The Kevin Sheehan Show - Aunt Cindy & Brandon Scherff

Episode Date: February 22, 2021

Cooley and Kevin today in a show that had range. From Cooley's Aunt Cindy, to high-country 4-wheeling, to Maryland's win over Rutgers along with Kevin's interaction with Mark Turgeon. The boys talked Brandon Scherff and Franchise Tag. They also discussed Peter King's projection on what it would take for Washington to get Deshaun Watson.  Also, if you have time, help us out and complete this survey--The Athletic Podcast Network audience survey 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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. It's a Cooley and Kevin Monday here on a very snowy, rainy, sleety Monday morning here in D.C. But Cooley, we are going to be 60 degrees on Wednesday. What is the weather where you live?

A lot of people enjoyed our discussion about survivability in the Texas situation. and what would constitute danger versus safety. How cold was it out in Wyoming this weekend? It was not bad. Okay. It was not bad. So this was crazy, okay? It's not a little on Saturday, especially in the mountains.

And we went skiing. I was so sore. I've been skiing with the kids a couple weekends, but this is the first weekend. My daughter had ski school, and I kind of went off with a little bit by myself. and my aunt Cindy came up and she's actually a really good skier she's in her 60s and she's probably as good as I am your aunt Cindy came up yeah my aunt Cindy came up where does aunt Cindy live

she lives um she actually lives across the street from the radio station where I am right now and uh and Powell oh okay cool yeah and aunt Cindy's a good skier very I was very impressed right I've never skied with Aunt Cindy right all right well I mean But this was crazy. We get back. Today is supposed to be like the real warm-up day. It was 44 degrees when I pulled in to the radio station today. Wind's blown about 90 miles an hour.

They canceled school for the first time this year. Because of the wind? Yeah. No snow, but the wind has blown massive drifts all over the roads. Ah. So pissed. Oh, man. Well, that's, you know, out west,

That's where the high winds and the drifting snow, you don't get that in cities. You can get blowing and drifting snow with big snowstorms and heavy nor'easter winds. But there isn't the ability for it to just completely shut down highways as the blowing and drifting is coming across open highways with nothing on either side of it. You know, it's pretty hard for that to happen in a big city. I think that probably is pretty cool to drive through, isn't it? Yeah, it is cool. If it snows more, you get bigger drifts, but coming in today, out of nowhere,

you have a patch of 30 yards on the road with two feet of snow in it. For just 30 yards. You're like, bhr-w-make that sound, you know. I don't know why I did that. I don't know either. That's what it felt like in my head if I went through the drifted snow. Okay.

And then you're back on the regular road again. So you've got to be paying attention a little bit. Yeah. I don't know. It'd be pretty cool for about five minutes. Honestly, it's been so cold here, Kev. And I got a garage full of crap, and I need to do a cleanup day a little bit. Right.

I was kind of banking on today. You have a day to take some stuff away, move some stuff around in the garage, open the doors, clean it out. I don't know if I can. do you have a project I know you don't have a project every day every day you have a project every day right now

what was your project yesterday I am building a shelving and desk into my office area which is small so we had a bookcase in there in another desk and just the furniture you buy this is kind of a weird little room because we changed the layout of my house where the stairs go and move the stairs to the corner where that office is.

Nothing really fits in there. So I built an office into it, which took me some time, way too much time. That said, this is astounding, not that anyone really cares. But if you look at lumber costs right now, it's unbelievable, dude. We want to build a new house out here next year, but we're probably, going to end up waiting another year. For example. Is it pandemic driven? Yeah, I think it is

because of the production of lumber out of Canada and stuff and the demand and the lack of getting lumbered everywhere. Well, I think something else would make sense. Let me just throw this out you, and I don't know if this is true or not, but during the pandemic, a lot of people have been doing a lot of home

projects, home repairs and home projects, and that's probably increase the demand. Well, I think that's increased the demand. think that the interest rate on home loans and new home loans and home build has been a way down and so everybody started building yeah tons of people building homes but the production's down as well my for example a sheet of birch plywood I never remember paying more than 50 at Home Depot 45 what is it now well if you buy it and Cody or Powell it was $110

Jesus God. Go to billions, I think it was, I think I could have got it for like 75 at this point. Got them. I went to billions and got some the other day. That's the big city. Yeah, 100,000 people in billions. Yeah. And I was a little short.

So I had to go buy another piece and I need another piece and I, whatever. It's a lot. It's crazy. But I did that. And then I told you about this. You have to have chinking on a log house. You have to have. If you look up chinking for a log home.

Is that a politically correct term? It is, yes, it is a politically correct term. It's like a thick, epoxy-like cock that goes, cock that goes in between all the logs and all the seams. Right. The inside of my house had never had any chinking. Now, I had only been here in the summertime. And I had noticed that my house wasn't staying cool throughout the,

day, but I just thought that's, if I build a new house here, I'm putting in an AC unit. But when it started to get cold out here and the wind started to blow a little bit, you could feel wind blowing through the cracks of the locks. Oh, well, you can't have that. No, no. But it's hard. It's like, you got to lay a big, thick line of chinking through all the logs and then all are all the windows meet and then you got to make it smooth and nice and it takes forever, dude, forever.

I've been chinking and building cabinets for space in our house, which is a daily project here for the last two months. When you go to Billings, you just take 310 north? The 310. What you say? The 310. The 310. Do you take the 310 north?

Just looking at a map. How many miles is Billings from Cody? 90. Yeah. You go out of Ralston. So you got to go from my little town. So you got to look up a Ralston. Billings. There's a back door cutoff that

gets you there a little bit quicker. I see the Red Lodge ski resort that you go to. That's closer than Billings. It's about halfway between where you live in Billings. Roughly. Am I right? Yeah. Okay. I like... It's about halfway. But you don't go through Red Lodge. I love that. I really like maps. Bypass that. I really like maps.

how far is Bozeman from you? Because Bozeman's beautiful, right? Yeah. Bozeman is the boom. Bozman's big sky, right? Yeah, it's one of the big boom towns in the last 20 years. It's blown up. It's the new Jackson Hole.

Yeah. Real estate and Bozeman's astronomical. It's another mini-California town now when you look at housing prices. Yeah, my father, my father. has been out to big sky a bunch to hunting fish and stuff and he always flies into bozeman and he says it's beautiful yeah bozeman's a lot of montana's beautiful yeah bozeman is 193 miles where's helena helena's uh up there in the middle of montana i went to helenna a few years ago helena is a cool town mm-hmm helena is exactly three hours to get to for me that's the state capital of montana

It sure is. You know? And a river runs through it. They had to go down to Helena to do some business at the Capitol building. I actually want to take some trips this summer through all Montana and stuff. A lot of the last few years, we've always done Yellowstone and around this area. And Montana is really cool and we haven't done it. So I want to take the family also to southern Utah, which is cool.

I was reading over the weekend about massive. Avalanche problems in Utah in particular. Everywhere. There's been a lot of them. Have you had issues in Wyoming? Well, you don't have issues if you're not going into those areas. Yeah, right. Yeah, like people that snowmobile.

Don't they refer to as the high country? Sure. Speaking, you know, based on our conversation of last week, what? I have a friend who's on the search and rescue. Oh, really? Justin is on the search and rescue here. his dad, Mike.

And we... For abilance victims? No. Two kids went up in the high country. Yeah. And the early 20s, not lost on Thursday night. So apparently they were looking for some cabin. I guess on the path they were on at times before they got finally stuck, there was cell phone

service every once in a while. So they'd called their mom late on Thursday night and said, hey, look, we're, we're, Looking around for this cabin, we haven't gotten there yet. Don't worry we're going to find it. They didn't find them until yesterday afternoon. Or, excuse me, Saturday afternoon. And? They were live.

So they made it Thursday night, Friday night, and most of Saturday. How did they stay alive? I don't know the answer. Catchup packets. Supranos. I don't think you have to eat to stay alive for two days. We got to stay warm. You've got to stay warm.

That's for damn sure. You got to stay warm. I'm not ready to go in the high country by myself in the wintertime yet. No. Because I don't recognize it. You know, this is not high country, but for those that live around these parts, you know, especially for you, Marylanders who are familiar with Deep Creek Lake in that area. Wisp is the ski resort. Two and a half hours, two hours and 20 minutes.

Anyway, for many years, we would go up there two, three times a year more than that. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law had a house up there was great. And my brother-in-law, you've never met him, you would love him. He's got, you know, all of the toys. I mean, snowmobiles and four-wheelers and everything. And, you know, there were, obviously, we're talking about probably the highest of elevations elevation there is, I'm going to guess, 3,500 feet, maybe 4,000 feet. in the western panhandle of Maryland where, you know, the average snowfall in Deep Creek Lake is 120 inches of winter.

Like it's the, they get all the lake effect snow, part of that whole lake effect thing on the Appalachians all the way down, you know, sort of the East Coast or the Appalachian spine. Anyway, several times in, I loved it to, I loved being up there in the winter, especially when it was, you know, going to snow the entire weekend. and we would jump on four-wheelers, especially when the kids were young, and my oldest probably more so than the other two, because they were young at the time. And we would jump on that four-wheeler, and we'd head up in the high country in like heavy, heavy snow, trying to follow trails. But, you know, eventually you would sort of maybe lose track of the trail because the snow was coming down so hard. So you were in the high country without a trail trying to figure it out.

Now, you weren't. Lost on Backbone Mountain. You weren't going to freeze the death, and you had cell phone coverage, so you were okay. But I remember just how desolate and how, first of all, I kind of love that whole feeling. And there's a lot of wildlife up there, a lot of black bears in particular. But, you know, it's wintertime. You know, you're more likely than not. They're hibernating, right?

So I hope so. I hope so. But I just remember being like at the very top of some of these mountain tops out there on a four-wheeler in a driving snowstorm and turning around to see if I could see sort of the trail that we came up with came up on and it would already be snow-covered. So it would be a little bit dicey. I remember once or twice I was like, I don't think I'm going the right way. I better figure out a way to get back down and you just find a way to go down. and on a four-wheeler you can pretty much run over anything. But I remember going through some, you know, tricky, you know, logs and big old trees that had fallen down and trying to navigate my way back down.

