Joe Thomas: The Browns Have Some Good Offensive Weapons

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1:10Subject to availability, restrictions and fees apply. Let's do this. Let's do this. This is the Rich Eisen Show. With guest host, Andrew Siciliano. The kick is... No good! Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I get a lot of fans, including my father. Son? Yeah, Dad. Who stop me and say, why are you talking about the Cowboys? Because this story right here moves the needle. Earlier on the show, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero. Coming up, pro football Hall of Famer Joe Thomas. Longtime golf writer Alan Shipnuck. And now sitting in for Rich, it's Andrew Siciliano. Oh, that would be me.

1:55Hi. I'm just sipping a cup of coffee here. One moment. Oh, geez. Sipping on some scissor. We're so good. Have you ever thought about cutting back on coffee? Yeah. Heck to the no. No. Even though I went to the dentist yesterday. Hi. Chris Brockman. Jason. Hey. TJ. Hello to you all. Rich is back on Monday. My name is Andrew. I'm happy to be here. Yeah, I work for the Browns. I do their games and I do some other podcasts. Some of that might be announced coming up shortly, like in the next week. Big news coming up. We're happy about that. And I'm very happy to sit in here for Rich. I could walk here from my home.

2:31Not really. I could, though, technically, if I wanted to do like one of those Paul Pierce stunts, like walk to the lot. I'd say we all could walk everywhere. We all could walk here. I mean, you could walk anywhere. Yeah. Hypothetically. I mean, like, who do you listen to, TJ? You could just roam the earth. You just roam the earth. But you really could walk. You really could walk. I could potentially walk right here. Coming up in about 18 minutes, Hall of Famer Joe Thomas will join us. We tracked down Joe. We have tracked down Joe. Actually, Joe has tracked down us. I'm going to give you the backstory real quick here.

3:03We're very, very, very well. Joe's a good friend, friend of the program, friend of the network, friend of everybody. We love Joe. Joe's on a lake right now in his native Wisconsin. No way. But when I texted him yesterday, I'm like, hey, do the show. He's like, oh, I'm excited to do the show. Yes. He goes, I might have bad Wi-Fi. I'm going to find good Wi-Fi. I'm like, okay, we're good. He just texted and said, hey, I'm driving into town right now to get better Wi-Fi. So Joe Thomas' dedication, Hall of Fame dedication. So he was going to be right here. We're going to push him about 15 minutes because he does not accept second rate visual and second rate Wi-Fi.

3:41When you play 10 ,000 Street Snaps for the Browns. Yeah, you don't half-ass. You're dedicated. That is whole-time dedication. That's dedication. Okay? There are few better than the great Joe Thomas. He will join us shortly. Now I'm sidetracked. Oh, I went to the dentist yesterday. Because, hey, remember, always have your teeth cleaned. I need to go. And the hygienist says, drink a lot of coffee? Like, I do. Yeah. Like, how much? Like, all day. Like, all day? No, I have, like, three cups usually by noon. She's like, okay. And then you, like, do you take time in between the cups? Are you sipping?

4:14is there dairy wow she's really uh getting in there and she's like have you thought about like washing in between like what she's like like like water and gurg like you're trying to wash your mouth out with water in between sips or cups between cups all right but now i'm thinking jason maybe between sips like should i be a double fist like coffee water coffee water coffee water like portable toothbrush yeah like diuretic water diuretic water um And I say, well, during football season, like on Sundays, I will have one of these in my hand. While you're in the game all day. Yeah. Like for Red Zone Channel for 18 years, I had one of these, although we added an extra shot.

4:57This is only four. I would have one of these out of a five shot Americana on my way into work every morning to direct TV at like 7 a.m., 630, whatever it was. and then once the games kicked at 10 a.m pacific we're in la here um i would have a a cup of black coffee in my hand and whenever it got low somebody would always hand me another one and then hand me another one and then i would do that pretty much until the kick of the late games late meaning 4 p.m eastern so by the time those games kicked i would probably have the equivalent of nine cups of coffee in me. Not healthy. Congrats on being alive still.

5:32Not healthy. That's like the Dan Campbell have a crazy coffee order. Yeah, he would do like a five shot red eye or something ridiculous like that. Dan Campbell coffee order comes up on Google. Andrew, you want something even crazier than that though? Chris Brockman has never had coffee. Never had coffee. It's okay. It's not for everybody. I mean, there's some people you trust in the world and some people you don't. It's okay. I love you. it's okay I've never seen Rudy I've never seen I've never seen so many classic sports movies we've done this bit so like there's some people that think I'm a weirdo not seeing Rudy's kind of weird I don't like sports movies that's a whole another bit you hike mountains it's all good I do I just got back from Mount Fuji that story later it was great anyway she's like yeah you really shouldn't like if you're gonna drink that much coffee then you really have to do all this extra.

