Former NFL Running Back Marshawn Lynch

0:00Hey Chicago! Class it up with Crocs. You know back to school is coming in fast. So why wait to find your new fave footwear? Step into a local Crocs store and step into your new look. Try it. Style it. Make it yours. Because the right pair doesn't just show up, it shows off. First day fits, handled. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest Crocs store today. This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So, you were scrolling on Marketplace, and there it was, the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist.

0:44The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer, find more on Facebook. This is the Rich Eisen Show. That's like an alarm clock. Woo-woo! With guest host, O'Shea Jackson Jr. Oh my gosh, I'm a 5 '11 quarterback, and I just got drafted in the first round. The Johnny Manziel that I watched on TV, I would think he'd be like, yeah, of course I'm going to the Cleveland, and I'm going to be that guy. Earlier on the show, WWE superstar Jacob Fatu. Coming up.

1:24MMA and boxing journalist Ariel Helwani. Super Bowl champion running back Marshawn Lynch. Actor and recording artist Ice Cube. And now, sitting in for Rich, O'Shea Jackson Jr. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to The Rich Eisen Show. I am film and television's O'Shea Jackson Jr., filling in for Rich. You might remember me from stuff like Straight Outta Compton. Yeah, I saw that. The Den of Thieves franchise. guys. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Godzilla, and I don't die in any of those movies. It's been really good. How did you pull that off? Did you write that in your contract or what? It's part of his writer.

2:04So far, it's been really good. I'll actually give you a little insight on Cocaine Bear, though. Yes, that movie. Right? The way that I got Cocaine Bear was I saw a tweet on Twitter, as I am every day. That's his thing. And I see Elizabeth Banks gets the rights to cocaine bear. Now, I think this movie is going to be about some drug runner that they call the bear. And so I click it and I read it. And no, not at all. It's about a bear. You know, it's about a bear who might have ingested. It's so funny. Yeah, some of, you know, the devil's sugar. Sure. Boka sugar. Yeah. And it goes on a rampage. And I retweeted that.

2:48And I told them, take my money now. Elizabeth Banks sees this Elizabeth Banks talks to my people she's like you want to be in it I'm like all right send me the script so she sends me the script and I couldn't help but notice and this is why I love Elizabeth Banks forever couldn't help but notice on page 96 Daveed my character died oh didn't like that man so I called her and I told her this she goes you don't want to die I said no not really she said what if there's a sequel let me call you back about five minutes goes by and she goes we made carrie russell a nurse in the movie she'll just save you it's fine i don't die i'm on my way to ireland baby now guys another friend of mine friend of the show the dude is the he is the the man mixed martial arts man of montreal and a d1 tyrese halliburton hater ladies and gentlemen welcome there you go look at this yeah that's right my guy O'Shea now I do want to let you know you said at the beginning there friend of the show let the record show Mr.

3:55Jackson I haven't been on this program in quite some time I don't know if Rich has a shadow ban on me or something but the invites haven't exactly been rolling through so number one I am only here for one reason and one reason only and that's because my guy O'Shea Jackson texted me last night now he probably you know struck out with a few guests and then was in a pinch, but that's all well and good. Let it also be known, let it also be known that when I had O'Shea Jackson Jr. on my program, the critically acclaimed Ariel Hawane show, Monday through Wednesday, I had to go through 36 layers of PR people just to get him on the program.

4:28You text me yesterday, how quickly do I respond yes? Like five seconds? Immediate, bro. Immediate. Yeah, and dude, you've been so, you know, when I was first going to do my first episode of the Noah contest wrestling podcast with my man TJ Jefferson. Shout out TJ Jefferson. He looks great. We sat next to each other at Wrestlemania in Philly. Oh, when we were all freezing to death? Yeah, when we were all freezing that night. Oh, that was terrible. That was terrible. Don't feel bad. O'Shea doesn't text us back. Yeah, that's true. I'm good with O'Shea. It's Rich that I have a problem with. All of a sudden, I'm pushing on grata to Mr.

