Hour 2: Breaking Down the Annual NFL Head Coach Group Photo, plus NFL Insider Mike Garafolo

0:005 a.m. I'm up with a crisp Celsius energy drink. Running 12 miles today. Grab a green juice, quick change, and head to work. Meetings, workshops. One more Celsius, no slowing down. Working late, but obviously still meeting the girls for a little dancing. Celsius. Live. Fit. Go. Grab a cold, refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate now at Celsius.com.

0:51Ugh. still apply. See website for details.

0:54Rich Eisen: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 three Eastern. 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 Rich Eisen Show and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. This is the Rich Eisen Show. And I'm living my best life right now. Rich Eisen. Michigan makes the final four by curb-stomping Tennessee. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Duke gets Leitner'd in front of the whole country.

1:37Earlier on the show. ESPN NFL draft analyst Matt Miller. Coming up. NFL network reporter Mike Garofalo. NBC Sports Bay Area 49ers reporter Matt Maioco. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

1:54Rich Eisen:Hi everybody, our number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial here on the program. Mike Garofalo is going to be joining us from the NFL owners meeting. We'll explain why, one of the many reasons why we called upon him. Matt Maioco, who covers the Niners, he's at the NFL owners meeting as well. We're keeping an eye on any of the rules, proposals, and changes. At some point, that's going to be voted on. And then we'll get some results. And then the commissioner will speak on Wednesday. And then off we go to everybody back to their homes and facilities. And then the draft hits as April starts tomorrow.

2:31Rich Eisen:Again, I said 844-204-RICH being the number to dial right here on the program. Let's go to, you know what, we'll go to Sid in Baltimore. more let's uh start with sid here to kick off our number two to the rich eisen show what's up sid hi rich how are you doing what's going on um i asked paul feinbaum the same question yesterday but i wanted to know your opinion because i have a sports podcast with my friend liam called not what i meant and i asked him this the other day okay i'm wondering what you think is harder to win march madness or the college football playoff and i'm going to give my opinion because i think it's a hot take.

3:09I'm going to say the college football playoff, just because I think March Madness can sometimes be a little more fluky and teams receiving a first round buy in the college football playoff are one in seven. I know it's a small sample size, but it's not nothing.

3:23Rich Eisen:Well, part of the reason why, Sid, the teams that got a buy are one in seven in the college football playoffs is because the teams that get a buy sometimes, I'll just say it, screw it, don't deserve it they're they're in conferences that aren't as strong as uh the big 10 or the sec which is the truth in college football and they get it because everybody's kind of got to get um you know a buy from everybody who wins their conference has got to get in and sometimes they get the buy because they've won their conference which you know they got to get a better seed than somebody that didn't even though that somebody that didn't might have say lost to Michigan in the last game of the regular season and they get in and go on a run and win it all anyway because they're the best team in college football who lost to their rival at the last second you know so um I feel like most of the buys are like to teams like Oregon and Ohio State and those senior teams well I know and then and then again Oregon got a buy and then ran into the pre you know the aforementioned Ohio State Buckeyes you know and so that's that's the reason why they they got one and done right there but i i would just say this uh i'm i'm gonna go the ncaa tournament and i thank you for the call sid i'm gonna go the ncaa tournament because you said you know fluky i mean that's the whole thing you know and it's hard you know the the um college football playoffs is eager dying to get a umbc moment out of say james madison they they would love to have a team that everybody's thinking why are they in the college football playoffs over say the second or third place team in the sec or the second place team in the acc or the third place team in the big 10 why are they in they shouldn't be in because their competition is different or what have you um but at the end of the day they are in and i think the college football playoff committee would love to have that sienna scaring duke moment right they would love it but football's different than basketball and the difference also in winning the ncaa tournament as opposed to the college football playoffs is you've got to play two games in three days right survive and advance is i mean just again yeah just to use this example of my wolverines from this past weekend they beat Alabama and Tennessee in the span of 48 hours and if you take a look at both of those teams styles vastly different Alabama wants to go running up and down the floor shooting threes like crazy keeping you out of your game by going helter skelter keeping things going wearing you down because you're you know you're going up and down the court transition this transition that and then Tennessee's different let's beat the crap out of you we're just as tall and big as you that's why Bruce Burrell said he didn't think Michigan could punk them but my point is not that Michigan beat them both but my point is is that Dusty May and his staff had to have game plans for both in the span of 48 hours and the same thing with Illinois and the same thing with UConn.

