The Kevin Sheehan Show - Burrow or Haskins?

Episode Date: January 15, 2020

Kevin opened with a legitimate reason for missing the podcast yesterday. Kevin and Thom discussed Maryland's loss last night at Wisconsin and then debated Dwayne Haskins or Joe Burrow. More Redskins talk followed including the current odds on next year's Super Bowl winner which revealed an early indication on what Vegas thinks of the 2020 Skins. They got to the Astros' scandal, the Nats, and why Baltimore's loss Saturday night to Tennessee wasn't an indictment on Lamar Jackson. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. You're listening to The Sports Fix. All right. I'm going to start off with sensitive Kevin, Tommy, because I had a lot of people tweet me yesterday, oh, you promised that once you went back to radio, the podcast wasn't going to suffer and you didn't do a podcast. Do you know, Aaron, this is true. I added this up. Since we launched the podcast, not counting like, just traditional vacation time, which hasn't been a lot, by the way, for either one of us. I've missed a total of five days that weren't planned on, four to five days that weren't planned on. So just calm down, people. I am the victim of identity fraud. Identity fraud. I found this out late last week.

Aaron's familiar with this situation. I haven't shared this on radio or the podcast. But the reason that I missed yesterday's show is that I had to go out to the MBA. I had to go to the post office to make sure that my address, which was attempted to be changed, and a copy of my license, someone attempted to get a copy of my license. I had to go out there in person, and I was not going to wait around to do that yesterday. And I got news of that at the end of the radio show yesterday, which is why I bolted early. It's been a nightmare for the last week, Tommy. Somebody got a hold of all of my

information and tried to make a significant transfer of funds from an account that I have into their account. It failed because they flagged it at the receiving bank, but still, I'm telling you, I've heard about identity theft and identity fraud, and I've talked to people who have been through it, it is a pain in the ass. I mean, last week on the phone with credit bureaus, with banks, with the Social Security Administration, with the IRS. And by the way, when you call

these people, you never just get through to somebody. Every single call is a 25-minute wait. Through phone tree hell. But, yeah, I got a call late last week, and then again, yesterday that this person is still at it.

And now, apparently, you know, I've already called the police, which is, was, I didn't know what to do. I was, I got the list of things to do if you've been the victim of identity fraud, and I've done all of them. But now I've been told that I should call the FBI too, because this person is persistent. But I'm safe. I'm safe now, and there was no damage done. And they can't get to anything because now your security holds on everything. I mean, I can't even get access to anything without basically giving blood and DNA to prove that it's me. It's a pain in the ass this thing.

You know, of all the identities in the world, why would anyone take yours? Right. I agree with that. They picked the wrong person. There are plenty of other people that would have been much more interesting and more lucrative. Oh, man. So does this mean, as a result of this,

Well, you then, now, did you have, had you purchased protections before? What any credit, what did he protections, you know, like life lock or whatever they, various companies? I've got, I've got protections on a lot of different things. But, you know, I'm a normal, you know, technology. So I've asked the question, how did it happen? There are multiple ways this can happen. But the most likely way that it happened is that they hacked in.

to the bank where I had the account and that it was more likely that versus hacking into my computer or my phone or something else. I'm not going to get into any more detail. I can just tell you that the last week's been the biggest pain in the ass. You know, Tommy, it reminds me, and I think you might remember this. About six, seven years ago, I woke up, walked out to my car and there was a smash and grab attempt in my car. Like the window was shattered, glass everywhere. There's nothing in the car to get. But it was a smash and grab. They must have thought that there was something to get. And the neighborhood had had like three or four of them on the same night. And I like walked out and I thought, Jesus God, I would have just left the doors unlocked or the windows down if this

were going to happen and I knew it was going to happen because the pain in the ass of cleaning it up, I mean, I would have just given them, you know, a hundred bucks not to break the glass and shatter the glass, you know? And it's like this same thing with identity fraud. It's like the pain in the ass, the follow up, all the things you got to do, the calls you got to make, the places you got to go, the things you have to do. It's like, oh my God, just tell me what it is you'll want. Maybe we can work out a deal. I just don't want to be put through this. But anyway, I feel, I feel, I'm lucky because nothing was taken. and nothing was gotten. The bank was smart enough to flag it. Now I'm all buttoned up. I mean,

again, it's going to be hard for me to get access to anything. Well, I told you a long time ago, you need to stop doing business with those Russian banks. I know. God, they told you that a number of times. Yeah, you've told me that. That's true. Those Eastern European banks, they are, I mean, they're rough, too. You know, if you don't, negotiating with them is a pain in the ass, but when it comes to fees and stuff, you better be on time, or they'll come after you.

All right. You know, it's funny. My wife is paranoid about this, and I always tease her and make fun of it. I do. I've always done that, too. Yeah. I've always done that, too.

I've been the same thing. It's like, until it happens to you, you think that's just something that's sort of overblown and happens to people, you know, I don't, I don't even know why in the past I don't think I ever gave it that much thought I don't think I ever gave it that much thought

now I will but the yesterday I mean literally yesterday I get the call saying somebody has tried attempted to change your address and get access to your driver's license a copy of your driver's license wow yeah

there we go that that's the reason I missed yesterday I apologize for that I won't let it happen again I hope everyone is a little bit more sympathetic now. I don't. You know? I hope they are, but I don't, you know, if they aren't, that's their problem. I do appreciate, like I've always said, and you do too, appreciate that people really enjoy the podcast.

I do. And it's a pleasure to do it every day. And I think, seriously, you and I have talked about this, no matter what happens with radio at any point, we'll always be able to do this. We control our ability to do this, and we like doing it. So we'll be doing this for a long time. Unless somebody really steals your identity, and I come on with some other guy someday who's pretending to be Kevin. Tomorrow's show will feature Kevin Sheehan talking about why he hates Kirk Cousins, and that will be a red flag. Everybody, that's not Kevin.

