Hour 3: Broncos HC Sean Payton, plus Sylvester Stallone Talks New Memoir, ‘Rocky,’ ‘First Blood’ & More

0:00Rich 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 3 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. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Keenum is in. Touchdown, Chicago. Earlier on the show, ESPN college football analyst Josh Pate. Steelers defensive tackle Cam Hayward.

0:49Rich Eisen:Coming up, Broncos head coach Sean Payton. Actor and author Sylvester Stallone. And now, it's Rich Eisen. All right, everybody. Hour number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Great chats with Josh Payton, Cameron Hayward, in hours one and two of this show. If you missed anything already, along with Overreaction Monday on a Tuesday and our reaction to the Bears wrapping up week number three with a win with their third-string quarterback in Case Keenum last night against the Eagles, there's our Disney Plus page. you can click on all three hours of this show as soon as we're done to review any of that there's our podcast version of the show you can listen to us however you get your podcast as well there's our youtube channel there's all of our feeds uh for uh you know the show cut up into reels format we have oh by the way over a million followers on facebook now look at them apples uh didn't see that one coming a few years ago but we're so thrilled and delighted to have uh fans follow us however uh you wish to find us uh 844-204-RICH is the number to dial on the program Sean Payton of the Denver Broncos is uh uh to sit getting set to join us uh in just a matter of moments from what I'm told and then after uh Sean Payton joins um this book The Steps a memoir Sylvester Stallone is going to zoom into this program and have a conversation with us so he got that going for us which is nice.

2:17Rich Eisen:The Braves and the Phillies are getting set to kick off everything for a quadruple header of baseball action. Let's go. Wild card action. Is Sarah okay? Is she all right? You know what? Honestly. Where is she watching right now? Probably at home in the dark. In the dark. I'm actually going to text her and make sure she's okay. Okay. You should do that. How are you feeling? Check in on the misses, man. Right now. Let's go to Matthew in Connecticut. take his phone call on the WeatherTech fan line while Sean Payton's about to join us. Hello, gentlemen. What's going on, Matthew? Hello. Not much. Just wanted to talk about this JJ McCarthy trade and some of my concerns.

2:57Rich Eisen:I have three in particular. His health, too much hero ball, and his consistency. So my question is, with this RPO run scheme that Matt Nagy and Greg Roman are running, how can they get jj to be the guy that he was when he won a national championship that kevin o 'connell could not get out of great question again go yankees thank you matthew i greatly appreciate it listen uh that that's the million dollar question here is again the way that you're born into the league he gets he gets drafted by a team his knee gets blown out and then the guy that uh he was competing with gets an opportunity who makes the most of it and that's a perfect example for him sam darnold bounced around the league now he's officially bounced from one spot to another in the league and he now has an opportunity with uh a first round drafted quarterback having a knee injury of his own go ahead and make the most of it do what sam darnold did because then you'll be in your own driver's seat and give give the giants front office and coaching staff a champagne problem of you know what do we do with our successful young quarterback and the other quarterback that we were building around who looked successful before he got hurt what do we do I don't know do they flip J.J.

4:24Rich Eisen:McCarthy for a better draft spot because they don't have a fourth and a seventh. They've got only one day three pick in Washington, D.C. next year. I don't know what the answer is. The answer is run the football. I mean, that's what Michigan did very well and then let J.J. McCarthy rip it every now and then to Roman Wilson or everyone else down the field. I mean, J.J. McCarthy would let it rip. Go and look at that video of the time that he won in the horseshoe. he was going up top quite a bit quite a bit and everybody out there said Michigan had the plays why were we down at halftime and in the third quarter then if we had the plays if we had man I wish Michigan would put me had put me in a rocking chair more often than it than they did but JJ's got the chance I just don't know when they're going to figure that piece out because Jameis has got to get the snaps with the ones prior to games.

5:23Rich Eisen:How are they going to get J.J. McCarthy up to speed? Because he's going to start, man. It's going to happen. It feels like it. And that's just based on how Jameis has looked in a little more than two, almost two games. Right. I don't know. It's wild. I don't think Minnesota necessarily gave up on J.J. They sure did. Well, I think the situation kind of mitigated that they couldn't afford to have him on the roster. What is, like, afford how? What does that mean? They elevated Max Brosmer. I mean, come on now. Because you need a third. You're not getting a pick for Max Brosmer. They had a chance to get an asset here.

