RUSH: All right. It’s a great thrill to welcome back to the program Ken Hutcherson, Dr. Hutcherson from Seattle, former player, NFL, Dallas Cowboys, San Diego Chargers, Seattle Seahawks, played linebacker for many years in the National Football League, even given a big award by George Wallace, the governor of Alabama, Ken Hutcherson Day. I’m sorry I gave you the wrong phone number, Ken.
HUTCHERSON: You did.
RUSH: I think I reversed a nine and a six in there to a 69. Anyway, before we get to football, I need to ask you something.
HUTCHERSON: Sure.
RUSH: Dr. Hutcherson is an activist in the evangelical community in Seattle, is taking on a lot of things people don’t have the guts to take on. What do you make, as an American, of this race battle, this Uncivil War going on on the Democrat side between Obama and Mrs. Clinton?
HUTCHERSON: Well, Rush, before I go there, you know I’m going to have to pick a bone with you.
RUSH: I knew this.
HUTCHERSON: You know I’m going to have to do that. If it wasn’t for you, Obama wouldn’t even be in the race.
RUSH: Oh, really? How’s that? Am I responsible for this?
HUTCHERSON: Rush, what have you been campaigning for this man for three years, four years almost now, probably? The series ’24.’
RUSH: Oh.
HUTCHERSON: If you hadn’t pushed ’24,’ America wouldn’t be wanting a black president.
RUSH: You know, that’s interesting you say that. I know you’re just trying to be funny, but —
HUTCHERSON: No, I’m telling you, Rush, just think about it. Half of America does not know the difference between a reality show and a TV series.
RUSH: (laughter) I know, the liberals thought the West Wing was the real administration and that Bush was just a TV show.
HUTCHERSON: You done pushed and pushed and pushed, why do you think he got so many guilty white votes?
RUSH: Well, I think there’s white guilt out there long before ’24’ came along, but the guy who played President Palmer, Dennis Haysbert, is actually in TV Guide this week saying this.
HUTCHERSON: I’m telling you, and you don’t have to worry about Hillary winning because of ’24,’ too. Who was the most untrusted character in the ’24’ series?
RUSH: The black president’s wife.
HUTCHERSON: It was the first black president’s wife.
RUSH: Right.
HUTCHERSON: And Hillary married the first black president! (laughter)
RUSH: (laughter) Okay. All right. Now you picked the bone. I think we’ve covered the political question at the same time. Okay, which game do you want to do first? Let’s do the Patriots and the Chargers first since they play first.
HUTCHERSON: Sounds great, bro.
RUSH: You told me, you kind of digging me in the e-mail some weeks ago, ‘Tom Brady is not nearly as confident, Rush, as you think he is.’ What do you mean by that? I don’t see any evidence that he’s not confident.
HUTCHERSON: Well, he’s confident, but he’s not going to be confident if he gets hit, that’s what I said, and that’s what I meant for years.
RUSH: He’s not going to get hit. That offensive —
HUTCHERSON: — takes care of that boy.
RUSH: I’ve never seen an offensive line as dominant as these guys are.
HUTCHERSON: They should be the MVP.
RUSH: I know.
HUTCHERSON: I told you that when they won the last Super Bowl.
RUSH: Let me ask you another question. I’ve gotten to know Brady a little bit from golf tournaments.
HUTCHERSON: Yeah.
RUSH: I wouldn’t call him a friend, but we’ve exchanged e-mails back and forth, and I remember on the Saturday of their last game of the year, they’re in New York to play the Giants, a Saturday night game.
HUTCHERSON: Right.
RUSH: And I sent an e-mail at ten o’clock in the morning and I said, ‘What are you doing to while away the hours?’ And he said, ‘Food, film, sleep, and massage,’ and then he said, ‘visualizing a pride of lions mauling a Ugandan cub.’ Now, my point here, I’ve met some professional athletes, not a whole lot, there are two that stand out. George Brett and Brady are the most focused I have ever met–
HUTCHERSON: They would have to be.
RUSH: –and the most competitive. Brady gets up six o’clock in the morning and actually goes to bed at nine o’clock.