It's not him. All right. I want to start the show with Maryland last night. because it was a real painful loss last night at Wisconsin, because it's one of those games that you felt like you gave away. You know, those are the worst, Tommy, the ones that, you know, a big road win right there for the taking, you know, it's on your racket, so to speak,

and you sort of give it away with what turned out to be a disastrous in-bounds situation with the lead, and 13 seconds left. Look, at 13 seconds up one, even if you get the ball in bounds, there's no guarantee you're going to win the game. You know, your odds of winning the probability at that point, it's not like it's 90% or 80%. It's probably not even 70%, but it's probably in the high 60s.

You've got the ball in a one-point lead 13 seconds to go. You still got to make free throws. They've got to miss shots on the other end. You know, the game's going to get extended. You could still lose the game, but you, I spent a lot of time this morning. and I'll just start and then I'll let you react to it. So Turgeon's a good coach, and those of you that think he isn't, you're stupid.

Sorry. He's won 443 games as a coach in four different spots. He's been to multiple NCAA tournaments with multiple programs. He's a good college coach. He's not a great coach. He's not our beloved Gary. That is true. And that's part of the problem here is that Gary was so great and won so many big games. always came through when you least expected it.

And Turgeon, more times than not, his teams, when you expect it, actually don't deliver. I mean, he's not been beyond the first, the Sweet 16, and, you know, only the Sweet 16 one time during his era. But he's not a bad basketball coach. I've seen and watched bad basketball coach. He's actually an excellent defensive coach. But there are things he's done over the years that are puzzling to me. And you know, Tommy, I coach basketball. You know, I've coached, you know, for 30 years, 25, 30 years, high school level and

youth level, you know, below. Not college level, not a college coach. I'm not a fraction of what he knows as a coach. But there are things that friends of mine who coach in the area, we will be on a text chain and will be like, why did he do it that way? Like, it's not the conventional way you do it. And last night, up one with 13 seconds to go. needing to get the ball in bounds against full court pressure.

They had no plan to get the ball in bounds other than just get open. And that's not much of a plan. Now, he may have had a different plan in the huddle and the players just didn't execute it, but I've actually seen this enough with him over the years where there isn't, you know, a consistent plan against full court pressure to get the ball in. They couldn't get the ball in against Seton Hall in a key spot. That was actually underneath their own basket, not against full court. pressure, but Morsell threw it away in that particular spot in a big possession. Remember

Aaron in the final minute at Seton Hall? They had a chance to tie the game. They threw it away. You have to, when you come out of that huddle in that situation, Tommy, you have a plan to get one of your best free throw shooters, the ball, on an in-bounds pass. And if you don't have a plan for that, then you're already off on the wrong foot. That's the plan. You don't want a bad free-throw shooter on the floor if you can help it in that situation because you're going to get fouled. You want strong ball handlers on the floor because you've got to get the ball in and then it's got to be handled properly. But you want really good free throw shooters on the floor as well and Anthony Cowen and Eric Iala in that spot are probably your two best free throw shooters

and your two best ball handlers in that spot as well. They came out and what they did, I don't know if it was planned or not, but it doesn't matter because it's a reflection of coaching. and that's who's going to get blamed for it. They came out with the old Just Get Open plan, and that's not a good plan. It works sometimes when you have somebody really quick like Cowan, and he can shake free and get open. But in that particular situation, you have to get the ball in bounds. I don't know.

That's the plan we used to use at Danesbury Park to just get open. That's a lot of times there. How much practice time did you have at Danesbury Park? None. So, you know, I mean, I'll be brief here, but there are lots of ways even a youth coach knows how to get a free throw shooter open against full court pressure. And it's hard sometimes, especially when you're playing a really quick defensive kind of team, athletic team, which Wisconsin really isn't. But typically, more times than not, the person that you want to end up with the ball in their hands is initially used as a screener. Because you don't, you don't, you You can screen for that particular player to get them open, but sometimes they'll switch in that spot, and it's harder. You use them as a screener. More times than not, those of you that know what I'm talking about

and no basketball, know that it's the screener you usually are more concerned with, right? Because the screener is going to be the first one that's opened after the screen is set. You use Cowan in multiple ways as a screener, and then he turns around and he breaks to the ball, and he's opening, and you get the ball in bounce. And it's the hardest in-bounds pass to make because it's a spot in-bounds pass, meaning that Morsell didn't have the whole baseline after a made bucket. He had to be stationary.

He couldn't move. And that's a harder in-bounce pass to make, but you've got to get the ball in. And you've got to do something. There's got to be a plan with some sort of screen, some sort of maneuver that gets somebody free quickly. Against full court pressure, when you can't get it in-bounce to one of those first two players, usually there's a guy at half court, Tommy, with decent hands, big, that sprints to the free throw line as an outlet. They got that about three seconds too late last night, two seconds too late. It was really pathetic.

And I'm not suggesting that that was the plan, just get open, because I don't know what he said in the huddle. And lots of times you say stuff in the huddle and the players don't do what you tell them to do. But he's had some issues with that in the past. And last night, it really cost them an operational. opportunity to get a big win on the road in a league that's been impossible so far through the first six, seven games of league play to win on the road. Out of 40 games so far on the road, if you take Northwestern and Nebraska out of the equation because they're bad, the other 12 teams, 40 road games, only five road wins. So it's tough to win on the road in the big 10,

but they had a chance last night, and that's the play that Maryland fans are stuck on, and they they should be with good reason. It's a completely valid point to be really frustrated that you did not have a good enough plan to get the ball in bounds up one with 13 seconds to go. So can you be a good coach, but in moments like that fail miserably? Can the two be true? Sure, because sometimes your players fail you. I mean, people don't want to hear that. But, you know, I know from coaching basketball at the youth level, not at the college level, okay, I'm not comparing myself to Mark Turgeon, just settle down. But there are lots of times you draw something up and you've practiced something and then they get out there and they don't do it the right way.

