00:00On the Wiseheart Wright, we make it right. Call Kyle Wright Hotline.
00:03CBS Sports, he's got the call for Browns and Steelers.
00:07He's also got the call for Westwood 1 on a game you're also going to hear on 92.3.
00:11The Fan, Bears, Seahawks on Monday Night Football.
00:14And his father and family are being honored tonight by the Packers
00:19during Thursday Night Football as well.
00:21The legend himself, Kevin Harlan, joins us right now.
00:24Kevin, welcome to the show.
00:26Guys, great to be on. Thank you very much.
00:28Well, we've got a couple ways we can start this,
00:31but we were just talking about the fact that your dad, Bob,
00:34is being honored at halftime with his name being unveiled at Lambeau Field Facade.
00:40Have you thought a lot about this moment and where you're going to be tonight,
00:44or have you done what I tend to do with things,
00:47which is I don't think about it until the thing happens,
00:49and then I kind of just let the emotions take over from there?
00:52Well, right now I am driving down to Green Bay,
00:56and I'm going to host Peter King, who has just come out with a book called The Game.
01:03And I'm going to host an hour with him at a bookstore in Green Bay,
01:07and then go meet my family.
01:08And we've got about 20 of us for dinner.
01:11And we're going to walk over to Lambeau,
01:13and they're going to have this nice unveiling at halftime.
01:16I've got to speak for a couple minutes.
01:18And it's a great night for our family.
01:20You know, my dad loved the privilege of being with the Packers.
01:25He was there 37 years.
01:27He was the president and CEO for 21.
01:29They don't have an owner.
01:31The city, the fans own the team,
01:34so the president becomes the owner, so to speak,
01:38and he has to make the decisions.
01:40And will be in the stadium that he helped refurbish back in the early 2000s.
01:47He hired two Super Bowl-winning general managers.
01:51He hired two Super Bowl-winning head coaches.
01:54He was a part of the two Hall of Fame quarterbacks that were there,
01:59Favre and Rogers.
02:00And so it's nice.
02:02He passed in March.
02:04He was 89.
02:05He lived a full life.
02:06He loved every day of his life.
02:08But it was a life in sports.
02:10He was with the Cardinals in St. Louis before he came to Green Bay
02:14as the public relations director.
02:16And he won a World Series ring with the Cardinals in 67
02:21and won a Super Bowl ring, a couple of them with the Packers,
02:25in the 90s and the early 2000s.
02:28And I think he's one of a couple and only a couple that have ever won
02:32a Super Bowl ring and a World Series ring.
02:35So a lot for our family to celebrate tonight.
02:38We're excited the Packers have made this incredible, wonderful move
02:44to put his name inside.
02:46It was completely unsolicited.
02:48It came as a shock to our family.
02:50You know, some of the greatest names in football are up there,
02:54Lombardi and Starr and Nitschke and soon to be my dad.
02:58So we're on cloud nine and could not be more proud and more thrilled.
03:03All right, it's special.
03:04And obviously we hope you soak every moment in.
03:06All right, Brown Steelers this weekend.
03:08You're on the call.
03:09We're all excited to obviously watch the game and hear you do the game.
03:12When you first blush reaction, when you think of this game
03:14and you think of where the Browns are now with Munkin
03:16and with Deshaun Watson, what do you think?
03:20I love the resiliency.
03:23You've got to love what these draft choices are beginning to produce
03:28on both sides of the ball.
03:30They've had so many years of high draft picks.
03:33They're becoming now a team with a lot of those guys.
03:36I love the bravado of verse and how he's kind of thrown down the gauntlet
03:42a little bit.
03:43We just talked to Cam Hayward.
03:44Before that, Darren Rogers, the Steelers, about 45 minutes ago.
03:49And they're excited to play.
03:51They lost the first time they met.
03:54It's for first place alone in that division halfway through the season.
03:58I don't know that anybody on their bingo card had the Browns at 5-2
04:02and planned to be in first place halfway through the year.
04:05But sure enough, one of the great divisions in football, the North,
04:10is really providing a lot of excitement.
04:13And clearly it's going to go down to the final couple weeks
04:16of the regular season.
