Hour 2: Aaron Donald latest, Overreaction Monday on a Tuesday, ESPN Senior Writer Seth Wickersham, Four Downs: New England Patriots

15:45Okay.

15:46Rich Eisen:I'm in. All right. Let's do it. Right. Let's talk this up. Or we could bring back a gate and it could be a Cheez-It because that's what they used to do whenever some people started knocking on their doors. Cheez-It. Okay. I'm just spit falling. Watch you work, baby. See what I'm saying? Watch you work. I'm in the zone. What else, Greg? All right. A couple more. We had our fantasy draft last night for the Doingham Show League. in person is the best and only way to do fantasy drafts. Okay, that's not an overreaction. What else you got over there? That's sort of like Seinfeld. I just glanced and looked away.

16:27Rich Eisen:It's like looking into the sun, if you will. Of course, it's the best way. What are you talking about? Especially the way we got to do it. Exactly. Honestly, we had 90 seconds of clock time, and if it got halfway through, I started barking at people. You really did. My man Rick Eisen has zero patience. Only a couple people took it down to like under 10 seconds. I know. Smitch was in Norway. Smitch was in Norway. Yeah. Smitch was in Norway. He was drafted from Norway. Yeah, we don't know where Colleen was. I don't know. Colleen was trying to hang up a team. She said she put it on auto draft for one.

16:58Rich Eisen:She was hanging a screen? Screen, she said. And took two quarterbacks. Yeah, because they were only quarterbacks in the first two spots. Atop the players available. What else, Chris? What do you got?

17:10Seth Wickersham:it's now time for you, Rich Eisen to admit that I was right about Otani should never be pitching

17:16Rich Eisen:again. Why would you say such a thing? Because he's been hurt this whole time and now he's not even hitting well. I will never agree to you I will never agree to this. The guy loves pitching when the guy is healthy he is a dominant pitcher. There's a reason why they paid him$700 million It's to hit home runs. No, it's to do both. The Mets paid somebody 700 million dollars to sit on his ass okay that's it right so i'm gonna take your opinion and tell you you're still wrong and use it to troll on tj and he's sitting there saying why the hell did i just catch something i don't know why i'm just i'm just sitting here minding my own business all right i'm just in a mood yeah yeah just one thing one for his last 17 who cares I imagine what that means is PCA is your MVP unless there's a massive fall off he's kind of run away with it now if you want to make me angry you're not going to admit that I was right?

18:16nope, never

18:17Rich Eisen:you want to make me angry talk about how the Mets just gave away PCA that's not good either that's not great either I shouldn't talk baseball anyway because the Yankees played easily their worst game of the year and thank goodness as we did that draft in person last night because that was the game Cooper and I have been identifying to go down to Anaheim to see for months. And I'm like, you know what? We'll just do the draft. And we saw Cam Schlittler starting Wednesday. So we avoided that 10-1 debacle. The great thing was on the TV right in front of you. So you got to see everything. I know. I know.

18:52Rich Eisen:All right. Oh, by the way, we thank the pawn shop as well for here in Los Angeles, California. Great pawn shop. Yeah, right around the corner from where my kids went to preschool. I had no idea I'd be years later at my own drop-off with you guys and Don Bowie wearing a cowboy hat. Cowboy Don. Cowboy Don showing up last night. Pawn Shop treated us well. They did. And that platter filled with, you know, burgers and dogs and whatever, it was really great. So good. Pawn Shop LA was fun times. And we'll talk about John Monaco, the man on the right, and the absolute disaster he has created on our text chain.

19:30Rich Eisen:We will get more into this later. And that later on. What you did was so wrong yesterday. What'd I do wrong? You know what you did on the text chain. What'd I do? But does he know or is he fine? He didn't do anything actually. Didn't you boot him off the text chain? I did not. I wish to. We'll describe why. And I think everyone will back my play on that. A SoFi personal loan is here to help you achieve something once thought impossible. That's overcoming high-interest credit card debt. Walk the tightrope of your finances with one low fixed-rate monthly payment, no fees required, and as soon as the same-day funding.

20:04Rich Eisen:That's right. You can pull off your own debt-defying stunt with a SoFi personal loan. Visit SoFi.com slash trick to learn more. Loans originated by SoFi Bank, N.A. member, FDIC. Terms and conditions apply, NMLS 696891. When we come back, ESPN's senior writer, his new book, Beyond That Hill, stories from the summits of sport. Seth Wickersham when we come back.