6:53Rich Eisen:UConn had a goal against Michigan state and Duke in a span of 48 hours in college football playoffs. You're getting like a week, a week and a half off, not even a week, more than a week. Would you agree with that or no? No, I'm just thinking. So we've had the 12 team college football playoff each of the last two years and the best team won the championship each year, right? Ohio State was the best team in 24 and they won and Indiana was the best team and they won, right? That doesn't happen in college basketball. The best team doesn't win. The number one overall team is Duke. They're out. So that shows you it's more difficult to win.

7:36Rich Eisen:More difficult to win the basketball. That's my point. TJ? Yeah, he's got a good point there. I mean, football, obviously Obviously, the top dogs are going to. Although, wouldn't you think if. I guess, again, the regular season is different. If Arizona or Michigan wins, it would be people would say the best team did win the tournament. Probably. But that's. But the beauty of the NCAA tournament is if somebody like Illinois wins it, it's just like Cinderella's glass slipper. It fits. Yeah, they're a three seed. They won. They weren't, you know, a three seed. They're conceivably in the 9, 10, 11, 12 range heading into the bracket.

8:16Rich Eisen:But I guess the question isn't what's more fitting. The question is what's more difficult. It's difficult because of the six games. Yeah, again, like I said, Michigan played two teams of thoroughly different styles. Yeah. And you've got to be versatile enough to do what they did. But you get a week off, but you've got to play two games in three days, break, two games in three days. Yes. Two games in three days. You got to do it three times. Yes, you do. I think that's much more difficult. I agree. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial here on the program. Mike Garofalo of NFL Network is going to join us.

8:49Rich Eisen:He's at the owner's meeting. His information is terrific. Part of the reason why we want him on. The other reason is because he, listen, we look forward to this every year. We've been doing this for quite some time. Quite some time. We've been around this neighborhood now. This is our 11th season for this program. Crazy, man. the NFL has a class photograph of all the coaches. Notice they don't do this for the general managers or the owners. Wouldn't that be great if the owners did this? They do a GM photo. They do? There's no owner's photo. There's a GM photo. Why isn't that shared? Well, because GMs, you know, lesser known.

9:31Rich Eisen:Okay. Lesser known. There's no owner's class photo, huh? There's no owner's class photo. They were all like, to heck with that. Back to my yacht. Yeah, they need to have it's been a long time since Jerry Jones took his theory, his Sears photograph class photo, right? It has been. Yeah, these guys and ladies are like, we're done with that. There needs to be an updated one. We need to see where they put Carly or say Gordon. Because we do love this because of the where coaches sit and how they are looking and whether they're happy to be there or not. And it's a moment in time. It's a snapshot in time.

10:04Rich Eisen:And we kind of dig it. We love it. So the first photograph we see online of it, we're going to use it. We're going to go for it. We're going to go off the top of our heads and we're going to have fun with it. So when Mike Garofalo was the first out, we're like, OK, put it up on the screen. It's just not usable. It's off to the side. What is this thing? Like, is that that's a light? That's a light. That's a light. That's a light. Or is that? No, that's an antenna. No, it's a light. You can see. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because we can't. There's shadows. It's in the sunlight. and hardly make anybody out you know and then we just it's just like mike what are you doing what are we doing i gotta be honest like i well that's not his forte his information i don't know mike well enough to stand up for him but i'm sure if he would have known that this picture would be traveling around he knew it he posted it he even added kyle brant like kyle's the only one who does this okay that's true all right then you know what no defense at any rate he's about to join us reach around the pole i tried but so so put up put up the real one the one that here class but that's done by professional no i know that so so this is the one that we'll use and um it's now time to break down the uh annual meeting annual coaches photograph right and the first thing that i notice is they put the brothers together the black guys no different ones actual siblings good one they are their harbaugh's next to the lafleurs john and jim and oh okay and matt and mike mike now the head coach of the arizona car he's the home head coach right there so there they are the brothers are hanging all together isn't that nice or brother and um made me think there's matt lafleur where is ben johnson in relation to matt lafleur since you know they don't like they're not next to each other okay notice that that matt is in between a harbaugh and his own brother right harbaugh so so we're wondering is is ben as far away from that as possible and the answer is no he has just three coaches as a human shield in between him and his nemesis joe brady is huge joe brady is a bigger than you think he's he's in the bigger than you think category or is or just a little guy no mike mike is mike is i i i don't think as tall as you think but i've been around joe brady joe brady's taller than you he might see eye to eye with tj yeah yeah so it's it's it's three new head coaches in between the the uh the nemeses of the nfc north although you know stefanski has been in this photograph last few years as the browns head coach newcomers mike lafleur joe brady and there's uh stefanski just three coaches i thought it would be more than that he would i thought he'd be you know in the Kubiak spot or what?

