The Kevin Sheehan Show - Alex Smith Surprises Rivera

Episode Date: August 4, 2020

Kevin and Thom today on Tropical Storm Isiasis, Ron Rivera's positive comments about Alex Smith, Jack Del Rio, Marvin Gaye, Jordan Reed, and whether or not the return of sports was worth it. 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 want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. You're listening to The Sports Fix. A Sports Fix Tuesday, Tommy's calling in by phone. I'm here in studio after a very, very rainy, not as windy as I thought it would be this morning, Tommy, but a tropical storm that we got hit with. A tropical storm by the name of I.C.E. if that's the correct pronunciation, which I don't think it is. But I don't really care because when you start naming hurricanes with names that can't be pronounced by more than 50% of the people on television, you deserve what you get on that one. I agree. Whatever happened to Charlie and Phil? What happened? I mean, we can go Helen and Amy.

I mean, we don't have to. We can go female, male. We just need names that people can pronounce. Helen would be certainly a hurricane name from like the 1950s. Betty, Helen. I don't, this, you know, Tommy, you know, just the whole concept of marketing and keeping it simple, stupid. You know, the old kiss theory. And this has actually been a topic in a lot of the, you know, political, social justice,

discussions that we've been having Black Lives Matter with the slogan defund the police. A lot of people were very critical of that because a lot of people who believe in defunding the police were saying, well, that's not really what it meant. What it meant was shifting funds and shifting and reforming police, not necessarily abolishing police or defunding them to the point where there aren't any police. What was a terrible slogan? Because people are always going to, with a negative term like defund, assume the worst. I agree. And once the message is out there, it's hard to change it. Once people have their first impressions of what you're trying to do, it's hard to educate them otherwise. I see EIS. I see IAS. Whatever it was. I was actually, you know, you know what, I love weather in the winter.

I don't really care about it in the summer unless there's a big tropical storm. And I think like a lot of people, you end up being glued to the weather channel or the news to see how big it's going to get. This one's not very big. We've had some huge hurricanes in the Caribbean and into Florida, Hurricane Michael, into the West Coast of Florida, a category five storm recently. This one was just, you know, barely a hurricane and went back and forth between a hurricane and a tropical storm. but the track of it really took it right up over our area. You're a little bit, you know, you were not in Frederick County a part of the tropical storm warning.

You're a little bit west of where most of the rain fell. So I don't even know if you got what we got, you know, sort of down here closer to town this morning. Did you or not? We didn't get it nearly as bad. We got rain. And in the middle of night, I could remember hearing. I remember hearing it, and when I can hear it, it must have been pretty heavy at that point. But when I woke up this morning, when there was no rain, it wasn't even raining.

Really? Yeah. God, that's amazing. You know, 30 miles, 35 miles northwest of town into your county, Frederick County, you're not even getting that much rain, and we got an absolute soaking of rain, although it's ending. We're doing this recording here at about 11 a.m. on Tuesday, and it's just starting to end here.

We didn't get the wind that was projected, which is good. I'm glad we didn't, actually. But anyway. The last thing, the last thing we need in America right now is a series of damaging hurricane. God, that's true. I mean, where's the money going to come from to rebuild once more all these places, given the state that the federal government is in right now?

Where's the money going to end the economy? I mean, if there is, if there is a finger of fate controlling things, take your finger off the hurricane button. Yes. Yes, and there are a lot of people that love, you know, the hunkering down for a big storm. Not now. Not in the pandemic. Not with the economy being what it is. I was talking about this this morning, and I mentioned that, you know, we've had an active big hurricane stretch here over the last several years.

And the one to me is most memorable because there's just unbelievable video of it is Hurricane Michael, which was a powerful Category 5 hurricane that hit the West Coast of Florida. It happened also late in the season, if I recall. I think it was early October that it happened. But I have found myself, you know, no less than a dozen times late at night, you know, on YouTube, you know, watching different things like we've talked about in the past and going to several of the videos that were taken with cameras that were, you know, sort of lodged into the ground and held firm that they give you a time lapse of this particular hurricane that basically wiped a town called Mexico Beach, Florida.

Right above where we go. Right. We go to Destin. Actually, we go to Miramar Beach in January and February, and just north of there is Mexico Beach. And we drove through the remains of that, and it literally was like a bomb had gone off and leveled a town. It leveled a town like we've never seen a hurricane level of town in our lifetime. You know, Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was a massive Category 5 hurricane that hit, you know, South Florida,

and hit just south of Miami in terms of landfall where, you know, it was. Wiped places like Homestead, you know, off the map. They still have not. Right. I remember the zoo that they had in Miami then was totally destroyed, and they had animals running loose all from the zoo. And I can remember months later, driving back from Florida for some reason, and driving through South Carolina,

and seeing miles and miles of pine trees all bent over. Right. All them, bent right over. Well, even today, like, if you drive from Miami to the Keys and you pass homestead, it still never come back to whatever it was in 1992. In Mexico Beach, Florida, you know, when this hurricane hit in, you know, I just pulled up the Wikipedia page on it, It was in October of 2018. That city, every single structure was leveled to the ground.

And there was an Air Force base, Tyndall Air Force Base, that was very close by that suffered $6 billion worth of damage. That was a hurricane that actually made landfall and was strengthening as it crossed land at 160 mile per hour sustained winds with Gus up to 180 or higher. I mean, it was, you know, it was truly one of the most devastating wind hurricanes that has ever hit the contiguous U.S. And there is video on that hurricane that's just amazing to watch. Like, you know, you've seen the tests in the, you know, University of Maryland has a really,

a very, I think, sophisticated wind, tornado hurricane testing situation out there. I don't know what they call it. I'm blanking on the name because Maryland's got a couple of very good things. They've got an astronomy situation out there that's like first rate. But they've got a testing thing where you see a lot of news stories are done from the University of Maryland, you know, wind studio. or wind testing center. And you see where, you know, they raise the winds and you get up to like a category five hurricane and people can't stand.

They get blown away in category three, category two. When you see some of the video from Hurricane Michael, you're blown away that anything could have survived this where it made landfall and right around the eye of the hurricane. And very little did survive. Panama City and Mexico. Mexico Beach, both were basically obliterated with that hurricane. So a long way of getting to this tropical storm that we can't pronounce is nothing compared to that. And a category one hurricane can be very damaging and that sometimes flooding rains are even more damaging than wind.

But this was not big of it, that much of a big deal for the Mid-Atlantic. At least we got a lot of rain here, we haven't had a lot of wind. And it sounds like you didn't even get that much rain. No. So there you go. That's our hurricane update on the day, our tropical storm update. Anyway, what are we doing here? What do you want to talk about next? We actually have a lot of topics.

We can talk about Hurricane, basically Hurricane Del Rio. We could go there first. We could. I want to get to something that I did on radio this morning because I think it's an interesting conversation because I feel the same way that Dave Portnoy feels about sports right now. Dave Portnoy, the founder and CEO, whatever, chairman of the board of Barstool Sports, put out a tweet that I saw late yesterday. Ended up taking calls on this on the show this morning.

And the tweet read as follows. I'm going to say something controversial. I don't know how anybody is into sports right now. It all seems like preseason fake stuff. I don't know that that's controversial, but I have felt the same way over the last couple of weeks doing my best to try to get into baseball. And for me, you know Tommy, the NBA.

