Speaker 1: Welcome to another Around the League podcast. I'm Greg Rosenthal
Speaker 1: alongside Chris Westling and Dan Hansas. Just heard our second
Speaker 1: theme song in two shows. Uh. That one we're calling
Speaker 1: the Batman theme song, and we're trying out a few
Speaker 1: different ones, so let us know which ones you like.
Speaker 1: It couldn't be any worse than the Barry White theme
Speaker 1: that we were using on Friday night. I actually I was,
Speaker 1: as you know, in Texas with the family and they said, oh,
Speaker 1: let's hear the podcast. So I started to play it,
Speaker 1: and as soon as the music came on, I cringed,
Speaker 1: and they all reacted as if there had been a
Speaker 1: mistake in the studio. But I said, listen, that was
Speaker 1: something that we're trying out, but I don't think we're
Speaker 1: gonna go with Barry White. Right. Well, the fans voted
Speaker 1: for Barry White, and I have to admit I was
Speaker 1: leading the charge, and you know if I'm willing to
Speaker 1: admit a mistake when it happened. So we're gonna try
Speaker 1: out Batman and we might try out another one. And
Speaker 1: we got to hear from all of you. Well today,
Speaker 1: Uh is a a special show. UH gotta do something
Speaker 1: a little different than what we normally do. We had Rich.
Speaker 1: We have Rich Eisen coming up in the podcast studio
Speaker 1: in just a few minutes, so really this show is
Speaker 1: gonna be mostly dedicated to talking to Rich. We just
Speaker 1: have a few minutes before uh he does join us.
Speaker 1: And uh, we also have a special guest here. I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know if he's special, but we
Speaker 1: have a guest here are regular producer Alex wilk an
Speaker 1: announcement today, I do have an announcement. Um. I was
Speaker 1: looking at my Twitter feed as I do most moments
Speaker 1: of my day, and uh, you go, and I noticed
Speaker 1: that one Crystal Rich of NFL dot Com was my
Speaker 1: three follower. And as a special prize to Crystal Rich,
Speaker 1: I'm giving her producing duties of the A t L Podcast.
Speaker 1: So I will no longer be on the A t
Speaker 1: L Podcast, at least for now. Maybe I'll make a
Speaker 1: special guest appearance later on. So it's not goodbye forever,
Speaker 1: it's just goodbye goodbye. So, I mean, we didn't think
Speaker 1: we could make it nine shows in, but we somehow
Speaker 1: made it this far, and and Wilkes already we mastered
Speaker 1: it in nine Crystal behind the Glass, Welcome Aboard great
Speaker 1: to be here. I can't wait to see the ratings skyrocket.
Speaker 1: Yes they will. The new queen of the A t
Speaker 1: L Podcast. Did you know that Crystal back in the
Speaker 1: old A t L Debate club days did have some
Speaker 1: role early on, So she's not a complete rookie. No,
Speaker 1: not dealing with around the league, but now Crystal on
Speaker 1: a semi or regular basis for the time being. So
Speaker 1: that's exciting regular, totally regularly on the totally regular. And
Speaker 1: Crystal doesn't mess around. I mean she's hitting us with
Speaker 1: the email, she's sitting us with plans. She means business,
Speaker 1: much more business A t L. Remember that loves I
Speaker 1: like to liken this to um like Ringo leaving the
Speaker 1: Beatles after I want to hold your hand. That's that's WILK.
Speaker 1: In this case, I think I'm mumping off the ship
Speaker 1: as the rocket is going straight into the A. I
Speaker 1: spink I might be the other Beatle that left even earlier.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna have rich On in just a few minutes.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna hit a couple football topics right before
Speaker 1: we get to them. We're just gonna make a quick
Speaker 1: tour around the quarterback battles in training camp. Chris, I
Speaker 1: think you watched more preseason football than any man in
Speaker 1: America this weekend. One of your assignments was the Jets. Um,
Speaker 1: what were your takeaways from that quarterback battle? Well, Sanchez
Speaker 1: started out as we would expect with the pick six,
Speaker 1: but rallied came back. Gino Smith really didn't look that
Speaker 1: good two, three and out on two or three stories, uh,
Speaker 1: two or three series. By the end of the game,
Speaker 1: it seemed like Sanchez had maybe gained momentum. Geno Smith
Speaker 1: is back practicing again, so we'll see what happens. Um.
Speaker 1: I think in any of these battles, the Jets is
Speaker 1: the hardest one to read because what we know about
Speaker 1: quarterback battles as you follow the money trail or the
Speaker 1: draft pick trail, and that works. When you have a
Speaker 1: coach who was hired by the g it really works.
Speaker 1: He can tell nine of a time wherever they're invested.
Speaker 1: That's that's how they're going to slant the competition. Uh,
Speaker 1: the coaches have control of basically how the competition is
Speaker 1: gonna play out with the Jets. You know we've we've
Speaker 1: repeated this. Rex Ryan and John Edzec do not have
Speaker 1: the same goal in mind here. Zec wants to see
Speaker 1: Gino Smith, I'm sure because he drafted him. Rex Ryan
Speaker 1: wants to win, so he might go with the veteran.