And when I got back down, I tried to act like there was never any worry. But I think there was a moment where I was like, you know, it's cold. It's like 10 degrees. It's snowing sideways. We're bundled up. But we better get to a – we better get somewhere soon because I think my oldest at the time was. like eight. But I... Ed, where are we? Oh, we're good. We're fine.

Look at that. Isn't that fun? Remember, we passed this on the way up? Yeah, and then it will this particular time, it was also night, which probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. No, it's a terrible idea. But, you know, had the headlights and the whole thing, but it was a lot of fun, and then we got back and had hot chocolate and sat by the fire

and we were no worse for the wear. There you go. You made it. I do, I do kind of like that. The bitter, bitter cold that you have out there the 30 below. That's not fun for anybody. That's not common though. I know, but...

It is common in the high country. Or the back country. The back country or the high country. Yeah. Deep Creek Lake or, excuse me, Backbone Mountain. Is that the name of the mountain? I mean, it's...

It's the highest in elevation. Is what? 3,360 feet above sea level. 3360. Okay. The lake itself, deep creek is 24.55, says this site of 10 fun facts about deep creek. Yeah, I mean, unless you're in Vermont where you might have, you know, five and six thousand feet elevation, you know, snow shoe West Virginia, which is part of that whole chain in that, you know, area of the country, you know, which is, you know, basically the deep creek lake and that whole Appalachian. chain. Snow shoe, if you look it up, look this up. I think snow shoes like almost 5,000 feet. 48, 48, 48. Is it 48 48? Yeah. I think that's the highest elevation along that, at least in the

mid-Atlantic anyway. And snowshoe has the highest annual snowfall of any of those places out west. Whisp, I think, average is like 120 inches. But when you get into snowshoe, which is like, is that Elkins, West Virginia Cooley? What part of West Virginia is that? I don't know. It's, they probably average like 170 inches. I bet you the snowshoe average snowfall. And keep in mind, that place is no more than three hours away from D.C.

Snowshoe average snowfall. I bet it's well north of 150 inches. That's a lot of snow. It is a lot of snow. It's all lake effect snow. 180 inches is the average snowfall for snowshoe West Virginia. That's a boatload of snow. I know it is.

Because there's a little town in Montana where everyone's snowmobiles, Cook City, where there's a ton of snow every year. The average in Cook City is 194. Yeah, 180. Montana right out of Yellowstone. I mean, Wisp is 120 or whatever, and it just seemed like it was going, when you, went up there in the winter, it was going to snow. It was just a matter of how much it was going to snow. And it's all because of the Lake Erie, Lake effect.

You know, the winds that come off Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Lake Ontario is the one that's Buffalo and upstate New York. And then Lake Erie is the one that comes down and gets Cleveland and gets Pittsburgh and it gets all the areas in Pennsylvania and then gets all of those mountainous areas. which include the Maryland Mountains, the West Virginia Mountains, the Virginia Mountains, all the way down to places like Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville, I'm going to guess, is 3,000 to 4,000 feet above sea level, elevation, something like that. That's beautiful, that area, Asheville.

Gorgeous. And they get a lot of snow, too. Are you looking up the elevation for Asheville, North Carolina? I'm not, I'm looking at the highest snowfall annual. snowfall in the country different places yeah because it seems like around here it's a lot of snow in that town i talked about like cook city that's it's about 200 inches a year like alta utah or park city is yeah 300 to 400 right yeah i mean and then mount rainier oh the average snowfall is 6701 inches yeah i mean 56 feet a year yeah at that altitude yeah plus ocean effect out yeah yeah exactly it's the

Pacific Ocean storms that dump out over those high altitudes in the wintertime that you end up with just like I have um god who did this uh who else did this it may even buck I think buck's interested in this too if I have if I have that incorrect I'll tell me um but you if you go on some of the weather sites like just like the national weather service site and you you go to the forecast for some of those places when they have those big storms like out west and And you'll get, you know, it'll say, tonight, heavy snow 13 degrees, accumulations 36 to 47 inches. Then tomorrow, snow heavy at times 40 to 45 inches. Like for some of those storms out west, if you find the weather forecast for those certain altitudes of, you know, 12,000, 13,000, 14,000 feet and higher, it's just unbelievable.

No one can live there at the top. You know, you live in the towns at the bottom of those peaks. But even in those towns out west, whether there are ski towns like Vail or Aspen or steamboat and places like that, you're still at, you're still a mile high, more than a mile high. I mean, Denver is a mile high. And I would guess like in places like Vail and like you said, Alta and in places in Utah, Deer Valley Park City, you're probably six, seven thousand. feet above sea level, right? Even in the town. Before you get on a, you know, on a gondolan,

go to the top of a mountain to ski down. I don't know. Yeah, I'm getting, no, Alta, Utah is 8,500 feet. 8,500. Well. Hmm. Okay. Uh, weather talk. Um, over. Everman. Um, I, we, we, we, I knew you would talk to me about this before we started the show, but I watched your team Maryland they look pretty good big win Kevin like huge win

they turned it on before you get into the game one thing I just found really funny because I haven't watched a lot of college basketball on and off but I watched a lot of this game dude it sounds like an AAU gym when you watch it on TV it is so weird like they constantly hear one

person yell or say something it's crazy well it's very very funny that you just said an AAU gym. Actually, some of the AAU gyms are huge, depending on where you're playing. But yesterday, and I'll get to Maryland's win, and then we do have to get into Peter King who put out a bunch of information on what it would take to get to Sean Watson if Houston makes them available, including what Washington would offer. But yesterday, I'm on the phone with Scott, and he's like, who do you have today? And I said, this was early

in the day and I go, I have Niagara getting five against Sienna. Okay. And so I had Niagara on Saturday getting five and they won outright. And then they came back and they were a four and a half point favorite the next day. And you could see a lot of people were like, well, Sienna lost to him yesterday. They'll beat them today and they'll cover. So I took Niagara again, bought the half point to five.

Anyway, the game's coming down the stretch and they're down four with like a minute to go. and it was on ESPN Plus. And so I'm on the phone and he's like, well, you've got to watch the final minute. And so, you know, I pull up ESPN Plus on my computer. And the gym at Niagara plays in. First of all, like these smaller Division I schools play in tiny places. I mean, places that hold, you know, 2,500 to 3,500 people.

But when they're empty, it looks like you're at a CYO gym on a Saturday afternoon. I mean, that's what it looks like. Like, literally, you know, you've got the fold-up stands that are folded up. Yeah. You know, and, you know, literally it's like, oh, why, somebody let their sister out on the floor. We've got to stop the game. We've got to get little, you know, little Annie off the floor.

She just ran right out in the middle of the game. She just thinks he can go take a shot. It's crazy. I mean, we do this at home, and now she just goes out. Sorry about that. Yeah, sorry about that. So I literally. we're laughing and he just said to me, he goes, my God, think about the issue that you have.

You have real money on Niagara University getting five at home in a CYO gym. And I'm like, well, yeah, I guess that is problematic. By the way, they covered. It's a real basketball. They lost by two. Well, the league is a good league. Sienna's, you know, been a really good team over the year. That Jimmy Patsos coached in that league, coached Sienna for for several years.

It's a very good league. It's got good teams. It's just those gyms, you know, my high school, Jim Cooley, held 3,000 people. We had a dome. Walt Whitman High School, go back to the 80s, many of you who are from the area, they tore it down, I don't know, late 90s. They probably tore the dome down when they redid the school. But we played in a dome that held, I think it was 2,800, maybe 3,000 people.

was fully packed, which it never was. Although we did my senior year, we played Blair late in the season. They were ranked 10th in the city. And it was on a Friday night. And we had won five games in a row and we're playing really well. And it was like half filled. And it was probably the biggest crowd we had played in front of all year. It was a lot of people for a high school basketball game. But the old Whitman dome, it was ugly. I know it was hideous, but it was our dome. And it would have been probably better to play in a more intimate gym. But anyway. Well, I mean, that's bigger than the Gallagher Center, which holds 2,400 people.

Who plays in the Gallagher Center? Niagara University. Is that what it is, the Gallagher Center? In Lewiston, New York. Is it 2400? Yeah. Wow. And when the stands aren't down and they're folded up, you know?

Yeah, they can have, like, dances in there. Hey, Joe, we got some people coming in today. You're going to have to take those stands out. Pull those stands out. we got some people coming. Do we got to pull the backstands out too? No, not that many people. No, not that many people.

Not beyond the hoop. Nope. Right. And then I think, you know, I forget where this came up in conversation recently, but it's like, you know, the teams sort of arrive at the game and like, yeah, they're, they're changing in the cafeteria. They're in the auxiliary gym, uh, gym training. They'll be out in a few minutes.

They'll be out in a few minutes. I mean, Penn. Did you're betting on a game that I can only find highlights on on, on, Facebook. Is that true? Yeah. I'm sure you find out on ESPN Plus, but the first thing that came up for the highlights of this Niagara Sierra C-N-A-N-A-game was from Facebook.

Well, I'll tell you, there was another game yesterday that a very good friend that I may have had a conversation with that I've already referred to had. Hold on one second. Hold on. Do you know the name of one player for Niagara? No. No. You have a problem.

If you put more than 20 bucks on that, you have a real, you got a real issue. Well, yeah. It was more than a hundred. It was more than a hundred. It was more than both of those numbers. Oh, my God. But I had a friend yesterday who had a large wager on Sacred Heart against, I think they were playing St. Francis. I think they were.

And I'm like, wait a minute. At least I'm betting an actual conference. Can you even name? Because actually the Mac is the MMA, M-A-A-A-C, not the Mid-American Conference, which is, you know, Toledo and Bowling Green and Ball State, et cetera, Miami of Ohio. This league has Niagara and Siena and Fairfield and St. Peters and Monmouth. Monmouth has been a really good team. Iona is. The Iona's in that league. That's where Calipari's Calipari.