6:05Rich Eisen:And McCarthy was just going to be inactive every single game of the season. So that's a wasted spot. Or he was only inactive for one game when they were clearly going to trade him. I mean, Wentz started a game. Kyler Murray, you know, Wentz is one snap away, and then after that, you're in Brosemaville instead of J.J. McCarthy. That's why you're running the risk of trading him. Trading quarterback depth is a risky move, man, in this league. Case Keenum just won a game for the Bears after they lost to the Vikings. You know, honestly, like, the Falcons fans wish they had somebody that Cooper Rush played like Case Keenum.

6:44Rich Eisen:And Stefanski's no slouch drawing plays up. to play your third quarterback ever. So that's just a guy you don't really spend much time thinking about. And McCarthy being their third quarterback is someone they could flip for an asset that could actually help their team. They gave up on having J.J. McCarthy there. End of story. They did. To the point where, oh, we'll take a fifth-round selection. Sure. Something just clearly wasn't working for him, and they decided to make that move. And we'll see what happens. The Vikings do appear to be set moving from here on out. Joining us here now on the Rich Eisen Show is a great friend.

7:27Rich Eisen:I'm not going to lie. I've known this man for decades, and now he's joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show, fresh off the Sunday night win against the Rams, getting set for the night. Sean Payton, good to see you, Coach. How are you, brother? Good seeing you guys. Doing well. Game planning. we're kind of you know we're getting back into a normal part of the schedule where you know week one was a Monday night and you had the short you know and you get into the the routine of playing Sundays so it's going well. And clearly you know some of the storylines if you will for your team coming out involves the slow starting on offense.

8:06Rich Eisen:How does one go about dealing with that. Although, you know, it's not like that didn't happen last year and you almost made the Super Bowl, Sean, right? Yeah. Look, I think I was asked that post game and there's an element as the head coach, you love seeing the, you know, the grit or the resilience of a team that can fight back. And then you also recognize that, you know, we're going to, we're going to play in games where we're going to have to be able to start quicker in the first half.

8:39And, you know, it's an ongoing, I'd say, work in progress. You know, it was one of the keys last week. We thought in playing a really good offense and a good team in the Rams that it would be hard if he got behind. So I think that, you know, there's a lot that goes into that. I love the fact that we can play well in the second half because in our league, there's going to be games that are close. and you're going to have to, in the final drive, make the plays that matter. But we're going to play good opponents as we move forward, where if we dig ourselves in a hole, it's going to be more challenging.

9:19So, yeah, I think that's kind of my approach to the team when we met, you know, on Monday. It's like, man, I love the fact that you guys feel like you're in every game, but we do have to figure out a way to be more efficient in four quarters.

9:38Rich Eisen:How did it feel for 24 hours at least to have people talking about a pass interference call that went your way against the Rams in the fourth quarter of a crucial game? How did that feel for you, Sean? Is that a new feeling for you? Well, it was interesting. There were two calls in that final drive. I didn't, when you're in the midst of the game, you don't necessarily have great vantage point. Like one of them happened on our sideline, the other one didn't. And so it really wasn't until afterwards that when you watch the tape, you had a chance to see, you know, those calls. And I think the thing anymore, you know, as a young coach, you would live with these calls and, you know, be on the phone the next day.

10:21And, you know, pretty soon you realize that you begin to become wiser where you burn your calories. And so, like we had a play last week, two weeks ago, you know, kind of a third down play to Waddle. And, you know, a big part in the game in the first half. And it's one of those where it could have easily been an interference or a holding call. you just go. You can't really control it. You hope by the end of the season more fall in your favor. We spent a lot of time on pre-snap fouls versus post-snap fouls technique. And I think that the things that you can control relative to the technique of players, certainly we've had some pre-snap fouls.

11:14We aligned too deep the other day on a running play. and so that was whistled immediately. Those are the things that I think you spend your time as a coach on now and you just hope that you do enough in your preparation to eliminate the pre-snap or the post-snap fouls that take place, celebration, taunting, whatever those might be.