04:17And there's nothing to say right now that the Browns won't be in a position.
04:23My feeling is they build confidence through the resiliency they've shown,
04:27regardless of how they've won in a very difficult league to win.
04:31They've won.
04:32They have found a way to win, which is a very tough element to achieve as a team.
04:37And they've done it.
04:38And they're listening to their 60-year-old head coach,
04:40who's a first-time NFL head coach.
04:43And I think it's one of the top two or three stories in the entire NFL
04:46so far this year.
04:47Well, we certainly agree with you on that one, but I am a little biased on this one.
04:51All right, so where does the credit start for the Browns 5-2 start to the season?
04:58Well, you know, coaching in this league is underappreciated.
05:03And I think you see that with what Todd is doing.
05:06I think you're seeing it around the league with various teams.
05:10Now, some have got catastrophic injuries they're dealing with,
05:13and just their teams have been gutted with front-line players.
05:18And that's always very, very difficult.
05:20Browns are not necessarily in that position, but every team has got injuries.
05:24And every team is flawed.
05:26So the message that has been given to a team that has not had a great deal of success,
05:32with a very interesting situation at quarterback and young players that they're relying on,
05:38I think this is pretty special.
05:40So I go to the coaching, and they have followed.
05:43I think these players, pro players, I think they always want to be coached and led.
05:50And I don't know where that leadership was before Todd got there,
05:53but I think it's pretty evident, at least from afar, that his leadership, his voice,
05:59is carrying a pretty significant message that they're buying into.
06:04And then, with the performance on Sunday and coming back and doing what they're doing,
06:08it just fortifies that message.
06:12And when you get a team that believes, and they get on a roll,
06:15and clearly this team is on a roll, that's a pretty special situation.
06:19Is Deshaun Watson back, or is he just a product of Munkin's leadership
06:22and all these young players around him that are just really special?
06:26Well, he's got the great thing.
06:28He's got the chip on his shoulder.
06:29We heard some interesting comments early in the season,
06:33with boos perhaps directed toward the team, to him, whoever.
06:37And he responded, and I think he may have been down with an injury.
06:42There were just a variety of, I'm sure, emotions that he's going through.
06:46Clearly, it has been a cluttered path.
06:49But all that on one column, and then on the other column,
06:54you've got him coming back from a very debilitating injury, a couple of them.
06:59And to perform the way he has, and to still have the confidence of his teammates,
07:06I think is a pretty unique thing, quite frankly.
07:09And I'm anxious to visit with him.
07:12And, you know, I don't know how revealing he'll be.
07:15And this is not going to be a broadcast about what he's been through.
07:19It's going to be a broadcast about where they're at, what they're doing,
07:22who's leading them in the performance he's turned in.
07:24And that is, I think, the story.
07:28I just admire, as a football player, the way he has handled these setbacks
07:35and produced and had the team, it seems, rallying in back of him
07:42and looking for him to be the great fourth quarter quarterback in particular
07:49that he's been.
07:50And, again, his performance, when it counts the most in these fourth quarters,
07:54has statistically, analytically been phenomenal.
07:58And, boy, that sure breeds a lot of trust.
08:01And I think there's trust with that team and what he's doing.
08:04And it's got to be giving him, you know, just added confidence
08:07every time they go through these situations and he performs.
08:10So, again, I mean, maybe the comeback story of the year,
08:14I don't know who would be even a close second, quite frankly,
08:16what he's doing and what he's been through, it's pretty remarkable.
08:21Kevin Harlan on the Wiseheart Right, We Make It Right.
08:23Call Kyle Wright Hotline.
08:25He's got play-by-play this weekend.
08:28Brown Steelers, he's got Trent Green with him on color commentary.
08:31So, from the Steelers' side, obviously we know much has been talked about,
08:35Aaron Rodgers and the reuniting with Mike McCarthy.
08:38Mike McCarthy is a Pittsburgh guy himself.
08:42But what stands out to you about this Steelers team ahead of this matchup?
08:45Well, I asked Aaron about an hour ago, I said,
08:51if you were to put me in a Mike Tomlin locker room
08:54and in that building with him as a coach
08:56and put Mike McCarthy in now, what would I notice?