I mean, that happens all the time in any sport. A coaches will always tell you that. But people would argue that the coaching reflection as well. I don't think there's any doubt that if it happens consistently that, you know, it's a reflection of it being a weakness of the coach. You know, I think their zone offense over the years has been puzzling, curious to me at times the way they run zone offense, and I think some of their full court press break over the years has been interesting and indifferent looking to me.

That's to me. And, you know, you know this. This city is a basketball city in terms of people being, you know, involved in it more than any other sport. I mentioned this morning, Tommy, the ESPN top 25 high school basketball poll this week, four DC teams all from the WCA. DeMath is five, St. Johns is eight, PVI, Paul the 6th is 13th, and Gonzag is 22nd. No other metro area in the country has more than one team, and DC has four in the top 25, all from one league, which, you know, I've mentioned this many times before for people that don't know, the WCAC, the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference,

is the best basketball league high school boys in the country. There's nothing that comes close to it. And you have people in this area. You've got a lot of basketball people, a lot of coaches, a lot of people that think they're coaches. I'm one of them, clearly. But yeah, there are things that are done that I'm always like, whoa, why did you do it that way? And last night, that was frustrating because I've seen them struggle with press break and getting the ball in bounds. You've got to practice that stuff over and over again. I'm sure he does. He does so many other things well that Maryland fans are never going to give them credit for.

But anyway, that's a tough one last night. That's a tough one. It's only January 15th and already, you know, you could hear the groan of the Maryland basketball fan base saying, here we go again. This is another team that's talented that is going to underachieve. And it's only January 15th. There's lots of time for it to turn around. If there was a voting boost on Maryland basketball that fans could walk into,

how do you think it would turn out today? Not well for him. Not well. It wouldn't turn out well if they beat Purdue and the polls were open on Sunday morning following a Saturday win against Purdue. People are down on Mark. He has not gotten this program to the level that a lot of the fan. base believes it should be at. And this was a team that only a month ago, a month ago. When was that

seat in hall game, Aaron? It was less than a month ago, right? It was, I feel like it was almost exactly a month ago. Okay, so a little bit more than a month ago. They were ranked third in the country. And, you know, people were saying, wow, I mean, they have so many options. You can't guard them. They're so good offensively. They were playing well offensively. They're a good defensively. And, you know, here we are a month later, and if they lose Saturday, they're out of the top 25 completely. You know, and even if they win Saturday against Purdue, they're going to fall to 20th or 21st. And that doesn't really matter, you know, because they have a tournament in this sport. They have a playoff in this sport that decides it in March.

But, you know, your odds are increased in March if you have a really good regular season more times than not. And I think one of the things that you hoped for is a Maryland fan. this year is that you would compete for a Big Ten regular season title. And it looks like Maryland's sort of in the pack of all of these teams in the Big Ten. I mean, Michigan State lost by 29 points on the road the other day at Purdue. Purdue lost on the road by nearly 30 points a week and a half earlier. It's a crazy league right now, and home court means a lot. I would expect Maryland to play well Saturday and beat Purdue.

I actually thought they were going to play well last night, and they did cover. the two and a half, because of how poorly they played on Friday night against Iowa. And there were some encouraging signs. Aaron Wiggins started to come out a little bit of his shooting slump, which was good to see. Iialist is not playing well, and they need him to play well. Sticks Smith is actually really starting to play well. He may be their most consistent three-point shooter. I like to see more pick and pop with him.

You know, a lot of Maryland fans Tommy complaining about pace, they want to see Marilyn run at something I've complained about in the past. I'll just tell you, Wisconsin's really hard to speed up. And Maryland, in recent games in transition, they've been terrible. They were awful in transition Friday night at Iowa. So much so in watching that game, I told my brother, I predicted that he would say, you know what, I like playing faster, but in this league, we have to value the ball and the possession of the ball.

We can't be turning it over in transition as much as they did Friday night against Iowa. But anyway, frustrating last night, looked like they had it, certainly on the verge of potentially winning a big game on the road that could have created a big week for them. You know, they win that game, they beat Purdue, and now all of a sudden, you know, they're number 11, 12 in the country instead of being, you know, 20-21st. And they're also 3-3 in the Big 10.

There's 16 games left, 14 games left, excuse me, 14 games left. Plenty of time to do damage, but there are concerns, you know, about this team right now. I, by the way, Aaron, I did not have a problem with Cowan's last shot. I thought it was a good shot to take a three, which basically, you know, he had separation from the defender. That's a good look to give him the lead. I didn't have a problem with that at all.

What's Pershing's contract? Two more years. You remember? Ryan, two years. Ryan, Aaron, two more years, right? I believe that's the case. Let me make sure that there hasn't been more. Yeah, I think it's through 20, the 2023, yes. Yeah, 2023.

So he's not going anywhere, no matter what Maryland fans want, because Maryland can't afford to fire their basketball coach. Yeah, it's three more years. I mean, they're paying a football coach that doesn't coach for him anymore. So they can't afford to do that with the basketball coach. So no matter how frustrated Maryland fans are with Mark Tertian, he isn't going anywhere. I don't think so. I don't think that he's going anywhere, not with a three-year, you know, payout.

not with a three-year payout. They can't afford. The school just can't afford to at this point. And I'll just say this. And you know this. I like Mark. I consider him a friend. Great family.

I like him a lot. He's actually a great dude. Great guy. I want it to work out for him. And I think, you know, there's a chance it will. You know, this college basketball season is strange in that, you know, good teams are getting blown out, you know, on the regular. It's an odd year so far.

I set it after the Seton Hall game to Aaron here on the podcast. There are going to be nights over these final 14 regular season games where we come in here, we look at each other and say, wow, we're pretty good. We got a chance. And there are going to be days like today where we come in and we say, oh, God, turgeon, you know, basically. And that's sort of been, you know, the better part of the last few years. It's frustrating, though.

