Hour 1: LIVE from The Tap Room

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Don, Hahn & Rosenberg - Hour 1: LIVE from The Tap Room"

Release Date: February 7, 2025

Hosts:

• Don LaGreca – ESPN New York legend and broadcaster
• Alan Hahn – Sportswriter and New York Knick broadcaster
• Peter Rosenberg – Hip Hop veteran and WWE personality

Live Location: The Tap Room, Rockville Center, Long Island

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1. Introduction and Live Setup

The episode kicks off with the hosts greeting listeners from the Tap Room in Rockville Center, setting a lively and interactive atmosphere. [00:43]

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2. Eli Manning's Hall of Fame Candidacy

A. Voting Process and Committee Bias

The primary focus of the episode revolves around quarterback Eli Manning's delayed induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The hosts express considerable frustration with the Hall of Fame voting process, highlighting perceived biases and inconsistencies.

• Don LaGreca criticizes the limited support Eli receives from the voting committee, mentioning that only a few members like Bill Polian, Gary Myers, and Sal Palantonio are advocating for his induction. [03:09]

• Peter Rosenberg adds that the necessity to convince others indicates insufficient overall support, emphasizing that if a player isn't a clear choice, it reflects the committee's indecision. [06:21]

B. Comparisons with Other Quarterbacks

The hosts draw comparisons between Eli Manning and other notable quarterbacks to underscore their points about Hall of Fame eligibility.

• Don contrasts Eli with Troy Aikman, pointing out that Aikman was a first-ballot Hall of Famer despite having similar statistical records. He attributes Aikman’s swift induction to the exceptional talent surrounding him, including Hall of Famers like Emmitt Smith and Troy Brown. [03:53]

• Peter counters by highlighting Eli's ability to elevate a slightly above-average team to Super Bowl appearances, arguing that team performance should not overshadow individual merit. [08:52]

C. Impact of Giants' Management

The discussion shifts to the New York Giants' management under John Mara, linking poor team decisions to Eli's stalled Hall of Fame prospects.

• Don argues that managerial missteps post-Wellington Mara have adversely affected Eli’s career statistics and legacy, leading to biased voting against him. [18:55]

• Alan emphasizes that the committee members who vote are often those who haven’t closely covered Eli’s performances, questioning the expertise and fairness of the voting process. [14:25]

D. Host Frustrations and Opinions

The hosts openly express their frustrations with the Hall of Fame selection process and the factors influencing it.

• Alan Hahn criticizes the antiquated criteria, stating, "Either you're a Hall of Famer, you're not. Right. Either you're deserving of getting into the hall, you're not deserving of getting into the Hall." [28:38]

• Don shares his belief that Eli’s eventual induction is inevitable but laments the prolonged wait and lack of immediate recognition. [06:34]

Notable Quotes:

• Don LaGreca [03:53]: "Troy Aikman was first ballot Hall of Famer... he was not an overly impressive quarterback."
• Alan Hahn [28:38]: "Either you're a Hall of Famer, you're not... you can always do that."

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3. Super Bowl Week Sentiments

A. Disdain for Super Bowl Commercials and Halftime

The hosts transition to discussing the Super Bowl, expressing strong negative sentiments towards its commercialization and entertainment aspects.

• Alan and Peter voice their dislike for the extensive commercial breaks and halftime shows, viewing them as detracting from the actual game. [38:01]

• Alan Hahn shares his personal aversion: "I have no idea. I hate the Super Bowl." [39:00]

• Peter adds, "I honestly hope both teams lose. I maybe there'll be a power outage." [39:29]

B. Personal Stakes and Predictions

The conversation delves into their personal feelings and predictions regarding the Super Bowl.

• Peter expresses a lack of interest in the participating teams, desiring a more meaningful contest rather than the usual high-profile matchups. [39:52]

• The hosts engage in a playful and critical prediction segment, discussing potential game scenarios they find unappealing and expressing hope for a game disruption to avoid enjoying the event. [40:18-41:39]

Notable Quotes:

• Alan Hahn [38:01]: "I have no idea. I hate the Super Bowl."
• Peter Rosenberg [39:29]: "I honestly hope both teams lose. I maybe there'll be a power outage."

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4. Listener Interaction and Super Box Bonanza

The podcast incorporates interactive elements, engaging live listeners with the "Super Box Bonanza" contest.

• The hosts reveal game-related numbers and promote contests where listeners can win prizes based on their Super Bowl predictions. [41:46-43:44]

• Don LaGreca and Peter Rosenberg encourage listeners to participate, maintaining the show's interactive and community-focused vibe.

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5. Final Remarks and Promotions

In the closing segments, the hosts continue discussing various sports topics, including the Mets' negotiations and player performances, while promoting upcoming segments and engaging with the live audience.

• Don and Peter discuss Pete Alonso's contract negotiations, analyzing the impact on his career and the Mets' strategy. [47:32-49:56]

• Alan Hahn shares insights into the Mets' management decisions, providing a comprehensive view of the team's future prospects. [48:33-49:56]

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Conclusion

The episode of "Don, Hahn & Rosenberg" offers a deep dive into Eli Manning's Hall of Fame candidacy, highlighting issues within the voting process and team management that may be hindering his induction. The hosts' passionate and candid discussions reveal a broader criticism of how individual merit can be overshadowed by team performance and management decisions in sports accolades. Additionally, their critical take on the Super Bowl reflects a desire for a more genuine and less commercialized sporting event. Interactive elements like the Super Box Bonanza and live listener engagement further enhance the episode's dynamic and engaging nature.

Overall Insights:

• Advocacy for Fair Recognition: The hosts advocate for a more transparent and merit-based Hall of Fame selection process, free from biases influenced by team dynamics and management decisions.

• Critique of Sports Commercialization: There's a strong sentiment against the over-commercialization of major sporting events like the Super Bowl, with calls for a return to focusing solely on the sport.

• Engagement with Fans: Through live interactions and contests, the podcast fosters a strong sense of community and active participation among listeners.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Don LaGreca [03:53]: "Troy Aikman was first ballot Hall of Famer... he was not an overly impressive quarterback."
• Alan Hahn [28:38]: "Either you're a Hall of Famer, you're not. Right. Either you're deserving of getting into the hall, you're not deserving of getting into the Hall."
• Alan Hahn [38:01]: "I have no idea. I hate the Super Bowl."
• Peter Rosenberg [39:29]: "I honestly hope both teams lose. I maybe there'll be a power outage."

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This comprehensive summary captures the essence of the podcast episode, highlighting key discussions, insights, and the dynamic interactions among the hosts while providing relevant quotes to underscore their viewpoints.

Transcript

[Don LaGreca]

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[Peter Rosenberg]

A warm hug from your favorite sweater.

[Don LaGreca]

Plus, it's breathable and, oh, so comfy, making it ideal for all day wear. Get 20% off your first order, plus free [e-mail] Spotify with code Spotify. That's meundies.com Spotify. Code Spotify. Don, one day you're not gonna play football anymore. And if there's a God up above, it'll be soon.

[Alan Hahn]

Han.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Huge. No, but Big and Rosenberg.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I didn't listen to anything you just said.

[Don LaGreca]

This is in North Dakota. This is New York.

[Dave Rothenberg]

This is Don, Han and Rosenberg on 8 80, ESPN and the ESPN New York app. All right, we are live right here. Long Island. Our first stop, our first outing.

[Alan Hahn]

Yeah.

[Dave Rothenberg]

In Long Island.

[Don LaGreca]

Gotta pay my parking.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Long Island. And you got to pay your park.

[Don LaGreca]

I got to pay my parking. It's due. I got a minute.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Too late. Here comes the tow truck. It's over. Just let it go, Don. Let it go. Don Lagreca. Peter Rosenberg. I'm Alan. Ha. We thank everybody for coming out here at the Tap Room, Rockville center, out on Peter on online. Yeah.

