The Kevin Sheehan Show - Alex Smith Out; Brandon Scherff Next?

Episode Date: March 1, 2021

Cooley and Kevin today with their thoughts on the news that broke late in their show that Washington will part ways with Alex Smith. That conversation comes towards the end of the show and follows a conversation about what each would do with Brandon Scherff over the next week. Also, some WR talk and recaps of the Wizards' loss and the Terps' win. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. All right, it's a Cooley and Kevin Monday today. There was a lot of action. Hoops action, hockey action over the weekend. There were a couple of Washington football team related stories.

I mean, a lot of people think Curtis Samuel is going to be a target for Ron Rivera and company. We've got more on Brandon Sheriff today. There was the Dan Snyder. Adam Schaefter thing. We're going to get to all of that. But two things. One, I didn't do a Saturday podcast because the guests that I was going to have didn't materialize.

It would have been a big, heavyweight guest. And he promised me in the future we would do it. He's been on the radio show before. I'm not going to mention his name. He was in town. He's a big time coach. He's been on the radio show two or three times before when he's been in town, before. But I think we'll be able to get that done at some point down the road. One of my favorite

coaches, by the way. Secondly, Cooley sent me a video right before we started recording this morning because he's been talking a lot about skiing and his daughter and son who have been on skis very early age. That was pretty impressive. That video you sent me of Sloan going down the mountain in front of you. By the way, the conditions look cold and snowy, but she is, she's a natural Four times in. She's ready to roll, dude. She's moved past straight pizza. The straight pizza stop? You know what I realized to anyone that's teaching skiing? Yeah.

Now it's pizza in French fry. What's never pizza? I didn't have ski lessons. I mean, my parents took me and taught me. We always called it snowplow. Oh. The pizza. Did you call it pizza? Yeah, pizza. I always remember. it pizza. You just turn those skis in to slow it down in sort of the shape of pizza

you didn't call it pizza when you were No, you didn't learn to ski when you were a kid did you? No, I didn't ski as a kid but I think when I It's probably more of A my kids thing. Yeah, when they got lessons That's probably true. I don't remember how I was taught. I think I just got on skis and said let me see what

happens. But you know, it is one of those sports that if you learn at a super young age. That's the key. You learn fast. Yeah. She looks awesome. She's doing great.

It really is one of those sports where I really think you can end up spend a lot of time with your family. God, what a beautiful backdrop. The mountains. Yeah, it's cool, isn't it? Yeah. She wants her at the chairlift by herself, but I'm not ready for that yet.

She got to let that. You just, you know what? Let the chair do all the work. Yeah, well, she, she, She actually has to do some work because... Oh, she's got to get up on it. Get up on. Because of her height, yeah. And I don't want her falling off of it and stuff, so.

Right. So you sit there with your arm and just sort of lift her up on it with you, right? Yeah, she's close. She gets like halfway. She could probably get on herself, but I don't know. That sucker gets high up over the ground. Yeah, it does. Just helicopter parent with that.

Well, you know what? First of all, there are a couple of things there. Number one, every once in a while because of something that happens on the exit or maybe on the entrance, you can get delayed up there for a while. I wouldn't want my young daughter up there freezing or, you know, you know, what's off. She's not, it's not cold. It's a long way up there. It looks cold in this video.

It snowed. It wasn't, we never felt cold. but I hear you I remember when the kids were young I didn't want them on that chair lift up that high without me on it yeah no I wonder like I'm sitting here thinking

if she's going a bunch you know maybe I told her maybe next year yeah so she had a little friend there and she was really mad at me you don't have a gondola ride up not at the place I was at no I don't think the other resort has one either

okay um the place I was at that it's a little little place. Three lifts. Two lifts. What's French fry? Both of them together.

Oh, got it. Oh, yeah, of course. She's a natural, man. I hate those, too. She looks totally confident. Yeah, it's really crazy. Three weeks ago, she wasn't. You know, at that. Five weeks ago,

she'd never skied. At that age, they're so low to the ground. It's like even if they go down, they bounce right back up. Here's the thing. The ski lesson stuff is awesome. I do think she learns more when she's just with me. But I took my son this weekend as well. And we stayed out with some friends late on Friday night, late for the kids until 10 o'clock.

And he was a monster. I tried to put it. It took me 30 minutes to get his boots on. He wouldn't, he wouldn't help me. He was pointing his toe straight down and it was a scene in the lodge. Oh, God. Like God. And he did a couple runs and then I let him get going a little bit.

And he kind of slid into the fence thing. He was fine. But, and then he just shut it down. He just shut it down. And so here's the thing with young kids. It's like they do learn quickly. But my God, it's a lot of work. skiing is a lot of work.

Didn't we have this conversation? To me, with kids, it is so much work. Put your boots on, put your coat on. My daughter can usually get her coat or gloves and stuff on. She can't zip her coat up. She's got her gloves on. Zip your coat up. Get your helmet on.

You got to wear your helmet. What is this thing with helmets too? It's almost like you're wrong if you're not wearing a helmet skiing. I'm like, I'm not going to fall in my head. Why would I wear a helmet? It's a leisurely ski. I'm a good skier. Yeah.

I'm not falling on my head. I can just imagine the scene with Bodie trying to get his stuff on, and he's been up, you know, until 10 o'clock the night before, so he's already, he's already agitated, and there you are, and the boot won't go on, and you got the, you're trying to buckle the thing, and he's thrown his gloves on the ground. What kind of scene was it? How did Dad handle the scene? Poorly. I handed it all right. How did you handle it? Well, there's a lot to it because he wanted socks on and then he wanted socks off. And then he got hot and then he wanted this coat off.

And then he wanted to try it himself. Then he wanted to do this. And like, I was talking to him calmly most of the time until he freaked out about his socks. And then I stayed calm in my voice, but I ganked his sock off. Get that off. All right. Needs to calm down right now. Like you'll grit your teeth, talk through your teeth.

Yeah. He's got to know. This is going on 30 minutes. I mean, this is, we tried at the car. They didn't go all the way on. These boots fit, Kev. They went on at the store just fine. They slid right on.

You know, the ski boots are tough, but he's got to lift his toe up a little bit. He can't curl his toes down or his foot won't go in. I'm getting mad talking about it right now. Just driving crazy. Oh, those moments. That's the thing, because I've talked to two or three other parents around here. there's a lot of kids up there.

There's not, and there's young kids, but yeah, a lot of the parents here are like, I know, we need to take them. I don't want to. I am convinced. It's taking a kid skiing is hard. Oh, it's so much work. I'm convinced that that's why I didn't ski when I was a kid, because I can only imagine my father, God bless him.

And we talked all weekend long, and, uh, I love you, dad. He's been in the hospital for several days, but he's going to be all right. But he was much more into warm weather sports, and I just don't see the whole skiing thing ever. It never appealed to him, nor did it my mother. So we didn't ski as kids. The first ski trip I ever went on was like a school ski trip to Massanutton down in Harrisonburg. you know, or down there.

And it was the first time ever on skis. I was like probably 13 years old, 14 years old. And I do like skiing and I like the whole, I love everything that comes with skiing, you know, the opera ski and the fun and the and the cold weather and the beautiful scenery and all of that. But we were a warm weather vacation family. And really with my boys, same thing. warm weather vacation.

My boys would much rather, and now we did go skiing, but we didn't do the big trips out west. Like we did a lot of wisp and Deep Creek Lake and, you know, a lot of that. And we were out west once, but it was more or less, let's find a place with an ocean, sand, golf,

putt putt golf, and ice cream. And a boardwalk and ride. and rides. Let's do that. Playland. No boots. You don't have to put any boots on. You don't have to get,

you don't have snot running down your face and you're rubbing it with the mittens that you just put on. And now because snots on it, you rip the mittens off and they throw them down on the ground. Oh my God, those days are the, they're the worst. It's so much work skiing with kids.

So much work. Wow. So much work to do. anything with them. But why add to it with, I mean, a pair of shorts and a swimsuit and a shirt and

a sandbucket and a couple of shovels. Yeah, just be careful. Just to your waist. Although, you know, the truth is, and Scott called me about this. I remember Scott was down at the beach with the kids recently and he's got super young kids at an older age because he got

married later and had kids. later. Like he'll always say to me, I remember when you were going through this and you would seem just completely spent physically, mentally everything else, and I just didn't get it. And now I get it. Like he goes, I can't have fun at the beach anymore because I'm sitting there standing right by the edge watching every one of their moves to make sure they don't get swept away. Yeah, there's a lot of that too on a rough day at the ocean. It's, These are the, so your kids are Scott's ages, you know, kids' ages. And this is fun, but it's also really in many ways incredibly stressful.