And I've watched some hockey, and I actually think hockey is actually the best thing that I have watched over the last few days, but it just, it's off. It's not doing it for me right now. Is it doing it for you? No, I agree with everything. Everything you said there, you know, the baseball just isn't doing it for me because, you know, because I can't wipe out the skepticism that I have that it's not going to be there in a couple weeks.

So it's hard for me to take it seriously. You know, the NBA, I mean, there, you know, the wizards are supposedly playing, and, you know, still for some kind, I don't even know what they're playing for down there in Orlando at this point. You're right about the hockey. Of the sports so far, hockey appears to be at least the most interesting to me at this point. And that's just because of Ovescan maybe, if no other reason than that. But I'm with you. It's just I have a hard time taking it seriously because I am of the belief that baseball, at least, is not going to be able to finish what they start.

I mean, you know, baseball has to play a season, a small season, but a season. You know, hockey and NBA just have to play a playoff season. Yeah. There's no doubt that the thought that baseball may not even finish plays into this. For me, it is a combination of several things. No crowds, no atmosphere. Basketball and hockey in particular being played at an abnormal time of the year, out of season. Baseball, as you mentioned, looking like there's a chance it won't even reach the finish line. The ratings started off huge in baseball that first weekend.

They've come back to Earth in the last week and a half. The games lack the look and the feel of normal games. And by extension, there's a feel that perhaps the players, for me anyway, are feeling the same way. That with no atmosphere and no intensity, that it's perhaps, you know, extending to the way they're playing. Now, I've had friends of mine say, you're wrong about the NBA. There's a lot of intensity in these games. Okay. You know, whether it's a preseason or a spring training feel or it's just different and because it's different, it's weird and it's not what we're used to, it just seems off to me. You know, a big part of sports, Tommy, is atmosphere. There's no atmosphere. And wait till football when it comes to atmosphere.

College football in particular, the pageantry of college football is a big part of why, you know, college football fans love. love college football. There will be none of that. There's the thought that some of these seasons in games, as you mentioned in baseball, are just eventually going to be rendered meaningless because they won't make it to the finish line. And there's also the feeling that, you know, in the NBA, I think about the NBA, that even if they finish this eight game restart and then a postseason, that the champions aren't going to be real. They didn't do it with a full season. They didn't do it with road games, you know, tough environments, playing in some cases with or against teams, without key players.

You know, these are, you know, asterisk seasons, all of them. And here's another thing to it, Tommy, two other things. One, we've had five months of getting used to living without it. And you know what? It wasn't that hard for many of us, whether it was Netflix shows or movies or working out more or in your case walking more and calling old friends. or imbibing more, you know, which a lot of people did. And then, you know, for some people out there, the NBA in particular here with the restart,

it very much can seem like the games are secondary to the emphasis on messaging, you know, social justice messaging. And the post-game conversations and interviews focus more on who stood for the anthem versus who knelt for the anthem than it did on the game. itself, and that's bothering people. I read through a lot of the Portnoy responses to his tweet, and that was a lot of it. You know, the headlines here over a several week period have been, you know, who tested positive, protocols, outbreaks, who stood, who knelt, you know, and then what various people said. Like, did you see what Odell Beckham Jr. said in the Wall Street Journal yesterday? I saw the headline. So apparently he backed this,

walk back from these comments because he claims he was interviewed for this story two weeks ago and it just was published yesterday. But he said obviously with everything that's going on, it doesn't make sense why we're trying to do this. We're not ready for football season. Why are we trying to push forward? It's obviously for their money. And that bothers me because there's always been this and I hate to say it like this. But the owner's attitude is we own you guys and just kind of the unfairness going on that they don't see us as human. I just feel like this season shouldn't happen and I'm prepared for it to not happen and wouldn't mind not having it. He said, you know, we're in a place where people, actually that's not him, closed quote.

And I know that you have a sense that a lot of players are feeling this way. I would tell, you know, Odell Beckham Jr. to put a lid on it and not play. Go do what you want to do. There are a lot of people's lives that aren't owners who are riding on him and others playing a football season or at least doing their best. to play a football season. There's going to be devastating economic impact without football. This is something that someone like O'Dell Beckham Jr. is too limited to understand. But I'll move back to the Portnoy thing because I agree.

I agree with all of that. Now, I'll tell you, the social justice stuff and the Black Lives Matter on the court and the names not being on the jerseys but messaging, that's not necessarily bothering me. If the games were intense and maybe when we get to the podcast, postseason. I don't see that being a distraction for me, but I know it is for many others. I will mention this, because I talked about this on the radio, I have in a couple of the games I've watched, I've been like, who was that? You know, who is that big dude that just knocked down those two threes?

And usually when you watch games, well, you just check the name out on the back of his jersey. But there's no names on the back of the jersey. There is no, no, no, there are no names. They're just messages. So anyway, yeah, it's, I don't know. You know, I've talked about this before with others. There's part of me, and I guess you could argue this in hockey, maybe. You know, there is this, maybe the NBA, too, if they pull it off. But, you know, there is a way of looking at this, that if you win a Stanley Cup championship,

under these conditions, then you have accomplished more, not less. It's the Redskins' 1982 thing and the 1987 thing. Yeah. I mean, under duress, and there's no denying this is duress. To be able to come out on top, to be able to stay focused enough to come out to take it seriously enough to win a championship, I mean, I don't think it should be looked upon any less necessarily. to come through this.

Now, the NBA, the NHL, completed most of their season. You know? So it's not like baseball with a 60-game season that's already warped because of all the games that have been postponed. And if some miracle, if the NFL could pull off a whole season under these conditions, then whoever wins that Super Bowl, I mean, should get two trophies. you know?

I don't know that it's, I don't know that I agree with that. And I'll tell you why. Like I do, and I've always thought that the Redskins accomplishment in 1987 in particular, because you had scab games and scab players. 1982, everybody was basically on a level playing field. There was no advantage gained by how you handled the strike. In 87, there was a skill involved organizationally to handling the games that were played without real players. Some teams did it well.

Some teams did not do it well. And the Redskins did it exceptionally well. They were prepared for it. Bobby Betherd was. Joe Gibbs was. They also had an exceptional coaching staff, et cetera. And they went undefeated in those games. And it ended up being very valuable to their playoff positioning, et cetera.

The difference with this is that there's a lot of flukishness to what could happen here over the next couple of weeks and couple of months in these sports. You could win a title because a bunch of teams forfeited games or a bunch of teams didn't have their key players when you played them. And you certainly aren't as a lower-seated team going to have to win road games to get there. So I think there would be more of a flukish element to the accomplishment than maybe there was in football in 87. Those are good points. Those are excellent points that I didn't consider that it, you know, that do come into play in what they accomplished. Now, the one thing, not to get aside on this, the one thing I give the Redskins credit for for 82 as well was the team that stuck together, during the strike, the best,

contributed to them winning the Super Bowl. And you could argue that was the Redskins. From all counts I've heard. And it was definitely the case in 87. I know 87. I know in 87, but in 82, you know, based on the players I've been told, I mean, they stuck together as a unit

while they weren't playing. And worked out. Rigo's told the story before about how, you know, Joe Thaisman was putting together these workouts with players, you know, and telling everybody to show up at a high school in Virginia. And Rigo said, nah, I'll pass. But Thysman did. Remember, there's film of that, you know, it's film, not video,

of him getting together with a lot of the receivers and a lot of the players and basically running practice himself, you know, as Joe was essentially the coach of those. But you're right about these. I mean, you know, there's no road games. There's players who they might not be playing with their full roster of best players, players who are opting out, players who may opt out, get sick. You're right.

