Hour 1: LeBron Leaving Lakers Reaction, plus Oscar-Winning Actor J.K. Simmons In-Studio

23:38Rich Eisen:Because they shot Oz in New Jersey, right? Didn't they shoot that? Oz started out, Oz started out in Chelsea. In Chelsea. In the old Chelsea flower warehouse on 9th Avenue. Okay. And then we moved to Bayonne, lost the lease, typical New York story. You know, the landlord goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're good. And then after the show was a hit, he was like, hey, how about three times the rent? Right. What do you like doing about this show? What do you like? It's a great cast, man. And actually, Tom Brittany, who plays Jimmy Rourke, is a proper Englishman, as is his sidekick, Stanley Morgan, who plays his sidekick.

24:17And the variety of dialects that were flying around that room, because we're all playing New York, 19, tough guys, blue collar from New York. And Titus is the only one that sounds like that in actual life. Just a fantastic international cast. Alan Leach, Sarah Bolger, because some of the Irish, Vincent Walsh, some of the Irish are fresh off the boat Irish. Some of us are like second, third generation.

24:47Rich Eisen:And again, the Westies is premiering on July 12th on MGM Plus. And I love talking sports with you despite your sometimes biting commentary on the teams that I root for. Explain to me again how you are a diehard Buckeye and a diehard Tiger fan. Because I do know Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh were born in the same hospital in Toledo, Ohio. and that southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio is an area similar to like the greater metropolitan area of New York City. Where do you find, how does one do this? That just made me wonder if Zach McKinstry was maybe born at that same hospital, also from Toledo.

25:32Potentially. It's absolute family history in my case. My dad was teaching junior high general music when I was born in Detroit. Yeah. And then when I was 10 years old, might have just turned 11, I think 10 years old, he got a job at the Ohio State University. So I moved there mid-60s. All my new little knucklehead pals in fourth grade were either Cleveland fans or Cincinnati fans. Yeah. And I was like, no, I'm a Tigers fan. And then conveniently— The Reds never spoke to you? Like a big red machine never really— I was not. Well, this was before the Big Red Machine. Right. Coincidentally, it was like 1967, 68.

26:17So Denny McClain you're talking about. Pretty good years for the Tigers. Yeah, exactly. Kind of cemented that loyalty.

26:23Rich Eisen:When was the first time you went to the old Tiger Stadium? I was probably seven or eight. What a place. My parents were not like big jocks and had no money. So we went a couple times and sat in the nosebleed seats in the outfield. and I would go back to school that next Monday and pretend that I was... No, I saw the catcher give the signal and he was asking for a curveball, but the guy threw a fastball. But yeah, I have vivid memories of watching the game from that great distance. 440 feet, right? 440 to dead center with the flagpole in play. I miss that kind of, actually. I'll never forget again the first time I went to Tiger Stadium when I was at Michigan because I'm like, okay, I got to see what this stadium is all about.

27:14Rich Eisen:And I had obstructed view seats. Yeah. And I had to go like this to see a base hit to right field. I had to lean around one pole to see around another pole. Which you can still find in Fenway. That's true. Obstructed view seats. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, you don't sit obstructed view anymore. Look at you now. Not anymore. You don't know those people anymore. Who are you? I don't even know who you are anymore. I haven't been to a game in a while. But I do remember that. And I also remember pulling a New York thing, which is cheer during the last two lines of the national anthem. Yeah. And Tiger fans looking at me like, what is your malfunction?

27:55Rich Eisen:This is the national anthem. We're singing a song here. It's about the United States of America. You want to shut up? Yeah. That happened. If you're not singing, shut up. Because I'm like, you know, we're cheering. Hey, last two lines. And then I go to Chicago and they're cheering for up the entire national anthem for the Blackhawks game. And I'm like, you know, the Midwest is, you can't figure this thing out. You know? Times change. I know. They do indeed. They do indeed. So it was also a part of my professionalism that forced to the limit, to be quite honest with you, to be the host of this year's National Football League draft and have as many the Ohio State Buckeyes being mentioned for the first 11 picks of this draft.

28:41Yeah, I think the entire starting 11 plus one from two years ago were first-round draft picks. I mean, our defense.

28:51Rich Eisen:Well, you had to be surprised, though, even though Carnal Tate was the first one, too. That was the big surprise of everything. But, you know, the only reason why that might be a surprise is because of the younger kid that everybody keeps talking about. You know, but Tate is the real deal, man. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, he would have been the featured guy anywhere where number four wasn't. And Sonny Stiles at the Combine, JK was, I've never seen a workout like that. Yeah. And I'll tell you the story. I've mentioned it once before here. is that after he dominated that workout at the combine, we ran into a couple of the NFL Network producers, ran into him in our hotel.