6:27And I'm like, listen, during games, I can't go coffee, water, coffee, water, coffee, water. That's a bad mix. That ain't going to happen. But the whites are pearly, at least right now. Anyway, let's real quickly here, run down the headlines. We're going to start with the golf because the Open Championship is underway. And I know we just updated that, but let's update it one more time. The American Brian Harmon, the defending champion, is in the clubhouse with a 69 and then today a 65. He is eight under after a six under today. Day number two, fighting the elements and fighting the weather at the Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

7:08Right behind him from China, Haitong Li, who has his second consecutive 67. So he is also at eight under a four under today. So he goes four under four under to go to eight under on moving day here. And they're now trailing Andrew. They're now in second place because the 22 U S open champion, Matthew Fitzpatrick is on fire. A third straight birdie on the par five 12th. He is just teed off on the par three 13th at nine under. Look at that as Andrew refreshes his browser, and it is still behind Chris Brockman's refreshing of his browser, unless you have this live on a monitor in this beautiful studio, which I do not see.

7:59So Matt Fitzpatrick is now on the lead, and Scotty made the turn. Scotty Scheffler at 7-under overall, 4-under on the day. Shot a 68 yesterday. So Scheffler is now 2-back of the lead. Yeah, leaderboard, like we said at the end of last hour, leaderboard really starting to jam up with some big names. One of note that I did notice, Phil Mickelson was one under yesterday. He shot a one over today. He's an even. He's going to play the weekend. Phil Mickelson out there at 55 years old is going to play the weekend. Everybody's working for the weekend. That's what I've heard. Did you see the weekend when he was here a couple of weeks ago at SoFi?

8:38I did not either. Oh, man. I thought you were talking about Phil Mickelson. I was like, Phil was here? No, no, no, no. Not Phil Mickelson. I'm sure Phil might have been in town, or you might have seen him in a card room in Hollywood. I have no idea, but he, I'm sure, was in town. Let's get to the NFL headlines, and coming up throughout the show, and we'll do one of them coming up in a bit as well, biggest storylines for each division. But let's run through some NFL headlines. Mike Williams retired yesterday, the Chargers wide receiver, a second stint with the Chargers, their former first-round pick out of Clemson, big body wide receiver, played with the Jets and the Steelers last year, decided I don't want to go through a chip harpawn.

9:14Are you kidding me? Training camp and I am done. In all seriousness, he has fought knee injuries. Good player. Great guy off the field. Mike Williams has decided to hang it up. A lot of teams have rookies coming in today. Today is the 18th. Other teams have had rookies report throughout this week. For example, the Ravens had their rookies come in a couple of days ago. Same go for the Buffalo Bills. But today, the Browns rookies are reporting. The Packers rookies are reporting. The Commanders rookies are reporting, among other teams. And then most teams by Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of next week will have everybody in.

9:51A week from tomorrow, it will be Back Together weekend, in which all 32 teams are back on the field for one big day, a celebration with live coverage for all 32 teams on NFL Network. work on ABC and ESPN and on all your major partner platforms for all 32. And that is kind of the very first day. We are now 13 days away from a nationally televised professional football game. 13 days away. And we're not talking the flag championships right now on NFL Network Live from Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. We're talking an actual football game between the Lions and the Chargers at the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio.

10:41July 31st. Love it. We have a football game that will get a rating. It will get a fantastic rating. And I'm going to tell you right now, I will guarantee you, Justin Herbert and Jared Goff ain't playing. Even Jim Harbaugh ain't playing Justin Herbert in the Hall of Fame game. I mean, did Jim Harbaugh... Jim Harbaugh might run the ones for a quarter just because.

11:11Did you hear Harbaugh's presser yesterday going back and forth between Jesus and Popes and Presidents and like shoe size and like catching foul balls and... Oof. We have it? Hold on. Okay, so let me give you a setup real quick. In the offseason, Harbaugh went to the White House, went to the Oval Office, sat with President Trump with his brother, John Harbaugh, head coach of the Ravens, had that. He also went to Rome, I believe, and met our new pope from Chicago. Villanova graduate and White Sox fan, Pope Leo, did that. And so Harbaugh yesterday went on this wild storytelling aside about how many popes and how many presidents.

