Hour 3: NFL Power Rankings, plus Gary Cole Talks ‘Office Space,’ ‘Talladega Nights’ and More

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1:24This is The Rich Eisen Show. The 2025 NBA Cup champions, your New York Knicks. This is the Rich Eisen Show.

1:32Rich Eisen:The New York Knickerbockers. Wow. The Rich Eisen Show. He was wild, man. Earlier on the show, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner. The Ringer NFL Draft Analyst Todd McShay. Coming up, actor Gary Cole. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. The actor Gary Cole from NCIS and Talladega Nights and Veep and Office Space, just to name a few, is going to join us in about 20 minutes' time. He's in our green room. It's going to be a great pop culture chat with the Cubs fan, by the way. He's from Chicago, Illinois. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial.

2:20Rich Eisen:It's Wednesday. My power rankings are coming up in just a second. Oh, yes. and so I am thankfully 20 yards away from the Met fan here, me being a Yankee fan, because TJ is just coming for everything that I have in my life, because Luke Weaver and Devin Williams, it was such a great combo last year for the Yanks. The Mets say, I want that. Same thing seeing Clay Holmes. Same thing seeing Juan Soto. It's great. Maybe you want Monument Park, too? You can put that out there, too. Just take it all. Take the Yankees' history. take all the World Series. It'll be great. 844-204-RICH, number to dial. I have a phone call.

2:59Rich Eisen:Great chat. Let's take a couple more phone calls before we get to my power rankings. Let's go to Josh in Charleston, South Carolina. What's up, Josh? Rich, how are you, buddy? I'm good. What's on your mind? I'm well. A couple things. Number one, I cannot believe that that young lady just brought up Ponzios in South Jersey. because that's where I ate every Sunday with my father before Eagles games. Love it. So these are all legit Eagles fans calling in. We asked Eagles fans to call in at hour one and talk about Jalen Hurts. So everybody's resume is sterling. It is great. What's on your mind, Jen, Josh?

3:41I'll show my resume a little bit more.

3:44Rich Eisen:Sure. My grandfather bought season tickets to the Eagles in 1933 when they became a kid. Wow. Sat through the Steedles. I was born in 1970 after the tickets were passed on to my father. From the time that I was four years old until the time I went away to college at University of Dayton, I only missed one home game. Upon returning from college when I moved to New York City, I took the bus down to South Jersey where I grew up every Eagles Sunday at 6 in the morning and went over to the stadium. All right, Vince Papali, I see you. What do you got to say about the current Eagles, Josh? So what I'll say, if I could pick any single player that the Philadelphia Eagles have ever had since I've been there, other than Brian Dawkins.

4:40And I would like to say Reggie White also, but I still consider him a traitor. Jalen versus the player that I would want in my locker room. And that's the sentiment of everybody who I know and who I consider knowledgeable. It's all these doofus fans. and he has a bad game or whatever, everything shuts down after one bad game. And everything should start over, wipe the slate clean. As far as the, and I hate to say, aristocratic Eagles fans are concerned, Allen Hurts is our guy. And he should be the quarterback there until he decides to leave.

5:31Rich Eisen:Josh in Charleston, South Carolina. Nice. We've seen every Eagles game ever since there was an Eagle in football right here on the Rich Eyes. Thank you for the call, Josh. There you go. This is what we're looking for. That's what we're looking for. Sam in Fort Worth, Texas, wants to say something about what's been going down on the first two hours of this program. What's up, Sam? Not a lot of Rich Eyes and the best show now on TV and radio or none. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. You know, Sankey is just far too praised in my book. How is college football better? other than more money and TV, how are the fans benefiting?

6:07How is all of college benefiting, college football benefiting, rather than the selected 20 to 25? It meant a lot in these towns when Texas and OU and these other teams came through there. It wasn't the greatest thing for them, but college football is about the towns, the campuses, the atmosphere. Now it's about these 16 people that he's insisting he gets nine or ten of them as best as he can.

6:32Rich Eisen:and everyone's praising Sankey like he's the savior. He's the devil's work of college. Oh, I don't know about that. I'll push back on that, Sam. Please do. That's why I call you. Because he definitely understands where the Achilles heels are. He understands where the problems are. He even pointed out that he used to be with the Southern Conference. He was a baseball player with NAIA. He's exactly the type of guy that you'd want to have as a power broker. obviously he's going to advocate for the southeastern conference that's where that's that's for the few no i i he's for the few but i i don't know i think he understands that the the way through all this is to get a set of rules that is as standard as you could possibly get in this world of political beasts in this world of of uh different uh schools with different uh ideas about what they need.