[Peter Rosenberg]

And I've gotten better at it. Yeah, I've gotten better.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, it's a thing. But that's, that's something that we all believe in deeply. And it's offensive when you say in.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I still believe, even though I spend a lot of time here now, I still believe there are specific times when in is appropriate.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Like when I talk.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Hard for me to explain.

[Dave Rothenberg]

How do you be, how are you.

[Don LaGreca]

When you're talking about Staten Island?

[Dave Rothenberg]

No, you dig a hole, you go down. Now you're in the island.

[Don LaGreca]

You could be in Staten island for some reason, but only on Long Island. I don't think there's ever a time.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Where it's appropriate, you know, like, I.

[Don LaGreca]

Don'T know why these.

[Dave Rothenberg]

You've been in Staten island, but you've never been on it.

[Don LaGreca]

Right. But for some reason, this is the, this is the life we've chosen.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yes.

[Don LaGreca]

So honor these people. Don't disrespect these people.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Listen, I, I, I'm here to make things better. And by the way, I don't listen to people who say down the shore. It comes to getting.

[Don LaGreca]

No, it's down the shore. Cuz that's the Jersey thing. It's not a Long island thing.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Oh, boy.

[Don LaGreca]

The Jersey thing is down the shore.

[Peter Rosenberg]

What is that? What is down the shore?

[Don LaGreca]

Why do you disrespect?

[Peter Rosenberg]

I'm just pointing out. Why would I look?

[Don LaGreca]

Do you go to Alabama and go. What's with the y'all, by the way?

[Peter Rosenberg]

I. I don't know if you've met anyone from New York. We have lots of things, Lots of things to say about how people talk at Alabama, and I have plenty of things to say about people talking to Jersey.

[Don LaGreca]

I don't know how to. I got. I got to recap. I got to do it again.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Him in the parking. You in parking.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Can somebody pay Don's parking?

[Don LaGreca]

I'm not asking for it to be paid. I just want to know how it works.

[Dave Rothenberg]

It's an app.

[Don LaGreca]

You first.

[Peter Rosenberg]

You got to download the app.

[Don LaGreca]

You complained right out of the box about that.

[Dave Rothenberg]

This app. Forget this app. I'll tell you what, you're gonna throw your phone out the window in a minute.

[Don LaGreca]

This isn't even the worst part of my day.

[Peter Rosenberg]

What? Oh, really?

[Don LaGreca]

What happened on Eli's gotta wait. They don't even have, like, the tv, like, in the back of the seat.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Yeah, Eli's got to wait, man.

[Dave Rothenberg]

How do we feel about this? How do you feel about when people say Eli Manning is a Hall of Famer, but God forbid we put him in because we got to get Eric Allen, who's been. Wait, how? 19 years?

[Don LaGreca]

Yeah, I mean, like, he's got to.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Get in first before Eli. Like, this is the part I don't understand is the argument against. If he's a whole. Michael K. Was saying this, and he's right. If he's a Hall of Famer, he's a Hall of Famer. Not. Well, not this year, but maybe next year. When, by the way, did you see next year's group?

[Don LaGreca]

That's Larry Fitzgerald, Frank Gore. There's. There's a bunch a different guy. Yeah, I. I don't think he's going to get in next year either, but it's not. It doesn't bother me. He didn't get in the first battle because I don't even think first ballot's a thing when it comes to pro football. I'm not that upset about that. It's kind of a convoluted way. Minimum four, maximum of five. All that, and it was a pretty heady class, that there were a lot of guys that were deserving. But what bothered me, that irked me to no end. That it wasn't even close. It wasn't close.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah.

[Don LaGreca]

And so, you know, you hear people call because everybody wants to be that guy. Well, he had a pedestrian regular season, which he didn't. He had good regular season numbers. Even. Even some seasons. Great. Almost through for 5,000 yards in 2011, right? Yeah. He threw a lot of interceptions, but so did Joe Namath. Joe did Brett Favre. But I was thinking about this. Troy Aikman went in on the first ballot. Troy Aikman was not an overly impressive quarterback. I'm sorry, Cowboy fans. He had hall of Famers all over one of the greatest offensive lines in the history of football. Hall of Fame running back, hall of Fame wide receiver. Novacek was one of the best tight ends I ever saw. Very underappreciated. And you had a head coach that obviously is a Hall of Famer. And Jimmy Johnson. Now, he had the concussion issues. He played 165 games. Aikman threw 165 passes. His touchdown interception ratio was plus 23. Never won an MVP. Never threw for 4,000 yards. Never threw for 3,500 yards. Only one. He won three Super Bowls, but one Super Bowl MVP with a team that was stacked. First ballot hall of Famer. So Eli plays 216 consecutive games. You know, had had seasons where he consistently threw for over 4,000 yards. And their eras didn't overlap, but they were pretty close to each other.

[Peter Rosenberg]

But not. This isn't fun. This doesn't make for a fun argument, but you would have to know who Troy happened to match up against the first year he was eligible.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I was going, that is.

[Don LaGreca]

But no, but that's why I said it's not me upset that he wasn't a first ballot hall of Famer, that it wasn't close. Sarah, apparently the only guys that were like into voting for him were Sal Pal. What?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Bill Polian.

[Don LaGreca]

Bill Polian. And there was. There was Gary Myers. Like, those are the only three guys.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Wow.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Right. To stand up and remember South Pal was saying to us, he didn't reveal, but he said he didn't know who was in yet. This was yesterday. Sal Palantonio, who's covering, by the way, only his 30th Super bowl for ESPN this year. He said he's on the committee. And he said when he. When anyone. He worded that way, too. Guys, that's what really struck me. And that's when I said in my head, he didn't make it the way South Hal was saying how I was making the case. I Had to convince people. I stood up trying to convince people because I believed it. I'm thinking if you've got to convince people that he deserves to be in the hall of Fame, then there's not enough people who believe he's.

[Don LaGreca]

I guess that's what bothers me. So to answer your Peter, yeah, it was a. It was a tough class. There were some guys that were waiting a long time. If he's got to wait, he's got to wait. I'm sure he will eventually get in, but it doesn't sound like it'll even be next year. It would be a few years.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Here's the. Here's the piece. Ultimately, when we have discussed Eli Manning and whether or not he should go to the hall of Fame, even though we kind of all agreed the other day when we went through it that he's absolutely going in, when you have the conversation, it's rare that people go, oh my God, slam dunk hall of Famer. And it seems that the voting this year, no one felt he was a slam dunk hall of Famer. Meaning, for example, you're Joe Blow voter. Right. And the way you vote every year is you look at who's up, you look at who was up last year and you vote accordingly. In your mind, the only reason you're going to keep Eric Allen or Sterling Sharpe out another year he was a veterans one. Is if the. Oh, sorry.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Is if the guy who, who showed up this year is absolutely no brainer. I'm skipping everybody else who was there. I have to get to him. And apparently they didn't feel that way about Eli. And can you really be surprised? The conversation about Eli since he was playing has been people were not sure if he was fantastic or really good with a Super bowl now too. So it's not shocking when you think about it. Guys, that really his whole career no one would have said he was going to be first battle.

[Don LaGreca]

But to convince and this is where we need to talk to Sal Pal again is was he trying to convince them to put him in this year or are they trying to convince him whether they should put him in at all? It's gonna be the same voters next year to be the same voters after that. They don't have much of a turnover. These people hold these things till they die. So I have a sneaky suspicion it might be a long time. But Troy Aikman. Right away, Terry Bradshaw. Right away, Terry Bradshaw. I'm not even going to bring up the numbers, Peter, because it was a hundred years ago. Yeah, he won an mvp.

[Peter Rosenberg]

You just said it. What teams do those guys play?

[Don LaGreca]

Well, that's.

[Peter Rosenberg]

But that's, that's the thing. And it's. Right, but that's the thing.