Speaker 1: But I think, um, I think Sanchez may have pulled
Speaker 1: ahead a little bit. It's funny that you said, I
Speaker 1: agree with you too, notwithstanding that horrific pick six, which
Speaker 1: I got to see again this morning and it almost
Speaker 1: turned my stomach. But you know, we it seemed early
Speaker 1: on in training camp that Gino was heading towards the job,
Speaker 1: and now it seems as if Sanchez is back in
Speaker 1: front because Smith just doesn't seem like he's ready and
Speaker 1: now he's got an ankle injury. I'm also, by the way,
Speaker 1: excited that the first and only time Wilkes in the studio,
Speaker 1: we're talking jets will least favorite topic and he and
Speaker 1: he's taking off his headphones and just this enjoying the
Speaker 1: show as a fan at this and he's walking out
Speaker 1: and he goes into the sunset a hero. He's gonna
Speaker 1: miss all the glory days of the Around the League
Speaker 1: podcast to come. Yeah, I think I think uh Santa
Speaker 1: is probably the leader right now, but it's early, and
Speaker 1: I think that was similar with all the quarterback battles
Speaker 1: this weekend, really Jacksonville, neither one stood out, but Blaine
Speaker 1: Gabbert kind of stood out in the wrong way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he definitely stood out for inaptitude. Nineteen attempts, Oh no,
Speaker 1: what was it? Ten attempts nineteen yards? That stuff to
Speaker 1: do in the NFL one nine yards per tempt. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: when you're when your yards per attempt is lower um
Speaker 1: than your yards per carry as a quarterback, you're in trouble.
Speaker 1: So we don't have a big takeaway there. The Eagles,
Speaker 1: I think Michael Vick kind of held serve. Looked very good.
Speaker 1: There's no reason to think he won't win the job
Speaker 1: if he continues playing well, and he looked very good.
Speaker 1: And then Buffalo was the other interesting one. Kevin Cobb
Speaker 1: didn't play this week, but we got to look at
Speaker 1: E J. Manuel a little bit on Sunday, Chris, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought the results were mixed. What we what we
Speaker 1: can take from that game is that the Bills are
Speaker 1: going to be one of the run heaviest teams in
Speaker 1: the league. And if Manual gets the job, which I
Speaker 1: expect him to, they're just going to manage him his
Speaker 1: first year. They're gonna run the ball. They're gonna They're
Speaker 1: gonna ej Manuel is gonna throw short passes, might take
Speaker 1: a few chances downfield every once in a while, but
Speaker 1: this is not going to be something where Manuel is
Speaker 1: gonna come in and do what the rookie quarterbacks did
Speaker 1: last year. I just want to say to everyone that's
Speaker 1: getting excited about this. I've read some things of seeing
Speaker 1: some things about e j Manuel. What a great first
Speaker 1: perform Are you watching the same game? It was? He
Speaker 1: didn't move the offense until the Colds third string defense
Speaker 1: was in there. Hype down. It was twenty one attempts
Speaker 1: for a hundred and six yards. That's not good. That's
Speaker 1: that's the blame. Gabbard zone. He did nothing wrong, He
Speaker 1: did nothing too exciting. He moved the ball in a
Speaker 1: nice two minute drill against the third stringers. But it's
Speaker 1: the same thing we talked about with the Browns last week,
Speaker 1: that they're just looking for something to get excited about.
Speaker 1: Expectations are awfully low in several cities, and him in America,
Speaker 1: the Buffalo fans, they deserve hope. So you know, even
Speaker 1: though maybe the performance wasn't necessarily dynamic, he was he
Speaker 1: didn't you know bomb either, So there are things to
Speaker 1: take out of that game, but let's not get carried away.
Speaker 1: I agree. Now he was fine, and if he is
Speaker 1: fine throughout the preseason, I expect him to be the starter,
Speaker 1: just because everything else about him. I think they love
Speaker 1: the intangibles, the leadership, and so if he's just okay
Speaker 1: and doesn't doesn't really mess up, I think he'll be
Speaker 1: the guy. I'm excited about our next guest, our first
Speaker 1: guest into the Around the League podcast studios. We are
Speaker 1: pleased to be joined by Rich eisen Rich, just past
Speaker 1: his ten million podcast download We've just hit ten downloads.
Speaker 1: That's fine. You got to start from somewhere, man, you
Speaker 1: gotta start from somewhere. Well, you are the sense of
Speaker 1: podcasts out here. Maybe out here. I don't know why.
Speaker 1: I was the first to do one here, and it
Speaker 1: was fun just to attempt it, and it's just taken
Speaker 1: on a life of its own, and you know, I
Speaker 1: I love doing it. It's just, you know, it's difficult
Speaker 1: to go back to the day job, for lack of
Speaker 1: better phrase, when the producers in your ears saying, you know,
Speaker 1: two minutes left, three minutes left, or you've got to
Speaker 1: um share the rock with all of your analysts and UM,
Speaker 1: it's a different format, but I love this one. I
Speaker 1: love it. I've I've been lucky enough. I've sat behind
Speaker 1: the glass for are the around the League blog and
Speaker 1: listen to some whether you had Mayok on the phone
Speaker 1: or other guests. And I can't thank you enough by
Speaker 1: the way, you guys have been spectacular. The downloads have clearly,
Speaker 1: I believe, have clearly gone up ever since your your
Speaker 1: unit was created, and I meant that figuratively. UM. And
Speaker 1: you know what you guys have done in terms of
Speaker 1: your writing style and how you uh, how you post
Speaker 1: your material, it really has been great. So not to
Speaker 1: interrupt you, but thank you for that. No, well that
Speaker 1: thank you very much. But yeah, my point was is that,
Speaker 1: you know, I remember you saying on one of the
Speaker 1: podcasts I was sitting in on how this was your baby?
Speaker 1: How the I guess, And I guess that ties into
Speaker 1: what you're saying, Yeah it is. I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: you know, obviously my name's on it and UM, and
Speaker 1: it's something that um with what we do for a living, UM,
Speaker 1: who are I guess, for the lack of a better phrase,
Speaker 1: content creators with what we do. UM, to be able
Speaker 1: to have a forum in which you decide what you're
Speaker 1: going to talk about and who you're having on as guests,
Speaker 1: and how you put it all together and execute the
Speaker 1: game plan, UM as your own producer, it's really a blessing.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's been great seeing other podcasts created
Speaker 1: under the NFL Media label. UM, and I just look
Speaker 1: forward to the technology catching up with what we're doing here.