7:28Everyone didn't get to go to Michigan and Ohio State. Do you know what it's like in Lawrence, Kansas now, or Manhattan, now that they're having to be relegated? If you told the NFL, hey, 40 % of your teams are going to have to play for one spot because we just don't see Miami and historically Jacksonville and all of them as good enough, that doesn't go over. Why is it being accepted at NCAA?

7:52Rich Eisen:Sam, you make excellent points, and I appreciate it. I just don't know if Sankey's the avatar for it. I think whoever's in charge of the NCAA is the avatar for it. Thank you for the call, Sam in Fort Worth, Texas. Let's take one more call before we get to my power rankings. Paul in the great state of Michigan. What's up, Paul? Good afternoon. How are you guys doing? I'm doing fine. You seem to be all business, Paul. I'm not going to lie. All business all the time. Okay, brother. What's on your mind? Listen, I was born and raised in Alabama. when Bear Bryant was a coach. And then throughout my formidable years, I had to ride the roller coaster, right?

8:30And then Saban came, and that was the end of the story. Yes, sir. And now we have DeBoard. And last year, at the end of the year, I was like, eh, this might not be the right guy for the job, but I'm going to give him time. And now you've got this program here in Ann Arbor, 15 miles away from here. And I've had to listen to all these fans around here for years telling me how great that program is. It's Blue Blood. It's Elite. The Block M. It's the brand. And I look back and I go, So let's talk about the last 80 years. Has it been a good program? Absolutely. But has it been a dominant program? 1948, 1997, and then the asterisk in 23.

9:04So when was this program elite since the leather helmets have gone away? And do you think these coaches that are on the list are looking at that and going, I don't want to go there with this mess they've got going on, the AD, the president, the regents involved, and Harbaugh, and all that other stuff, and you've just got a dumpster fire. So I got to believe somewhere deep down what they need is a guy of integrity, a Michigan man, so to speak. How do you get that? How do you get that guy when the program is really not what it's made out to be?

9:32Rich Eisen:Well, I will just say this, that the structure itself, the house, if you will, that we're trying to sell still has some great bones to it, man. And, you know, the the history of the program is the winningest program in the history of college football. And that has something to do with, hey, come on. Since when? Since they started playing football, Paul. And in modern days and in modern days and in modern days, Michigan is a factor within the Big Ten more than not. Are they are they as much of a factor as Ohio State has been over the last 10, 15 years? No. And that's something that absolutely hurts.

10:13Rich Eisen:And Michigan does have a massive image problem. and so yeah no I hear you but you know I still like to think clearly you're talking to somebody who's biased that this is a program that somebody would want to come coach somebody would want to say I can build that brand to what it you know to what Michigan wants it to be there's no question about it right somebody would somebody does want that job but that man needs to be a man of integrity no there's a question about it get past, they've got to get past the math going on. No doubt about it. I don't think you can hire a coach there until it's fixed.

10:51Rich Eisen:Thanks for the call, Paul. That's Paul in Michigan. A lot of real talk. And everybody's giving their resumes. I grew up here. I did that. I kind of did that. Let's lay it out. Let me just say one last thing, too, about this asterisk, okay? Just to remind everybody, okay, to remind everybody, it was ripped out root and branch. Root and branch. And then Michigan went on its national championship run okay what happened before that it sucks and one last thing can connor stallions let me just go here can you go away just go away and i understand the outkicks of the world and other people want to get him and i've even talked about this to lawan i'll come out and just say it in personal i'm like why do you have him on why do you have him on what did he say to that uh he digs him he thinks he's fun he's funny he's entertaining you know loves michigan and i'm like yeah but in a way that's clearly unhealthy clearly unhealthy you know and absolutely what he did was wrong and what he did is is a a stain a stain but an asterisk hey he was gone he was gone when we beat penn state and then ohio state and then alabama and then washington gone even the guy who's in charge of the NCAA says this is all on the up and up right now.

12:13Rich Eisen:There is no asterisk. Now, that could have been benefiting the NCAA, but that said, that's all they did is try to hunt everyone down after all of that. But Conestallians, go away. On behalf of all of us at Michigan, I'm glad you liked us. I'm glad you still like us. Fine. Root in your own privacy of your home. Don't need you. I got my power rankings. Oh, yes. Week 16 Power Rankings presented by Sonos. Sonos, hit it.