That's where Petino's coaching. Rick Patino's coaching there right now. that's at least sacred heart I cannot tell you what league day play in I cannot by the way so I do I do want to get into something real quickly

and I'll talk about the Maryland game and then I want to say it's hard covered I know they did I know it was a winner what's happened coolly there's it's not a trend here so don't go chase this but in this pandemic year

a lot of teams are playing back to backs in the same gym in back-to-back days to get in as many games without having to travel and risk, obviously, you know, going to new places. So as an example, that Niagara game was the back-to-back with Sienna. They played Sienna on Saturday, and they were getting five, and they won out, right? I had them. And then they played Sienna again. And a lot of people, I've got a lot of friends of mine, a lot of my degenerate friends that are absolutely convinced. By the way, hear a different theory every time. If you take the team that lost the first night on the second in the in the back-to-back, it's hitting it like 60%. I doubt, I doubt it is. And then I had another

friend call me and telling me, here's the key. That second of the back-to-backs, just take the under. They're exhausted. They figured he's... And I'm telling you, none of that shit works consistently. Oh my God. But anyway, Maryland played Rutgers yesterday. I've said this to, you know, to all of 300 or 400 knuckleheads on all the message boards, Maryland message boards that rip, you know, rip people like me who have been pro-Turgeon, pro-Mark Turgeon. Mark's doing an incredible job this year. He really is. He's a good coach. He's always been a good coach. He is having an excellent season. He's getting, you know, he's getting his team to play. It's best basketball at the end of the year, and he's getting more out of less. And it's not

that they don't have talent. They do. They just are in a league that is so good. anybody watched the Ohio State Michigan game yesterday. Oh my God, what a basketball game that was. Either team could win the national championship. They'll both be number one seeds. I mean, this league is not just a league that top to bottom is really strong but doesn't have a great team. They've got two number one seeds and four teams minimum that people will pick to get to the final four in Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa, and Illinois. And then you go down, you know, Penn State goes to Iowa yesterday, and they're in a dog fight down the stretch against Iowa, and Penn State's the 12th best team in the league. Anyway, Maryland played really well. They're very good defensively.

He has really figured it out. I'm really happy for him. He's done this before. People don't ever want to give him credit for it. But he figures his team out, and the best way for them to play, and the best way for them to play is to play fewer possessions. really good defense, try to hold the opponent to 60 or less, you know, and now they're getting better offensively. Anyway, I'm happy for them. They are solidly in the tournament right now. No questions asked.

Could they play their way out of the tournament? They could. You know, none of these three games that they have left are going to be easy. But they're probably one win away from solidifying being in the tournament. And if they were to win two of their final three or all three, I mean, you're going to see on Selection Sunday, for those that thought that they didn't, when I was telling you a week, two weeks ago that they were still in the hunt, it's going to look like they were never in doubt because they'll probably be like a seven or an eight seat at that point if we get there. Maryland has

more quad one games played and has five quad one wins, 12th in the nation. Maryland has four quad one road wins second in the nation. Second. The metrics on them, they're, They're 30th in Ken Palm. I think they're 30th in the net, which I'm going to have a comment about here in a moment. Mark's doing a phenomenal job. And I'll just say it again. I said it last week in the podcast. Damon Evans, the athletic director, should give him a contract extension now.

I don't care what happens the rest of the year. You can do so much worse than Mark. He's a good coach who's improving as a coach. Anyway, gives me a chance. Can you tell your story? Yeah, it gives me a chance to get into this story. I can't, I'm going to start to, I have something off of your story. So I texted, typically if I text him, it's after a loss that they, that they, I try not to be the guy that'll send, I rarely text him.

I mean, we'll keep your head up, coach, played hard. You know what, keep your head up. You know what, you coached a great game. That was a winnable game. You guys are headed in the right direction. and I only do it when I really feel sincere about it. And usually if I text them, it's usually after a tough loss. Like, you're doing the right thing.

It looks good. I mean, that's a good team he played, et cetera, et cetera. Anyway, I texted him this morning, and I just said, hey, you're coaching your ass off. You're doing such a great job. And the team is so much fun to watch. Say hello to Ann, his wife and kids, and, you know, talk soon. and he sends me a text back and he goes, don't jinx us.

You know, he is definitely superstitious. He goes, yeah, we're playing well and with more confidence, you know, and hope you and the family are well and whatever. And so when he wrote, don't jinx me, I said, okay, I won't jinx you. I don't like your unforced turnovers, and then I gave him a list of the things that I think I don't like. I said, I go,

I go, Hamilton needs to shoot nothing else. Dante Scott should take more of those open threes, even if it's early in a possession, even though I know you hate early shots in possessions. I like Iala in the posts more than you're using them. I like Daryl in the short corner. Wiggins at the high post middle against a two-three zone. I said I'd use more screening against man-to-man pressure. Use your best ball handler as your screener because the screener is the one that's always open against pressure. They don't screen a lot against man-to-man pressure.

And then I wrote, of course, you know, it's tongue placed in cheek, although they were very good suggestions. And I said, no, seriously, you're excellent. I wish I still, you know, and I said if I were still coaching as much as I used to, which I'm not, I would be recording every single one of your plays that you run after timeout. Because I'm telling you, he draws up phenomenal plays after timeouts that almost always result in like a great look with the right guy. So after sending him that, he writes back, love the feedback. And I know him well enough to know how sarcastic that was, because he's got a very sarcastic sense of humor,

and he was probably smiling like, yeah, thanks, bud, appreciate it. And of course, I just sent back a smiling laughing emoji. He's doing a hell of a job, man. Hell of a job. What were you going to say? You should have sent a smiling laughing emoji, and then right next to that a serious face emoji. I told you about the time that I sent North Turner

or Federal Express, right? We talked about it like a week ago. Yeah, yeah. We're telling him that he needs to let people score when he's... If only North Turner would have a cell phone that day. If he only had a cell phone in 1990. Well, he probably did. He probably just didn't text at that time.

Exactly. So anyway, I'm proud of them. I really enjoy watching them. and those of you that honestly, you know, get on message boards yesterday and say things like, oh, great, now we're going to make the tournament, which means he's going to be back. You guys are insufferable. I mean, just insufferable. You're not, I don't want to say that you're not true fans because true fans can be critical and you can have strong opinions,

but most of you wouldn't be able to identify man-to-man versus zone defense. Trust me, anybody that knows basketball even a little bit, bit, thinks he can coach, okay? Is he elite? Is he truly like one of the elite coaches in college basketball? And by the way, he coaches against some of them in that league. No. Is he in the next category of pretty damn good? Yes. And you could do a lot of effing worse. The other aspect of it is if he's in the elite category, it means he's spending 80% of his time recruiting, which he probably is anyways. But he's getting those dudes. He needs to get more dudes.

That's where the elite guys come in. They get the elite dudes. It's just like college football. 20% of it's drawn up schemes and coaching. On to any of these coaches, it's all recruiting now. It is all recruiting. Coaching in college would suck. You know what?

That's, okay, so there's no doubt that you're right about that. You know, it's the Jimmy's and the Joe's versus the X's and O's saying that's true. You got to get the Jimmy's to play. But that's not how I personally evaluate whether or not a guy's a great coach, even though, by the way, Cooley, to your point, recruiting is such a significant part of the job. And he has recruited well, and at times very well, he had a rough recruiting offseason last year, which is why they came in with not a full, you know, a full cupboard of, of pulling. players and more depth. He struck out on a lot of guys, especially transfers that he thought he had a chance to get. And most teams, when they lose, you know, the number 10 pick in the draft, Jalen Sticksmith, and they lose a four-year point guard, Anthony Cowan, who started 130

games, a team that may have very easily could have made a deep run into the tournament. I'm talking about a final four type of run. They were that good last year. Didn't get to do that. because of the pandemic, and if he had done that, then all of these conversations would be moot because he would have been extended right away. But I don't evaluate coaches. I should on recruiting because it's so important. But I'm really, when I watch a coach,

I'm watching him to see how he coaches, what he has, you know, and whether or not I think, you know, based on my opinions, they do things well or not. Like, you know, just in the Big Ten alone, Izzo's just flat out one of the best. He's always been one of my favorite coaches, if not my favorite coach, other than Maryland's coaches, you know, like Gary, obviously. I mean, we named one of the teams that I coached for many years, the Spartans. Now, I let the kids, you know, I threw the Spartans in there as one of the choices, and they ended up picking it. I was glad because I just love the way Izo coaches.

Matt Painter to me is one of the best coaches. Purdue's always good. Purdue's always good. They don't typically have the best talent, although they've got some talent this year, man. John Beeline, when he was at Michigan, was excellent. One of the top coaches, just in the Big Ten. I mean, Holtman can coach. Guard at Wisconsin can really coach. I think Pichael can really coach at Rutgers. You know, there have been some just excellent coaches in the Big Ten, and there are some excellent coaches, obviously, in the ACC as well in other leagues. But I do tend to look at the guys that don't have the most talent and usually view them coolly as better coaches,

and maybe it's just my bias towards looking for the guys that sort of overachieve. And when you're loaded each year like Kentucky is, like North Carolina is, Duke is, like Villanova now is every year, you know, you better be winning 30 games and be, you know, be in the final four, or you've sort of underachieved. Like, a guy like Rick Barnes to me love watching him coach. A guy like Mark Fuitt Gonzaga, love watching him coach. Now, they've got talent. You know, I actually think Calipari can really coach. You know, Shishvsky, there have been many years or I've been like, I don't really understand what he's doing. I think they have underachieved a ton during the course of his coaching career.

But I think he's always been a very good defensive coach. Anyway. I remember we ran into Turgh last spring. I was playing golf with you. And he was distraught because he had taken two or three trips out west to see a kid and thought he was going to commit. Right. And then at the last minute, that day, I think that day had gotten a text or a call, said, I'm not coming to Maryland coach. Yeah, which is brutal.

You know, the other thing that's crazy to me, Maryland can't be the easiest place to recruit to. And not because of conference or talent. That's just not a, no offense to your alma mater, but it's not the best campus atmosphere. It's kind of commuter. Okay. So. I don't know. Do you think you step on campus and go, this is where I belong when you get to Maryland?