Speaker 1: And so when you guys have a podcast, it you know,
Speaker 1: directs people to mind and vice versa. And you know,
Speaker 1: we're we're still as a unit here, uh, getting used
Speaker 1: to that, and UM, you know, we're still we're still
Speaker 1: young on the podcast front, certainly compared to what other
Speaker 1: people are across the industry are doing. And it's just
Speaker 1: fun to see. It's just fun to see more and
Speaker 1: more of them come up. So what would your advice
Speaker 1: be for us? Just stop its futile. It's futile. It's futile.
Speaker 1: It's got nothing to do with with what I do
Speaker 1: or anything here. It's just you know, no, I mean,
Speaker 1: just um, enjoy it. You guys clearly are enjoying what
Speaker 1: you're doing. That's obvious, right, right. I mean, we're trying
Speaker 1: to bring it just downstairs. We're talking all day about
Speaker 1: these stories. So if we can just bring that upstairs,
Speaker 1: that that's it. Well, you know, in in in all honesty,
Speaker 1: that's what p t I is. Who was Its two
Speaker 1: guys sitting in a newsroom who are wildly entertaining and
Speaker 1: extremely well informed and spectacular friends, um and taking that
Speaker 1: and finding the proper format and a superb producer and
Speaker 1: producing staff actually that they have their at p t I.
Speaker 1: I know, the guys who put that together. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's really one of those rare instances in our industry
Speaker 1: where it all clicks on every cylinder and you've got uh,
Speaker 1: really talented people at every spot on the program, on
Speaker 1: and off the air, so and that and and that's
Speaker 1: what we do. I mean some of the most fun
Speaker 1: exchanges happen in the newsroom. I didn't think about that
Speaker 1: with p t I. But yeah, that's the organic Uh
Speaker 1: and Corneiser known each other for forever in a day,
Speaker 1: and and the way they would act towards one another
Speaker 1: off the air and probably in the newsroom. Just put
Speaker 1: that on television, but find a way to do it
Speaker 1: with the rundown and you know, and the characters and
Speaker 1: the and the concept with the clock and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: It's not too far removed from just sticking a microphone
Speaker 1: between them. Is they're going about their day. Well, that's
Speaker 1: what they've tried to do, and they've they certainly replicated that.
Speaker 1: So I feel like we could talk about I have
Speaker 1: so many questions I want to ask you. We only
Speaker 1: have so much time for the other. The other day
Speaker 1: you had Larry David on, which is great. I feel
Speaker 1: like you could have Larry David on me too. It
Speaker 1: would just be I could list that guy is outstanding.
Speaker 1: I love his offensive philosophy. You asked a four down guy.
Speaker 1: He's a four down guy, which isn't that crazy? You know?
Speaker 1: Well it's not, you know, it's not. That's why he
Speaker 1: says that every two minute drills are so successful, is
Speaker 1: that there's no you don't have you throw out your
Speaker 1: conscience when it's fourth down because you have to do it.
Speaker 1: You know, you use all four downs. So it makes
Speaker 1: sense that one and that in a way if you
Speaker 1: think it's what Chip Kelly is doing, not not in
Speaker 1: the fat and that he won't punt, or that he
Speaker 1: has no conscience, but it's just basically like every down
Speaker 1: is one to put the pedal to the metal. It's
Speaker 1: sort of a Madden way of playing the game. And
Speaker 1: I don't talk about John Madden, the individual or the
Speaker 1: video game. So maybe Larry's Maybe Larry's at the forefront here.
Speaker 1: You asked him about if he was commissioner for a day. Yes,
Speaker 1: you know what would he? I threw him on that one,
Speaker 1: kind of tapped in on that one. Yeah, I want
Speaker 1: to know, because I know you have some strong thoughts
Speaker 1: about the rules and regulation the league, what you would do,
Speaker 1: because well, I don't know. I'm sort of like a
Speaker 1: Red Sox fan after they won the World Series. I
Speaker 1: got nothing. I got no windmills to tilt at right now.
Speaker 1: Once the once the the talk rule got thrown out,
Speaker 1: you know, um that that to me was an abomination
Speaker 1: because the idea of talking the football and concluding that
Speaker 1: that's part of the throwing the pass um action, to
Speaker 1: me made no sense because you're talking of football. That's
Speaker 1: the clearest indication that you no longer intend to throw it,
Speaker 1: and you are now trying to do something else other
Speaker 1: than throw it. So finally, I'm glad that the league
Speaker 1: caught up when I was putting down for so long.
Speaker 1: From a common sense perspective, yes, um, you know to me, um,
Speaker 1: it would be reviewing more penalty ease. Now. I understand
Speaker 1: that they want to have the flow of the game
Speaker 1: going on, but reviewing the helmet to helmet contact call
Speaker 1: that should be reviewable that because officials are out there
Speaker 1: trying to err on the side of player safety, and um,
Speaker 1: so they're gonna throw flags when they think they see it.
Speaker 1: But so many times the helmet is touching a shoulder pad,
Speaker 1: or the shoulder pad is touching the helmet, and we're
Speaker 1: not seeing the clashing of face masks that the referees
Speaker 1: thought they saw in real time at an absurd rate
Speaker 1: of speed. And those fifteen yard penalties are drive killers
Speaker 1: or there they they alter or they drive um accelerators,
Speaker 1: and it alters an outcome because more often than not,
Speaker 1: fifteen yard penalties when they are assessed, let's put it
Speaker 1: this w they're assessed in the favor of the offense.
Speaker 1: I would proffer to say a large percentage of those
Speaker 1: drives are gonna result in points. And so I think
Speaker 1: saying let's pause a minute, go under the helmet and
Speaker 1: really see if these helmets collided, I would love to
Speaker 1: see that, but that's nonstarter with every person I talked
Speaker 1: to in the NFL because it's a Pandora's box. If
Speaker 1: the plays and if the flags not called, and the
Speaker 1: coach believes there there was helmet helmet contact, will we
Speaker 1: allow that coach to throw the flag to challenge it now?