5:06Eisen. I mean, what have I done to this guy? And to the rest of you as well, the whole squad. I thought we were cool i used to come on all the time it was great for me i got the rub i thought i'm a friend of the family zach rosenfield jerry silbowitz i'm a friend of the family shout out to jerome and ariel's an orange man man ariel we're cool right we were at school at the same time and didn't know each other that's how big syracuse is yeah or maybe i was just a huge loser who would stay in my dorm and watch pro wrestling all day and didn't really interact with anyone one of the two one of the two you would have found Brotman playing intramural hoop cereal so that's where he was at he was in the gym dude Syracuse that's gotta be crazy going to school in New York it was very cold yeah I couldn't imagine bro I mean you know fight on USC all day it's pretty warm pretty lovely but dude you've always looked out for me I remember the first episode we were doing it of no contest wrestling I called you get some advice from you you know and you lended me your ears so I appreciate you being here man And there's lots of news over at TKO.

6:12There's a lot of things happening over there. You got the UFC with a crazy deal going to Paramount. And then, of course, WWE going to ESPN. Can you imagine that, guys? A show just picking up and just having to go to ESPN? Yeah, what's that like? That's crazy. That's crazy. I guess we're going to find out. We'll find out in a couple weeks. in a couple weeks. Yeah, kind of break all that down for us a little bit. I think UFC got paid, what,$7.7 billion or something? $7.7 billion. What does it mean, Ariel? We're lost in the sauce. Yo, what a time. As you said, what a time for TKO, because in addition to all of that, and I'll get to all of that, they also have their first boxing show going down September 13th in Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium on Netflix, of all places, Canelo Alvarez against Terrence Crawford.

7:01So TKO really is the center of the combat sports universe. Yeah, that UFC deal, well, they start, you know, last week with the WWE deal. No one saw this coming. You know, we all suspected, I'm sure you did as well, once the Peacock deal was up in mid-2026, they would just pick that up and bring it over to Netflix to put all the PLEs there. Because around the entire universe, whether you're in France, England, Canada, all the shows, meaning Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and the PLEs are on Netflix. It's only in the United States that it's cut up like this. And so once the Peacock PLE deal was done, I think we all thought they were just going to bring it over to Netflix.

7:40No, no, no. What happens? They bring it over to ESPN starting next year. So it's 10 shows, 12 events because there's the WrestleMania two-nighter and the SummerSlam two-nighter, and they get around$325 or so million a year for that. That's unbelievable. Just for those shows, no vault, no library included. That's an incredible, incredible deal that no one saw coming. And then when I saw that, I said, OK, that just means the UFC is going back to ESPN. The UFC deal is up at the end of 2025. I felt like that was just confirmation. And then we wake up on Monday and find out, no, not only is the UFC not going back to ESPN, but we all thought as well they would split up their deal.

8:17Meaning just like WWE has it among Netflix and USA and CW, just like the NBA has it on ESPN and NBC and Prime. I thought for the first time ever, UFC would split up their deal to get the most amount of money. I thought they would get a billion dollars a year in rights fees, but I thought it would be divided among two or three outlets. In the end, it's one point one billion a year from one outlet, Paramount, who's now the exclusive home starting in 2026 of the UFC. By the way, want to know how much they made off that deal? Their previous deal with ESPN was five fifty a year. So they've gone from five fifty a year to one point one billion a year.

8:52And then the big news for the fans is no more pay-per-view. And so they were the last ones left essentially consistently on pay-per-view. But now they're going the way of WWE, which is all those numbered shows like the one we have tomorrow in Chicago, UFC 319. That is all going to be on Paramount Plus. And they'll have approximately four big shows, 10 poll events on CBS in addition to Paramount Plus. So it's a seismic deal. It's a massive deal. And it puts them in the top five category of biggest rights fees deals in the United States for all of the major sports. So no more pay-per-views for UFC?