You just, you got to get the ball in bounds. And if you're not going to get the ball in bounds, you've got a timeout left. Use the timeout. I don't want to see Morsell throwing it in, and I love Darrell Morsell anymore. We need better plays. First of all, Tommy, when you throw a pass that's going to be 50-50 in terms of it going to your guy, you don't throw it in underneath the other team's basket. If you're not going to use that timeout, throw the ball down the court.

line up and play some defense. Now, the ball got knocked off more sell out of bounds, and then they gave up a three on a very good play that Wisconsin designed, and Maryland could have played it better there as well. But the real play that cost him dearly last night was not getting it in bounds. The other thing I'm just going to mention, this will sound typical Maryland basketball fan bullshit for a lot of you. The officiating last night was horrendous, and Maryland was on the wrong side. of three to four significant calls down the stretch, including a ball that got knocked off the Wisconsin player clearly on a key possession with about two minutes to go that they gave to Wisconsin. Now, Tommy, how many years is this in the Big Ten? Is this year five, year six, whatever it is? Six, I think.

Whatever it is. So for the last couple of years, as we as the newcomer to the Big Ten, have started to learn about the Big Ten, and, you know, certain things about certain schools. For the last three or four years, I have learned that a lot of Big Ten fans, basketball fans, consider the Coal Center, Madison, Wisconsin,

to be the place where it's impossible to get a call. That the friendliest home whistle is in Madison at the Coal Center, which for us in the ACC all those years, we just called it the Duke whistle. You know, the whistle that Duke got in Cameron Indoor, and even on the road, for that matter, was a different whistle than everybody else in the league got. And, you know, it was frustrating.

It was aggravating to go to Cameron Indoor and not only have to beat Duke, who was always good, but to beat, you know, the officials as well. I've seen this now for multiple years. It's true. Like, Big Ten people, basketball fans, oh yeah, yeah, the Duke of the Big Ten is Wisconsin. Cannot get a call in Madison.

And last night, and it's been this way a couple times Maryland's been there, not buy a call. It's not why they lost the game. It didn't help a couple of the calls down the stretch in particular. But yeah, it was bad. It was one-sided. And I'm not talking about the foul count or the free throw count because I think they actually shot less free throws than Maryland did. I think that's the case. It was a couple of the calls made down the stretch that just were awful. But anyway, I've done that. That's not why they lost. They lost because the coach didn't have a good plan to get the ball in bounds. That's a big reason they lost last night. I hate to be, you know, I like Mark,

but I'd be crazy to come in here and try to defend them for the end of the game last night. It's indefensible. You've got to have a better plan than, hey, get open with the game on the line against full court pressure. That's not good. So what did you think of a college championship game the other night in Joe Burroughs' performance? Well, I didn't watch the whole thing because I was working. I was at the Caps game Monday night. So I didn't have a chance to watch the whole thing. But Joe Burroughs looks like, you know, a generational quarterback.

And Andrew Luck of Peyton Manning kind of quarterback. I mean, it's kind of remarkable considering, you know, that he couldn't beat out. The storyline is that he couldn't. that he couldn't beat out to Wayne Askins at Ohio State. And here he is throwing five or six touchdowns to game in national championship game. He's become a college football legend now. And if you're the Redskins and if Joe Burrow is still there at number two, which is highly unlikely, you're drafted in Joe Burrow, right?

Yes, I would. Okay. I would. But you've got the other quarterback who was supposedly better at Ohio State. Don't you want to talk about the tweet from late last night? Did you see what he tweeted? No, I didn't. Oh, boy, I got this and you didn't.

Usually you're all over this. He tweeted out at 10.59 p.m. last night, silence the noise. And everybody, you know, I think they're interpreting it. And I would interpret it this way as well. I mean, we've been wrong in our interpretation of young athletes' social media tweets and Instagram posts in the past. But I think it was a reaction to some of the conversation about Joe Burrow. And what if he's there at number two, would you take him? I would definitely take Joe Burrow at number two.

And this conversation we would have had yesterday had we done this show. But it's not a disrespectful conversation to Dwayne Haskins people. Those of you that are going to say that, you need to stay. you need to stop because it's a totally natural conversation among sports fans. You're a fan of the team like I am that has the number two pick in the draft. Joe Burrow more likely than not won't be there at number two. Right. Then someone did dig up a tweet that disrespected Skyline Chili, so maybe Cincinnati won't take him after all.

Really? Joe Burrow was critical of Skyline Chili? Yes. So, you know, it is the Bengals. You never know what they'll do. And, you know, Chase Young may still be the number one player on the board graded out by all of the scouts. But it is a quarterback we're talking about in Joe Burrow. But of course, this is a natural conversation.

I mean, I like Dwayne Haskins. I'm optimistic about Dwayne Haskins. I was impressed with the progress he made, as you know. But are you kidding me? Joe Burroughs is Aaron Rogers. That's what he looks like to me. We may all be wrong. You know, it's the quarterback position.

People are wrong on this position all the time in the draft. But if I think that he's Aaron Rogers, and I think Dwayne Haskins isn't Ben Rafflesberger, but he's more of sort of a mid-range starter, well, of course I'm going to take Joe Burrow. Like, why would I would consider trading up to take Joe Burrow? If I believe he's Aaron Rogers, I'm going to try to trade up one spot to take Joe Burrow.

Come on. By the way, wasn't it amazing watching Aaron Rogers on Sunday? Yeah. He's just unbelievable still. All of the quarterbacking on Sunday was spectacular. I mean, from Aaron Rogers throws the ball like he's throwing a piece of paper into a waste paper basket. Yeah. I mean, Mahomes is pretty special, too.

Yeah, yeah, he is. That five-yard touchdown pass to Kelsey was like something you do in street football. But as far as, bro, you know what I think is a possibility? I don't know who his agent is, but if I'm his agent, I'm trying to pull a John Elway. I don't want to go play. But he's from Ohio. I don't care. You got some really good weapons in Cincinnati, too.