Speaker 1: And how many other penalties are you're going to allow
Speaker 1: that for? Because they want these games to be played
Speaker 1: in a timely fashion as opposed to sitting and pausing
Speaker 1: and having a guy run under a hood, which I
Speaker 1: spoke to Dean Blandino this week, just give him, give
Speaker 1: him a tablet. You know why why does the guy
Speaker 1: on the field need to I talked about it? Is
Speaker 1: that because here's why I've mentioned this all the time
Speaker 1: to to pooh bahs folks up our float chart here.
Speaker 1: Coaches want to have the referee on the field be
Speaker 1: part of the process because they want to look the
Speaker 1: guy in the eye of who's making this decision. They
Speaker 1: don't want it to be like college where some guy,
Speaker 1: some you know, retiree who isn't dead practice or isn't
Speaker 1: up to the game speed, who's up above the field
Speaker 1: and hasn't really been boots on the ground literally and figuratively,
Speaker 1: like college make these decisions because they want to look
Speaker 1: the eye and referee to face what did you see?
Speaker 1: You can't have a referee come back at them with
Speaker 1: a call they don't want to hear. That is so crucial.
Speaker 1: Let's basically say, I don't know. You have to ask
Speaker 1: him upstairs. And I've said many times that the league
Speaker 1: should be like what the NHL does, where they make
Speaker 1: the call from their head quarters in New York City.
Speaker 1: Just do it. Just own the process. And that way,
Speaker 1: Dean Blandino, the VP, could just be called over, Hey, Boss,
Speaker 1: something's going on in Buffalo. You need to stand here
Speaker 1: and hope that something also doesn't happen at the same
Speaker 1: time in Cleveland. And that would require his presence as well.
Speaker 1: But you just trained somebody in New York to make
Speaker 1: these calls. That way, the league owns the call and
Speaker 1: can't say, well, what happened at the game was wrong,
Speaker 1: and we are now sending out a press release admitting
Speaker 1: that a mistake was made. All of that happened, All
Speaker 1: of that just boils down to a coach in the
Speaker 1: NFL wants to look the eye, see the eye, look
Speaker 1: the guy who's making this decision right in the face,
Speaker 1: and have an answer. And that's part of why there
Speaker 1: was so much going on with the replacement refs, where
Speaker 1: there was a lot of arguing and a lot of
Speaker 1: coaches out by the numbers and a lot of uh
Speaker 1: coaches losing their steam. The modern day Lombardi touching an
Speaker 1: official is because they did not trust the person they
Speaker 1: were looking in the eye to have done a competent
Speaker 1: enough job, because they didn't even think that that person
Speaker 1: they were looking in the eye even could uh run
Speaker 1: the game. Forget about knowing the rule book, just just
Speaker 1: actually uh run a game. It's kind of hard to
Speaker 1: even like think about that and realize that that happened
Speaker 1: less half twelve months ago. It was almost surreal, especially after,
Speaker 1: of course the fail mary to think that that was
Speaker 1: happening on such a grand stage. So, yeah, but that's
Speaker 1: what I would change, Yeah, you know, I would do that. Um,
Speaker 1: I have a question changing gears a little bit, going
Speaker 1: back to Rich Eyes and the NFL network guy. So
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, you come on, and so ten
Speaker 1: years this ten years, this tenure, well, I mean it
Speaker 1: was ten years ago right now. I had just come
Speaker 1: back from the fort anniversary of the Pro Football Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame, where I went with Eric Weinberger and Charles Complin,
Speaker 1: who's now with the NHL Network. He was the head
Speaker 1: of our pro gramming department back then. The three of
Speaker 1: us and maybe one other person whose name escapes me,
Speaker 1: we went there and uh, we went there to shoot
Speaker 1: a couple of interviews UM with many of the returning
Speaker 1: Hall of famers with the list Fort was equally as
Speaker 1: impressive as the list for perhaps even more so because
Speaker 1: of the old old school folks who have since passed
Speaker 1: were walking around there. One of them Merlin Olsen, for instance,
Speaker 1: who as I told when I am c the jack
Speaker 1: at dinner this week. Sitting down for those sets of interviews,
Speaker 1: we we set up of some director's chairs in the
Speaker 1: bust room and UH interviewed. Had three sets of interviews,
Speaker 1: one with coaches, one with quarterbacks, and one with the
Speaker 1: hardest hitters. And we had the for the hardest hitters
Speaker 1: was Ronnie Lott, Merlin Olson, and Lawrence Taylor who never showed,
Speaker 1: so it was just me, Merlin and Ronnie Lott. And
Speaker 1: I asked, Merlin Olson, what's the just you ever hit somebody,
Speaker 1: And he said, without a question, it was Jim Brown.
Speaker 1: I hit him so hard that we were talking all
Speaker 1: week long when the Browns were coming to the l
Speaker 1: A policy and that we just had to we had
Speaker 1: to hit him. All of us were talking about Deacon
Speaker 1: and Rosie and you know, Lamar, all of them were
Speaker 1: talking about they had to take care of Jim Brown.
Speaker 1: So sure enough, Jim Brown comes around the end one
Speaker 1: play and and Merlin's got the clearest shot he's had
Speaker 1: in his entire life in the playing field, and he
Speaker 1: unloaded on Jim Brown. And he said he had visions
Speaker 1: of Jim Brown's eyes rolling in the back of his head.
Speaker 1: Hit him so hard, and he got up, looked up
Speaker 1: and saw Jim going another seventy yards five time. And
Speaker 1: that story, he told me that shoot, and it's still
Speaker 1: the maybe the best story I've ever been told, a
Speaker 1: lot of fun stories. But we were there, and I
Speaker 1: remember people were coming up to him saying, so what
Speaker 1: is this NFL network we're hearing about? Because we didn't
Speaker 1: go on the air until November week ten of the
Speaker 1: two thousand three season. And um, you know, because to
Speaker 1: the credit of those who are putting this network together.