9:27Starting in 2026. So there's five left, including tomorrow. Those are on ESPN Plus exclusively. But yeah, starting 2026, right now, the two tiers on Paramount Plus,$7.99 with ads,$12.99 without. I can almost guarantee you that's going to go up because they just paid a heck of a lot of money for it. But as of right now, they're touting the fact no more pay-per-view and you could get it for either$8 or$13. The sequence of events is fascinating. We probably don't even have enough time to go through it all because, you know, we know about the settlement with Donald Trump, the president of the United States and CBS.

10:02Then shortly thereafter, Skydance and Paramount have this merger that finally goes through, is hitting some roadblocks. I wonder if one has anything to do with the other. And then I wonder if the UFC's relationship with Donald Trump has anything to do with the fact that immediately after that, they announced this deal. I mean, it's just it's almost too coincidental. and oh by the way one of the first things that they promote when they announce this deal is on CBS on July 4th on the White House freaking lawn on the U.S.'s 250th birthday there's going to be a UFC event there so it just it kind of all feels like one led to the other which what a time man what a time to be living in wow and remember guys he's not saying anything it's just a crazy coincidence crazy coincidence that's all it's just a crazy coincidence Ariel I heard you talking about this on another show.

10:49What does this mean for the fighters themselves? Are they going to get any cut of this? Like it's$7.7 billion. You think some of that would trickle down to the actual talent? Yeah, you would think so. So like, you know, you guys come from a traditional sports mindset, right? So you know that when the NBA gets a big TV deal, the salary cap goes up and you know that the players get 50 % of the revenue. Just talking about the NBA, NFL, similar type of deal. baseball players do well all that stuff and more there's no salary cap in in uh in mma and in the ufc in particular none of that exists so technically the ufc is not beholden to raise anything one would think that yeah okay this is going to be good for the fighters they're now making double but uh as of right now we don't know the answer to that question and it's so crazy because the ufc likes to say like we're just like everyone else we're a major league sport and in many respects they are but then when dana white is asked by the media on tuesday at a press conference okay what does this mean for the fighters because we know that paramount's going to benefit from this they're now the exclusive home of the ufc we know the ufc is definitely benefiting from this we know the fans are benefiting from this because it's now a lot cheaper to be a ufc fan but what about the guys who actually put their lives on the line how do they benefit from it dana likes to say like oh more people are going to watch them are they really is is paramount bigger than espn slash abc certainly not on social media certainly like we broke it down the the espn family of social media accounts, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, all equals out to 300 million subs slash followers.

12:16The CBS family of social media accounts equals out to approximately 32 million subs slash followers. And we all know everyone's on their phones. So they're going to lose a lot as far as I think like a presence and a footprint is concerned. Dana says that they're going to up the bonuses as a result of this. So currently they give out four bonuses at the end of every night for two for fight of the night and then two for the best performances. Currently, it's 50K a night. He says they're going to up it. No one asked them the obvious follow-up, which was by how much? Because technically it could be by a buck or 5K or 10K.

12:48I think it should be double because they're making double. And then what about the base pay? The base pay right now is 12 and 12. When you enter the UFC, you get 12 to show, 12 to win. Well, does that go up to 15, 15? What about 20, 20? And then what about the champions who get pay-per-view points? And what I mean by that is tomorrow night, Drikas Duplessis, the middleweight champion of the world, he's defending his title against Hamza Chemaev. He gets a cut of the pay-per-view regardless of the number. He participates in the pay-per-view revenue. Now that there's no more pay-per-view, what about those champions who the great incentive to become champions to now participate in the pay-per-view revenue?

13:22That's now gone. So are they going to be taken care of? Dana says yes. His response is we've got smart people in accounting that will figure this out. it's not quite Adam Silver talking about the CBA, but I guess the fighters are about to find out how it's going to affect them. Now, I mean, I hear that and I start to think like, well, you knew when this deal was going to go down. It's not worked out yet. It's not anywhere in place that you can even speak on it yet. You got a pay-per-view, you said tomorrow, right? It's five left, right? Yep, yep. Five left and then the deal happens. So realistically, he has that amount of time before, you know, questions can really start spiraling against him.