[Don LaGreca]

But then gets thrown in our face about Eli all the time. Well, Don, he was 117 and 117. He was average because they were average teams. Well, look at, look at the teams he had. He didn't play with hall of Famers. He didn't play with great teams. He was able to elevate a slightly above average team and get them to the pinnacle not once, but twice to be able to be a 1 seed in the NFC. Yes, they lost to the Eagles in the divisional round, but have a 12 and 4 season without a Hall of Famer, without perennial Pro Bowlers. And also apparently for whatever reason, Tom Coughlin still waiting. So apparently that committee doesn't think that he would. They even had a Hall of Fame coach, which is a joke. So is it a New York bias? Is it. Well, I'm sick of Eli because he's on every commercial that he's not his brother.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Can't be that. What do. You shouldn't be on a committee because.

[Don LaGreca]

If you're giving me 1 in 17 and 1 in 17, then you have to take away from the Aikmans that were on a stacked team, the Bradshaws that were on a stack stacked team. And those guys didn't have to wait. They right in. In the blink of an eye. Terry Bradshaw's MVP was 28 touchdowns, 20 interceptions. It was a different world. It was a different world for Nate.

[Dave Rothenberg]

They also ran the ball more back then, too. So it was a different.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I get it.

[Don LaGreca]

But when you look at the. When you look at the great quarterbacks, that's why Tom Brady's so special, because he didn't really play with any special people. You know, no offense to Edelman or.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Well, the defense was.

[Don LaGreca]

But. But from an offensive standpoint, he made the players around him better. We wouldn't know who Troy Brown was if it wasn't for Tom Brady. But when you have guys that Terry Bradshaw threw to two hall of Fame wide receivers, gave the ball to a Hall of Fame running back and the ball was snapped to him by a Hall of Fame center, then you want to talk about defense. My God, who didn't make the hall.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Of Fame on the Steelers defense, The steel curtain.

[Don LaGreca]

So it's funny. And it's the same thing with the argument that Carney made. Well, Patrick Mahomes is the greatest quarterback ever. Look at all the Super Bowls. Oh, but when we talk about Eli. Well, if you take the two Super Bowls away, why. Why do I engage with people when their argument is, well, if you take those things away. Well, if you get to take things away, why shouldn't I be allowed to add, I can make stuff up. Then who takes things away?

[Peter Rosenberg]

Right. I mean, what about the fact that Eli Manning never threw an interception?

[Don LaGreca]

If the dealer didn't have 21, I would have won. So if you took one of the cards away, then give me the chips. But we don't get to take cards away. You get to argue with what you're dealt with. And if you want to argue against Eli Manning, you don't get to take.

[Peter Rosenberg]

The Super Bowls away.

[Don LaGreca]

If you're trying to take the Super Bowls away, what you are is you're admitting defeat. It's like when I'm playing a video game with my son. He wants me to pull the starting goaltender because I'm winning. He wants a cheat code because he. I let him win, but he doesn't.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Know that he does now.

[Don LaGreca]

Well, but the point. If we've got to level the playing ground to have an argument, then I guess you don't have an argument.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Exactly.

[Don LaGreca]

And I just hate that if you take the super bowl, we're not taking the Super Bowls away.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I think both can be true here. I think everything Don is saying is true. And I also can see how Eli didn't wow them enough to get them to put aside the people they were waiting to vote for this year. Now, it's weird, right, Because Eric Allen's coming up against 20 years. He was almost completely done. Jared Allen's been out of the league since 2015.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah. I think he was five. Five years.

[Don LaGreca]

Yeah.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Gates had only one. Only one year ahead.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Gates, we said. I mean, even. Even. Even Jared Allen, you could say there's hall of Fame credentials in both of those.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Why did they only vote for three in. Because Sterling was. Was from the.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Sterling, I believe, was veterans, right? Yes. He's part of that.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Yeah. Because. Yeah. There's a whole video of Shannon going to tell him. Like, that was already decided. So.

[Don LaGreca]

So if all this was decided.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I know, but why only three, though? So that means they only voted on.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Three, the smallest class since 2005.

[Don LaGreca]

Because they didn't believe anybody. That's why your argument about. They wanted a lot of the people in. They hadn't. They had the room to do it.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Now can we talk now? Now we're gonna fight about this and argue about this all the way till next year when it comes up again.

[Don LaGreca]

Let's do it. What else you got?

[Dave Rothenberg]

But, well, the other thing I have is how sick and tired are we right now as fans of the process? Because not only do you have this process, which now we're looking at going, what the hell? How does this make any sense? But let's also couple it with the fact that Ichiro Suzuki, one guy didn't vote for him, now he gets in. But it's no, can't be perfect. This is the problem with hall of Fames that we're having right now, because a lot of this stuff, they say this is for curating the game. This is for the history of the game. Who's the game for? Everybody. Who's it for? The fans. Exactly. This is all about the history of a sport that is on the foundation of all of you people here that support, celebrate and love these sports. But we have all these secrets about how these people that we have honored and admired either in or not in. And for what various reasons. Again, Ichiro got in. So it's not like it held him back. But there's one guy who decided, I'm not. I'm not going to make it a perfect vote. And he gets to hide. This committee gets to hide. The guys that didn't want him in, they get to hide. We don't know. Some guys are saying, yes, I'm on the committee because they want to let you know I was fighting for.

[Don LaGreca]

Even if they know this doesn't make any sense, Don.

[Dave Rothenberg]

That this is what we're doing when it comes to the holiday.

[Don LaGreca]

Wrong. And I'm sure there needs to be accountability.

[Dave Rothenberg]

People want to know why. If we all feel that strongly about Eli Manning and that he should be in the hall of Fame, there should be an explanation. When asked why didn't he get in this year?

[Don LaGreca]

Gary has a vote. Gary Myers. I'm sure he'll. He's. He always listens.

[Dave Rothenberg]

He was on with D. Pietro and Rothenberg this morning. And Dave's going to be here with us in a couple of minutes, too.

[Don LaGreca]

If he can find parking is.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Oh, he did it.

[Don LaGreca]

Dave's in.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Big thing. Where is big parking?

[Don LaGreca]

I saw him early, so he explained it the way. The way I understand it is that each of the 32 teams are represented by a writer, somebody that covers the team. And for the longest time, the Giants guy was Vinny the Tranny from the Bergen Record. And then I think they have eight national guys. I think it's like 40 people decide the fate.

[Dave Rothenberg]

It's a big room.

[Don LaGreca]

Honestly, I don't mean this. I don't even know who he is, but what would I care? The guy that covers the Jaguars, his opinion on Eli Manning.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah.

[Don LaGreca]

How often did he see him?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Not much.

[Don LaGreca]

Jaguars and Giants hardly ever played. While he was covering the Jaguars, the Giants were playing. What? He's just looking at the stats, looking at replay. I mean, again, I'm sure whoever that individual is knows football. I'm not trying to disrespect him. I'm just saying how does he have a vote that's more important than the people that covered him, that saw him? They're so worried about bias. Well, I don't know how it works in other cities. I didn't work or live in other cities. But you know, the New York media, if anything, they're probably going to be biased against the people they cover rather than the people they do cover. So can we get out of that po dunk mentality of, well, we can't have you cover. We can't have it. We can't have Bob Papa have a vote because Bob Papa covered him and he's going to be biased. Stop yourself.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah. No, no, no.

[Peter Rosenberg]

We grow up.

[Dave Rothenberg]

We are honest to a fault in New York and especially the New York media. If there's any media you could trust.

[Peter Rosenberg]

You say that, but as hard as the New York media is on their people, I think if push comes to shove and you're talking about people who are at the level of being voted for the hall of Fame, there is implicit bias for the people you cover. Even if you were hard on them their whole career because you saw them play. And Don, I resent what you said about the Jacksonville writer. The Jacksonville writer saw Eli play every week. Every Jaguars games on Thursday night or Sunday, 9. You know, they're free at 1:00 on Sunday. Yeah.

[Dave Rothenberg]

They're either in Europe or somewhere else.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Yeah, they're dialed in.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Good point.

[Peter Rosenberg]

For God's sake.