And a lot of parents will say to you, yeah, wait till they, you know, start heading out on Friday night and Saturday night and they're dating and they're doing this. I don't know. I think that's a lot less stressful on the parents. It's a different stress. That's one of those things that you do have to rely on and on your parenting, a lot. little bit. Did I teach them the right things? And are they going to make good decisions? Yeah, exactly. Right now, it's not all about their decisions that they can't make. They don't know how to make them. They have not been in a lot of these situations. Right. I mean, it's like I have some

helicopter to make sure that they make them or my wife. No, I think that you don't want to miss anything. And I've thought this for a long time. That at two years from now, when my, My son's about my daughter's age. Right after five for her. She had enough independence that I could trust her to kind of run around to do some things. He's five. She's eight. We'll be in Utopia.

And then you have about five years of that. Right. Until she's a teenager. And then we'll see how that goes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think I would say that what you went through is honestly the most stressful

situation for a parent because you're in public. And when your kids aren't doing what you're telling them to do... I didn't even care. See, I... I kind of cared. I kept my voice down. It's not like I would have done the same thing at home, though. I would have acted the same way.

Yeah, but there's an extra like, oh my God, please, because now everybody, I mean... And by the way, in those situations, every other parents just sitting there watching, like, let's find out how this one handles it, you know? I think it's definitely more stressful, even if you don't give a shit what anybody else thinks. And I would say that more times than not, I couldn't have given a shit. But I did not, I did not want, and look, every parent goes through this,

you know, and they'll say, well, that didn't happen. When my father raised his voice, we shaped up immediately. We didn't keep going. Yeah, okay, whatever. No, no, they do. But you know what raise your voice means, right? It means go to level 10. Exactly.

To the point where you actually frighten them. Yeah. And they're like, oh, my God. That's raising your voice. They don't want to. Now you're embarrassing them, so they have to stop. Oh, I know. Yeah, it's, uh...

No, 10 only happens at home. Isn't it fun, though, when you get back in and you can just drink hot chocolate and eat grilled cheese sandwiches with French fries? That's the easy part of the day. Dad, I want to go nice. skiing. We're not going night skiing. We're not. But I want to. Although it's less crowded.

I don't care. Maybe we'll go tomorrow. Not. No, it. That night skiing thing, I can remember. God, it's so interesting that you bring that up. I remember being at Wisp one year, because we were up there a lot because my brother-in-law and sister-in-law

had a great cabin up there that we used a lot when the kids were younger. I told you, my brother-in-law had all the toys, he had snowmobiles, he had four wheelers, the whole thing. And then, you know, Wisp was, you know, it's a good mid-Atlantic resort because of the altitude and the amount of natural snow that it gets, which is what we talked about last week briefly, but got to remember one year. And I want to say that it was New Year's Eve, and we were up there, and it was New Year's Eve, and it was snowing like hell. And Casey, my oldest and I went night skiing, and we were like the only people out there. And it

was the most peaceful thing. Like the snow is coming down and, you know, you can, you know, it's lit up and no one else is really there. And it was just so peaceful. And we had the best time. And at that point, he was old enough where, you know, it wasn't a problem. And he was just, he was thrilled and excited. And God, I'll never forget that night.

Never forget that night. Awesome. Anyway. Okay. I am going to talk, you didn't watch any, you didn't watch Maryland or hear about the Wizards finish last night, did you? No. I'm going to explain the Wizards finish to you, and I think you're going to follow along because of your intellect when it comes to sports. And we will do that right after this word from one of our sponsors, and then we'll get to several Washington football-related topics from over the weekend.

Excellent double team. He puts up a shot anyway, and the Celtics escape. That was the final attempt by Bradley Beale there at the end that missed. The Wizards lost to the Celtics 11-110-110. Maryland beat Michigan State and badly 73 to 55. We're going to cover both of those games in this segment, excuse me, and then we'll get to some of the Washington football team news from over the weekend. So Cooley, I'm going to start with the Wizards, even though the Maryland game's more important to me.

I want to start with this game because there was so, much to this game at the end in particular, and you've watched the highlights of it. I'm going to start with this. So I've told you many times over the years that I think when you bet sports, you have a different perspective. And sometimes it's a sharper perspective, in my opinion, and sometimes it really doesn't matter. But I can just tell you, as someone who's bet basketball and bet the NBA for many, many years, there were two games this weekend. the Wizards played. And they both were games in which they looked like the wrong side. You know, they came into this weekend off that road trip where they had, you know,

beaten the Blazers, beaten the Lakers, beaten the Nuggets, he had won three or four. They had won six of their last seven games going into their games Saturday night against the T-wolves who were terrible. And they were only a four-point favorite on Saturday night over Minnesota. And I was like, oh, wait, what? What am I missing? The Timberwolves are seven and 26. The Wizards have won six of seven, and the Wizards are only four-point favorites over Minnesota. I will just tell you, I had Minnesota for the maximum allowed on Saturday night. Had them on the money line, too. I just figured this is what, you know, average to less than average teams do. They play really well, and then they come home, and they're playing a

a bad team and they completely, because they're immature and they're not very good to begin with, they overlook the game and they get absolutely their asses handed to them. Well, it didn't happen. They beat Minnesota soundly. Now, they were down in the first half for a while and then they had this huge third quarter and they won going away. So I lost. Yes, I bet against my favorite teams sometimes. I do it actually quite often when I, because sometimes I feel like I know my team. I know my team better. And I knew that they should have been like. like a nine-point favorite, not a four-point favorite. And Vegas thought that it was a trap game for the Wizards too.

But I bring this up because as a better, when you start to see teams essentially prove the boys in the desert wrong, then you start to take notice. So they proved them wrong on Saturday night. And then last night against Boston, they are a seven-point underdog to the Celtics. and Jalen Brown, the Celtics leading score or second leading score with Jason Tatum, is out. He's got an injury, he's out, and the line doesn't move at all. And I'm like, they're going to get run out of the building tonight. By the way, the Celtics have not been playing well at all.

The Celtics, you know, if you're following the NBA, you know the struggles they have had. So I thought last night was the night, okay, you know, it's the second half of a back-to-back for the Wizards. The Celtics have had some rest. They're laying this big number even without their star player. Vegas is expecting the Wizards to get run out of the building. It didn't happen again. They should have won the game, which we'll get to. They only lost by one they covered.

And I'm just going to tell you that this weekend, for me and my perspective, was very encouraging as a Wizards fan, that they are actually playing well, but they may be better than just playing well. They may be actually developing into a decent team. They have won seven of their last nine games, and it should have been eight of their last nine after last night. So we get to last night's game.

Bradley Beale had 46 points. Cooley, how about this? Bradley Beale's last 11, 40 plus point games, his team has lost all 11 of them. In his last 11 games where he's gone for 40 or more, his team is 0.11. That just doesn't even make sense. Now, Beal, last night, played, I think, personally, the best game that I have watched him play this year. I haven't seen every game.

But it was almost, it was a sign of maturity. Beal knew that this was a game that Vegas and Oddsman. and betters. And by the way, he doesn't have to even feel that to know that second half of a back-to-back, playing a team that's fresher, you know, this is where you usually get beat and you get beat badly. And he understood that. And he came out and played incredible on both ends of the floor, almost willing his team to a win. It's like, you know what, if we're going to be a good team, we don't lose on the back half of a back-to-back against a team with one of their two best players out. We go out and we get the job done and we win a game that in most cases, average

to less than average teams don't win. And usually they get run. Like, it's like 128 to 108. And they're in this game pretty much the whole way. There was a point in the third quarter where they were down 11. But Beal just kept a minute with incredible scoring. By the way, he's such a eight in the fourth quarter. Yeah, we'll get to that. They were down 11 in the third quarter, though. I know, but they're more than in it in the fourth. Yeah, definitely, and we'll get to the ending here in a moment. But Beal, you know, he's not an MVP candidate, people. A lot of you, what about, are you going to start talking about Beal's an MVP candidate? We looked this up on the radio show this morning. He's not even in the top 15 of the odds. You've got to be on a winning team to win the NBA MVP.

Joel Embed and LeBron. I think LeBron's won Embed and you. Yokic and Donchich, you know, are all basically there. And there are several players, Lillard and Steph, that are in front of Beal. And Beal's not an MVP candidate, but he is having a phenomenal year. And one of the things that I think he's really good at, he's very decisive offensively, and he gets downhill in a hurry, and he can cover a lot of ground on two dribbles. And he finishes well, and then he's got the step back in the mid-range, and he's got a three-point, he can shoot from range. He's just great. He was great on defense last night, had a huge block, had a huge save. I just loved the game he played last night. I thought it was one of the more mature games

and a real understanding of these are usually the games we get our asses kicked in. Uh-uh. We are, I'm dialed in. I'm going to make sure everybody else is dialed in. We can win this game. They're not playing well and they're without Jalen Brown. So anyway, they had this game, they had this game, you know, locked up, not locked up. The NBA, an eight-point lead with 240 left, 250 left is not locked up. And that's how much they led by with 250 left, 106 to 98. Then they were up 110, 105 with 46.5 seconds left. And then sort of all hell broke loose.

And Scott Brooks got blamed by a lot of the fans for a lot of what happened. And I'll get to why I would not blame Scott Brooks for most of it here in a moment. But you've seen it now. First of all, it starts with defensively. Their defensive possessions were terrible. They let Jason Tatum just score too easily on two buckets that made it 110 to 109. In between there, Russell Westbrook missed a three-pointer from the corner. A lot of people asked me, that's not who you want shooting that shot.

