Hour 2: Tua Benching Explained, Burrow Trade Intrigue, plus Actor Jason Clarke In-Studio

0:00Rich Eisen:This Father's Day, do more with dad and spend less with low prices guaranteed at The Home Depot. Get him fired up with a new grill and accessories, like the Nexgrill 5 Burner for just$299, so you can spend more time together while he becomes the grill master he was always meant to be. Or build memories with savings on top brand power tools, so you can tackle projects side by side. Gift more and do more together this Father's Day with help from The Home Depot. Exclusions apply. See homedepot.com slash price match for details. Study and play. Come together on a Windows 11 PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds.

0:40Rich Eisen:Get the Unreal College Deal. Everything you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a year of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more at windows.com slash student offer. While supplies last, ends June 30th. Terms at aka.ms slash college PC. 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. Miss the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part.

1:19Rich Eisen:Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash richeisenshow and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show.

1:33Rich Eisen:This is the Rich Eisen Show. I think Quinn gives this team the best chance to win. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I'm not happy about it. Something out of my control. The latest edition of Salty Tua. Earlier on the show, pro football Hall of Famer Champ Bailey. Coming up. Actor Jason Clark. Actor Matthew Lillard. Your phone calls and more. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. He's set a good hour number one with our friend Champ Bailey. He's part of the college football playoff coverage of the final two games of the first round of the college football playoff weekend that begins tomorrow night on our friends at ESPN and the family of networks when Oklahoma hosts Alabama.

2:23Rich Eisen:And then there's a tripleheader on Saturday. And then there's two NFL games as well. It's a five football Saturday. Yeah, buddy. And then Sunday. And then Monday, where Phillip Rivers finishes things off with the 49ers of Week 16. It starts and ends great. Dude, and Week 16 begins tonight with the Rams and the Seahawks. So basically, if you love football and you love your family, say goodbye to your family. It's the weekend. For five days. It's the weekend. You want to invite them with you? Yeah. Have a joy. I'm assuming they want to. Okay, I'm just assuming some are not going to sit around all weekend.

3:00Rich Eisen:Yeah, but you're not saying goodbye then because they're choosing not to be with you. Interesting. I didn't know. That's the way I should put it. Keep your relationships intact this weekend. Jason Clark, speaking of family affairs, Murdoch, death in the family. It's an interesting family. That's on Hulu, inspired by the Murdoch Murders podcast. I also saw the documentary on Hulu on this family and everything going on there with that family in South Carolina. Jason Clark's about to join us. He's also in The Last Frontier on Apple TV, A House of Dynamite on Netflix. He's all over the streamers right now.

3:34Rich Eisen:That's right. And then back in the day on HBO Max played Jerry West in Winning Times. Yeah. Lots to talk about with Jason when he comes out here an hour or two. 844-204-RICH, number to dial on the program. So the news that broke yesterday, we led the show with it yesterday, is that Tuatunga Vailoa, just a couple years removed from his massive contract extension, is now benched for Quinn Ewers, who at this point last year was getting set to survive an afternoon with Cam Scadaboo in, I think, the best college football playoff game of last year. game was pretty good yeah game was pretty good overtime touchdown right to tie that up if I remember correctly yeah was it the golden golden or bond oh look that one up I'm sure Texas fans are screaming at their radio right now with the correct answer but anyway long story short Quinn Ewers is now as the college football playoff world is beginning is the starting quarterback of the Miami Dolphins with Zach Wilson as the backup and three games to go in a season that is now officially over in terms of playoff contention for the Dolphins despite a four-game win streak and five wins in six games to get themselves out of a 2-7 hole, only to have the Steelers end their season on Monday Night Football bringing about this benching.

5:08Rich Eisen:This is what Mike McDaniel had to say about why he made the decision. So why the decision to go with Quinn, and also who will be your number two this weekend? So the decision is complicated but simple. The simple piece is I think Quinn gives this team the best chance to win. You know, our focus is obviously to win the next three games, but in particular, like I tell the players, we are focused on beating the Bengals, so that was the motivation. Zach will be backing him up and Tua will be the emergency third. What was the thinking in having Tua be the third as opposed to the backup? I think it was the best for all parties involved.

5:56Rich Eisen:Quinn, Zach, and Tua. Not for long. Well, here's the thing, man. To hear the best chance to win. we didn't give him that cliche, we gave him all the other cliches to use as a coaching crutch but he gives us the best chance to win, he gives us the best chance to win Quinn Ewers has not taken his starting snap in the National Football League he's taking on Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals, he's going to go point for point with the Bengals this weekend, the Bengals are playing out the string, we'll hear from Burrow in a second the Bengals who scored zero last week I understand what they scored last week, Chris, but I don't think Joe Burrow is going to get shut out two times in a row, and I didn't go higher register on that one either.

