out on the field for the first series.
We were backed up down to the one. And we ran two plays trying to get us off the goal line and ran a play action pass. Patrick Sertane jumped in front of Randy Moss, who was supposed to run like a skinny post. He ran right by him, and I threw it down the field, probably with my eyes closed. And he went up and caught it and went for 56 down the field.
I was like, oh, this is amazing. My prayers just came true. Let's talk current events. League meetings are happening now, and let's go to Tush Push. They've decided to kind of shelve making a decision on the Tush Push until they get together again in May. What are your thoughts on the Tush Push?
Should it be banned, or what rules would you put around it? Well, I think the biggest problem with the Tush Push is the offensive players behind the quarterback legitimately pushing that quarterback forward. Because they used to do this for the defense side of the ball. The defense on field goals in particular used to line up behind them, and then their linebackers would come up and push and shove 700 pounds into these guards and just steamroll these guys while they had a jumper behind them. Well, they made that illegal. What I'd say is it's a quarterback sneak at the end of the day, but I would say the shoving aspect needs to change from behind the quarterback.
You never thought about it. They had the defensive Tush Push that they have since not allowed, and this is a version of that. Okay, my second thing is, in the league meetings, they just came and said that overtime is going to change, where they're going to give both teams a possession now. Now, that was happening in postseason only, but now starting forward, there'll be a coin toss, and then if the first team scores a touchdown, the second team now gets a chance to score a touchdown.
To you, what is the perfect overtime scenario? I mean, it depends on if you're the team that went down and scored the touchdown. Because if I'm on the opposite side, I want that opportunity to go out and see if I can do it, but it's going to extend that game, and then the possessions become critical. I didn't mind the fact that, hey, if the opposing team gets the ball and they go down and score a touchdown because our job is to stop them and give us an opportunity, then they win the game. Because that's, overtime used to be, first team that scores wins the game. So the fact that they changed that rule and still gave the other team, if they went down and kicked a field goal, to go back out on the field and go see if they can score or tie the game or take the lead with a touchdown. I was totally fine with that. But now, I think it's a byproduct of the Mahomes-Josh Allen playoff game a few years ago, where they both, or I believe it was a few years ago, where they go down, they score games over.
They wanted to extend that game and give the other team an opportunity to go down and be able to tie the game up. You were roommates with Troy Palamalu at USC. How long? What was he like to live with? Incredible. He's a better person than he is a Hall of Fame player. And I say that in every sense of what that comment is. He's genuine. He's a guy that sits down at a table for dinner and offers everybody else food off of his own plate before he eats. He's humble.
He has no ego. But he also was a clean roommate, and I respect that. I respect that.
Even after a shower where you've got that type of hair, he would clean out the shower. I appreciate that. Matt has 17,500 passing yards, a little more than that, 104 career touchdowns. What touchdown to you, if I say, which one stands out the most? What comes to mind? Oh, boy. That's a great question. Let's see here. I don't really know. 104.
That's a lot of them. I'd say there was one game in particular that I threw four touchdowns in. It was against the Raiders, and it was right after my father passed away. I'll never forget that game because I walk out on the field, and in the stands there's this Raiders fan. He's all Raiders gear. He's got the beanie on. He's got the jersey, but he's holding this sign that says Rip Greg Castle. That's my dad's name.
It's a rainy day. It was just a weird environment. I left during the middle of the week, but I go out in that game, and I careered. I just was on everything.
The game slowed down. I threw four touchdowns. That probably stands out to me more than anything just because it was sentimental. It was a tough week, and then to go out and perform the way I did was one of those things where it was like, Dad's looking over me.
One final question for Matt Castle, who's on with us. Who was your favorite NFL player growing up, and did you ever get a chance to actually meet them as you were a player or meet them after they were retired? I've had the opportunity to meet two of my childhood heroes growing up. One of them being Troy Aikman, who my dad was from Texas, and we grew up a Dallas Cowboy fan. It was awesome to meet him and couldn't have been a nicer guy when I got a chance to meet him.
He's a big old boy. The other one is Brett Favre. Brett Favre was one of those guys that I just love the way he played the game, his childlike nature, how he competed.