Well, he had just made one about a minute and a half earlier, you know, and he's been playing much better. I personally want the ball in Beale's hands, not Westbrook's hands. I don't mind Westbrook's shooting that. shot. I actually don't in that spot. I would have preferred... He could hit a three. Well, he's not a great three-point shooter by any stretch, but he had just made one, and he's been playing better. I think if he's got the ball in his hands, there's a better chance that something terrible is going to happen. Like, they're not going to get a shot off. By the way, they were crowding Beale. They were doubling him, you know, in the fourth quarter. And so Beal made the right play. Now we get to the very end.

So Westbrook misses that. Tatum makes... an easy shot. It's 110.109 with 15 seconds to go. And a lot of you said, you got to call time out, advance the ball 15 seconds and throw it in up court, and Brooks made a terrible decision. And Brooks did say after the game, he goes, I should have called a time out there. Okay. I disagree. I think with 15 seconds left and only one time out left, if you can get to take the ball out of the net and get it in bounds real quickly to one of your best players like Bradley Beale, you know, and he can get into the open court and burn some clock before getting fouled. I'd rather have that in case they make a three on the other end

than I can use my last time out to advance the ball in a tie game. But what happened on that play, which you've watched, is they do get the ball immediately into Beale. And what Beal did, it was the biggest mistake he made all night, in my opinion. He waited to get fouled. You can't wait to get fouled with 50s. 15 seconds left, you know, in a one-point lead. You wait to get fouled with five seconds to go, with six or seven seconds to go, but if you watch that, he is not trying to advance the ball.

He's not trying to get into the clear. He's not trying to get fouled in the open floor. He is covering the ball, protecting the ball, waiting to get fouled. Now, the bad luck was the floor was wet because Tatum had hit the shot, hit the ground, and he slipped on the floor, slipped out of bounds and it ended up being a turnover. But I didn't have any issue with Scott Brooks not calling a timeout, which by the way, when Beal got the ball and got trapped, he tried to call timeout. They didn't give it to him. Beal can't hold the ball with 15. Look, if he doesn't slip there coolly, there's a chance he's going to get tied up and it's going to be a jump ball. So what does he do? Well, you get that ball inbound. You immediately turn it and you face the open

floor and you look for a quick pass to the middle of the floor or you immediately split that that trap that's coming, which he could have, which he could have, and then you're into the open floor and maybe you get fouled in the process or maybe you get fouled in the open floor after burning another second or two. He made a mistake there. He had a great game. You don't wait to get fouled with 15 seconds. That's not a good idea. He would have been tied up had he not slipped, and there would have been a jump ball. I mean, maybe they would have called the foul there, but that was not what you do in that situation. So he made a mistake there. Brooks didn't make the mistake in my view there. So on the turnover, they get Beal matched up against Tatum. I actually

thought Beal did a phenomenal job against Tatum in that spot, and Tatum's great. He's fucking awesome. I mean, these were two of the best offensive scores in the game going head to head. And Tatum makes a really tough move. And I actually thought he might have gotten fouled on the shot that he makes with 4.7 seconds left. By the way, they nearly threw away the inbounds pass because the Wizards guarded it closely. So now you take that last time out, you advance the ball, 4.7 seconds left. So first of all, before we get to the last play, what did you think of him turning it over there? Well, I think you're talking about the B.O. play on the inbounds.

Yeah, on the inbounds. You got to go, man. Yeah. I mean, now if they had Ralph Spider-Edwards sweeping the floor, has now since passed away, famous floor sweeper for the Boston Celtics, that would have never happened. He would have got that thing. Spider would have had that mop out there real quickly.

They've taken care of business. I'm really struggling to find out who the actual mopper was at this point. but I mean there's no way you're situationally you're like can't go there the thing is

is he's just got to go I mean he falls down hard because of the sweat but there's 12 seconds Kev yeah I don't want to go to the line with 12 seconds

I want to avoid getting fouled for as long as I can so Bill gets it He's got, who wears 17? Is that Bongo? Yeah, Bongo is out there. You got Bongo white open. Yeah, I don't know if you want Banga at the free throw line.

Well, yeah, I don't know if he's thinking about that. The second he gets stuck in that trap, he's just hoping he gets fouled. He's just hoping he gets fouled. It just extends the game so much and so much can happen in the NBA game with these guys that can score. down. Nine seconds. I mean, going up three doesn't insure anything with nine seconds. I actually loved how Westbrook jumps out after the make, gets it in quickly to Beale. Now you space the floor. By the way, somebody's got to be in the middle of the floor. Whoever's guy comes to trap has to be the outlet in the middle of the floor for Beal. But Beal wasn't going to find anybody anyway. He was just sitting

there back turned to the action waiting to get fouled. That was that was the mistake. Like Bradley was playing it like there were five seconds left in the game, not 15. because with five seconds, they have to foul. And he wants to be the guy to go to the line, but they don't have to foul there. They're trapping him to try to turn him over. And if he doesn't slip, I'm telling you, to me, the odds of a tie-up and a jump ball are equal to him getting fouled. It was the wrong plan of action for him. It was he had such a-

It was not. It was just freeze. Someone going to file me? What are we going to do here? No, we're not. There's still 15 seconds, 14, 13, 12. We think we could. Oh, you slipped.

You slipped. It's our ball. So that's just not, to me, a Scott Brooks situation. I'm sorry. You go to the Wizards final play with 4.7 seconds left, now down 11, 110. First of all, I am absolutely, you know, in this situation, I'm not using Bradley Beal as a decoy. I want Bradley Beal to have, he's got 46 points in the game, you know, but here's the thing, Cooley, when you run a play for him to come off the screen and catch the ball heading towards

the corner with 4.7 seconds left, you are asking for the double team in the trap. and I'll spend literally 30 seconds on this. At a youth level, one of the things you do as a coach, a basketball coach, if you know what you're doing, is you explain to your players what the sideline and what the baseline and what the half court line mean in terms of extra defenders and how that impacts the game. What we call in the trade the trap areas. You don't want to get into a trap area where if you've crossed half court, you've got the half court line now that becomes a defender or the same.

sideline. Every single team I've ever coached for as long as I've coached, especially at young ages, I have a one-three one-half-court trap that I play coolly, and I coach it, a lot of people do this. I coach it never to trap in the back court, but to bait the ball handler to cross half court in the trap area, sideline, half court, and then you jump them. Because now there are four players around that player. There's the sideline. There's the half court line. There are two players. And if you step up and you cover with rotation, the easy passes, their only play is to throw it way over the court to the other side of the court, which you would then have time to recover on if they make that pass. Like when you beat a half court trap, you beat it with passing by never dribbling into a

trap area. But you keep it in the back court. You don't want to cross half court with a dribble unless it's in the middle of the floor. And in that particular situation, they ran a play for Beal to catch the ball with 4.7 seconds left in a trap area. And they had always- Well, it's also a bad pass that turns him inside instead of turning him outside. But true. So he can't, so he loses all momentum.

If the pass carries him to where he can turn over his left, over his right shoulder, and just turn and face the hoop and shoot, he's going to get a shot. But he's got to turn inside because Westbrook throws a pass that just doesn't lead him enough. If you watch the pass again, and it's contested, but Beale has to then rotate all the way back inside, which makes it tough. You could have got a shot in the corner, which is probably what they were designing. No, they want, what they're designing is for him to be able to catch that on the move and attack the rim. Well, if the pass is enough. But you don't want that pass to come in that direction.

that. Beal can't, Beal's got to let that carry him and turn the opposite direction. Look. It's just like when you catch a hitch in football and you turn back inside into traffic. Catch a hitch, you turn and rotate out to the sideline. Right. It's the same thing. I mean, Beal's got to turn the opposite way with that. It's a mistake by both of them.

But that allows the trap. They would have beat the trap. See. He would have beat, he would have beat his dude. Who's on him? Tatum. you can't no you can't

I understand what you're saying but can't run him in that direction he's got to catch the ball in the middle of the floor in that spot and let me just mention this and this is where I give Brooks some fault for running that play with four point look with 4.7 seconds left you can't

you can't have him moving that far towards a trap area bad pass or not I'm going to go look at the pass again because I did not take that that into consideration. It's not the worst pass, but it's behind him. Okay, here it is. Hold on. See, I mean, he is coming off a screen outside the three-point line heading for the corner of the floor.

So, well, you know, the pass isn't terrible. And the bottom line here is. Doesn't do many favors. Turn, though. But two things. One, you can't design that play. If he's going to come off the screen, he's got to come off the screen, he's got to catch the ball inside the three point line with more space on both sides.

Number two is this, and I'm going to blame Beal a little bit for this. Again, brilliant game. I think one of the more mature games I've seen in play until the very end. I really think Beal, as a basketball player, you know, you know as a basketball player when you catch the ball or when you're in an area that's easy to trap. and you have an instinct for that and you immediately try to extricate yourself from that with either a quick pass or a quick turn in a split of the coming double team.