Speaker 1: They understood we gotta get our ducks in a row.
Speaker 1: We don't have to be ready week one. If we're
Speaker 1: not ready, we're not going. So they made a decision.
Speaker 1: I don't know why or who, you have to ask others,
Speaker 1: but Week ten, the Tuesday of week ten, November four,
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, we went on the air. And
Speaker 1: so a lot of people, this was August oh three.
Speaker 1: Didn't you know we were on the air. They even know,
Speaker 1: And there was a lot of the league employees were
Speaker 1: coming up to me because they were they knew I
Speaker 1: had been hired from Sports Center to do this, and like,
Speaker 1: tell me what's going on? And I'm like, I sort
Speaker 1: of don't know myself, you know, I just got to
Speaker 1: figure out what I'm doing for these interviews, which we,
Speaker 1: by the way, kept in the can for an entire
Speaker 1: calendar year. We didn't air them until the summer of
Speaker 1: oh four. We made some shows out of it, so uh,
Speaker 1: some of us, including myself, could fly from l A
Speaker 1: to Ohio to anchor our coverage from there because we
Speaker 1: didn't have somebody else to do it. So we we
Speaker 1: put those shows on the air. It's like a de
Speaker 1: facto total access um and hope that news didn't break,
Speaker 1: which we did a lot of in the first in
Speaker 1: the in the first days. Then so you were you're
Speaker 1: obviously you've been the face of our coverage for every
Speaker 1: major event, just a face. But I appreciate you. You
Speaker 1: had your own ad campaign to start out, let's be
Speaker 1: real hit. That's pretty sweet. Hasn't happened since, but that's okay.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean this the Super Bowl blackout, you know,
Speaker 1: that brought to mind the pressures that come with live TV,
Speaker 1: and I guess we were downstairs talking about what are
Speaker 1: we gonna ask Rich And one thing we were curious
Speaker 1: about was the trickiest moment you ever had to deal
Speaker 1: with on air in the past ten years here on
Speaker 1: the air. Trickiest moment, um, some of them have to be,
Speaker 1: you know, when we're on Live TV and um in
Speaker 1: uh at the games. One that leaps to mind was
Speaker 1: our first year we were in Atlanta and it's Cowboys
Speaker 1: and the Falcons on a Saturday night and um in
Speaker 1: two thousand six and I come out of the locker room,
Speaker 1: um or are I come out of our green room there,
Speaker 1: which is in one of the corners of the end zone.
Speaker 1: In Uh in the Georgia Dome on the Falcon side
Speaker 1: of the field, and somebody who I didn't know from
Speaker 1: the Falcons comes running up to me saying, D'Angelo Hall.
Speaker 1: Uh says, t O spit in his face, and do
Speaker 1: you have video of it? Um? I have no idea
Speaker 1: what you're talking about. I know I saw D'Angelo Hall
Speaker 1: go sort of, you know, ape on the sideline get
Speaker 1: really upset, but I have no idea what it is.
Speaker 1: And UM, sure enough, UM, it apparently had happened. One
Speaker 1: of our of our twenty cameras didn't see it, and
Speaker 1: we're on the air after the game. Cut two a
Speaker 1: half later, it's on the air after the game, and
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Hall says as much um in his postgame comments,
Speaker 1: and then terall Owens, in his postgame comments admitted he
Speaker 1: did in fact do that. And now the Cowboys won
Speaker 1: the game, and it's now time for our postgame guest.
Speaker 1: Who is it going to be? It's tarall Owens, and
Speaker 1: uh one of us has to get up from the
Speaker 1: seat to make room for him. Because if we had
Speaker 1: a really small set back, some Marshall Falk volunteered. Um.
Speaker 1: I've never asked him I think Marshall gladly got up
Speaker 1: as opposed to sitting with tarall Owens. I don't want
Speaker 1: to talk for him, but it struck me that he
Speaker 1: was more than happy to vacate, to vacate the premises.
Speaker 1: Michael was not with us yet, so it was just
Speaker 1: me and um Mooch and uh Dion with tarall Owens.
Speaker 1: And as I see Taryll approaching in a golf cart, Um,
Speaker 1: I just lean over and just wondered too, you know,
Speaker 1: some of the simplest questions that some of the best
Speaker 1: questions are the simple ones. I turned to Marryuchi and
Speaker 1: I say to him, I'm like, have you spoken to
Speaker 1: t O since you left San Francisco? And he goes nope,
Speaker 1: And here comes tarall Owens walking up on live TV.
Speaker 1: Hadn't spoken a word to the guy you know who
Speaker 1: suspended him from the Star and all that stuff in
Speaker 1: the Sharpie and all that business, and Um, who had
Speaker 1: just done something absurd in the game, had to ask
Speaker 1: about all of that stuff. And it was awkward. It
Speaker 1: was awkward and by the way, interesting enough. That night
Speaker 1: was the last win for Bill Parcels as a head
Speaker 1: coach in the NFL. He left Dallas after that year,
Speaker 1: and uh, it was his last win his Cowboys head coach.
Speaker 1: They eventually made the playoffs and that's when the Romo
Speaker 1: bad Snap happened. They lasted, They lost their last couple
Speaker 1: of games that year. So that was subsequently because you know,
Speaker 1: Bill had never coached again. I mean, he did go
Speaker 1: to to Miami, but um, you know, interesting enough. And
Speaker 1: then there was another one last year where in Seattle
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago where Urban sort of um
Speaker 1: uh defended Shawn Jackson, even though as you remember, in
Speaker 1: that game that was the one Vince Young started and
Speaker 1: the Dream Team had fallen a complete crap and Deshaun
Speaker 1: was half running routes and narrow it down a little
Speaker 1: bit more, no, no, I know, a Thursday night game,
Speaker 1: and and and and in a way, Irvin was sort
Speaker 1: of giving the Deshaun point of view. And I argued
Speaker 1: with Michael on the air, and it got it got
Speaker 1: it got heated, and it got a little bit awkward.