So. Beautiful facilities. It's really, God, you're bringing up something, and I'm going to tell you right now, and I'm not going to tell you who I've had these conversations with over the years, but it's really not important. So, you know, you've been with me out in college park for games before, and we've spent time, you know, before and after games at Bentley's or wherever, and so you do have sort of a sense of the University of Maryland.

And first of all, it is a beautiful campus, the campus itself. But to your point, it's not a college town. You know, College Park is not a college town. You know, it's not Blacksburg. It's not Charlottesville. You know, it's not one of these college towns where when a kid shows up, it's like, wow, this is kind of cool. Like the whole, like I've told you this before.

My youngest son is at Penn State. And when I go up to State College, I'm blown away with just like, it's the whole, the whole town of State College is all about the university. Well, that's not what College Park is. College Park's in the middle of Prince George's County. And, you know, the campus itself is gorgeous. Route 1 needs a lot of work and has gotten a lot of work over the years. Now, I think it's heard of more in football recruiting over the years because, some of the best football players in the area. First of all, Maryland hasn't had the tradition or the power, you know, in football or the potential in football that they have had in basketball. Basketball, though, it's got a lot of advantages in recruiting. It is, first of all, whether it was the ACC or the big tenure in one of the best leagues playing one of the best schedules, playing on television every single night, you are playing at a university that's won a national championship that has, you know, steep tradition.

in basketball. It's a basketball first school. One of the things that every single Maryland coach has done over the years is when you bring a recruit to one of their home games, they are in awe at the atmosphere because it's one of the best. That is true. It's amazing. It's one of the best. The facilities are first rate. And so you can, you can recruit. I mean, Maryland's, you know, under Turgeon's had some top five, top 10, top 15 recruiting classes. I mean, his class coming in next year is a top 20 recruiting class. Maryland's had top five classes before with him. But I know what you're saying, and I don't disagree with it.

It's my alma mater, and I love it. And I do think you are right. I mean, I'll give you any. Also, in a big way, a lot of times you're recruiting the parents. I'm going to tell you this story real quickly. Five years ago, more than that, probably. probably eight, nine years ago. One of my best friends, he lives in Connecticut, he said, hey, my brother's daughter is a big time field hockey recruit. She's being recruited by Maryland,

and she's coming down with my brother and sister-in-law on her visit tomorrow. You know, will you talk to him and give him any, you know, advice? So I get on the phone with him, and I said to him, I go, look, you're going to love the campus. She's going to love the campus. The field hockey program's dominant. I mean, they've won lots of national championships. And I said, said, but what I want you to do is I want you to rent a car and I want you to drive off campus. I want you to take, you know, a 30-minute drive in every direction off campus and make sure that it's, you know, it's something that you're comfortable with because it, there are some tough areas, you know, within a couple of miles of, of the university.

And by the way, the university itself has had, you know, over the years some issue with crime, not any different than any other major university has had. But I remember he called me and he said, that was really good advice. I really appreciate it. She ended up coming to Maryland and she ended up doing incredibly well. I think they won national championship. She was a really good player, you know, yada, yada, yada.

But anyway, that would sort of speak to your point. I know what you're saying. You know, Route 1 is they've invested a lot into it and it's much nicer than it was when I was in school. And by the way, Cooley, the university itself academically is so good. it's so strong academically. It's so hard to get into. Well, none of the basketball players care about that.

I understand that. One in ten, maybe. Yeah, but anyway, I hear what you're saying. But basketball's never had a problem attracting, you know, and being able to recruit players in terms of the kind of opportunity Maryland is as a basketball school. I think they've suffered more with football, although Loxley's killing it, you know, as a recruiter, killing it.

You know, this is going to be back-to-back top 20 classes, top 25 classes coming in. Anyway. Especially in football, that's what makes you a good coach. You need the university and you need the backing and you need the investment and funding and you need to allow your coaches to have the opportunity to go to places and you've got to have the right system in place and there's a lot of money that has to go into recruiting. And then you still have to have, you know, a decent team, a good campus. But in football, if you don't get dudes, don't worry about it.

You're not going to win. Exactly. I mean, basketball is a little different because there's only five guys. I mean, you don't have to get a ton of dudes. It's a lot different because of what you just said. It's, you know, it's five on five. It's not 11 on 11. It's not 22.

You know, it's a lot different because if you can get one dude or you can get five dudes that, you know, And in college basketball, you can control things like pace. Like there are things you can do with the right kind of players to sort of stay competitive, much different in football. You got to have four. You could have four mismatches on the field at any given time. And you're done. Yeah.

There's no scheming around four, five mismatches. There's no scheming. Which is like when Maryland plays Ohio State and football, it's like, what do you want us to do here? they either they make a boatload of mistakes and we capitalize or we lose but other than that they're just better i think that the the disparity um is huge however i do think in football you can scheme up a competitive team just not a team when you play the ohio states and the alabamas that you're going to be able to beat i mean there's always there's also the money thing yeah definitely I mean, it's, I don't know how much you and I talked about this, but what schools have the best Venmo guy?

Seriously. I mean, they all do it. I'm not going to say they all do it, but you start talking a lot of these guys. They might not want to know about it, but who has a good Venmo guy? Who's guy? Where's the Venmo guy? That's like, you know, that's like the wolf and pulp fiction. Yeah, talk to the wolf over there.

Yeah, he's got the cat. You know what the cash app is? He's the fixer. He's the fixer. He's got it all. The guy that used to lose $500 under a rock. Or on Niagara. Yeah.

No, it wasn't $500. Okay. What else? Oh, one other quick, I told you Michigan, Ohio. was fabulous. Maryland's like 30 in the Ken Palm. They're 30 in the net rankings. But Scott mentioned this to me over the weekend,

and I had not seen this. These net rankings, coolly, which you're not familiar with, are the NCAA Advanced Metric Rankings. You know, whatever goes into it. And they basically have what they call four quads. Quad one, quad two, quad three, quad four. Quad one is like, you know, it's like your top 50.

teams or top 30 when they're playing at home or top 50 if they're playing whatever quad one's really good and quad four is really bad in terms of of your team um Scott said to me the other day he goes go look at the quad one rankings I'm like why he goes look at who number 10 is and number 10 they're not number 10 this morning they're actually number 13 this morning is Colgate from the Patriot League and he said I'm sorry but any ranking that includes Colgate is that the number 10 team in America, they're 13.

How can you even take it seriously? Colgate is in the Patriot League, which is what Navy is in. They are 11 and 1. Colgate is. Navy's really good, too. Look, they are 11 and 1, man. I mean, they've beaten Army not once,

not twice, but three times. They've beat an Army. Army can't. They've played them for... They can't keep up with Colgate. They played them four times because of the pandemic. They did lose to Army in a two-point game. That's their one loss.

They own four wins over Boston University and four wins over Holy Cross. And somehow they're the number 13 team in America. How are they the number? I don't, I have no idea. I have no idea how that's even possible. That doesn't make it. They didn't play one non-conference game. It's been all conference games.

It's not like they upset in the, you know, they upset Baylor to open up the year or Gonzaga. They haven't played four teams. Yeah, because of the pandemic. Army, Boston University, Holy Cross, Bucknell. I would really love an explanation as to why Colgate right now in the NCAA net rankings, which are a key component of determining NCAA tournament teams on Selection Sunday, which was three weeks ago yesterday, how Colgate is number 13 in the country.

Well, they don't even need to bake them 30. Colgate should win their conference tournament and be in. Well, Navy's really good. Navy's excellent. And they're in the same league. I mean, they're not getting in with this. No. They're not getting in unless they win this conference tournament.

I mean. No one's going to look at this. No one's going to look at these results. Somehow that got skewed. It was faulty. It seems totally fraudulent. It does. One last thing, actually before we get to the Peter King thing, I know we're going long on non-Washington football stuff, but I wanted to read this tweet from Steve.

Steve tweeted me, said, Kevin, you were too harsh on Jalen Johnson last week. You called him a quitter. That was ignorant. You can't quit something. You're not getting paid to do. He owes Duke nothing. Cooley, did we talk about this together? I know I talked about it with Tommy.

Okay, so Jalen Johnson was a five-star recruit to Duke. this year. Okay? He is going to be a lottery pick in the NBA draft. And last week, he opted out of the rest of the season about a week and a half ago. His playing time had been reduced. He hadn't been playing well. And in the moment, it really appeared as if Duke had no chance of making the NCAA tournament. So he opted out. And I just said, look, and I said this on the radio show, and I think that Steve was responding to my segment and discussing Jalen Johnson on the radio show. And I just said that I'll concede that I don't have all the information.

I mean, there could be a real circumstance here where it makes sense. But if he's opting out because his team's not going to make the tournament and he is sort of butt-heard about his reduction in playing time, then he's a quitter, period. he's a quitter. And Jim Beheim, who by the way is very good friends with Coach Shoshowski. Now the Duke side of it, they took the right strategy and they took the high road and said after discussion with Jalen and his parents, you know, we give him all the support, yada, yada, yada. Obviously they could care less that he left and they're probably happy that he left there.

They've played much better since he left. They got too big wins since he left. Yeah, they beat Virginia on Saturday night and they're actually back into the discussion of potentially being in at large team. But Jim Beheim came out and was a bit critical of Jalen Johnson. And trust me, the fact that Bayheim did that, he's going to bat for Shoshchewski. Remember, they were coaches together on the Olympic teams and they're very good friends, very close. And so he was sort of taking, you know, he was able to do it publicly. Shoshavsky wasn't. Now, he backtracked it a little bit, but whatever. Again, I'll concede that I don't have all the information. And for all I know, you know, there was an

abusive situation. Something was really terrible or he's got a family situation. So if that's, if that's true, but for the moment, let's just assume that his team sucked. He didn't like that he was getting less playing time and he just decided, I'm ready to move on, start getting ready for the NBA draft. Well, that is quitting. And by the way, there's nothing in the definition of quitting, Steve, that says you've got to get paid. It's a job that you're being compensated for. I mean, How many life lessons do you as parents out there, you know, try to give your kids about, hey, you start something, you finish it, period. You don't quit.