It's hard to take what anyone accomplishes here as seriously as you would a regular season. And I think that all plays into why some people, maybe, maybe many people. The ratings started off very strong and now they've backed up a little bit in baseball. I haven't really followed it for hockey so far or the NBA. I really believe that this weekend, and I know you don't have any interest in it, the only thing that's really gotten me legitimately excited is golf a couple of weeks ago when Tiger returned to Mearfield Village. But this weekend, you get a major championship, the PGA championship at Harding Park in San Francisco, and you'll have the full field and Tiger will be playing, and it's a West Coast major, which golf fans on the East

Coast love Tommy, because you can get up and you can play, and then you can come back and you can watch golf until 11 o'clock at night, basically, on the East Coast. And it's always, the U.S. opens from the West Coast have always been fun to watch because of that. This is a PGA. And golf to be, I think it's the one sport that I've watched. I'll get to hockey in a moment. where it really doesn't look and feel that much different. Because when you watch a normal golf tournament on a Sunday, there are plenty of golfers that'll be in the hunt, and they'll have a shot from the fairway on number 11,

and there are very few, if any, fans lining the fairways. So it's not an unusual sight. Now, it is when you get to 18 at the end of the day in the broadcast, and the last two, three groups are coming up to 17 and 18. That looks unusual, but it's not the same as we've gotten in basketball or baseball. Now, hockey, it's interesting, they've essentially covered up all of the seats in the arenas in Toronto and Vancouver. And I actually had somebody call me this morning, and I think he's a cameraman. And he said one of the reasons hockey may not feel as distant or different to you,

because it's being shot much tighter and you're not seeing the, you know, the empty stands around it. And they're piping in noise to the broadcast. I would add to that that hockey has essentially started with the postseason. Basketball and baseball are playing regular season games. Hockey's got 24 teams in this restart, 16 of which are playing Best of Five qualifying series. The Canadians and the Penguins played Saturday night. on NBC, game went to overtime. I watched it. I didn't watch the whole game. I watched a little bit of the third period and then the overtime. It was intense. Like that was the one thing other than some of the

golf that I've watched that was really intense because it was a playoff game. And maybe I'll feel differently when the NBA starts its postseason games. But it's been, I don't know, Tommy, I think part of it too. I think we lived five months without it. And it wasn't terrible. professionally it may have been but personally it wasn't the worst thing ever no I mean I think for some people

maybe it was but it really is hard to believe that that's the way part that's the way part of this feels that you know you've learned to live without it in a way

you'd rather have it of course you'd rather have it you know it's a design not a need. If you want, not a need. Yes. Unless you're making a living in the business,

then it does become a need. And that's what I was going to say is that the economy has already been impacted by no sports. And when we talk about this, I think a lot of people say, well, whatever, they're all millionaires anyway. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is take the sport of college football

as an example. Do you know how many small businesses, especially in the hospitality, in the restaurant industry, and these college towns rely on the six or seven home dates that that university has in state college, PA, you know, this is, this is their lifeblood without those six, seven weekends with, you know, not tens of thousands, but in some cases hundreds of thousands of people coming into that town to spend the weekend around a football game. It's devastating to local economies. You know, the NFL without, you know, these games, forget the fact that they're going to miss out on, you know, $10, $11, $12 billion. These are huge events for these advertisers. These advertisers move product around the holidays based on promoting it through the vehicle of NFL football. You know, it's a, it's a,

diversion for most people, it is big business and big economic impacts, you know, to a lot of people. So I've learned to live without it. And, you know, we've been lucky in that the pandemic started in March. So we had NFL free agency. We had an NFL draft. And then we had all of the football team name issues and the sexual harassment story. Like it's been one thing after another that's kept us. with the ability to do a podcast or do a radio show with content. But in terms of the games, which you know I love, I just didn't end up missing it as terribly as I thought I would. I would love to have the NCAA tournament back.

I would love to have seen what Maryland could have done in March. And we've said this from the jump going back to March. If this had happened in September or October, I think I'd feel much differently, if football was taken away from me, and it still might be taken away. You wanted to use this conversation just to get into the state of baseball right now, which is more games postponed and canceled last night with the Cardinals. We know what the Marlins had.

And it just seems like every day we're looking for which games are going to be played and which games aren't going to be played. Well, I mean, the one thing, and I tweeted this out earlier this week, if you've spent any time in a locker room, a clubhouse, or a dugout with these players, how could you seriously believe that they'd be able to pull off these protocols? I mean, really? I mean, for one thing, look, and I'm not criticizing them. but a lot of them are still children, or young people, particularly mentally, more or less. You know, and what you're asking them to do, the detail that you're asking them to change behaviors, the hardest thing that a human has to do is change their behavior.

I mean, we are all living evidence of that for one reason or another. And you're asking these guys whose behavior is pretty much unchecked most of the time because they are ballplayers to now change their behaviors and live under a structure. I just had no faith that when that protocol document came out, I said, you know, yeah, this is going to work. You know, I had no faith, even if they did everything right that this was going to work. At that time, I really didn't think, and this came out like in June, the protocol document, I think. I thought by August there'd be some kind of handle on this thing. I didn't think the atmosphere outside of the game would be just as bad as it is now, which doesn't help either in trying to contain it.

I thought at some point the leaders of this country or through circumstances, any kind of circumstances that we'd be in a downside of this come August and September. And that hasn't been the case. So I just think that it's inevitable. We've had two teams so far that have pretty much almost collapsed. There will be others. And the more this happens, the more players will opt out and go home like Cespittus did with the Mets. and then, you know, it'll just be a lack of faith in being safe and a growth in the fear factor,

which is a real thing. You can't deny people's fears, whether they're real or you think are exaggerated. And that's all going to come into play for baseball, and I think it's going to come into play for football too. But you know what could eventually swing the fear back to a level? of comfort is if none of these positives turn into sick people. I don't think that's going to matter. I think it will.

I don't know if it will or not. You saw the numbers through July 31st that baseball put out on the samples on the number of tests and the actual percent of positives, it's like 0.2 percent of all of the tests have turned into positives. And many of those were Marlins players, and then several of those obviously ended up being Cardinals players. But I mentioned this to you the last time we did a podcast, which would have been last Thursday.

I think if we continue to have positive tests, which we knew we were going to have, and even outbreaks, and no one gets sick, no one gets, you know, and forget hospitalized. Nobody really even legitimately gets sick. Then I think the pendulum could swing back and players could feel confident that testing positive for their age group, for their health and condition is really not very threatening. And I know you'll say, well, what about their families and what about where they're going? Well, that's where you have to be careful right now if you go to work anyway.

If you're a father or a mother that gets up in the morning and goes to work, you have to be careful. You have to wash your hand. You have to socially distance. You have to wear a mask, you know, when you're around people. You have to live that sort of life right now. And to your point, a lot of these people won't even do that. And on top of that, they'll end up being at bars and clubs and they'll, you know, they'll risk getting infected and bringing it back and infecting everybody else. but can you envision two months from now where we sports are still being played,

football's launched, and all of a sudden positives, lots of positives, you know, many outbreaks are now the norm and they're not feared because no one's gotten sick. By the way, I think someone will eventually get sick because the odds, no matter how astronomical, in terms of the long shot of somebody young and healthy getting sick, someone probably will. And at that point, I think sports are in trouble again. But I don't know, Tommy. I think that there's a chance that if we keep getting this news

and we keep getting this news, but nobody gets sick, players actually may look at it and say, okay, well, this is the new norm, getting the infection, and then quarantining and having it go away and not ever getting sick. I know, but the fear factor is not based on your peer group. The fear factor, because it isn't. I mean, do you base your fear factor on radio hosts and how sick we get? Well, I mean, I think that's ridiculous because that's not an apples to apples.