HUTCHERSON: Yep. And those guys watch more video and more film, they know when the guy’s going to hiccup before he hiccups. He is focused, that young man is very focused. That’s why I’m saying that the only way he’s going to get beat, and those Chargers out there know this, is they gotta get on him and break his game plan, and the only way to do that, they got to have a pass, Rush, that’s the only way they’re going to beat ’em.
RUSH: You know, in theory, isn’t that what the Jaguars tried?
HUTCHERSON: Absolutely, but it failed.
RUSH: Well, that’s my point, the Jaguars didn’t blitz ’til the fourth quarter and they took away the deep threat, took away Randy Moss, they double and tripled him. Brady, two steps and he’s getting rid of the football, on these slants and these check-downs, nobody’s going to have time to get to him.
HUTCHERSON: Well, they are going to have to figure out a way, Rush, or this guy is going to go all the way, but I think that with the Chargers beating my team twice in one season, the Colts, I was blown away. I mean, you tell me that you weren’t surprised at that victory.
RUSH: Yeah, I was stunned, especially when the starting quarterback and the starting running back go out, I’m stunned that the Colts in the fourth quarter stopped playing ball.
HUTCHERSON: That was amazing. I love Coach Dungy, the guy loves the same Lord I love, and I was just so surprised when the running back went out, Rivers went out. I just said, man, it’s over.
RUSH: Okay, now, you can comment on this because you’ve played the game and you’ve been through playoffs and so forth, but to me, if you look at the teams that did not rest their players going into the last weeks of the season, whether they had a bye week or not, the Giants played the last game to win, and look at them, the Patriots didn’t rest anybody, they wanted to go to 16-0. The Buccaneers took the last week-and-a-half off. The Colts took the last two games plus the bye week off.
HUTCHERSON: Yeah.
RUSH: As a fan, it looks like they lose not focus, but timing and sharpness.
HUTCHERSON: That’s the thing you lose. My whole philosophy when I was playing ball and Coach Landry was the same way, you kill a gnat with a sledgehammer. You do not take those weeks off, you stay crisp, and you go out to win. Fifty percent of the home teams lost. Usually seventy-five percent of the home teams win, Rush. That was astonishing to me. I couldn’t believe that weekend.
RUSH: Yeah, well there’s the other side of it, though, the Philadelphia McNabbs. When they went to the Super Bowl and they lost to New England but they still went, they took the last two weeks off, they rested everybody, so sometimes for some teams it works, sometimes it doesn’t. To the Chargers, they got Shawne Merriman, and they’ve got some people that can rush the quarterback, they’ve got some good linebackers.
HUTCHERSON: Yeah.
RUSH: Nobody has been able to do anything with the New England offensive line. Do really think they can? And tell me about whether on San Diego — I mean they’re Beach Boys.
HUTCHERSON: (laughter) Well, they got some good players out there, you got Jamal Williams, I know he may have a little ankle injury but he’s going to have to come through. Brandon McKinney can back him up, Luis Castillo, those guys can do the job. But, man, I’m going to tell you they have got to be eating nails for breakfast on Sunday morning. They all gotta come out and they’re going to have to hit that boy. I promise you, if Brady gets sacked three or more times, Patriots are going down.
RUSH: Oh, really? Now, I’m going to have to look that up. I’m going to have to see if Brady has been sacked three times, I think he has.
HUTCHERSON: That’s what I’m saying.
RUSH: I think he’s been sacked three times this season.
HUTCHERSON: I would like to know what game.
RUSH: Well, who was it, the Jaguars got to him once, first play of the game.
HUTCHERSON: Yep.
RUSH: I’m going to check. You may be right. But that’s quite a claim you’re making, if he gets sacked — you’re saying that the guy is going to get defensive and be taken out of his rhythm with a little contact?
HUTCHERSON: A person with that kind of concentration, a person that is that much of a student of the game knows what he wants to do, and if you mess that up, no one has ever seen that that boy may crack up, and I’m telling you, the Chargers got the opportunity with those linebackers. If they start running Merriman and they start stunting Shawne and get those guys in there to get him, it’s going to be a long day. But this is the bottom line, Rush. If the Patriots allow the Chargers to be in the game at the end of the third quarter, they better get ready for a 17-1 season.
