The Kevin Sheehan Show - Breaking News Day!

Episode Date: April 1, 2021

Kevin and Thom today on Ron Rivera's press conference, Nats-Mets postponement, Nats' season preview, Roy Williams' retiring, and much more.  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.

Starting the podcast today with what we call in the trade a post-production edit. I'm adding this to the beginning of the podcast because it was a podcast of breaking news throughout. So you'll hear Tommy and I today as we were getting the news about Nats Mets postponed, about Roy Williams retiring, about some of the things that Ron Rivera was speaking about in his Zoom conference call with beat reporters. At times here early in the podcast, it'll sound like we don't know anything about it, but we find out as we were recording it and we respond to it in the moment. So enjoy the podcast today, by the way, a reminder that I did not do one yesterday, but I will have a podcast sort of make up for Wednesday's No Podcast on Saturday. Enjoy the show. You don't want it.

You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. We've got a lot to talk about, including the fact that it is opening day. It'll be awfully cold in that ballpark tonight, Tommy, for the 5,000 season ticket holders that will be there. By the way, did you know that they're going to re-raise the banner tonight for the 5,000 in attendance? Well, as well they should. I think they should re-raise the banner every time they get to up the capacity until they get a full house.

Well, why not just wait until it's a full house? I think they should do it a half a dozen times because 2020 didn't happen, at least in my mind. As far as I'm concerned, they're still the defending champs. I'm sort of with you. I mean, they're not the defending champs. The Dodgers are. I know that. But beyond that, you know, last year was a weird year and they didn't have a chance to play a real season as defending champion.

My only issue is, you know, these 5,000 season ticket holders, probably among their wealthiest season ticket holders. I don't know. Did they do it by lottery? Maybe they did. I would imagine that there may have been some preferential treatment. Like, wait until the ballpark's full. There's no real urgency to do it tonight. I guess you... Why not do both? Well, then you've got three banner raisings.

What's the problem? Nothing's the problem, actually. I mean, I guess if you put it that way, we might as well do it every night for all, you know, 81 home dates. Let's just re-raise the banner. I think it's good. You know what? That actually, that would be the utmost of appreciation because it would reach and connect with the most fans. Why not?

And the rest of the world would hate us even more. Yeah. Anyway, it is opening night tonight, opening day. And let me point out, you know, not only is it going to be cold, but we're up on like the sixth floor of the building. Okay, so we're pretty high up, and it'll be windy. And sometimes it's like Mount Washington wind up there. And because of COVID, they can't close the press box windows. Are you rethinking your decision to go?

Oh, no, I'm going. Okay, good. I'm going. Yeah, suck it up. I mean, I'm not going to weasel out because it's cold, but it will be colder where I'm sitting. than where anyone else watching the game is sitting. Tonight, temperatures, all right, the game time, the first pitch temperature,

42 degrees, okay, I have basically here. It's going to be windy. Winds gusting up to 25 miles per hour out of the northwest. That's, by the way, the cold side in which the winds blow out of the northwest. And, you know, if there is precipitation, it would be showers or flurries during the game, although the chance of that is minimal. Yeah, I mean, not ideal. Look, I know it's tradition to start the baseball season right around, you know, the first of April,

you know, give or take a couple of days. You know, for a lot of these northeast, you know, colder cities that play outdoors, I know that you'd love to have the home opener at home, but it really would make more sense for them to open up in Miami or in a ballpark with a dome. and then come back home in two weeks. And they've done that before, but whatever. I don't care. I mean, it's 5,000 people in the crowd tonight.

I'm looking forward to it. You know, they had the COVID case. They've got a player with COVID. Do you have any idea who that player is? No, I don't. But, you know, I don't cover the team every day. I know. I'm not as plugged in as some of the beat guys.

And I haven't seen anyone reported yet. I'm sure at some point before the game starts, we'll probably know who it is. And not only that, but people who came in the conference. contact with him have to be quarantined as well, right? Yeah, four other players that had, you know, contact tracing issues. So there's the possibility that they'll be without five players. Now, they've called up players at positions that would lead you to believe that the five cases are of those positions.

They've called up a catcher, a left fielder, another reliever, an infielder. Another infielder, yeah. Yeah. You know, I had Jesse Docherty on the show this morning. he covers the Nats for the post. I mean, he's very good. And I asked him, I said, you know, do you have any sense based on the call-ups? I mean, have you done, you know, I'm sure you've done the game of trying to figure out who it is.

And he said, I have. He said, I just wouldn't feel that comfortable talking about it. And I said, oh, okay, you know, which is fine. I mean, I think every single Nationals fan that's excited about opening night is doing that exercise, right? They're going through right. Left fielder Kyle Schwerber might have it. You know, we've got a catcher, so Jan Gohms, you know, Jan Goams might be the guy. I mean, I don't know.

You know, I also think back to, you know this. I knew in the middle of the season when there was a story out there that a Washington player had COVID, had tested positive for COVID, I knew from a good source that it was Matt Ionitis. And I, you know, it was still sort of a sensitive time. And I did feel this, first of all, I didn't care about breaking that news. Like Matt Ionitis is the guy with COVID-19. First of all, he was on Injur Reserve at the time. But I did call the Washington football team public relations.

And I said, look, I know it's ionitis. And I said, I don't want to do anything that makes anybody feel uncomfortable. And I really don't know if it would make anybody feel uncomfortable. And to be honest with you, they just said, look, you have it. Do with it what you want. But, you know, we'd like to keep it under wraps until Matt's sort of comfortable with it. and so I just decided not to do anything with it. Whatever.

But I was thinking today, like we're five months beyond that. Like, is it really like a super sensitive thing to report that, you know, by name, if you have it, that this particular Nationals player tested positive? And in fact, for the players, look, everybody can feel the way they want to feel. But having COVID-19 and testing positive, is that really some sort of negative thing? Well, look, you've seen what we're going through right now in terms of vaccinations, where people, people, and some athletes included in this, some are reluctant to say whether they've been vaccinated. I think that's different.