He was tough as nails. I even had the Brett Favre cleats when I grew up in high school and stuff like that. Actually, it just so happened that it was my first start that year against the Jets when I took over for Brady.
We ended up playing the Jets in the Meadowlands against Brett Favre. I was like, what a cooler experience. We ended up winning the game, first guy to come over, and you've heard this story, but first guy to come over and shake my hand is Brett Favre with a big grin on his face and said, Hey man, I'm really happy for you. Congratulations.
So that was a pretty cool moment for me. NFL quarterback and co-host of Lots to Say. It's Matt Castle and myself.
Please subscribe to our podcast. The one thing I've learned about Matt, not only is he like an A-plus dude, but Matt, I got bored and played college baseball. He's like, I'm just going to play college baseball.
And then went and played for USC. And that's the athletic dream, I think, that we all have to just decide you want to play baseball. So the fact that you're such a premier athlete, I think that to me, and just a kind dude, has been what I've learned about you. What have you learned about me and doing this podcast together? Oh, what have I learned? I've learned a lot of things. Number one, you've got a sense for fashion.
You're a big t-shirt sweater guy most of the time, but really where your swag comes from is your shoes. I learned that you're slightly color blind. Your favorite color is red.
For sure it's red. Bobby Bones and the Raging Idiots, your beautiful musical concerts that you put on and comedy and stuff like that. The Hobby Lobby song, I didn't even know that you sang that until I went to your concert the other night.
And that was one of my kids' favorite songs growing up. So it's pretty amazing what I've been able to learn. Oh, that you're ultra competitive, particularly in pickleball.
So even if people come online and shoot stuff off at you. I haven't told these guys about that yet. I haven't told them yet.
Oh no, I should bring it up because they'll think I'm a loser. He'll call people out and try to play money games in pickleball against guys that rip at them. From another city. It's unbelievable.
From another city. I want the guy, A+, even better, he has the greatest stories. One that you can go hear about Tom Brady's massive testicle.
Go check out Lots to Say. It's not because I was just privately with him. I was in a locker room setting. Can you give us the 30 second version of that?
Chris popped up because he loves Tom Brady's testicles. Hey, come on. Hey, it's all good. What's up?
Yes. Tampa Bay. End of the season. Guy comes over. He's wincing like crazy.
I don't know what's going on. I thought he had a stomach problem like Izzo did. Next thing I know, we go into the locker room. He's getting undressed because he's in full pain and I'm right next to him. Well, he had a hernia and the fluid had leaked down into one of his testicles. And this thing was triple the size, like grapefruit size and black and blue. I was like, Oh my God, you need to go get that checked.
You need to get that checked immediately. So that is the testicle story. The dude had to get it drained and played with double jockstraps for the rest of the playoffs. I mean, Savage kept playing, kept playing legend. Pat Mahomes ain't doing that.
Not that we know of anyway. We have to have Kelsey tell us that story in a few years if he is. There he is. Matt Castle. Check out lots to say the podcast. Matt, love you, buddy. Talk to you soon.
You too, bro. I have so much pain just thinking about that. It's the craziest. The long form version of that story is like grapefruit and two jockstraps and continued playing. Like Tom Brady is that dude. Like I know I kid you because you love Tom Brady, but there's a reason Tom Brady is that dude because he's that dude. So check out lots to say. We're going to come back with Brandon Walker, who is tremendously entertaining when it comes to sports from Barstool.
Brandon Walker coming up next. This episode brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game, shifting a little money here, a little there, hoping it all works out? Well, with the Name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can get a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill, too. You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll help find you options within your budget. Try it today at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law.
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I got to bring this up since we haven't spoken. The cart, you know the cart, what I'm talking about, the cart. Oh yeah, my cart. What happened?
Did you go up to the cart and ask for a ride to take care of your business? What happened? I would never ask for a ride to the locker room. What happened?
People never ask for money too, but when you present it to me, I'm not going to say no to it. So I came off the field. I had come off the field two plays, three plays before that. I told my coach, hey, I got to take it number two.