[Don LaGreca]

But I. I just think that you're right. The process for all of these all. Forget about the NHL, the Hockey hall of Fame, it's like they're voting for the Pope.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Right.

[Don LaGreca]

I mean, you don't know who any of these people are. It's all cloak and dagger garbage. I don't know how it works with basketball, but I'm sure it's similar to.

[Dave Rothenberg]

The one difference in basketball is that it's just the Basketball hall of Fame.

[Don LaGreca]

Right.

[Dave Rothenberg]

College, you're not professional.

[Don LaGreca]

Right.

[Dave Rothenberg]

So, you know people that get in can have a great college career. Had a.

[Don LaGreca]

Right.

[Dave Rothenberg]

A decent NBA career. You're in. Yeah. That's just the way it is. So it's a. It's much different than the Pro Football hall of Fame or obviously the baseball.

[Don LaGreca]

And this doesn't apply to Eli, but it's the Pro Football Football hall of Fame. Good luck trying to get one of the USFL stats like Doug Flutie. You'll never get a snip.

[Peter Rosenberg]

No.

[Don LaGreca]

Because they don't respect it. So. But it's the pro football. But they've decided that you know us.

[Dave Rothenberg]

He used the CFL stuff well.

[Peter Rosenberg]

By the way, Warren Moon though it is funny. Is it first ballot, similar record to Eli, never made a conference champion.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I was gonna say. How many Super Bowls?

[Peter Rosenberg]

Zero. Not even an appearance.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah.

[Don LaGreca]

But I got. He had no problem with that. I saw him play. But it just seems like the arguments are very convenient while he was only 500. So you. You're acknowledging that it's a. It's your pitch.

[Dave Rothenberg]

You want to play the record. You want to play that game. The only thing remember if you take away.

[Don LaGreca]

Right, Right.

[Dave Rothenberg]

And the only 500 thing. Right. So if you want to play. If you take away the Super Bowls. He's kind of pedestrian. Well, he's also a guy that had the iron man streak. He played his entire career. Played 16 seasons. Yes. The last three seasons, his record was 9 26. The team's record was nine. You know when they talk about the record. He was 108. 91 first 13 seasons.

[Don LaGreca]

Right. And then when you see.

[Dave Rothenberg]

So like again the last three seasons, he's older. The team was bad. He can't control that.

[Don LaGreca]

What's happened.

[Dave Rothenberg]

And he gave you the longevity of 16 freaking seasons.

[Don LaGreca]

What happened? Starting quarterback and what's happened since.

[Dave Rothenberg]

And they've been garbage ever since.

[Don LaGreca]

So now you miss him. Right. Like, but so maybe there was no way to make that work at the end of his career. Which then hurts his record. Like if he decided to retire earlier.

[Dave Rothenberg]

What if he retired after the 115 season. Remember obviously the Banana boat thing. That happened.

[Don LaGreca]

Right, right.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But what if he retired after that? Maybe he. What if he just said, you know, what if this is the NFL today, I'm out of here. And he just called it a career after that, after that loss in Green Bay.

[Don LaGreca]

Then you're just 20 something games above.500 and yeah. And you don't have the embarrassment of having your streak ended because of.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Oh, that's true too. Deciding that he wanted Geno Smith story.

[Don LaGreca]

Hey, if you Want to really get down and dirty about it.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Okay.

[Don LaGreca]

Wellington, Dirty Wellington Mara passed way in 2005. So obviously the legacy of Wellington went beyond his death because he still had his fingerprints on a lot of the players and a lot of what was going on before he passed away.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Right.

[Don LaGreca]

And then once that legacy started to go away, John hasn't kept up his end of the bargain. He hasn't. John has not been a great owner for the Giants. He just has. And I love the guy. He's a part of. He's part of the Mara family. There's not a lot there post Wellington. Even though this two Super Bowls happened after his death.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah.

[Don LaGreca]

Eli was already here. You know, Strahan and Tumor from the first championship was already here. A lot of the things were already in place that Ernie, of course, he put together that Jerry Reese inherited. But then when it became Reese's team and Gettleman's team and now Shane's team, and when it's become John's team, sorry, record not there. And I think Eli was damaged by that for sure. And again, we just conveniently say, well, his record's 500. So you're acknowledging his teams weren't that great. So shouldn't that take away from the great quarterbacks that were on great teams? Troy Aikman couldn't help but win 9, 10 games when you had the talent that was on his team.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Switzer won his super bowl and we all know he really couldn't coach.

[Don LaGreca]

I am not going to take away from Troy. Troy still had to go out there and win those games. Yeah, but boy, it's a lot easier to do it when you've got hall of Famers all around you. All around.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I mean, respectfully, I. I never thought Emmett Smith was Barry Sanders. It was the same thing. I mean, Emmett Smith was amazing, but like literally you had gaps.

[Don LaGreca]

He would.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Literally they'd hand him the ball, he would run straight. There'd be no one.

[Don LaGreca]

I find it very difficult to believe that the Cowboys would not have been able to win with Barry Sanders. Now, the one thing about Barry was that he wasn't great at the goal line and EMT was. But you're right, you could drive a truck through those holes.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Yeah, I mean, I could have been great at the goal.

[Don LaGreca]

The only. And because he became a friend of mine, the only offensive lineman I can think of from the Detroit Lions was Lomas Brown. You could rattle off the Cowboy offensive line. Right. Stepnowski, Nate Newton.

[Dave Rothenberg]

They good old Lomas.

[Peter Rosenberg]

The Lomas Brown doesn't Get the same.

[Dave Rothenberg]

We love Lomas.

[Don LaGreca]

Love Lomas. I know they had a ton of.

[Dave Rothenberg]

No, you always come up with these names. I don't know how you do it. Like the names that you recall are always the most bizarre.

[Alan Hahn]

No.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Am I right?

[Don LaGreca]

Everybody knows Lomas Brown.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying it's. It's never John.

[Don LaGreca]

That man knows Lomas Brown.

[Dave Rothenberg]

It's never like. It's never a. Just a basic name. It's always something like Lomas.

[Don LaGreca]

Well, I got my crutches. I do. Crane, pool. I do remember the rat, the wacky names. Like if his name was Gary Brown.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah.

[Don LaGreca]

Former Giant running back. So that's a bad example. But if it had just been. But Lomas.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Lomas is unforgettable name. Lomas.

[Peter Rosenberg]

How do you feel about Neil Lomax?

[Don LaGreca]

Neil Lomax. Neil Lomax. I think. Where'd he go to? Pacific. I, I forget what college he went to State.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Dave, where did Neil Lomax go to college?

[Don LaGreca]

I, I think Dave. I remember that he actually had a. I think he's. College team scored 100 points.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I will tell you, of all the freakish things about Dave Rothenberg.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Of all the freakish things.

[Peter Rosenberg]

And there's a lot. The college thing is wild.

[Dave Rothenberg]

The college thing. I think he's.

[Don LaGreca]

That's true. I don't think he's looking that up.

[Peter Rosenberg]

No, I don't think he's looking it up. I think he's like straight up Dustin Hoffman, 1988. Rain Man.

[Dave Rothenberg]

This is.

[Peter Rosenberg]

You know what I mean?

[Dave Rothenberg]

This is what he's doing.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Yeah, yeah. Definitely.

[Dave Rothenberg]

10 minutes to wner.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Exactly. Definitely university of Arizona. Definitely.

[Don LaGreca]

So you think he's undiagnosed?

[Peter Rosenberg]

That's why. I'm not even saying that. I'm just saying he's Rain Man. He's Dave man. You know what I mean?

[Dave Rothenberg]

It's Wednesday. It's the Mac conference. It's Wednesday. It's Wednesday. It's the Mac conference.

[Don LaGreca]

He's very. He's highly.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Definitely packed well. Definitely packed well.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Definitely Eastern Michigan. Eastern Michigan.