14:02But yeah, that's definitely something to watch. Now, the WWE being split up, that's for sure got to be more expensive for its fandom as far as they have to have multiple apps in order to to see every event. I actually think that this is better for the WWE fans. What has transpired here? I mean, obviously, if it's in one spot, that's easiest. But okay, let's talk about Netflix. I mean, most people on the planet these days, I would say, have Netflix. And by now, if you're a WWE fan, you have Netflix. And that seems to be working out. Then you've got SmackDown on USA. If you were a WWE fan, you already had USA because Raw was on there forever.

14:42And if you're an NXT fan as well, that's on CW. And that's kind of essentially like free to air, right? And so now, WWE going to ESPN, who would have thought in the year 2026, WWE is on ESPN and UFC and boxing, at least as of right now, isn't on ESPN because the top-ranked deal just expired. And to the best of my knowledge, so they wanted it to be a part of their new DTC platform that they're unveiling on August 21st. So in six days from now, which is essentially for 30 bucks, even if you don't have cable, you could get all the ESPN family and networks. You could get everything under the sun, including the Rich Eisen program, which is coming over in September.

15:19You know yourself, number one. thank you for that no no my pleasure my pleasure please send that to the boys in Bristol for me um so so so that's great and and and now what we don't know is it's not going to be behind a paywall like the UFC was so if you get that for 30 bucks you're getting everything if you already have cable and and you're just you know a guy like me who has direct tv and you have ESPN plus already you're getting that as well so it's not like they're the UFC was so it was there was no sports entity on the planet that is asking, at least as of right now, for more money than its fans, than the UFC, because the UFC was not only asking you here in America to pay the whatever it is, $13.99,$14.99 to be a plus subscriber.

16:00In addition to that, O'Shea, you had to pay$79.99 for the pay-per-views every single month. So it was costing around a thousand a year. Sometimes it's twice a month a show. That's a lot. Like in October, there's two pay-per-views in the span of three weeks so I think for everyone even though there's all these apps and it's getting a little crazy I think both WWE and UFC fans should be pretty happy about what's to come in 2026 so take that Twitter because man the pitchforks came out but before you know we're running a little low on time this is exactly what I needed from you so thank you who do you have coming up after me no one big Buffalo Bills star Marshawn Lynch bro yeah my guy beast mode himself.

16:47He'll always be a Bill in my opinion. I want to give you a no contest wrestling question right here because you've been a fan for a long time of pro wrestling. I want to know when did wrestling break your heart? I'll tell you the first time that I remember feeling truly what a great question by the way because that like goes that goes deep into the childhood memories right? I will never forget and it's actually one of my favorite WrestleManias because of this because that's when I feel like I truly fell in love. WrestleMania 4, Atlantic City, there was a battle royal with all the sort of like mid-tier guys.

17:24And I loved the Hart Foundation because I loved the pink. I loved the outfit. I loved the heart attack. I loved the sort of like power of Jim D 'Anvil Nightheart and the finesse of Bret Hart. And I kind of felt like Bret was so cool that he could sort of do this on his own. At the time, he was still a part of the Hart foundation and it comes down to him and bad news brown if you recall bad news brown with the ghetto blaster he was a mean mean guy and that finish blew my mind because as it played out brett thinks he won uh bad news brown kind of hides in the back brett is the last one in the ring he's celebrating and there's bad news brown who at the time in the middle of the match they were both heels so they were actually helping each other out and teaming up on people they were in cahoots he turns on him hits him with the ghetto blaster throws him out of the ring and bad news brown wins the uh the battle royal i was heartbroken because i thought this was like brett's this is brett's big moment this is his first time as a singles guy getting a big moment getting the spotlight on him and truly and this is the brilliance of pro wrestling as you know that's when i fell in love with bret hart that's when he became my my first favorite athlete that's when he became my guy i adored him till this day i adore him i used to be such a big fan of his o'shea that when i was a kid and i would go to the doctor's office and i would be afraid to get a shot my mom would tell me think of something that makes you happy and i would close my eyes and think of bret hart winning the world title because he hadn't done so yet that's where i would go that's what the excellence of execution means to me my man yes man that man amazing answer dude dude we gotta have you on on our pod i will let Rich know that you need more invitations around here.