We don't. My point is people will base their fears on what's being reported about the population, not what's happening in their peer group. Well, the reporting is primarily in their world about their peer group. And it's, you know, through July 31st, it was 0.2% positive tests. And nobody, including non-players, had gotten sick based on the reporting. I haven't read that anybody's gotten sick. So if that continues.

Let me tell you what Mrs. Mike Trout is doing while she's taking care of her baby at home. She's watching CNN 24 hours a day. That's what she's... How do you know it's CNN and not another network? Whatever. Well, I mean... Okay, fine, go. As an example. She's watching the news 24-7 while she's taking care of her baby.

And that's what she's paying attention to. Not what's going on in the world of baseball. And she's calling her husband and say, you've got to come home. She hears that the death rate in the United States went up 27% in the last week in July. And she says, come home. I don't care what the numbers say within baseball. It's what the numbers say in the world we live in. And the world we live around us right now is one of great fear, and it should be.

I don't know. Mike Trout is due to earn $37 million this year. I just use that as an example. I wanted to pull up his contract and just make sure that old Mrs. Trout understands that she'd be passing on $37.6 million this year. Look, Miss. That'll be tip money for them. Mike Trout's wife is probably also in that demographic age-wise where she's not at risk. and Mike can say to Mrs. Trout

37.6 million, and oh, by the way, nobody that I'm hanging out with that's tested positive is getting sick. I'm not going to get sick either. I will socially distance and I will wear masks and we will keep clean and we will keep getting tested before I walk into the house. All is going to be fine. Well, we can keep debating this back and forth. But I know that you've lived with a wife who has just had a baby. and come home. How rational are they? Okay.

Anyway, right now, you know what's frustrating about baseball and one of the problems with baseball is every single day, you're not sure which games are going to be played and which games aren't going to be played. The national basically had an all-star break-off. They had four nights off. Already tonight, Phillies, Yankees, Cards, Tigers, Yeah, I think those are the games that are canceled. And the Nats are going to play the Mets tonight. Just as a quick mention, and I think I may have mentioned this yesterday on the podcast,

I think the Nats should have played the Blue Jays over the weekend. I don't know why they aren't taking every opportunity when they can play games to play them. We know we're going to end up with unbalanced schedules and probably unbalanced, you know, numbers of games played. The Blue Jays were forced to see. stay in town all weekend long, why didn't they just play another three games against each other? I can't answer that. I don't understand that either. But I guess, you know, they haven't necessarily considered the situation to be that dire

where they need to do that yet. But at some point, when you get these teams that can't move to the next city because the team that they're going to play is infected and they've got to stay in a city, they'll just start playing games. You know, whether and maybe you can end up with a schedule where the Nats and the Blue Jays played 12 times against each other. Because you've got to get these games in. And by the way, Tommy, every time a game's played, it's televised. And every time a game's televised, there are ads run. And every time there are ads run, somebody gets paid.

So this is all about money. We can try to make it out to be whatever anybody wants to make it out to be. I had a caller tell me the reason the NBA is playing is to bring all of these racial injustice causes to the table. I'm like, you're out of your mind. This is about money. This is all about money. It's the only way you can rationalize it. Of course. And you know what? On some level, like I was saying earlier, you can really rationalize it when you take it to the, you know, the next levels, level after level of the people and people who don't make millions of dollars a year, a year whose lives are affected by these games not being played.

Their livelihoods, their families' income, their lives are impacted by these games not playing. That's why being played, which is why the Nats and Blue Jays should have played three games over the weekend. They just should have done it. I don't know why they didn't do it. I wouldn't surprise me if we start to get that. We're going to get a schedule that is dynamic and a schedule that is pretty much figure out as you go. And I think that's why these college football conferences, and good for them to sort of recognize this, I guess, to a certain degree, want to play primarily just conference games

because they'll have the ability to figure out the schedule as they go. You know, this time of year, not this time of year, but a month from now when college football typically starts, actually three weeks from now, when college football typically starts, almost every single year, right? We get a game or two, that is canceled or postponed because of a hurricane. You know, somewhere in South Florida, you know, Central Florida, the University of Miami and Florida State games are all postponed. They'll try to make them up sometime in November because of the hurricane. Well, more times than not, it's really difficult to reschedule a non-conference game

because of your conference commitment. So in college football, you know, the Big Ten going to conference-only games, the SEC going to conference-only games. The ACC is doing conference plus one out. The PAC 12, I forget what they're doing. The Big 12 approved a nine-game conference, one-game out-of-conference schedule. They're doing this so that they can control the scheduling. Because there's certainly every bit of reasonable anticipation of having to reschedule games in times of games

and do it as you go, you know, basically flying by the seat of your pants. Because that's what's going to happen in a lot of these conferences. I think you're right. I mean, you know more about college football than I certainly do about that. All right. We're going to get to what Ron Rivera said this morning here in a moment. Quick word about Window Nation. Window Nation is celebrating an anniversary,

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you will not be disappointed with your wind donation experience. Mention my name at 86690 Nation or windownation.com. Mention this podcast and they will take good care of you. I promise there's no risk. They'll come into your home following all C-Denonation. D.C guidelines and give you a free estimate, or if you want it virtually, they'll give you a free estimate online. All right, Ron Rivera held a Zoom press conference this morning. He's done a lot of media. They've done a lot of media here recently. I guess Tommy, one of the things that I was

thinking about this this morning is that because this would have been training camp and he would have been talking on most days following training camp, maybe that's why we've gotten more of, you know, coach and Jack Del Rio did an interview with Ben Standing yesterday. Maybe that's the reason. I can tell you, we're not getting them on radio, which is not a surprise. But Ron Rivera held a Zoom conference call this morning. And there were a couple of very interesting things about Alex Smith. Let me back. Yeah. So let me back up to J.P. Finley, who was on with me yesterday, and J.P.'s report from over the weekend that that Alex Smith, you know, had four consecutive days of promising work last week without any setbacks. And then Ron Rivera was asked about Alex Smith today and whether or not he thinks, you know,

Alex Smith can compete for the job. First of all, you know, he said he looks good. He's pleasantly surprised about how far along he is, that he looks fluid. And then when asked about competing for the job, he said, I can envision it. And I said the big thing is if he can do the things that we needed him to do that he needs to do to help himself on the football field, he'll be a part of the conversation most definitely. He did some really good things last week. He went through all four workout days, had no residual effect the next morning, which is always important because the next day usually tells, and he comes out and he's just raring to go. We'll see how he is this week and we'll go from there. He looked good.

I'll be honest. I was pleasantly surprised to see how far along he is. It's been exciting to watch his progression. He's working off to the side with trainers. He's trying to mirror all the activity of the other quarterbacks that are working with Kenny Zampezi and Scott Turner, and he gets a chance to work on all those techniques. He's looked really fluid.