[Don LaGreca]

He's highly functional. Very functional.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Let's see how functional he is. Dave Rothenberg is going to join us coming up next. We always love Don versus Dave. That's always fun. We'll get his take. I mean, he is our resident die hard Giants fan. What does he think of the fact that Eli Manning was not just not a first valid hall of Famer, he wasn't even in the top 10. Think about that for a minute.

[Alan Hahn]

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[Dave Rothenberg]

Shopify.comnetwork taxact knows you probably don't need.

[Don LaGreca]

Help filing taxes, but if you get stuck, we have live experts you can talk to. And who knows, you could hit it.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Off and become long term tax staying up late at night talking about deductions, refunds, personal exemptions. Heck, you could even fall in love and create a little dependent of your own one day. Or they could just answer your filing questions.

[Don LaGreca]

Taxact let's get them over with.

[Alan Hahn]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But anyone can get the same Premium.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities.

[Dave Rothenberg]

So do like I did and have.

[Don LaGreca]

One of your assistant's assistants switch you.

[Alan Hahn]

To Mint Mobile today.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I'm told it's super easy to [e-mail].

[Don LaGreca]

Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3.

[Peter Rosenberg]

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[Alan Hahn]

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[Dave Rothenberg]

And fees, extra fee, full terms at Mint thanks for listening to the Don Hahn and Rosenberg Podcast.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I didn't listen to anything you just said.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Catch the show on demand whenever you want. Just subscribe to us wherever you get.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Your podcasts.

[Dave Rothenberg]

With Don legreca and Peter Rosenberg. I'm Alan Hahn. This is Don Hahn and Rosenberg880 ESPN of course in the ESPNY app. We are live as you can hear. Super bowl weekend has begun. We are at the Tap Room in Rockville center on Long Island.

[Don LaGreca]

Oh yeah, disgusted with Carlin by the way.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Wait What?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Wait a minute. What now?

[Don LaGreca]

Well, outside of the two Super Bowl MVPs really did nothing. He's not a first ballot hall of Famer, okay?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Oh, you heard that little promo?

[Don LaGreca]

Well, he doesn't watch football. Carlin. I guess.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Really? That's a hot take on Chris car.

[Don LaGreca]

A lot of Rutgers. That's it.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But that's on Saturday, right?

[Don LaGreca]

If I. If I. If I need some information on.

[Peter Rosenberg]

He actually does NFL play by play.

[Don LaGreca]

Now I'm talking. Okay, Sorry. If I need information on. Yo, Marco Baglio, I'll call Chris.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Carlin, he just went dad mode on you. Yeah, he does, but he's talking here. He really shut you does NFL games nationally?

[Don LaGreca]

Apparently not. Well, no, I love Chris, But I guess 216 games in a row, that was just a fluke, right? You know what?

[Peter Rosenberg]

Listen, fortunate for you. Next, standing right between me and Alan, we have the foremost authority and fan of the Giants on this radio station, maybe in the Tri State Area. Mr. Dave Rothenberg is here.

[Alan Hahn]

Well, thank you. Thank you for having me.

[Don LaGreca]

And unlike these two, I think you do without being on the spectrum.

[Alan Hahn]

I don't know, I might be. You know, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna fight it. I am what I am. And apparently I'm doing a card trick for you guys in a few minutes as well.

[Don LaGreca]

Okay. What's that?

[Alan Hahn]

Yeah, I'm gonna build a house of cards, see if we can blow it down. No, I'm pulling the. The numbers for the super Box bonanza.

[Don LaGreca]

We're doing.

[Dave Rothenberg]

We're playing cards.

[Alan Hahn]

You want to play cards? I only have 10 cards in here, though.

[Don LaGreca]

No, but you're doing it with playing fight cars.

[Alan Hahn]

Correct? I have one through 10. I do have Kansas State.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah. I do have a friend of mine who's a. Who's a very famous mentalist who said he was going to drop by. True stuff.

[Alan Hahn]

Like, I get a guy that sends me stuff on DMS all the time on. On Instagram and he says he lives close by.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, it's. It's definitely the same guy.

[Peter Rosenberg]

New hall of Famer Sterling Sharp.

[Alan Hahn]

He went to South Carolina.

[Don LaGreca]

Was I right about Neil Lomax? Portland State.

[Alan Hahn]

Portland State, that's right. Yep. That's right. Number 15, Neil Lomax.

[Don LaGreca]

And I think he had a game where Portland State scored 100 points.

[Alan Hahn]

I think so as well.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Now just say Kmart sucks.

[Don LaGreca]

Yeah. No, don't.

[Alan Hahn]

No. You know, listen, this is who I am, all right? If you want to consider me special or I have knowledge that others don't have, whatever it is. I played who I am.

[Don LaGreca]

We can throw on the floor.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah.

[Alan Hahn]

2745.

[Peter Rosenberg]

It's. The college thing is truly it's. And by the way, Sterling Sharp, did you see that today or you already knew it.

[Alan Hahn]

Well, I knew that. I remember he played at South Carolina.

[Peter Rosenberg]

But that's like Sterling Sharp. I don't remember the start of Sterling Sharpe's career like he was already a veteran, but. Well, you're a little bit older than me.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah.

[Alan Hahn]

Yeah.

[Peter Rosenberg]

But he was basically a veteran when I started watching football.

[Alan Hahn]

He was a great player. Great player.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I was. I was kind of shocked when this story was happening over the last couple of days. I was kind of shocked he wasn't in already.

[Alan Hahn]

He had a short career as the issue.

[Don LaGreca]

He got.

[Alan Hahn]

He had a neck surgery. Neck fusion. And it didn't have a long career during enn.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I'm going to play some of the audio of Shannon Sharpe. There's stuff for anyone who. A brother.

[Alan Hahn]

Savannah State, by the way.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I'm sorry, Savannah for Shannon Sharp.

[Alan Hahn]

Right.

[Peter Rosenberg]

The other hall of Famer. But their stuff. I don't know if you saw Don, but the stuff Shannon had to say about his brother, a little brother getting to do that for his big brother was pretty. Pretty touching.

[Alan Hahn]

That's pretty cool.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Quite emotional. But while we have Dave here and of course, everybody here listens to D. Pietro and Rothenberg, right?

[Peter Rosenberg]

That's right.

[Alan Hahn]

Morning.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Every morning.

[Alan Hahn]

This is a nice turnout, by the way. People love you guys.

[Peter Rosenberg]

We're trying. We got to catch up with you guys.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Not bad for the first time out, right? These are all first timers with us. That's what we love about the first loyal people we have. But Dave, speaking of loyalty, you and the Giants, there's nothing more loyal than that. So, you know, you had your take this morning on the show. But for all of us here, the news that Eli Manning did not get in.

[Don LaGreca]

Right.

[Dave Rothenberg]

And the reasons why, as you guys had Gary Myers on. That was a fantastic interview.

[Alan Hahn]

Thank you.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I texted you right after.

[Alan Hahn]

Yep.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But what do you feel as a fan about this?

[Alan Hahn]

So I'm torn. Like, I hear a lot of.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Well, as he's a first.

[Alan Hahn]

Is not our first ballot hall of Famer. I think that's kind of antiquated and silly because either you're a Hall of Famer, you're not. Right. Either you're deserving of getting into the hall, you're not deserving of getting into the Hall. I mean, you can make the argument. You can always make numbers lie. Right. This guy. Per 48 minutes does this. Right. You can always do that. So yeah. Does Eli have strikes against him? Absolutely. Was he ever a top three quarterback in the NFL at any point during his career? No, I don't think that he was. I mean, did he lead the NFL in interception?

[Don LaGreca]

Sure.

[Alan Hahn]

He's a two time super bowl mvp. He's an iron man of the NFL.

[Dave Rothenberg]

He threw.

[Alan Hahn]

You look at his numbers. He threw for what, 57,000 yards. He threw for over 300 touchdowns. Like again, I don't want to demean anyone in doing this, but I will. And like Warren Moon. Warren Moon. And do I think Warren Moon's worthy of getting into the hall? He was 500. He was, I think 102 and 101. Joe Namoth is below 500.