19:05Ariel Hawane, everybody. Yes, sir. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much, bro. Thank you, guys. Go Bills. Much love. Propaganda. New York propaganda. All right, guys. It's time for Beast Mode. All right, so after this break, we're going to be here with Marshawn Lynch. Ugh. Come on. Rich Eisen here. Running a small business means every hire matters. A bad hire costs time and money, but the right one helps your business grow. The challenge? Finding that person without sorting through resumes. That's where LinkedIn Hiring Pro comes in. It screens candidates so you can focus on conversations with qualified talent.

19:48With Hiring Pro, you can hire with confidence and build the team you need. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to higher. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Eisen. Terms and conditions apply. Rich Eisen here. We talk a lot about battles in sports. Teams battling through adversity. Athletes fighting for every yard. The toughest warriors I've ever seen, though, aren't on the field. They're kids fighting cancer. They're families standing beside them. Doctors, nurses, caregivers. That's why I'm proud to support Hyundai Hope on Wheels. For over 28 years, they've helped fund pediatric cancer research, raising more than$303 million and supporting over 40 ,000 children.

20:26Learn more and donate at HyundaiUSA.com backslash hope on wheels. Rich Eisen here with some advice. If high interest credit card debt is grinding you down, it might be time to call an audible with a SoFi personal loan. It consolidates your debt into one low monthly payment with no fees required. And with as soon as the same day funding, you can make the right play fast. Call an audible on your debt today at SoFi.com slash debt play. Loans originated by SoFi Bank N.A. Member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. NMLS 696891. Fast funds terms apply at SoFi.com slash debt play. What is it like when you're back there, you know you're going to get it.

21:05The eight in the box or nine in the box that you see knows you're going to get it. Yeah. And you know you're going to give it to them. Yeah. And they know you're going to give it to them. What is that like for you? I just love the game. I love having the ball in my hands, and I love making plays. And I don't know. It's just the game, man. Like that feeling when everybody knows and I can't stop it. It's just an indescribable feeling, man. And that's just speaking for us as a team. And, you know, I just love the game. I know you're smiling. You're just smiling as you're saying this. It must be an amazing feeling to have that ability.

21:49Derek Henry here on the Rich Eisen Show. Did you hear what Earl Thomas said before the divisional playoff game in Baltimore, saying that the Patriots didn't want to tackle you, but they were going to have a different approach? Oh, yeah, I've seen it everywhere. Everybody was sending it to me. Everybody was showing it to me. Yeah, I've seen it everywhere. Okay, so now later on, you're in Baltimore. You get the ball. You're on the edge. Did you know that was Earl Thomas that was coming for you? Yes, definitely knew that was Earl Thomas. Did you give him a second shove because it was Earl Thomas?

22:17Yes. I was wondering. Because you gave him one in the front, and you gave him one slightly unnecessary one in the back. But what's so funny about that is I was so focused on giving him another shove that I ran myself out of bounds. So the first time he kind of turned around, and I could have turned up field, but I was so focused on this, like, giving him a shove that I ran myself out of bounds. But yeah, I definitely did that because of that. So then the last question is, was it worth it to run yourself out of bounds? I think it was, yeah. Derrick Henry here on The Rich Eisen Show. Yes, I thought so, too, that you were in the moment, like, okay, I remember this.

