Hour 1: Guest Host Seth Rollins, plus Super Bowl XVII Champion Joe Theismann

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1:23Now, on with the show. Pump up the volume This is the Rich Eisen Show With guest host WWE superstar Seth Rollins God, I love that guy Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles Today's guests Super Bowl champion quarterback Joe Theismann Apple TV MLS play-by-play announcer Max Pretos Comedian Brad Williams And now, sitting in for Rich It's Seth Rollins.

1:58Yo. Guys, we're back. Yeah. We're back. All right. Nearly a year removed from the scene of the crime. The last time I was in this chair. Oh, man. I had a knee brace on. Yeah, you did. There were crutches hiding out over there somewhere. I was hobbling around here Lying my face off to you guys We were like literally asking you how you're feeling And your mentals were We were making sure you were just alright as a person Not even in your day job Is he on painkillers? Yeah, yeah I still feel bad about it I'm not gonna lie But the end product, come on You gotta admit The juice was worth all the squeeze Absolutely At the end of the day So there's no hard feelings.

2:50No hard feelings. Happy to be along for that ride, that ruse of the century. It was fantastic. Glad you're in good health and good spirits today. Today. And we are still on the track for SummerSlam. Okay, great. This year as well. Different setup, though. No injury, no ruse, straight up fight. Me, Roman Reigns. Let's go. The World Heavyweight Championship. If you watch Monday Night Raw this past week, we made it official. I threw out the challenge. She accepted the challenge. We are on the road to SummerSlam Minneapolis at the beginning of August. I'm pretty hyped. I'm hyped. I don't know how you guys feel, but I'm hyped about it.

3:31I'm just glad your daughter doesn't have to lie to anyone. You know what I mean? Teachers, friends. Yeah, she doesn't have to deceive this joy this year. She just gets to be along for the ride as well. You know what? Funny thing about that, actually. She's really now, she's five and a half. She's really getting into it. like she's getting into the wrestling she likes it like she likes to be out there like this past monday she had her little headphones on she's sitting off to the side of the stage when i make my entrance and she likes to tell people that daddy wins and who daddy's wrestling and all that stuff mommy vice versa you know she likes that too uh one thing that i want to say here she i have to get this in she you know i've been wrestling brawn breaker a lot lately yep my My daughter refers to Bron Breaker as the little guy.

4:21The little guy. Bron Breaker, if he's listening right now or if this makes it to him, he's going to be so angry at my five-year-old daughter. What is the genesis of that? I think just – look, he is slightly shorter than me. And I think she just – she saw us like standing next to each other. And she doesn't understand, like, you know, like he's massive this way. Width and thick. Yeah, like 250 pounds of pure man muscle. He's not a little guy. But she just saw the height and it just goes, the little guy. Daddy's going to fight the little guy again. That's amazing. That's amazing. I saw Becky had just an incredibly funny interview with Stephanie McMahon.

5:07And she was saying how Rude doesn't know your wrestling name. That's right. She knows her mom is Becky Lynch. But she was like, what's dad's name? And she's like, I don't know. And then I guess Cody got announced on TV. It was on the background. And she was like, that's my dad.

5:27Is that how it went down? That is how it went down. She heard the name as Becky was watching the show one of the days. And she heard the name. She's Cody Rhodes. That's my daddy. That's a whole different conversation. Can of worms. we do not need to open up at all um but yeah man there's never been a paternity test not needed i mean she doesn't look bro it's like you copy and pasted your face yeah that is my kid for sure no doubt about it as my wife says if you lose her somebody would return her to me you know so so that's that's my world that's where i'm living right now and and ask for me personally to be a part of that like brockman said you know how my love for wrestling is so yeah to to have even a small part i was just mad that we didn't get into the unreal uh episode i know because that was my biggest like disappointment was like because i thought we played such a big part in it because you guys were the first you were the first time anybody saw me after the the saturday night's main event and i had the video of you i kind of snuck a video of you walking like yeah he's got the brace on and the one thing i do regret is i was gonna ask you before you left that day is like when you're done with the brace can i have it put it in studio and then the brace became so iconic I'm like, oh, crap, there's no way we'd get that anyway.