And he didn't seem aware that it was going to happen. And by the way, nobody helps him out. You've got to immediately, like Westbrook's got to cut towards the basket there because it's his man that ultimately was the crap. and score get fouled. But Beal doesn't feel that it's coming and he should have. I don't think. He wants it.

Well, first of, I mean, you go even further. It's a bad screen by old Raul. Netto, yeah. I mean, he barely even gets a piece to Tatum. Right. Yeah, and then Bill, and look, here's the thing. Bill's shooting that ball in his mind. Oh, no doubt.

Well, he's a game he's had, like, he's done. He's taking the shot. Yeah. He's not going to look. to pass because he could have got it back out to Westbrook. You have to. You have to because Westbrook's man is the man doubling. And he's wide open.

He's going to get a clean shot. If you can't. The main thing about is Bill almost makes the shot. It's incredible that he almost made that shot. Incredible. But you just can't as a team, you can't put a player into a position for an easy, you know, trap and in a trap area. and Beal didn't sense that, which surprised me,

because he could have immediately attacked by splitting the double, but really the ball should have gone right back to Westbrook, who should have attacked the rim and tried to hit a layup at the buzzer. But that's because of the play that was designed. Beale was going to get doubled with 4.7 seconds regardless. And the other thing you do also Cooley, anytime under five seconds in situations like that, you're going to switch every screen.

And you switch every screen defensively because there's no time to take advantage of a matchup, you know, advantage, right? Like usually when you switch, you hope that you don't end up with a bad matchup, like a point guard on a center or a center guarding a point guard, right? But with less than five seconds to go, there's no time to take advantage of that mismatch if it comes off a switch screen. You don't want anybody to come clear off a screen, so you switch it. They weren't even going to switch it. They were just going to double him. That was the plan. It was a great plan. He nearly makes the shot. You can't give him the ball there, number one. But number two, Beale's got to have a better sense of, ooh, I'm catching this towards a trap area. They've been doubling me. Less than five seconds. Of course they're going to double me. I better look to attack immediately before it gets here or get it right back to the passer whose man came to doubly. And as soon as that pass turned him inside, which I still don't even think I would have to watch it.

50 times. As soon as it turned him back inside, he's got to get rid of the ball. Yep. Yeah, it was a rough ending. We should go coach an AAU team. Oh, I did for many years. I can just tell you that that was an improvement. I know that they lost the game and it was a brutal loss and it was one of those at the end. I'm like, damn, that would have been a hell of a win. They'd have been 14 and 18. They would have been, you know, here they are on what? That would have been eight out of their last nine.

and, you know, they are really hot in moving up the standings, which they are. And that just would have been a really good win. You know, right now, they are only three and a half games out of fourth in the east. They're three and a half games at a fourth place. The Knicks are in fourth, which is amazing the year they're having. And the Wizards are three and a half games behind them. There's a lot of teams bunched up. It just, I would have loved to have seen.

them get that one, but I was also incredibly encouraged with them not getting trapped, which was, I'm telling you, I didn't bet against them last night, even though I really liked the Celtics laying the six and a half seven, because they had done what they had done the night before. I think it's a really good sign. Betters who are listening to this understand what I'm saying, and a lot of you don't, and that's fine. I'm okay with that. Just understand, last night, Vegas thought Boston was going to win big.

because it usually happens that way. Second half back to back with average teams that have been playing well recently and are coming off a win, you know. And then, oh, by the way, a little bit of a letdown because one of the best players on the other team isn't playing. And when the line didn't go down because Jalen Brown was out, then I was absolutely convinced they were going to lose. Anyway, good win for the Celtics.

A brutal ending for the Wizards. You know, eight point lead, two 40 left, five point lead, 46 seconds. It's the NBA. Lots of shit happens in the final three minutes, two minutes of a game. But that was certainly a winnable game. On the Terps, Cooley, real quickly. For those of you that didn't listen to the radio show, I had Turgeon on at the end of the show. So it's in hour three. You can go listen to it on the team 980.com or the radio.com app. He was excellent. He actually was really good. but man, for all of you that listen, that, you know, crush me as a turge apologist, it was another bad day for you guys.

Look, there are two things that are true. He is not accomplished enough in March, and he's also a good coach. Both of those things are true. And right now, he is proving what a good coach he is. They have won five games in a row. They lost, you know, Stick Smith last year, top 10 in the draft, Anthony Cowan, four-year senior, one of the best point guards in America. This was supposed to be sort of a transition year and non-tournament year.

They're going to make the tournament. They're locked that up yesterday. They're going to be in the tournament. But more than that, they're a really, they're a good team right now. And they're not. They're really good on defense. They're exceptional in defense. And they are improving offensively.

When did Michigan State score their first basket? Like 12 minutes left in the first half? Yeah, it was six plus minutes into the game, I think. it was 11 to nothing and you've been to Maryland games with me how was this that place would have been delirious yeah I literally asked you like I forgot about what's going on right now just assuming you were there no no nobody's I know you weren't I know I know you weren't it's funny because it isn't it's here I know what's going on in the world yeah it's another world where I live I know it is I know it is. No one has been at a Maryland game. And it's funny because I said to Turg, I said, you know, I, and I made this comment with the help of my boy Hayden, who actually texted me something similar. But I, I so identified with his thought, Hayden in Virginia, who's a big listener to the podcast and the radio show. And, you know, you know I'm a big college basketball fan. I'm a big hoops fan, but I love college basketball. And I think sometimes in this sport, people,

the casual sports fan, you know, they pay attention in March. And everything that happens in March is what matters. And to me, the journey to the tournament, which is what Maryland's gone, you know, there's so many, it's so enjoyable. And I think it's way underappreciated by the average fan who only cares about March. When you're in a big time league and you're playing these big time important games and the intensity of these games, you should enjoy it. I mean, not every team gets to play in these games every year, and Maryland does. You know, last year, some of the regular season wins they had at Indiana, Illinois, the comeback at Northwestern, the comeback at Minnesota with the Darryl Morsell shot, the incredible all-time memorable finish at Michigan State

when Anthony Cowan had their final, you know, 12 of 14 points or whatever it was. It's a sport where everybody's dialed in on what are you do in March. But, you know, there are incredible games that go on. I'm enjoying, as I have with this team the last few years, the journey. Like, I'm sitting there coolly yesterday. That was intense. That's Izzo. That's Michigan State.

they've beaten two top five teams this week alone to get back into contention for the tournament. They're coming in, you know, ready to roll Maryland. Maryland, by the way, was a three-point favorite, which led me to believe that we were going to win big. The Terps have won four in a row. Turgeon's got them playing as maybe one of the top five defensive teams in America, and now they've gotten their offense going and they're confident. The intensity of that game at times, it would, It was so much fun to watch.

And Maryland pulled away at the end. They made every big play. Michigan State could have been tired. Who knows? I don't think it would have mattered. Maryland's playing very well right now. And I'm telling you, Cooley, there aren't 20 teams in America better than they are right now. There aren't 15, there aren't 18 teams in the country better than Michigan State and

Maryland are right now. I don't know if Michigan State's going to make the tournament. They have Michigan twice Indiana this week. they probably have to win two of the three. Maryland's in. They're a lock. They're profiled. Their Ken Palm now is up to like 26, I think it is. And their net ranking is like 28. They could lose to Northwestern Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten tournament, and they're still in. Their profile is third toughest schedule in the country they have faced. And they have five wins against Quad 1 teams. I mean, they're only 12 teams or third.

teams in the country that have that. They're going to be in and they've actually got a chance if they can really, if they can beat Northwestern, which is a trap game. Trust me. I will tell you whether or not they're going to win that game when I see that point spread. I asked, I told Turgeon this morning, I said, you know this is a trap game, right? Like, you're going to have to really have them ready. Does anyone text Turgeon more than you?

Probably. About his team. Scott probably does. He probably does. No, I'm sure a lot of people. You guys should just grinned text him. But he, I said to him this morning on the radio show. I go, this is one of those trap games.

You come off a big win, and Northwestern's capable. They just beat Minnesota. They got some shooters. And he said to me, he goes, I'm going to know tomorrow in practice. You know, and if we're dialed in like we've been, he goes, I know what you're saying. Like, he was not unaware. They're on a heater, man. You never leave a heater.

They are on a heater right now. They're on a heater. If they can win these two games and win a Big Ten game, they're going to be, they could get as high as like a six seed. I don't want to see him as an eight, nine in Gonzaga's region, because then maybe you win a first round game, maybe you don't, and then you get Gonzaga in the second round game. Turgeon said to me this morning, he goes,

I think our best basketball is ahead of us. I think he's right. It's weird. You know, you have it. Don't jinx it, man. You need to text him. You need to text him like you did. I did.

I told on. I said I'm not jinxing it. I'll say something bad about it. Did you tell him what he needed to fix after the game? No, I didn't. Well, that worked. It's weird. That when you did that, it worked.