20:34Seth Wickersham:Quick break to tell you some game time tips. When you're hosting during football season, you've got to be ready for every kind of craving. Somebody wants fresh pizza. Somebody wants crispy wings. Somebody's asking if there's sliders. That's when you need more than one call on the playbook. Frigidaire offers ranges and wall ovens with over 15 cooking modes so you can tackle hosting with confidence. There's Stone Baked Pizza for restaurant-quality pizza in as little as two minutes, Air Fry Mode for crispy favorites, and Air Sous Vide for juicy tender sliders. Plus, there's slow cook, no preheat, and more.

21:04Seth Wickersham:Stone Baked Pizza and Air Fry, both built right in your oven. That's the game-time MVP combo. So when you're hosting before kickoff, Frigidaire helps you cover every craving. Available at The Home Depot, how doers get more done. Only when using Stone Baked Pizza mode, cook time requires preheat and reheat and may vary based on ingredients.

21:20Rich Eisen: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. Learn more and donate at HyundaiUSA.com backslash Hope on Wheels. Buy five quarts of Mobile One full synthetic motor oil and receive two times O rewards points.

21:56Rich Eisen:Plus, get a$10 gift card and receive a 2311 die cast after rebate. Terms and conditions apply. Get details at O 'Reilly Auto Parts. The Rich Isis Show Podcast. Matt Hill, stories from the summits of sport. A collection of this man's ESPN work is available on Tuesday, September 22nd. so uh three weeks from today uh wherever you get your books is where you can get seth wickersham's newest book beyond that hill and so you're saying this is just a collection of stories from your yeah my quarter century of work with the spn that have not made it in any of your pieces or works or and and this is sort of hoovering up all the good stuff yeah it's like and putting it in a book

22:45Seth Wickersham:It's an essentials. And so, you know, I think that like what you try to do with something like that is, you know, you're not really trying to give the readers, you know, your best stories. But, you know, you're trying to reflect, you know, how sports and maybe even the country has changed so that the book has a point. And and so, you know, there are stories that I've done on people like Kobe Bryant or Tom Brady. there's stories that Don Van Nat and I did in there that you know especially our Goodell Jerry Jones story from 2017 I think of all the ones we've done that one is the one that um you know I'm proudest of there's just a ton of great backstory to that one and um like what well remember so that was the fall of 17 and it was a tough year for the league remember President Trump in his first term was coming after the kneelers.

23:40Seth Wickersham:They were scrambling. You know, Don and I had that piece of reporting from Bob McNair. You can't have the inmates running the prison. I mean, it was a tough fall. And in the middle of it, Jerry Jones was threatening to sue the NFL to block Roger's contract extension. And it was a cold war between two of the most powerful people in sports. And, you know, we felt like we could tell a really insidery story about that one and we just have a ton of colorful reporting in that story but i'll never forget the story was about to go to print and i was driving um from new york to connecticut and i got a call from don and he said he had just gotten off the phone with a top with a you know high an impeccable source who said at the beginning of the year there was this phone call with roger goodell jerry jones and jeff pasch who was the league's general counsel right and it was about zeke elliott when they were going to tell jerry that zeke was suspended which jerry was surprised about to put a mile he was pissed i remember that right and the source said we're not at liberty to say what happened but there was some colorful language and you guys should try to figure out what was said and so we're both working the phones and we end up learning that you know roger and jeff tell jerry about zeke suspension jerry you know got very upset and he says you know you think bob craft came after you hard bob craft is blank compared to what i'm going to compared to what i'm going to do to you and you know the process of gathering that reporting and getting it into print and showing readers a deeper look at the sport that you know look i I think people love football most and know about it the least.

25:24Seth Wickersham:That was our goal with that story and all of our stories. And that was a particularly fun one.

