Hour 1: MLB Playoffs Reactions, plus NFL Network’s Kurt Warner Talks Drake Maye, Eagles & More

0:00Rich Eisen:Hockey on ESPN is blowing up. Hockey is back. So, what does it look like now? The kids? Hughes. Celebrini. Schaefer. That's hockey. Ovi and Crosby. That's hockey. And with access to over a thousand out-of-market games, you can watch them and the rest of the league. Holy hockey. That's more hockey to love for more fans who love it. The NHL's best on ESPN. Watch all season long on ABC, ESPN, ESPN +, and the ESPN app. This is The Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of The Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to 3 Eastern.

0:43Rich Eisen:Miss the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash richeisenshow and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. This is the Rich Eisen Show. A grand slam by Ben Rice. They've blown this baby wide open. The Rich Eisen Show. It's gonna go! First pitch home run, Fernando Tatis Jr. Today's guests. Pro Football Hall of Famer, Kurt Warner. Actor and author, Joe Manganiello. Plus, your phone calls, latest news, and more. And now, it's Rich Eisen. All right, everybody. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show.

1:35Rich Eisen:Disney Plus, the ESPN app, ESPN Radio, Sirius XM, Channel 80, 844-204-RICH is the number to have a conversation with me today. There's a running theme to today's program. um the northern iowa's finest kurt warner will be joining us before he jets off to london to call the first of three straight london games to be seen on nfl network over the next three weeks the glorious four windows of football return to our football lives um and the colts and the commanders at 9 30 a.m eastern time on nfl network kurt warner is going to be calling in that game in the booth with Jason Kelsey and Dave Pasch on NFL Network and the ESPN app.

2:20Rich Eisen:And Kurt's going to join us. The Northern Iowa. Kurt Warner. Joe Manganiello will join us in hour number three. He's got a new book called Bloodlines. I'm holding the book up right here. It's talking about his battle with his own health. And obviously, I do believe he's got the true blood look on this book right here. Thus it's called Bloodlines. He's a diehard fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and they wear black and gold. Hey. And in hour number two, I'm going to pay off the bet that I made with George Kittle last week. If his Iowa Hawkeyes beat my Michigan Wolverines, which they did in the final seconds of that game, I would have to spend an entire segment of the Rich Eisen show wearing his game-worn helmet that he said he would send me.

3:14Rich Eisen:And if you missed the end of yesterday's program in which we revealed that the package has arrived, here it is, holding it in my hand. It is George Kittle's helmet in the middle of this program. I'm going to put it on and have to talk about the greatness of the Iowa Hawkeyes football program. I'm being honest. Kind of hoped that this would be something about the Atlanta Hawks, but that's just, you know, ripped straight from the other headlines. It's Hawkeyes and I've got the helmet and I'm going to have to wear it later. And I'll be straight up. Not happy about it. Yep. Well, I mean, you made the bet.

3:56Rich Eisen:Not happy about it. But I'm a man of my word. And later on, I will wear it. And you could call in if you wish. Let's talk Iowa Hawkeyes football. Everybody. Don't lose that intensity, right? Same intensity. How are you, Chris Brockman? Good to see you over there. You know, it's fine. It's Celtic season? Or Bruins season? Hey, the Bruins beat the Rangers last night. How about that? Mike Del Tufo, what's up? We're not going to talk about the Field of Dreams in Iowa? Good to see you over there. TJ Jefferson, what's going on, pal? I mean, I hear baseball still happening. Baseball. I see LeBron in a Sixers jersey, so that's just all on me.

4:34Rich Eisen:Or a helicopter. He quickly left town, yeah. Going back and forth. I do not like that at all. There he is. I don't like that, man. All right. Let's talk baseball playoffs, everybody. Oh, yeah. Quadruple header yesterday. And the best game of the day started it all off. Yep. Phillies and the Braves have at it. And Don Mattingly is the interim manager. And he's down 2-1. And JT Riomuto comes up with a two-run triple. in the seventh to give him a lead. And that's when he turns to his all-star closer. In the seventh inning. And Duran Duran got out there. Duran Duran. This is planet Earth. And in the eighth inning, his second inning of work.