You're not looking good. Then we got a first down and got close to the red zone. I was like, you know what, I'll hold it. So we end up scoring and I come back to the sideline and the head trainer and the head equipment guy was like, hey, there's a cart down there ready to take you into the locker room to go to the bathroom.
Because we're playing in Detroit and it is a hike from the locker room to the field and plus we're on the other side. So I was like, you know what, you can't miss an opportunity like this. So, you know, up the tunnel I went and the rest is history.
Just know I left my mark in Detroit. D.K., you gave a scare to everybody who loves you and roots for you. I mean, you know, seeing you carted, we're like, wait a minute, what's going on?
And then what a relief, you know, to use another analogy as well. I mean, did you have people after the game saying what the hell did you do that for? Everybody after the game was like, bro, don't scare us like that. I wasn't worried, so y'all should be worried. But I watched the video and I wasn't smiling on the way to the locker room. So that's probably why everybody was a little worried. Yeah, I mean, we saw the tweet. You're like that that clench walk wouldn't have made it. That's what you that's what you tweet.
And we were wearing white that game. I'm going to give you guys a story in a few minutes. Bobby for Rich. But I'm currently in a fight on Twitter with a guy who wants we're going to money pickleball game.
We have to fly to Cleveland to play him for like a thousand bucks. Yeah, I know the whole thing is as stupid. It's out of control.
I am unhealthily competitive and Castle brought it up. So I'll give it to you before we're done here. But yes, that is what's going on. Bobby Bones in for Rich Eisen. Thank you guys for being here. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen radio network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen show desk. My name is Bobby Bones, but this desk is furnished by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Granger has the right product for you.
Call click Granger.com or just stop by. There are people that you never actually have met, but either you watch them on Instagram, you listen to their podcast. Or however you consume them, you feel like you kind of know them and you relate to them and you like them or you hate them. And my relationship with this next guy started as hate because he's a big Mississippi State guy. I'm big Arkansas guy and he would just hate on Arkansas. But then I found a love because our teams are very similar as they just really don't win.
And there's the kind of that bond. But he's one of the most versatile personalities when it comes to sports. Please clap your hands for from Barstool, from the Mostly Sports Podcast with Mark Titus and Brandon Walker. It's Brandon Walker. Good to see you, buddy.
Thank you for coming on. Bobby, it started off as hate. Well, just because you would hate on Arkansas and I hate anybody that hates Arkansas. I have never hated on Arkansas. All I did was when Sam Pittman got hired, I identified, hey, I don't know if this guy's a long term answer. And Arkansas fans vilified me for it.
And, you know, we'll see if that ends up being the case or not. But I never hated on Arkansas. I view Arkansas, South Carolina, Mississippi State kind of in the same vein. They all kind of are struggling to keep up the pace with the rest of the great programs in the SEC. I can agree with you on that. But anytime anybody says anything about Arkansas that is not I love them, I take deep offense. No, no, no, Big Cat.
No. Big Cat from Barstool Sports is walking in. He's OK. All right. Thank you, Big Cat. I have a gigantic pencil and I'm supposed to take notes. OK. And notes on what?
I guess the interview with you right now, right here, right now on the Rich Eisen Show. So I've got this big pencil. See, it's funny because it's bigger than a normal sized pencil. It is. That's that's the joke.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Carrot Top. Carrot Top and Brandon Walker here on the Rich Eisen Show. We have a question about Dak is Dak. And we just had a whole Cowboys corner where the Cowboys fans on this show are sad. But Dak is your guy because I mean, that's the only time in my life I remember Mississippi State being number one is when they had back your feelings on Dak in general. And does your love of Dak roll into the Cowboys? I have four children and I love Dak more than all four of them.
2014 Mississippi State, who had never been ranked number one in the country, was number one for five glorious weeks from mid-October to mid-November when we lost in Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Dak Prescott is the reason that happened. It has been a love hate relationship ever since with Dak and the Cowboys because I've hated the Cowboys my entire life. I was when they won three out of four Super Bowls in the 90s.
That was 12, 13, 14 years old. So they were a dominant team during my formative years. I've always hated them, but I love Dak again as much as I love my children and it's been a complicated relationship and I still love him. I recognize he hasn't had the postseason success. So I now I understand why Cowboys fans might be put out with Dak, but they were they were like this when he was in year three. And now that it's year nine, year 10, he hasn't won a big playoff game yet. I understand it, but I will always love Dak.