6:41Yeah. I was so impressed by my ability to just take that thing off so quickly when I did at SummerSlam last year. Yeah, it was just like boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah, I was so weak because I didn't rehearse it at all. There was no rehearsal. I stayed because I stayed on a bus the whole day. I was, you know, sequestered. And so I didn't really rehearse it. I didn't – nothing was – I just went out there and winged it. I had an idea of what I wanted to do. You know, I was envisioning Forrest Gump running as a child. He was running. Even the hands out and the drop. None of that. None of that was rehearsed at all.

7:12I had a discussion with my producer for that segment, who's a former wrestler, Bobby Roode. And Bobby's fantastic. Yes, glorious. And Bobby's idea was to do the drop, but we didn't know how it was going to come out. We didn't, again, no rehearsal or anything like that. So, yeah, I had this cool vision of it all going properly, and it could not have gone smoother, to be fair. Yeah, it was, you know, as a longtime fan, And even if someone didn't watch that moment, when the music hit, the crowd's popped. Oh, it was epic. You come walking out, and in the back of your mind, you're thinking, all right, he's just letting them know that I'm still here.

7:45Because you turned around and walked away. And then when you stopped, wow. I'm getting goosebumps right now. Thinking about it, reliving it in my mind, and then everything that happened that led up to it and you being here. Amazing. Well done. As we said before at the time, 10 out of 10. And I definitely got some new Twitter followers after. And I asked, we asked about your mentals and people were in the comments like saying how good of a person I was. And I was like, sure, I'll take that. I appreciate it. You know, I appreciated it all the way through. Anybody that had to suffer the wrath of that lie, I really appreciate it.

8:24Let me just blanket statement to everybody out there, you guys included. I appreciate it. It's history. SummerSlam is good for me. I've had a lot of really, really great moments at SummerSlam, so hopefully we can get another one this year when I can dethrone the tribal chief one more time. I don't want to take us off base here, but definitely before the show's over, we've got to dive into Monday night and your challenge because that was a moment. We'll get into it. I think we should get into it. We should get into some other stuff, though. What else we got, Brockman? What's going on? Well, look, story of the day, we've been talking a lot about it.

8:55The World Cup has just been tremendous. Five stars across the board. All the superstars in the football world are showing up and showing out so far. And then last night, U.S. men's national team, Bosnia-Herzegovina, up in Santa Clara. Team, the U.S. team, does its thing. 2-0 victory. First knockout stage win since 2002. Wow. Moving on to face Belgium this Monday in Seattle. It was absolutely epic. A late goal in the first half, one in the second half. And USA, not Team USA, it's the U.S. men's national team. Moving on. Cannot wait. However, is going to be without superstar striker Balogun, who got a red card in the second half.

9:51Very controversial. It was very controversial. Very controversial because there was a play that Messi had earlier, very similar play. Didn't even get a yellow. Nothing. And Balogun gets a red card, ejected, rule state, must sit out the next game. Cannot appeal. No appeals. No appeal process either. Wow. So U.S. men's national team going to be out. One of their best players on Monday, but did not stop them from moving on last night. And I don't know about you guys. I had a driveway watch party with my neighbors. We were hyped. It was awesome. It was so cool to see. And did you guys watch it? What were your thoughts?

10:30Yeah. I mean, how about you, sir? So I've been in Europe for the past month. So our time schedules have been all off for these games. Last night was the first time I was home. I got to sit down on schedule and watch one of the games. And I was fascinated. I was fascinated. It was an extremely hard-fought game. The goals were not easy for the U.S. national team at all. And that red card, I mean, because I've got a group chat. I've got some buddies who were, you know, getting after it every single game. They were here for the duration. They were losing their minds about that red card. And Rich, I saw online, too.