What's, you need to get back to it. Let's get a text together. What could they fix, Kev? No. After yesterday, honestly, nothing. They were flawless yesterday. Flawless. You know, though, in basketball, Cooley, especially college basketball,

it's all matchups, man. We talk about that a lot in football. In college basketball, in a 40-minute game, it seems to fly by. You can have a really good team and in a one-and-done, just get a team that you don't, for whatever reason, match up well with, or vice versa. I think a lot of teams are going to have a problem with Maryland defensively. They've got a bunch of guys, 6-5-6-8 that all have long wingspans, and they are one of the best perimeter defensive teams.

teams in America. And they are really getting confident offensively. Anyway, I'm enjoying this season. And for those of you that just don't think he's a very good coach, you're wrong. You're right about the March results at a place like Maryland. They have to be better. I agree with you. I think he would agree with you. But enjoy some of these games. I mean, they're going to be in the tournament for the sixth time in seven years. You know, that's, you keep going to the tournament every year. You know, it took Gary a while to bust through too. I mean, the difference is Gary was getting to sweet 16s all the time,

even when he wasn't getting to final fours. But anyway, I loved the game yesterday, and I really like this team right now. They're fun to watch. All right, up next, several Washington football topics. We'll get to right after this word from one of our sponsors. All right, we're going to get to a few Washington football related topics here in a moment. I have a question for you.

It's a personal question. Okay. How much money gross did you make in your career? I don't know. All right. We can figure it out. I have sort of figured it out. But, and by the way, it's just in my playing career?

Yeah. You signed three, you basically signed your rookie deal. I didn't get my last two years of my deal. What'd you say? I didn't get the last two years of my contract. Right, but you got the first four at $5 million per year. Well, that's not really what it was. I guess it was with signing bonus, right?

That second deal had to pay you close to $25 million gross. No. Because I did, my last two years, it was like 22, 23. Okay. Well, that's close enough. And your rookie deal was $800,000 and then... $3.50, $4.55.5.50. God.

It's like just under $2 million. Gross. And when did they come to you during your rookie deal to give you that new contract? Well, that started after my third season. And my agent had a deal emailed into them, the late Gary Wachard, which was like a six-year extension for 55. million dollars and they in the team wasn't responding to that and I did a lot you know me I did a ton of research and I went through everything and I'm like that I mean if I went to pure free agency

I could get something like that potentially in a new deal but that's that's not going to happen and his thing was well even if you get tagged I mean that's what your deal would be worth two years from the time I signed the deal but I'll be honest with you I should have had more confidence in myself and who I was as a player, but I wanted it done. And so as we got close to the end of the year, I got a call from the owner. At the end of 2006?

No, sorry, as we got close to the beginning of 2007. Right. We were through training camp, almost through training camp. And I got a call from the owner. He said, come in, let's talk about this. and I have I had done all the research so I end up sitting down with the owner and Eric Schaefer it was a Friday after the last Thursday preseason game

and we had the deal done by noon did Gary Wichard want you to do that your agent? Probably not did he ever say anything to you? No congratulations You know, I should have said to the team, in hindsight, I should have said to the team. Just, I'll sign this deal in two days, but I have to submit the letter to fire my agent. Because I negotiated the whole deal. Why should I pay anything?

I ended up paying the 3% out of that deal, which was dumb. But I was happy with it. So when you're very happy. And I was, that next year was one of my best. years. So when you walked in, the owner calls you, come on in and talk about the contract. Does any part of you think, well, this is unusual. They've been dealing with my agent. And I know how you are, I'm going to take control of my own situation. I am not going to, you know, let an agent make a decision that's against my wishes, whatever. But you could have been just as firm with your agent

on, you know, what your guidelines were, what you would take, what you wouldn't take, all the research you had done, et cetera. But wasn't it a little weird that, I mean, how many guys did Snyder call in to negotiate a contract with? I don't know the answer to that question. Do you have any idea? I don't think anybody. Yeah, I was going to say, do you know anybody else that did it that way? No.

So do you think it worked out for you or didn't work out for you? Well, it did work out for me, but it could have worked out better that I waited. But it worked out. I have, I'm sitting here telling you I have no complaints with having done that. Actually, I have one complaint. I shouldn't have had, I shouldn't have done the extra year in the extension. Yeah, because you went through 2013. It was 2008 through 2003.

But it wouldn't have mattered because I ended up hurting my knee and, but I would have still been a year away. It would really, wouldn't have ended up mattering to me. What was your, what, give me your memory of what your research was and where you felt you should have been slotted. Do you remember? I think Witten had done an extension the year before for like 12-5 in signing bonus and 32 in gross, or 32 in total.

And I thought that was very comparable. At that point, I was, I'll debate this all day. I was every bit the Tide in Witten was at that point. Right. And I think I would have been, had I been healthy and had a quarterback my entire career. I don't think so. I watched a lot of film. I would have been.

Yeah, I think so too. I have no problem saying that. But I thought that was really comparable. And Jason's a great player and had a great career. I'm not saying that he didn't. So I thought that was fair. I think, you know, for me, the pending franchise tag after my fourth season, and keep in mind, my fourth season was like $600,000.

Right. It wasn't like I was, I signed it before. whatever that year was or $700,000 or whatever that was. I realize when we talk about that, it's a lot of money. But playing... Well, that's part of your rookie deal. Yeah, playing out that rookie deal with the potential to get tagged. And my tag was like $4.8 million at that point.

Had it not went well, and over the next two years, I made $5.6 million and end up netting three. That's not the best case scenario for me. Right. The way I looked at it. I thought there's no guarantee to what happens in the game, to what happens to me in life. To get a signing bonus of $14 million guaranteed was the best thing I could do.

And I was happy. I was comfortable. I played better. I felt better. I had less pressure. We've talked about this on the radio. show a lot of times, I've recommended over and over that players do the best deal for them when there's a time to do a great deal.

It's somewhat different now, though. Like if my franchise tag, what's a tight-in franchise tag? Like $12 million? I don't know. I mean, Kittle signed the big deal, which, by the way, is $15 a year. $10.1 million is a... I think so. Yeah.

Yeah, had my franchise tag number been $10 million instead of just under $5 million, that would have changed the way I would have viewed that whole situation. It certainly would have. I remember you were very adamant with Brian Arakpo that he get a long-term deal done rather than playing that one year on the franchise tag. I remember you, I forget if you actually told him that or not. I forget exactly how our conversation went, but I remember a RAC post franchise tag. You were like, dude, one year of 11 million, whatever it was, versus, you know, potentially getting a deal where, you know, you could get 40 million guaranteed. I thought he would have gotten a deal with like $9 million a year. But he wanted 11 or 12 a year.

But the point was he was going to get a longer term deal with a lot more guaranteed than just. just the 11 million. Yeah. If he did it six years or five years at $9 million a year, but in 45 total, he would have taken over 20 and guaranteed. Right. He would have made more money.

Yeah. Well, and probably had he done that deal, I don't know, he would have ended up making more money than he did in his career if he had done that that way. Now, it's, again,

it's a little different when he did it than let's say Brandon Sheriff. Brandon Sheriff knows his franchise tax. An exorbitant amount of money. so it's worth the risk his position. Yeah, so let's go to him because that was one of the subjects that I wanted to talk about. So we are now in that stretch of the football calendar where teams have until March 9th to slap the franchise tag on the player.

And then the league calendar begins March 15th, or March 17th actually, but teams can begin entering into contract negotiations with play. It's that, you know, quote, legal tampering period between the 15th and the 17th. So, remember that the guard tackle position as it relates to the franchise tag is combined, which benefits guards, obviously, because tackles make more money. Brandon Sheriff to play on a second tag this year would be $18 million. This would be the worst mistake the team can make, in my view. And I know some would say, well, they've got plenty of cap space.

It's not the point. The point is, first of all, he ain't worth $18 million for one year. Secondly, you are now basically ensuring that he's going to hit free agency next year. So if you don't get a long-term deal done with Brandon Sheriff, call it $15 million a year with $40 million guaranteed. Is that what you gave me last week? I forget what you gave me last week. You have to be prepared to move on from him.

No way do you give him a tag. And by the way, if you tag him, he will sprint to sign it. Why wouldn't he? These teams have to learn these lessons about, you know, players that are sort of, you know, you've got to get, you've got to be aggressive. They should have been aggressive last year, but Bruce lowballed. They were aggressive. No, they lowballed him.

They offered him $13 million a year. He was going to get a lot more in the tag. I think. I think they wanted to counter. And that's the one thing that I think they always made a mistake with, is they always wanted the player to have to counter back up. It was like, just give them what you're going to give them. You know what I'm saying?

Sometimes that works. Sometimes you have to set yourself off. But 13 isn't, like if it was 13, that's not really low-balling. I mean... When the franchise tag north of 15 million, or you're an unrestricted free agent, where Brandon Brooks got 14.8, Sheriff's agent clearly thought he was worth more than $13 plus million a year.