11:58And, you know, he met Gerald Ford when he caddied for Bo Schembechler when he was like 12 years old and all these things like that. And then got into talking about catching foul balls. I've caught 22 foul balls in games, but yeah, legit. Yeah, like it was either a foul ball or a home run. yeah uh i'm really proud of that i don't think i'll get to 22 presidents but uh hopefully god willing in the creek don't rise maybe maybe 15 maybe maybe hopefully 15 or 16 most of them came most of them came um yeah i'd love to i do you want to i know i didn't keep them i haven't kept them all though sometimes i gave them to a to one of my kids or a kid in this stance.

12:52I always bring my glove to the game. That's the key. You got to bring your glove. You got to sit. Huh? Joe Ortiz asked me the same thing. He questioned me on like 22. So, yeah, 13 of those foul balls came when I was a youngster going to Tigers games. My dad and Gates Brown grew up together in Crestline, Ohio. They played football, basketball, baseball together. So sometimes we would get tickets from Gates to go to the game at Tiger Stadium. And there might have been like 1 ,000 people, you know, at those games back then. I mean, it's not like it is today. I mean, so me and my brother, we could go to the upper deck, and there would be just me, you know, and I'd have a section here and a section there.

13:45So anything that came up there, I was getting it. John had he had three sections he was covering, you know, so we were coming away with sometimes in a game, you know, two or three foul balls. I mean, that's an amazing the intensity with which he tells that story. And you hear Daniel Popper ask from The Athletic, are you going to like, do you remember each one? Because he before that had told the story of every pope and every president, like everything. Right. But the idea, like when I first saw on the Twitter yesterday, 22 foul balls, I was like baloney. No way. But then when you hear that he and Harbaugh went to an empty – him and his brother, John, went to the empty Tiger Stadium, and they just covered the entire upper deck.

14:25Yeah, that makes more sense. Like, tip of the cap to you, old man. Like, good, good for you. But why are you still bringing your glove to the game as an adult? Back, guys, have you had a conversation with him recently in person? Yeah, he was here a couple months ago. Like, I love him. He's wired differently. He's wired differently. he wears cleats on the sideline to coach yeah wired differently wired differently i like i right after he got the charger job he um real quick here don i promise um right after he got the job i ran into him at the combine in indianapolis and i heard he was moving into my neighborhood right we're close enough like you know neighboring town and i'm like hey i heard you're moving into here and he's like yeah yeah i am yeah i'm like great i'm on and i told him where i live where like where are you guys going where where's the place he's like uh um i don't know i mean you don't know i don't know like like your wife i'm sure like you've heard this before the coach i don't know like my wife i'm in the building my wife found the place like yeah that kind of thing he's like i don't know i don't know so i know it's close to the beach I'm like, okay.

15:35He's like, it's four minutes from work. I'm like, right, because they moved into El Segundo right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. He's like, four minutes from work. I'm like, cool. Have you been to like whatever you like yet? He's like, four minutes from work. Yeah, three minutes to Wapner. Right. And then we continued with another conversation about an entirely different topic. And it's not like, and I know some of you might be going, he doesn't want to tell you where he lives, son. I'm like, no, that wasn't it. But like, believe me, that was not it. It was more like. Yeah, one of those, which you saw right there.

16:11He's different. And I mean, that in a good way, like like I love the guy. Also different in a great way. Ladies and gentlemen, he is not only a Hall of Famer. He is not only like a world class lover of restaurants and outdoorsman. He is also now a cattleman. Right. Joe Thomas, connoisseur of beef. joins us next, the Hall of Famer on the Rich Eisen Show. Rich Eisen here. Running a small business means every hire matters. A bad hire costs time and money, but the right one helps your business grow. The challenge? Finding that person without sorting through resumes. That's where LinkedIn Hiring Pro comes in.

16:50It screens candidates so you can focus on conversations with qualified talent. With Hiring Pro, you can hire with confidence and build the team you need. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash eisen. Terms and conditions apply. Taking a quick break to tell you how Saturday's game time can get a little messy. Your crew just came over to watch. Snacks on the table, drinks in hand, and somebody celebrating like they just won the whole season and beyond. And when that energy gets going, your walls can end up taking the hit.