I will die loving Dak and you cannot pry Dak from my cold dead fingers. Would you have paid Dak what the Cowboys paid him? And then how would you compare the two if we were to go to what the 49ers are dealing with with their quarterback situation? So in the NFL, if you do not pay your quarterback, you are absolutely putting yourself at the back of the line. There are a lot of quarterbacks who are on the lower end of, say, the top 10, the top 15, and they're getting paid. Every quarterback who is going to stay at a team for a while is going to get that gigantic, massive contract. So if you're not going to pay Dak, what are you going to do, Dallas? Are you going to get in line for a drafted quarterback? Are you going to take your shot at Chidor Sanders or Cam Ward?
I mean, those are those are absolute dice rolls at best. So Dak is a you know, he's going to be a good, solid regular season quarterback. And he's gotten to the postseason in times where his defense has failed him. And he's got to the postseason in times where he has failed the Cowboys. So I think he is a good enough quarterback to get to the Super Bowl.
I think it hasn't happened yet, but I think the Cowboys absolutely had to pay him. And if Cowboys fans want to whine because they're paying him, what do I care? Cowboys fans are going to whine anyway.
It doesn't matter. Whatever, whatever Latin life they have currently, they will whine. That's who they are. And compare Dak to what's happening in San Francisco right now where they're having a bit of a, I don't know, do we do we want to pay 50, 55 million dollars to a quarterback who maybe hasn't proved yet he can win? They're tearing it down and watching all their other good players go to the commanders, go elsewhere in the league. So they can pay a quarterback who hasn't proven he can do anything, who was Mr. Irrelevant. Brock Purdy has been a nice story, but is he the building block that's going to take them to the Super Bowl?
The answer is most likely no. But again, in the NFL, if you don't pay your quarterback, if you're too cheap to pay your quarterback, you are automatically saying, I don't care about competing in this league because the other option is being irrelevant at quarterback for a decade. Which was my point yesterday, where if you have a quarterback that you consider is going to be your guy for the next three, four years, you have to pay him because there is a large gap between having somebody pretty good and having nobody. We've seen it's not easy to have somebody that's even relatively successful or decent.
It's either you have garbage or you have something pretty good or above. And if you're pretty good or above and you're a Tua and you're a, you have to pay them the 50 million dollars. If you are a young quarterback coming into the league and you are trusted with a franchise, it is your job to get that big money second contract. That means you played well enough and were competitive enough to get that second contract. Now, once you get that big money contract, it becomes incumbent on the GM and the front office to surround you with the players. And they might have to go a little cheaper, might have to be a little better at their jobs, surround you with the players that get you to the position to win a Super Bowl. So Purdy has done his job, put himself in position. Now the 49ers have to figure it out financially.
But I don't blame Purdy or the Niners for doing it. Brandon Walker's on with us at BFW from Mostly Sports with Mark Titus and Brandon Walker. If you're the Titans, you have the number one pick.
What are you doing? I'm taking Cam Ward. I like Abdul Carter from Penn State. I think he is a game changing defensive end. I like Travis Hunter.
I'm not as big on Shader Sanders. I got Jackson Dardis QB too. But I think Cam Ward is the kind of boom or bust potential that if he hits, it is a franchise changing opportunity. This guy is going to come in and he's going to play his style of football. If it works, great.
If it doesn't, you know, you'll be here in this position in three years. But I like Cam Ward to have the ceiling that our number one pick requires. And I don't know if I see another quarterback in this draft that has that ceiling. Hot take with the Dart, especially being an Ole Miss guy. What do you see in Dart?
Maybe not that you don't see in Shader, but why would you rank him over Shader? I see, I still see the high end ceiling potential. I think he's also been coached to a very high level at Ole Miss from the quarterback. Listen, I hate Ole Miss. I'm a Mississippi State guy. You're an Arkansas guy. I don't know if you hate Ole Miss the way I do. I would hope that you do.