So it wasn't going to get it done. So they tagged him. And once you start down that path with a guard, let alone a quarterback, which they've experienced with, you're going to pay him $18 million. Right now, you're the general manager. You're Martin Mayhew, you're Marty Herney, you're Ron Rivera, you're sitting in that room. What is your conversation regarding Brandon Sheriff about? what are you going to do?

What aren't you going to do? Well, I'm not going to tag him because you're paying tackle and guard money when you tag him. Right. 18 million. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't have tagged him last year. I would have, and I would have at least had a verbal counter from his agent. Like, what do you guys need to get this done?

Just tell me what you need to get it done. Where are you? And they may have done that. And if it was, if it was. if it was 13-5, maybe. I mean, Kevin, nobody makes, like, the high number is $14 million a year. I don't want to pay guard $14 million a year. I hear you.

I don't want to pay a guard $13 million a year. If that was the offer, that's what Norville got two years ago. That's a high number. I don't want to pay that. I'll move on. I love Brandon Shiff. I told you this. I think he's the epitome of what you want.

He is. said he might not even be a top 10 guard and then you know we we did we I went through the guards he's a top 10 guard for sure okay but that's healthy all things going well and we went through the list of brand and sheriff's issues his injuries and what's went on he's not always healthy and he's not always playing he's missed no one third it that he's missed a third of his starts the last three years 16 out of no other team's going to project it that way in my opinion there'll be two or three other teams that end up competing that have money and we'll pay him. And that's the problem that Washington faces right now.

What makes it a conundrum is you want him because of who he is. You don't want to let him go. You love him. Yeah. You love his work ethic. You love his mentality. You love the leadership he provides. And his plays good.

It's really good. Right. Is he, he's a lead as a run blocker. He's not better than Quentin Nelson. He's the one that'll break the bank. he's the one that you would break it for, not Brandon Sheriff. I wonder what he gets in free, because the, I mean, there's just so much. Well, I mean, the caps down.

There's so many teams that, the caps down, but that's not going to, is that really going to matter to teams that have massive cap space? I don't know if that matters teams that have massive cap space. I mean, you can, you can weigh in what you need and where, I mean, what, where you expect to spend money. If you're going to draft a quarterback, you know that that's, not going to be a big cap number for your team for the next few years, but you don't know you're going to draft a quarterback. You might want to leave some of that cap space if there was potential to make a trade or acquire a quarterback next year. I'm not. And here's the other thing. Well, the other reason I'm not tagging him, not paying him

$18 million. You said it, and you're right. If you can't negotiate a deal that you like with him now, you're tagging him essentially hoping he has less of a season so you can pay him less thing like here, which is ridiculous. And you're not a Super Bowl contender, in my opinion. Right. So why are you going to spend $18 million? It's unfortunate the way you got to where you got. I mean, here.

What do you think he's hoping for? Do you think he? The highest money possible. All right. I mean, here's the thing. Yeah. I think he's probably hoping. Look, I'll just take the franchise tag number.

it's another guaranteed $18 million and then I'll sign another guaranteed contract next year $33 million for a guard in two years if he signs a tag if he's tag. I know. That's assonine. They're not going to do that. There's no way they would do that.

No way. They should not do that. Even though they have the cap space potentially to do it. But the point is the same point that I made to you with the cousins thing. Now you've paid him the $44 million in two years, which could have been your guaranteed money after $20,000. 2015 for a five-year deal. But now you've given it to him in two years, and here's the problem.

He has no incentive at all to sign a long-term deal when you are going to be forced to tag him at what was it going to be that year, $27 million or $25 million or whatever it was going to be. You're also conceding that you don't want to pay him the most money for an offensive guard, which is conceding that you don't believe he's the best guard in the league. Look, I don't really have much of an issue if they decide he's so important culturally, he's so important to the, you know, he's such a good player when he's healthy, that he, you know, that they believe his best football is ahead of them if they pay him 15 and 40 guaranteed. And he at least momentarily before Quentin Nelson gets to his next deal, his real deal, he momentarily might become the highest. paid guard in the league, briefly. I don't have a problem with that because it's like we always say, you know, today's,

overpay is tomorrow's bargain. You know, I talked about that with cousins all along. Like, you've got to view it that way. And it's a down-cap year, and then the cap could potentially exponentially increase, which means, you know, he may look at this deal in year three going, shit, there's six guards paid higher than I am. It's the Trent Williams situation, too. He would have, if they had done something with him, he would have been.

nowhere near where he ultimately, you know, wanted to be. I don't know, man. I think I would give him a long-term offer, like you said, to make him the highest. They have. I would make him, what do you mean they have? Well, to make him the highest paid? I'm talking, you think that there's no, there's been no reporting about this. They've made an offer that's a realistic offer.

They've made him an offer already. They've made him an offer already. But the problem is, is they let it get too far. They've made him an offer already this year, this offseason. I'm sure that they've made another. offer. A new. Sounded like you knew something.

No, I don't know any. I know nothing that goes on. You know I know I know. I would think that some, I would certainly think that they've had a lot of conversations, agent and, you know, Rob Rogers or Mayhew or whomever is handling that stuff.

If they don't make him an offer, if this next organization doesn't make him an offer that makes him the highest paid guard in the league, then there's two organizations that didn't want to make him the highest paid guard in the league. And so essentially that would say, Chris is probably right. He's probably about the fifth best guard in the week. I love the way you've come up five spots in a week.

Okay. I don't need. I'm just trying to think. After Quentin Nelson, honestly, I would have a hard time ranking guards. I mean, this is the area that is so hard for normal football fans. I mean, I certainly know that Norwell and Zach Martin are really good players. You know, and the guy from Tampa that they were raised. waving about in the postseason, the guy with Ali. Muppet. Marpet.

Marpet. Yeah. I know he's really good. But that's, you know. Okay. So you're going to move on. Well, I'm not tagging him. I'll make him a deal that we're exactly right now.

Does Brandon Banks, what was his 14. Here it is. 14.1, basically. Highest paid guard on average per year. I don't know what he got guaranteed money. We can look that up. 32 million. Okay. So to me, it is 15 and 35 to 40 guaranteed. And if you're not going to take that, we wish you the best of luck, Brandon. We wish you the best of luck. You're going to give him $15 million a year. Yeah, with my cap situation right now and how I feel about him. how he fits into this culture and leadership in my locker room and the kind of team I want to have and the kind of people I want to have on my team. Yeah, I'll do that. I'll do that now. It's going to look cheap three years from now, you know, and we can afford it right now. Okay. What's your final offer? Saying I love him. I love the way he practices. I love what he does. I'm going to give him,

I'm going to come up to 13-5 a year. Ooh, you're not getting him. You didn't get him with that last year. Or before the first tag. He's not signing that. I'm going to say the cap's down a little bit. You missed games again this year. We love you. 135 is a great offer. You're probably going to get more in free agency.

Good luck. This offer will stand no matter what. Cooley moves on from Brandon Sheriff. That's the show title today. Yeah, well, don't make that the show title. You know I think the world of it. I know you do, and that'll be expressed when people listen to the podcast. Yeah, I would request that you don't make that at the show title.

Oh, you don't have control of that. In your contract with me, you don't have control over the titling of the show. Well, I have control about not coming on Friday. Well, then you won't get paid. For Friday. I'll miss my... I won't say it. By the way, Cooley's going to start getting all of his free agent stuff together here over the next few shows as we approach the beginning of free agency.

I want to do... Here's the other reason. I'm not paying a guard. Just so you know. Because West Switzer came in and did a damn good job. Okay, but West Martin didn't. Well, West Martin's still really young. Okay.

But West Switzer came in and did a really good job. I think the answer at Sheriff's replacement. I pay a left tackle. I pay a left tackle that money. Right. I think the answer could be potentially Sadieh Charles taking Brandon.

sheriff's spot and then you go get a left tackle. Absolutely. I'm going to pay. Who's available in free agency here? Trent Williams. Seriously. I had this list of here. I was thinking about it. I can see Trent coming back. No, you can't. There's no way Dan will allow it.

No chance. I disagree. Oh, really? Bet you any amount of money, Trent Williams does not come back here. Why? Because Trent Williams' enemy number one wasn't Dan. I understand that, but Dan... But Dan was not happy. Nobody was happy as you know...

Look, I'm going to say it. You don't have to say it. Nobody, nobody was happy with the way Trump Williams handled that. And they did not like some of the things that he said about the organization because they did not think that they were truthful. Yeah, talent over morals. True. But they could have done that, you know, then Ron could have done that.

I don't know I'm looking at the list of tackles hold on let me just see free agent tackles I mean I know Trent's the number one Taylor You can get Russell O'Coon I don't like Russell O'Coon Yeah I know you know Villanueva from Pittsburgh's a free agent

Okay Darrell Williams from Buffalo. All right. So we have come to a conclusion on Sheriff. I'm going to offer him a deal that makes him the highest paid guard in the land. I am not going to tag him. If he doesn't accept that offer for just $15 million or just an offer that makes him the highest paid guard in the game. Okay.