09:02And he said, I think guys have more confidence.
09:06And it wasn't that Tomlin was derating or discouraging or moody or whatever.
09:14It's just you get a new coach in there and he begins with a clean slate.
09:18And who wouldn't be positive and who wouldn't be on top of the world?
09:22He's going back to coach Mike McCarthy is in the city he grew up in.
09:26His parents are there, his sisters live next to him.
09:28I mean, he's right with his family.
09:30And this was the team he grew up rooting for.
09:33And so he's gone in there in such a different angle
09:38than a guy who had been there 19 years or whatever with the Steelers.
09:43So Aaron said there's guys that are playing with more confidence.
09:47Warren, the running back, Friermuth, the tight end,
09:49he started listing guys.
09:51And he said that's been a nice change.
09:55Now, remember, Aaron went there because of Mike Tomlin and respected him.
09:58So he holds him in very high regard.
10:01And there probably isn't a player that's played under Tomlin who doesn't.
10:05But, you know, sometimes change brings different things that somehow or another,
10:11you know, just with the same message being delivered,
10:13don't have the vibrancy that maybe they should.
10:16And now it's being delivered by a guy whose heart and soul,
10:19not that Mike's wasn't, but whose heart and soul is in that city and with that team.
10:24And it's bringing kind of a different feel.
10:26Rogers feels great.
10:27The team has strung some wins together.
10:29They just played in Paris and beat New Orleans.
10:32Rogers is playing well.
10:34The running game is back on track.
10:37He did say he's a little concerned about the one-on-one coverage that the Browns defense gives.
10:43He said we're not all that good in man-to-man.
10:46We don't win a lot of, you know, one-on-ones.
10:48And we need to start doing more of that.
10:49That's kind of the next chapter for us.
10:52But overall, we're feeling pretty good about ourselves and very unified.
10:55And the chemistry has been great.
10:56We heard what Cam Hayward said on Rich Eisen's show about Jared Verse and what the rivalry is turning into.
11:03When you talked to Cam, did he have an added importance on Verse's comments in particular?
11:08Was he stressing anything about what this has kind of morphed into between the two of them?
11:13No, he laughed.
11:15He said, no, because that guy's one of the best players in the league.
11:19You know, he said those comments came from a place of just being competitive.
11:26And, you know, it's not that we didn't notice them.
11:29I'm not saying that.
11:30But, you know, you hear comments maybe not quite with such an edge a lot in this league.
11:36A lot is said on the field that we never hear about.
11:39And Verse just made this public.
11:42But, no, I think Cam's got total respect for Jared and the team and the consequences of this game.
11:52Listen, for Pittsburgh, if they lose, they've now lost two games to a team that's in first place in the
11:57division.
11:58And that tiebreaker is now gone.
12:00So, you know, this is a huge game, and it's at home for the Steelers.
12:04And we know the Browns have struggled for over two decades winning a game in Pittsburgh.
12:08So, you know, there's a lot going into this one.
12:10It's one of the more attractive, clearly one of the more attractive games this season in the NFL, clearly in
12:16this weekend.
12:18And I think they're all taking it for what it was worth.
12:20I think they all store all kinds of comments away, whether it comes from Verse or from whoever, as motivation.
12:28So, it'll play a role, and everybody will be on guard for sure.
12:33And they're division foes.
12:35I mean, they know each other intimately.
12:37They know what's around every corner, where the skeletons have skeletons.
12:42They're very in tune for what they're going to play.
12:45They just played a month ago.
12:46So, I have a feeling this game will be played at a high level, incredibly intense, and will show the
12:53best of both teams.
12:54Kevin, we're happy to have you on this game on Sunday.
12:57We're even happier to having you on the Westwood One coverage of Monday Night Football on this very station on
13:03Monday.
13:03And we're certainly happy for the Harlan family for the festivities tonight in Green Bay.
13:08Enjoy it, and thank you so much for your time.
13:10You're very kind.
13:12Fun to be with you.
13:12Thank you so much.
13:13Kevin Harlan there on the Y chart, right?
13:15We make it right.
13:16Call Kyle Wright Hotline.
Comments