13:11Rich Eisen:Well, that would be so what? Just one more away. Just on the end. Yeah. Or standing off to the end. I think, is it Sirianni is on the far? Yeah, we'll get to that in a second. Yeah. So you mentioned Clint Kubiak. If you zoom in on him, he just doesn't look very happy. You know what I mean? Sun is inside. Yeah, these guys are looking directly into the sun. No, I understand. But they're also in the warm black today. I don't know. Well, I mean, he's a Raider, Raider Nation. and you know there he is long sleeves to interesting choice he better change that he's moving to the desert man but uh but he doesn't look very happy you'd think that he would be like sitting next to ben johnson like if well thankfully i'm glad that you did not take my job two years ago so i could have this job now right two cycles ago you know maybe that's why he's sitting next to him it could be that i don't know and it's plus plus hey clint you are one of only two guys in this photo who have won a ring just a couple months ago.

14:11Rich Eisen:Now you're wondering, where is Mike McDonald? That was my first thought. Where do you put the guy at? I thought he would have been front and center because Andy Reid usually, I'm the champ. I'm front and center. That's what I was wondering the first time I saw that. Mike McDonald is sort of center-ish, but he's next to the two guys who used to hire him. He's right next to John and Jim. He looks a little swole right there. He sure does. So there's Mike McDonald right there next to the two guys that had previously employed him before he became a head coach of his own right. And see, he's smiling like I won the Super Bowl.

14:45Rich Eisen:You know what I mean? He's the happiest guy there. Say cheese, I am the only head coach in this photograph who won as a head coach. Clint Kubiak is just like, bro, smile. You know? You think he was big time in people all day? So where's Vrabel? Where's Vrabel? Where's Vrabel? okay vrabel is just a couple over from mcdonald okay on the other side of sean payton oh um and there he is next to jeff halfley looks good and halfley looks like he's cooking up something doesn't he he does he looks like he knows something that you know what i mean like i'm cooking up something i got a master plan here rich it also could be that you want to talk about like man spreading Vrabel's taking up half his seat so maybe he's just like Vrabel's a big man if there's anybody who's going to man spread it it's going to be Mike Vrabel if it's not Reed so you got Halfley sitting next to Vrabel right there and they play each other twice next year I don't know if Halfley's already game planning or something he's cooking something up cozying up to him speaking of two coaches that are going to be playing against each other as well next year Liam Cohen and Mike McCarthy's photograph.

16:01Rich Eisen:And I don't know what it is, man, but Liam's leaning away from Mike. It's warm. Maybe Mike ripped one. You can say that about every pick so far. Let me get out of here a little bit. Liam and Jim are the only ones wearing shades. I don't know if Jim's got transitioned. Liam just looks like he's wearing shades. Styling. Okay. Liam's just cool. Cliff Kingsbury School. Now, you mentioned this, like, normally Andy Reid's sitting right in the middle. Right in the middle. Manspread Centerpiece was the name of one of our fantasy team names that won a championship in the Jerry Cantrell Celebrity League when we were invited to that back in the day.

16:45Rich Eisen:I think it was his birthday yesterday, by the way. Jerry Cantrell? Yesterday. One of our favorites. By the way, what a year from him. Seahawks, yeah. Celebrating a birthday. Seahawks win. Jim's in the middle wearing shades. Where is Andy Reid? he's standing up this year oh now i think that's because he had knee surgery and he might have a brace on or something oh that might be but there he is a scar there he is look at andy still in the wine shirt in the wine shirt he's the only one i think that is wearing his team's logo as well oh oh it's a cheese hawaii it is that that's watermark okay oh is john harbaugh wearing his i believe john is wearing his too but at any rate he is that's a choice man that's a choice he's got to remind people that he's the giants coach all right so now let's get to this part because you know how we feel about robert sala well this is a man beautiful comfortable around other bald men yeah okay he's hired an entire staff of bald men dan quinn right next to dan Quinn in this photograph of it beautiful bald coaches sitting look at those guys right here Shanahan screwing it up and you know Shanahan looks like a you know Sirianni screwing it up but there they are the two got now it's not just a bald thing it's a shorter thing in it's not just that in 2024 last time Sala was in this photograph he was next to he was next to Dan Quinn and And there's Dayball.