11:10Rich was very upset about the red card. The fact that there's no appeals process for that is crazy. Crazy. But because, I mean, FIFA, they use the VAR like nobody's business, right? Like all the time. So clearly they want to get this thing right. They went and looked at it. And the fact that you can't appeal it after seems like, okay, why are we drawing the line here? You know what I mean? Why stop? So I don't know. But it was very questionable. And to lose Balogun for another game, ah, that's going to be the killer. But at least, I mean, they got another score. They got a ton. They got another score when they were down a man on the free kick, which was, whoo, baby.

11:50Tillman, that was impressive. What a shot. Yeah. There it is. There was a goal. I forget who scored it. And then they disallowed the goal because. It was Balogun. Balogun. And they showed the line. And it was just like, I get it. I don't understand it. Let me take that back. I said I get it. I don't get it. That's the thing. I don't claim to be the most knowledgeable about soccer. but it just seemed like it was a game or an inch off you know it's happened in a few other matches this year you know offsides they go to the var it's almost like you know the hawkeye and tennis or what we're doing for the first down marker in the nfl they have that imaginary line it goes right down the line of any part of your body you know i think iran had a goal overturned because of a the tip of his toe was over the like it was the kevin durant situation if he wore a 12 and a half instead of a 13 you know it would have been a goal his arm was just over you know it's not great for the casuals, we don't really understand.

12:43It's just like, come on. Offsides. Play defense. Score. Let them cherry pick. Who cares? Because I was about to argue that and I was like, that would be like someone saying, I don't understand. His foot went out of bounds. But there's a line you can see in foot basketball. I can't see that line. Yeah, it is hard. And it's not like you get... Football, if you're on the goal line, usually you get another chance. You know what I mean? The ball stays there. It's not like they get another chance right there to just do the thing again you're offside it's actually a penalty you lose possession you know it's it sucks it's painful and those goals they they are not often like that happens i mean you're sitting there just watching the ball do this for for minutes an hour so when they get a goal i mean that's a big deal yeah and then the other the other uh you know u.s men's team matches gotten off to hot starts yeah scored a lot you know four goals in the first game uh multiple goals in the first half and some of the other games this was an ugly ugly batch we kind of had to muddy it up and ugly it up a little bit and they were able to battle and hang tough play good defense get a score on and just kind of hold on to it even man down at a goal i thought that was super impressive and look i know one of your best players is going to be out got to be riding high got to be feeling great you know going into the round of 16 match i hope so The U.S.

14:02has never got through the round of 16. Is that correct? Right. Never gotten that. No, I've never gotten past it. Ooh, baby. Ooh, baby. It's awesome. And also, we're not huge soccer fans. And I think people that are looking at our YouTube videos are picking up on that. But we do appreciate the game. We are having a great time. And we're learning. Yeah. And probably should have learned this years ago. Some of my best friends played soccer all through college. But football is always going to be king here, right? But I think this might be the moment that kind of gives a little bit more of a shift now because these games, people are just loving this so much.

14:37And they're going to be moms who, like, don't want their sons to play football. I think they're going to maybe encourage them to play soccer after watching this. I think this is going to do so much for the game of soccer here in America. Of course, it's never going to take over football, but I feel like it's definitely going to boost up soccer. Yeah, it might be the boost that they were hoping the 94 World Cup here kind of was. and it just kind of took a while to get going. But look, MLS is having great success. Great worldwide players are coming over here to play now. You can see that with David Beckham kind of started it and Zlatan and now Messi.

15:10And I just think, say it every time, maybe we're just caught up in the moment, but this has been the greatest World Cup I can remember just in terms of star power performing like we've never seen with Mbappe and Messi and Holland, et cetera, down the line. And then it's just the performance of the U.S. men's national team. So super psyched, super enjoying it. Excited to kind of build on my soccer fandom and knowledge and all that. And like, can't wait for Monday. Yeah. Monday. That's the next one for the U.S. team. Yeah. Monday, 5 Pacific, 8 Eastern in Seattle. Great. I will be working. No. I will be working.

