The comedian you either love to love, or love to hate, wants you to know that he personally has nothing against the Dallas Cowboys.
"I'm a Chiefs fan and I am certainly no Cowboys expert," actor Rob Riggle says.
Riggle is the tall, loud, big-mouthed comic who is now in his eighth season of producing short sketches for Fox's NFL pregame show. The two-minute bit has become a staple of what is easily the best sports studio show not named "Inside the NBA."
Normally Riggle, who was raised in Kansas City and graduated from the University of Kansas, takes aim at the Cowboys to mock, ridicule and belittle the franchise during every one of his NFL-themed sketches.
"Well, I have to be honest, part of the reason I do it is because my producer is from Philadelphia and he's a big Eagles fan," Riggle said in a phone interview this week. "He loves to give the Cowboys a hard time."
Riggle co-stars in the new movie with Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish, "Night School," which is out Friday.
He is one of those working actors who pops up in comedy after comedy, with Will Ferrell or some other comedian; Riggle also has taken to the growth genre that is mocking sports.
There are few to zero teams he picks on quite like the Cowboys.
"I try to pass it around but I really just like to give (owner) Jerry Jones a hard time," Riggle said. "I mean, he'll be fine. He has his billions, so I don't think he's sweating this too much."
Creating these sketches, which run approximately one minute and 45 seconds, is not as easy as Riggle and his fleet of producers make them all look.
There is the matter of writing it, and producing it all while everyone involved juggles other projects.
"We do one every week, 22 weeks in a row," Riggle said. "I have to get my picks in every week. It's all done in a very narrow lane. We have to think in advance, 'What's the big game for Week 4? Or Week 5? Is there anything interesting?' So whatever game that is, we're sure to incorporate that into the sketches and write them far enough in advance so we can leave ourselves open to what's going on right now.
"The Cleveland Browns winning a game is obviously one; that's something to talk about. Baker Mayfield. The Chiefs and (quarterback) Patrick Mahomes are en fuego. Trying to figure out how to use the L.A. Rams. What teams are in the lead. We have to be sure to think it all out as advanced as we can."
Riggle and Co. write it all out on Monday and Tuesday. They film the sketches from Wednesday to Friday. All of the material is edited on Saturday, and the final version runs Sunday morning.
The process starts again the following day.
Regardless of record, or what else is going on in the NFL, Riggle knows he has an absolute winner in drilling the Cowboys.
"The Dallas Cowboys are just an iconic franchise; they are the New York Yankees. Just like you can't stop staring at the pinstripes, you can't stop looking at the big blue star," Riggle said. "They have this great history. Texas is all about football. Everything is bigger in Texas. Whether or not they are winning now, they do have a winning tradition, which means they will come back.
"And Jerry Jones is just a lightning rod. I can't miss with it."
Riggle has no intention of letting up, or quitting, his part-time gig crushing the NFL on Fox as long as the network wants him, and he wants to do it.
God knows, as long as Jerry owns the Cowboys, Riggle will never be short on material.