A.J. Green, Tyler Boy, Joe Mixon. If they can keep A.J. Green, right? think they can franchise them if nothing else. Well, I mean, I'm considering the possibility of, you know, forcing my way out of there. And I don't know what that would do to the draft. I don't know if they could pull it off. If I'm the Redskins at number two right now, I am thinking about, you know, and I have Chase Young evaluated as the highest ranked pass rushing prospect of, say, the last 10 years.

And I've got Joe Burrow evaluated as the highest ranked QB prospect since Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck was sort of evaluated and graded out like John Elway was. The highest graded quarterback coming into the draft of the last 10 years, I believe, maybe even of the last 15 or 20. Then I am going to make sure that one of those two players are on my roster next year. And if I really think Joe Burrow is Aaron Rogers, I am going to consider trading up a spot to get them because you're close enough to where it's not going to cost you,

you know, an arm and a leg to get them. This conversation, I really think, is sort of irrelevant because I do think Cincinnati's going to take Joe Burrow. They need a quarterback. They've been terrible for years. They, you know, getting a quarterback from Ohio that they believe is going to be the next great quarterback in the NFL. Why would they possibly pass on him other than they are the Bengals?

You know, they do things, they do dumb things. But I'm not trading back in this draft unless somebody offers me, you know, three firsts, two seconds, and two thirds. Something ridiculous, because I want one of those two players. And if I don't get Burrough, that's fine, because I do like Dwayne Haskins. And I think Haskins, you know, the bust potential in Haskins has been really reduced significantly in my mind. And I'm happy moving forward with Haskins. But if you tell me that I can have Aaron Rogers instead of – I was going to say, Kirk Cousins.

If you tell me that I can have Aaron Rogers instead of Jared Gough, I'm going to take Aaron Rogers. If you tell me I can get Aaron Rogers instead of Matt Stafford. Maybe that's a better comparison. Stafford would be great. If Haskins turns into Stafford, I'd be really happy. I think Stafford's got a lot of talent and has been a pretty damn good quarterback. If you tell me that I can get Aaron Rogers instead of Eli Manning, of course, I'm taking Aaron Rogers.

Now, if you tell me that you're convinced Ron Rivera is that Dwayne Haskins is going to be Ben Rathlisberger, then I'm not so anxious to get Aaron Rogers because I already feel like I've got an elite top five guy. Now I want to get Chase Young. but it depends on what you think of them. It's hard to project, too, clearly, even for them. Well, you know, it's going to be awfully hard for the Redskins to screw up this first pick in the draft. Either way, you know? Yeah, I think so.

I mean, you know, I'm all in on this Rivera thing, and right now, Tommy, I think you look at these moves that have been made. This is the Rivera show right now. There is no doubt about it. I mean, Hess is gone. As it should be. Yeah, Bruce is gone. Shafers gone.

Shafers gone. Oh, my God. Your people at your station. My God. You would think that they just lost, honestly, you would have thought that they just lost Petherd. Not everybody thinks that way. I know. I know.

And I, the truth is, and I've said this before, when you got a guy that's smart and not super arrogant in a building of dumb and arrogant, he looks great. He looks so good. And that's essentially what you've had. He is a smart guy, and he is a, you know, he's a normal guy, and he's highly respected. Has he been hired by anybody else yet? Nope. Hasn't seem to be. Again, like I've said before, I mean, you can say all you want about Eric Schaefer.

If I was interviewing for a job and I looked at his resume and I saw he worked for Dan Snyder for 17 years, I'd ask him, what the blank is wrong with you. Yeah. There's got to be something wrong with you. And he's... What did you have to do? But, I mean, look, it should be the Ron Rivera show at this point. Well, look, you know, have people who want to, you know, pin a medal on Dan Snyder for not meddling.

My God, it's only been two weeks, okay? Let's not go nuts here. I agree. I agree. I agree. I mean, not even Snyder is arrogant enough to start throwing his weight around, particularly when he was so defensive and so beaten down by the perception before. So he's going to, look,

Ron Rivera, and Ron Rivera, I think it's a forceful personality. So I think all this is good if you're a Redskins fan, everything that's happened.

I think this team is, you know, it's just better alone by the change in the coaching staff. I think they're a better team. As is, I think they have,

I think you'll see a better team take the field with the coaching staff that they've met because the coaching staff, they had before, what was pretty bad, I thought, overall. So, yeah, it's been the Ron Rivera era. Everything is Ron Rivera.

And that's what he needs to do. I've maintained that he needs to get as many guys in that building who owe their jobs to him and get rid of the people who owe their jobs to Dan Snyder. But that's important. I think that's important, too. I think it's important too. I think that there are some good signs here, but to your point, it's only been two weeks. So let's not, you know, let's not break, you know, all of our arms patting each other on the back or allow them to do it either. I did want to mention two things that I haven't mentioned this week before we get to the Kyle Smith stuff.

Number one is, I do think, Tommy, we need to make sure that we remember, and I will, you probably won't, that they did. kicked their coverage on this hire, that we all said that they wouldn't be able to attract a top-tier candidate to Washington. And they did. Dan did. Joe did. You know, you're right. You know, and I had Mike Silver on the radio show on Friday. I think it was Friday. So I don't think we've talked about this. Maybe we have on the podcast, forgive me for being repetitive, if that's the case. But he's convinced that Rivera would have had multiple options. and he chose here. So we shouldn't forget that.

And the other thing, too, I think it's really important, is that we don't, you know, down the road, if this team performs well this year goes 8 and 8 or 9 and 7, and then in 2021 goes 10 and 6 and makes the playoffs, I don't want to hear people saying, maybe we should revisit this Bruce Allen conversation. He got all these players. You know, Ron's winning with Bruce's players.