You don't quit. You know what? You don't like the piano lessons. You're signed up for 10 of them. You're going to do all 10 of them. You started it. You're going to finish it. Now, obviously, all of us as parents, if the kid, if there's some sort of situation that's

unhealthy, you're not, obviously you're going to pull the kid out of it. But if, you know, all is well. And I don't think Coach K is abusive. and I don't think that their training staff is, you know, terrible. You finish what you start. You know, Zion Williamson, remember when he blew a sneaker out in the game against Carolina and got injured and missed a bunch of games? And everybody was saying he shouldn't come back.

He owes Duke nothing. He doesn't have to come back and play for them. And he just said to everybody, what are you talking about? I came to Duke to play. I came to Duke to play for Coach Kay and to play against North Carolina in these big games. And he came back and played and they got to the elite eight, lost a great game to Michigan State at Verizon Center. Like, you know what? He wanted to play. Did he put himself potentially at risk of a serious injury? Yeah, he did, I guess. He wanted to play. He made a

commitment. He lived up to his commitment. Jalen Johnson didn't. But those of you that think that somehow quitting is like quitting is only something you can do if you're being compensated. No, that's not true, not even by definition. Number two is this. When you say Duke, he owes Duke nothing, how many of you knew who Jalen Johnson was before this year? If you're a college basketball fan, like just a casual college basketball fan? The answer is probably none of you. And that's sort of the point, Cooley. I know you and I have had this conversation in shows in the past when we've done shows about paying college athletes or not paying college athletes. And I've never been in favor of paying college athletes. I'm in favor of giving them things like increased stipends and allowing them to

perhaps benefit off of their likeness or from autograph shows and different things like that. That's fine. You know, even some level of, you know, endorsement stuff, as long as it doesn't create a huge advantage for one school over the other. But here, Cooley is the study that I want to see done. Forget about tuition, room, board, free coaching, free training, free food, free medical, free all of that that you get in college. Here's the study that I want to see. I want to see somebody do a study that quantifies the value of college sports as a marketing platform for these individual players. Because I'll give you just a couple of examples. First of all, you don't think Zion Williamson.

Zion Williamson actually would be an example of a guy that a lot of people knew before he got to Duke because he was an internet sensation. But still, you don't think playing at Duke and those games, remember how he was the story, you don't think it helped him with things like endorsements, etc. He may have still been the number one pick. But let me give you better examples. From the 2019 draft, DeAndre Hunter, who played for Virginia, ended up being the number four pick in the draft. They won the national championship that year.

Jared Culver, who played for Texas Tech, went number six overall in the NBA draft. Do you think that anybody really knew who these players were? They would have been drafted in the same spots that they got drafted at without playing in the ACC, without playing in the Final Four, without playing in the tournament, without having their personal profile raised. Let me give you an example from that draft. DeAndre Hunter got picked fourth overall. his base salary in his rookie year was $7 million.

Jared Culver got picked sixth overall. His base salary was $5.8 million. If they don't play college basketball, do you really think they're picked that high? No, is the answer to that. Let's say they go end of the first round. There can be like a $5 to $6 million a year one difference. Forget about the total aggregate of a three or four year deal. Just in that first year alone, what about endorsement opportunities that these players get

because they're high profile coming out of, you know, the ACC, playing in the tournament, playing on television, becoming stars, because the platform of college basketball provides that as an opportunity. Somebody give me and quantify how much more they earn when they come out of college basketball versus if they were to go overseas and then get drafted, if they were to say, yeah, I'm not going to play. I'm going to take the one year off, and Uncle Charlie's going to coach me up, and we're going to be working out in the gym. I'll be working with various trainers, and then I'm going to go to the NBA draft camps. This is real money, like significant money.

I'm always surprised at those that argue that there's no value, that it's a one-sided value proposition between schools and athletes. And by the way, Cooley, the athlete that never becomes pro, which is 99% of them, do you know how many of them, you probably experience this? How many of them, because of their affiliation with that university and the fact that they played sports and were good, will get a job interview over somebody that the company's never heard of, that'll get an opportunity in a professional environment because they played basketball at Duke or at North Carolina or Kansas? I mean basketball in general or another sport.

A lot of people who run businesses like people who played college sports if they finished college. True about that too. They know that they can compete. Yep. You know, this is an interesting thing with Jalen Johnson because this is the new norm. His path, this is all his dad or his parents. If you look through his high school, he went to Madison East High School in Wisconsin

and then after his sophomore year transferred to be a part of a super. super team at Nicolette High School in Glendell, Wisconsin, and then transferred to IMG after that. And then he's, then he didn't play at IMG. And it's just like his parents are just moving to him. It's just this constant alignment to get him into the league. That's nothing to do with loving basketball. He's really good at it. But he's probably never been taught to just play and love basketball.

Right. That's why I love Zion. That's why I love the Zion Williamson story, right? No doubt. Does he love it? I mean, we, we went through a guy that, in D.C. that I saw, Josh Doxon was as talented as a receiver as you saw at Texas Tech. What was that?

His second or third school, I mean, just, it's funny. Like, he didn't love it. It's easy. Kids don't love it. How good are they after three or four more years? Jalen Johnson's talented. Big kid can play, but, I mean, when you say quit, It could just be dad told him we're going to sit down for the rest of the year.

We're good enough to get in the league now. I know that, but it's just a terrible, I don't want to say terrible. My daughter's in swimming, and she hates it right now because the pool's cold. He's the youngest kid, and it's hard for her. Yeah. She doesn't want to go to swimming. And how are you handling it? She goes to swimming.

Yeah. We signed up. She's doing it. She's good at it. I don't care that one aspect is not in her favor. It's a little cold in the pool. It's not that cold in the pool. It's a little hard.

You have to learn to fight through it. Yeah. We're not quitting. We're not, we went skiing two weeks ago in the first two runs. She was panicked. So I want to go home. That's great. We got four more hours.

You wanted to come. You wanted skis. We got them. You're skiing. Figure it out. Be tough. This is a parent thing. And, Kev, it is quitting.

Well, we, here, here, there's a reason. I mean, obviously, they have, they're not just butt hurt and done. I mean, they are, but they think that there's another step. And that quitting is in their favor to the next step. But he's quitting. I'm totally. The craziest thing is like, sorry, no, please go. The craziest thing is, to some extent,

I really do understand college football when it's not the playoffs. You're going to play in the dot-com whatever bowl. I don't care if they play. The risk of some of the injury stuff is wild. But, God, the tournament is maybe the coolest possible event in all of sports. Yeah. Even if you're there for one year, the idea that you can, and Duke and, they're talented enough, and they'll still have a chance to get in.

If he were to play well and play a role, to have a chance to win the tournament, maybe one of the coolest things in the world as an athlete. I mean, you know, that's one of those things where I would say to him, so if you were having a really good season and we were on the verge of the tournament, you'd do the same thing. No, you probably wouldn't do it. Look, I'm, we don't ever have all the information in these things.

And I, you know, there's a perspective here that I can totally try my best to understand and be very open-minded towards. And that is, and I don't know if this is his situation at all, but you take, you know, you take the kid that is from a very difficult background financially and otherwise. And he is the meal ticket. He's the meal ticket for himself, the family. and they don't want to risk that. Like he did have a foot injury earlier in the year. He came back. He hasn't played well.

They don't want him to go out and risk not playing well or not getting enough time or being downgraded in the draft and losing millions of dollars. I think I understand that if I had that perspective, I would be much more protective of that. Okay, I do. But at the same time, you know, the bottom line is that's not, there's a little bit of adversity here.

And overcoming that adversity can pay off in a much bigger way down the road as well. And you're going to be evaluated in the decisions you make right now by those people who will eventually choose or choose not to pay you. Look, it's very complicated. It's funny about the Sloan thing about the pool. Because I've certainly been in a situation as a parent with sports in particular. and I've just made them, sorry, you're finishing this, you're doing this, you're going to finish it, you made a commitment, you signed up, by the way, you signed up, and they would have taken somebody else for your spot, you know, and, you know, whether it's true or not, and you have a commitment that you're going to live up to.

And obviously, if you're a parent, you have to investigate the situation to make sure that your son or daughter doesn't hate it because something actually untoward is happening. And you have to be careful in this day and age. you don't know. But when you're pretty sure that it's just that they want to quit, you know, my position, and it sounds like yours, is, you know, sorry, that's not an option in the Cooley household. So I did want to mention this one thing. And I do think that there are times where you're like, yeah, okay, it's not worth it. And I'm going to give you the example. My oldest hated CCD. You know what CCD is. for Catholics, right?

No. CCD is basically religious classes when you don't go to a Catholic school. So when he was young, he was not in, he ended up going to Catholic school from grades three through high school, but he was not in Catholic school as a very young kid. And so to get religion classes,

you do a thing called CCD, which is usually Sunday mornings before or after church, okay? Well, he hated it. and it was a very traumatic thing for him. For whatever reason, he just didn't want to do it. And he would get incredibly angst ridden over it. And it would be Saturday night.

And he was already talking about getting, and he was angst ridden over going to CCD. And I was doing the whole thing. Oh, it'll be fine because after church, we'll get donuts. And then I'll drop you off. And it's only an hour. And I'll sit outside and wait for you. And by the way, I did every Sunday.

day with a couple of other parents who had the same issues with their daughters and her sons. And so anyway, I remember at some point with the next two boys, the next one wasn't an issue. The third one became an issue with CCD again. And you know what I did? I just said, F it. It's just not that important. And I mean, they're going to end up in a school more likely than not that'll have religion and they'll still get first communion and they'll still be confirmed and they'll still

I mean you know all of the sacraments they'll end up getting if you're you know if you're a Catholic you know what I'm talking about and I just remember with the first one I regret putting him through that I regret it wasn't he didn't commit to it he didn't want to do it it it wasn't something that he started that he had to finish I was making him do it and it was a total source of anxiety. And, you know, there was sort of a sense of, I think, accomplishment when he got through it. And I would be sitting there waiting for him. You know, he's five, six years old, whatever it was. It just definitely wasn't worth it. So when I got to my second and third, I remember thinking, yeah, not even worth it. And by the way, it was always a pain in the ass for me,

too, right? Because I had to sit around. So selfishly, it's like, yeah, let's bail on this. and then we had a wonderful, wonderful teacher, Sister Roberta, who would call me and say, Kevin, where was Ryan today? Yeah, sister, we're kind of bailing on this stuff now. All right, well, look, he's still, can he just do a couple of these assignments so we can get him through his first communion? I'm like, yeah, we'll do that. She was the best.