RUSH: All right. I’ve heard you make that prediction. You made that prediction on Pittsburgh and New England three or four years ago, the playoffs. I gotta take a break here, but I don’t think they’re going to get to Brady. The running game, they’ll just do play action passes. They’re going to keep that defense off balance. I just don’t see it. Not with the injuries, especially.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We’re back with a great friend of the program, and a great personal friend as well, Ken Hutcherson from Seattle, former NFL player. We do this every year. We normally do it before the Super Bowl, but these games are probably going to be better than the Super Bowl, possibly. We’re talking New England and San Diego right now. We’re going to get to the Packers and the Giants in just a second. Now, Hutch —
HUTCHERSON: Yeah.
RUSH: — we looked up Brady’s sack stats during the break.
HUTCHERSON: Uh-huh.
RUSH: And you’re right. We don’t have it per game, but they played 17 games.
HUTCHERSON: Yeah.
RUSH: Twenty-one sacks. That’s just over a sack and a smidgen per game.
HUTCHERSON: And if you look at the last four or five years —
RUSH: Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Twenty-one sacks out of 578 pass attempts. So your theory is if they can get to him three times, they can rattle him?
HUTCHERSON: Absolutely.
RUSH: This guy played the game, folks. This guy played the game and he was a linebacker. Did you play 3-4 or 4-3?
HUTCHERSON: We played a 4-3, babe.
RUSH: So you were outside linebacker?
HUTCHERSON: No, I was middle linebacker.
RUSH: You were the ‘Mike’ linebacker?
HUTCHERSON: Yes, sir.
RUSH: No kidding!
HUTCHERSON: I liked to make people eat through a straw.
RUSH: (laughing) By the way, I want to tell the audience, for those of you that watch football and if you watch the Patriots, one thing you’ll notice as the Patriots go to the line of scrimmage, without exception, whether he’s the shotgun or under center, Brady is always pointing at the other team and shouting, and what he’s pointing out, he’s telling everybody who he thinks is the ‘Mike’ linebacker because they’re playing 3-4 defense, they got four linebackers, so technically there’s not a designated middle. You got two inside, got two outside, but every play, every defense has a ‘Mike’ linebacker, and that’s what he’s pointing out. So you’re going to watch the Patriots on Sunday, he’s pointing out who the ‘Mike’ linebacker is, and, by the way, that’s something that a lot of quarterbacks, Peyton Manning has the ability to do it, a lot of quarterbacks are not given that kind of authority, some offensive lineman may be the ones to make that kind of call. That’s just a little side note.
HUTCHERSON: That’s good.
RUSH: I’m impressed that you were a ‘Mike’ linebacker.
HUTCHERSON: Well, thanks, my brother.
RUSH: I really am. Okay, now, one thing I have to disagree with you on.
HUTCHERSON: Sure.
RUSH: Just one. You say if the Chargers are in the game, or let’s say even ahead at the end of the third quarter, then you — I don’t want to misquote you. What did you say about this? You said they might win?
HUTCHERSON: No, I said that if they’re still in the game —
RUSH: Yeah.
HUTCHERSON: — at the end of the third quarter, if they’re ahead at the end of the third quarter, the Patriots are in serious trouble, but if they’re still in the game, Patriots may end up 17-1.
RUSH: All right. Hutch, there’s two words that argue against that.
HUTCHERSON: Sure.
RUSH: They are Tom Brady.
HUTCHERSON: I know it, man.
RUSH: They have been in that situation in some games this year, and Brady will be the first to tell you they’ve had a lot of luck, they had tremendous luck in Baltimore with some of those officiating calls, some of those stupid penalties on the Ravens. They’ve had a lot of luck but he still, fourth quarter, this year, there’s no doubt — I don’t think — it this may be the single, the best single season team in the National Football League history.
HUTCHERSON: It is, Rush, I mean there’s no doubt, man. No team has ever won, what, 17 in-a-row, no team.
RUSH: Well, the Dolphins did it.
HUTCHERSON: They were a great team, I’m not taking away from them, but I tell you, this is a game of emotion, brother, you know that.
RUSH: Yes.
HUTCHERSON: And any given season — Tom Brady told you that already in the e-mail and you’ve forgotten. He said, ‘Don’t think that just because we’ve done this, it’s over.’
RUSH: Yeah, I know, I know, I told you the Hutch — now, you’re giving things away here. You’re telling things I haven’t told the audience.