I don't want to hear that either. because Bruce wasn't going to win with his players or Kyle's players or anybody else's players. This place was highly dysfunctional. It had terrible culture. These are things that have to change before you can take advantage of a potential talented roster. Anyway, so Kyle Smith, surprisingly got elevated to VP of player personnel the other day. I thought that was actually a surprising press release that came out. And I think personally, Tommy, and I know there's been some reporting to the contrary, and I don't know anything for sure, I think this is it.

Like, I don't see them hiring a team president or a general manager after the draft in April. And the elevation of Tim Gribble to director of college scouting, which was Kyle's former job, to me as an indication that Rivera has spent enough time looking at what these guys have done. in terms of their college scouting prowess. He's spent time with certainly Kyle and some of the others, and he's determined that these are people that he can collaborate with. He's used that word a couple of times. He can work with well, and he believes are competent and talented. And everything I've heard about Kyle Smith for four years running now

is that he's really a guy that knows, really can pick players and is going to be a general manager one day. So Rivera got rid of a lot of people, brought in a lot of his own people for various positions, but he kept Kyle Smith. That's not a Dan mandate. A Dan mandate would have been keep Eric Schaefer, keep Larry Hess. The fact that Kyle Smith has been kept is a little bit of, it's a validation for Kyle Smith, it's validation for the job he's done or the job that Rivera thinks he will do. And my bet is that they don't hire somebody other than Rivera for Kyle Smith to report to. I think the org chart is Dan, Ron, and then you come down a level, and it's Kyle Smith and probably this guy, Rob Rogers, who's handling, you know, the Schaefer position.

You know, that's the top of the org chart right now, and I don't see somebody coming in underneath Ron, but above Kyle. I don't. But they might do it. But Kevin. Kevin, who's going to be in charge of pants and picnics from now on? I mean, they can bring. You've got to have somebody in charge of them. I mean, they can bring somebody in and give them a director of, you know, team business administration or somebody who reports to Rob Rogers can handle all the, you know, the alumni weekend stuff and all that stuff, which Bruce was, you know, very much into during his tenure.

Now, tell me if I'm wrong, but I think Ron Rivera worked for A.J. Smith, child's father in San Diego. in San Diego. Yes. So he probably goes back a long way. He probably knew Kyle Smith when he was a little kid. Yeah. Yeah. So he's familiar with A.J. Smith.

He's familiar with the family. And I'm sure that helped in his decision-making process. One last. So it's not like he's a stranger that all of a sudden he decided after two weeks, this guy's pretty good. He's been familiar with Kyle Smith for a long time. That's right. And A.J. Smith, of course, is very familiar.

familiar with this organization. He's been a consultant to it for, you know, at times over the last, you know, several years. So, so the team this morning put out their official coaching staff under Ron Rivera. It's now been completed. The coaching staff is, is completed, and the team put out the press release. Offensively, we know Scott Turner's the offensive coordinator. Pete Honor is the tight ends coach, Jim Hossler, is a wide receivers coach. Randy Jordan stays as the running backs coach, John Matzko, the O-line coach, Drew Terrell, the assistant wide receivers coach, assistant offensive line coach is Trevelle Wharton and Ken Zampeze is the quarterback's coach. We know that Jack Del Rio is the coordinator. The DB's coach is Chris Harris. Sam Mills,

the third is the D-line coach. Richard Rogers is the assistant D-back's coach. Steve Russ is the linebackers coach, and Brent Vaisalmire is the assistant defensive backs and nickel coverage coach. And then they have quality control coaches, Luke Del Rio, his son, I'm assuming that's Jack Del Rio's son, is an offensive quality control coach. Vincent Rivera, I'm assuming that's Ron Sun, is a defensive quality control coach. Todd Storm's an offensive quality control coach, and Ben Jacobs is the assistant special teams quality control. control coach. So, you know, in filling out their entire coaching staff at this point, there is a little bit of a reminder that, to me, the best staffs that the Redskins have had,

all right, have been the Marty staff, a lot of nepotism, brother, son on that staff. The Joe staff, his son was on his staff, right? Wasn't he? I think one of his boys was on his staff. And part of it. And then the Shana has. regime had, of course, Kyle on this staff. So got a couple of Del Rio, a couple of Del Rio, a couple of Del Rio's, and a couple of Rivera's. I don't have any problem with that. And a Turner. And a Turner. But the father, well, we don't know what the father's role is.

Because the son said that the father is going to show up every once in a while. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You know, the Scott Turner one is the most interesting one to me. Why? Because of North Turner's history here. Right. Of working for Dan Snyder.

Now, my interpretation from afar is just speculation, just like all you listening speculate, I have no particular special knowledge of this other than my experience covering front offices in all sports, and particularly this organization. I got to think that Norv Turner told Scott Turner, look, Ron will protect you. He'll protect you from the from the Dan Snyder disease. So I think you should take it because it's your quickest path

if you're successful to a head coaching job. If you're good in that organization, you could be a head coach in three years someplace else. So I'm sure that's why he took it. The downside is if he's bad, if the Redskins, you know, struggle offensively, he's going to be public enemy number one among Redskins fans as the reason for it. He will become a number one villain for Redskins fans who still don't have fond memories of North Turner, even though he's finished strong, and still don't have fond memories, even though this is foolish,

about the Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan nepotism. They don't like the idea of the son. Even a son from an estranged coach who isn't here anymore, you know, being hired, that turns people off. That the concept you just said turns a lot of fans off. And Scott Turner will bear the brunt of fans'rash if the Redskins can struggle offensively. Yeah, I mean, it depends on Haskins, right? Like if it's obvious that Haskins is the problem.

They'll blame him. They'll blame, they'll blame Turner. For Haskins, they might. They might. You're right. You're right. They might. They'll say, look how good he was doing under Kevin O'Connell. Right. So that's just my take on that. All right. I want to do one other Redskins-related topic here in a moment.