I don't think it's the same concept. It's a sensitive time about your own personal medical information, even though we're in a time where everybody is either, in COVID fear, or getting over COVID fear, and most people would understand if somebody had COVID. It wouldn't be some kind of scarlet letter. Exactly. Something like that. But I still think there's right now, with the vaccination process, there's some sensitivity about

that's different. Can I tell you why I think that's different? Well, you can come up with some idea that you think it's different, and I'll listen to it. Okay. Well, thank you for listening to it on our podcast. today rather than just tuning me down as I speak to nobody. No, it's different because I think there's a lot of sensitivity to making sure that you're not jumping in front of somebody in line to get a vaccine that should have gone to somebody

that was more vulnerable because of age or underlying health condition. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about like some baseball players who don't want to reveal ever if they were vaccinated or not. Why? Because of the anti-vaxers? Who knows? Maybe they are anti-vaxers. Maybe there's their fear of the backlash of not getting a vaccine at this point. So I just think I have no problem with somebody who wants to, you know, keep it quiet about their own COVID situation and sensitivities over health. The bigger issue, it's not, the issue is not who has it, okay, because they're going to get.

over it. All these players get over it. They're young. They're strong. They're healthy. Yeah. They'll get over it. The issue is this is a devastating blow for the nationals. Potentially devastating. The whole Davey Martinez mantra this spring has been about getting off to a quick, good start. I mean, good start. I mean, they have not gotten off to a good start in any of the first three years. He's been a manager, and we all know about the historical 19 and 31 start in 2019. We don't want to do that. We've forgiven that one.

Yes, but they have emphasized quick, good start, not a slow start. And they're starting off playing a division rival, a tough division rival in the Mets. They're going to play right after that another tough division rival in the Braves. Then they have to go on the road within a week to go play the Dodgers. Oh, yeah. You haven't even gone through the whole thing. I went through this with Zuck yesterday or the day before. Their opening schedule is just brutal.

It's brutal. They're playing, you know, they play the Mets a bunch of times. They play the Braves a bunch of times, both of whom, if you're not following this, are co-favorants essentially. The Braves are a slight favorite to win the division. The Mets are close to finish second. The Nats are actually, you know, in terms of odds to win the division. a distant third and slightly ahead of Philadelphia and comfortably ahead of Miami.

New York and Atlanta are on paper, according to Vegas, the two favorites to win the division. So they open up with New York, Atlanta, and then the Dodgers, who, by the way, they're over undernumber in Vegas is 103. The Dodgers only got better after winning the Convaluted World Series championship last year. So you don't want to be at less than full strength. Well, I think your description was a bit hysterical. I don't know if it's devastating at this point because we don't even know who the player is or who the other four are. But by the way, I didn't even mention that after the Dodgers, they get St. Louis for six of their next 10 games and St. Louis's picked to win their division.

And then, by the way, during this whole stretch, they play, oh, by the way, the Yankees at Yankees Stadium. The first month of their season, the schedule is brutal, brutal. Right now, it's potentially devastating. Being down 20% of the roster that you brought with you. We don't know that right now. They might have four of these guys back. They may clear the contact tracing thing. They could be back.

That's true. Yeah. That's true. But right now, your season is starting with less than, with, 20% of their roster already gone. I smell a column. God, I smell it. No, no, no, no.

I smell tomorrow's column, devastating. No, no, no. With the whole thing to the quick start. I'm not going to ring me. I'm not going to ring me that bell. This is a day of happy thoughts, opening day. You don't write negative stuff necessarily on opening day, although I've done that a few times too.

But, no, I'm not going to write that for a column. But I think it's potentially. Very damaging. You know, it's typical on opening day to do the, you know, opening day memories or whatever. You know, I'll be honest with you. I don't have a lot of opening day memories. I didn't grow up with baseball. You did.

I didn't. I, you know, I grew up in this city. We didn't have a baseball team. I didn't have opening days to look forward to in April. I went to a lot of Orioles opening days, but it wasn't because I was an Orioles. fan. It was about, you know, going to Pickles for three hours and then going to a game with a bunch of friends and having a good time. You know, I could have cared less about the, I just, I never adopted the Orioles, as many of my friends did. But I don't, it's not a big day for me, opening day.

I do love, I do like baseball a lot, and I'm a Nats fan, and I love baseball in October in the postseason. But man, for, for so many cities, this is such a big day on the sports calendar. Has it risen to that level in D.C. for a lot of people or not, do you think? No. How can you say it has? It hasn't risen to that level yet. Although I am surprised that all the – I think there's more attention this year than normal

because of the desperation to feel normal. the opening day of baseball is a normal event, or at least it has been a normal event in Washington since 2005. So I think there, I think in a way even though it's going to be 5,000 people in the stands, there's heightened interest in it right now because of COVID than there typically has been. Last year, if they had a normal opening day, it would have been through the roof. Oh, it would have been one of the hardest tickets to get in recent memory. Yeah. So it is diminished with time because of that. But I think it's a little bit heightened this year interest because of the desire to feel like life is back again. Well, it's going to be when the Rangers finally get to their home opener, it's going to feel really like opening day because they're allowing full capacity into their park, which the president and others had issues with. I don't want to get into that topic, to be honest with you.

did have Mark Hyman. Mark is the guy that replaced George Solomon is the head of the Shirley Povich Center School of Journalism. I used to work with him at the Baltimore Sun. Yeah, so Mark, you know, I've talked to Mark a couple of times since he took over that job and he was a part of this first University of Maryland-Washington Post poll, which basically polled the comfort level of sports fans attending sporting events. I didn't intend on having this as a topic, but I'll just mention this real quickly. Forty-two percent of those polled said that they feel comfortable attending a ticketed sporting event, which means 58 percent still don't. But there were a couple of things that stuck out to me. Number one, obviously, this makes sense. Two-thirds say they

feel more comfortable at an outdoor sporting event, so a football game or a baseball game outdoors, and only a third essentially said they feel comfortable indoors at a hockey game or a basketball game. 64% said that they absolutely believe that masks should be required at sporting events. But here was the one, and I'll just ask you, I mean, this was the one that caught my attention. And when I was talking to Mark this morning about it on radio, he didn't mention it in terms of the big things that stuck out to him. And I said, what stuck out to me is 64% said, that they'd feel comfortable if they were vaccinated, and 69% said that they would feel comfortable if they knew that all attendees were vaccinated. That says to me this, Tommy, because my reaction

is I'd be 100% comfortable if I knew everybody in the ballpark had been vaccinated, and I would be every bit of 80 to 90% comfortable if I were fully vaccinated. What it says to me, And I mentioned this to him and he thinks it's true. I think this last year has forever, or certainly for a period of time here of a few years plus, is just changing consumer habits when it comes to large crowds for anything. Sports is one reflection of that. But if you don't feel comfortable after what we've been told by the CDC with respect to the vaccine, going to a stadium or even an arena,

if you knew that 100% of the people in there were vaccinated, well, then this last year has really, really impacted you. And there's a fear there that's not going to go away. I think there's some truth in that. I think if you live through something like this, you don't just put it in the rearview mirror. I think it's something that, you know, people will talk about

for years to come. The 2020 COVID you know epidemic that people the lucky ones managed to live through. But you see you have this collision course with crowds right now.