Speaker 1: But you know, the beautiful thing about Michael is that
Speaker 1: he understands what I'm attempting to do on the air,
Speaker 1: and that we have such a mutual respect and love
Speaker 1: for one another that none of us are trying to
Speaker 1: make points with the viewers at the expense of the other.
Speaker 1: And everybody who I work with on the air here
Speaker 1: knows that. Michael, especially who was at my wedding and
Speaker 1: oh three, because he worked with my wife at Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Net years before and she ran into him in
Speaker 1: New York City a couple of days before we got married,
Speaker 1: asked him to come. He said he would and showed
Speaker 1: up in an electric blue tuxedo and was the talk
Speaker 1: of the wedding thereafter, where all my friends are coming
Speaker 1: up to me saying, was that Michael Irvin sitting back
Speaker 1: because for the reception you just he did come just
Speaker 1: watch us get married, which is pretty cool us. When
Speaker 1: those moments are happening, there's got to be a part
Speaker 1: of you that steps out outside yourself and realizes, like
Speaker 1: it's good to Like when Joe Flacco was with you
Speaker 1: guys after the Super Bowl? Are you are you kind
Speaker 1: of sitting there just inside being like, well, those are
Speaker 1: my favorite moments. Greg. You know, we we've been we've
Speaker 1: been on that, I mean ever since our first Super
Speaker 1: Bowl was the Patriots and m Panthers in Houston, and
Speaker 1: we you know, we were just eleven weeks old, and
Speaker 1: we sensed what we could do at that Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: We were the league was fully behind us. They distributed
Speaker 1: as fully in all the the media buses and in
Speaker 1: the convention Center and all the hotels. That was really
Speaker 1: our coming out party where people because we were only
Speaker 1: on in direct TV when we started, in various other
Speaker 1: small cable outlets, probably about twelve million homes. And um,
Speaker 1: you know, we we really we got some great guests
Speaker 1: and you know, to be very honest, uh kick some
Speaker 1: serious asks that week, to the point where my previous
Speaker 1: employer had sent a couple of producers to our set
Speaker 1: in the Convention Center to ask some of our guests
Speaker 1: if they would come to their set afterwards. And we
Speaker 1: were just eleven weeks old, and we had George Bush Sr.
Speaker 1: That was booked by Bob McNair at tag lee Bus request.
Speaker 1: And Brett Farve came on UM. This was the season
Speaker 1: in which his father had passed away, and the season
Speaker 1: ended with him being picked in Philadelphia by Brian Dawkins
Speaker 1: in the playoff game. And he hadn't hadn't been UM
Speaker 1: interviewed since and he came on, and you know, and
Speaker 1: Eric Weinberger our executive producers always had the knack for
Speaker 1: taking the guest and surrounding the guest with people that
Speaker 1: he's either played with before, was on our staff, or
Speaker 1: players who he goes out who were out of the
Speaker 1: playoffs and invites to be correspondents or you know, guest analysts. So, uh,
Speaker 1: we had Farv on that set on that show. To
Speaker 1: his right was uh Sterling Sharp who's been with us
Speaker 1: since day one, and to his left was guest analyst
Speaker 1: Warren Sat And um, you know, and far basically was
Speaker 1: immediately relaxed on the set because Terrell Davis was there too.
Speaker 1: He was just beginning to kick the tires on the
Speaker 1: TV business. And you know, and t d was the
Speaker 1: guy who who denied him the second Super Bowl in
Speaker 1: San Diego. He was the m v P of that
Speaker 1: game who I believe was the one who scored when
Speaker 1: Holmgren let Denver score at the end of the game
Speaker 1: so they could get the ball back. Um. So there's
Speaker 1: TV sitting on the set and in between Farv and
Speaker 1: Sap and he taps uh Sterling on the knees says
Speaker 1: you you raised me, and tap Sap on the knee
Speaker 1: and said you aged me. And those are the great
Speaker 1: moments where on the fly on the wall. And then
Speaker 1: later that week, this the week ended with Solomon Wilcos
Speaker 1: and I running onto the You know we didn't, I
Speaker 1: mean we were already I was on the field for
Speaker 1: the last three minutes of that game. It's also a
Speaker 1: moment where I realized, just you know, how good Tom
Speaker 1: Brady is. Also, as he was moving the Patriots down
Speaker 1: the field, forget another minitary game winner, and every time
Speaker 1: he let loose the football, they're moving away from us.
Speaker 1: For standing in the end zone. Uh, as he released
Speaker 1: the football, he was throwing it directly to a Carolina
Speaker 1: panther each time, and with every last split second, one
Speaker 1: of his receivers came running right into that spot and
Speaker 1: caught the ball in a perfect spot. And after two
Speaker 1: or three times, I realized, oh okay, Tom Brady was
Speaker 1: exactly what he's doing. He's running his offense and trusting
Speaker 1: his receivers to be in the spot. Which is why
Speaker 1: the Chad Johnson's of the world did who go there?
Speaker 1: Brandon Lloyd's of the world don't succeed because if you're
Speaker 1: one yard off on your route, Tom Brady is not
Speaker 1: going to look your way again. So that's why it
Speaker 1: works with the Troy Browns of the world. And I'm
Speaker 1: learned that right from the get go. Long story short, Um,
Speaker 1: the game's over and we run out on the field
Speaker 1: with director's chairs and Solomon and I were there, and
Speaker 1: it was the first post game show we ever had
Speaker 1: in the history of the network. And we've done that
Speaker 1: in some form of fashion after every Super Bowl and
Speaker 1: the guests that we get afterwards, we didn't get too
Speaker 1: much of. Bob Kraft stopped by with the trophy that time,
Speaker 1: but we didn't get anybody like our first coach to
Speaker 1: sit down because we got Belichick the first two years
Speaker 1: and he did Berman and not us, God bless him. Um.
