Rich's Pre-Game Concert Meltdown

There are Rich rants, and then there are Rich rants about the NCAA's decision to squeeze a Chainsmokers concert in between the women's final and the Michigan vs UConn tip.

Rich mapped out his entire day to be ready for a 5:50 p.m. local tipoff. Got the kids handled. Got to his chair. Opened the ESPN app. The clock said 9:19 Eastern. The previous game hadn't run long. He looked at the court and saw Michigan warming up while a 21-minute clock ran on the scoreboard. That's when he started losing his mind.

The crew tried to call it a Chainsmokers beef. Rich refused. He said he likes the Chainsmokers. His son Cooper got him into them. The beef wasn't with the band. The beef was with whoever at the NCAA decided a men's Final Four game needed a pregame concert. Half an hour between games is the standard. Clockwork. Adding a live music set on top of that is the problem.

He'd have made the same complaint about Billy Joel. About Bruce Springsteen. Even if Billy came out and played Vienna, he said he'd still be ranting. Consistent man.

The panel pushed back hard. The Super Bowl halftime show is beloved. Rich waved it off. Get rid of it. Players don't like it. Michael Irvin told him directly he dove out of Michael Jackson's halftime back in the day because the break was brutal.

The co-hosts accused Rich of turning into a get-off-my-lawn guy at 60. He owned it. He's in the chair. He's on the lawn. The NFL can have the biggest names in music perform because the halftime sponsor pays for it and every team knows it's coming. The NCAA tacking a concert onto the Final Four wasn't the same structure. It was just a delay.

Then, while on a roll, Rich unloaded the take he's been told is his worst ever, even worse than his Giannis take. One Shining Moment is overplayed and overrated. He said the song is old school, that playing it today is like cueing Benny Goodman in 1980, and that if he played it for his kids they'd ask him to put on a standard-definition movie next. He was told by the room he was wrong. He stood his ground.

His closing shot landed. If he were the Chainsmokers, he'd be sitting at home wondering what they did wrong. They didn't do anything wrong. Whoever booked the slot did. If Rich were picking the handshake order for the apology line afterward, he said, he'd make that executive wait three minutes just to annoy them.

Piano man sing him a song. Call it Tipoff.