15:46That's right. You got stuff to do. Where is Raw on Monday? It's in Chicago. Oh. Home game. Not only do you have to work, you've got a big day at work. We got to hustle. Yeah. Yeah, we got to hustle on Monday. That's one of the top cities for you. But here's the bracket right now. I'm looking at it. This is, yeah, this is, I mean. Yeah, so Spain and Austria is today. Yep. Three Eastern noon local here in L.A. at SoFi. Sorry, Los Angeles Stadium. And then Portugal and Croatia. Man, Portugal has not looked great. Ronaldo taking a lot of heat. Did have a couple of goals in his last outing. But could be a potential, you know, big showdown.

16:25Spain, Portugal maybe next round. U.S., we get through, Spain in the quarters. Could you imagine? Oh, baby. I would love to see it. I mean, I think anytime kind of a host country gets an opportunity to shine like this, especially, I mean, the U.S. has been, look, they've been a doormat for soccer, you know, internationally for a long time. You know, so to have something like this when they're playing kind of on their home turf a lot of these games, that's really exciting. That's great for the sport. I think you guys mentioned it. It's great for the sport here in the United States. But I think it's also just – it's cool globally, I think, to see.

17:06And this would be anywhere. If they were doing this anywhere, if it was held in France and they were – the French team was awesome, which they are, it would be cool. So I just think it's an awesome thing. It's great for the sport. It's great for the game globally. No doubt. It's fantastic. It's fantastic. And I think one of the things is social media, right? 94, we didn't have it. It's bringing everyone. So now you're getting to see more things and like the foreigners come to America going on food tours. It's been so, so entertaining. Right. That alone is bringing people together. Getting a case of that American gluttony, baby.

17:37People love. I don't love. I don't even like ranch. I don't love ranch. But the ranch fascination is amazing. And so social media, the videos, everything, bringing people together, making it more viewable and awesome and being able to take in by more people. I think that's why the boom could happen. Yeah, I think that's. Yeah, we're getting to – I mean, it's 250 years, too. We're celebrating the country, and everybody's in here, and now we're just discovering ranch dressing. All of its delights. And they don't know that their food is way better than our food. Way better. Way better. We've got some good stuff.

18:11Free refills. But, yeah, so we've got to take a break. When we come back, we've got a guest who is a Super Bowl champion. Yeah, he is. Great quarterback, probably the greatest Washington commander quarterback to ever play the game. Joe Theismann coming up next. I can't wait to talk to him. Let's get after it, guys. Let's do it.

18:39The Rich Eisen Show Podcast.

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19:58Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. This is an amazing photo. If you're just joining us back on ESPN Radio, Sirius XM, Channel 80, We are here with the great Joe Theismann, and we are looking at a photograph of him with the late, great Andre the Giant. And I am just in awe of this photograph because Andre the Giant is holding Joe Theismann, who, again, is a full-grown human being. Andre's hand, his fingers are massive. His head is like two times the size of Joe's head. This is an incredible photograph. And Joe, you were just telling us that the Washington football franchise was trying to sign Andre the Giant to just block kicks and punts.

20:50They just wanted him to stand there and put his big old mitt in the air and try to make the kick harder. That's correct? Yeah. George got a hold of Vince McMahon and said, hey, I want to do this. And so Vince, obviously the ultimate promoter, said, OK, fine, come to New York. And this is the shot that we did. And that's my leopard, my leather jacket made of patchwork leather that I don't have anymore. Wouldn't fit me anyway. But I mean, it was, I look at that photo sometimes and I just sort of laugh and I, it just, I think of the big people in the world today, in the world of athletics specifically.