11:39Rich Eisen:Yeah, I know. You're deep in coach mode here. I can sense it, but there wasn't a part of you that thought cosmically, karmically, you should get a pass interference call. I didn't think of it that way. I read and saw some of those things. I wouldn't even, that seemed like an eternity ago. It is. So thanks for having me on your show to remind me. But I mean, that's what everyone's talking about. It's like, how can anybody complain that Sean Payton had a call go his way against the Rams involving pass interference on the sideline? You know what I mean? Yeah, I think that, look, I understand the irony But I know it does seem like a long time ago.

12:19And I know those guys out on the field are trying to get it right. The game's going fast. And, you know, you're going to get some of those you're not. And then obviously there was a lot drawn to that playoff play because of the finality of where it was at in the game. And then, you know, it involved a trip to the Super Bowl. But I really hadn't even that didn't even hit me until I read some of the the comments about it. So, yeah, we are kind of grinding in coach mode. And it's it's it's kind of good. It's that time of the year where every one of these teams were all in this, you know, this race to improve.

13:06and a lot of improvement takes place in the first four to six weeks of a season. And you just have to be able to clean up the errors. When you have a tough win or a tough loss, there's some things in there that are positive. But when you have a win like we did the other night, man, there's a lot of things on that tape that if we don't get cleaned up, it's going to cost us as a team.

13:33Rich Eisen:Well, it seemed like Davis Webb was in his bag in the second half for this game for sure, Sean. And that's my last question for you because I know you've got to go to a meeting. And by the way, I do have Sylvester Stallone coming up next, which is – I'm glad you're closely associated with Rocky here. Will you allow me inside your inner monologue while somebody else is calling plays for you so far through the first three weeks here? Yeah, I think, you know, we're part of the process on offense. In other words, I'm not in those meetings. I'm in those meetings. And so, you know, throughout the game, there might be, hey, think about this relative to the runs.

14:12Think about this relative to play action. And I think it's important, I think, from Davis's perspective to when we get into a series, unless there's a break, like a clock stoppage, a timeout. But I think the play caller's racing onto the next play. Now, when the series is over, you know, here are the next two or three runs. Here's a thought relative to play action or drop back. And then certainly there are these situational, you know, we're down in scoring position. Hey, it's 16 to nothing. That's kind of a lower scoring game in the third quarter. Be ready for a two-point play. Normally, I wouldn't look at that chart until the fourth quarter, but I felt like at that point, points were at a premium.

15:02There wasn't a ton of scoring. Or I want you to think about four down territory. So your call on third and six at the 40 going in, if the head coach tells you, think four down, could be a lot different than just third and six. and so I think you're trying to help in a productive way without creating too much noise. And yeah, in the second half, it certainly flowed better than in the first and enough for we were able to climb back into that game.

15:38Rich Eisen:So are there moments in time where you're like, don't say what's in your mind right now because I wouldn't have liked it. I wouldn't have liked it if Bill or just keep on to anybody that you were coordinating for and calling plays for. I wouldn't have liked it if that happened to me. Have you had moments like that? Yeah, now listen, Bill was funny because, Bill, you learned right away with every play was a groan. There was some type of something, and that became kind of, and I say this respectfully, almost white noise where you couldn't let it affect you, but there was a lot of adjectives and comments.

16:17And that was just his personality. I'm probably not the same that way. And yet, yeah, there's times where, oh, good play. You know, you think it's not going to be something you like, but then it is. what you hope to do as best you can, like today, for instance, you're hoping in a lot of cases to arrive at decisions that can take place for you in the game that have been made well in advance. Now, there's still that sequencing of running it, throwing it, but especially when you get the third down red zone, tight red, short yardage, you kind of have an idea how those are going to come out. but in the normal flow of the game I think that discussion's best you know between series or at the start of a series or oftentimes there's a tv break the quarterback's in that triangle it's a third down it happened to Jacksonville where you know you're discussing a play and then Bo has a thought and that collaboration I think is important but I think Davis has done a good job of balancing that and then, you know, creating a flow.

17:27And I think it's back to your original question, which is important or statement is, you know, we can't be seventh or eighth out of the gate all the time with these starts. And, you know, eventually that, you know, there's going to be a time where someone stays out of reach. And I think that we have to work on that.