I would like to shake your hand on that. But I see in Jackson Dart a guy who is going to let it fly down the field, who has a big arm with big arm talent, has that confidence, that swagger, that everything. He's not going to be the number one pick.
He's not going to have that pressure. But he might be the number eight pick. He might be the number nine pick. And I think he has a lot of high end potential. He also, like I said with Cam Ward, I think he has a lot of bust potential, too.
So this could absolutely go wrong in a lot of ways. But I think Jackson Dart has a level to his game that I don't feel like Shader Sanders has. I have an absolute worst moment in football where we fumbled the ball and defeated against Tennessee.
It's Flint Starner. Yeah, we don't have to actually use names, but like I have that moment with Arkansas. Do you have one of those in Mississippi State? No, I have 23 dozen of those in Mississippi State.
What kind of question is that? My whole life is a moment like that. My entire life is Clint Starner dropping the ball in the England Stadium when you have Tennessee beat. Anyway, yeah, so there's Dak being undefeated and being number one in 2014. We roll into Tuscaloosa. Dak forgets how to play football for two and a half quarters.
Dan Mullen goes into a shell. We lose that when we lose the Egg Bowl that year. There's other times where Sugar Bowl's on the line.
Ole Miss comes in, beats us in the Egg Bowl. There's a ton of moments like this. Two thousand.
Two thousand is a great example. We're seven and one. We just beat Alabama 29 to seven. A terrible Arkansas team walks in, terrible weather, and they beat us. Like 14-10, something like that just ruins it. Every time Mississippi State gets to the zenith of the sport and the apex, they figure out a way to fall down just a little bit. And I'm not trying to throw stones. I think Arkansas, I mean, you guys are kind of similar.
You get right here, and when it comes time to take that next step, you just fall a little bit. Yeah, but you didn't have to say terrible. You could have just said an Arkansas team.
And this is when I don't think you realize that you would rub someone in a way. You could have said an Arkansas team comes in that maybe wasn't the favorite, but you chose the word terrible. So I'm just saying sometimes it takes a mirror to see why people- Mississippi State went two and ten last year. They were an objectively terrible football team. Whether I say it or not, it is the truth. And I don't remember Arkansas's record in 2000, so maybe that was unfair of me.
But in my mind that day, sitting in 13-degree weather, mad and cussing everybody, and calling my dad and saying, get me out of here, they felt terrible to me. Brandon Walker is on with us. Topics from today. Tush push. They're going to shelve it. Your thoughts on it.
What should happen with it? You know I'm a college football guy, Bobby. I know. And I'd like to applaud college football for not giving in to the insanity of the tush push because there's a lot of quarterbacks out there that would probably be their best play. But tush push is just something, if it were the LA Chargers or if it were the Denver Broncos or a team that was doing it and succeeding with it, I wouldn't be bothered.
But the fact that Philadelphia fans get to enjoy it and they want a Super Bowl and the inevitability of it happening every single time, I say get rid of it just to see the meltdown that comes from Philadelphia. That's what I say. Have you taken any notes on this interview so far? I have the pencil. Bobby is wearing some sort of maroon today, which I appreciate. So I got Bobby in maroon. I also had Bobby apparently good at pickleball. I wrote that down as well.
Apparently would be the word there or as you would use, terrible. So we have Brandon Walker on with us. So let's do this then.
Let's talk NIL. You get to fix it. Fix it. I don't think it needs to be fixed.
I think we just need to adjust to it. The biggest problem college football did, and if you look at NIL from a 40,000-foot view, all it really did was allow players to now get their value out of their college playing days. They were always getting scholarships. They were always getting a couple of little things. But now they are getting true value, especially the ones that generate millions and billions of dollars from the NCAA.
They're getting their value, and they're getting paid. Now, what the NCAA did wrong was they did about 25 years of changes to college football in about 18 months. They dropped the transfer portal, all pretense. They just dropped it on us. They dropped NIL on us. They dropped all these conference changes where now Cal and Stanford are playing in the ACC, and they busted out a 12-team playoff. They did all that in about 18 to 24 months. And usually it takes sports like college football 5, 10, 15 years to evolve and stuff like that. And we've been doing it at a breakneck pace, and we just haven't been able to stop and breathe and let regulations catch up to what is going on. Should the transfer portal and NIL be regulated, sure.