Live sporting event attendance was on the way down before COVID. Understood. You know, so it's hard to, it might be hard to differentiate. No, it won't be. As to what causes what? I mean, right now, right now, I mean, there is, and it doesn't affect the NFL because the NFL just went to a season where 6% of their fans went to football games and they made $12 billion in revenue.

Yeah. So they don't need, but it's the number one TV, TV is everything in the NFL. It's not in baseball. It's not in hockey. No. No, it's not. So, but in these other sports, like basketball and baseball and hockey, the most of all, they need people there. And people are not, people are, we're already not, you know, reducing the amount of live of sporting events they were going to.

And now you have this other factor where this study came out that I knew was going to be the result of is you have a job. is you have a generation of young fans that don't even like to watch the games on TV. They like to watch high bites. Snippets. Yeah. A few minutes here and a few minutes there. So look, if I was in the sport, I guess if I was an NFL owner, I wouldn't care, you know, because gambling is going to be such a security blanket for them in particular.

But there's a lot of uncertainty as to what the future of sports is. is going to be right now. I mean, because if you've got a generation growing up, say, I don't, I don't watch a game. I don't watch a game. You know, that's troublesome. Yeah. Yeah, I guess. You know, I was just thinking, you're going to the game tonight. You're going to be in a press box. I'm assuming it'll be a socially distanced press box with people wearing masks. But you've been, you know, living the last year very concerned. You're not concerned tonight because you're fully vaccinated. True or not? Yes, I've been fully vaccinated for 35 days now.

Yeah. So if you weren't fully vaccinated, you wouldn't go. No. No, I wouldn't. By the way, there's huge breaking... I said there's huge breaking sports news as we're sitting here recording this. At least for me, anyway, Roy Williams is stepping down, which is not a major surprise at North Carolina.

there was a lot of discussion about Roy Williams potentially retiring, but Roy Williams has just retired 33 seasons as a college basketball coach, the last 18 at the University of North Carolina. And this is a job that will be sought after. This is, you know, it's funny, Indiana ended up hiring Mike Woodson, right? You know, a former player at Indiana, but you wouldn't categorize Mike Woodson as a, as a, an A-plus candidate for any opening job. The name that's going to get mentioned more than any other name right out of the gate, my guess is Brad Stevens.

You know, there's been this Brad Stevens waiting for either Roy or Shoshowski to call it quits, to come back to coach, you know, a blue blood. And so that's the name you're going to hear. You know, it's funny, there was a list, I think, last year before the season started. and I'm trying to find it right now that actually had Mark Turgeon as a potential replacement for Roy Williams because Turgeon and Roy are very close, you know, with the Kansas link. But Turgeon's not getting the North Carolina job. And by the way, let me just mention real quickly, my lean on this thing,

and I said this, I think last Thursday, or maybe it was Tuesday with Tommy, I forget the days all run together. My lean is that Turgeon's going to get an extension. I don't know anything for sure. And I think we're going to find out here over the next 48 hours, one way or the other. But I do think that there is an effort to figure out an extension for Turgeon, whether or not they come to an agreement is another thing. I don't think he's going to take the Oklahoma job. I think that, you know, this is something I mentioned from the very beginning.

He and the family, they love it here. They're not moving from here. They have a beach house in Delaware. They love where they live in the Maryland's, you know, Montgomery County in close suburbs. And I just don't think that they are going to move. If he ends up coaching elsewhere. They don't want to move to Norman, Oklahoma? Yeah, I mean, they've lived in College Station.

I can tell you this, if Chris Beard leaves Texas Tech for Texas, which I expect to happen, you know, I don't see him going to Lubbock. Lubbock's a lot worse than College Station. And College Station ain't that great. But anyway, Roy Williams, man. You know, Roy Williams, look, he's won, and I'm pulling up, I just want to see the record in total here because the news is just breaking. I've always felt that Roy Williams was a really good offensive coach,

but a dreadful defensive coach. None of his teams have ever been great defensive teams. He's almost said outright, look, goal is to score, to outscore you. And it's the way they've played. One of the things I've loved about his Carolina teams is they run every single chance they get. The ball goes through the net, and they are back at you like Michigan State. He and Izzo are the best at that. And there have been a couple of teams in this tournament. Gonzag is one. Arkansas was one where, you know, it doesn't matter if you make a shot. You have to sprint back on defense because they're coming back right,

you know, they're coming back after you. But they got blown out by Wisconsin. Conson in the first round of the tournament this year. The last, you know, they won the championship in 2017, and he was runner up to Villanova on the last second shot by Jenkins in 2016. Man, what a record. 903 wins, 264 total losses, a win percentage of 774. And he is, how many, it's three national championships, right, all at North Carolina? because remember the Kansas team, he got upset a couple times. They got beat by Maryland in a final four.

That was his last, okay, that was his last, no, they got beat by Maryland in 2002 at Kansas, and then he came back, and the next year was when they lost to Syracuse in the final. That would have been the Syracuse championship in 2003. Then he gets to Carolina and he wins his first title with that team in 2005. when they beat Illinois in the final. I think that was the final where they beat Illinois. And he had that really good team with May and Felton and some of those other guys on that team.

Yeah. What a career. I mean, seriously, 903 wins. Where is that on the all-time wins list? I don't know. I mean, look, when I think of Roy Williams, I think how did this guy scale? on the North Carolina academic scandal.

Right. How did he skate on that? He's third, by the way, behind Shoshchevsky and Beheim. Four wins ahead of Bobby Knight. And 24 wins ahead of his mentor, Dean Smith. Yeah. He skated on that. I mean, that's still not necessarily a crime, but troublesome.

You know what? Look, I think the whole North Carolina thing over a long, period of time with the sham classes. You know, this is the... Yeah, this is a perfect example of truly, you know, the haves, you know, being slapped on the wrist and the have-nots being shut down for something that would have, they would have been shut down for. There's no doubt about it.

Yeah. It's funny, you know... I mean, I'm not to use Roy Williams fan because I think he got away with something. But then again, my expectations for college... college sports, in particular college basketball, are so low now. I don't expect anything except that kind of behavior. Yeah. His, I want to say that Gary had a winning record against Roy,

and I'm just looking that up because Gary seemed to really know Roy and out-coach him a lot. Roy's record against Gary Williams at Carolina was six and five. but Maryland beat Kansas with Roy Williams in the final four and also beat them in the regular season ones. So I think I would be right in saying that Gary Williams' overall record against Roy Williams was 7 and 6 with two wins over Kansas. I don't think they lost to Kansas. I don't think they did.