29:35Rich Eisen:We were all staying in the same spot, or he was having a meal after killing it. And one of the producers went up to him and said, congratulations on it. And he legitimately asked our producer, was that any good? Did I do okay? Yeah, basically is what he said. Like a humility on top of. Yeah, yeah. On top of being an absolute beast. And he's monstrous, too. He kept going. Same thing with Arvel Reese, as well, who's going to be playing in New York. But TJ, over your right shoulder, is a Cowboy fan. Ew. I know. I know. It's true. It's true. Well, where's he from? Do you come by it honestly? Oh, yes.

30:19This is a great question. Oh, hold on. Great question. Okay. I believe I do, JK. I grew up in the middle of Pennsylvania around the time that the Steelers were dominating. But for some reason, I saw that star every Saturday and decided I didn't want to be like my other friends. I wanted to be different, much like you. OK. So I took I went the Cowboys route. So you're a victim of marketing, basically. You can say that. I'm the only non-Cowboy fan in my family or non-Steeler fan, I should say. OK. All right. But I brought that up because. Oh, because we got Caleb Downs and everything's going to be all right.

30:57Oh, it sure is. Everything's going to be all right.

31:00Rich Eisen:I'm looking. I cannot wait to watch this kid. Because we had him on our show at the Combine and he was already a professional. Yeah. Like polished. I mean, he was a professional. He was a sophomore. Yeah. You know, I don't know how the hell Alabama, I guess, you know, Saban left. So Alabama just like that's the end of that. Oops. I know. do we just gloss over the four years of Michigan beating them in a row or do we just gloss over that? Yeah, I think so. It's not your kind of tempo, huh? I mean, we could talk about Indiana. What? By the way, I can't get enough of Kurt Signetti. Fantastic. I love that guy.

31:41Rich Eisen:Absolutely. I'm almost obsessed with him. And my daughter, who is now a giant Ohio State fan, wants to hit him in the face. He brings out just his competitiveness is so like, so just right there and in your face. And I was telling all my Buckeye fans from like game five, I was like, Indiana is for real. And they were like, it's Indiana. And I was like, not anymore. Not anymore. Yeah. But I'm also thinking that for next year, too. Oh, yeah. No, they're because we had him on just again. As soon as they won the national championship, I'm asking, come on, come on, come on. And he he just went underground.

32:30Rich Eisen:He pops up a little bit for other shows. And I'm like, come on, let's get him on. I waited six months to get him. And and he I asked him, I'm like, what do you say where people think you're kind of a one hit wonder? And he goes, we're going to have to prove it. But, you know, he guts this twinkle, you know, and it's just, it's old school. It's old school. It's Woody. You say Woody, obviously I'll say Bo, but there's a certain turn back the clock mentality. Like when he was talking about the new kid who's playing quarterback for them, Josh Hoover from TCU. and he said, you know, because people talked about his turnover issues, including his coach, previous coach.

33:15Rich Eisen:And Signetti said, well, he's meeting his two new best friends, a run game and a defense, and then he winks at the media. You know, like that's Midwest Big Ten football, man. Yeah, yeah. In the age of the portal, you know. Correct, and it's Indiana that's working as well. So you're of the mindset that this is not a one-hit wonder. Oh, no, they're for real. Yeah. Damn right they are. But so are we, right? I mean, you know. What do you mean? No, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. No, I mean, you just. No, it's not like the program hasn't been decimated. No, you're great. No, it's not decimated.

33:54Rich Eisen:We're still, you know, you've got a lot of first-rounders to fill. Yeah, we have big shoes to fill. You sure do. We have big feet. We'll be fine. I want to show this again. You were kind enough to do this the last time we were here. Del Tufo, this is your symbol, right? No, I have one. I have one at home. He brought two. He brought two. I brought two. You signed this one. Not quite my tempo. Mine says something. Do you get a lot of that line when you're walking around? People say it to you? I do. Okay. Is that the number one thing you get? Yeah, it's up there. It's either that or looking for photos of Spider-Man.

34:28Okay. Right.