Speaker 1: The first coach we got was a Cower. It was
Speaker 1: a year three of our Super Bowl after they beat Seattle,
Speaker 1: and we got Bettest. But Roethlisberger didn't come by because,
Speaker 1: as you remember, he didn't statistically do very well and
Speaker 1: I don't think he was gonna be He didn't want
Speaker 1: to put himself out there after that game. So the
Speaker 1: first quarterback we got in our post game after Super
Speaker 1: Bowl was Eli manning Um after beating the the previously
Speaker 1: undefeated Patriots, because the following year we didn't get Peyton either,
Speaker 1: you know, six Peyton did not come by, um um,
Speaker 1: but we got Eli and oh seven and the people
Speaker 1: we get. I mean, I'll remember to you know, Sean
Speaker 1: Payton came after winning that game, and he was he
Speaker 1: hit my hands so hard when I just extended it
Speaker 1: to shake it. He thought I was like trying to
Speaker 1: slap him, and he just hit me so hard. My
Speaker 1: hands stung for the entire interview. Just just these guys
Speaker 1: coming and so flat. I guess I'm I'm long in
Speaker 1: the mouth now. But Flacco coming on afterwards, Ed Reid
Speaker 1: came on, was essentially crying, and those are the moments
Speaker 1: where you just have to shut up and let it
Speaker 1: play out and have Flacco essentially say stuff like, you know,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to get paid, you know, which is
Speaker 1: sort of out of character for him. And so the
Speaker 1: network has always been really proactive and getting us on
Speaker 1: the field right after the game and getting those great moments,
Speaker 1: and I'm just so lucky to be in the middle
Speaker 1: of it. Well, we could talk to you all day,
Speaker 1: but I know, uh, we're short on time, and uh,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you coming by, and you didn't even get
Speaker 1: a question. I know, well you want to do all that.
Speaker 1: I don't know. So Richie and I just met last week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm in this chair because one day, six seven years ago,
Speaker 1: I'm feeling squirrely. Send Greg rosenthow an email. Okay, he
Speaker 1: happened to be receptive that day. You know, he's in
Speaker 1: a good mood at that point in I like this
Speaker 1: Westling origin story. So this is how I'm kind of like,
Speaker 1: that's how I ended up here. I know you have
Speaker 1: something where you're doing your Northern exposure thing in the
Speaker 1: California mails and uh, you get an email from ESPN,
Speaker 1: So did your life just change overnight? I didn't get
Speaker 1: an email or phone call. I got a phone call.
Speaker 1: I worked at KRCRTV, uh, the ABC affiliate in the
Speaker 1: Reading Chico market. Um, and I'm last man. It was great. Uh.
Speaker 1: There's a long time employee of that operation fella named
Speaker 1: Mike Mangus. Who is it was a long time uh
Speaker 1: sports director. Um, he's now one of them. I guess
Speaker 1: he's doing the news as well as sports up there.
Speaker 1: One of the sweetest guys I've ever met. Um who
Speaker 1: and I mean we are from two completely different backgrounds.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, I love the guy and he
Speaker 1: looked out for me. I'm sure he saved my job
Speaker 1: a couple of times with some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: I said on the air up there, just because I
Speaker 1: thought it was just a way to get noticed or
Speaker 1: as I want to get on Sports Center in the
Speaker 1: worst way, you know, that's what I former stand up comics.
Speaker 1: I wanted to get the you know, I did some
Speaker 1: of the I probably stepped out of bounds a couple
Speaker 1: of times on YouTube somewhere now there. I when there
Speaker 1: was a baseball strike and they used replacement players, I
Speaker 1: uh called them all scabs. You know, I'm from I'm
Speaker 1: from a year Well I did, I did, but but
Speaker 1: this is documented I did, duh. My big finish was
Speaker 1: doing the Penthouse Forums and Howard Cosell's voice. Um so
Speaker 1: I did that for years. Um but any rate, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I called it scab ball. I even put the word
Speaker 1: scab ball over the over the as a graphic. It was.
Speaker 1: It was not my finest moment, you know. To there
Speaker 1: are a couple of the things too that I would
Speaker 1: just say on the air, and I left my resume
Speaker 1: and the copy machine once happened that really did in
Speaker 1: fact happen. Um, but any rate, I I sent a
Speaker 1: tape to a head hunter and um it was one
Speaker 1: of those phones systems in reading where the phone would
Speaker 1: ring twice for an outside call for long distance call,
Speaker 1: and me being from New York, it was pretty much
Speaker 1: when my parents and my brother called and I got
Speaker 1: a ring ring and it was from an agent at
Speaker 1: the William Morris agency saying that, uh, he had heard
Speaker 1: I was the hottest up and coming sportscaster in America.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, if you say so, brother, because I
Speaker 1: am not feeling so hot. You know, I gotta go
Speaker 1: drive forty five minutes to cover you know, X, Y
Speaker 1: and Z with my three quarter inch equipment that was
Speaker 1: attached to a deck by this fat coaxial cable, and UM,
Speaker 1: I wasn't feeling that. Let's put it that way. And
Speaker 1: he's like, send me this tape that I'm hearing so
Speaker 1: much about. Okay. So I called my brother who lived
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles at the time. I'm like, you never
Speaker 1: guess this phone call. I just got this incredible So
Speaker 1: I told him about it, and then fifteen minutes later,
Speaker 1: the ring ring happens again, and I thought to myself
Speaker 1: watch them such hot. You know what, Um, that's Al Jaffee,
Speaker 1: that will be ESPN on the phone. And sure enough
Speaker 1: it was in fact Al Jaffee, who is the you
Speaker 1: know talent uh pooh bah or as they called him,
Speaker 1: the Kingmaker. Um, he's the one who found kilborn in Salinas, California.