Roy Williams was one of those guys. I always felt was just, you know, overrated as an X's and O's coach, but their style of play was, you know, something that I can tell you, Gary Williams always loved and appreciated. He loved the way the Carolina teams under Roy played. He wanted to play that. He wanted to be in 85-80 games. You know, those are the kinds of games he wanted to play.

And those are the kinds of games that Roy Williams played throughout his career. And that's why Gary and Izzo get along. I mean, they get along for a lot of other reasons. but they played similar styles. You know, Gary wanted with all, with his better teams, he wanted more possessions in a game. And he would do that. Going to be really interesting.

Now, you know, all the, there's still some other openings out there. Texas is still open, although everybody thinks Chris Beard's going there. But it's going to be interesting to see how the dominoes sort of fall. Like, I'm wondering if Chris Beard isn't it Texas already because he might be be a candidate for a job that maybe the sport thought would open up, which is North Carolina. You know, if you've got now, Texas is his alma mater. But, man, Carolina is Carolina. And, you know, Brad Stevens, you know, the truth is there's a little bit of, you know,

a little bit of rethinking on Brad Stevens at the pro level. They haven't won it. They haven't gotten there. And this year is a disaster for the Celtics. A disaster. So Brad Stevens, you know, is a really good basketball coach, but ultimately would not surprise me. I'm thinking about the Carolina alums that are out there. I mean, well, what's his face is at Vanderbilt?

Jerry Stackhouse. He's at Vanderbilt. I can't imagine Stackhouse gets the job. Michael Corrin's coaching somewhere, I think. I wonder if he's still. These aren't the guys, though. It's going to be, I bet you it's Brad Stevens. I bet you Brad Stevens ends up. Wes Miller, who played at Carolina and is at UNC Greensboro,

has been discussed as one of the best young coaches. He's not super young. He's 38, but one of the best young coaches in the game. He's going to be a name that's going to be on the list. I'm looking to see if anybody's put out lists already. It just happened. but I'm going to guess that it is, that Brad Stevens is a frontrunner for that job. Anyway, hey, there's something I want to. It doesn't matter for you because your team doesn't play in the 18th.

I know. I'm treating it like it is. Well, no, I mean, you know, the bottom line is that Roy Williams is a major heavyweight in coaching across all sports. pro in college. There's only one other retirement in college hoops that could be bigger. And that would be Shishovsky or maybe Kalapari. But Roy's right there. Shishovsky will be a...

Yeah, Beehime will get a big sendoff as well. There will be odds posted pretty shortly on a lot of sites. on who the next Carolina coach will be. But 33 years, there's apparently a press conference this afternoon. By the way, speaking of press conferences, Ron Rivera was supposed to hold one at 9 o'clock this morning, but then they backed it up to 11. They've done this before.

I hope he's healthy and well, because I think the last time it was because he wasn't feeling well. I wanted to get sort of a Nats preview from you. I also wanted to talk about Todd McShay's just-released latest mock draft because he goes two rounds and he's got Washington taking a quarterback in the second round. So I want to talk about that and I have something to ask you about and get your thoughts on right after this word from one of our sponsors. I wanted to mention something to you and I just wanted to get your reaction to something. So this morning on the radio show, Tommy, I had Ryan Wilson on the show.

He writes for CBSSports.com. He's a draft analyst for CBSSports.com. He was excellent, by the way, and it was a really good conversation about the draft. But there were multiple times where he referred to the team as football team. He said, I think that football team might go offensive line. I said, what do you think about Washington quarterback? And he said, well, football team, there were multiple times. And then, like the third time he said it, I just under my breath, but loud enough for him to hear, I said, Washington. And then at the end of the conversation, I said to him,

I go, look, don't take this, I'm paraphrasing here, don't take this as an attempt to end this conversation in a confrontational way, because it's not meant that way. I really enjoyed our conversation. I thought you were excellent. And I said, but why are you referring to them as football team instead of Washington? Because he did mention Washington a couple of times. I said, for many of us, when that happened, especially early last year, it really came off as sort of mocking at times, you know, the fact that they hadn't picked a name yet.

You know, and I went through the examples. We talked about it during the season last year, but, you know, during games early in the year when one of the announcers would say, first down football team, like what? Like last year, you may have said first down Washington and not said Redskins. So why are you doing that? So he just said to me, he goes, look, you know, I understand it. And he wasn't offended by the question at all. Not that I would have cared if he had it been, but beyond that, he just said, it's my way of making sure that I don't say Redskins. And so I just said, well, Washington could be your way of not saying Redskins. And he goes, it's true. And I say Washington sometimes too. But, you know, he said it wasn't in any way

meant to mock. But it really does get to the core of, like, I don't really care what they do, but if they don't do anything, I think, you know, the team, whether it's Jason Wright or Ron or their PR group have to get out to the people that cover the league. The one part of our name right now that is part of our brand is the city we play in Washington. Refer to us as Washington. Your thoughts. You've earned all the ridicule and lack of respect that this organization gets. They earned it.

You can't go there and expect people to be serious and say, you need to show us the proper respect and refer to our name the right way. Most of those people thought your name was a joke for years and offensive, whether it was or not, that's what they thought. And now you're demanding respect from them? Please. You're on shaky ground here. I didn't say that I'm demanding respect from them. That's not what I meant at all.

What I meant is, I think, with those that do it, first of all, let's just, let's just, assume that many that do it were a part of that group that were, you know, that wanted the name to be changed because it's so hideously racist for a long period of time. So they do change the name. They drop the name and they're going through the process, which is not an easy process and can't be done in six weeks or four weeks or whatever amount of time they had between the time they dropped the name and the new season started. And so they did what many of those people, not, I'm not suggesting Ryan Wilson was a part of this, did what many of these people wanted, and then they're going to get mocked on top of it with a football team?

Well, yeah. Like, what do you mean? What do you mean? No sympathy. No benefit of the doubt here. Okay, so you did what we asked you to do, and then, by the way, because you didn't come up with a replacement name fast enough, we're going to mock you on this name. Okay. No, we just generally like mocking you because you're such a terrible organization.

Okay. How's that? I think the league... I think they have earned it all, Kevin. I think the league should go to its league partners, ESPN, Fox, CBS, NBC, and say, we would really prefer that all of your television announcers and all of your other people until Washington comes up with an official new name, refer to them as Washington. It sounds stupid to say football team. when you would have said Washington anyway last year if you were against the name. It's an effort.