HUTCHERSON: Yes, you did, you told the audience that.
RUSH: I told the audience — you’re talking about after they’d beaten Cincinnati?
HUTCHERSON: Yes.
RUSH: Okay. Okay. They’d beaten Cincinnati on the road and the Patriots are on the bus on the way to the airport. It’s a night game. It’s like 1:30 in the morning, say, okay, let’s do the rest of the schedule, and I went down the schedule with him.
HUTCHERSON: Right.
RUSH: This was in e-mail. And every team, you own ’em, you own ’em, you own ’em, you got Miami in Miami, they’ve given you problems there, but you gonna own ’em. And I went through the whole thing, all the way down to the Giants. He wrote back and said, ‘Hell, this is easy. You be the coach. I’ll just take some time out, I’ll go take some time off in California.’
HUTCHERSON: Well, you know, that’s what happened to Romo.
RUSH: (laughter)
HUTCHERSON: (laughter) Hey, Rush —
RUSH: Do you know who paid for that vacation? TO paid for that vacation to say he was sorry.
HUTCHERSON: I’ll tell you what, brother, let me tell you something, Romo got blonde-sided.
RUSH: He got blonde-sided. (laughter)
HUTCHERSON: (laughter)
RUSH: You know, I talked about that, long before this incident but, you know, Romo went to college in Eastern Illinois, fine place, and Brady is from the San Mateo area, and Brady’s handled his personal life a lot — these guys, you know, they’re just average guys and look at these starlets as some big deal, and I don’t know, guess it can be distracting if you’re the wrong guy, but I don’t think the vacation had anything to do — hell, a lot of Cowboys, like Jason Witten went on that vacation, Marc Colombo went —
HUTCHERSON: How many went with that blonde? None. Him. He was the only one.
RUSH: All right, all right, all right. Now, you’re getting awfully sexist here. You sound like those NFL coaches from back in the fifties. I don’t know if Lombardi was one, but there are some coaches in the NFL who told their players, and this is way back, ‘You can’t sleep with your wife after Tuesday.’ They asked the coach, ‘Well, how do you enforce this?’ ‘Well, it’s the honor system.’
HUTCHERSON: It’s the honor system — (laughter) it wasn’t very much honored in the NFL even back then, my brother.
RUSH: All right, now, it’s 13 1/2, Chargers getting 13 1/2, it’s going to be 14 or 15 degrees, can they cover?
HUTCHERSON: I’m going to tell you something. I want to know if they are going to be able to stand with those guys. Those receivers are so great, only defensive corners that can keep up with those receivers is going to be Green Bay. They are going to get in their pocket, they’re going to go face to face. I think it would be a great Super Bowl if it’s Favre and Brady.
RUSH: Okay.
HUTCHERSON: Because those defensive backs are going to get in their pocket, man, and they are going to be on like white on rice, cold on ice, and dots on dice.
RUSH: Let’s move on in our remaining few minutes, let’s move on to the Giants at the Packers. Let’s not discuss the weather, both teams, everybody is talking about it, Giants have had three inclement weather victories this year. I want to take you back to — I can’t remember the year, but it’s the first time we did this, I think, one of the first two or three times we did this.
HUTCHERSON: Yeah.
RUSH: The Patriots were where the Giants are today, they were a wild-card team.
HUTCHERSON: Right.
RUSH: And every week everybody thought they were going to lose and they just kept —
HUTCHERSON: Except me.
RUSH: They went in to Pittsburgh for the championship game, and you said to me —
HUTCHERSON: Yeah.
RUSH: — keep a sharp eye on those Patriots because they are playing like no other team in the league right now. Nobody’s giving ’em a chance; they’re a wild-card team. And you pointed out at the pregame introductions they didn’t do it individually, the came out units, both offense and defense, came out together, there was no individuality in terms of player introductions and this sort of thing, and what I can’t remember is your reason why you said keep an eye on the Patriots, but you said there is something attitudinally about them, the way their season — my question to you, would you apply that in this game between the Giants and the Packers? Do you think the Giants, big underdog, do you think that they have a chance here pulling this out on a destiny roll, or whatever you guys who play call it?
