Kickoff with Boomer Esiason and Mike Valenti for Week 5 in the NFL

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

It's time for Kick Off with Boomer Esiason and Mike Valenti.

Mike Valenti (0:08)

All right, it's week five. Can't believe I'm saying that. Kick Off with Boomer and Valenti Booms, excuse me, Radio Hall of Fame, Boomer Esiason.

Boomer Esiason (0:17)

Well, I appreciate that Mike, and you are a big part of it, man. I've worked with some great guys over the years. I don't want to go into all of it, but between you, Craig Carton, Mike and the Mad Dog, of course, my buddy, Craig Gianotti, and then the guys behind the scenes, the Al Dukes of the World, Eddie Scorseri, and of course, our update guys, CeeLo and Jerry Reco. I mean, a quarterback is only as good as the team around them, and that's the way I feel about this as well.

Mike Valenti (0:43)

Oh, that's very nice. And yes, the legend, Eddie Scorseri.

Boomer Esiason (0:46)

Yes.

Mike Valenti (0:47)

Love Eddie. All right, so let's get to the rundown. We got a ton of stuff to get to.

We will have quarter poll-ish awards at the end of the show, picks. But we got to do, we have to do a rundown.

SPEAKER_1 (0:59)

The NFL Rundown.

Mike Valenti (1:01)

And the rundown is going to begin with this.

I'm just saying it straight away. NFL Red Zone is a complete leap show. Someone has got to tranquilize or neutralize Scott Harrison. Scott Hanson. Enough.

First of all, Scott, you're not a play-by-play guy. Shut up. I don't need you to take me to a situation in Los Angeles and then narrate it like you're Orson Welles. They have play-by-play people in Los Angeles. Now we're going over to Cincy, where I'm still hearing you yell at me. Just shut up. Second of all, boom, the Giants are trying to survive against Arizona. These are very important matters to my father. Why are you cutting away from a team that is in the moment of a third and goal to show me a seven-yard carry at midfield somewhere else? It's NFL Red Zone. Stay in the Red Zone. And lastly, the commercials. They're getting cute with it now. Oh, now I'm watching Quad Box and there's a Pretzels ad.

Boomer, you've got the weight. Not only is it a Radio Hall of Fame. Not only is it Bangle's Ring of Honor.

Boomer Esiason (2:07)

Yes.

Mike Valenti (2:07)

Boomer, someone get me Andrew Siciliano back in that chair. Get Scott Hansen out of here. I can't take it.

Boomer Esiason (2:14)

I could tell you can't take it and all I could tell you is I don't watch it. I don't watch it because of the reasons why you're talking. So I watch the Quad Box on my YouTube TV now and that's basically how I do it because obviously like everybody else in America, I do have the package. But when I was at the NFL today, we could see all the games and I guess I was somewhat, I guess you could say, you know, pacified, if you will, just by watching all those games. I don't like Red Zone. I really don't because I don't like it jumping around the way it does. And when I have to when I do have the Quad Box on through the package, I'm able to as you are able to go to game to game to game when you want to watch a particular part of that game. And you're right, I was all over that end of that giant game because it was just like the previous week, you know, the defenses on the field, they got to save the game. And what I love most about that is later on in the week, you heard John Harbaugh say to Dinard Wilson, you want to heat them up so we can get a quick throw, go ahead and heat them up. And he did it so like calmly and that's exactly the way your head coach should be. So I feel you're paying about Red Zone. I just don't want you because I don't care.

Mike Valenti (3:22)

Scott Hanson is awful. That's the other reason.

Boomer Esiason (3:24)

Okay.

Mike Valenti (3:25)

Let's get to the actual on-field stuff, the ref show. Last I checked, no one's ever paid to see the officials. Boomer, first of all, you had Houston and Dallas. I think it was 28 accepted penalties. You had two games with a total of 30 first half penalties. You have refs flipping off players.

Boomer, the NFL's got to rein this in because we can't be in the business of a penalty every third play. We cannot.

Boomer Esiason (3:51)

All right. So all week long, I've been hearing complaints just like you laid out here, and the NFL hears these complaints, believe you me. So when they were sitting down or sitting down with the referees or talking to the referees via Zoom, I would almost guarantee that there's got to be something said about this problem because it is really frustrating. Now we have come as fans of the game and people who watch the game, we've become accustomed to waiting for that flag to come out, especially in the red zone. The red zone flags are insane.