Hour 2: Raiders QB Kirk Cousins, plus Andrew Siciliano’s World Cup Top 5, plus NFL’s Sorby Denial

21:58Rich Eisen:While the world watches the stars of the FIFA World Cup, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent. Future stars who are already turning heads at age 14. Because next doesn't wait for an invitation. And neither do we. Hyundai has 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. And we're still doing it every day because the future isn't some far-off concept. It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Rich Eisen here. You can always tell when something big is happening in a city.

22:33Rich Eisen:I know what it's like when I'm traveling for big games and events. I remember being in Pittsburgh earlier this year and experiencing the beautiful architecture and passion those fans have for their home teams. That was so infectious. Now, it was a great trip. But you know what it's like dealing with the travel. The airport is packed. Hotels are booked up. Restaurants all busy. And when you have that kind of influx of visitors in your city, a lot of them are searching for a place that feels a little bit more like home during their trip. That's why this can be a smart time to think about listing your own space on Airbnb.

23:06Rich Eisen:If you've got plans to be away this summer, consider listing your space on Airbnb while you're gone and earn some extra cash. It's simple. You're already traveling, so your place doesn't just sit empty while your city is busy. And from my experience on the road, having a comfortable home base can change the whole experience of a trip. So whether it's a big sports weekend, a concert series or a major event coming to your area, this could be the right time to list your space on Airbnb. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. Oh, oh, oh, O 'Reilly.

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24:16All right. It's the Rich Eisen Show, everybody. Hi there. I'm Andrew. Portugal up 2-0 on Uzbekistan. Hashtag as expected. Ronaldo has a goal. He set up another goal with a little sleight of hand free kick. Mike Mendes was the one that actually scored the goal. And Brockman is happy because he basically said it's a hat trick or bust for Ronaldo.

24:40Rich Eisen:I put the pressure on him and he immediately scored. So like the true legend and champion that he is, Ronaldo answered the bell. Yeah. I'm taking full credit, TJ. As we await Kirk Cousins here, can I say a quick word? And Wyndham Clark is going to join us in about a half hour, the two-time U.S. Open champion. I want to say a quick word here about social media and clickbait offseason NFL headlines, if I could. Okay. It is content aggregation season. The NFL has, it's always content aggregation season, but it is aggregation aggravation season because so many of these headlines now are really nonsense because no one's at work.

25:22Jeremiah Love had a presser yesterday with the Cardinals, but their minicamp was a week ago. And I texted someone there like, wait, wait, what? Did they extend minicamp? No, they just asked Jeremiah because he was in town to do a presser. But other than an interview like Mac Jones or Kirk Cousins, and we're fortunate to have them both, grateful to have them both today, no one's on a podium, no one's on a practice field, no one's really making any news. Perfect example, Joe Thomas yesterday or Friday was on the show here. We talked about Shador. It was a Brockman question, who starts more games?

25:54it's a what's more likely yeah right should or or deshaun joe gave an answer it's not some bold prediction it's not a slam on either guy nope he was answering the question that i teed up for him actually that brockman teed up for me and that i passed it along to joe i mean it's not news all we've been talking about for months not news it's made headlines and joe's had to answer people back on on instagram because people are angry i should apologize to joe for that it's okay well i mean there's you know news uh front of the program ESPN Radio Cleveland Tony Rizzo said I'm hearing that maybe teams are calling about Shador okay guys yeah teams call about players all the time that means he's going to get traded I don't know no unlikely probably not right but it's content aggregation season so with that in mind let's welcome in a friend of the program it is great to have him on.

26:46He is the new Las Vegas Raiders quarterback, partnering with Bank of America today to host a Golf With Us clinic in beautiful Grand Rapids, Michigan. Kirk Cousins, how the heck are you? Andrew, I'm doing well. Yeah, back in my home area in West Michigan. Good to be on with you and looking forward to this event with Bank of America today at the Kent Country Club. Do you count the days in your offseason because there are so few these days? Like, do you have everything planned out? Well, I wouldn't say everything's planned out. In fact, I think the plan is no plan when you're on vacation. But my whole career, we go back to my home area in West Michigan and we pretty much post up here for the entire time.