6:50Rich Eisen:I don't think so either. Chris, let's not lose sight of a coach saying that a guy making his first career start drafted in the seventh round, and his estimation gives the team a better chance to win than Tua. And I'm just wondering if it's more than the interceptions 15 that leads the league or the fact that they are eliminated from playoff contention. Remember when Tua was talking about after the game, hey, you know, he was talking as if he was, you know, the first-string quarterback and captain and leader of this team. And, you know, we've got to all look in the mirror and take responsibility and things of that nature.

7:27Rich Eisen:And I'm like, I was even wondering, How did the rest of the locker room look at Tua for that sort of leadership if it rings hollow at all? And again, I'm not there. I don't know. But I do know what people like J.J. Watt and others who observe the game now were talking about Tua chit-chatting with Jalen Ramsey afterwards on the field, laughing it up. Your team's just been eliminated from playoff contention, and I know he's a former teammate, but you are the starting quarterback of the Miami Dolphins. I'm just wondering if, again, we only see the tip of the iceberg. And this may be irresponsible of me to just even spitball on this.

8:10Rich Eisen:But that may be the complicated part of it that he doesn't want to mention. I'll just say, here's the simple thing. I'll just go out there and say, this kid gives us the best chance to win. Because I guess he's not going to come out and say, we need to go and see if we have Tua's successor already on the roster before we go into the talent evaluation portion of our calendar. I guess he's not going to say that publicly, but that's apparently what's happening right now because Tua's got more neck-up ability in the NFL and experience playing football games than Quinn Ewers does. So there's that. And then McDaniel was asked in the press conference, listen to this answer, he was asked in the press conference if there was any sort of regret or second-guessing of himself since he was advocating for Tua to be re-signed, and now he's benched a season later.

9:11The way my brain works is I'm not, there's, you're talking about emotions,

9:19Rich Eisen:and I have no idea, like the emotions are not part of my duty. And in times where there's tough decisions to be made, the furthest thing from my scope is depending on me to do with full intentionality everything as best as I can do it. So thinking about those broad scopes, that's dismissive to the players in that locker room, that's dismissive to this team. So I don't go there, not because it doesn't exist, but because people are counting on me not to go there. What an answer. Very long-winded way of saying, or how about you, a very McDaniel way of saying, F my feelings. I'm the head coach of the Miami Dolphins.

10:13Rich Eisen:And I guess kudos to him to say, I'm not throwing good snaps after bad just because I was advocating for this sort of thing. Right.

10:28Rich Eisen:Certainly since, again, if his way of staying head coach of the Dolphins is, well, Tua's not going anywhere because we're paying him all that money, and my system is the best for him. for him to basically say, let's see what we got in Quinn Ewers, I think is gutsy, if I may say. Maybe even another word that you don't want to say. Well, I mean, yeah. But the NFL knows who Zach Wilson is. We don't really know who Quinn Ewers is. I would give Zach a run. I don't understand. It is kind of weird. What do you mean? I'd give him some run. How many games has Zach Wilson started in the NFL? More than Quinn Ewers.

11:10Rich Eisen:And that's the point. We've seen him play as a starting quarterback in the NFL. Yeah, but how many times have we said, and you even pointed out the other day that Goff, once upon a time on this show, said give someone five years. Yeah, I mean, tonight's starting quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks makes a good point. And he makes a good case. And also, he's once upon a time was drafted a spot later in the draft than Zach Wilson was after Darnold didn't work out for the Jets. I don't know. I would give him a shot. If yours looks lost against the Bengals. He started 33 games. Then he can start next week.

11:51Rich Eisen:Maybe so. We'll see. I guess you want to give the kid some run first. And maybe he's shown some stuff behind the scenes, running scout team. I can't have had much snaps. We talk about all the time how backups don't get many snaps. and then on top of it, third stringers. That was the whole to-do with Shador Sanders. How many third stringers get snaps? The answer is none. It wasn't any negative personal feelings from management towards Shador. It just doesn't happen. Also, pedigree kind of counts here. Zach Wilson kind of came out of nowhere to be the number two pick in the draft. Quinn Ewers was the number one high school player.