But I think NIL as a whole is good because the players who generate the money get the money, and that is good. I think you don't give yourself enough credit when you say you're a college football guy because I watch you. You are basically a savant when it comes to players, especially baseball as well. So I'll ask you a baseball question because I know you're a massive baseball fan. The torpedo bats, how many – any thoughts on – is everyone going to have them?
Are they going to change anything? What's up? I want to get my hands on a torpedo bat.
I want to see if it improves my job performance at all here at Barstool Sports. Again, this is another one. If it were anybody but the Yankees, I would be amused and everything, but the fact that it's the Yankees that have kind of made this thing explode, made me immediately put up a shield and say, no, Yankees, bad. But torpedo bats are something that comes along once every 5, 10 years in baseball, whether it's a new pitch, a new bat, a new whatever. Baseball is one of those sports that needs to be shaken up from time to time.
So anything that happens early in the season to get attention on baseball, especially with a lot of runs being scored, is good. And Rob Manfred, who is the worst commissioner in sports or the best commissioner in sports, will get it figured out. Who is the person at Barstool that you hate watching games with the most? Dave Portnoy. Dave Portnoy is a ridiculous Michigan fan. He doesn't know sports. He can't name three players that played on the Michigan team a couple of years ago. And he walks around.
He walks around with his chest poked out there. Oh, look at me. We won. We won. Yeah, you definitely won, Michigan.
You definitely did it the right way, too. I hate Dave Portnoy. I hate watching games with Dave Portnoy. I will say that, and Brandon just signed a new contract, and I watched the whole thing where he announced he was not signing, and then his son comes in and hits him from behind, knocks him down, big wrestling. He forces him to sign the contract. I'm super pumped that you're staying at Barstool. I assume now you're going to be very rich. I'm doing okay. My son is poised to do better than I am because things are going well for the Walker family. But I actually signed a contract back in December. Dave has always been super fair to me, and he's the one that gave me the opportunity at the big time a couple of years ago when I was just a sportswriter for 15 years, making nothing in the deep south. Dave came along, saved my life, and I signed with him about four months ago, and we ended up doing a storyline.
But it's been great at Barstool. My final question, give me your Mount Rushmore of Mississippi State Bulldog athletes of all time. I don't know if you've noticed the hoodie yet, but right here I've got a Will Clark hoodie on because I don't know who the Arkansas version of Will Clark would be, but I don't know, Big Nasty, Corliss Williamson, that was my first favorite Arkansas athlete. Anyway, it's Will Clark, Clark, Palmeiro, Dak, and it's either Bailey Howell or Dante Jones from the final four run in 1996. Big gap from three to four, though. Big gap.
It's a big gap. Well, Bailey Howell's a Hall of Fame basketball player that played for the Celtics in the 60s. And there's also some great, like Victoria Vivian's from the women's team that almost won a national title a couple of years ago. There's also a lot of other baseball players we could put there. Jake Mangum's the all-time leader in hits in the SEC. So there's a lot of guys, but yeah, that top three is pretty unassailable. And now Chris Jones with the Chiefs, he might be knocking on the door as well.
That's a strong one. Brandon Walker at BFW. Before Brandon goes, just real quick, I mean, Brandon, I know that you're a big wrestling guy just like me. Any WrestleMania thoughts as we're in wrestling season? I'm so excited about Cody Rhodes and John Cena. Whichever direction they go with Cody and John Cena is going to be awesome. Heel John Cena is something we've wanted forever. I remember being 17 years old, Hulk Hogan goes heel, and it changed my entire life. I became much more of a jerk after that, and I assume a lot of this generation will become jerks now that John Cena is one.
It's a moment that broke their heart. I love Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Seth Rollins. I don't know the direction they're going, but all three are remarkable sports entertainers, wrestlers, whatever you want to call them. I can't wait. I've been to two WrestleManias over the last three years.