27:27It's never long enough, but I consider us pretty lucky to have about five weeks of a summer break and we enjoy it every year. What's your handicap these days? I'm like a 12. I'm nothing special. I like to play. I've always said like when I'm done playing football, I'm going to commit. to really trying to get down, not just a single digits, but like seeing how good I could be. But I just haven't put the time in yet. And my two boys are seven and eight and, you know, they're getting into it. So I think all three of us are going to grind in our game together in the next few years when I'm done playing.

28:00All right. You're working with kids as part of this Bank of America clinic today. What is your, I assume you, like you have your list of things you teach young quarterbacks if you ever work with them. What would you teach? What would Kirk Cousins, the 12 handicap, teach a young golfer today? I'd probably teach him to not listen to me and somebody else. But I'll tell you what, grip is kind of where it starts. I don't have a great grip, and so I'm kind of behind the eight ball from the start. From there, I just try to be an athlete and make it work. It's funny, too, because one day my drivers, the club that's working for me, the next day it's my irons, the next day it's my wedges.

28:40And I'm like, man, if I could just put it all together, I could be somebody. But the inconsistency, similar to quarterbacking, you know, it's who can be consistent. And on the golf course, I don't think it's much different. Have you played in Vegas yet, Kirk? I did not get out this spring, but I do plan to play a little bit. You know, it's nice. It's sunny every day. Great golf climate. Great golf culture. A lot of good courses. So I plan to get out a little bit during the season. Not a lot. But I hope to play here and there. We're talking to Kirk Cousins here on The Rich Eisen Show. Andrew filling in, Chris Brockman, Michael Del Tufo, T.J.

29:16Jefferson here as well. We were joking, and I know you've heard these jokes, Kirk, off the air. You and Fernando Mendoza are the perfect quarterback duo for Vegas because you're kind of the anti-Vegas. You're not going out in leather pants with three buttons undone and the chains. Not yet. Having a blast. Not yet. Although you could get the Kirk Cousins going in Vegas if you really wanted to go there. so it begged the question what is a night out on the town in vegas like for kirk cousins are you playing slots which you're allowed are you going to a buffet are you seeing a cirque show what do you do so there's a lot of good shows uh i'm excited for backstreet boys on an off day in training camp i'm probably going to go see backstreet boys at the sphere and wear all white and do the whole deal yeah um you know donny osmond my mom had me listen to donny osmond I was growing up, probably got to go see him at his residency.

30:10Got to see a Cirque show, although in Las Vegas, there's like a half dozen you can pick from. So a lot of entertainment. You know, I love to play golf. So if I get some time off, play golf. But I went down to the Strip, you know, during minicamp. Mondays are pretty light days. So I went down to the Strip when we wrapped up for the day and just kind of walked around. And it's not that easy to walk around. You know, if you park and walk around, they don't really want you to leave the casino you're at. So I realized that maybe going down to the strip and just walking around isn't the ideal way to do it like you might do when I lived in Washington, D.C.

30:43or Minnesota. So I got to figure that out still. But we like it there. It's a cool place. Yeah, it's hot as Hades as well, walking down the sidewalk. And then you have the guys doing this, trying to hand you those cards, which, you know, I'm assuming you're going to give the Heisman to. I'm still interested about the heat. I've never practiced in 115 degrees. I think that's coming. But, you know, it is a dry heat. So, you know, that maybe saves us 10 or 15 degrees. But I'm told training camp in September can get pretty hot. Yeah, and that's why they usually practice, or at least they have in the past, at like the crack of dawn at 7 a.m.

31:18to avoid the heat. Are you and Julie going to take Fernando Mendoza to the Backstreet Boys? If he would like to go, he is welcome. Although what I'm learning with my teammates, you know, It's really the coaches who I kind of get along with, with movie quotes and music, because it's the coaches who kind of grew up in the same era as me. When I start talking with teammates about a movie I loved in 1995, they aren't really able to quote it with me. But if he wants to go to Backstreet Boys, he's welcome to tag along. I mean, that would be a great bit. If the Raiders content team, or forget Raiders content team, I mean, put it on your social.