17:49Rich Eisen:Sean Payton, it's great to see you, man. Always. Thanks, pal. Great seeing you guys. Yeah. Have a great game against San Francisco and beyond. I'll keep checking in with you. You be well. Sounds good, man. Thank you, Richard. That's Sean Payton, everybody. Going back to work there in Denver. Going back to work there in Denver. Great stuff. I'm just giving you some insight on how this works, the mechanics of all this stuff. It ain't easy. Whether it's a crisp fall morning or a full-blown thunderstorm or you're loading up the car and heading to the game, whether you're kicking through piles of leaves or trudging through puddles of mud, whether you call it fall or autumn or you're just one of those sweater season people you're going to want weather tech for your vehicle whether the mess is your fault your kid's fault the dog's fault just the weather's fault you're gonna want weather tech for american-made floor liners and seat protectors that laugh in the face of fall weather visit weathertech.com today sylvester stallone the author and so much more when we come back great celebrity true or false around the corner The Rich Eisen Show Podcast.

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21:16Rich Eisen:Iron cages in the Central Park Zoo, right? I mean, that's what you were doing, riding on the side. It sounds comical, but it's a brutal and a sad job. It really is. But it paid the bills for a couple of weeks, and the bills weren't that much. but the deli the deli was almost a surreal situation because i would do the night shift and you would get some pretty interesting characters coming there like gypsy gangs and tough guys and people on drugs people wanted to rob you it was it was it was something else so that provided a lot of color the thing is rich i think all these jobs good and bad that just provided the tapestry of building knowledge.

22:09I've always been fascinated by odd characters, people that just stood out. Even as a child, I go, what was my favorite football player, like Bronco Nagurski? No one ever heard of him, but I just thought the name Bronco Nagurski, look at that, he was a wrestler, he was an oddball, he was an outcast. And just, I'm always attracted to those kinds of individuals that are so out of sorts with the mainstream. Well, I finally realized that working at a deli, getting into trouble, where am I going to learn a craft? And though it sounds ludicrous, I said, if you really want to learn about films, why don't you go to where the films are?

22:55And that's when I got a job as an usher. And people said, boy, you really hit rock bottom. I go, see, that's the point, guys. You automatically assume an usher is a non-human being, like a waiter. They don't exist. They have no soul. You don't understand that, you know, if you really study the business, if you really go there and try to take something out of it, then I see a purpose in it. And so going, I learned more about filmmaking. You know, I went to college for a couple of years and studied film. Nothing compared to what I learned at a theater. A movie theater dressed in an usher's outfit.

23:33Rich Eisen:It changed my life. Sylvester Stallone here on The Rich Eisen Show. The Steps, a memoir is available wherever you get your books. And, you know, I cover the NFL draft for the NFL Network. And the draft one year in Philadelphia, the draft hall was a makeshift draft hall on the steps of that Philadelphia Art Museum. Really? Yeah. And off to the side was the stat was, you know, they had to move the statue for just a few days and and they moved the statue to the side of the stage. and the number of people that were lined up to take a photograph with that statue rather than the actual NFL draft stage in the Ben Franklin, you know, parkway that was behind it.

24:21Rich Eisen:It's amazing, you know, and so it's an indelible film that you made that you're obviously, you know, chronicling your lead up to it. But when was the first time you started putting pen to paper about Rocky Balboa, Sylvester? I had written probably about 10 screenplays. They were pretty mediocre. But again, it's a skill set that takes a lot of work. And it's all about reduction. In other words, you take a sentence that's 25 words. Anyone can do that. That's just typing. And then you reduce it to 10. And those 10 words got to make sense with the next 10 words. it becomes kind of like literary math.

25:06All the words have to add up to telling the story. Well, that takes a lot of practice. So when I went to California, I finally figured I couldn't stay in New York anymore. I pretty much bombed out as much as I could. And I made a couple of dollars doing Lords of Flatbush, and bought a car, went to California. and then I found a place in the valley that was really rough for like 250 bucks a week and that's when I said I got to keep writing. You have to constantly keep going to the gym of the brain otherwise it'll become dormant. So my whole philosophy was I could not have any social life. you couldn't have that and have absolute 100 discipline dedication to the fight that's coming up it's kind of like what marvin haggler would go to the mountains to train as opposed to training in vegas and then going to a casino it was absolute isolation well so i i wrote the screenplay paradise alley which is pretty good but i was so broke i optioned that i gave it away for 100 bucks and i felt as though god there's this one producer that showed a little spark of interest i said i got to do something a lot of people think that it was based on chuck wepner it wasn't i always was fascinated with rocky marciana because we're like exactly the same size so it was feasible that a guy like me could you know in um inhabit that kind of character but nobody knew Rocky Marciano because that was the 50s and right then the Wepner fight came on and I used that, I went to the producers and I said, see, this is actually feasible, that nobody of them could go the distance with the greatest, I want to write this screenplay they said, yeah, sure, whatever and I went back there and I literally I said, God, please man do something, like, give it to me and I didn't stop for 72 hours writing it longhand.