34:29Rich Eisen:That's J. Jonah Jameson. Three times you were here at J. Jonah Jameson, correct? Well, three times and then a few times ever so briefly in the third, the current iteration of Spider-Man. Okay. This scene where you're throwing the symbol and that scene that does happen in Whiplash. It's a chair, but whatever. Well, I mean, that's true. It's a chair. You throw the chair. There's the symbol. Okay, very good. But when you throw the chair and that scene that happens, was there anything that you took license on? or was that all on the page? It was, over the course of that whole shoot, it was 95 % on the page.

35:11But Damien, like all truly great writer-directors, is smart enough to know that once in a while, a Miles Teller or a J.K. Simmons can go off the map a little bit and find something else. Was the chair on the page? No, no, no. That was 100 % scripted. And like kind of scary. It was not nearly, in a different way from slapping the crap out of Miles Teller, which was also fun. Right. Throwing the chair was mildly concerning. What do you mean? Well, because chairs are heavy. And I threw it at Miles Teller. Like right over his head. So he had a team. You know, when you're sitting on the stool at a drum kit, there's not a lot of places you can go quickly.

36:03So it was a little, and we were shooting that thing on a budget. It wasn't like they were like, oh, let's take all day to set this up and make some magic happen and have a stunt double. And no, it was like, throw the chair at Miles and let's move on. How many takes? Two. That's it?

36:19Rich Eisen:Yeah. I mean, it was a quick shoot. Okay, man. And so when you're doing a scene like that and you know you've got to get that right, but you also have to stay in your character, how do you do something like that? I mean, I was glad that came along when the whole thing came along. I was 59 years old, I think, 58 when we were doing that. Right. Right. And because there were, yeah, we had a lot of balls to keep in the air. And I was glad that that came after I was a pretty experienced old hand at all this silliness. So you think early on in your career would have been a more challenging Yeah, yeah.

37:00Well, early on in my career, I was a terrible actor.

37:04Rich Eisen:No, you weren't. I was a terrible actor. And I learned, you know, in front of hundreds of people doing theater, how to be a better actor over the course of many years with many very understanding directors. Why would you call yourself a terrible actor earlier? Because I was. And you can ask anybody who was there at the Big Fork Summer Playhouse in 1977 if the guy playing the lead in Brigadoon was a good sing, no act kind of a guy. No kidding. So then where would you say you got your chops? Well, there, really. Like in summer theater in Montana and then in Seattle. I moved to Seattle after college and did theater jobs there and was lucky enough to get different kinds of musical theater or Shakespeare or a new play or a comedy at a dinner theater.

37:57And just become kind of eclectic and work with a lot of directors who helped mold me.

38:05Rich Eisen:Well, I haven't asked Miles Teller this, but did you think you did scare him? Like, was he legitimately frightened of your character? He was messing his pants the whole movie. He was terrified of me. Is that right? No. No. We would, like, immediately, because Miles is an alpha, right? Right. Like, Damien had to, like, calm him down. But between takes, it was all just guy banter and sports talk and BSing and Miles puffing his chest up and not being the whipping boy that his character was. Sure. Well, I appreciate you coming on. Congrats on everything going on with your career, man, as always. Thank you.

38:52Rich Eisen:And your Tigers. Congrats on. Hopefully the lines are going to be particularly good in October for you because your baseball season's not lasting that long. We'll see. We'll see. Did I handle that appropriately? It's a great pitching matchup tonight. Huh? Scoobel and Schlittler. That is going to be great. And I do hope in all seriousness that Scoobel sticks. Please, from your mouth. I know it's true. Like, there should be somebody on the Tigers as great as he is. You know what I mean? Thank you. And somebody that has gone, made himself like this, you know? I do hope this is the way it works out.

39:36Rich Eisen:But who the hell knows? With him, too. I mean, with the labor dispute that's potentially coming on that front, like, you know, how do you know how much money you're going to have to pay him? There's too much uncertainty. And I just have my head buried in the sand about that whole labor. No, it'll be fine. It'll be fine. I'm the same way. I'm the same way. I don't. Certainly, we don't talk about it as much on this show because I think nothing snaps off a radio or television quite like labor dispute talk. You know what I mean? Um, but, um, you know, I do hope he gets to stay, but tonight I, I, I, I do hope you are not a happy man this evening.

40:16And I hope you're not a happy man this evening. That's why we always great to see you. Healthy.

40:24Rich Eisen:The Westies 9. PM Eastern and Pacific on MGM plus JK Simmons here on the Rich Eisen show. We're back with more in a moment.

40:34Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen show, the podcast.

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41:36Rich Eisen:ESPN.com slash MLB TV for more information.