18:16Rich Eisen:And there's Dayball. They looked like a bald brotherhood of cell phone reception bars. Okay. You're going to go Russian. Right now, you know, and Dayball is now Salah's offensive coordinator and the most bald coaching staff of all time. There's Stefanski, too. There's Stefanski, too, in the same seat as he is in this. Is it a same seat policy for Stefanski? Dibs. Is that what it is? Third from the left. I don't know. But Sirianni is in the day ball spot, and he looks swole. Jeez. So do you like saw the better beard or no beard? 24, there was that beard. No beard. I'm just glad that he's back. But look at Sirianni.

19:02Rich Eisen:This is, by the way, you always have to, with your spouse, take the bullet of being on the end because you get distended on the end, and you always got to take that bullet. Because Sirianni looks swole here. And it's interesting also that one thing that it looks like a cactus is photobombing them. And I was just wondering, you know, in terms of Arizona figures, cactus or the current head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, who wore it better? Little Us magazine to finish this thing up. is it this man or is it the cactus in the back who wore it better you kind of have a similar style just kind of like spiky very spiky very spiky very thorny spiky that's great and that's our breakdown of this year's coach's photo everybody nice oh and not pictured you always have to have it not pictured not pictured uh todd monk and and Sean McVay.

20:06Rich Eisen:Why was Sean McVay? One of the most photogenic. Were they at the bathroom or something? I don't know. Perhaps. Sir not appearing in this photo. There you go. Father and son. Playing the role of Belichick, who rarely ever is like, screw it, I'm not taking that. That's the cactus. That's the cactus. That's our breakdown. Round of applause, everybody. All right, we appreciate having a usable photo, unlike the one that Mike Garofalo posted yesterday. Jake, he's joining us next right here on The Rich Eisen Show live from the owner's meeting in Arizona. The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

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22:48Rich Eisen:Perfect timing that our radio audience rejoined in the middle of that answer, certainly since we're on here locally in Los Angeles on ESPN 710, home of the Los Angeles Rams. So McVay wanted to be in the photograph. Yes. But somebody just decided to go early, which is crazy. Like Coughlin time times four? Like that's what it is? Like they moved it up 20 minutes? That's crazy, man. They gave him a – well, they didn't move it up. It was like the meeting broke. Everybody was right there. They're going to head to lunch in a second here. And it's hard to keep 30 NFL head coaches in the same place. So it wasn't like, you know, you guys wait here and see if we can find them for five minutes.

23:25Like, we got to go. We got to do this. So it was quick the way that it happened. And I fell for Sean. And Munkin, I mean, listen, Munkin finally becomes a head coach. He's breaking down at his opening press conference about the road that it took to get him to be a head coach. You know, he wanted to be part of that photo.

23:41Rich Eisen:So behind you, are they putting the NFL Tuesday night party together? Is that what's going on? No, tonight's movie night for the kids, right? okay so um that could be the screen they're setting up i can't i can't see no it looked like an nfl shield that was just brought behind you i don't know like do you back when i was there there used to be like a a commissioner's party uh al davis would stare a hole through you when you looked for a fifth cheese cube you know like that's what had happened when i first went there mike you know yeah there well that there's a there's a sunday night gathering that we're not invited to uh and then there's last night that's the pond where they're at the pool you're at the pond and last night last night was credential required because you're at a party like who wants to it kind of kills the vibe of wearing the credential yeah but when you walk in and you see you know nfl executives i believe roger was wearing his um and all the head coaches are wearing theirs okay how can i take my credential off at that point right so everybody's got the lanyard so uh but it was the far lawn i don't think they ever had anything on the far lawn before Okay.

24:42This time they had, it was a lot of stuff for the kids. They had a donkey over there. They had arts and crafts. That's where the hamburger food truck was, which is fantastic. Awesome. They went all out this year.

24:55Rich Eisen:It was fantastic. Mike, my face is my credential. Garofalo here on the Rich Eisen show. What is today's, is that Gilligan walking behind you? What is happening right now? What is happening? Okay. All right. makes you wonder who she thinks i'm talking to

25:14Rich Eisen:okay what is the news of today like what what like where where are we getting out of today anything yeah today's gonna today's gonna be uh minor rules changes i say minor they may have a major impact but it's not like the rules changes of the past right there's no push push there's no hot button issue okay um i would say the biggest thing is going to be the uh officiating rules, which are twofold. One, can New York now eject a player if there wasn't a flag on the field? Previously, they couldn't do that. They couldn't consult with the officials on site unless there was a flag down. We actually had in the Super Bowl, we had a little bit of a scuffle late in the game.