You got to go an extra few feet to say football team from Washington. It's not that hard. Most of these guys call a lot of the other teams in the league by their city's name anyway. I mean, you hear Dallas as much as you hear cowboys, you hear Miami as much as you hear dolphins. Let's just hear Washington. Look, I don't, I understand, by the way, what you're saying, you know that in many ways, I feel like you're right. Like, there is nothing that they don't deserve.

There is nothing that he doesn't deserve for being an absolute ruiner of what we had before he got here. But it just, you're really, like, it seems like you're reaching and you're trying too hard to mock. There's no chance that if Jacksonville was in the midst of a brand name and they were calling themselves the Jacksonville football team that I would call them football team. I'd call him Jacksonville more times than Jaguars anyway. Whatever, Ryan Wilson said he was doing it on purpose for a different reason than just to mock the team. That's right. I think if you use football team, you're doing it on purpose. whatever reason it is. It's much easier to say Washington. Of course. It's definitely easier to do.

And I did say that to him. So if you refer to him as football team, you're doing it on purpose for whatever your reasons are. And I said that to him. I said, wouldn't, you know, trying not to say Redskins by saying football team, you can you can accomplish the same thing by saying Washington, because you probably referred to them as Washington a lot of the time anyway. And by the way, he didn't even make it clear as to whether or not he was, you know, an anti-name guy for years or anyway. I didn't even ask him. I just, I thought it was interesting. It's one of the first conversations I've had with somebody where it wasn't Washington football team.

Okay, it was football team. It just sounds so stupid. Now. It does. And this notion that they say. should keep it, it's unbelievably dumb. No, if you... I mean, it's so dumb. I mean, if nothing else, I always point out to people, it's a constant

reminder that you had to change the name. Well, I mean, somebody who moves to the area who says, I'm going to become a football fan of the local football team here, you know, or kids growing up here, want to know why their football team doesn't have a name. they're going to hear the story, a story that you'd just rather bury. Whether that's true or not, and I'm not disagreeing with you that a dumb name or no name continues to keep that name alive, that may be part of the point, by the way, from their standpoint.

But the name, Washington football team is just super clunky, and it's not a name. Now, FC Washington or Washington FC, which I would have no problem with at all, is more of like an actual something you can brand because we've seen it before. And by the way, it keeps the most important part of what we all want other than, you know, the team colors to remain, which they will. Washington needs to be in the brand unless, of course, you know, in the next... Where have you seen this before Washington FC or FC Washington? Washington. What do you mean? Where have you seen this FEC before? Oh, soccer. Your favorite support.

Is that in America? Boy, that was so, that was so telegraphed. Okay, so just stop. Is that in America? Does that happen in America? What's next? Are you going to start measuring metric? Are you going to start measuring meters instead of yards? No. What's next? What's next is they're going to take away Washington because of the life that our first president lived. That's what's next, long before we start, you know, saying first in three meters at the 27. Anyway, what? F. C. It's almost as ridiculous. Well, Red Wolves is more ridiculous.

I don't care about that. I just don't, like, it's just rubbing salt. the wound. Like, hey, you wanted, so many of you people out there wanted the name change, the name's been changed. So now you're going to rub salt in the wound and call them football team early on in that season. I mean, again, I mean, you know, your transgressions don't just disappear the day they stop. You know, again, the, the, the, I don't, honestly, I just want them to be good this year. And I think by the time we got to the end of the year, no one was saying. football team anymore. But I just heard it today. I never heard it. We heard it in an early

season game. One of the announcers said first down football team. I forget who it was now. But it was first down football team. I mean, I admire the fact that you're still so sensitive to such a horrific organization. You still can find some level, tried to call upon. Well, how about just the fact that something like that would bother me on opening day? I should be more into opening day. Real quickly before we get to... Why not? Why not the Washington senators?

Because we've been there, done that? There used to be a football team in Washington called the senators. What football team was called the senators? A professional football team in the early 1920s. were called the Washington Senator. Really? So we had a baseball team and a football team. We were like the Cardinals where we had a baseball team

and a football team by the same name. There were a lot of places like that. Yeah, you're right. The Brooklyn Dodgers had a football team as well. Right. Yep. So why not Washington Senators? I don't know.

I'm just kidding. I'll stop this. Okay. Let's end this conversation. I did want to mention one thing, and then we'll get to an ad's preview for the season. So Todd McShay put out, I'm trying to check what the version is, whatever. It's version 4.0 for him, mock draft. It is two rounds, rounds one and two.

First of all, in the first round, he is Washington selecting Christian Derisaw, the offensive tackle from Virginia Tech. I've seen him mocked to Washington a lot, and he said that the signing of Curtis Samuel means Washington likely won't take Florida receiver Cadarius, Tony. I would disagree with that. I would think the combination of Samuel and Adam Humphreys means that they don't feel like they have this massive need. But let me just say, if Cadarius Tony is the number one player on their board at 19,

they should take Cadarius Tony because he looks like a major difference maker potentially at the next level. Beyond that, what I wanted to get to was when he gets to their second round selection at 51 overall, he has Washington selecting Kellyn Mond quarterback, Texas A&M. And McShea writes, the next best quarterback was out of range

for Washington in round one, but selecting Mond who could sit behind Ryan Fitzpatrick and Taylor Heineckee all season, selecting him here is smart. His accuracy and mechanics will still have to develop,

but Mond has arm strength and the ability to extend plays. He's my sixth ranked quarterback, but comes in at number 89 overall. So he's got him as his number 89 big board player, and he suggests that Washington should take him 51. And then at 52, he's got the Bears taking Kyle Trask.

So those are the next two quarterbacks to go after the five go in the first round, the five that everybody expects to go in the first round. You know, national guys, I mean, a guy like Todd McShay, and you could disagree with me about this, you think would just be more plugged in in this sense. he says he could sit behind Ryan Fitzpatrick and Taylor Heineke. Doesn't he know that the coach's favorite quarterback is Kyle Allen? That's his favorite quarterback.