27:25First draft wasn't very good, but it was, at least it was there. Rocky was not a very savory guy. And then I added Adrian and the love, and actually he wasn't even a boxer. I added that, and then we now had Apollo Creed and Mickey and all these other characters that inhabited the story that gave it life and relatability. and that's when the journey really started about do you sell out do you stay true to it or do you sell out because you know you're never going to have this opportunity again you literally wrote a story that no one would ever give you you're never going to come across it is designed for all your assets and cover all your flaws it's like made for me so when the price got up to this absurd amount and I needed the money badly.

28:19It was, you know, pregnant wife, and even afford a dog and like$80 left. And I was waiting that they were gonna say, we're done, we don't want you anywhere, deals off. Then I was in big, big trouble. But I knew and I told my wife, I said, if I sell this, we'll have some money, but you'll have a broken husband i will never be able to freak myself for not going the distance at least trying i've been doing this for six years i gotta ride it out because i'm never gonna have this opportunity again and then good fortune struck sure it did man and and before we

29:07Rich Eisen:get to the oscar night which is the end of your book here um what is what scene are you most proud of from rocky whether it's one you acted in or one you wrote and act you know obviously you wrote it all but is which one oh that's a good question there's there's two of them the most pivotal scene is the one i wrote about in the book that it was cancelled i said we have to do this scene this is the key to the whole movie and they go now we have no time we're quote pulling the plug and i always thought that was a you know euphemism for a joke no they pulled the plug so all the lights went out and this really we're down in a bowery and i you know rocky's little den there it was horrible and i and it's the first time i actually lost my composure and i went to the producer i said you got to let me have one take please i'm begging you one take because this is the take and i've never heard this before where a man knows he's going to get terribly punished he's going to get beaten he knows he cannot win but his interpretation of what victory is is so personal that that in itself is a victory in a championship and he goes okay you got one take so they put the lights back on and the camera starts to move and I'm getting nervous because it's a long scene if I stumble they're going to pull the plug and we've got to go but that's the scene when Rocky says I can't win he's better than me I've been out walking around I can't win and she says which is perfect not you can do it Rocky or just try your best she goes what are we going to do I go I don't know but it doesn't really matter if he opens my head and then Rocky lays out for the first time that it's not about the victory that other people see we all have our own goal that we consider a world championship and that was something that everyone could relate to because I'm going to lose but it's how I lose that's important and I felt that was the key scene so the next day the producers come out of the screening room and go, whoa, that's the most important scene.

31:35I know. I told you. That's the whole plot. And so that's it. And the other scene was when Mickey comes up to the apartment. Nobody wanted to know me. I was a pariah. I was a loser. And then he wants to get involved because he sees an opportunity to try to salvage some of his life on Rocky's back. But he was never there when I needed him. and it said venting and what i loved about that scene he couldn't do it to the old man's face he just didn't have that cruel streak but he just rambled on and rambled on and that was very um biographical from my own life and what was so funny was just so that thing really took it out of me and the sound man goes, what were you rolling?

32:25What? He goes, well, just do it again. I go, let me, let me tell you about a fact of life. You cannot ad lib and ad lib and ad lib is a one-off. So you have to go down and dig something else out. And I was, oh Oh man, I was so exhausted, because if you saw that scene, it's one of those, you pull out all the stops. But luckily, that character was such a blessing for me, and I felt so much for that character of Mickey, Burgess Meredith, his brilliant energy, that it came out very, very well. And I thought that was the real, that was such an act of forgiveness. It's almost like a father and son coming back, I forgive you for ignoring me and degrading me in my whole life.