Why are you going to make the highest paid guard by almost a full million dollars a year? Fine, 14-7. $1 more than the high-pay. No, not $1 more. That's not going to do it. 14-7. I bet you his agent is saying this better have a 15 in front of it. I'm sure his agent's saying whatever his agent wants to say.

It doesn't mean he's getting it. So over the weekend, a report that Washington, and I think Kime probably had at first, that they are very interested in Curtis Samuel. There was even a report that mentioned Jameson Crowder in connection. with Washington. So I don't think there's any doubt that wide receiver is going to be a target, and I say that because it was last year. And I think Cam Sims, as a restricted free agent, should be re-signed.

I do think that, and I think that they'll do that. But I don't think Cam Sims made them think any differently about how aggressively they pursued a number one in last year's free agent market. So my question to you is, first of all, what do you think of Chris Samuel? Curtis Samuel? Curtis Samuel, excuse me. I think he's awesome. I think he's incredibly versatile.

He can do a ton for them. I think he provides kind of that next guy for Terry where Turner can really create with him. I agree. I've always liked Samuel. He's really... Like Samuel coming out. He is versatile. He's a very...

versatile NFL receiver. Do you know with Joe Brady as the offensive coordinator last year, he had 41 carries. So he had 41 fly sweep, you know, carries for 200 yards, averaging five a game. He had a big one against Washington, right? Didn't he have a big run against us? Yeah, he ended up having 77 receptions. He's 77 receptions. He's 24 years old. He's coming into his prime. He's incredibly versatile. I like that. I like that. Yeah, they used him a lot as a back last year. Yeah, I remember them in the backfield all the time. Right. No, it wasn't a

was it a fly suite that he had the big carrier? Was that an actual run? That's a good question. It may have been a quick pitch to him out of the backfield. I'd have to go back and look at that. There were a lot of flights. I think it was a quick pitch right. He's good with the ball in his hands, that's for sure.

Um, you know, I mean, there's some guys in free agent. Kenny Gulliday is a free agent. Will Fuller's a free agent. Will Fuller is an absolute no. Not from a talent standpoint. I love his talent, but he's not going to be the guy they're going to want. First of all, I think he still has a game or two left on the suspension. And he's been injured a bunch.

That is absolutely true. You know what's going to guide this offseason? When you start looking at these people, I want your opinions on people and who you would sign and who you wouldn't, which is what you do and have done every year. But a guiding principle in evaluating what they're going to do is going to be all of the character stuff. All of the character stuff. By the way, Curtis Samuel, I mean, I think high character guy. I think Alan Robinson's either going to get tagged by the Bears and if he doesn't, he's going to pick somewhere else.

I think Kenny Goliday could get tagged by the Lions and if not, he would pick somewhere else. But I do want to give you a guy that I like. that is out there and probably for a lot less money. I think Corey Davis came into his own this year in Tennessee. You know, he was the, wouldn't he like the fifth pick in the draft, I think? The year he came out from Western Michigan, and this was his first really good season. This was the breakout year.

A.J. Brown, it turns out, is a really good player. Like, really good. So he's playing opposite Brown. They've got some good tight ends, and they obviously have Derek Henry. But I think Corey Davis, this is a good player. There were games I watched this year, Tennessee, and I'm like, he's starting to get it. He's a big dude, too. He can catch. You know, I don't think he's going to be anywhere near the Robinson, Goladay, Smith-Schuster,

money. Do you? Yes. You do. I think he'll be a bigger money kind of guy than people think. He ended up having almost a thousand yards received. I know. He was his breakout year. Yeah, I think he's going to get big money, which is also why they'll probably tag him.

I wouldn't be surprised if he stays in Tennessee. Don't they have somebody else they have to tag this year? We might be forgetting somebody there. I don't think so. God, I had that list up the other day, too. The team, the tag list. The potential. The Tennessee Titans,

2021 free agents Clowny Humphreys Dequan Jones They have no one else they'd franchise tag By the way Just real quickly I think I think Corey David

They'll franchise tag Corey Davis He's not Back to Trent Williams If you're the 49ers How don't you sign them If you don't Doesn't that really say something By the way

Remember they promise not to tag him If Trent Williams isn't playing in San Francisco next year. What does that say about Trent Williams right now? That either they didn't love him and maybe because the year off or whatever it was or he wants way too much money. Okay.

But you don't think they traded for him last year thinking he'd be there for one year, do you? I think they traded for him thinking that they needed the left tackle because they thought they could get to the Super Bowl. Yeah, well, that's true. seeing us how they were the year before. And so they were willing to do the one-year trade because that guy could help him win a super. And what's his face retired?

Right. What's his face? Long time left tackle. Him. Yeah, him. Him. So one last thing, which we'll get to right after I tell you about my bookie, and that is the Adam Schaefter report about Snyder. Let me tell you about MyBooky. MyBooky right now at MyBooky.ag. They are offering a chance to basically get half of your deposit matched by them. So if you deposit $1,000, they're going to give you an extra $500 to play with. It's totally worth it, even if you have a place already to go to My Booky, use my promo code Kevin D.C. and take advantage of that offer. They're giving away free money to wager with. You can compare it.

shop on point spreads, et cetera. It makes a lot of sense to take advantage of that. In the NBA right now, we've talked about, you know, the prop bets for a lot of the NFL offseason stuff. And I mentioned Bradley Beal and how he's not, you know, a leading candidate for MVP. Right now I've got the MVP odds up on my bookie. And right now, LeBron James is the favorite at plus 130 and then Joel Embedes at plus 350. Beal's not even listed on the page of guys. You're just not going to get a guy at 13 and 19 overall team, wise, no matter how many points he's averaging to be an MVP candidate. But they've got a lot of those prop bets. Get involved before March Madness starts. So when you get to the tournament, you can pull up, you know, more than you can pull up my bookie and wager through

my bookie. If you've got more than just my bookie, you can start comparison shopping on point spread so you get the best line. Trust me, you have no idea over the course of time how much a half point matters in a game. Or paying minus 108 versus minus 110 means over the course of time. You want to get the best price, the best point spread, and you can do that by going to my bookie at mybooky.mogu. Use my promo code Kevin D.C. And they'll match your deposit halfway up to a thousand bucks. So Adam Schaefter was on the Michael K. Show in New York. Michael K hosts a radio show in New York.

Schaefter was a guest on that show. Kay asked him basically a simple question. Will Snyder still be the owner in Washington? And Schaefter said he's got no plans and no intent to sell that franchise ever, closed quote. He also said, quote, I think in the NFL rarely are there any absolutes. Rarely is everything black and white.

But I can tell you that today, even though that there are all of these limited partners putting pressure on him, and even though there are a lot of people that want them to sell, and even though there are a host of issues, unless the NFL steps in and forces him to sell that franchise, which could happen, he's not going to voluntarily step up and sell the team. I feel very comfortable in saying that. This also on the heels of the story last week that several of the people, that were asked to be interviewed for the Beth Wilkinson investigation, really want transparency. They want this report to be made public, and there's a possibility that it won't be,

that this Beth Wilkinson investigation, which now we are, when did this thing start in August? When the post story was in mid-July, something like August. So we are basically five, six, we're basically entering now month six of the investigation. And there's a chance that we're not going to get the gist of it. I mean, you would think that the NFL's punishment of the team would give you some indication. But I just, on the Schefter thing, which made big news,

I did say, and somebody reminded me of this, I did say that I felt that there was a chance that even if there wasn't a true smoking gun, maybe, you know, the entirety of the family, they've gotten to the point where it is very difficult to own this team. He is the most despised person in this town ever. That's not a politician. And I can't imagine it's been easy for them. and, you know, intuitively I've thought, you know, many times before, and I've asked the question before, you and I have discussed this.

Like, how can he actually enjoy owning this team when he is so despised by his customer base? And they blame him for everything. And that there literally would be a parade if he sold it. And I just wonder how somebody, but I think that this minority owner issue and the smear campaign against him. I think this is why he's dug his heels in, and he's essentially saying, you don't come after me like that.

You come after me, you know, in any way, but you guys came after me with a bunch of lies. You tried to smear me. You tried to tie me to people like Jeffrey Epstein. How dare you? How dare you? Now there's no chance. No chance I'm leaving this thing.

And by the way, unless the NFL forces him to sell them. Yeah, but, you know, I don't know if there's going to, I don't know if there's going to be anything there. You know, it wouldn't surprise me if there's more there than was in the post stories, and it wouldn't surprise me if the posts in the New York Times have more stories to come. But are you going to get something that really ties him to an action that the other 31 owners and the commissioner say he's gots to go?

It's a gots to go situation. My bet would be no. That would be my bet. My bet would be they won't find anything directly related. to the owner that forces him to sell the team. If what they'll end up saying is negligence or trickle-down effect is enough to force him to sell the team, then that's another story.

But my bet would be there won't be anything that directly ties him to being forced to sell the team. The question is, now you asked a couple questions. Why would you want to do this being hated as much as you're hated? I don't think they feel it the way, a normal person would feel it. You don't think the family feels it.