41:44Rich Eisen:While the world watches the stars at the FIFA World Cup this summer, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent, the future stars who are already turning heads at age 14 because next doesn't wait for an invitation and neither do we. Hyundai's always moved the future within reach. We did it when we made advanced safety standard on every vehicle and engineered EVs with ultra fast charging capability because the future isn't some far off concept it's already here next starts now hyundai an official partner of fifa uh jk was just telling me he was in um london last week oh nice when uh i believe london uh england drew with ghana and he said the uh Collective soccer, football loving nation had their collective hair on fire when that happened.

42:38I believe it.

42:39Rich Eisen:So there's that. By the way, if you're on the European continent, the knockout round hasn't gone well for you. No. Are they over? Yeah. Wow. They are. I believe the Western Hemisphere is currently 4-0. in the knockout round. If I'm not mistaken, let's check this out. Norway and Ivory Coast in 10 minutes.

43:08Rich Eisen:Yeah, Paraguay knocked out Germany. Yep. Morocco knocked out the Netherlands. Yeah, Canada won on Sunday. We're number one. Let's go. We'll talk about it in hour three with Taylor Twelman. We'll have also some more World Cup chat. as I've got a top five World Cup observations. Oh, I like that. Observations of mine through group phase and the first handful of knockout round matchups. Frazier in Kentucky. I'm listening. That's definitely a Frazier joke that's clearly over the head of this young man. What's up, Frazier? How are you? I'm doing great. How about yourself? How old are you, Frazier? I'm 13 years old.

43:57Rich Eisen:My man. Ladies and gentlemen, Frazier in Kentucky. What's going on? Yeah. All right. So, Rich, the Boston Celtics officially have a 2004 Nomar Garcia-Para crisis on their hands. And Brad Stevens needs to prepare for the Nomar solution for this inevitable blockbuster trade. All right. So, yeah, look, we got Jalen Brown, incredible basketball player who carried his hate-em-less basketball team last year all the way to the playoffs. I know they lost first round. Still had a great year. Yes. Brown had a career year. He had 28.7 points per game and was sixth in the MVP voting. I mean, that's a great year.

44:35He did phenomenal. But he's getting undervalued in the trade. He's kind of mad about this whole fallout from the Giannis situation. And I would like to connect us all the way to the 2004 Nomar Garcia-Para fallout from the Alex Rodriguez trade. Nomar, right after that trade, obviously was pretty upset. There's a lot of famous things about him sulking in the dugout. and just being upset. I think, obviously he's not gotten there yet, but I think Jalen Brown right now is being a little immature. He's kind of getting in a fight with you media guys and focusing on things he really should not be focusing on this offseason.

45:10He's paying more attention to preparing for the next season than worrying about aggregator clips and 19-second clips saying that he's the seventh best player on that title team. Obviously he's not. He knows this. doesn't have to go off on a rant like Stephen Hay to prove that. But yeah.

45:31Rich Eisen:First of all, Frazier, hold on a second. Hold on a second. Yeah, go ahead. It's all good. I'm highly impressed that somebody born, if I'm not mistaken, in either 2012 or 2013 is making a 2004 analogy. I like that. Chris, you'd like to correct Frazier's work a little bit here? The thing about the A-Rod deal. He's my New England sports expert here on staff. The rumored A-Rod deal that was nixed by the Players Association because A-Rod was going to take way less money. Nomar was not in the deal. It was for Manny and a prospect named John Lester, who is probably a Hall of Famer. And I believe he's up for the Hall of Fame this year.

46:15Rich Eisen:He should absolutely make it. But yeah, Nomar wasn't in the deal. Nomar got traded midseason because the vibes needed to change. But the analogy is understood that Jalen Brown has got hurt feelings, and I don't blame him potentially here. The Nomar trade I'm relating to, I know the Alex Rodriguez, that was for Manny and obviously John Lester, as you just said, but Nomar was going to get traded as part of that deal so they could bring A-Rod in. Am I correct? Yeah. And he found out about this and he was very upset, which is exactly what's going on right now with Jalen Brown after the Giannis trade.

46:52He's hearing these rumors like, oh my God, I lost my job to this guy. I almost went to Miami after everything I've done for this franchise. That is exactly what Nomar Garcia-Para felt right after he heard that he might have gotten traded because of this whole A-Rod situation.

47:09Rich Eisen:Frazier, it's the end of our hour. Thank you for calling in. Call back. Certainly if you've got a summer off We'll be here. Fraser in Kentucky with some analogies from back in the day. And that wraps up Hour 1 on the radio side. The Ridge Eisen Show Podcast. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense?

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