Yes, but Taylor Heineke's got the bigger contract and the guaranteed money. I know. But that's because they had, I mean, they didn't have to do that with Kyle. That's right. And there's questions about him, you know, with the injury coming back. But the coach of all the quarter, that we can document any kind of love. There's love for Kyle Allen by the coach. Yep. Yeah. I mean, so real quickly, I'm just not a Kellyn Monde fan at all. It's funny, Ryan Wilson and I got

into this conversation because he suggested Mond in the second round as well. Anybody that watch Kellyn Monde in his junior year at Texas A&M, there's no chance that you would have thought of him as a guy that could go in the first two rounds. He was inaccurate, wildly inaccurate, made bad plays, bad decision-maker, had some horrific games, had some decent games too. This year, you know, there were a couple of games where he was really good, but they were against bad defensive teams. They beat Florida early in the year, and he had the game of his career,

and it's the single game, I believe, that really elevated his stature from a guy that was probably a middle round pick to potentially, you know, a guy that could get selected in the second round. Florida, I'll just remind everybody that is a college football fan out there, and for those that aren't, was a terrible defensive team this year. An absolute horrendous defensive team. But he had a great game and a game that ultimately probably, along with the LSU loss, knocked Florida out of contention. Florida defensively, and Alabama for that, you know, was neither one of those two teams was great defensively and he had a decent game against Bama too he rushed for nearly a hundred yards through for like 270 and a couple of touchdowns

and so people are pointing to the games against Alabama and um Florida to you know one bad defensive team one very average defensive team as sort of the games in which hey he really turned the corner I remember early in the season when they played Clemson last year He wasn't very good. He was terrible, in fact, and an easy loss to Clemson. They had the ball in a lot of positions to do stuff with it. He had a couple of turnovers in that game. I don't want Kellynmond.

I would be fine with Kyle Trask in the second round. But I did put a poll out this morning, Tommy. I put a poll out because the draft is one month from tonight. Four weeks from tonight is the first round of the NFL draft. And I put a poll out. If you want to vote, you just go to Kevin Sheehan, at Kevin Sheehan, DC on Twitter. I put a poll out. The NFL draft starts a month from tonight.

Do you want Washington football? Not Washington football team. Hashtag Washington Football. To draft a QB, and if so, when? And the three answers were, yeah, I do, rounds one or two. Yeah, I do, but not until rounds three through seven. So more of a developmental guy. Because if you draft somebody in the first or second round, you're sort of saying,

we think this guy's going to be the future. He's going to sit behind Ryan Fitzpatrick for a year, and then he's going to be our guy, you know, in 2022. And then the third potential answer was no, you don't want them to draft. Well, number one was yes, rounds three through seven, 49.1%. The second answer was no, they don't want a quarterback drafted. And the third answer was yes in rounds one or two, 20.5% of the vote. I do not, I hope they don't draft a quarterback in rounds one or two.

unless somebody that they really like drops into their lap. I certainly don't want them to trade up to get anybody. I'm excited about Ryan Fitzpatrick. And I think Ryan Fitzpatrick could be the quarterback for not only next year, but the year after, so that they could be shooting maybe for 2023 to have a quarterback, you know, their quarterback of the future. And by the way, to your point,

I think they still do like Kyle Allen. I think they like Taylor Heineke to a certain degree. Neither one of them is costing them anything right now. Somebody mentioned, well, why not trade for Sam Darnold? Maybe you can get him for a third. The big issue with Darnold is you've got to play him right away because he's got the fifth-year option that you're going to have to pick up, and then you're going to have to pay him.

Right now, Washington's quarterback salaries are like combined $12 million in cap space next year. That's incredible. Like, that's a bargain. That's a big difference from where they were. Right. So anyway, I thought he, I've seen more and more guys starting to think Washington, and John Kime reported this.

He does not think they're done at quarterback. I actually talked to John on the radio and talk to him off the air. John's convinced that they are looking for their quarterback of the future, and it may happen in this draft. I don't think they're going to draft a quarterback, that you would, that you would walk, meaning rounds one or two, where you would say, all right, that's their guy. And by the way, a second round guy isn't always the answer either. But, well, the first round guy isn't always the answer.

But anyway. I saw your poll, by the way. And I always participate in your polls. Oh, that's nice. Is that off the conversation the other day about retweeting your columns? Yes, actually, I voted and added a comment this time. I'd say only a quarterback coached by John Beck. Okay.

But he's the new quarterback guru. Who's the new quarterback guru? He's the guy who all these guys go to to prepare for their combine days and stuff. I think he's Trevor Lawrence's guy. Who does? I think. John Beck. John Beck's a quarterback guru?

Are you being serious? Yes. Oh, I didn't know that. No, I'm being very serious. Oh. I'm not. I honestly did not know that. He's not that funny.

I mean, I know that that guy Quincy Avery is and the guy Terry Shea in the past and all those names. Tommy, I swear to God, I didn't know that. I didn't realize that. Yeah, I think. No, I'm looking at it right now. NFL veteran John Beck, who now works as a motion mechanics instructor. This year he's been able to train top quarterbacks for the upcoming draft, including Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, Kyle Trask, and K.J. Costello.

There you go. You see? He's the quarterback with for her now. Wow. God, he was just... Some people can teach. Some people can slag. No doubt. Sometimes the best coaches end up being guys who are very mediocre as players. Anyway, I was going to say something else about the draft, but I guess that's it. I want to get your thoughts on the Nats season. We'll do that right after this word from one of our sponsors. Breaking news throughout this podcast here.

We're recording it this morning. The latest is the Mets Nationals game tonight, according to Buster-alny, postponed regarding COVID issues. Also, Ron Rivera spoke, and we'll get to that. But first, you don't have to go to the ballpark tonight unless you want to just go hang out by yourself. Maybe they've got the food there still waiting for you. No opening night tonight for Matt.

for Mets and Nationals. How severe is this COVID thing gotten? That's a major embarrassment for baseball, major embarrassment for the nationals. Why? I mean, to have the opening, well, because teams have taken a certain pride in the way

they've been able to control this virus and the discipline that has been shown among their players. And look, the Washington football team has put their chest out for the way they've handled it, rightfully so. They deserve credit and compliments

for that. But, I mean, at a time where people are getting vaccinated left and right, and even though there's a surge in some sense that the positive tests are going up, there's still this atmosphere of getting over it and to cancel opening day because of COVID major embarrassment. I don't see it that way at all. That would not have been my reaction to it. I'm glad you have a column now to write for tomorrow morning. Major embarrassment.

Look, if teams aren't doing their best to keep COVID out of their building, and we know that, like remember the issue with the Ravens last year and one of the trainers or whatever going maskless, the whole thing, that's one thing. And maybe this will reveal something that the Nationals did that was stupid. Other than that, if you are doing everything you're supposed to be doing, then, you know, it's chance.

I don't see it as a major embarrassment. And chance, you can't, your organization, your business, can't be embarrassed by something that's beyond your control? No. Not because of something that's beyond their control. embarrassment is all about public perception. Yeah. Well, I'm telling you, I'm part of the public. I don't feel like they should be embarrassed unless it comes out that they, you know,

had a bunch of dudes at some super spreader thing in Florida three nights ago. Okay, so if that comes out, that's different. But I don't... To get through spring training without anything like this and to have this happen on opening day, there's no way that this is nothing but an embarrassment for baseball and particularly the national. I don't understand how you don't see that. Because last year when they were, when Miami had those games canceled, when St. Louis had those games canceled, when Juan Soto had the false positive and missed a bunch of games, I never considered it to be an embarrassment.