32:00will make your own money. That would be a great bit. It's all about content these days. And as you know, NFL news in June and July, we're looking for content. So I'll try to give you what I can when I can. Oh, we're already aggregating this as we speak behind the scenes, Kirk. I appreciate you. In all seriousness, whether it's at the sphere or as you said, making jokes like your coach is 39, you're 37, your quarterback clearly is 15 years younger. How has that dynamic gone? We have seen all the bits, and the Raiders have leaned into it. Seemingly, you have as well. But you know how this goes. He's the first overall pick, and inevitably, he's going to throw a couple of touchdown passes, and SportsCenter is going to go nuts in the preseason.

32:43You know that is coming, and you know how it will be handled by the people that go on TV and whose job it is to give an opinion. And the opinion, Kirk, look, I'm older than you. I get it. There's always someone younger. It's always going to be play the other guy. How do you plan to handle that? Yeah, I think it comes with the territory. You're 15 in the league. I'm no stranger to how this thing works. So you go out there, you play the best you can, you help your team best you can, contribute to our team's success, and you let the decisions get made as they get made. But I expect to be able to help this team win and to be out there on the field.

33:22And you roll with whatever happens. You stay focused on what's going on inside the building. I don't think it's ever helped me to kind of look at what's happening outside the building. And just go enjoy the process with your teammates and your coaches, and we'll see where it all settles out. What's Clint Kubiak like? Well, I was with Clint for two years as a quarterback coach and then a third year as the offensive coordinator. And then we were apart for, I want to say, four seasons. And now getting back with him as a head coach, he's the same guy he's always been. You know, loves football. He's a very hard worker, very humble.

34:00You know, he's got a great way about him. He's serious. You know, there's not a lot of time for tomfoolery or, you know, I told him after OTAs, I said, coach, this is probably the most urgent and most productive OTAs I've ever been a part of. But that starts with him as the head coach. He created a sense of urgency from day one all the way through the 10 week program. And I thought we got a lot of work done. We got a long ways to go. But we laid a good foundation, and then training camp is where we'll pick it up and continue to get ready for that first preseason game. I've had very little interaction with him, full disclosure here.

34:35He seems from afar, tell me if I'm wrong, to be one of the, you said focus, serious, quieter head coaches. Is that fair? Sure. Yeah, no, he doesn't need to be a man of many words. I think he quieters a fair assessment. but that's different than lacking conviction or lacking, you know, that intensity. I think that his intensity, his conviction, his belief in what he's doing, having an identity. I think there's no confusion from us as a locker room as to what our head coach expects of us, what he wants our football team to look like. And so I would never confuse that with, with, you know, just being quiet.

35:18I think there's a certainty there that's comforting as a player. One last thing here. I want to go back, if we could, to a sport that you're obviously helping kids with on grass. We had Mack Jones earlier on speaking specifically about grass because George Kittle and everyone has commented watching the World Cup. Wouldn't it be great if we could have grass in all these stadiums? And they always point to the injury risk. And look, it's easier to get tackled on grass than it is to get tackled on turf. But at the same time, Kirk, remind me, correct me if I'm wrong, your Achilles injury happened on grass.

35:51So the idea that grass magically cures all injuries, I think, is a bit of a fallacy. Yet we all prefer the grass. Where do you come in or come down on the idea that the NFL is ripping up the turf and putting in the grass for the World Cup? They could do it now. I could go deep on this topic. I don't know that people want to listen to me, you know, go detailed about grass versus turf for the next 15 minutes. But, you know, when I was coming up, field turf was new. And so it was really exciting to go play high school football or middle school football on a field turf field. There were only a handful of them.