25:28Rich Eisen:So out of the names of the folks that you have in here, my goodness, Mahomes, Brady, Prime, Colton, just to name four. Who was the most fierce competitor that you've come across? whether it was gleaning something from the interview with him or her yeah or stories that

25:50Seth Wickersham:were told by others about this subject that's a great i mean there once you get to a certain level of the uber competitors obviously brady i think you know i first met tom you know so i was hired in 2000 he graduated from michigan in 2000 fall of 2001 i'm getting my first kind of shot to go write big feature stories for espn they send me to foxborough to write about this young guy who's coming on well and playing well and relief of Bledsoe and then we'll probably go back to the bench and so I meet with Brady this is like October of 01 he's wearing like a gray sweatsuit and a backpack he looks like a junior at Michigan and I'll never forget he said you know football's always come really easy to me and you know at the time I was we were both young men kind of getting our career breaks at the same time and I didn't have the perspective to understand what he was saying then but i i think that like anytime he says something like that he means it to the bottom of his soul and i think that like the intensity that he the fire within him compared to other people i think is pretty unique and i mean that's not like a groundbreaking statement there's a lot of when you're comparing it to someone like colby though right i mean yeah colby was motivated but they were colby was different obviously because he had the you know the spotlight on him being a first round pick from the beginning.

27:11Seth Wickersham:And so he had something to kind of live up to, whereas Brady was under the radar for a bit.

27:15Rich Eisen:And also at Michigan had a share time with Drew Henson and he showed up after Greasy won the national championship. So he had those big shoes to fill. And I guess Kobe was a massive prep star in Philadelphia. He was.

27:28Seth Wickersham:I think Brady just, you know, the little things he said over the years that you look back on and you think those were the clues. You know, football's always come easy to me it doesn't mean that he never had to work at it because he obviously worked his tail off but i think that like those are the things where he had like an innate sense of the game and he kind of took to it in a special way that in retrospect you kind of see those little moments as lore or little clues and another one happened like about a decade later i was in his living room and he says you know my first 10 years in the league have prepared me for my last 10 and i was like what like this dude is just saying he's gonna play 20 years and you know i didn't take it you know i i took him at his word but i didn't think he would do it i thought that was an admirable goal i think he did okay on that well and then also you could make the case his last

28:15Rich Eisen:10 were better than his first 10 huge case or at least his last 10 will be better than anybody's 10. You know, mostly, obviously, mostly. But the way that he finished as a 40-year-old, his stats, I mean, you're seeing Rodgers attempt it now. I mean, Breeze barely cracked his 40s before, you know, he retired. You know, you're looking at the league right now and the only comparison you could make is to somebody who is in your book, Beyond That Hill, and Mahomes. Because Mahomes has in his 20s surpassed Brady in his 20s now comes the hard part to try and stay with Brady right

28:58Seth Wickersham:and there's so many things that have to go right you know when Brady was in his mid-30s Belichick and this is in the book Belichick presented a study to Kraft that showed how quarterbacks tail off after their mid-30s and he kind of used it as justification as why we're going to draft Jimmy Garoppolo and we're going to start this transition plan. And obviously Brady outlasted Garoppolo. And the story that's in the book is about the last days of the Patriot way when Belichick and Kraft finally parted ways. But one of the things that Kraft told a confidant, because Belichick had obviously opened the door for Brady to leave after the 19th season and brady walked right out and goes and wins a super bowl and craft says you know bill told me he couldn't play anymore and then he goes out and wins an effing super bowl i mean can you imagine like you know craft and belichick have been through a lot together but can you imagine you know saying that to your boss and your boss having that having to watch tom brady win a super Bowl as a Tampa Bay Buck.

30:02Rich Eisen:That's tough. But in retrospect, if you really want to, let's be real about it, wouldn't you say Brady had a better chance to win a Super Bowl in Tampa in that one season than staying put with the roster that the Patriots had around him at that point in time? You're also an expert on this subject matter? 100%, yeah. You know what I mean? That 2019 Patriots team was not equipped to win. Even with Brady playing at the top of his game, I don't... I mean, they lost at home in the wild card. They did. Yeah, I just don't, I didn't see it. But Belichick commissioned a report or it landed on his desk?