But that was one that I remember sort of regretting. I probably should have just bailed with him. It's probably, it probably scarred him somehow. Like, I'm always, I always feel guilty about how incredibly upset he would get. And then I'd be like, oh, God, and then he would really try to toughen up and brave it out. And he would, and he would make it. But was it really worth it? What do you think?

Well, it's just, if it's just because you and your wife are telling him he's got to go, I mean. Yeah. Well, because we had done it. And we were raising our kids in the Catholic Church, which we, did and CCD when they weren't, you know, was a part of what it was. I did not go to Catholic school. I went to public school, but I had to do CCD. So I just figured, well, my kids are going to do it too. Anyway, whatever. I think those are always interesting situations for parents because I'm sure many out there are saying, oh my God, I had a similar situation and it's like, you know,

do you, there are certain things, I think, that they, you know, they didn't sign up for it. They didn't commit to that maybe it's actually better, you know, you cut your losses. Yeah. I'm fine with that. Right. I guess you're... I don't know. I just, I just, if they're doing something that they wanted to do, which I think basketball

would be one of those things that you would want to do and they initially committed to it and they showed interest, then they can finish what they're doing. Right. I think that's I think that's the easiest way for me to think about it I read this like I read the Urban Meyer book

I've been reading I've been reading a lot lately but essentially I guess he was playing baseball in college and he wanted to be done he called his parents and his dad said that's fine but don't come home I don't know if I'd do that to my kids

quit college sports that's fine but you can't come into my house anymore oh I mean I think that's hard too, obviously, but I think that they're, you know, look, there aren't, not everybody has, none of us have all the answers when it comes to this stuff. The Jalen Johnson thing to me just reeked of. His playing time had been cut. He'd been to three high schools, as you described, that this was just sort of his MO. And, you know, I think you more than anybody else in my life over the last 10 years

when it comes to talking about like sports and the acquisition of players. It's really, you've got to, your due diligence on the character and the want to and the joy and how much they love it is so important. Look at how many players Washington's failed on in acquiring. And, you know, this is where I actually have great belief in Ron Rivera. I do. I have a feeling he's good at picking people that fit into a culture of character, team first, you know, more about us, less about me, kind of a thing.

That's why I think, you know, a guy like John Allen, who our fans, you know John really well, our fans think should be included in a trade like he's the first one. I would almost bet, I'd bet anybody a hundred bucks that he gets signed to a contract extension. I don't know anything, but he is, as you know, he's like the perfect culture, character, player you want. And by the way, he's good, is really good. I think he's like a glue player, if that makes sense. Yeah. He holds stuff together.

He does. He's so much of that type of guy that he keeps other guys accountable. And he's good enough that he's, I mean, he's really good. And it takes a, in my opinion, it takes a guy to be really good to have that kind of leadership aspect. But if he is really good and has that aspect, think of how much better he makes certain other guys. When you have guys that you play and practice for because you don't want to let guys like John Allen down, you just, you get better. To me, it's imperative. And if I'm coaching in the league, if I'm a head coach right now, and I'm committing everything to this team.

and I'm committing everything to my coaches and my players. I want it, I want guys that want to be there that care. That makes it worth it. Makes what you do. Obviously money does, but God, these guys commit so much. That's what makes it worth it when you have guys that care. So true. All right.

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and make sure you tell them that I told you to call or reach out. All right. Two things I want to get to football-wise. Number one, tomorrow is the first. day that you can use the franchise tag, Cooley, tomorrow through March 9th. And of course, all of the talk as far as Washington goes is what's going to happen with Brandon Sheriff? You know, are they going to tag him for a second straight year? By the way, if they tag them tomorrow in the next couple of days, it doesn't mean that they're not going to get a long-term deal done.

Brandon Brooks owns currently the highest average annual salary at 14.6 million or whatever it is. The only other guard out there is Joe Thune. A lot of people think that he's got a big chance to get a big deal. Sheriff wants to break the bank. He wants probably $15 million a year plus. How much of that would be guaranteed, do you think? Well, Sheriff, I think you're in the mid to high 40s. 40%.

Sorry, percentage-wise. Well, Brooks's deal last year was 56.3.35. No, that wasn't guaranteed. That was the total aggregate. 30 million was guaranteed. Okay, so let's call it $40 million guaranteed. I'm going to give you my quick take and then I want your more lengthy take on this.

I think Brandon Sheriffs are really good. I think he's one of the better guards in the league. I would really like to have him on the team. I think he's a perfect culture fit, the whole thing. And I also think that he's the kind of guy that you want on your team because like we said about John Allen, sort of the leader, high character, perfect for the culture,

really good player. With that said, he's missed 16 games in the last three years. 16. He's missed a third of the potential games he could have played in over the last three years. And the position is guard. So I don't know how high I would go. By the way, I'm surprised they haven't gotten a deal done with him already. I don't know why they haven't.

The reporting from Nikki Javala from the Washington Post is they're about to enter into discussions. I don't know why they've waited until now. For him, the franchise tag is 120% above. He'd get 18 million next year. You don't want to do that, right? You don't want them to play on a one-year tag for 18 million. I don't think. I don't believe that it's an absolute 100% lock that they get a long-term deal done with Brandon Sheriff. By the way, the first first team all pro for this franchise since Matt Turk in 1996. But I don't really care about that. I know he's a good player.

I know he's a good player. He's also a guard and he's also not available a lot. You say what? Eric Flowers has a $30 million contract for Miami. I mean, so there's a, like the school of thoughts on this are crazy. One, back to drafting, Brandon Sheriff. I hate drafting the guard in your top five picks because when he ends up performing really well, then you've got to pay a guard a $70 million contract.

And when you look at guards throughout the league, it's crazy because I think you and I did this a couple of years ago, right? I did it on the show. And it's like starting guards across the league range from first to seventh round to undrafted free agents, It's like Andrew Norwell, who was in Carolina, was an undrafted free agent. There's no necessarily, sorry rhyme or reason to say the best 10 guards are first rounders. The best 10 guards are everywhere in the league in terms of where you draft these guys. It's wild how that works out.

They're protected on either side with the center and the tackle. The thing is, the new norm in the NFL is these dominant elite interior defensive linemen, not just these big fatties that are run stoppers. You're getting past rushers. You're getting guys that can really move. And so you're countering that with better guards. I just hate paying a guard that much money. I do.

Where it gets interesting with Brandon, I watched him practice for two years every day. I know. He's incredible. Watching him move is different than watching anybody else besides Trent Williams, who had been there when I was there. obviously everyone knows Trent.

Chairman Williams is the only other guy that I've really seen practice like that, move like that. Brandon Sheriff is a hard worker, man. Every day brings it, works, leads, does what he's expected to do. He just hasn't been elite yet. I know he's a first team all pro, but he wasn't.

I don't know if I buy that. I'm watching every game of film. I didn't watch enough other guards, but I think he's really, really good. He's no Quentin Nelson. I think he's right there in the top 10 guys. guards in the league. Cooley. Think about what you just said.

Top 10? He was a first team all pro. I understand exactly what you're saying. Okay, but if you believe that, then you're not. Tram Williams, when he played in those couple of years when I started grading film, it was like there was everybody and then there was Trent Williams. Brandon is, there's everybody. He fits in that, there's everybody.

He usually grades a little bit higher, but it's never elite, elite week in and week out. he has down weeks. And it's probably because he's banged up a lot. And he plays through that, which you love when he can. I think the problem with not getting a deal done to this point with Sheriff is everybody watching this dude right now is saying, we want you to fit into that normal guard deal that everybody's been taking. And it might not be the highest paid guy.

And he's saying, okay, well, I was first team all pro and you're going to make me the highest paid guard. I just Top 10. Seriously, there are people out there going top 10, he's got to be one of the best two or three guards in the game. That's what our fans... He probably, I mean, okay, let's look through the guards.

I mean... Quentin Nelson is a top 10 player in the league. So nobody is in his class at guard. Nobody. When Norwell got paid two years ago, he went through a season where he didn't allow one sack. Mm-hmm. Brandon doesn't have those type of years.

Brandon's violent and can really make your run game work, though. I don't want to tag him. I don't want to pay him 18. I don't know. Do you want to pay him $15 million a year? I mean, you just have so much cap space. That's the thing. I mean, and you're going to create more when you cut Alex or you restructure Alex.

You're going to create more when you restructure Alex, and he's a glue player. I just mentioned that with Jonathan Allen. He's a pro. He's a pro. Does it the right way. Makes other players better. The thing is... Because of all those things involved,

I wish he was a left tackle that I was paying. He's the right guard. Well, you know, there is a left tackle available in free agency. He's 33 years old. He played for the 49ers last year. His name's Trent Williams. I know. Would you rather pay Trent 19 a year, 20 a year?

or sheriff 15 a year that's easy i mean the yeah it is easy but the thing that scares me about trend is well he's not coming back here there's your your owner is he going to be happy enough to play yeah the owner doesn't want him um i don't know what would what would be the how would you you got to pay him top dollar based on the accolades and when he's playing at his best he when he's at his best he he he is a top dollar three guard. I know, but you just hate to pay him the top guard salary in the league and have a miss, you know, basically five, you know, in a third games per year. And he's 30. And he's 30. I mean, that's a good, good age. I mean, you know, you reminded me of something when I had Jake Rudin on last

week. We were talking, you know, I mentioned the time where he said, we got, you know, Josh Doxon and a guard. Remember that kind of the way he said it that day and talking about. about McLuhan. He said, McLuhan told me we had Morgan Moses's replacement. He said, we drafted Brandon Sheriff to be our right tackle, and he said it was one day and we realized no chance he could

play tackle. He's not a tackle. He's a guard. We were there that day. I know. But McLuhan was drafting him where he drafted him thinking that he was going to be a tackle. I do think they knew he could play guard if they had to fall back on that. Right. This is the whole thing's so

crazy because how quickly contracts have escalated in the last 10 years. Yeah, but now we've got a reduced salary cap number. I don't know how that will impact, you know, the deal. I mean, the teams can obviously cry poor here in 2021 with a lowered salary cap. The problem is, is on a long-term deal, it's going to probably, when fans are allowed back, and the new TV deal is done, it's going to increase significantly. like it's coming down to a floor of 180 or whatever they announced last week, and it's going to be 230 in two years.