The Ravens thing. Because everybody was dealing with it then. Yeah, everybody's dealing with it now too. How do we know that what if three more teams have it? You don't think that the – do you think they're the only team that's going to have an issue here? I don't know. You tell me. How many do you know about that? I have to cancel their opening day because of COVID. I have no idea. Well, as of now, nobody else has canceled their opening day.

But that's just a matter of timing. That's just a matter of timing and chance. On nightly news tonight, the Washington Nationals will make the news because they had to cancel their game because they had positive COVID tests. Okay. That's an embarrassment. Okay. Whether it's their fault, your fault, my fault doesn't matter whose fault it is.

Okay. I think that's incredibly harsh, and I don't think that they have anything to, well, again, if they've been doing everything, if they've been following all of the Major League Baseball protocols, and somebody got COVID, and it led to the cancellation of a game, I don't think it's an embarrassing event. I think it's an unfortunate event. But, you know, the good news is they didn't have a game scheduled for tomorrow night.

Let's see what happens with tomorrow night. Maybe tomorrow night. I'll tell you what, it'll be a better. I think it's going to be a little less windy tomorrow night, but still cold. Yeah, not much better. Yeah, but anyway. A little better. The other thing, as we have been recording this podcast, Ron Rivera held a press conference.

And so far, through this press conference, he did. say that Ryan Fitzpatrick will enter training camp as the first string quarterback. He will be number one on the depth chart, but he said there will be a competition. It's exactly what I predicted he would say after the Fitzpatrick signing. I said he's going to be clear that Fitzpatrick is the number one quarterback, but he's going to talk about it being a competition between everybody that's there. He was also asked if he's done adding to the quarterback room. Ron Rivera said, and I'm quoting from Ben Standig's Twitter page, quote, we'll see. And then he added the obvious caveats of,

you never know how the board unfolds. Right. Okay. All right. So we don't have a game to talk about tonight, but we do have a team to talk about in the nationals and the kind of season that they're going to have. And this conversation about the Nats as we get ready for baseball season

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I go over slightly. Not by much, though. Are you worried about the division? Well, yeah. I mean, look, they've got some. issues. Carter Key Boom was not, it's not turned out to be the replacement for Anthony Rendon, which means that they have to play a guy like Josh Harrison, who's good, and they're lucky to have him, as an everyday player for the most part at second base and played Starlin Castro at third, which, you know, which totally weakens their team. They're a stronger team when Josh Harrison is a bench player, a role player, as opposed to a starter.

No knock on him. So they're weaker without their plan starting third baseman. Defensively, and Barry Faluga pointed this out in today's post. They got a lot of questions. Kyle Schwarver out in the outfield. I know Dave Martinez swears by him, but they've got some issues defensively, and when you rely on starting pitching,

you like to have a great defense to back them up. They've just got too many questions. The Braves are the defending champions. I like the Braves' rotation coming back, and unless the Mets are in self-destruct mode, they have a tremendous rotation to deal with, even though the nationals do too. I think, look, I think,

I don't know if any team will win 90 games in a division. And it could be close. I mean, you know, the Metro the Braves could win the division with 88 or 89 wins. But I think first, second, and third could be separated by two games. Yeah, I mean, look, every single time we have this conversation every year for the last several, especially, you know, since this organization decided that starting pitching was the most important thing, and Rizzo's obviously done a great job with that. If they're starting pitching stays healthy, they're going to go over 8.000.

and a half. They've got more offense in the lineup than they did last year when they were without Anthony Rendon for the first time. Bell and Schwabre give them real power to go with an MVP candidate, if not front runner and Juan Soto, along with Trey Turner. I'll be interested to see if the Robles leading off with Soto hitting second and Turner hitting third, you know, in an effort to get Soto more at bats. And by the way, with Turner coming behind him, less chance that he gets intentionally walked. All of that stuff makes sense to me. I'm not an analytics baseball guy, but the more at bats, and more importantly, I think it makes more sense that, you know, Soto's not sitting there hitting forth with a potential guy behind him that you can, you know, put him on

base. But Robles getting on base will be key, but it's their starting pitching and it's their starting pitching staying healthy. Last year, obviously it didn't. Strasberg's had a couple of Knicks and Knacks already. I really, I think this. year for me, I'm rooting for him as much as I'm rooting for anybody else. I want the team to do well, but I want Strasbourg to stay healthy. I want him to have a year in which he actually legitimately contends for the Cy Young, which, you know, right now, you know, you've got the two front runners that were scheduled to go tonight. I guess they'll go tomorrow night in Scherzer against DeGrom. I want, I want Strasbourg, Tommy, to back up his huge postseason moments.

and he's had major postseason moments, starting with that game for it, Wrigley, but obviously game six against Houston in the World Series. I want him to back it up with a fully healthy regular season where we get the best of Strasbourg from April through the end of September. I'm really rooting for him. I think if starting pitching stays healthy, they're going to be really tough. You can tell me as to whether or not this bullpen is going to include some sort of rotation with Hand and Hudson and anybody else sort of matchup driven or if

hand's going to be given the job as the primary closer. You understand more than I about Schwerber and left field and the defensive deficiencies of some of their players. I think it is interesting that Zimmerman was red hot in spring and whether or not they'll platoon him with Bell. Or, you know, I know that people say that Zimmerman against left-handers seems like at least the obvious place to plug them in to start. But with him in recent years, it's been staying healthy too.

I did want to ask you, how disappointed do you think they are in the Carter Key Boom experiment? Well, I think you've got to be. I mean, have they given up on him? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not there. I don't know if they have given up on him. So I can't answer that.

But he's supposed to, look, they had a written. replacement for for bright Harper and that was that was Juan Soda Yes and they thought they had a written in replacement for Anthony Rendon in Carter Key Boom and they don't apparently at least not right now

so yeah that that's a big problem for them one of the keys in this year could be Victor Robles I mean if Victor Robles has the kind of year remember he was the prospect who was on Right.