5:33Rich Eisen:Because when you bring your closer in early, it's because you identify a certain part of the lineup that needs closer attention. I know Philadelphia Phillies fans, you might think I'm caping for my favorite baseball player of all time. Perhaps, perhaps you're also pointing out Duran didn't come up with a double inning save situation all year. And you're asking your closer to do something in the playoffs. He is not done. You look at his game log. It's all one inning of work. Second inning of work, base hit for Michael Harris. Ozzie Albies hit by a pitch. And if you're a Philly fan, you know once Albies got hit by the pitch.

6:18Rich Eisen:It doesn't matter if Austin Riley's having a disastrous regular season compared to his usual. Doesn't matter that he has only 19 home runs on the season and Durant had only given up two home runs in 61 innings of work all regular season long. You know what's coming. It's like literally the horror movie. The calls are coming from within the house. Three-run Jack. Game one goes to Atlanta. And it was an electrifying game. It's an electrifying game. The seventh and eighth innings in just particular. That was the crucible. You know, a catcher coming up with a two-run triple to give a team a lead. And then the next inning, a three-run Jack to wrap up game one.

7:03Rich Eisen:And then the way it all ended last night as well, just down the road in San Diego. You also know what that stands for, but we don't mention that here.

7:16Rich Eisen:And Pete Kerr Armstrong and the Chicago Cubs, the best offense in Major League Baseball, taking on the Padres. And Michael King gets PCA MVP on three pitches to start the game. struck out two of the first three Cubs he faced and then Fernando Tatis who we had been waiting half a season to hit a home run leads off with one go figure you know go figure baseball man how long were we saying when is Tatis going to hit a home run I mean it was end of May right you could say the the home run that Tatis was most closely associated with all regular season long was the one that he stole from the Mets. Made it seem like he didn't catch it until he just revealed it.

8:07Rich Eisen:And then he homers to start this game. That's all Michael King needed because he took a no-hitter into the seventh. Nico Horner hit one down the third baseline. And Manny Machado, who also homered in the first inning, normally you can see him. I mean, he'll usually make a play where he's going towards the third base coach's box and he makes a throw all the way across the diamond like he's five feet away from first base. He just couldn't come up with this one. And that's the way the no-hitter ended after six and a third. And then Joe Musgrove, who hasn't pitched in two years, finishes the game for the Padres, who win 8-0.

8:49Rich Eisen:Can't make that up either. I don't know how many people had on their bingo cards. at any point in their lives that a team would make the playoffs and go in with some momentum from Vatican City. I don't think we've ever heard that before. Chicago, we've heard about Second City. Right. Yes. Okay. But now we're talking about Vatican City because the Pope has got his eyes on the White Sox. Pope Leo XIV for those scoring at home in Roman numerals sent a letter of support with the papal seal I mean come on now official official it's official and sure enough I'll be honest going into Houston for a playoff baseball game as a Yankee fan, kind of wish the Pope at the time was on the Yankee side because that's sometimes what you need to get through against the Astros in the playoffs.

9:54Rich Eisen:Pope Leo is a Chicagoan. Yeah, the Pope of Grand of Georgia. We have seen, yeah, that didn't work out. That didn't work out for the Yankees. That's not the real Pope. This is the real Pope. This is the real Pope. And this one used to go to White Sox games. And I don't know, we were talking about, is there a papal man cave? Right, papal man cave. Was he streaming Peacock there in Vatican City somewhere? You know, I have been to Vatican City. Never saw... They didn't have a watch party? Never saw a flat screen. St. Peter's Basilica? I saw beautiful things on the ceiling. At any rate, this game, Colson Montgomery, who led the league and had a record number of strikeouts all season long.