30:39Seth Wickersham:No, he kind of did it internally and saying, you know, this is why we're going to make this pick. We're looking at a quarterback and we'll look to, you know, set up a transition. Obviously that all came to a head during the 2017 season. And, you know, Jimmy was surprised everybody with that trade when he was moved to San Francisco. but again you know Brady's a fascinating guy because unlike almost any unique athlete his body outlasted his will for football which is almost every time it's the other way around

31:08Rich Eisen:no doubt about it no doubt about it but he's also you know living living through it living it on still as the broadcaster going to the stadium you can hear he he gets better every week I think he's a much better broadcaster now than he was when he first started and he works at it you could tell like he truly does work at it which no surprise based on the work ethic you're describing um what's your favorite mahomes story that you've grabbed then because i mean again he's got he is set up if he can continue on and create another dynastic run totally in kansas city to try and catch brady and yeah the story nuts but the story about mahomes

31:48Seth Wickersham:that's in there i mean it's a long story about you know how he came to be and i had like three sentences in there about how he liked to put ketchup on steak and that took off like that became the buzzworthy thing for like i want to say our guy peter schaefer or peter peter schrager was talking about it on good morning football i want to say like two weeks after the fact right um i think the most interesting thing about mahomes is how different he is from brady in a couple essential ways obviously they have an incredible innate drive where they're running for a finish line that doesn't really exist i mean they're competing only against themselves but Mahomes was under the radar in Texas as a, as a quarterback.

32:28Seth Wickersham:And it seems staggeringly ridiculous to think about right now, but it's true. And, um, you know, they have the elite 11 regionals, which are like the high school showcase. And then if you're, if you do well enough, you go down the road and you're in the lead 11 nationals and he didn't qualify for the regional Patrick Mahomes with that skillset didn't qualify in Texas. And I asked him about it, wondering if like that was the cliche chip on his shoulder you hear it with tom all the time talking about how ucla pulled their scholarship and uc usc you know ended up not wanting him and you know dropping to the sixth round and he was so level-headed about he goes no you know east texas isn't really known for quarterbacks and i was kind of lost i was more known for baseball and that was that and i thought that was interesting because where his greatness comes from and really you know the the subtext of the book is like where greatness comes from and what the price of it is um i thought was so much different than tom's i mean they overlap the venn diagrams overlap but the thing that i think jordan kind of brought to the culture of finding slights and nurturing them and inventing them at times that was never the case with him i think that he's someone who's always been running his own race and you know it's worked out well for

33:44Rich Eisen:him well i mean this year you want to continue the brady analogy in terms of a career in the middle of his two dynastic runs brady blew out his knee and had to come back from that and i will see if mahomes has another dynastic run in him but he's coming back from a knee injury and you know you're hearing how um you know and jeremy fowler's um you know i guess top tens based on what everybody else in the league anonymously is thinking. Mahomes isn't number one on that list. Everyone's overlooking the Chiefs potentially, maybe for good reason. But you don't think he takes in the slights, Mahomes?

34:29Seth Wickersham:I'm sure he notices it, but I don't think even Brady, when he was playing, I think kept a little bit of that stuff publicly at bay. And then later in life, you see how he was collecting those things. He's a little bit more transparent about it. I think Mahomes, I'm sure that stuff helps a little bit, but I just think that he's wired fundamentally different in a way that, you know, look, it's obviously been phenomenally successful for him, but, you know, how he gets his greatness and, you know, maybe look back on it and he'll say, yeah, you know, I was looking at all these people talking to Jeremy Fowler about how I wasn't the top one on the list.

35:09Seth Wickersham:I don't know. Maybe that'll be the case later.

35:10Rich Eisen:we'll see people learn about it and you've got mcveigh in this book as well that's in my mind the story of the nfl season is mcdonald's coming out with garrett they've got five times over defensive players of the year added to a roster that almost won the super bowl last year almost got to the super bowl last year um am i missing any storylines do you think that is the storyline

35:31Seth Wickersham:of i think the most interesting thing and we'll learn about it later because when i got with sean he had just won the super bowl and i spent a lot of time with him the entire off season as he was remember he thought about going into broadcasting like the stress of it just got to him the stress of coaching everything yeah and you know remember they were loading up the warheads at that year and so there was a lot of pressure on them from the outside and what that'll be like the second time around for him i think will be really interesting because nobody just cruises through the nfl season i mean they're going to hit a rough patch at some point and how they all handle that with the expectations of being everyone's super team and how he handles it personally, I think are going to be two really interesting things.