12:29Rich Eisen:He left high school early to go to Ohio State. There wasn't a spot for him. He transferred to Tech. This guy has been highly touted his entire football playing career. And then in terms of what you look for in the next level to succeed early is reps and starts at the collegiate level. And yours had a good amount of those. I think it's fair to give him a shot. I'm not saying it's unfair. I'm just saying maybe you would give, if it doesn't work out in the four quarters here where he looks lost or the Bengals just beat him up, maybe you take a look at Zach Wilson but the thing that's kind of crazy think about this think about this as the

13:18Rich Eisen:Carolina Panthers go into the final three weeks of the season and you take a look at who they're taking on the next two weeks to try and win games the starting quarterbacks that they're facing the rest of the season are baker mayfield and sam darnold who as you know uh do not recall their carolina time fondly crazy stuff goes on in the nfl just nuts joe burrows spoke yesterday and my gosh these sessions like they should have him do this from the couch because the questions that that are being asked you know like lie down on the couch Dr. Melfi I mean whatever you want to do analyze this, analyze that however you want to go in terms of a pop culture reference for a therapy session but Burrow last week as you know made it sound like if I want to keep doing this I need to have fun well it's got to be about either his injuries or certainly it's got to be about the Bengals right and um and then he after the game was like yeah this was never about the bengals it's not about it okay this is after a shutout then he's just like i'm a football player i love playing football now comes his press conference yesterday and uh they went the media went diving back into his mindset and whether he wants to keep doing this is it about the bengal all of it hit it go for it i like playing football um for for the same reasons that i wanted to push to come back from injury some reasons i want to play this week it feels like everything everybody's trying to do everything in their power to make me not play football and i feel like i'm fighting it like fighting everybody else like i just want to play i just want to play ball that's all i want to do he's a gamer that's all he's about you speak to anybody whether it's what Jordan Palmer's been on here, and I'm sure his insights are really keen, works with Joe Burrow and his bro, who I believe just won the state championship as his first foray of being a high school coach, I believe.

15:45Rich Eisen:Yeah, Carson. Congrats to you, Carson. This is all about, for Cincinnati Bengals fans, the PTSD of Carson Palmer. First overall selection, savior of the team. You're going to take us from the depths to the heights. Where's the same frigging number? Joe Burrow, where's the same number nine? It's the same. Every Bengal fan. Is it happening again? Is Burrow going to just wake up one day and say, I'm done here. You folks don't get me. I don't get you. You don't protect me. You don't give me the, you know, what I want. You don't give me the roster. What they have given him, though, is the money. I mean, they took Paul Brown's name off the damn stadium.

16:39You know?

16:40Rich Eisen:They took Paul Brown. You know what I mean? Like, the Brown family just took the Bengals' name off the stadium and finally sold it to some corporate. That's why we nicknamed it Pejo Stadium. right so it's it's like one more time you want to play here hit it is there any world in your mind where you're not the quarterback of the Bengals next year I couldn't I can't see that no have you ever thought about the possibility of not being the quarterback here during your career or you think about a lot of things When you look at quarterbacks over the course of their time, great ones, Peyton, Brady, you kind of have to understand that you never know what this league will bring.

17:34Rich Eisen:What did you learn from watching how their careers unfolded? Yeah, a lot of crazy things happen every year. Micah Parsons got traded right before the season, I think, this year. that is a something i hadn't seen in a long time in the nfl so crazy things can happen

18:01Rich Eisen:not exactly i love it here i'm gonna be a bangle the rest of my life but what do you want him to say though that i think if you're a fan you want to hear that i'm a bangle for life why would he ever say such a thing though because we know you you right there should know that that's not the case. You would have never thought Brady would have left, right? Right, and Favre and Manning and Joe Montana and the list goes on and on. I know. Places where, I mean, Peyton Manning is a statue. The stadium, you know, the statues in front of doesn't exist without Peyton Manning and even he left. It was over.

18:38Rich Eisen:All of those players once said they want to be that team for life. I mean, Joe's given an opportunity to do that right now. Of course I cannot. I cannot. I can't see not being the Bengals quarterback next year. He's really couching all his words very carefully. Richard, I think at this point we can name more great quarterbacks that didn't leave. Something is up. Something's up. Something's up. Something's up. What is it? I just think it's a frustration of a season. I really do. Because I mean, you know this organization. If the coach has got a year left on his contract, He's going to be the coach.

19:18Rich Eisen:And they don't trade for people. They don't do that sort of thing. That's what even Pellicero does. The Bengals don't trade. They don't make trades. It's rare to make trades. Joke and sit. And that's what Carson said he was going to do, and that's why Bengals fans are losing their minds. But what do you want him to say? No, I'm going to be a Bengal for life. Don't worry, Cincinnati fans. I'm totally cool with what the front office is doing. I'm cool with everything else. I'm committed to bringing a championship to Cincinnati. I think he would say the same thing if you ask him. He was given an opportunity to do all of that.

19:50Rich Eisen:No, he was given an opportunity. Like, do you think of going somewhere else? What's he supposed to say? No. You could think about a lot of things. I'm committed to winning here in Cincinnati. But what if that's not the truth? Clearly it's not. He didn't say it. So lie to me? Lie to me? Is that what you say? Lie to me? Lie to me? I think the fans would like you to. Please lie to me. Please lie to me. For sure. Okay. It's not a lie. Nice. If you believe it. Good one. Speaking of Costanza. He gone. I think we need to wrap our mind around that, man. No, no, no. Maybe Costanza, other things you say they don't do, maybe they should look and say, we haven't been successful doing this.