23:02I see who's coming at me. And again, I love Earl Thomas. I think he's going to have a bust in the Hall of Fame one day. Yeah, me too. But everybody's, you're an equal opportunity, everybody gets some type runner. Exactly.

23:17Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network.

23:24So far, we've had a pretty good episode so far. We've had some hot guests. My man Jacob Fatu called in. Ariel Hawane called in. I might owe him a favor. I'm going to have to get back to him on that. But right now, in studio, we got a champion. We got a man who represents California more than a bear on the flag. Ladies and gentlemen, Beast Mode, Marshawn. Yes. Wow. More than the bear on the flag. Yeah, bro. Why don't you just replace the bear with you, Marshawn. We don't know thing like this. You rep hard, and we appreciate you. You know, the real Californians, man. We see you out there doing your thing.

24:11Yeah, man, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. That's big. Like, I ain't, you know, I ain't know the, so they active right now too? Yes, sir. All the people that's behind you? Yeah, we're active. Mics are hot. All right, yeah, that's different. All right. All right. All right. Yeah, so you look back and say, you were like surprised I was behind you. I'm like, oh, we're good. We're good. Me and my man TJ, we do, we do, that's what I do my wrestling podcast with. Okay. That's my tag team partner right there. Chris Brockman, he a Patriots fan. We're not going to put him on. TJ a Cowboy fan, too.

24:51I mean, why you throwing this all in? Because I was a Ram fan on his show, and he got at me. So everybody got to get it. Everybody got to get it. We weren't going to bring this up, but since you did. Yeah, bro. Come on, man. If we're going to have Marshawn, we got to be open. He talking Super Bowl. I know. Yeah, exactly. I know he's going to say anything out of respect. I know another question from Marshawn, and I think the first question should be, if I may jump in here. Absolutely. Marshawn. What's happening? What would have happened? Yeah. Had you got the football. Just confirm this for all of us.

25:30Confirm this. Confirm for all of us. I already know what would have happened. What you mean, who knows? I'm just saying, who knows? Listen, I'm going to go with the guy who got me to the two. you know I'm gonna give him the ball a few times you and in our household at least you know during that situation because my mother big Seahawks fans shout out to you mom but uh yeah she is real dude we were like yeah it's because he doing that so he don't get fined so he don't get fined because if he went Super Bowl MVP which it if you would have got that that would have went to you they couldn't have you at the press conference for the MVP talking about I'm just here so I don't get fined, so let's find another.

26:13But I'm going to be honest with you, like, you know what I mean? Through all of it, I don't know if I get the same love that I have been getting now. Because there's a lot of people, I guess, empathize with me because of it. Now, I mean, yeah, I'm going to get that bar, I'm going to run like a mother******. That's what I do, but at the same time, connect with me the same way. Right. Even though they was rocking with me before, but because you don't, you get that kind of villain, that little empathize with you type situation. I mean, I think it was big for all of us, though. Yeah, I mean, it's as far as because I just wanted my mama to win another one.

27:05You know, that first Super Bowl against the Broncos, she didn't worry about a thing. Now that game was over in the first quarter. She probably had the most fun watching football she ever had. It just was like, oh, another one, another one, another one. I know. We talk about that. I think they got like the highest scoring. Like the differential? Offense ever. that offense that we was playing against. So to come out there and see that they, you know what I mean, had that fumble in the end zone first drive, like, oh, yeah, they in trouble. But our defense. The lead's in a boom. Yes, sir. Still probably one of the best.

27:52Well, that was the year, like you said, that was the year Peyton Manning, 55 touchdowns, their offense was record-breaking. They were blowing everybody out. And then you guys, Super Bowl, what was it, 41-8 or something, whatever that was? By the way, fantasy got that Peyton Manning squad. But, you know, that's why you don't play past the Super Bowl. But, bro, you've been not only there, but, you know, my mom was a Seahawks fan because of a coach that, you know, has lore here in Los Angeles, Pete Carroll. You know? And I know as much as you are Seahawks, we're going to talk about how much of a Bills you are.