I don't know if I'm going to this one, but it's my favorite time of the year. I mean, look, we've got the final four, the Masters, WrestleMania, back to back to back, and those three all fit together like a glove. How do you feel that neither of the Royal Rumble winners are in the main event, though? I don't get caught up in the legalistic view of wrestling. I don't get caught up in saying, well, this stipulation says this, so it has to happen. I let them take me wherever they want to story-wise. I am a gullible idiot, and I will say, hey, if you want to give me this as a main event and say that's a main event, whatever, I buy it.
I do like Jey Uso, and I think they really amped up his story yesterday when Gunther attacked his brother. RFP Jimmy. I don't really care so much where it is on the card. I just care that whenever it takes place on the card that it is good. Brandon Walker, I'm a big fan, buddy. Seriously, you're awesome at what you do. I'm a big fan of yours. Brandon Walker didn't know who I was, but I appreciate him saying this. Massive fan. You guys follow him. Yes, Brandon, go ahead. Do you want to say one more thing? Go ahead. I knew who you were.
Fair enough. First team all flow. I mean, nobody does hair like Brandon right now. I mean, this is almost Pellicero. This is almost Pellicero-like. It's up there. Thank you very much. Just better looking than Pellicero. I do have a hair spray girl right off camera, and she's done a great job today. Brandon Walker, thank you for your time.
Don't talk about Big Cat like that. Listen to Motor Sports with Mark Titus and Brandon Walker. We'll be right back. Welcome to AutoZone.
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Part of the spring sale at AutoZone. Restrictions apply. I'll tell people this. Troy Emmett and me, we never, never had a falling out. Never had an argument.
Never had a fight. Because we knew what it was like building it from the bottom. And that's the thing that made us as good as we were. We all knew what the mission was. And we all bought into the game plan of transforming an organization from one to 15 to a championship organization.
And Jimmy was at the helm of it. I knew once I got there what the expectations were going to be. I just did not know how difficult it was going to be to get all of that together. But through that whole entire process, we grew together. We matured together. We played at a high level together. And we lost together. We went through a lot together. And so that team itself was built inside out.
And it was built to go out and destroy whatever it was in front of. Now we competed at the highest level amongst ourselves. Which made us ready for anybody and anything that was out there.
That's why we were different. So people look at us and they ask us, how about the Caring Cowboys? They ain't going through this. They haven't had to deal with the 115. They don't even know what it's like.
And even going through the 115, I don't mind some of Jimmy's old tricks. You know, when we lost in Washington, we should have won the game. We lost in Washington. That poor lady was trying to feed us on the airplane. Jimmy said, you take that damn food and put it away. If they were hungry, they should have ate it on the football field.
And every away game, every away game, we get laid in the game. I used to come to the line and say, we're going to eat tonight. We're going to eat tonight.
Because you all know you all lose this game. Ain't no food. Ain't no food.
You know. So play for your supper. You eat five hours before the game. Just that you eat five hours before the game every day.
Now you play the game, you exhort, everything's gone. You want some food. You want some food. And if you didn't win that game, ain't no food. Wasn't no part of anything. Whoa, nothing. Nothing.
You got to ride the plane like that. The plane was quiet. The whole time back.
Nobody said a word. I'll never forget the one time, we did lose in Washington. But we was coming back. We may have been coming back from D.C. And there was a little noise on the plane. Poor Jimmy went off. He came back there. Went off.
He had just got done watching the live feed. He came back there, man, and Robert. I mean, everybody. Everybody here is on the block. Yeah, yeah. I'm not going to call out no names, but man. Everybody here is going to shut up and shut out. You say another word, I'm going to cut you before the plane lands. He said that? He said that. We sit back there like this.
Damn. So you get in the fourth quarter, you're like a joker. Hey, what y'all going to do now? We talking like you. You either whoop these jokers or we're going to deal with that joker. Let's go. And it was always easy just whooping their ass. Get on that plane and get us some heat. Exactly. It's one of those things where you better go outside and whoop somebody behind and they come back to the house and say, Mama, we did what we needed to do. Can we get something to eat now?
Can we get something to eat now? If you can, subscribe to our YouTube page, youtube.com slash Rich Eisen show on Instagram at rich Eisen show. So many clips go up.
These guys do a lot of a really great work at putting a, almost all of the show up in clips, but then the whole show up on the YouTube page. So go and check it out. And we do have some late breaking Cowboys news, which I'm very excited to share here.