12:49Rich Eisen:Power Rankings! There are many like it, but this one is mine! Power Rankings! All right, my Week 16 Power Rankings presented by Sonos. There's only three more of these left in the regular season. Oh, sad, Rich. Oh, man. Oh, yeah. Sad. Will I Power Rank in the playoffs? How can I do it? Why not? You can do it. I guess we make the rules. Yeah. I'm just loving the fact that you're so into these power rankings after fighting them to the nail for so long. You didn't like them. No, not really. Loves it now. Let's just put it this way. I'm less into the power rankings than the Mets are into getting Yankees on their teams.

13:24Rich Eisen:You're a wild boy. Wow. You're a wild boy. That's your man, TJ. One of only two stays like before. Stays like before. I'm keeping the Bears here. I'm keeping the Bears here. I'm keeping the Bears here at 10 by the way I know people are accusing me of being a Bears hater you are not loved by the Bears community why I don't understand and I'm doubling down in the comments saying yes you are it took me a while to respect them I respect them enough that they've been on my power rankings for almost a month and we can see the Bears can finish 1 in the conference 2 in the conference 5 in the conference 7 in the conference or out of the conference Like, literally, the next three weeks, rubber meets the road.

14:09Rich Eisen:So, Caleb has looked much better. It's been exciting to watch. The Bears' defense has been way better in terms of taking the ball away. They got a terrific running attack, but I'm putting the Packers above them. The Packers have already beaten them, and we'll see if they are going to sweep them. And the Packers are down four spots to nine. I knocked them down four pegs, down to nine on this list. We'll see how they bounce back. Micah being gone is a massive problem. Massive. We'll see how they make up for it. And they're taking on the Bears on Saturday, and we will see who stays on this list and who drops off it.

14:47Rich Eisen:Number eight, up one spot. I'm putting the Jacksonville Jaguars eighth. I think the Jaguars would actually give the Packers and the Bears a run. And if they play it, maybe in Jacksonville, I think they could beat them the way that they're playing right now. Maybe I'm wrong. We'll see. Yeah, I think they beat both of them. Let's see. They are balling out. Trevor's playing the best football he's ever played. Ever. Number seven on the list, though, up one spot. I'm putting the Texans above him. I think the Texans and the Jaguars are right there with each other. They don't play each other the rest of the way.

15:20Rich Eisen:The Texans, we have D 'Amico Ryans on Friday's program. I look forward to catching up with him. They are on fire. Every single pundit, talking head, expert we have on. Which team do you think is going on a run? I think it's now universally the Texans. That bandwagon is full like the Broncos won us over the summer. Yeah, it feels like it. Number six, up one spot, the Niners are here. The Niners are in the mix for the one seed. As a matter of fact, the reason why the Rams don't have a West clinching scenario this week, even though they would be one up on Seattle with two to play and a tiebreaker on Seattle in their back pocket is because the Niners could still win this division.

16:02Rich Eisen:so keep on an eye on the Niners who are in 10 and 4 they can win the division and the conference number 5 down 3 spots I'm keeping the Pats in my top 5 they played well enough in that first half to say that they're for real the way they finished I'm just going to chalk it up to this is Josh Allen this is your division opponent you drew blood on each other's turfs and let's see how the Patriots can march on I think they're going to give the Ravens more of a game They could just actually flat out win it. Trevion Henderson is a home run hitter of the first variety. And defensively, let's get Milt Williams back and let's see what we can do.

16:39Rich Eisen:Agree. Number four on the list, up two spots are the Buffalo Bills. They're back in my top five. You look at them on paper and you're like, okay. You know, like you're Larry David. Okay. And then you look at this quarterback-runningback combination. Is it the best in the NFL right now? quarterback, groundback? Yeah, no doubt. All right. So, and then the rest of them around them. James Cook is going to win the rushing title. Follow the lead. They're up two spots to four. Up one spot to three of the Seahawks. I'm concerned about this offense. It's been a while since they just went on tilt. The third down offense is a problem.

17:19Rich Eisen:They've been settling for way too many field goals. That is not the way you win divisions, conferences, and playoff games. We'll see what happens. But I'm putting them at three because I respect them being 11-3. The defense is no joke. Their kicker has been stupendous. And they're one Myers 60-yarder away from being atop this list. Up one spot are the Broncos at two. They are obviously the best in the AFC, but I'm keeping the Rams at one. They stay like before. I'm keeping the Rams at one. I think this is all self-explanatory here. and so the bottom line is I took the two teams that lost on this list and knocked them down a few pegs that's why nobody fell off the list and nobody got on the list because nobody fell off the two teams on my top 10 from last week that lost were the Patriots to the Bills at home and the Packers to the Broncos on the road the Bears, Jaguars, Texans Niners, Bills, Seahawks Broncos, Rams all one.