He really has, and it's a tribute to who he is. It's a tribute to his trainers and doctors who have helped him get to where he is. He was asked about, in part of the time, of that. I'm looking for the actual quote, but I can paraphrase it. He said that he's a veteran. He's smart. He already knows 75% of the playbook already. And the key is he's got to be able to get himself ready to protect himself on the field, which is exactly what Zampezi sort of referred to the other day in JP's story as well. When he mentioned the 75% of the playbook that he knows already. Ben Standag asked him, well, what does Dwayne know? And he said, I don't think Dwayne is really far behind. I really don't. He's done a great job of studying,

preparing and getting himself ready for this. And he's been great. He's been on the field doing the things we've asked of him, closed quote. So two things here. One, the momentum on Alex Smith being a possibility has increased here over the last 48 hours with the JP report and with what Ron Rivera said this morning. You would agree with that. Yes, or no? Yes, I would agree with that. The second thing is that he was very complimentary about Dwayne Haskins in the same press conference and said about knowing the offense. I don't think Dwayne is really far behind at all. He's done a great job of studying, preparing, getting himself ready for the this, and he's been great. He's been on the field doing the things we've asked of him.

Okay. Okay. Hello? Yeah, I'm here. Okay. I didn't know if you wanted to weigh in first on this. No, I've got several thoughts. Basically, look, I'm the one who you berated for entertaining the possibility that if everything is equal, Dwayne Haskins is your starting quarterback. I know, Alex Smith, you said. I mean, Alex Smith is your starting quarterback. Right. and I still feel very confident in that because, I mean, you know, he's a veteran, and Dwayne Haskins is still learning how to play quarterback in the NFL. But I like you, I still have my doubts that Alex Smith will really, really be able to physically pull this off when push comes to shove.

But if he does, and if he's out there on the field, he's the starter for the Washington Redskins. Not Wayne Haskins. Yeah. As you know, I completely disagree with that. And I would favor all things being equal Haskins to get it. I do wonder, though, whether or not. Look, I think a lot of this has to do, if you assume that this is an indication that Alex Smith is actually motoring towards the ability to play professional football.

Okay, that's a big assumption. I don't agree with that assumption. I don't think he's ever going to take a snap on a football field. Even with the last 48 hours of reporting, I would still wager heavily against Alex Smith playing in the NFL again. I just would. Tommy, I think a lot of this is about getting to the point where he is ruled ready to play football,

and then everybody's going to say that was unbelievable, inspiring, and now he goes and retires. I just can't imagine, after seeing that documentary, that he or his wife or his family members. I mean, you talk about Mike Trout's wife saying give up 37 million for about a 0.000-1% chance you might get sick. How about Alex Smith's wife? He's already made millions and millions with a leg that looked like it was attacked

by a great white shark and telling him, yeah, get out there. I just can't see that. But I agree with everything you said. there 100%, but that's a totally different thing. I understand. I understand. Okay. We disagree on if Alex Smith wanted to play, got himself ready to play, was ruled healthy

enough to play, and it was a legitimate competition. I think Dwayne Haskins would win that competition, and you think Alex Smith would win it easily. And so I understand there are two different things. But the, anyway, so with all of that moment. Wait, let me ask you, wait a minute. Okay, go ahead. Let me ask you questions.

Alex Smith had spent half of this recovery period basically not being sick, 17 operations over the course of this, trying to deal with all kinds of infections from this. You were the first to report the 17 infections. Yes. Surgery's, excuse me. Yes, 17 surgeries. Shouldn't Dwayne Haskins be ahead of Alex Smith in terms of. of studying the playbook. He had a lot more time on his hand.

Well, he studied a playbook. During those 17 surgeries, Ron Rivera and Scott Turner weren't a part of the mix, Tommy. They've both got in the playbook at the same time. They both got the playbook at the same time. And it wasn't, you know, and Alex Smith wasn't, you know, under anesthesia in a hospital bed. But you don't think his priorities were different when he first got the playbook, we don't think he was still trying to get healthy as opposed to actually thinking about playing football, where the only thing that was stopping Wayne Haskins was being on the football field working out. He's 36 years old. Why should Blaine Haskins be behind Alex Smith? Why do you think? Because Alex Smith is the veteran. Exactly. And he's played in the

NFL, which is why, if this is 100% equal, he will be the starting quarterback. No, that That would be a reason that he would be in competition to be the starting quarterback. It isn't necessarily the reason he would win the job. Winning the job would go to the guy that in this case, they invested a first round pick into is the future. No, no, no, no. I'm saying it doesn't matter. Well, wait a minute.

You're not giving a real hypothetical then. No, I am giving a real hypothetical. that he wasn't a first run pick last year? What? No. No. The real hypothetical is, who can you look in the face after a quarterback competition

and say you won the job and you'll be out starting quarterback? You know how this works. You know if Alex Smith beats out Dwayne Haskins. Ron Rivera in its first year as coach can't say to his team, we're starting Dwayne. You know that. I just don't think, but I don't think, but I don't think he would beat out Dwayne. I know that, but that's different.

That has nothing to do with Dwayne being a first round pick. Oh, I see what you're saying. Okay, I thought you were trying to create all things being equal, meaning no, we're not, we're not taking any of the real world, you know, factors into this, because that will be taken into consideration. especially if it's close, especially, you know, I mean, it's the same thing we've said in the past last year. I was like, if it's close, you've got to start Dwayne. Well, why? Well, because he's the future and the team's not going to be any good this year. Let's get him started. Well, that sort of applies

to this year as well. I don't think it does. You've got to find out if Dwayne can do it or not this year. Not if you've got a guy who beats him out in a quarterback competition who's beloved, who's beloved like Alex Smith, and by the way, like we talked about before, a quick start and a successful season would go a long way towards empowering Ron Rivera in that building. Who do you think the owner would want to start all things being equal? His best new friend in Alex Smith or the guy that he picked in the first round last year? That's a good question. I think he'd be divided. I think Dwayne has...

Alex is press box, buddy. I think there's one advantage that Alex Smith would have, and it's what we were just talking about. It would be his veteran experience and savvy and the ability to be a really solid game manager if they feel like they're going to have a much improved defense with better coaching and with the addition of Chase Young. And they may be looking at it as, you know what, this is the all things being equal hypothetical. We just need a game manager and we can win nine games. Now, Dwayne's better than Alex in many different ways. He's got a bigger arm. He takes more chances.

He's more mobile now that Alex, probably than Alex is. And he is, you know, young and precocious and is our future. And we think that he can probably produce much more on the upside. But right now, what we want is we want the game manager that we saw in 2018, you know, before the injury, the guy that isn't going to turn the ball over. and we're going to try to win games the old-fashioned way like they did on their way to a six-and-three start with a better defense and better coaches. That would be much better coaches.

But we're not talking about Alex Smith at 36 years old being a better quarterback than Dwayne Haskins. I just don't think that he obviously beats him out all things being equal. Oh, I think it's very obvious. I know you do. And then when you bring in the reality of what this. season probably is about and what the future of that position for the franchise is, then he'd have to beat him out by a wide margin to sit Dwayne. And if that happened, it would be a major indictment on Dwayne and they would already know that Dwayne's not the guy, you know,

this year, next year, or beyond. If Alex Smith beats out Dwayne Haskins, Dwayne Haskins is not going to be the quarterback of this franchise in the future. They're going to play Alex Smith, and they're going to hope to game manage their way to eight wins or nine wins with a good defense, and then they're going to solve that problem next offseason. Given, look, if Alex Smith and Dwayne Haskins compete for the starting job, there is no way Ron Rivera is going to look at Alex Smith and say Dwayne Haskins beat you out. Not going to happen. Oh, I totally disagree with you.