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There's no risk. And with my promo code, Kevin D.C., you get a special offer that includes a four-week trial, plus free postage and a digital scale with no long-term commitment or contract required. Go to Stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the home page, and type in Kevin D.C. It's K-E-V-I-N-D-C. Stamps.com, promo code Kevin D-C. Never go to the post office again. So I was looking this morning, Aaron and Tommy, at the odds for the... I was trying to find the point spreads for the potential Super Bowl matchups. And by the way, Kansas City is going to be a favorite. in the Super Bowl over either San Francisco or Green Bay. Obviously, they would be over Green Bay.

They're going to be a two and a half to three-point favorite over the 49ers. Mahomes getting a lot of love right now. But I found something else. What are you looking at? You're giving me this quizzical look. Oh, well, we did this actually yesterday on the other show, and I had seen it closer to a pick for Chiefs and 49ers. Two and a half.

I saw Sportsbook.com. And, you know, and I had a nice. Westgate has that as a pick right now, so it seems like there's at least in Vegas a little bit of a difference. I would have actually guessed that the 49ers would have been favored in the Super Bowl over the Chiefs. But anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about, actually. What I wanted to talk about Tommy and Aaron is that in the process of looking some of that stuff up, I found the 2021 Super Bowl odds. For those of you that don't know what a futures bet is, a futures bet is a bet you can place now on something that will happen in the future.

So right now in a lot of places where Aaron and I, you know, spend time, you can wager right now on next year's Super Bowl winner even before, you know, this year's Super Bowl champion's been crowned. And this is what I found when I opened up the 2021 Super Bowl odds. The Redskins are 150 to 1. They've got the worst odds out of 32 teams to win the Super Bowl next year, dead last. And actually, it's not even close. Like the second worst odds to win the Super Bowl next year, Jacksonville at 125 to 1. The Giants, the Bengals, the Cardinals, all of them, the dolphins, all of them with better odds than the Redskins. Now, they're going to go ahead and let them play the games next year anyway, and this doesn't mean a lot.

I just found it interesting. If you're interested, the Chiefs were the favorite. They're 7 to 1. The Ravens were 9 to 1. 49ers 10 to 1 the Patriots are 12 to 1. And then out of 32 teams dead last, boys in the desert telling you that next year, really, all that talent, Ron Rivera? Uh-uh.

150 to 1 dead last odds to win the Super Bowl. So they are projecting the Redskins basically to be the worst team or one of the worst teams in the NFL. In 2021, I was surprised by that. And maybe I'm wrapped up too much into what we've talked about and what we're dealing with here locally. but I thought there would have been some recognition from, you know, odds makers that there is at least some talent here rather than no talent, and that there's at least a hint of change with, you know, significant improvement in the coaching department.

I would have believed that they would have, I mean, I don't think they would have been in the top half of the league, maybe not even the top two-thirds of the league. But dead last, by a long shot, like by a lot, they were dead last. I was surprised at that. You know, I've got to tell you, I'm surprised at that, too, because like I just said before earlier in the podcast, I think next year's team, I think if you put this year's team on the field with the new coaching staff, I think they automatically get better.

So, I mean, I do too. Yeah, so, I mean, I'm a little bit surprised at that as well. And considering that the Giants have a new head football coach and the Cowboys have a new head football coach as well. The Cowboys have a lot more talent still, but they don't know who's going to play quarterback for them. But my point is that, you know, the one thing to be, the alarm is that the outside of servers were a lot more right about this year's Redskins teams

than all of us close to, well, except for you. You thought they were going to be pretty bad. except for most of us. I thought they would be average, 7 and 9, 6 and 10, something like that. I think I ultimately got to 7 and 9, but said that, you know, easily I could see this being a 3-13 team. A lot of people, there were a lot of outside prognosticators. You're right.

Saw a bad season, and a lot of people here in the district scoff at them. So we tend to have, we tend to inflate, naturally how good this team is going to be. But again, I just think the new coaches alone, you know, add maybe two wins to that total from this past season. But I think you just kind of hit on it there that it's the one difference that, you know, we can project right now for next season is the coach, and the coach is going to add two wins, so they still miss the playoffs. While some of these other teams, the Bengals are going to get a new quarterback, the Giants are going to see, you know, Daniel Jones,

in his second season. So you could potentially see a huge upgrade at quarterback. And you could say the same thing about Dwayne Haskins, but people aren't nearly as excited on the outside about Dwayne Haskins as they are, about a Joe Burrow, about a Daniel Jones, about these other guys who you could say, okay, here's how you could get to the Super Bowl if those guys end up being studs. You can say that. That's true.

But you know, you can also look at this team and like Jeremy Fowler, ESPN did. I think I referenced this earlier in the week. Maybe I didn't. He wrote a column where he made projections using front office NFL execs on the condition of anonymity. And one of the predictions from one front office exec is that the Redskins would be that bad team to make the jump into the playoffs in 2020 because of their defense in particular in the fact that it would get coached well. And the quote was, and I'm paraphrasing at this point, I don't have it up in front of me, is they've got some talent on that defense and now it's going to be. be well-coached. So I do think that there are some that look at the Redskins from this past season and say, they're a bad team, but they've got better talent than 3 and 13. If they get a good

coaching staff, you know, that could be a 7-9, 8, and 8, 9-and-7 type of team in one year. You know, maybe not a 49er's story, you know, 4-12 to 12 and 4 in the number one seed, or, you know, whatever they finished, 13-3, whatever it was. But, you know, a significant turnaround next year, but Vegas clearly doesn't see it that way. And the quarterback thing may be right. Aaron might be right about the quarterback thing. Yeah. Okay. All right, let's switch subjects. Let's talk about baseball here for a moment, Tommy. The Astros see their general manager and their manager, AJ Hinch, get suspended for this sign stealing scandal, and then the owner fired both of them. you're a baseball Hall of Fame voter, a longtime baseball writer, and a long-time columnist in this town, as everybody knows.