10:51Rich Eisen:No contacts for this guy. He makes contact in homers. And Sam Antonacci, who Cooper loved from our buddy Vinny Pasquantino's Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic, he comes up with two runs batted in. and the White Sox, who haven't made the postseason since 2021, they are up. They are up. Astros made a run of it. They brought a time run to the plate. They did. Eighth inning. Yeah, it got a little hairy. Here we go again. Because I was watching that just before the Yankees and Red Sox went at it. But Will Venable, after the game, has a win in his back pocket and some wind at his back from Vatican City.

11:37And I was wondering, did you see that your team got a letter of support from the Pope? I did not see that. Okay, well, he sent a letter of support for the team before the playoffs. What does it mean to you to continually have his support? And obviously, you're the only MLB team that got that kind of, you know, support from him. Yeah, we'll take it. You know, I think that's been the cool thing about this season is all the support that we're getting, certainly in Chicago and beyond, and the Pope having our back and supporting us means a lot.

12:04Rich Eisen:The Pope has our back, says a manager in sports. Love it. How did you not see that, though, before the game? How does someone not? Yeah, someone didn't just show you that? I don't know. He's locked in. Locked in. Good story. There's one game here on this program.

12:29And it's a blood sport when the Yankees and the Red Sox play one another.

12:35Rich Eisen:as they only should later in rounds in the playoffs, but it's second straight wildcard year in which the Red Sox have to go to Yankee Stadium. And last year, they went to Yankee Stadium and took game one. And as a matter of fact, the fact is the Yankees come back and they took that series. They're the only team in the history of this new wildcard format for a few years to have lost game one and come back and won the series. So all the game one winners I just mentioned. Congrats, you're moving on. It's what it looks like. It's what it looks like. And last year in game three, they faced Cam Schlittler.

13:18Rich Eisen:You got Walpole, Mass native, who took care of business with eight shutout and 10 strikeouts. Strikeouts in game three of last year and then last night after a surefire Cy Young season. Pitched into the seventh, sixth and the third, ten strikeouts for Schlittler. No runs, two hits, one walk. That's what a Cy Young does. And to have this kid just dropped out of the baseball god sky on the Yankees is truly remarkable. I can't believe it. Normally, Yankees have to spend$350 million on somebody else to come to their team to do this sort of work. I'm glad you acknowledge that. Or at least it hasn't been that case since like Pettit, you know, of the of the Tory years.

14:16Rich Eisen:you know, Rivera of the tour years to be homegrown and then deliver. And in the history of major league baseball, there's only two pitchers who have had multiple post-season starts against the Red Sox with 10 or more strikeouts. Only two of them. Cam Schlittler is one and the other is Bob Gibson. Oh, that's a fact. And then in support of the kid from Walpole, Mass, is a kid from Cohasset. Another homegrown kid in Ben Rice. Who homers, leading to an all-caps expletive-laden text from Chris Brockman on a text chain you dropped out of, so you didn't see it. Thank you, TJ. I'm just giving you the news.

15:09Rich Eisen:Yeah, I mean, I... Because I have no idea why Chad Tracy took Toley out of the game just to bring in his left-handed reliever, Miller, who they picked up. I guess Miller throws the type of pitch that Rice has difficulty handling, and the pitch that Toley throws at the top of the zone is a pitch that Rice can't handle, as he did with a double in his first at-bat. But the problem is Miller didn't throw the pitch. Yeah, didn't throw the sinker. And I get lefty-lefty, You know, and, you know, Tolley was not on empty, but he was, you know, we were near an empty. And you're brought in to throw a sinker to a guy who crushes high fastballs.

15:53Rich Eisen:You throw a high fastball, you don't run. Game over. There were some decisions that Tracy made last night that I'll be straight up with you. I know Alex Cora, this team was better without Alex Cora this year, clearly. But that's, you know. But Alex Cora usually had, you know, would have the Yankees in a blender. Instead, the Yankees had Tracy in a blender last night. But that's what happened. The offense in September has been pretty rough, and so once it got to 2-0, that was a ballgame. And this is the reason why I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it, about the Yankees, is because last night's game, Schlittler, Rice, George Lombard Jr.