36:14Seth Wickersham:I mean, he is someone, you know, he is as ambitious as they come. He can go to some dark, dark places. I think he doesn't

36:22Rich Eisen:talk about, I mean, he says it, but then he doesn't give any, I think that he's got any meat on those bones. Well, it talks about it. They're ugly places, you know, like, like any, has he shared that sort of stuff yeah i mean it's all in there but like right all in the book yeah

36:36Seth Wickersham:and i think that like there's people who just aren't at peace personally until they feel like the game plan is at peace and what does that look like because it's not the perfect play it's a feeling that they're going for and how they arrive there over the course of a monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday can be really um straining and but i think that one thing sean has done is he's figured out ways to balance that stress with a healthier personal life and I think that like that template for him has served him well as a coach I think it served him well as a person and I think it'll be interesting to see how things go this year because obviously like the expectations are always high with that team but it's very high this year it's very similar to when Stafford they traded for him and they're going to hit rough patches where maybe the end looks in doubt and how he navigates that I think will be interesting.

37:31Rich Eisen:Yeah, and for now he's married, father or two, as opposed to the last time he went through it. And the way that you just described it before I let you go here, about Monday through Friday, about the game plan and it's not perfect, and then the pressure of calling the plays on top of it, is that why you think Sean Payton has stepped away from play calling? Like something like that right there?

37:49Seth Wickersham:I think there's part of that. You know, he talked about it with me where, you know, sometimes as you get older you don't like driving at night in the rain. and I think that um you know he might take play calling over from Davis you know once Davis Webb maybe moves on if it works out well right I don't think it's a forever move but I think that for this year he knows it's the right thing for that team and it gives him a chance to focus more on those situational football moments that you know Brady's so good at illuminating that the Patriots kind of revolutionized football with their strategy for I think that like managing a game ultimately will probably help, but we'll see.

38:27Rich Eisen:Seth Wickersham, senior writer of ESPN and now the author of another book. The best-selling author, Seth Wickersham, is now putting out Beyond That Hill, stories from the summits of sports right here on The Rich Eyes and Show, available Tuesday, September 22nd, wherever you get your books. So pre-order now or make sure that you go to a bookstore on that day. Great to see you, sir. Great to see you, man. Thank you. Anytime. time you know that i've told you that just you let me know you're in la and you got a chair thanks just to tell you the iconic chair i appreciate you call it iconic chair there's you know a hardware that's just been restored all right good to see you sir good to see you man that is seth wickersham right here on the rich eyes and show jim harbaugh coming up in hour number three your phone calls as well rich eyes and here for gusto after all these years talking to athletes coaches, entertainers, and people at the top of what they do, one thing is pretty clear.

39:25Rich Eisen:Success usually depends on getting the details right. For small business owners, that includes payroll, hiring, onboarding, benefits, you know, the work that keeps everything moving, even if it's not the reason you started the business in the first place. That's why there's Gusto. Gusto is online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all-in-one, remote-friendly, and incredibly easy to use, so you can pay, hire, onboard, and support your team from anywhere. Automatic payroll tax filing, simple direct deposits, health benefits, commuter benefits, workers' comp, 401k, you name it.

39:58Rich Eisen:Gusto makes it simple and has options for nearly every budget, and it's all built to save you time with built-in automated tools for offer letters, onboarding docs, direct deposit, and more. Plus, you get unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price. 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. 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.

40:37Rich Eisen: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. The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast all right back here on the rich eyes and show 844-204-RICH number to dial our friends at Hyundai have a great great campaign called Hyundai Hope on Wheels I don't know if anybody's aware but every 36 minutes a child in the United States is diagnosed with cancer which means some of the bravest warriors you're ever going to meet aren't professional athletes or superheroes they're the kids in this fight and that's why I'm proud to support Hyundai Hope on wheels because for the past 28 years with support from hyundai their dealers and every new hyundai sold hope on wheels has contributed over 300 million dollars to childhood cancer research helping save more than 40 000 kids join our fight at hyundaiwarriors.com okay i've got a four downs here and the pressure's on here because the four downs uh involves your new england patriots oh so i didn't ask you i didn't ask you let's go i didn't ask you like hey what do you think or i just i came up with this myself all by myself thank you cooper may have helped no i'm just kidding um get it but uh it's time for a new pardon me a a uh a patriots defending afc champion new england patriots four down season preview hit it four downs with rich here we go now i don't know if you remember uh a couple years ago there was a draft where three quarterbacks were taken in a row.