I mean, I'm just guessing there. Look, I mean, you look at your cap room, you look at your cap space, you look where you're at, and you're not overpaying offensive line to a huge maximum. You know, you hate putting a huge percentage into your cap into just offensive line because you want to have that cycle of you've got a guy that you drafted, you have maybe a free agent that you didn't have to overpay for. I think that I'm making a really, really good offer for Brandon Sheriff. And I think if he's not willing to take it,

I'd probably let him walk. Oof. I'm not. And who plays his position? Standing was reminding me this morning that there was discussion about Sadiq Charles being able to play guard as well. And so, you know, maybe you're just sure, you're short, for sure left tackle. They like Sadiq Charles.

Yeah. He's an athlete. He can play. You're not going to get as good a player as Brandon Sheriff. And I don't know if you can afford to lose an offensive lineman. It's a tough deal. But what's he going to get, you know? Right.

I'm not paying him $16 million a year. It's crazy. So just one last thing on the franchise tag. The big thing is what does Dallas do with Prescott? Obviously, this is, I think this is such an interesting situation to consider because DAC has all the leverage. I mean, he just has all the leverage. He's got leverage that he didn't even anticipate having by getting hurt and having the

team sucks so badly without him offensively, which just added to it. But man, you know, they just, you cannot let the quarterback that you think is your franchise quarterback, you cannot let him start down the franchise tag path because each year he creates more leverage and it becomes exponentially more expensive. I mean, I can't imagine that the Cowboys lose him even if they had to franchise tag him for this year. Because I bet you they think with him playing this year, they can win 11 games and make a run, you know, in the postseason if he's healthy for all of them. You know, they're not letting him walk into free agency.

No chance. Do you agree with that? I don't think there's any chance that. I think worst case, they tag him and he plays, you know, one more year into the tag and then they lose him next year. They could, I mean, they just, They can't let him go. They need him.

And they could be a very good team next year with him. They would be a very good team with him next year. And he's beloved in Dallas. I think he's everything you want as a leader. He's developed and grown so much as a quarterback. I think they were offering him something like $35 million a year. Yeah. Was that offer?

Yeah, right. You know more about Dak Prescott if you're there. I'll tell you one thing right now. If you were to make him the offer that he wants, it comes with the caveat of just so you know, there's no Deshawn Watson Clause here. Okay? You're not going to run this team.

You're not going to run this organization. You're going to do your job. Well, he hasn't asked for it. I know because he hasn't had that money to ask for it. Yeah. Alan Robinson, I'm reading more and more Chicago is going to tag him. He's not going to be happy about it, but you know what? They'd be smart to do that.

What else do they have other than Montgomery? They have two players on a team that's good enough defensively to be, well, they were. They were a playoff team because of their defense. You know, I know a lot of fans, me included, would be very interested in Alan Robinson and free agency, but I bet you the Bears tag him. I would tag him if I was Chicago. I would just work at a deal with him, but that might not be an option because he might not want to be in Chicago.

Exactly. Alan Robinson certainly wants to play for a team that has a really good quarterback. Now, maybe Chicago has plans to get a quarterback, and when they tag him, they're going to say, hey, look, we're going to get you your guy and we'll work out the deal when we get you your guy. It's not going to be fools. Right. But what do they have?

They have like, I think they had Riley, Ridley, Darrell, Darnel Mooney, Cordero, Patterson is not a big-time receiver. You're a return guy. They didn't have nothing. They need him. Well, they had their slot guy who was the guy I like, Miller. Anthony Miller out of SMU, right? Yeah.

No, no, no. Or Memphis. He was Antonio Gibson's teammate. And then they had the guy that dropped the bomb in the playoff. Wimms. Yeah. And they have, I mean, they drafted Colquette early last year from Notre Dame in the tight end.

He actually looked really good at times for them. I, Colquette was, I thought, hands down, the best tight end out of the draft last. Right. So. I don't, I would tag him. Yeah. It's such a hard deal. One, it's crazy to me, like a guy like Alan Robinson's made pretty good money.

And then what's the, I know he doesn't want to be tag. There's some weird disrespect to the tag, which is not why the tag was created for players to feel disrespected. I don't get paid the top five in that year, all guaranteed at their position. Yeah. And what's the receiver tag number this year? Uh, I don't know. I can look it up. Hold on. I mean, it, uh, 15.6 million dollars. 16.4 for 2021.

Oh, I'm looking at this now that says 17.8. Uh, I've got 16.4 franchise tag for seven. Rear tweeted out. Oh, you're right. You're right. I just see that. I see that, I see that too. Updated two days ago with the new because the, because the floor went up a little bit. So yeah, 17.88. You can't lose it. I wouldn't lose him if I was Chicago. He's instrumental to my offense if I'm Chicago. And if I was, trust me, if I was Almer Offinson, he said, it would guarantee $18 million for this year.

Okay. Let's do one more. Well, remember, you know. That's going to get it done for life for me. Sorry for bringing this name up for the second straight podcast because we usually don't do it. But remember what old, you know, old Mr. Cousin said. he said the franchise tag can be your friend and it was for him. It's not the worst thing in the world.

For a receiver, almost 18 million? Yeah, I think it's your friend. I mean, Dak Prescott, I'd be shocked if Jerry doesn't figure this out. And by the way, I think Prescott should want to play in Dallas. They've got weapons. I mean, if they, first of all, they're going to be better coached defensively with Dan Quinn. Secondly, they actually had a little bit more talent, and they were banged up on defense. We know they were banged up along the offensive line.

I don't know. I mean, I look at them, and I really think that I understand why Dallas is the favorite to win the division. I totally get it. The assumption, obviously, is Prescott, not Dalton, or, you know, somebody else, or the guy from JMU. Jamie is his name. Damucci. Danucci. Danucci.

Danucci. No, I'm just not paying him the home's money. No. No. Or Deshawn Watson. He's going to want more than Deshawn Watson got. By the way, he's not better than Deshawn Watson. Sorry, he's not. And I know that there's a comparison in the styles of play.

Watson's better. Well, they're offering him more than Russell Wilson's contract. Okay, well, that's because of his age. Watson's a better. Do you agree with me? Yes or no. Watson's a better player than Prescott. I would agree with you. And I think Watson will,

last year, if you were to say one quarterback to win any game, I would have put DAC right there with Watson. To develop in the next three years, I think Watson's on a path to develop to be a guy that could be elite, elitally. I would not put Prescott ahead of Watson in any category. I like Watson more.

And I like Prescott. And I like Prescott was doing. Do you remember? Prescott was doing three dudes, though, like three legit dudes at receiver. Do you remember me telling you when he was at the beginning of his final year at Mississippi State that he was going to be a starting quarterback in the NFL? Dak Prescott, before anybody really knew who he was? Yeah. Just wanted to mention that.

Watson's better. You know, the other thing, too, Prescott's one of those guys that over the years, look, they've had some teams that have had some issues defensively, although the team a couple of years ago, I think, was really good defensively. The team that won the division and lost to the Rams in the postseason after beating, was it Seattle they beat? Didn't they beat Seattle?

Yeah, it was the year that the Rams came out and said, we knew what their stunts were. Right, exactly. And the Rams ran the ball down their throat. But that was the team. Remember they played New Orleans on a Thursday night, and they held New Orleans to like 10 points. It was like a 13 to 10 game.

There were some really good offensive teams that they held back, like Atlanta. And like the defense stepped up that year. And there were some games. Prescott was really good. He also had some games. I remember that were dreadful in losses. His second year, I think it was, he couldn't beat a, good team.

I think what was his rookie year? Was it 2016 or 2017? 2016. 2016. There was a year, whatever the first year he started was, the first year that he started in, and they were good on defense. They were really good on defense. He could not beat a good defensive team.

But he's beyond that. What am I even talking about him? I thought it was a slow go with Dak. they were really, really simplistic the first couple years. They had to develop him. Yep. And they did. Jason Gary did, I guess.

And I think at this point, watching him this year before he was hurt, he saw the field. Yeah. Last thing before we go, and let me first tell you about MyBooky, my bookie.com. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., they'll match your deposit. Halfway up to $1,000. So if you want to start betting some college hoops, get you ready for the tournament and March Madness, will be here before we know it, and it's going to happen this year. All of the venues will be in the state of Indiana.

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They'll match your deposit halfway up to $1,000. All right. Last thing that I wanted to mention is that Peter King put out, I don't even, Peter King, I think does his own website. I don't think it's Monday morning quarterback anymore. Anyway, he did a whole thing on Deshawn Watson and all the different deals that could happen for Deshawn Watson. And he had for Washington the following.

Washington is intriguing because of its strong young defense, but Washington might have to trade off too much of what makes it an attractive future team, Chase Young and another promising youngster, as well as three or four very high picks. Not impossible, but a major challenge, and I bet Houston would have better offers. I don't know what those three or four. I mean, we've already talked about it. I think it's, I think for Washington, if Watson becomes available, and I don't think he will be.

And by the way, apparently already today, Houston said, I don't think it was in a reaction to Peter King's column. I think they came out and said, no, we're not trading him. Make sure everybody understands he is not available. If he became available, if it became an untenable situation and he were available, I think Washington, based on where their first rounder is this year, where their first rounder would be projected to be next year with him. I think it's two first, two seconds, and two players, and one of them would have to be Chase Young, period.