16:36Rich Eisen:in his first career playoff game, three for four with two runs scored. Spencer Jones got a hit. Austin Wells, who's been a two-hit maven all September long, came up with a massive one to start the scoring, right? And Rice hit a home run to give them an extra run lead. And then the grand slam to put it out of reach. All of them are homegrown. So maybe the green shoots are showing. Rice came out with a performance that everybody had been hoping, straight up, that Aaron Judge would come up with in the playoffs. He's out. Rice is doing that sort of work and had this to say afterwards. Yeah, it's a long season.

17:22I mean, I think you can find success by just being consistent every day. So, you know, we get to the postseason here. All the consistency that you had in the regular season, you just got to carry it right over into the postseason. So, you know, approach it like any other game and do the things that helped you over 162.

17:44Rich Eisen:Yep, his six RBIs tied a Yankee postseason record for a single-game performance right there. Wow, six. That's Ben Rice, and they did it without the Pope. Go figure that. Whether it's a pumpkin spice coffee that goes splat on your seat or a pumpkin patch hayride that covers your trunk in hay, you're going to want weather tech in your vehicle whether you call it fall or autumn or you're one of those spooky season people whether the mess is your fault the kid's fault the dog's fault or just the weather's fault you're gonna want weather tech for american-made floor liners and a cargo liner that laugh in the face of fall weather visit weathertech.com today my power ranking still to come as well but right around the corner is kurt warner here on the show the rich isa show podcast.

18:34Rich Eisen:Replace your worn out wiper blades during O Rewards member appreciation month at O 'Reilly Auto Parts. Receive two times O Rewards points and save$10 when you purchase a pair of Rain-X Latitude wiper blades. They will even install them for free at O 'Reilly Auto Parts. Rich Eisen here for gusto. On my shows, we talk a lot about what happens in the spotlight, the games, the highlights, and the moments that get replayed and debated. But in any successful operation, what happens behind the scenes matters just as much. Small businesses are no different. Payroll, hiring, onboarding, benefits, and all the details that keep things moving may not be the most visible part of the job, but they still have to be handled right.

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19:47Rich Eisen:No hidden fees, no surprises. Try Gusto today at gusto.com slash rich and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com slash rich. One more time, gusto.com slash rich. Wednesday spot here on the Rich Eisen show on Disney plus and the ESPN app. Our ESPN radio audience has returned. Kurt Warner, QB confidential. Check out his page on YouTube and he's getting set to call next couple of London games on NFL network. Starting this week, Colts and commanders, Kurt Warner here on the program. I got to jump in about the Drake made a start though.

20:26Rich Eisen:We were talking about a crisis of confidence for this kid who had nothing but all the reason to feel confident last year. And then we saw this performance in Jacksonville. What is going on with him that you're seeing, Kurt? It is such an interesting thing because obviously none of us know what's going on in Drake's mind. And, you know, you hear all the time people talking about, you know, a lot of people use the yips or we've seen guys in baseball that all of a sudden can't make a throw from second base to first base. And you just sit there and shake your head because you just don't understand how that can be possible.

21:03You know, these guys that have done certain things their entire life. You mentioned it, Drake May, so great all last year, runner up to the MVP. Many felt he should have been the MVP. And now it's gone so sideways so quickly. And it really looks like he has lost his confidence, that he is second-guessing everything that's happening on the football field. What I loved about him last year was he didn't second-guess. He was throwing the ball down the field. He was ripping the ball. When he didn't see it, he would take off and run. But he was very definitive in what he was doing. And right now, I feel it's exactly the opposite, that he's looking at things, and they're open, and they're there, and he just won't let it fly.

21:42He just won't let it rip. And we've even talked on our show, even some of the throws that he's made that I think were right decisions. He's not throwing it with authority. It's almost like, I don't want to miss. Am I making the right decision? And he's trying to set the ball in there. And every time he does that, it's going the wrong direction. And the defense is making a play on it. And, you know, and the question that's left up, you know, to Mike Vrabel and everybody there, Josh McDaniels, is how do we get it back? What do we do with this kid to get it back? I thought it was interesting, you know, Mooch talking on our show when we were having this conversation saying he would have some practices where he would tell the quarterbacks, you cannot check it down.