36:25I remember when Nebraska first got field turf, it was a big deal, University of Nebraska. So you kind of watch this excitement of we don't want to be on grass. We want to be on field turf. And then I got to Michigan State and we became one of the few schools in the Big Ten by the time I left Michigan State that still had grass. And I remember saying, hey, would we ever do what the big house did and the horseshoe did and go to field turf? And they said, no, we have such a robust turf grass management program here at Michigan State that out of sheer pride and respect for that department, we'll always have a grass field.

36:57And I started to notice as we played around other stadiums in the country that you couldn't beat Michigan State's surface. And the natural grass field felt so much better than the nicest field turf you can get. And so I was always after college going to the NFL, you know, preferring grass. And then, you know, you have, like you said, not all grass surfaces are created equal. So you go over to Wembley Stadium in London that had a different feel of natural grass than Lambeau Field, then the Bermuda grass down in the high heat, you know, cities like like Tampa, you know, FedEx Field had its own unique grass that, you know, there's a lot of discussion about their surface over the years.

37:34So, you know, I've always said well-kept grass like a Michigan State, you can't beat that. But that's assuming that it's going to be kept to the standard, you know, that you're expecting. And, you know, field turf is just such a simpler answer in so many ways for so many people. But, you know, I don't quite understand all the ins and outs of what it took for the World Cup to be there and provide grass and then what it would take to do that for an entire football season. And that's a much bigger ask than for one month of a World Cup. So it's over my head and I'll just go play on whatever surface they give us, including a well manicured green today.

38:12Kirk Cousins partnering with the Bank of America to host a Golf With Us clinic back in Grand Rapids with free enrollment for Bank of America's Golf With Us initiative now closed for 2026. Participants may still register for Youth On Course at youthoncourse.org, bofa.com slash golf with us. Kirk Cousins, we appreciate your time. As you said, it is a dry heat. Good luck today in the humidity and good luck back in Vegas in that dry heat. Thanks for coming on. Awesome. Thanks, Andrew. Appreciate it. You got it, man. Kirk Cousins, everybody.

38:49I'm told we are breaking NFL news. Ronaldo just scored again, too. And Ronaldo just scored again. One more from the hat trick. Come on. Don't go anywhere. That NFL news right around the corner. That celebration. It's the Rich Eisen Show, everybody.

39:09The Rich Eisen Show. The podcast.

39:17Rich Eisen:Are all batteries the same? That's like asking if all soccer players are the same. Take Messi, the most decorated player ever. Is there any other player who has achieved that? No, just him. Now take Duracell. Is there any other battery with power boost ingredients inside? No, just Duracell. Remember, goats only trust goats because they're built different. And Messi only trusts Duracell. You thought this was your run club era. Turns out, it was more of a thinking about run club era. The good news? Someone's marathon training is about to start. Sell your workout gear on Depop. Just snap a few photos and we'll take care of the rest.

40:03They get their race day fit and you get a payout for trying. Someone on Depop wants what you've got. Start selling now. Depop, where taste recognizes taste.

40:19It is the Rich Eisen Show, everybody. Hey, 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. Next does not wait for the invite. Neither do we. Hyundai has always made the future within reach or moved the future within reach. We did it when we made advanced safety standards on every vehicle and engineered EVs with ultra fast charging capability because the future isn't some far off concept. it is already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. So the breaking news in the NFL.

41:05Here it comes.

41:07Rich Eisen:Breaking news. No supplemental draft, everybody. Oof. There is not going to be a supplemental draft. Shout out to you, Andrew. You pointed this out on Friday that this could be a possibility. the NFL has sent an email or a letter sure by certified mail to Brendan Sorsby and said sorry man we're not going to do this you didn't prove your point and you sent us the documentation three or rather you sent us your petition three days before the deadline with no documentation We weren't going to do a supplemental draft. Sorry, buddy. We're still not. I did say last Friday that I thought the silence from the league was not deafening, but notable.