Right. Coming up. You know, he was the guy that everybody wanted, and they would never trade. And he took a step back last year. But you've got to chalk that up to a very bizarre year for everyone involved. So I don't necessarily hold that against them. But if Victor Robles can emerge as the five-tool player, they think he is, a guy who could hit 25 home runs, steal 35 bases, drive in 80 runs as a lead-off.

off hitter, you know, and play great defense in center field. That could be the game changer right there. If he's erratic, they can't afford for him to be erratic. Let's just say that. Yeah, no, that makes sense to me. It's a brutal schedule as we talked about early to start. I mean, it's 19 and 31 trying to avoid a tough start. If they avoid that and they can flip it around or, you know, they're 20, you know, through 50 games, they're 27 and 23 with that schedule. I mean, that would be awfully promising, especially if they're healthy. I mean, that was obviously the big thing last year. No Rendon and unhealthy, especially with starting pitching.

And if they stay healthy, I mean, I know the Braves were really good last year, and I know everybody's high on the Mets, and some people think the Phillies and Marlins are going to be very competitive as well. But, you know, there's no reason the defending champion. from two years ago, but the defending champions, along with the Dodgers, can't, you know, contend for a playoff spot this year and go over 84.5. I think that was a really good point, too, with as many times as they're going to play each other, you know, the division winner might end up with, you know, 92, 93 wins, something like that. Although the total for the Braves in season wins is 91.5.

seven more than the Nats. So there you go. Yeah, I think it's not the kind of division where you can afford to give away the first week. Okay. And the Nats are in danger. They're going to play the other 159 anyway, even if you're 56 anyway, if you give away the first week.

It's a long season. Yes, it is. Well, maybe it's not a long season. So far, It's not a long season. It didn't start yet. More likely, Soto wins the National League MVP, Scher wins the National League Cy Young.

Oh, Soto wins National League MVP. Yeah. I mean, Scherzer's on the downside age-wise, even if he still is good. I mean, a guy like DeGrom, they might as well put his name on the Cy Young at this point. with an improved Mets team. But Soto, they mentioned Soto's name with Ted Williams.

I mean, and baseball experts do that. Not just fans. That's rarefied air. And plus he's very likable. He's easy to vote for. So that'll be my last question for the show today. I asked Zuck this, and I'm sure I've asked you this before as well, but I'm going to ask it again because I don't remember what your answer was.

Did they have any idea that Juan Soto had this kind of potential before, you know, before they saw it? What were they really expecting? You know Mike Rizzo really well. They obviously felt comfortable with letting Bryce Harper go, but what did they think Juan Soto was going to be? Did they think they had the next Ted Williams? No. I think they thought he'd be good, and I think they were impressed with his composure and his personal makeup as much as his talent. You know, there were other, I mean, he had made a verbal agreement to sign with the Nationals,

and a couple of other teams came along based on the, I think the ESPN article that Jeff Passon wrote about him. Like San Diego and another team came along before he signed a deal. with Washington and offered him more money. And he said, no, I gave my word that I would sign with Washington, and he did. So they knew they had somebody special in terms of makeup. I don't think anyone said Ted Williams. Maybe they did. I never heard it.

I remember seeing him for the first time a couple years ago in spring training. We really hadn't heard much about him. He wound up playing in a spring training game had a couple of hits. I think a couple of doubles, and we interviewed him on the minor league side of the ballpark. He wasn't even after the game because he dressed with the minor leaguers. He had to go over to the minor league club out to interview him. And this is not a political thing. It just shows you what kind of guy and how smart this guy is.

He made a point of learning to speak English pretty fluently. at an early stage of his career in the minor leagues when he was with Hagerstown, you know, because he knew that would help him, knew that would help him communicate. And he's a special kind of guy so far. Well, I mean, there's nothing political about that, and I know that you said it, but, I mean, to me, that is, that is, you know, a level of maturity to understand. And first of all, for anybody in any country to aspire to learn and be fluent in a second language, there's nothing wrong with it, especially if it's going to help you professionally. That's just smart.

That actually says a lot about him. I didn't necessarily know that. One last thing before we go. So, you know, standing in all the guys are tweeting out and Nikki, all of them are tweeting out about Rivera. Rivera says about the quarterback situation. I already mentioned that he said Fitzpatrick is number one going in, but, you know, there will be a competition. He also said that he doesn't feel pressure to add the long-term quarterback now. Quote, if you put all the other pieces in place, when that guy shows up, you can grab them.

Went the other way in Carolina because Cam Newton was there in the draft, but it took time to fill out the roster. Now, you know, the follow-up to that would be, yeah, but you did go for Matt Stafford. You know, they went for him. He was there for the getting, and they went after him. And I guess that's what, you know, he is saying too. When that guy shows up, you can grab him. And they tried to grab one this year, even without having all of the other pieces in place. But I don't think they're going to get their long-term quarterback this year. I just don't see it. I would bet against that. And to me, a quarterback being drafted in rounds three through seven doesn't mean that they believe that that guy is a quarterback of the future.

that means they've got a developmental guy who may or may not make the roster. Now, if he gets picked in the third round, that's a little bit different. But anyway, he also mentioned there have been no talks with Brandon Sheriff on a long-term deal. I want to repeat that my bookie at mybooky.orgie.orgie at mybooky.orgie. At mybooky.org has a lock today. All right. Go to my booky.org. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C.

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On the Dodgers Rockies opening day over under total of a half of a run. It's guaranteed to win. Oh, by the way. By the way, Buster Only is also reporting that Friday's game is post-prudely. A possibility of a game Friday is not going to happen. Well, then this is more than just a one-off with four people in contact tracing. There's an outbreak. I would, don't you, right?

I would say, I would think so. Yeah. This is a dumpster fire. Okay. Whatever. It's, well, why don't we wait? For all we know, the Mets have a bunch of positive tests, too. Nope, I would say reported the Mets have no positive tests.

Well, then again, the Mets may not have any positive tests. Did Buster report that on the Mets? No, one of the Mets writers reported that. Okay. All right. Well, they're going to have plenty of time, plenty of time to make up these games. And you're not going to remember in, you know, mid-May or mid-June that you missed out on the first couple of days of the season. Well, you've got some memory problems.

Personally, I don't. Got to start eating more blueberries. I like blueberries. Superfoods, Tommy. Focus on the superfoods. By the way, Sean Taylor would have been 38 years old today. Crazy. All right.

What do you got plan now that you don't have to go to a baseball game? I'm going to go out and get some lunch and go watch some Rockford. But you got baseball on all day? You're not going to watch baseball? Opening day? I'm too depressed now. Oh, it's too bad. You've got to get into betting because betting opening day is one thing.

I don't bet baseball really during the regular season much, but opening day I'll have a couple of sides today. Trust me on that. enjoy. I'm back tomorrow. We will certainly preview the final four. We won't have a Nats game to talk about, but we'll do a lot more on the Ron Rivera press conference from today, focus in on some of the things he said in more detail. Have a great day, everybody. Tommy, I'll talk to you next week. Okay, boss.