Speaker 1: Was he the Robert Gillome character on Sports Night? The
Speaker 1: Robert Guillaume character on Sports Night? Was the sports director
Speaker 1: of it? And there you know, I got a funny
Speaker 1: story about that one too. Um, if you want to,
Speaker 1: I'll hear that one. Um. But just to finish this story,
Speaker 1: is that um, you know I am. I thought my
Speaker 1: brother had called my buddies from Staten Island to say,
Speaker 1: you know, Rich just got this call from an agent,
Speaker 1: call him out and say you're Auld Jaffey from ESPN.
Speaker 1: Will totally buy it. So I almost carpet f bombed
Speaker 1: Jaffey and uh, because I didn't believe it. Then I
Speaker 1: realized it really was him. And I tried out um
Speaker 1: for Sports Center in January of nine, and I remember
Speaker 1: I stayed in the Radisson Hotel across the street from Bristol,
Speaker 1: which is I think a different Hotel Now, and I
Speaker 1: watched Dan and Keith do a Sunday night Sports Center,
Speaker 1: figuring out I should just watch that before I try
Speaker 1: out the next day. And I'm glad I did because
Speaker 1: the same tapes they used for that show they used
Speaker 1: for my thing. So a couple of things that I
Speaker 1: when I watched the Danny Keith Big Show, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I would have done it this way, and I actually
Speaker 1: got the chance to do it that way. So I
Speaker 1: was a little more prepared um for my audition, and
Speaker 1: then I started in the middle of uh February of
Speaker 1: My first Sports Center was a March something of Larry Beale,
Speaker 1: Sir Lawrence, and Beale was my co actor. But at
Speaker 1: any rate, what is my my Robert Gillome story? You
Speaker 1: know they because they you know, Sports Night was an
Speaker 1: ABC show. Um, a friend of my podcast, Josh Charles,
Speaker 1: who've met many times since then. He's real deal by
Speaker 1: the way, I mean seriously, like he will start telling
Speaker 1: you about how thin they are and at its second
Speaker 1: string and various positions on the field and means it.
Speaker 1: He's the real deal. Um. And so you know they
Speaker 1: would say to you, uh at Bristol, you know, we
Speaker 1: would get filled a ton of phone calls from media
Speaker 1: critics wondering if this is real or not? Like how
Speaker 1: real is Sports Night? And Aaron Sorkin came up one
Speaker 1: time and had us all in a room, like eight
Speaker 1: of us and picked our brains tell him like he
Speaker 1: downloaded all of our favorite stories. So like the the
Speaker 1: famous uh Steve Levy moment where he said that Randy
Speaker 1: Johnson talking about his back problems, that Randy Johnson was
Speaker 1: out with a bulging dick, he said, and he was
Speaker 1: doing that show with Olberman, and and Alberman's was on.
Speaker 1: Oberman was on camera next after that reader, and they
Speaker 1: cut to Keith, whose glasses were off and his face
Speaker 1: was buried in his hand, and he waved the camera
Speaker 1: back wordlessly to Steve Leaving as one of the all
Speaker 1: time great sports center moments that um, he incorporated that
Speaker 1: I think in Sports Night by saying that you know
Speaker 1: there was a story about that, and um, and there's
Speaker 1: the prompter that the that they need to fix the
Speaker 1: word disc because the letters are trying like he did
Speaker 1: it in in a way that was suitable for network television,
Speaker 1: And um, I believe it was me or if somebody
Speaker 1: else told him a story that in the old Sports
Speaker 1: Centers video when it rained, there was a leak in
Speaker 1: the roof. So there's many times you're doing highlights or
Speaker 1: even on Cameron the uh water which rip on top
Speaker 1: of your feet, on your head and you'd feel it
Speaker 1: dripped down your your head and you couldn't break stride
Speaker 1: because you're on camera. I mean that happened. So there
Speaker 1: was a Sports Night episode where it leaked. Um. But
Speaker 1: I mean if you remember Sports Night, they're in their
Speaker 1: glass encased office Ivory Tower in Midtown Manhattan, and we
Speaker 1: live and you know, uh prefabricated cubicle Bristol Country. And
Speaker 1: that's part of why the Sports Center commercials work so much,
Speaker 1: is the perception and reality of working for Sports Center
Speaker 1: and what people see what ESPN is, um, you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't job. So they always take you backstage and
Speaker 1: that this is Sports Center in the cubicles where you're
Speaker 1: on the phone or ordering pizza or something like that
Speaker 1: and those sports That's why those Sports Center commercials work.
Speaker 1: Long story short is um So they called us up
Speaker 1: and all these Washington Post, New York Times, how real
Speaker 1: is it? So I got a call from Bristol PR saying, well,
Speaker 1: The l A. Times wants to do a story on
Speaker 1: Sports Night, and I want to know how real is it?
Speaker 1: And you two things, It's an ABC Disney show, so
Speaker 1: you can't bash the show if you don't like it.
Speaker 1: And two as you can't bash Bristol, you can't bash Bristol,
Speaker 1: So can you do that? And I'm like, no problem,
Speaker 1: I can handle it. So they asked me what's the
Speaker 1: main difference, and I said, it's pretty much the same,
Speaker 1: except we don't have Benson running around here telling us
Speaker 1: what to do. And sure enough, one of my proud
Speaker 1: moments is they pulled that quote underneath my picture in
Speaker 1: The l A Times, next to a photo of Robert
Speaker 1: g Holme, which it's the typical no one can ever
Speaker 1: take that away from me situation. I'm glad Wesling got
Speaker 1: his question in. Yeah, that's good. Well, you guys know
Speaker 1: where I am, so we can do this any other time.
Speaker 1: We will take you up on that. Thank you, No,
Speaker 1: thank you too. Thanks again. What you guys do is
Speaker 1: really entertaining to read, and now that you're bringing it
Speaker 1: to a podcast, it's it's pretty neat. Thank you for
Speaker 1: Rich Eyes and Chris Westling and Dan Hansis. I'm Greg Rosenthal.
Speaker 1: That's it.