25:50Josh Jobe from the Seahawks threw a punch. I believe it was him that threw the punch. And they couldn't do anything about it because there was no flag on the field. So that I expect to be approved. And now that is, I wouldn't even call it a step. I'd call it a little bit of a tow forward toward, at some point, the New York office being able to officiate part of the game or have an impact there. The league has been reluctant to allow that and to move in that direction. This will be the first tiny move in that direction. Right. And that's going to be regardless of who the officials are. Now, the second officiating change that I expect to occur today, it's not so much a changed, but it's in the event of a work stoppage with the officials.

26:34To prevent another fail Mary situation, it'll be New York having the chance to officiate major moments in the game, again, such as the fail Mary, to say, if we've got replacement officials and they screw something up, we'll be able to backstop them with folks who are full-time league replay officials from New So that is twofold. That's one to make sure that they don't. They're preparing for that potential situation. But Rich, it's also negotiating. It's saying toward the NFL Referees Association, we're locked in a dispute right now. If you think you can hold that over our head, go ahead. Good luck without us.

27:11You'll have another fail. Mary. No, no, no. We're already preparing for that situation. So that's part of the negotiations between the sides. They try to get something done ahead of May 31st, excuse me, is the day that they would like to get something done.

27:23Rich Eisen:OK, and we'll just table that because I don't. Yeah. As you know, I don't think anything bores or turns fans who listen or watch a show like this one off more than labor conversations. So we'll just leave that there. I tried to tie it to a pivotal. No, but it is. No, but no, but you're right. Like the league does not want to get into a situation where the New York office, the Art McNally Center, where there are eyeballs on the big the big eye in the sky on all of these games, puts flags on the field at a at a stadium that there are thousands of miles away from and not part of the conversation on the sidelines and on the field and things like that.

28:06Rich Eisen:They don't want to do that. But finally, getting rid of the you only get you only penalize the second person in on a push shove fight and not penalize the first. It's time to get that out of the game. And I appreciate that. What other news is coming out of here? Let me jump into this. We heard Clint Kugliak talking today about great to have Max Crosby in the building. I'll ask you this question the what's more likely that this is everybody going back to the same corner to try and get the same trade to happen with someone else for the same as close to the same draft compensation as the Raiders would have or Max Crosby truly based on what did happen to him and with him in Baltimore that now supersedes whatever hard feelings he had to ask for the trade to begin with and he's going to stay a Raider what do you think you know I I know.

29:02Yeah. And it's I'm almost I'd push back a little bit on asking for a trade because it was almost the sides realizing maybe what was best for everybody. I mean, the Raiders at the time and I think they're a better team now because, frankly, they went about their business, not expecting Crosby to be part of the team. And then you sort of add him back in and all of a sudden you go, wait, wait, the Raiders are not that bad. but at the time it was this is going to take a couple of years to get going and we're drafting rookie a number one overall quarterback and I understand that rookies can often come in and play a lot better than they used to play years ago in the NFL because they're more prepared for a variety of reasons but it's not like hey Max we're competing for a Super Bowl this year so I think that that was the conversation between both sides that got to the point of getting Max traded to Baltimore.

29:53Now, given everything that happened and the fact that the physicians who consulted on this one, Rich, in the end, are physicians from other teams. So other teams are sort of in agreement with where Baltimore eventually got on this one. So that's going to be an issue for the Raiders to turn around and try to negotiate with some of these, including the Cowboys. I mean, Dan Cooper is one of the physicians, the Cowboys team physician, who was in on the final decision there. So it's sort of a dead end, not only with the Ravens, but with a number of other teams. And everything that I've been told is that everything is pushing toward Max Crosby back to being a Raider, going out there, being motivated.

30:30I don't think anyone is, including the Ravens, is questioning the fact that he'll play football this year and play football at a high level. The question was, how long would that knee be able to hold up? And I do know, and we reported this jane slater and i at some point there was a thought toward well maybe we can renegotiate the trade and say well maybe it's not two two ones maybe it's one one or maybe it's some other kind of compensation but that never really got off the ground because as soon as the ravens got to that frame of mind which was in that five hour window that that crosby claimed they weren't talking to him which is not entirely accurate by the way um once it got to that point they got more medical info that said no no we're going to be off this thing completely my favorite quote uh mike garofalo