It's a huge. I think they understand it, but I don't think they look at it on a day-to-day basis and go, oh, my God, everyone hates us. Ah, poor us. I don't think they sense it that way. Being around them, I never felt like they sensed it that way. Now, I do know that they know it exists, but I don't think they sense it in an, it overwhelms them type fashion.

The thing that I would think, Kev ultimately is the value of the of the Washington football team right now is four million dollars or excuse me I would buy it for four I would buy it for $4 million yeah yeah and then we do a quick flip job yeah you we'd name it the sheans and we'd move forward that's where you're wondering is it worth it knowing you could take $4 billion right now well obviously what's he going to make out of that, whatever his share is. So two points some billion dollars. If Jeff Bezos offered $5 billion for, see, here's the other thing, and you haven't mentioned

this, I will. He's not as liquid as people think he is. I would agree with you. Yeah. So, you know, he can't buy his minority partners out. He's already reached the threshold of being able to finance as much as you can finance as an owner. and I'm not sure that he would have the cash to buy them out anyway.

So if he can't finance buying them out and he doesn't have the cash to buy them out, well then he's got the right of first refusal on any offers that come in, they may have to stay stuck with their minority interest. But if Bezos basically, who we already know went to Moog, you know, the guy representing, you know, Sharr and Rothman and Fred Smith, and, you know, doesn't mean he'd be interested in buying a minority share. I can't imagine that Bezos is going to buy a minority of anything, a minority share of anything. But if Bezos said, how does 5.7 billion sound?

You know, you never know. By the way, breaking news, the athletic is reporting that the team is going to release Alex Smith in the coming days. I don't know. I'm wondering if that's Ben. I saw that. I'm wondering if that's Ben. Oh, it did half hour ago. I'm wondering if that's Ben who had that.

We talked about it this morning, and I said, No, it was not Ben. Okay. It was, I think it was Rappaport. Yeah. Oh, Rap had it. Yeah. It was one of those guys.

Yeah, so I told Ben this morning in the radio show, I think he's gone this week. It just made sense, and Fowler was on with me at the end of last week and said they're going to work this out this week. So. Like, working out like he was going to be here? No, no, no.

They were going to get together. and pretty much end this thing. Yeah. Right. So there you go. That's breaking news. Go ahead. I mean, here's the thing.

Like, you want to be able to turn it around at this point. And I think the goal would be that it would stay in the family. Anyone would feel that way. If you own the team, you'd feel that way. And that you'd turn it around and that maybe even though you went through being the most hated owner, that your son, Jerry, could be potentially a beloved owner. And that it would stay in the family. It's just, it's tough to do that.

Now, as far as Bezos offering $5.7 billion, I think that that gets a little bit scary to a lot of the owners because there's not a ton of people, but they're in the world that can do that. But then the rest of the owners are voting to say, well, if someone can offer way more than a team's worth, then they can have a team. Well, we might lose our team at some point in the future. Right. be scared if I was an owner to just allow Bezos to offer whatever he wants to. Bezos could buy every team in the NFL if he wanted to, if it was just up for sale. He's got enough money to buy every team. By the way.

That was like Paul Allen, who owned the Seahawks. You had enough money to buy every NFL team. Right. So I think it's worth $4 million. Billion. I'm really struggling with it. By the way, they fell. It would fell.

They fell in ranking. in the Forbes over the summer, you know, ranking in the value, the estimated values of sports franchises. They're tied for 14th with the Dodgers at 3.4 billion. The Cowboys are number one at 5.5 billion. The Yankees are at 5 billion. The Knicks are at 4.6. The Lakers at 4.4, et cetera.

Real Madrid, 4.24 billion. So, you know, the- It would sell for more than $4 billion. Sorry, more than 3.4. Oh, yeah. At least, it would be between 4 and 4-5. Totally. I think it's north of 4, and I think it could approach 5.

Because it's the NFL, and it's the NFL in a very attractive market. With, by the way, a sitting there fan base that would be joyous over an ownership change, and a lot of them would be right back in, and a lot of affluence in this market. There's the federal government in this market. Just everything about this market. This is why it's so important to the league. This is why Goodell and the other 31 owners, they've been embarrassed. They've been completely embarrassed by Snyder.

But at the same time, you know, it's there for the grace of God, go I. And, you know, we oust him. Now people are going to start rummaging around my garage, my closets. So be careful what you wish for. It's going to have to be something. egregious to get him to sell or force him to sell. Yeah, I mean, I'm just sitting here thinking, if I'm another owner, do I want to continue to set a precedent?

If there's something egregious, then sure. And I'm sure the rest of the owners are like, maybe there's enough. But if it's not something egregious, then they're setting a precedent that would force somebody to sell a team for maybe not the right reasons, which could end up hurting them in the future. Joe Staley was the tackle's name. We were trying to come up with the longtime tackle in San Francisco. All right, so Alex Smith, the news broke.

We got to it at the end of the show. I'm not going to go back and edit it to the beginning of the show. I think most of you saw this coming. You know, it's news. Yeah, but is it news to us? No, I think this was our guest for a while. And I think it's the right thing for the team to do. The only news would have been if they would have kept him.

Yeah, that would have been the major. That would have been the news. I bet he ends up in Chicago. I was thinking about it. Jacksonville or Chicago. You know, he came out and said over the weekend or today or whatever it was, like I still want to play. It's a conversation I've got to have with my wife.

She should have a lot of input in this. I think he plays. I think he tries to play. Someone will sign him. It'll be Nagy or Urban or one of the guys he's worked with. Yeah, I mean, if you're Chicago, if you end up starting Alex Smith, you're not, it's not the step that you need to take. I mean, but if you keep Nick Foles and Alex, I don't know.

I think it's Urban Myers, a backup and mentor to Trevor Lawrence, but then again, if he wants to play, why would he go to Jacksonville where he's not going to play? Exactly. So, look, no, I mean, I think he'll end up having a chance to play. He'll go somewhere where he has a chance to play. And don't think if he ends up having a few good games, don't think we should have had Alex Smith. The cap number of Alex Smith is insanity. No, no, no, no, no, of course.

I mean, you could let him go to free agency and then pay him $4 million years a backup. You know, you've got to release him. One last thought on Alex Smith. I never really felt in watching him before the injury and after that they had, you know, a Super Bowl contending quarterback. He didn't play at that level. His numbers, you know, if you want to go through all of what he was statistically, it was very, very pedestrian. I mean, less than pedestrian.

But clearly there was something there with Alex Smith on this team in 2018 and certainly this year. And it's all the intangible stuff and it's the stuff that people close to the situation understand much more than we do. You understand it, I'm sure, having been, you know, close to it a little bit in 2018 and getting to know Alex a little bit. clearly he impacted and influenced the season that they had. I thought he did play really well in that Detroit game in particular. I thought he was outstanding in that game. I thought he was pretty good at times in the Giant game when he came in. I thought he was good on Thanksgiving Day.

He had a great second half against the Steelers and that win. Bottom line is they were playing teams that weren't very good, that didn't have great quarterback situations where they didn't have to score a lot of points because their defense had improved so much. But he, like I'm going to remember, I'm going to remember this year much more than 2018. Because I personally think 2018 felt like a house of cards. In the moment I felt that way. Maybe after seeing his influence on the team this year,

maybe it wouldn't have been a house of cards in 2018. Maybe they would have gone to 9 and 7 and gone to the playoffs and lost a game. But that's essentially what he's been during the question. course of his career. You know, he's been good enough as a game manager, as a leader to get you to, you know, to the playoffs, but he's never been more than that. The goal should be to eventually have a team that can contend, that can actually contend for a Super Bowl. And Alex was never going to be that. He wasn't going to be that in 2018, and he wasn't going to be that moving forward from here. But still, what a memorable story he provided us. You know, there haven't been many of them over the

years, but a lot of respect for the incredible comeback. And really, the way he played at times this year and the way he led, you know, during a weird year, during a year in which, you know, there was an opportunity and a lot of change. I bet wherever he goes, it will be an incredible positive experience for that team, whether it's on the field or off it. I totally agree. He'll help someone. So anyway.

If he wants to go and still be a part of ball. And my recommendation would be after watching him, essentially know that he's not going to kill himself on the football field. It would be go play. You can see that he wants to. It's clear that he feels like there's still something there. If he didn't, he'd miss it. That's, go play.

That's what I'd do. Anything else from you? I'm good. Okay. Did I get personal with your career earnings? No, because you can look it up. I know. No, you can look up what I made in my football career.

So it's never been personal. It would be much more personal if I said, how much do you have left? But I know you well enough to know that you got a lot of it left because you do everything yourself. You don't pay anybody to do anything. There he is in the electrical closet, risking life and limb. And yet you figure it out.

I give you a lot of props on that. Just know that my only job is a two-day-a-week podcast. A show that doesn't even have my name on it. Well, we might change that at some point. All right. Thanks. I'll talk to you on Friday. And Cooley will start getting ready for free agency.

Back tomorrow with Tommy.