42:03And the deadline was only last week, so it was not that big of a deal. But the league has to grant a supplemental draft. Real quick, anyone know the last player drafted in a supplemental draft? Was it Terrell Pryor? No, it was Jalen Thompson, the safety, drafted by the Cardinals, used a fifth-round pick, just signed a nice, decent free agent deal with the Cowboys, still playing, good player. There was one in, I want to say 2023, nobody got picked. So there has to be a reason for a supplemental draft. Jalen Thompson is the only active player in the NFL right now, right now, only active player that entered the league via supplemental draft, only one.

42:44So these things are not annual occurrences, and when there is a supplemental draft, there has to be a real reason, number one, and number two, it doesn't mean you're going to get picked. But the NFL says we're not going to do it, which means Brendan Soresby, now he could take this to court. He has Jeffrey Kessler as his lawyer, longtime nemesis at the NFL from the union side. He could take it to court and fight it, maybe. If he had entered the supplemental draft, if there had been a supplemental draft and it had been granted and he didn't get picked, he'd be a free agent. He went through the process, everyone passed.

43:15He could sign wherever. He could sign with the Jets. He could sign with the Browns. He could sign with anybody. He can go sign with the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks if he wanted to. But now that there is no supplemental draft, he's kind of locked out. He's got nowhere to go. Brendan Soresby is now likely ticketed for the 2027 draft. As a matter of fact, the last line in this letter, or the last paragraph, as Commissioner Goodell has emphasized, participation of the NFL is a privilege that carries with it significant responsibilities, including accountability. By all accounts, you are a talented player with potential for future success.

44:04We encourage you to focus on preparing for possible entry into the NFL through the 2027 NFL annual draft. Kick rocks, buddy. Pretty much. See you next year. Anyway, the gist of this is under the CBA, the league retained sole discretion to determine whether it's appropriate to conduct a supplemental draft. The league has not conducted such a draft for several years. And prior to your submission, the league had no plans to do so as no one else had sought entry. Your petition filed three days before the deadline without any supporting information or documentation and only after abandoning your recent litigation efforts to avoid NCAA sanctions does not provide a basis for the league to alter those plans.

45:04The issues presented by your petition are too significant and too closely tied to the league's core integrity interests to permit meaningful review within the timeline presented. In other words, you got banned for gambling. Don't come to us after deciding to drop your court case and just say, I want to play in the NFL. We don't want this. We're not going to handle it. You didn't even argue your case. You just filed. Three days before the deadline. Sorry, buddy. We want nothing to do with this. That's, in essence, what they're saying. The sole reasons identified in your petition for seeking entry into the supplemental draft are that you have been, quote, declared ineligible by the NCAA.

45:56have, quote, exhausted all of your avenues to continue in the NCAA and, quote, want to now play in the NFL. The petition provides no information regarding the basis or timing of the NCAA decision. Public sources, however, indicate that in May of 26, the NCAA determination, eligibility. The league does not have the complete record of the NCAA's investigation. you gambled reports you violated state criminal law placed wagers on your own team and teammates your petition doesn't address these matters nor does it demonstrate accountability you sought to avoid the consequences of the ncaa's determination basically went hey dude the ncaa hammered you you're running from that and you haven't made any case to us that you deserve to play in our league.

46:58So sorry, buddy. This might seem like a slam dunk to you, but we're good. We're good over here. We don't want anything to do with us.

47:07Rich Eisen:Yeah, of course, Jeffrey Kessler's lawyer has responded telling ESPN it's a violation of the CBA and the law. We will pursue this immediately with the NFL Players Association. Here's the thing. He's not a member of the union. The CBA does not have anything to do with Brendan Swersby. Not a member of the union. He's not an active player. Good luck with that. Wyndham Clark right around the corner. The Ridge Eisen Show Podcast. MLB.tv on ESPN is your home for every out-of-market game, live or on demand. Catch your favorite teams and players, plus MLB Network and ESPN app features like Multiview, syncing your stats, key plays, bets, and fantasy all in one place.

47:54Sign up now for MLB.tv in the ESPN app. Separate subscriptions required, blackouts, and other terms apply. Visit stream.espn.com slash MLB TV for more information.