17:22Whether it's a big spill or a noticeable scuff, that's where bare ultra interior paint comes in. It adds an extra durable stain blocking finish that helps your walls hold up for the whole season. It also delivers outstanding coverage and hide in fewer coats with easy application and a smooth, even finish that goes on clean from the first pass. Plus, that easy, clean finish helps walls stay looking new longer. So before the next kickoff, give your space game ready defense and coverage that goes the distance. Bear Ultra only at the Home Depot. It's Saturday, kickoff's getting close, and your weekend project just hit a wall.

17:58You're short on materials, or you need one more tool for the job. Turns out that quick fix needs a quick assist. That's the perfect time to call an audible with express delivery from The Home Depot. Order in the app or online. Get what you need delivered fast and track updates along the way, so you can finish your project in time for the first snap. Get what you need even faster with express delivery from The Home Depot. subject to availability restrictions and fees apply Larry David you are now the new commissioner of the national really yes congratulations are you kidding there you go congratulations this is a dream okay I quit curve your enthusiasm in a second if this is true okay okay what do you do first is the commissioner of the national football league Larry David number one and I really don't care if people like it or not I'm losing the goal post why why are there goalposts okay why why are kickers okay who have they don't have football skills they're not football players i'm sure they're wonderful people but they're not football players why why why are they kicking a ball through goalposts to decide games it doesn't make any sense at all it's a first of all goalposts are a relic from the old english rugby i think You know, when they used to actually run and kick a ball through a goalpost.

19:21But they don't do that in the NFL. There's no need for goalposts. Wouldn't the game be better without them? Think about it. Why not just have leaping frogs to decide games? Have a – see if a frog can leap through a little goalpost that you set up, okay, on the floor. And if the frog can leap through the goalpost, then do that. Why kick it through a goalpost? Well, it's not called leaping frog ball. It's called football. So you're saying take the feet out of footballs? Is that what you're saying, Leonard? Is that what you're saying? Yes. Why feet are deciding games and they shouldn't. Why should one player, one player with this skill, like the guy on the Ravens.

20:05Justin Tucker, yeah. Why should this one player who does nothing but kick a ball be deciding games when you have 52 other players who are actually playing? And this one person, this 53rd person is deciding games. It makes no sense whatsoever.

20:33We want to thank everyone listening and watching because we know that you're taking time out of your day to participate and to be part of this show and this family. And maybe you're making a major effort to listen every day, putting your life aside and doing things that, you know, you're rather ignoring things that maybe you should be focusing on to be here with us. We want to thank Joe Thomas for doing the same because he could be sitting on a lake right now in Wisconsin. Instead, the Hall of Famer has gone planes, trains and automobiles to set up this amazing Jack Hanna-like shot somewhere in Wisconsin.

21:07He sought out better Wi-Fi, and he joins us now on the Ridge Eisen Show. Where in the heck are you, my friend? And thank you. Thanks for having me on, Andrew. I'd do anything for you, buddy. So I'm in Manitowish Waters up in northern Wisconsin. As you can see, it's God's country. But the term better Wi-Fi is just relative because better up here still means it's about the speed of the dial-up that you had when you were doing AOL online as a kid. The shot's amazing. Is that like an inlet? Is that a creek? What is that? Yeah, so we got a little creek, little bay right here. There's a cool little coffee shop in town called Dixie's that actually has some Wi-Fi that's reasonable enough, at least for a phone call and a Zoom.

21:53And it's got this beautiful little bay behind me. And I brought my rod. So after this, I'm going to be casting for muskies a little bit. So make sure it's not too long. Can't cut into my muskie time.

22:05this is the first time anyone has ever been on and said hey i have to hurry up and get to casting for muskies or muskies like little ones how big are they oh no muskies are big that's like one of our biggest freshwater fish we have here you know 50 60 pounds they get up to and it's kind of what made the north woods of wisconsin famous so they're predators man they're out there trying to eat all the little bass and bluegills and hopefully my bait a little bit later Oh, yeah, I'm looking at pictures. They have some teeth too, Joe. Oh, yeah, like a barracuda. They're kind of like a freshwater barracuda.

22:37They're a lot of fun. Shows you how much I know about fishing. And then would you actually, like, clean those fish, fillet those fish, and throw them on the grill tonight? No? No, no. The muskie's just kind of catch and release. The joy of muskie is the challenge and the fight and things like that. You know, you're usually catching walleye and bluegill, something a little bit smaller, a little bit more plentiful. if you're putting it on the table. I did have some good walleye last night with some tartar sauce and some delicious spicy coleslaw. It was the perfect northern Wisconsin meal with cheese curds on the side.