HUTCHERSON: You know what? Did you see the faces of the Giants players compared to the Cowboy players in the third and fourth quarter?
RUSH: Oh, hell, yes.
HUTCHERSON: You noticed a difference, didn’t you? They took the nerve from the Cowboys. They said, ‘Come in our position, and we will knock you out.’ But the Packers have that same view, but they’re coming into their house. And they beat my Seabirds, bro, so I gotta go with the Packers. I don’t care how great the Giants are, they do not have the face that the Packers have, and that’s why I think it’s gonna be one of the greatest Super Bowls if those two teams go, and you gotta watch what they did to the defense of the Seahawks. Man, we had a great rush defense. What happened —
RUSH: Well —
HUTCHERSON: — at Lambeau Field?
RUSH: For one thing, snow happened, and it’s got to affect footing. The offense knows where they’re going, the defense doesn’t.
HUTCHERSON: Yeah, but you are paid to know how to deal with that, Rush. That’s why they’re called professionals.
RUSH: I understand. We’re all professionals here. I understand this. I’m not trying to make excuses. You know, what did you call them, your Seabirds?
HUTCHERSON: My Seabirds.
RUSH: A little overrated throughout the season if you ask me anyway. I’m not trying to be funny with you. I just —
HUTCHERSON: I know. I live here, brother. Regardless, I’m not going to say that.
RUSH: Their offensive line didn’t show up, either.
HUTCHERSON: No, it was not a good game, but we’ll be ready next year.
RUSH: By the way, those guys are really knocked up. I just saw today that four of these guys —
HUTCHERSON: Was it five or four, I thought it was five.
RUSH: Maybe it’s five, having major surgery, Kerney, somebody’s having shoulder surgery, Alexander on his wrist. You guys are really beat up.
HUTCHERSON: Real beat up.
RUSH: Okay. Now, just so the fans in the audience know, is your desire to see a Super Bowl of New England and Green Bay with Favre —
HUTCHERSON: Absolutely.
RUSH: Is your desire for that clouding your objective assessment of the Giants-Packers game?
HUTCHERSON: No, man, you gotta remember, man, I talk to God every day. That eliminates —
RUSH: (laughter)
HUTCHERSON: (laughing.)
RUSH: Well, Hutch, I’m sorry for the phone number screw up.
HUTCHERSON: That’s all right, Rush.
RUSH: I love this every time you call. I have more fun talking about this stuff this time of year. I don’t get to do it very much, tried it on TV, you know what happened.
HUTCHERSON: Yeah, but still, I’m the one pushing for you. One of these days we are going to get you on Sunday night. Let’s do it, man, let’s do it, you’ll be great! (laughter)
RUSH: (laughter) Yeah. All right, Ken, thanks much. We’ll check in on Monday in the e-mail and we’ll see — wait, I didn’t make my picks.
HUTCHERSON: Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead.
RUSH: I didn’t make my picks. Gotta go with New England.
HUTCHERSON: I know you do.
RUSH: And I love the Spanos family, friends of mine, but I gotta go with New England. It’s so tough. This is so tough.
HUTCHERSON: It’s tough there, bro.
RUSH: What?
HUTCHERSON: This one is tough for you.
RUSH: See, because I’m having trouble staying objective about this one because I have some really good friends of mine, the Giants, Chris Mara, who’s director of player personnel, scouting and so forth, he’s the son of Wellington Mara. He’s just a great guy and these guys are doing things that nobody thought they would do. The coach, thought he was like a caretaker coach, going to be gone this year. I don’t think if they play like they don’t got anything to lose — just gotta take the Packers at Lambeau Field.
HUTCHERSON: Yeah. You got to.
RUSH: You just do. All right, so I guess we’re on the same page here.
HUTCHERSON: Hey, guess what, man, you know, one of these days in the next year or two we’re going to have a Manning Super Bowl, so get ready.
RUSH: Yeah, that will be interesting.
HUTCHERSON: It is.
RUSH: Archie Manning in half, where do we sit to watch the game?
HUTCHERSON: I want to be right next to him, wherever he is. (laughter)
RUSH: (laughter) We’ll set that up.
HUTCHERSON: Go ahead, man.
RUSH: Have a good weekend, Hutch.
HUTCHERSON: You, too, brother.