I not only think that he would say that if it were true, because you're almost intimating there that he wouldn't say it if it were true. Like he can't tell Alex Smith that Dwayne Haskins beat him out. Why not? Because he... No, because I don't think that's going to happen. And because it's not going to happen, there's no way that that football coach is going to say that to Alex Smith.

Alex Smith will be the preseason NFL poster boy for his comeback, and you're going to screw him? You know, first of all, this is such a waste of time. It's such a waste of time because it's just not going to happen. It isn't. And, you know, I know we, I'm pretty sure we've talked about this, and I think you agreed with me on this. This organization has to have, they've never had self-awareness in the past.

Hopefully Ron Rivera has enough self-awareness to say, you know what, this guy did get himself in pretty good shape. He could probably be on the field for us. But my God, if we put him on the field, if we, the Washington football team, with our track record of being negligent when it comes to medical and training and otherwise and the reputation we have, if we're the ones that put him on the field and he loses his leg, it's over. I agree with that. That's an ugly scenario. Oh, it's an ugly scenario. But again, look, and I look, for all concerns, I think the best thing would be for

Alex Smith to take his football and go home, okay? I really do. Well, we both agree on that. Yes. I don't think he should play. because you're right. That is an ugly scenario that the Redskins would have to deal with too. But, and then I don't know what he does after that.

Tommy, there are some similarities with the Jordan Reed thing. He just signed a one-year incentive-laden deal in San Francisco, reunited with Kyle Shanahan and Trent Williams. You know, I'm not saying that this went into their thought process, but it should have. They weren't the team that could afford to re-sign Jordan Reed and put him out there and have him get his eighth or ninth or tenth concussion, wherever the number is now, and end up being compromised for life,

let somebody else roll the dice on that. It's going to be the same thing with Alex Smith. Now, this assumes that there's some level of self-awareness at this point with Ron Rivera in the organization. But if he went to Los Angeles and backed up Jared Gough for Sean. McVeigh and Jared Goff got hurt and Alex Smith came in and had another tragic injury. God forbid. It would be comeback player of the year, incredible that they gave him the opportunity.

Nobody thinks he should have been on the field and it's a shame. Let's hope he keeps his leg, his life is saved, and that'll be it. If it's this team, they may have to, you know, you may get Goodell getting all the owners together saying, look, we got two choices here. Here's the vote. Either Snyder's out or we disband the franchise altogether. And we get out of D.C. for a few years and we'll come back, you know, around 2025 when it's safe. You can't put Alex Smith out on the field if you're Washington. I'm exaggerating, obviously, but you really can't. I get that. In some aspects, you're right. But what are your options? Dwayne Haskins are.

Kyle Allen. If he wins the job. He's not going to win the job, but if he... No, no, that's not my question. What if he wins the job? They're not going to allow him to win the job. Oh, well, that's nice. That's certainly red-skinned style.

Well, Tommy, look, you're right about one thing. And, God, Mike Shanahan's told both of this, both of us this many times. You can't fool the locker room. And if you try to, you'll lose it. How many times did he tell us about, you know, when the conversations about Griffin came up and the locker room all knew that he wasn't the best player at that position and didn't give them the best chance to win, you know, in 2013 as an example? This is different right now. You have a culture change. You've got an organ.

You've got so many other priorities. You've got a weird offseason. And you've got a player coming off an injury where I bet if he's truly. beloved, like you say, and I'll take your word for it, most of those guys don't want to see him play again either. They may want to see him get to the point where he can take a ceremonial snap, but they don't want to see him. I mean, imagine the pressure on some left tackle named Jaron Christian, if he's the guy that gives up the sack that gets him injured again. That's a good point. This is why he shouldn't even be there. He shouldn't even be there.

But he is. I'm an advocate for that. And now the head coach is singing his praises. You know, just a little aside, because I can't help myself, you know, because I've got all this time on my hands here in the portrait of solitude. You know, it's almost every tweet from every Redskins beatwriter about what Rivera said was about Dwayne. Here's what basically almost everyone said from every beat writer. Alex Smith knows about 75% of the playbook.

What about Dwayne Haskins? He's not far behind, he said. Now, this was the basically, this was the tweet from the new Larry Michael over at Redskins Park. Head coach Ron Rivera, Wayne is not far behind Kyle Allen on the learning system. No mention of Say that again This is the tweet from the new Larry Michael over at Redskins Park

Oh Julie Yes Don't refer to Julie that way That's not right No no no no no no no no no no no no nobody's the new Larry Michael You wouldn't If I got hired for that job you'd never refer to me that way Yeah, I know that.

But your Twitter account for the past year would not look like what Larry Michael's Twitter account would have been if he had one. Okay? Head coach Ron Rivera, Dwayne is not far behind Kyle Allen on learning the system. Says he has done what the coaches asked of him this off-season. Oh, she got it wrong. She got it wrong. Oh, that was a mistake. Yes, it was a mistake.

Okay. Well, then I apologize. Everybody makes mistakes. It is a mistake. It is a mistake. I listened to the whole call. We ran it live on the air when I was doing the radio show. It was that he's not far behind Alex Smith.

She just got that wrong. He just got that wrong. I'm pretty sure she did. Well, it came out three hours ago, and she hasn't tweeted anything else about that. Yeah. But, you know, that makes sense. I mean, because what she tweeted doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. No.

No. So you're right. Remember to. Remember to. And everyone makes mistakes. And I just made one now if I criticize her for that. Also. And I apologize.

Just for that. Accept it on her behalf. Um, on the, on the. You're so easy. On the, no. It's unbelievable. No, I'm. Well, that's not true.

But there are some people that I don't feel like it's fair to be jumping all over. And by the way, how long is that going to last? Well, I don't know. I mean, I'm going to give her time to adapt to an organization that's hard to adapt to. Yeah. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt. I'll tell you what, I mean, I don't want to spend time. The organization had to replace Larry Michael.

They hired Julie. Good for Julie. I like Julie. And, you know, I wish her the best. I wish her the best. She made a mistake with this tweet. I'm pretty sure. I like Julie, too.

I wish her all the best as well. But, I mean, let's not be hypocritical here. Let's be honest. Well, let me just, let's also be honest that if anybody that we knew, took that job that we liked. We would have made the same exact statement. You know, I really like Harry Happenblap. I hope it works out for Harry in that organization.

Not an easy organization to work for. Anybody that goes to work for an organization run by Dan Snyder, we would all be skeptical, no matter who the person was. Is that true? There's a little bit more to this. again, if you're interested, go back and read her tweets for the past year. Go back to the time she was invited to the Dwayne Haskin celebration draft party and bowling event. But you know what, Tommy?

I just don't take very much, I don't take seriously very much what I read. I only take seriously what I hear. That's a novel concept. I just don't really consider. I don't consider things in print. That's the opposite of the Marvin Gay theory. Yeah, I don't consider what I read in print to be very serious, especially when it's on Twitter.

If you heard it through the grapevine, that's good enough. Yeah. I have the greatest voice in history. Certainly the most effortless voice, male voice of all time. One Marvin Gay, who is from, We could debate that. Who is from Washington, D.C. Yeah.