20:26Rich Eisen:Maybe we should try making a trade or doing something different. I don't know. I don't know. Again, you want to say that to Jerry? Is that advice that Jerry would take? Well, the problem is Jerry has three of them things. So no matter how long it's been, he's at least had success and won like the Bengals have none. Yeah. I don't know. Joe has to wear some of this too. They did what he wanted. They drafted the wide receiver he wanted. They re-signed both wide receivers that he wanted. They got shut out last week. He has been injury, I don't want to say prone, but a lot of injuries have popped up in his tenure.

21:04Rich Eisen:He needs to wear some of this as well. Wear what? The losing. The losing. Okay.

21:12Rich Eisen:or he's Joe Burrow. He is the window. Yeah, we can't say he's Joe Burrow anymore. Okay. This season has kind of taken some of that shine off. Well, next season when everybody's back, because I bet you everyone's going to be back. Although two days ago I did say two was going to be back, and that's a little different now. Well, their best defensive player ain't going to be back. We'll find out. We'll see what Joe's going to do when the offseason hits. Or every Wednesday, it's Burrow up in the air Wednesday. that's what it is that's what's coming in Cincinnati they could use the win by the way so could the Dolphins that's a good one that's a good game 844-204-RICH number to dial Jason Clark let's bring him out it's going to be a fun chat with Jason when we come back

22:06Rich Eisen:Rich Eisen here you ever notice what happens when something big rolls into your city a major tournament, a can't-miss concert, a high-stakes playoff game. Suddenly, fans are everywhere. It feels like everyone's trying to get in. Streets are packed. Hotels book up fast. And finding a place to stay? Not so easy. That's exactly why this can be a smart moment to think about your own space. If you're planning to be away, you can list your space on Airbnb while all of that's going on and earn some extra cash at the same time. You're not changing your routine, you're just making the most of the moment.

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24:01Rich Eisen:And so when you take on this role, do you watch the documentary first? Do you listen to the podcast? Do you just say, I'm going to go at this from the page and just my sensibility as an actor? How do you handle this? Yeah, no, I watched a lot first, particularly the trial. There's so much out there, Rich. There's so much discussion. It's like you sports guys. There's criminal detectives breaking down his testimony and analyzing it beat by beat. Stop right there. You see that look where he's looking down at the thing that is this homicide detectives. I loved it. It was fascinating. There's a wealth of stuff.

24:32But I did kind of think about whether I could really get to 265 pounds, redheaded, six foot four South Carolina. It's just like I think, you need to have, you can't have too much hubris. So it was a, there you go.

24:48Rich Eisen:You actually put the weight on for this though, right? I put on like 40 pounds because I knew I was going to have to get at least a 220. to I was you know I was 190 when I started I just finished another show where I was in shape and um I was gonna you know I wore a suit there for the belly and all that but if I'm just wearing that with nothing up here and no prosthetics yes it's gonna look silly you know and I never want to be silly and you know you want to I want to do the man justice in a good way too and do as well as do the story and you know and and you know believable so um yeah I started eating to put it on and carry it and and it kept it had kind of the added benefit yes it does make me in the suit look believable and I look puffy and overweight and unhealthy because I was hmm but it gives you that idea of just carrying that much of consuming that much of needing to just eat and drink and sugar and all the stuff that I'd done to get there dude so well like pizzas and what are you guys well I started off in I was in France I started with good stuff pastas you know cheeses whatever and then it's just it doesn't come along because your metabolism still burns and then yeah you go end up by the end yeah it's like it's like the 2 a.m cold pizza in the fridge you know

26:01you know what i'm talking about it's not too bad a breakfast either you know what does it say about

26:05Rich Eisen:us that he's talking our language right now come on you're in shape you look good you know by the way i'm fishing for that compliment so thank you for delivering that i i appreciate that But that and then you had to take it off for I took up as much as I could during it because for the last for the trial You know, he dropped a lot of weight because he's off the drugs. He's been through rehab. He's in prison You know, he's actually he's exercising. He's working out. You know, he's like in those Rocky movies He's down there Pumping out right no, but he'd he funnily enough. He looked stronger and better as the trial went on He looked more and more human he found, you know a tangent back again And so I just stopped, you know, so I was angry eating to put it on.

26:46I was angry taking it off. You know what I mean? Sure. It was like I literally just picked a date with the show record. And I said, it takes me about two weeks before you see results. And I got off as much as I could. Heck of a cast, man, for sure.