21:24And then I think of this man and just a giant, I mean, I watched a documentary on him and it's just, when you're that big, life can't be easy. Where do you sleep? How do you fly? Remember, the planes that were flown at that time didn't have the accommodations for people as big as he was. So he lived a tough life. I lived in Montreal. And, of course, I played three years in Toronto. So the Canadian aspect was interesting to me. But, yeah, when George asked me to do it, I said, absolutely. Like I said, I've been a wrestling fan forever. That's amazing. That's so – that's cool. The other thing you said in that conversation that I can't just ignore is you said you played racquetball with Wilt Chamberlain.

22:06Is this correct? Yeah. When I lived in California, I used to play racquetball with Wilt. But that was another thing that was phenomenal. Again, a big man, incredible athlete. He used to stand in the middle of the court. You couldn't hit it around him. You couldn't hit it over him. The best thing you could do is hit it at him and hope he didn't hit it back at you. I was going to say that that seems like that's his game. Like he's so like running around a flagpole. You just there's this statue in the middle of the court and you, where do you go? What do you do? And I mean, I've been blessed to meet some incredible people, but these are the two experiences with big people that I've had that have been so much fun.

22:43Like I said, I love, I love what you do. Absolutely love it, man. People talk about you guys. They talk about athletes in this world. You've got a whole bunch of them and you're one of them. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Yeah, I fancy myself a bit of an athlete, you know. I don't know. I've seen what you did. But, yeah, thank you very much. All right, Joe, let's chat football because that's your name. That's your game, baby. Football and golf. Let's talk about it. Football and golf. Yeah, oh, yeah, and golf. We'll get to the golf for sure. We're going into this season. Right now we're in this lull part of the season, right, where we're just chilling and waiting for, you know, training camp to get started.

23:21What are your memories of this part of the year for you as a player kind of getting ready to go for the next season? I was always antsy. A lot of guys like to take this time off, maybe take a month or six weeks off just to get away from the game. I couldn't. I'm a football. I was a football junkie. I'm a football junkie today. I'm a competition junkie. I think that's why we enjoy the things that we do. People say, well, why don't you retire? Why don't you do this? No, I love to compete. And even this time of year, I'd still go out to the park three days a week. We had a place called, quote unquote, Redskin Park.

23:59We used to train at. I'd still go out there and I'd still find somebody to throw the ball to, find somebody to run routes with or just get just get a startup touch football game, whatever it was, just to be able to continue to work on my trade. I don't think you can work on any trade and then take six weeks to two months off completely and still try and keep an edge because you wanted to be as good as you could going into training camp. And back when I played, we had six preseason games and we were I used to go to training camp. Right. I would be heading for training camp right now. Right now.

24:31They just finished their mini camps. I'd be going to training camp right now. We had six preseason games and 14 regular season games. So the things were a little bit different then. And so you had to sort of keep your edge. So there wasn't a whole lot. There wasn't offseason if you didn't get to the championship or play, you know, into the playoffs. But I just tried to stay as sharp as I could during that period of time. Wow, that's fascinating. I love that. I love that work ethic, boys. That kind of inspires me a little bit right there. I like that, man. Six preseason games. Wow. That's intense.

25:03What was the why? Why so many preseason games at that time? Do you remember? It's just the way the schedule was set up. It's the way the league had set it up. And, of course, we went from six to four. Now we're four to three. Soon they'll go to two. But this is the problem I see without having preseason games. First of all, it would be like you going into a ring and wrestling, but never having a chance to wrestle against anybody to warm up. Yeah. Because, you know, when you put the uniform on and you start hitting people, it's a lot different than running around in shorts and a cap and sneakers or cleats, whatever it might be.

25:38when you get hit, things change. So all of a sudden now you've got guys that have not been hit. The starters won't play any of the preseason games. So the only time they're really going to get hit is the beginning of the season. And I've sort of always looked at the first two, possibly three games of the regular season now with the way it's set up as real glorified preseason games. And coaches, how do you evaluate somebody in a pair of shorts? How do you know how good they are? How do you know how they handle a hit? How do you know how they can take a hit? You just don't know those things. They're all unanswered questions until the season starts.