22:22You have got to attack and throw the ball down the field and see what throws you can make. And I wonder if, you know, a plan, something like that with New England, like, hey, quit checking it down. Quit being conservative. What makes you great is the aggressiveness. We've got a defense that will back you up. We have to get back to playing that brand of football. But that's sure what it looks like right now, not being in Drake's head, is that he's just lost his confidence to really attack and believe what he's saying. You know, when my son EJ was always playing and he goes through moments too where he's like, yeah, I just, you know, I'm not feeling it right now.

22:56And I said, you go back to trusting what you always know. Trust your eyes. When your eyes tell you something, then rip the football. And whatever happens, happens. But you know that your eyes and how good you are at taking in information and processing it, that that's how you have to play. And I believe that's what Drake's got to do right now is trust your eyes. When you see it, you rip it. And if it's a bad play, you line up the next time and you do it again.

23:19Rich Eisen:That's the hair on fire at the top of the Amtrak-Acella line. Let's go down to the midway point of it in Philadelphia. And you saw the Eagles up close and personal on Monday Night Football. What do you make of the offense right now through three weeks? It didn't look the same in week three as it was beginning to potentially ascend and pieces put together through the first two weeks. Yeah, it's just not flowing all the way around. And they had moments, I mean, when they got the Bears out on downs and then drove the ball 97 yards. They're running the football. They're making plays, throwing it. Their next drive was really good, and they put seven on the board.

24:00And so they had two drives that it just looked like it has looked, you know, a couple years ago in Philly. And you're like, OK, maybe they found something, but they just can't sustain it up front. I think their passing game is different than it's been. You know, I took a lot of grief yesterday on GMFB when I was talking about, you know, what I think they're missing in the passing game. Obviously, it starts with running the football and doing that. That's what Philadelphia is built on. But what they're missing in the passing game. And I mentioned missing a guy like A.J. Brown. And that doesn't mean that their players aren't good.

24:32Devontae Smith is a really good wide receiver in the National Football League. But something that always makes the game easier for any quarterback is to have what we call an X receiver. That guy that you can put on one side of the field, you put the other three receivers on the other side, you give them a full field concept, but you have that one guy on the backside that you say, hey, if they ever give us one-on-one, think of Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase. Every time Jamar Chase gets one-on-one, Joe Burrow seems to throw it to him. He's like, I got my guy over here, and it makes the game easier, even on really good quarterbacks, even for really good quarterbacks.

25:06If you watch the Raiders last week, they got Brock Bowers back. That's what they did with Brock Bowers. They put him out on one side by himself and say, I don't care who covers him. Cornerback, safety, linebacker, we're going to go to that guy, and he's going to make a play, and it makes the game so much easier. And so I know there were issues with A.J. Brown in the locker room and big picture-wise, but he gave them that dynamic that they don't really have right now. Devontae Smith, they like to leave him inside more in tight splits and not in those one-on-one situations. Montevion Wicks has been great for him, but just not quite to that level, in my opinion, at least yet in his career.

25:42And that, to me, is something that can take a lot of pressure off an offense when you can say, hey, load the box for Saquon Barkley. I got a one-on-one guy out there that I can take advantage of every single time. And they've had that the past few years. They could always fall back on that. And it's something to me that they aren't really falling back on or can't really fall back on right now based on the way that they're playing football. And now it's causing to me a lot of issues in their passing game. Sometimes it looks good, but then there's just not a lot of continuity right now.

26:11Rich Eisen:Well, maybe I should ask you this question in a couple of weeks after you have meetings with the Eagles in advance of the week five Sunday starter on NFL Network when the Eagles and Jaguars play each other in a terrific game of the Doug Peterson Bowl, if you will. But that said, I'll ask you the question I get from all my Eagles friends and fans of the show here. How, you know, should they be nervous about what they're seeing? Is this another moment where we're going to have another season wondering what's Sirianni's role in all this? What's Hurts' role in all this? Did they get the right coordinator?