Give me another male, I mean, there are lots of them, but give me your favorite male, effortless, talented voice. Bill Withers. Yeah, great voice. Petty Pendergraf right behind them. Not as effortless is Marvin. God, every time I think about Marvin Gay, I always always think about that. 83 All-Star game at the former. I know.

singing that rendition of the National Open. I always think of the Motown 25th anniversary. I forget what song he did, but it was great when his performance in that. That 25th anniversary, Motown anniversary show was so awesome because it also marked the reunion of the Jackson 5. You know, Michael Jackson had just put out Billy Jean because I think it was in 1983. 84.

I think it was 83. 83. It must have been the winter fall of 83 then. Yeah. And they got together, and he and his brothers, and remember he and Germain were at odds, and they were back together. And they did basically like a four or five song set, you know, and then he went into his solo, Billy Jean thing. And that, I believe, I believe I'm right about this. That was the first time he moonwalked.

I think that's true. I think you're right. Correct me on Twitter if I'm wrong about that. And what I also remember about that was the showdown between the four tops and the temptation. Oh, that was phenomenal, too. That was awesome. That was so good. And that was the real temptations and the real four tops.

Yeah. The Motown 25th anniversary. was 1983. It was 1983. Okay. Yeah. Spring of 1983.

Okay. Anyway. Finishing up the conversation on Alex, I still, no matter what's being said and reported, I'm not going to believe it until I see it. And I don't think I'll ever see it.

If you forced me to wager real money, on whether or not Alex Smith is allowed back onto a professional football field this year for anything other than a ceremonial snap and kneel down, I would bet big money that it doesn't happen. You're probably right. But it is interesting that day by day, you know, the information that's coming out is pretty encouraging in terms of his comeback.

Real quickly on Jordan Reed, who signed this one-year deal in San Francisco, I hope it works out for him. I really do. Anytime somebody's had a reported seven concussions, you really have to be fearful for what the eighth or ninth or what the seven already are going to produce for him later in his life. But I just wanted to say about Jordan Reed, he is one of the two players. that this franchise has had over the last seven, eight, nine, ten years that was truly, we talked about this last week, an A plus talent, a blue chip talent. This franchise has not had a lot of them over the last decade. They just haven't. Trent Williams was one and Jordan Reed was the other. He was a gifted pass-catching tight end. Unfortunately, he was much more unavailable.

than he was available. But Jordan Reed was up there with Grunk and Kelsey and Jimmy Graham, and, you know, if you want to count Antonio Gates for this decade, in terms of the true gifted past catching tight ends. What a talent Jordan Reed is. I don't know that you'll ever see it realized in terms of career production. But this was a player that truly, had a chance had he stayed healthy to be one of the all-time best at the position.

His season in 2015... A Mike Sannahan draft choice? Yes, he was. And I think I mentioned this morning that the quarterback at the time when he was drafted in 2013 was one Robert Griffin III, as you know. Well, Robert Griffin the 3rd apparently lobbied Mike Shannon. before that draft many times, including on draft day, to draft Terrence Williams, the wide receiver that the Cowboys picked in the third round, that went to, that had a decent, you know,

several years, and was a good player, never a great player, never a star. I don't even know what his best year was in Dallas, but he certainly wasn't a star. But Mike Shanahan said, thank you, Robert. I'm going to take Jordan Reed. Jordan Reed really, Jordan Reed's 2015 and 2016 in particular were awesome. He set the team record in 2015 with 87 catches in the season for 11 touchdowns in the year that they won the division. And by the way, that was with two games missed. He played 14 games in 2015, which was the most games he played. In 2016, however, when that offense really was one of the best offenses in football, He had a couple of games for them during a stretch where he really was uncoverable.

And he was one of those guys that was, he was a former basketball player, and you could see it in the way he moved on the field. But he had that game against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day where he had 10 catches for 95 yards, two touchdowns, and that, you know, highly anticipated Redskin Cowboy Thanksgiving Day game when the skins were coming off that Sunday night went over the Packers and were six, three and one. and the Cowboys were 9-1. CJ and I were talking about it this morning, Tommy. That's the most combined wins. It's the best aggregate record between the Cowboys and the skins and a match-up between the two teams since the 90s,

that game on Thanksgiving of 2016. 6-3-1 against 9-1, Zeke Elliott was a rookie. It was a fabulous game. Dustin Hopkins missed two field goals, and the defense couldn't get off the field. Kirk threw for 449 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, and Jordan Reed was incredible in that game. You know, they really had with Jackson, Pierre, Jordan Reed,

Chris Thompson as a pass-catching running back, and cousins more than a competent quarterback. That's the best situation they've been in offensively, and really as a team, with the exception of the Griffin 2012, season before he got hurt. That was promising. You're absolutely right. It was promising.

He just didn't have a defense. I hope it works out for Jordan Reed in San Francisco. I worry about him. Nice kid, so soft-spoken. Every time I had him on this show, he was incredibly soft-spoken, but I really do. I hope it works out.

He's certainly with the right coach who understands what kind of a talent Jordan Reed is. You just hope he stays healthy. but a guy, Tommy, that had he stayed healthy and had, you know, a career where, you know, he's in, what would it be at this point? It would be his eighth season upcoming. If he had played 14, 15 games, you know, in most of those seasons, he'd be putting together a prolific career. Yeah, he would.

Even with the situation, you know, in Washington with coaches and quarterbacks and everything else. an incredible talent. All right, you want to talk about Jack Del Rio? Absolutely. My favorite Redskins. My favorite, Washington, my favorite Redskins. Excuse me, I apologize. My favorite Washington football team official.

You've said Redskins a lot during this podcast. Real quickly. Have I really? Yeah, you have. Let's go back and bleat them out. No. We're going to, it's going to take some time. I think hopefully, I think,

Some people understand that. And those that don't, well, sorry about that. MyBooky.ag, if you're looking for another shop, if you're already betting, or you're looking for your first shop to bet, mybooky.ag is a great spot. I wouldn't tell you about mybooky.orgy.g if I wasn't totally confident that you were going to get fair lines, fair prices, and that if you win, you get paid. That's the key to all this. There are too many places you can go where it ends up being a lot of trouble, more trouble than it's worth.

Not to mention the fact you're getting ripped off on point spreads, on money lines, you're paying Vigs that are too high. MyBooky has everything you need in an internet bookmaking operation. MyBooky.ag, if you use my promo code, Kevin D.C., that's K-Ev-I-N-D-C, you'll get a free $10 MLB. future wager. Tommy would probably bet that the season won't be completed. They may even offer that up as a future wager. I don't know. But you get a free $10 MLB future wager if you use my promo code, Kevin D.C. at my bookie.orgie, the terms are simple. You bet, you win, and they'll pay. All right, let's get to Jack Del Rio, our favorite Twitter coach in the NFL, certainly our favorite Twitter coach in town.

He's very active on Twitter. So he did an interview with Ben Standing of the athletic. Everybody knows Ben. And Ben asked him a lot of questions about the team. And I would urge you to subscribe to the athletic and get a discount. And you can read the entire interview that he did with Jack Del Rio. He's positive about the talent. But he was asked two questions that I thought were interesting.

Ben asked him about Caleb Brantley opting out because of COVID-19. and then Josh Harvey Clemens, by the way, yesterday opted out as well. He's got two sons or two children. I don't know if they're sons with asthma. So he's in that high-risk opt-out category. Anyway, Ben asked Jack Del Rio about Caleb Brantley, this was before he knew about Josh Harvey Clemens, that he was officially designated as a high risk

and said there are plenty of other players opting out for other reasons. As a former player, what do you make of a fair amount of players across the league opting out of the season. Del Rio's answer, I have personal views that would probably not sit well with my professional occupation right now. I think I'll just leave it at that. That was the answer to players opting out to the coronavirus.