18:24Rich Eisen:So I'm not going to move them around anything except up a little bit. And the no changes with the Bears at home against the Cleveland Browns in the cold. And the no change with the Rams taking care of the Lions at home. That's my power rankings thought process. Gents, the floor is yours. Anything? Bueller? Good list. I mean what? The Chargers are probably 11th. They're like 10A. 10.5. But who am I? Am I going to take the Packers? Am I going to drop the Patriots and the Packers completely off the list. No, no, no, of course not. To put the Chargers on it? No, no, no. So if the Eagles played the Jags, you're picking the Jags over them?

19:03Rich Eisen:Now you'd have to consider it, don't you think so? Listen, you know the way I feel about the Eagles, but I can't, what am I going to take the Eagles and pop them on the list because they beat the Raiders 31-0, which is exactly the get-right game I was looking for, but they're not getting right back on this list because who am I taking off of? I'm taking the Jaguars off the list after they eviscerate the Jets and Trevor Lawrence plays the game of his career. Well, you can say the same thing about them that you said about the Eagles. Which is what? Like the Jets. Well, they got right, man. The Jacksonville's looked much better than Philly in the last month.

19:39Rich Eisen:Exactly. But don't make me start caping for Philly, please. I didn't make you do anything. I wouldn't have to, but I thought... You didn't do it. I find it necessary. The same way that I didn't make the Mets want to be the Yankees. Yo, you're going to die on this hill, aren't you? I mean, Chargers 11, Eagles 12. That's fine. My power rankings are brought to you by Sonos. Explore sound bars, speakers, and more at Sonos.com. Sonos products look as good as they sound. 844-204-RICH. Number to dial. We might sneak in a call. I'm told O'Shea Jackson Jr. might sneak in by the end of the show. Before doing no contest wrestling.

20:13Rich Eisen:But Gary Cole is here. This is going to be fun. Don't go anywhere. This is the Rich Eisen Show.

20:49Now we're talking. So grab a bag of Lay's and jump on the bandwagon. We're undefeated.

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21:29Rich 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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22:43Rich Eisen:Last night, the midseason finale packed with twists, especially for special agent Alden Parker, played by Gary Cole, who is here on the Rich Eisen Show. You, sir, are a diehard Cubs fan? I am a diehard Cubs fan, yes. Your first Cubs game was? My first Cubs game would have been probably in 1965. And I do remember that probably around there, I also saw a no-hitter by Jim Maloney. I think it was in 1965. Jim Maloney's no-hitter. Not a lot of people talk about that one. I don't know that it was that memorable. I remember it because I was waiting for when is something going to happen, but my dad assured me that it was something good going on.

23:26August 19th. Not for the Cubs, but. August 19th, 1965. There you go. Is that right? 65. Against the Reds.

23:31Rich Eisen:So you were there. Gary Cole was in attendance. I was there. years and years and years ago when i was on my first iteration with espn i was covering spring training and so was my at the time a girlfriend who's now my wife uh and we were in phoenix just at a at a driving range just hitting some golf balls and the other person on the driving range who came up to us and started talking to us about what you should get married and have children which was always interesting when your girlfriend's name was ernie banks i will never forget that in my mind like oh my god what are you doing here ernie banks and he's like what are you two doing here and we're just playing what we're doing what was the conversation that preceded that was there much of a conversation just like i'm like right to it he just came right to it and when i'm like are you ernie banks and he goes yeah and who are you and we introduced ourselves he goes oh you should get married and have children and i'm like yeah that's a new meaning of let's play too Yeah, I was going to say.

24:27Rich Eisen:You know what I mean? But it was just so cool. So Ernie was your guy, I imagine, growing up? Ernie Banks, Billy Williams. Okay. Yeah, I kind of went back and forth between those two guys. Okay. And then when they won the World Series, what did that mean for you? It was disorienting, actually. I love that. No, it was. Disorienting. No, I mean, I remember I was doing, I didn't get to watch the game live. We were shooting Veep. We were shooting late. but of course we were following it uh kevin dunn who was also on the show another another diehard come fan okay so we knew it was happening and uh i think the game ended actually before we finished shooting but it was late i mean it was like you know in the east coast it was probably like 11 30 or something game seven you're talking game seven and then i went and i knew the outcome but I went home and watched it alone in my living room and just, you know, just was like, I didn't know what.