I think that would be the price. And I think Peter King's right. I think even with that, and he says two young players plus three or four very high picks, which would sort of fit the two first, two seconds, two players, right? I still think it won't be enough. I think the Jets with two first round picks, you know, the dolphins with two first round picks,

picks. And both of those teams have a quarterback to give. And they both have quarterbacks to give. Exactly. That's the other thing. Right. Like Washington, who they, wouldn't they ship over their Heineke? Well, some people would say, no, don't do that. We need him. We don't need Watson. God, I'm not, I'm not getting him. I mean, they're just, they're not, they're not going to be able to put it together. They'd have to give away everything. Yes. I mean, there was a, and it won't be enough. with like,

it won't be enough. McCaffrey, Bridgewater, draft picks, like half a Carolina's team and draft picks. Right. You're not going to get there.

Oh, by the way, as part of this story, he did say that two teams have already reached out and made offers to Houston and Houston's saying, you know,

we're not doing anything. And he said, I'd be very surprised if the Panthers haven't made an offer. You know, they want to, I mean,

the Panthers want a quarterback, obviously. which means Bridgewater is also available. I just don't, I mean, I feel like we keep beating the same dead horse and I don't want to keep doing it. I just don't think he's going to get traded, period. I just don't think it makes sense for Houston to trade him. And if you say, well, it doesn't make sense for them not to trade him and have him hold out. How long is he going to hold out for?

Four years? I just have seen, I've seen this. couple times in Washington play out one with the cousin stuff and another with the Trent William stuff and I know but in general like getting paid this kind it becomes competitive for the team as well like we're not going to lose to you yeah well you're not going to tell us that's because of the team president's disposition on all this stuff but in general these situations become competitive with the team yeah with dysfunctional teams and Houston's dysfunctional to your point I mean Houston's got

new dudes across the board. But can you imagine you're a new GM and a new head coach and you're sitting there in a meeting? Like, why would we give him away? He's, good, he should be one of the best three quarterbacks in the league.

We win because we have a top 10 quarterback, and especially if we have a top five quarterback, we should be in the playoffs every year. What are we going to do giving him away? This is ridiculous. We're not. We came here with the idea that he'd be here. Like, no. How about no, we're not?

I mean, it's... I mean, the only way this ends up happening is if the owner just basically says you're doing it. Because if you're a GM or a coach, you're not giving away this guy. No chance. You know, we didn't... We talked about the Carson Went Steal on Friday, but I just wanted to add this wrinkle to it. I don't know if you thought about it a little bit more, but I actually think the Eagles did pretty well on the deal. I think, you know, getting a third this year and maybe a first next year,

well, almost definitely a first next year, is not bad for Carson Wentz, given that there may have only been one team interested. And I also think that, you know, the Stafford deal, because of the hall that Detroit got back for Stafford, what happens is it's perceived right now, the quarterback market is a seller's market. So that means, you know, people that you're not even thinking of could potentially be available. You know, so I don't know, I mean, I definitely think that, like the Jets saying last week or the report from the guy from the Sportsnet, Ralph Vaciano, saying that the Jets, you know, need a second and a mid-round pick for Darnold.

If you can get Sam Darnold for a second mid-round pick. That's what I said last week. I mean, I'll take it right, give them to me right now, right now. We'll take that risk. I just think it's a seller's market and he ain't going for a second, a mid-rounder. I mean... Yeah, but we talked about this as it nears the draft.

After a draft, after they draft, where is he going? I don't know. The four teams, for sure, that want dudes are going to draft dudes in the first round. That makes the four highest bidders, it takes the four highest bidders off the table, not available to go to those teams. If you're Washington, you're sitting there going,

to wait until after the draft. Jets are going to draft a dude? We'll wait till after the draft. I'll tell you one thing with this seller's market to keep an eye on. Second time I've mentioned his name on the show, the guy that used to play here in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Because San Francisco and Denver, they could really, really ratchet up a price

that Minnesota might not be able to turn down. You got Denver who's already, there have already been reports about how much, George Payton loves, you know, the former guy in Minnesota, who's now their GM taking over for Elway, how much he loves Kirk. And then we know what Shanahan thinks of them. And you get two, three teams involved in Minnesota, even though, you know, now Garapola would be a part of that deal. I guess Drew Locke could potentially be a part of a Denver deal. I think that a lot of, I think you're going to see, it's going to be, look, it's going to be wild here over the next. you know, couple of months. It's going to be wild. Like I know I said last week, well, the only thing that's happened to Stafford, well, now Wences happened. And, you know, if Watson became available,

the kind of deal that could be in place. And I don't, and then, you know, the, I was reading something early this morning that a lot of teams all the sudden love Mack Jones, love him. He might end up going in the first six or seven picks. We always see that with a quarter of them. You know why that happens, right? Tell me why. Coaches watch film. It's what makes the late jump happen. I don't know a lot of the interviews.

Don't the interviews do a lot with that too? The interviews definitely do a lot with it, but more importantly, the coaches watch film. I mean, we'll see because a lot of these guys are watching a lot of free agent tape, but any of these guys that are looking for quarterbacks, and you were thinking you're anywhere from 8 to 20, you're watching Mac Jones. You got your staff in there watching Mac Jones. You're spending time.

Yeah. But these coaches start watching the tape and go, he can play. And I watched not film on Mac Jones, but I watched a couple games. He can make decisions. Now, the question I would, and it sucks for Mac Jones a little bit, It's like you had two of the three best receivers in college football and two other really good ones. And you're tight-inken ball and you have the best running game I can imagine. And your offense was a machine.

Was it you or was it the weapon? Well, yeah. I mean, it's not like he was throwing into tight windows. Sometimes he can throw it into tight windows, but he also knows this guy's going to go in there and get it. And I've told you this a lot of times. I think Alabama does as good a job coaching wide receivers as any team in college football. They all come out technically sound. Yeah, you've said that before.

God, I mean, Devante Smith, to me, looks like as good a route runner as they've had there in a while. Hey, one other quick thing before we wrap for the day, because this is, I mean, you know, Houston says, and they reiterated today, they're not trading to Sean Watson. But if you're Nick Casario, the GM, you take every call, right? You take every call and you listen to every offer. I mean, there's nothing to lose. Yeah, no, especially for a new GM. You don't want to disrespect offers from other GMs and other two.

You want to have great relationships with these guys. But beyond that, don't you want to hear what all the offers are? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it gives you a sense of, I mean, you can't predict what is to come. I mean, it sounds like they are really heels dug in on this, and I think they should be personally.

I mean, here's the thing about Sean Watson. I know we keep coming back to it, but why did you sign the contract? I understand that's a lot of money. But DeAndre Hopkins had already been shipped out. You already knew it was a dysfunctional situation. You already knew Bill O'Brien more likely than that was a terrible GM and was headed towards, you know, being out of there.

You know, why do you can't sign that deal and then four months later say you went out. Not at that position in this league. Up here, as Coach Joe would say. By the way, speaking of Coach Joe, have you ever met his grandson, Ty? Yeah. You saw what happened, right? What he did this weekend? No.

He won a NASCAR event, 18 years old. It's the youngest to ever win. a NASCAR event. Ty Gibbs, Joe's grandson. The interview, first of all, he's 18, he looks like he's 12. He became the first NASCAR, the youngest NASCAR winner

in his first race. Joe Gibbs celebrated his first NASCAR victory as a grandfather watching from the pits as 18-year-old Ty Gibbs won his Xfinity series debut Saturday on the road course at Daytona. Gibbs became the youngest driver to win an Xfinity Road race at 18 years, four months, 16 days. The record had been set by a 20-year-old. It's crazy.

Do you know him? Had you met him? Yeah, I've met him. Yeah. I mean, I know you know a lot of the Gibbs people. No. Two of his other grandsons played football at App State. Okay.

He's a... I mean, it's just... But think of it. It's the amazing outliers theory. Not to discount that he's got talent, but it's drive the best cars, have the best things, learn from the best people in the world

from the time you're six. The advantage of it is massive. It's awesome, though. What else is, that theory that you, said. Is that the Gladwell? Gladwell, yeah. So what other

what other outlier amazing outlier theories are there? I think Patrick Mahomes is a perfect one. Because of professional athlete father. Yeah. Guy that could play baseball, taught him a million different ways to throw the ball.

Money to work, go to wherever he wanted to do. I don't know if he did or didn't. But I mean, that's, LeBron James' son's going to be a massive of outliers theory. It would it start with like, and it's not just the parent or money. It's sort of like it was jobs and Bill Gates or it was Bill Gates that lived right next to the Washington campus. The only campus that had a computer. And also he had to love it, but he got to spend that much time when nobody else had access to him. Right. Exactly.

It's kind of the idea that you're spending that much time without access. Yeah, that, that, that part of that story I've read before, Gates, grew up next to the University of Washington. They had a shitload of computer, you know, sort of resources, and he had access to it at like a super young age. You obviously have to have an interest in it. And a skill. And, well, and the intelligence to do something with it from a business standpoint. No, I think another, yeah, I think one of the other interesting ones when I read that book along, it's been a long time. Yeah. a massive percentage of NHL hockey players were born between Jan 1 and March 31 or April 15th, something like that.

What? Because the rollover date to be on the older club or the younger club was after that date. So you were the 7-year-old playing with the rest of the 6-year-old. Oh, so you were the old. So you were always getting the most playing time. You were the bigger kid. You got the confidence. You were always the one promoted.

You know, that's actually a subject for another day. I'm doing it with my kids. About the hold back and have your kid be the oldest and the confidence that comes with that. Got that down. We'll do it on Friday. I will. All right, thanks. This was different, not really that different for you and me, but I know we didn't get to as much sports as we normally do.

Maybe we'll have some stories. But I wrote down very early in the show, which now seems like a couple of hours ago, that the title of today's show would be Aunt Cindy. So there you go. Have a great day. I'm back tomorrow with Tommy. Cooley, have a good one. See you.