Meantime, he's been on Twitter expressing his personal views like it's his last opportunity to speak. And yet in this interview, I have personal views. it would probably not sit well with my professional occupation right now. I think I'll just leave it at that. He's clearly telling you that... I mean, that does. Yeah, that speaks volume.

Of course. Like, basically, you know what? These guys that are opting out are a bunch of peas is essentially what he's saying. That's what he's saying. So Ben follows it up with. To that point of holding views, you've been very outspoken on Twitter, on a few political topics. What compelled you to speak out?

And as said in the previous response, and some of your views go against the prevailing public stance with those in your profession, have you felt compelled to discuss any of your comments with your players? Is there any concern about misunderstanding the various points of view from all sides? And Coach Del Rio answered it, quote, no, nothing there really. I am open to discuss at any time with anyone,

my thoughts and respectfully have exchanges. It's just not always possible in today's environment. I think it's important to be able to have your own opinion and respect for each other. People may have an opinion that is different than mine, which is okay. I'm okay with actually having a conversation about it with anyone, including my players. You say what? Well, like I said on Twitter, I used that quote in Ben's story, and I found his tweet from June 20th. 23rd, 2020, where he had showed that respect for another opinion, where he said, I'm 100% for America.

If you're not, you can kiss my ass. That's so funny, Tommy, because I was literally on Twitter scrolling back to find that quote after reading that because that's exactly what I thought of. Of course. What kind of hypocrisy? What crap is this? Yeah. You know, I'm all for different opinions as long as they're not different from mine. Well, you know, you could really say that about the other side over the last couple of months,

and I understand his feeling. I know we are. We're talking about Jack Del Rio. And what he said, and it is very hypocritical. That was the time where he got duped by a fake AOC tweet. And it was like the second or third time that he had been duped by a fake tweet, and he retweeted it with a very, you know, terse, angry, incredulous response.

And he had liked tweets from Candice Owens and other major conservatives, black and white, by the way. But anyway, he, yeah, yeah, he didn't want to comment on the players opting out for COVID-19 and then said that he is really open to respectful exchanges. You know, I'm wondering, how good of a defensive coordinator is this guy? I don't know. I think he's pretty good. I mean, but how do we know?

Well, you know, I mean, apparently after he got fired by the Raiders, in 2019, he was under consideration for the defensive coordinator for the Panthers. But they decided to pass over him because he wasn't a good fit. That was what we reported. Um, as a coach. As a defense, he was a defensive coordinator. Yeah. Uh, with the Panthers in the early part of the century. And he led them to the second ranked defense in the league by total yards in 2000.

So I think he's a pretty good defensive coach. I had all, when they hired him, I had, and I'm looking for the list in my notes, and I can't find about where all of his defense is finished. But they were very, they were pretty damn good defenses. You know, even the teams that he was the head coach of were pretty good defensive football teams. Yeah. So he's a pretty good coach. So it really may not matter what he says on Twitter, will it?

I don't know. I have no idea. I mean, I think, you know, it's just funny because he's so demonstrative on. Twitter and he's so sure of himself and so confident in his ability to express himself on Twitter, which is fine. I always find it interesting, I say it's fine because he's got that right. Of course we all do. I just find it interesting when adults use that as their primary way of communicating in a certain number of characters or less when they are in the public eye and they've got a chance to communicate with tone and with length if they need it.

And they choose to do it that way. I just, I don't know. I mean, and then with Ben, the answer is super short on the COVID-19 opt-outs. And then instead of, you know, answering the question with, you know, look, I have strong opinions. I am, you know, I'd like to have, I don't know what his desires are, but I am active in my opinions and I can back them up and I'm open to any sort of conversation about any of these things. But I feel very strongly about what I feel in and when I'm together with my players after this pandemic or when we have a chance to get together, I guess they have been here

recently, I'm not going to back off the things I've said on Twitter. This is how I feel, and I'll have a discussion with anybody about it. But yeah, he did have that one tweet where he really didn't want to have a discussion at all because you can just kiss his big ass if you don't agree with him. You know. You know, some of the tweets that he had, we speculated, and it may not happen. We don't know how active the Redskins locker room is going to be in terms of social justice debating. We anticipate NFL locker rooms will be more of a place where that happens the summer

and the notion that silence is not an option. So we don't really know how his tweets will go over with some of his players, and if that will matter at all. And you know what, Tommy? None of his players, correct me if I'm wrong. have responded on Twitter. None of them responded on Twitter to their new defensive coordinator. Like, you know, we've seen a lot of confrontations between players and coaches, players and owners on social media over the last several months. I don't believe that anybody responded to him, you know, being duped by AOC or retweeting somebody, you know, referring to him as a Trump supporter and him saying, I'm 100% for America.

and if you're not, you can kiss my ass. And, you know, that is a standalone tweet. He isn't terrible. But I guess I don't think any players have responded, have they? No, we haven't heard from any players on the Redskins about this. And, you know, there's not a lot of players on this team right now with the kind of standing to take that kind of position publicly. Good point.

Josh Norman might have been, but he's gone. Landon Collins could be he hasn't. Dr. Allen probably certainly could, but he hasn't. So, you know, like I said, it may not matter in that locker room, but we just have this based on all the discussion of, look, if you, I just have the idea that if you are a Trump supporter, you're probably going to be on the opposite side of a lot of the players in the locker room. During a general election cycle, that'll be pretty heated.

He did respond to the comments that he made to Ben Standig on Twitter. I just saw this. He retweeted, actually it was NBC Sports Washington Football, who did they? No, they were referring to the... No, they wrote a story based on Ben's... Yeah, based on Ben's interview. So he retweeted that and said, because the tweet said, Washington football team, D.C., defensive coordinator, Jack Del Rio,

explains why he's so active on Twitter. And he retweeted that saying, not really all that active, just not afraid to say I love my country. God bless America and God bless the men and women that have fought for our freedoms and those that serve now and keep us safe with an American flag and two hands together in a praying. position. We also forgot to mention that he had retweeted that Wacko doctor from Nigeria on the hydroxychloroquine and a lot of the other things. And I'm not, by the way, making a formal

opinion on hydroxychloroquine. I've read a lot about it, and I think there's a lot of conflicting information on hydroxychloroquine because clearly in very many situations, it has been impactful in a positive way. But the FDA did essentially not approve it here recently. You know, netting it out, Tommy, if it were me heading into a new city, a new job with a bunch of people that didn't know me in this climate, I think I just would have maybe had, if I really felt compelled to make people understand what I believed in, maybe I would have done it face-to-face with all of my players and had a more honest conversation rather than, you know, taking to Twitter with it.

Yeah, you could go that way. Okay. You could go that way. Your phone is breaking up. Before we wrap things up here? Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay.

Before we wrap things up, here's some breaking news. St. Louis Cardinals's all-star catcher, Yadier Molina, has announced he tested positive for COVID-19. Okay. No. That's the latest on that. Thank you for that. Still, is he symptomatic? It doesn't say. They don't usually reveal that much information. No. No. All right. Let me just let everybody know there's a chance there won't be a podcast tomorrow unless there's some sort of breaking big time news story. But I will be back here with Tommy on Thursday. And then next week, you will be.

off to New Jersey, correct? Yeah, but I'll still be doing the show. Oh, that's really good news. All right, have a great day. Yeah, absolutely.