[Don LaGreca]

The name that I threw out here, and it also benefits Stir up Cowboy fans, is Troy.

[Alan Hahn]

Troy Aikman was a Pro Bowler with I think 12 touchdowns and 13 interceptions one year.

[Don LaGreca]

Like his, his best year, I think he threw for 3,500 yards. Now again, this is the late 90s, mid 90s, so it's a little bit different. But he had a plus 23 touchdown interception ratio. He got in trouble with obviously the concussions, only slightly better completion percentage than Eli and only one super bowl mvp. He won three Super Bowls.

[Alan Hahn]

Right.

[Don LaGreca]

And then we get into the debate of, look at all the hall of Famers around Troy.

[Alan Hahn]

I think there were six.

[Don LaGreca]

Right. So, so you had obviously Emmett, right?

[Alan Hahn]

Larry.

[Don LaGreca]

Larry Allen. Is Nate Newton in?

[Alan Hahn]

I don't think so.

[Don LaGreca]

But even Charles Daley. Charles. Well, you start to get on the defensive side, you know, and, and the difference between Eli and Terry Bradshaw, that's for it. But he only had one. I said that did have an mvpc.

[Alan Hahn]

I said Terry Bradshaw to Rick this morning. He goes, yeah, but he won four. Now Eli again. Is it Eli's fault that Plexigover shot himself in the leg? Because that's a third. I'm convinced wholeheartedly. If that doesn't happen, that's a third. Now you can't play that game.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, you can't.

[Alan Hahn]

You can't play the what if game, which is either way. But then don't give me, well, if Asante Samuel intercepts.

[Peter Rosenberg]

But he did.

[Don LaGreca]

I mean exactly that. If Eli Manning had a Hall of Fame center, a Hall of Fame running back at 2 Hall of Fame wide receivers the way Terry Bradshaw did, right. I think the numbers would be a lot better and probably have a lot more wins. And as Allen said earlier, if he got out of Dodge before it all went to crap with the Giants. That still exists. Now he's probably 20 games above.508.

[Alan Hahn]

He retires a couple years earlier. He's 108.91. Right. He was like what, three and 13? And he was.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, he was 926 in his last three seasons. And that was not his fault. His team sucked. Right.

[Alan Hahn]

And. And who was the GM of those teams? Dave Gettleman, who was almost like, you talk about me not working properly. I mean, that's a guy that was just horrendous at his job, so.

[Don LaGreca]

Right. Yes.

[Alan Hahn]

Awful at his job.

[Don LaGreca]

And I said it in. I don't know how. I don't know if we've ever had this conversation, but let's face it, you know, the Marin name means something because of what they meant to football and sharing the revenue. But really, Wellington, for a long time, until he finally hired George Young, couldn't get it right. And John hasn't gotten it right since Wellington died. Wellington died in 05. Right. So you still had the Corsi and you still had a lot of the players that were drafted by a course he that helped you win a couple of championships after that. But once it became Reese team and then of course into Gettleman and really it's become John's team and he's owned the team with him and Tish. But on the football side, his father died 20 years ago and you take a look at when he has taken over. It's not that good.

[Alan Hahn]

It's really bad. Now, you remember this now, not all of it, but from 63 NFL championship game through 81, when they got in on that Danilo field goal and the jets beat the packers that day, they didn't go to the playoffs at all. From 64 to 80, which is pretty.

[Don LaGreca]

Remarkable, only one winning season. So they had you often talk about.

[Dave Rothenberg]

That, how that's the darkest days of the Giants organization. Right. Until. Until you get.

[Alan Hahn]

Until now.

[Don LaGreca]

And.

[Alan Hahn]

And as bad as it is, and it's awful and I am not defending it. Right. I mean, how bad is this? You wear these. These awful uniforms week one and that's the highlight of the season. Then you go on to win three games and Saquon is running for 2,000 yards. And you know you want the number one pick, you're going to get it. And then you win a game. Now you're picking third. So this has been the depths of anything I've ever seen and I'm ready.

[Don LaGreca]

To say it since you're here, I want to see if you agree? Yes I believe much as it pains me to say I think the Philadelphia Eagles are winning the super bowl. This will be the worst I won't.

[Alan Hahn]

Say that just because my body won't allow me to say it.

[Don LaGreca]

This will be the worst season in the history of the Giants considering if they win if Eli doesn't get in Eagles win with Zquan Barker a three win season and the three wins not be enough to have the first overall.

[Alan Hahn]

Pick this this worst season in history just franchise malpractice and embarrassing because not only is Joe Shane taken the Giants for a couple years now and they're awful and talent wise they don't really have a lot of talent but he got rid of the best player they had and he's going to buoy Philadelphia to a Super Bowl. It honestly it does not get worse than that.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Think about it too it the the timing of the fact that there was an offseason hard knocks that we all have that video of him saying what he said the behind the scenes that we would have never known about.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Well there's two if it wasn't for.

[Dave Rothenberg]

That hard knocks and that moment will live forever with John Mara walking out of the room talking about how he will not be able to sleep well.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I I said in the off season I I thought it was a really it was a rough decision for Joe Shane to be aggressive like he sort of was like laughing like listen John, we know what we're doing. Saquan's got to go the safer play there was like you know what boss? You think we should keep Saquon? Let's find a way to keep you're so much better off gambling keeping him a year too long and then blame.

[Dave Rothenberg]

The owner and then just you wanted it.

[Peter Rosenberg]

This is worst case and then and then Dave not to like even rub.

[Don LaGreca]

It in all of a sudden the.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Commanders became a team this year.

[Alan Hahn]

You think I don't know this? I live with this now.

[Peter Rosenberg]

So you watch the we don't talk about this. Your NFC championship game this year was the Commanders and the Eagles. It's a nightmare if you're a Giants.

[Alan Hahn]

Fan it could honestly the only thing that could have been worse if the Cowboys replaced the Commanders playing Philadelphia and we've lived that dance as well.

[Don LaGreca]

It is tough considering that Cohen's been here in New York a long time and Stearns admits he's a Giant fan. Do you think the the Mets looked at what happened with Saquon leaving and what the fan base did that that might have helped bring Alonzo back. No, no, no.

[Alan Hahn]

I don't.

[Don LaGreca]

I do.

[Alan Hahn]

You do you think that they look at now.

[Don LaGreca]

I think that was a blueprint. Blueprint of how this can blow up in our. But I think.

[Peter Rosenberg]

But.

[Alan Hahn]

But Pete Alonzo is nowhere in the same stratosphere.

[Dave Rothenberg]

It doesn't have to be. I see what. I know what you're saying.

[Peter Rosenberg]

And.

[Dave Rothenberg]

And while I'm not gonna completely jump in the boat with you on this argument or this point, I do get what you're suggesting. And it you don't have egg on.

[Alan Hahn]

Your face if he up and leaves.

[Dave Rothenberg]

You think to yourself, look at how the fans reacted with Pete Alonzo. Looking at the amazing day and how in the beginning they were getting booed by those fans. That's your most loyal people showing up for a day like that January at Citi Field. So you know you're getting your best and they're not happy. And you think to yourself, like, how. What's it gonna cost us? Like it. Keeping him is better than the headache of losing him and having fans not really on board. And as we all talked about moving Vientos now to first, now he's got to play a new position. Who are we playing at third base? Trying to figure it out. Instead, can we keep them? Everybody's happy and we can. And we're not going to be worse for it. And that worked out perfectly.

[Don LaGreca]

We're not the Giant. We don't. We're not in a hard cap sport. We. We can afford to do this.

[Dave Rothenberg]

All right.

[Alan Hahn]

But the thing that makes Saquon even worse is he's awesome. Like, he's a superstar among superstars. And $13 million. I mean, we're talking about nothing.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Not only that. Not only that. So everything you just said, plus he was the absolute perfect teammate and citizen while he was there. You know, he's never going to face problem in any way. 26 jerseys are all over the building. And then when you say it's $13 million, what were we doing here? What was the point we were trying.