All right. Thank you guys is Bobby bones in for rich eyes. And today don't let the urge to sing along to that catchy tune distract you from that truck drifting closer to you in your lane or that lane splitting biker creeping up beside you. Fortunately, every Hyundai offers advanced safety features that can alert you to potential dangers around you. And Hyundai has over 120 IIHS top safety awards since 2006, because Hyundai is always working to ensure the road doesn't get you.
Hyundai vehicles have won over 120 IIHS top safety awards from 2006 to 2024. So the kind of late ish breaking Cowboys news is Jerry Jones saying, Hey, you know, we're trying to negotiate with Micah Parsons, get that deal done. And, you know, one trying to negotiate directly with Micah, maybe not include the agent, you know, just kind of language to say.
And so this is what Mike has put up here now. Now first I'm going to go to Clarence Hill Jr. Because this is like a retweet here, but Clarence Hill Jr. Says Jerry Jones with the blatant disrespect to Micah Parsons agent. The agent is not a concern here. I don't know his name.
That's the quote. And so Micah Parsons comes out and says, Hey, David, his agent is the best. I will not be doing any deal without David involved. Like anyone with good sense. I hired experts for a reason. There is no one I trust more when it comes to negotiating contracts than David.
There will be no back doors in this contract negotiation. What the heck is happening right now? What, what, what Jerry just thinks he could just go to a player. Like what's happening? I, this is weird. This is why I'm saying like, I can't deal with this. I don't want to have to go like, okay. So Jason Feller, who was here yesterday, he came up, there was a contract somewhere to your right, Bobby that kind of relieves me of my Kate cowboy fandom.
It's in a folder down there to your right every day. I come closer and closer to just signing this thing and being like, I give up, never sign it, have your agent look at it first. I'll even tell you to do the same thing. Yeah. That is a crazy conversation happening right now on social media or even the fact that any executive would suggest, Hey, we'll just do this between us without your representation. That sounds weird. That's wild. Ah, the Cowboys love them.
Love me some Cowboys. Ah, quick story. And by the way, thank you guys for having me again. Thank you.
Well, actually everyone else said no. So you didn't have to let me in though. So thank you guys for letting me be a part of this.
Thanks to Rich for letting me host again. I'll give you a quick version of a story that Matt Castle referenced earlier. I was on Twitter. I posted a picture of me playing pickleball. This guy who I don't know, messages me and says, you look like you suck. That's all it was.
I didn't know anything about him. And I just replied back and I was like, some guy just randomly texted you. He said, you look like you suck at pickleball. Just based upon you looking like Buddy Holly.
It's just a vision from my glasses was the picture. And so I was like, well, I'll play you. I'll play for a thousand bucks.
Where are you? And he goes, I'm in Cleveland. And I'm like, let's set it up. We'll put it in a trust.
And so we're now negotiating the trip for me to go to Cleveland. I don't know what the guy looks like. I know he's a four year D one athlete who like wrestled in college and now in trains for Ironman. Like none of this pertains to pickleball. Well, and it's just like he's a troll.
So if I like go down fighting a troll, I feel pretty solid about going down fighting a troll. I dig it. Don't know what he looks like, but we have an attorney.
We're putting our money into a trust so no one gets ripped off. This is next level Chris. We're going to fly up to Cleveland and play this guy in pickleball for a thousand bucks. Will you please tag us in any video that comes out of this? You're braver than most. I need to follow bravery and being dumb or this very close. Thin line in the diagram. Yes.
Thin line. Thank you guys so much for having me. It's a pleasure. Super fun.
We're going back to Nashville. You can listen to Matt Castle and his podcast called Lots to Say. You can subscribe. Matt is the real star of that show.
I just kind of put him in places to succeed like you guys did me this last couple of days. So thank you very much. And follow at Rich Eisen Show to watch a bunch of the clips from today at Rich Eisen Show. And also flip the coin.
Both teams get a possession. I stand by it. Thank you guys.
We'll see you guys. Bye everybody. Pay time off.
See, you never had a real job. Give them Lala. It is nothing but honesty. You guys know. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.