23:10See, I don't know if I want the cheese curds. Like good Wisconsin beer, yes. The cheese curd thing, Joe, I will never forget the first time I was in Wisconsin. I was a young man. I was working in Chicago. I had to go up to Wisconsin. And first of all, all your roads are screwed up with your state roads. It's like State Route D and State Route F, and they're not in order. You would think that it goes D and E and F and G if you're heading up the highway. But no, it'll be like you go from B to L and then back to G. It makes no sense whatsoever. That was one thing that stood out to me. The other thing was every sign for every restaurant is advertising only one thing, and that's cheese curds.

23:49We got a lot of cheese here. I don't know if you noticed, but we're the dairy state. And if you don't like cheese curds, you probably just haven't had the right one. So when I see you here in a couple of weeks, Andrew, I'm going to have to bring you some real Wisconsin cheese. Change your mind. The great Joe Thomas, everyone joining us from Wisconsin. Let's get to the football. I will see you in a couple of weeks in Cleveland when the Browns head down yet another path towards greatness. And we'll figure out the quarterback eventually. We'll get to that later. Let's just talk the other quarterback down the street, like two and a half hours away in Pittsburgh, because the Browns do have to go there week six to face Aaron Rogers and the Steelers, assuming it is still Aaron Rogers.

24:23they are boomer bust like i think more so than any team we've ever seen this reminds me of like the daniel snyder uh redskins teams back in the day when it's like we're gonna sign any and everything that isn't nailed down and we're gonna win this year do you think joe it actually works you know there's not many quarterbacks that have had a bad year after coming off of an injury as they get really old and they're third or fourth teams that have really found great success. At least that's what I'm telling myself here with the Pittsburgh Steelers, obviously our big rival in Cleveland. But I think really the big question is, can they get locker room buy-in around him?

25:07Because earlier on in his career and then even when he went to the Jets, there was a lot of hoopla and it was easy for the veterans and the players and the team to just buy all in and think, hey man, this was our lottery ticket this was our missing piece he's going to be the guy taking us to a championship but I think that aura around him is kind of gone at this point and so he really needs to kind of humble himself a little bit I think and and find a way to get the rest of the locker room to buy in to what he's selling and to believe that yes he can be the Aaron Rodgers of old and until he does that really I think they're going to be a little bit lukewarm on his presence right because it's going to be disruptive it's going to be a media circus when you bring Aaron Rodgers anywhere he's going to be of course he's going to do his shows and say controversial things and players don't really love that unless you're producing on the field so it would really be interesting to see what he does and how he changes in little ways just to make himself maybe more available more approachable to his teammates and to try to get them to buy in and really believe and you know what he's doing on the field that he can be the guy that can lead him to a Super Bowl I was saying before that worst case scenario for them for them that is is if they're just nine and eight and they're one and done again because then what have you spent all this money for like what what have you paid dk for and what have you paid tj for and what have you done the jalen ramsey trade for if you're just going to get the same result and i i don't know that a lot of people joe like you said are bullish that they are gonna all of a sudden especially with you know the way the afc north lines up this year you know this afc north plays nfc north i mean it is not an easy schedule for any team in that division if they're just nine and eight and they're one and done then then what did we do this for and then next year you're looking at picking 20th or 21st again and you're not going to go find your quarterback of the future so like we spent a lot of money but to quote ricky waters for who for what i don't blame them for trying though yeah i mean you got to do it right you got to have somebody at that quarterback position they I feel like the team that can win now, but it is interesting because Aaron Rodgers is now in Arthur Smith's offensive system, which is more of a run heavy system, right?

27:17It's the system that Kyle Shanahan has kind of spawned throughout the NFL where you're leaning on the run game a little bit more. It's less about matchups, which is what Aaron Rodgers has loved throughout his career. That's what he did with Mike McCarthy and Green Bay all those years. And that's what he was trying to do in different places that he went after with the Jets. And now here with the Steelers is try to find, okay, who's my best matchup? and then let my arm win. The Arthur Smith system is much more of a, hey, take the plays that are there within the flow of the game, within the system.

27:48We're going to lean on the run game. We're going to find you your shot plays. And certainly Aaron Rodgers has the capabilities to do that, but does he have the patience to do that? And is he willing to listen to Arthur Smith and run his system and not try to overimpose too much of what he would like to see with the system? Because like you said, it's kind of a one and done, and it's a win now. You've got to make it work with this one-year contract that Aaron Rodgers signed. And so it's not like they have all this time to be able to figure each other out and kind of blend the two systems together.