[Don LaGreca]

To prove it will age badly for Philly, but if they win the championship.

[Alan Hahn]

It'S not a matter how does it matter?

[Don LaGreca]

It still ended up. I think the Giants were trying to do the right thing because let's face it, this would have never happened if Staquan stayed. The Giants maybe win a couple of more games. They still weren't.

[Alan Hahn]

Oh, they wouldn't have been.

[Don LaGreca]

We haven't.

[Alan Hahn]

But neither would Philadelphia have been.

[Don LaGreca]

But what kills two things with Shane? The kills me is number one. It's on Hard Knocks. He doesn't think he's going to Philly. That's what makes him look like he's completely lost. If he goes to Chicago, Philly, I'm.

[Alan Hahn]

I mean, I can't bring myself to root for, for Saquon in the Eagles. I, I can't. I physically, I can't do it. He goes to Chicago. I'd root for the Bears. I'd root for the Texans. I'd root for anybody not named Dallas. No disrespect for you, Washington or Philadelphia. I just, I'm not going to do it.

[Dave Rothenberg]

All right, so, Dave, one more thing here before we get into the first of the boxes super box bonanza that we have to pull, but because we've been talking about. Anna, you're a die hard football fan. You love.

[Don LaGreca]

I love football.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Both of these guys next to me have been putting up this pushback about the Super Bowl. First of all, the NBA stole a lot of headlines this week already.

[Alan Hahn]

Yeah, great stuff.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But now the Super Bowl's here and they're both sort of like, I don't really care this year.

[Don LaGreca]

I don't.

[Dave Rothenberg]

And be honest, when I've looked around in national media, there's, there's the, the coverage that we're doing at ESPN because we're there, we're supposed to be there, all that stuff. But it doesn't feel the same for this year. They talk about Chiefs fatigue.

[Don LaGreca]

Right.

[Dave Rothenberg]

And the Eagles are an important franchise that nobody wants to root for because you hate the fan base and everybody else. Right, Right. So do you feel even a little bit of like you're not as juice for this?

[Alan Hahn]

I can understand what they're saying. Or you're just. Well, this, to me, it works differently. I think Don feels similar. Peter, I was upset with your whole.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Thing about, but I completely went back on.

[Alan Hahn]

Oh, you walked that back.

[Dave Rothenberg]

We gave him, we gave him Mulligan. He came back.

[Alan Hahn]

You know what? He wasn't in his right mind that Monday and a lot going on. I understand. All right, so you take them all again. That's fine. Because the root for Philadelphia doesn't just make sense. What the worst thing. No, I mean, I am focused for Philadelphia to lose. So for me it has some juice.

[Dave Rothenberg]

So it means something. So you're watching with it for hate.

[Alan Hahn]

I'm watching with hate. Good, real people my soul hates. But I don't, I don't have any love affair with Kansas City. I think this would be a much more special, meaningful super bowl if you had Buffalo or Detroit. Detroit. Like that to me.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yes.

[Alan Hahn]

And if you had both, that'd be fun. If you had Buffalo and Detroit, I think we'd be in love with this game.

[Don LaGreca]

But unfortunately, and the thing is, as much as we love football, the super bowl is everything but about football.

[Alan Hahn]

Let me just tell you this, and I know you guys want to pick these cards and move on and get to other more important things than me. Certainly you're very important. And that is. The super bowl sucks. I'm sorry.

[Peter Rosenberg]

It's the worst sucks.

[Alan Hahn]

I don't need to watch a four hour pregame show. I don't want to be with people who are telling me, oh, the Doritos commercial was phenomenal. Did you love when seal it? No. I don't care. I'm not interested. I don't care about halftime. I, I mean, would I want to see a concert on its own?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yes.

[Alan Hahn]

Do I want to see it in the middle of a football game? Absolutely not. I have no idea. I hate the Super Bowl.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I told my wife, who's not a big sports fan, but I've forced her to become a Commanders fan. And when I was freaking out during the Eagles game, right when, when Terry scored, I guess to make it 1412, I'm like, We're back.

[Alan Hahn]

Why did they go for two? Why did they go for two in that situation?

[Peter Rosenberg]

Come on, you know, this is what everyone does now. You have to go for two there. You can't just take 14, 13 and have momentum. But anyways, when I'm all excited, I say to her, and you'll appreciate this, I think I go, babe, you don't understand. Yes, the super bowl is a big deal. It's the whole thing. I was like, but all I've dreamed about is getting to be one of these games again. Because this is the last football.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Football game.

[Peter Rosenberg]

The conference championship is the last.

[Don LaGreca]

That's the best last day football game.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I agree.

[Peter Rosenberg]

And, and for a half it was fun, but yet I totally agree about the Super Bowl. Kendrick's my, one of my favorite artists of all time. I'm curious to watch it, of course, and see. But like, yeah, I don't need it with my football. Right? The whole, it's an excuse to order food, but besides that, I, I honestly, I hope both teams lose. I maybe that maybe there'll be a power outage. But this time they have to end the game completely and just call it. Nobody wins. I have no interest in either of these teams. I'm disgusted by both.

[Alan Hahn]

But you'll root for Kansas City.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I'm going to in the end, but I'm telling you this right now. If it's late in the game.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Oh, boy. Don't.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Just hear me out.

[Dave Rothenberg]

No, no, keep.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Don, Don, Don, hold on. Don's gonna lie because he's got.

[Alan Hahn]

I don't think so.

[Peter Rosenberg]

No, he's gonna lie. Eagles are up too late in the game. I will have been rooting against the Eagles the whole time. But now Kansas City gets the ball and the Eagles are up. And Mahomes is going to have one of those drives again. Part of me is going. I don't want to see him do it again. I'm just telling you the truth, Don. You know, I'm kind of right. You will not want to see that flag get the first down. No.

[Dave Rothenberg]

You can all live this, man.

[Don LaGreca]

Nobody wants to see why. I don't want to have to deal with.

[Peter Rosenberg]

You don't even want to have to watch it. So you're telling me you're gonna cheer?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yes.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Or you will because you're. That you're so filled with hate. Yeah, he would also.

[Alan Hahn]

I have so much hate.

[Peter Rosenberg]

He would skip his kid's wedding for a Jaguars game. He's not normal to talk to. Don, rationalize with me. You're telling me you'll be happy when they throw that flag on a nothing. Hold on, Kelsey. That gives them a first down to kick a field goal to end the game. You don't want to see it either, Don. You just don't want to admit it. I respect it, but everyone knows I'm right. No one wants to see that. And guess what? The Commanders still have more Super Bowls than the Eagles. Take your lousy second one. You guys have four. What are you worried about? We're still ahead on them.

[Alan Hahn]

I don't. I don't agree. I don't know what more to say. I'll be ready. I succeed.

[Don LaGreca]

No love for what's in the cards.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, let's. Let's figure this out. So everybody. Everybody knows, as we've been just talking about how much the super bowl sucks. We're here because of the super bowl, everybody.

[Peter Rosenberg]

We love this.

[Dave Rothenberg]

We love it. Over the past three weeks, we've been giving our listeners boxes for the big game. With a chance to win $250 in the first and third quarters, 500 for halftime and a final score payout of $1,000. We are now going to reveal the numbers for the nfc. Dave, take it away. All right, here we go.

[Alan Hahn]

So I guess we're going, what, top to bottom, is how you'd work on the nfc or. Or bottom. Well, I guess it doesn't matter. They can figure it out. I'm gonna flip them and they'll figure out the numbers. Here we go. Six, six, your first number. All right, Peter, make notes of this. Write these down.

[Don LaGreca]

6.

[Alan Hahn]

Then we got 9, 9, 9. We do a little shuffling just to make sure this is as legitimate as humanly possible. We have a five, we have five.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Five. We have five, six, nine, and five so far.

[Alan Hahn]

That's a one. The ace counts as a one.