42:31Rich Eisen:Right, of course. And to start the draft. And one of them had an up and down first year. And then last year, through the roof, Caleb Williams. Another one was a unicorn right out of the box. Offensive rookie of the year, hands down second year, right down the tubes. The third one, he gets drafted. They decide to, you know, give him a little bit of marinating time and screw it. Just throw him in there. Okay. But, you know, Gerard Mayo was the head coach and the offensive coordinator wasn't, you know, Josh McDaniels. So, okay. In comes Vrabel, in comes McDaniels. Last year, Drake made a total rocket ship.

43:13Rich Eisen:And I don't think there's anybody out there that thinks that's a one-off, an anomaly, a one-hit wonder. You know, Dexys, Midnight Runners. Anybody who knows anything. The Oneaters. Okay. You know what I mean? Doesn't think that. Because that thing he does is something else. And now here comes A.J. Brown. Oh, baby. So first down is will A.J. Brown have the impact on Drake May as hoped? Right? Yep. Because now A.J. Brown comes with all due respect to Stephon Diggs and the aforementioned, you know, the artist formerly known as Keyshawn Booty there. Romeo Dobbs has been brought in. And the wide receiver room has been improved, to say the least.

43:58Rich Eisen:So I can't wait to see what first down is going to mean with number one there and A.J. Brown wanting to show it ain't me in Philadelphia, everybody. That's first down. Second down. Second down. This was a massive issue last year, and it got masked by all those wins. and Will Campbell year two. Any better or does the turn style keep on turning? The whole idea, hey, he's not going to be the left tackle. They're going to kick him inside. Who's the left tackle on the depth chart as of right now in New England? That's him. Elijah Veritaker's right next to him. So they have gotten better on that left side.

44:42Rich Eisen:And we will see what happens with Will Campbell. Because he was beginning, you could see it was messing with what was going on. He was playing okay, then he got hurt and missed some time. Got it. Maybe came back too early or just came back because he felt like he needed to, but yeah, he wasn't good in the playoffs. And then in between the temples, you could see it was beginning to affect him. Yep. Because if the left side isn't strong enough, Drake May is going to start to speed himself up, and whatever issues he had protecting the football last year could be another problem this year. Third down.

45:17Rich Eisen:Third down. A lot of people don't know. The Patriots had a top five defense last year. Top five. Opportunistic. They were opportunistic, but they didn't give up points, man. They didn't. So third down is a simple question. Can the defense stay top five? And obviously Christian Gonzalez being paid and happy would be a big time piece to add. To keep this thing rolling top five-ish. We'll see. because everyone's talking about Drake May was amazing and Vrabel's coach of the year and yada, yada, yada. Come out to the coast. They didn't have any laughs when they came out to the coast to the Super Bowl, but they made the Super Bowl because the defense 1 ,000 % got them there.

46:02Rich Eisen:It wasn't because the offense was lighting it up in the playoffs at all. The defense closed the season and then got them to the Super Bowl. That's a big third down. And then there's this fourth down. You have to mention it. You have to mention it, and it's a simple one. Does Mike Vrabel's TMZ World crash in on the locker room in any way, shape, or form? Nobody knows. It's not talked about very much. I mean, NBC did talk about it at the Hall of Fame game. Yeah, Mike Tallon brought it up. Right, and you look at their schedule. Obviously, we all know. Isn't this amazing? It's a week from—it's in eight days from this conversation.

46:42Rich Eisen:at Seattle, home for Pittsburgh, at Jacksonville, at Buffalo. If that's a 1-3 start or an 0-4 start, it's a tough place to play Seattle with a banner raise. And then you go home and the Steelers come in and surprise them in their home opener. That happened last year with the Raiders. Yeah, and they lost it. And Steelers beat New England last year. And then at Jacksonville, at Buffalo, I'm just wondering if it's a slow start is the locker room buying what the reigning coach of the year is selling because they look at him and say really I don't know that thing could be totally put to bed I just need to ask this because I don't think a lot of people are talking about it and that's my four downs on the New England Patriots upcoming AFC title defense season thanks for listening to the Rich Eisen Show podcast You can watch and listen to The Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from noon to 3 Eastern on ESPN Radio, Disney Plus, and on the ESPN app.

47:48Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast.

47:57Rich Eisen:This episode is brought to you by State Farm. No two football players are exactly alike, and the same is true off the field. That's why State Farm gets to know you so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.