[Dave Rothenberg]

All right. Six, nine, five, one, ten.

[Alan Hahn]

Yep. Four, four, three.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Oh, my goodness.

[Alan Hahn]

I'll go for the bottom here.

[Don LaGreca]

Shuffle these two.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Going for a straight eight.

[Alan Hahn]

I think we got a straight seven, seven. That's the numbers if you need them. They are in reverse order. Here you go.

[Dave Rothenberg]

This is not Dave Rothenberg. This is Yolanda Vega giving you the numbers.

[Alan Hahn]

So now you have them.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Remember Yolanda?

[Peter Rosenberg]

I forgot about Yolanda.

[Alan Hahn]

Abc. Wonderful, great woman.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Classic.

[Dave Rothenberg]

So anyways, those are your numbers. Later on, Rick D. Pietro will be here and he will be revealing the numbers for the AFC side of the board. This is, of course, what we've been doing. The Super Box Bonanza, all brought to you by Tullimore Dew Irish Whiskey, who's helping us out right here. Slowman Security and Security Dodge. You can [e-mail] during their President's Day sales event. For full contest details, go to superboxbonanza.com. no brown shirt.

[Peter Rosenberg]

He wanted to drop. You wanted to drop.

[Don LaGreca]

I just.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I mean, on the last Super Box Bonanza.

[Alan Hahn]

There it is.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Great production is what it is.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I mean, we only get to hear it once a year. Dave, thank you very much for having me.

[Alan Hahn]

No, I'll be here for a little.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Bit mingling in ROTHENBERG Every morning, 6am to 10am it is a fantastic show. You don't want to miss it. Coming up, we have. I want to start talking to some people.

[Don LaGreca]

Yeah.

[Dave Rothenberg]

You know what I mean? It's a good time. Like maybe.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Well, yeah, before they get too drunk.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Before. Well, no, it's a better time when. When that happens. Oh, we already heard a couple of two lates.

[Peter Rosenberg]

You know, I don't know. I like.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, we'll talk with you if you have a question or. Or a take you want to have. Step on up. We'll have a microphone available. We'll see how many we can get in the next segment. Wally Zerbiak's gonna join us at 4 because, you know, along with the Super bowl, you know what else we have, Nick? Celtics on Saturday night. Who's fired up for that? All right, so we have that as well. So stay with us. We are at the Tap Room in Rockville center on Long island is Don Hodden Rosenberg880 ESPN.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Peter all right guys, Super Bowl 59, your chance to hit the jackpot on FanDuel, America's number one. And listen to this. FanDuel's $5 million touchdown jackpot. How about this? You can win a share of $5 million in bonus bets. All you got to do is placed in any time touchdown score bet before the game kicks off. And if your player scores the first or last cd, you'll win your bet plus a share of bonus bets. It doesn't matter if you're watching your favorite team or rooting against your rivals or like me, rooting against both. FanDuel is giving everyone something to cheer for during Super Bowl 59. So don't miss your chance to score in the biggest game of the year with FanDuel's five million dollar touchdown jackpot. Just visit FanDuel.com Peter to get in on the action. Make every moment more with FanDuel official sportsbook partner of the NFL. 21 Rover and Fizzly present New York opt in required each $2.5 million prize pool to be split equally among all eligible participants who made the correct picks. Bonus issued is not withdrawable. Bonus Pets, which expires 21 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See [e-mail] for help with a gambling problem. Call 877-8-HOPE NY or text openy467369 this.

[Don LaGreca]

Episode is brought to you by Love Hurts. Ki Hui Kwan has had quite a career, from childhood roles in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the Goonies to a recent Academy Award win for Everything Everywhere all at Once. But now Kee finally stars as a.

[Peter Rosenberg]

Leading man in the film Love Hurts.

[Don LaGreca]

Love Hurts is the perfect date night movie with its mix of over the top action comedy and a ton of heart. Love Hurts only at theaters February 7th.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Thanks for listening to the Don Hahn and Rosenberg podcast.

[Peter Rosenberg]

I didn't listen to anything you just said.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Catch the show on demand whenever you want. Just subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we are back at the Tap Room of Rockville center on Long island with Don Lagreca and Peter Rosenberg. I'm Alan Hahn. Before we get. So again, no calls today, but we have a microphone behind Dan. So you get in line there and we'll take as many as we can from you, questions, takes whatever you want to do on Predict the Super bowl, all that stuff. We'll get to that momentarily. But it is game time. That's brought to you by Teleport. More do Irish Whiskey because when it's game time, it's Tully time. Busy night tonight, boys. Any Rangers fans in the building? Rangers fans, Rangers, Penguins tonight coverage immediately following us right here on 8080 at 6:30. The Nets. Any Nets fans? Nets fans. We got some Nets fans in the building. All right, they're taking on the heat. No Jimmy Butler. That's at 7:30. Islanders fans. Any Islanders fans in the building? Hell yeah. Wow. That's it.

[Don LaGreca]

Fans in the building.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I need you to be a little louder than that. Islanders and jets at 8:00. St. John's fans. Any St. John's fans. How about how they're doing? They've got Yukon at 8 o'clock. That's a must watch. That's game time. Brought to you by Tullamore dude. The original triple distilled, triple blended, triple cast matured Irish whiskey. Be sure to grab a Tullamore Dew or try the new Tullamore Dew. Honey during tonight's action. Glasses up to enjoying. Tell them more. Do responsibly.

[Peter Rosenberg]

All right.

[Dave Rothenberg]

My man Dan right here has the microphone. Step up behind him. This is just like we're taking calls. Tell us who you are, where you're from and then take it away. Don Han and Rosenberg. John from Farmingdale.

[Alan Hahn]

How are we doing today?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Hey John. So let's start first off with the.

[Don LaGreca]

Big news regarding the Mets this week with Pete Alonzo. I think the Mets won the the negotiations. But do you guys really think in the long term Pete lost it because.

[Dave Rothenberg]

That long term contract?

[Don LaGreca]

I don't think he's going to get it now because think about when next season's over, whatever he does. We're going into his age 31, 32 season. I don't think his next big deal if he earned one. We don't know if he earned one.

[Peter Rosenberg]

No more than probably five years.

[Don LaGreca]

So was this a win for Stearns?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yes.

[Don LaGreca]

And a loss for Pete.

[Dave Rothenberg]

It was always. I think it was going to be a loss for Pete no matter what. He wasn't getting big money offers to begin with so he decided to play where he wanted to play versus going somewhere else out of spite.

[Peter Rosenberg]

But I think it's a win for Pete because essentially he's getting $30 million now, probably a bit more than his value and essentially what he got to do is kick the can down the road and have another year to prove himself. And guys, you know, if he has a great year, he here. They're going to find a way to keep Pete around. I, I don't think this ends up being a loss for Pete at all.

[Don LaGreca]

It's a win for Stearns right now. It could still end up being more of a win for Alonzo if it happens the way Pete said it could.

[Peter Rosenberg]

But Pete being me or Pete being Pete? Peter yeah, I get you never called me Pete, so it felt unusual.

[Don LaGreca]

I didn't mean to do it, but I was trying to get like fight through it. He's still the highest paid first baseman in the game for now. 24, not bad, you know, so that's something, I guess. But when you hire Boris, you probably set your sights a little higher. He ultimately lost because he didn't have a great season. He thought he was going to be Aaron judge and hit 50 home runs and parlay that into a massive deal. He didn't do that. But that's why I think the Mets played it right. They get their guy back. He gets to say he's the highest paid first baseman. It becomes a bit of a discount the second year and it does open the door, if he does have that monster season he didn't have last year, that he could parlay into a bigger month.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Thanks for listening to the Don Hahn and Rosenberg podcast. I don't want to know how the sausage is made, man. I just want to know. It's good. Hear more of Don Allen and Peter weekday afternoon starting at 3 on 8 80, ESPN, the ESPN New York app.

[Alan Hahn]

And your smart speakers.