Where does this rank all-time on, you know, PEDs, Black Sox scandal, you know, all these cheating things over the years. Where does this rank for you? Well, this ranks right behind the Black Sox scandal thing. I mean, if you measure it in terms of punishment handed out, this is right up there. I mean, you know, there are some people who think some of the participants in this cheating scandal should be banned for life,

let alone just suspended for a year or in Alex Corr's case, the boss of Red Sox manager. You know, some people think that he's going to wind up with a two-year suspension even more than Hinch or Jeff Luhnow, the general manager of the assholes because when Cora was with Houston, he was kind of reportedly, the mastermind behind it. So this is pretty big. I mean, it's hard. You know, when you hear the words garbage can in the middle of the conversation, it's hard to take it seriously sometimes. Yeah, I know, banging on a garbage can. Yeah. One time for a fastball, two for a curve, three for a

change-up. Do we know exactly what, how many bangs equal to what kind of pitch? I don't know. I don't know if we do or not. But in terms of the discipline handed out, I think this ranks, you know, right behind the Black Sox scandal. I mean, the PEDs, I mean, A-Rod had the longest, you know, punishment with a PED, the biggest thing with the longest punishment. He was out for a full season. But they never got their arms around this steroid thing. I think Rob Manfred wanted to get his arms around this technology thing, you know, the video thing quickly.

And the way to do that is because, you know, since it's very difficult to monitor, you know, guys who are usually smarter than you at these things, whether it's drugs or technology, is when you catch them, you make the punishment so severe that it frightens anybody from trying it again. And I think that's what Manfred did. And look, there's guys. I talk to a guy high up in Major League Baseball who doesn't think this went far enough. They think that the actual should have been punished more. And then there's a whole school of thought of stripping them of the World Series title in 2017. But I don't know how you do that. This is pretty big.

Yeah, it's really big. And, you know, I think, and I'll take a shot at real quickly explaining it, I think a lot of people are clearly very familiar with the story, but maybe not as familiar with what specifically was going on. The Astros for home games have cameras in which, you know, center field cameras, which they are, you know, shooting all that's going on. And there's a lot of technology used right now. You know, a guy will go down into dugout and we'll check out what his last at-bat was against the pitcher to see, you know,

everything. They use technology and you're able to see everything that's happened during the game and in past games. Well, the center field camera was essentially stealing signs, relaying that information to the dugout, and somebody was banging on a trash can very quickly as to what kind of pitch was coming. If you don't think that's an advantage, how about the fact that in that last postseason that they investigated, they did not investigate the 2019. This just recently concluded postseason. Am I right? that, Tommy? I think that this was all about 2017 and 2018. Yeah, as I understand it, yet.

Yeah, they were 8 and 1 at home during this stretch with a 3 and 6 road record, where they couldn't do it. So it was impactful on the results. They probably won a World Series by cheating. You know, guys that,

you know, Jose Al-Tube finished you know, won the 2017 MVP balloting. He probably didn't deserve to be the 2017 MVP, you know, if they were stealing signs this way. One of the questions, and I asked Zuckerman this yesterday, is just how prevalent do you think this has been, you know, throughout baseball? I mean, they're focused on the Astros because they've won so much recently. Is this something that other teams have been doing? They

have the same technology availability. You know, I'd be surprised if other teams haven't done this as well. I have no particular knowledge to indicate they have. But you're right. I mean, the technology is available. Everyone's always looking for the extra edge. I hate to think teams like the pirates have tried to do this because they're so bad, it hasn't helped them and stuff.

But that's the whole point of the punishment that Rob Manfred handed down is I think while some people inside baseball or something that was harsh enough, I think a lot of outsiders think it was pretty severe. And the whole point is, if there were other teams doing this, they're going to put their trash cans and their video cameras away now because the risk is too high. Yeah. I mean, you lose your general manager, you lose your manager,

you get fined the maximum, you lose top draft choices. Four draft choices, a first and second in two consecutive years. How about, you know, just the fact that the Nats won that World Series, I mean, it's so, baseball's got to be so thankful that the Nats won this most recent World Series. And I still find it interesting because I know we've talked about this in the past, but the Strasbourg game six performance with the Nats facing elimination and the start he had to that game giving up, you know, some big runs, big hits, getting pounded even when they got outs. And Paul Menhart, you know, telling him in between innings that he was tipping his pitches.

and the whole notion that Menhart and Dave Martinez actually discussed should we tell him. Like, what do you mean should you tell him? He just got rocked in the first inning. He's tipping his pitches. You've got to tell him. But fortunately, Strasbourg came back, and they pitched one of the all-time great games

in a clutch spot in game six to fours, the seventh, and deciding game. Stealing signs if they were doing it in this World Series didn't help as much. No, it did. You're right. baseball should thank its lucky stars that the nationals won this World Series, or else there'd be a much bigger outcry. There'd be members of Congress given speeches on the floor because people forget a lot of members of Congress are national fans because they're the local baseball team for a lot of them.

So there'd be speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives of calling for an investigation. There'd be congressional investigations, I bet you. If the Nationals had lost the World Series, and this had ensued. Yeah, probably. So they are lucky about that. Look, I wrote about this in the Washington Times today. You can read about it online at Washington Times.com. Click on sports.

And, you know, the general manager for the act, Joe Luh now, was not a very well-like guy inside baseball. There's a lot of people that are very happy that he's getting his comeuppance. And he didn't help himself with his statement that he issued in relation to this, where he denied any knowledge of what was going on. And I found an interview he did. He's a McKinsey consulting guy, Kevin. Yeah. And, you know, he did an interview with other McKinsey guys in 2018 in June of 2018.

And I point this out in the column, this is what he said. We know what every person is doing on the field at all times. We know what the bat and the ball are doing on the field at all times. So basically he was saying there's nothing that doesn't happen. in that organization that they don't particularly know about. And then he bragged about how much control they have over players and other people in the organization. And it said, like, it took three or four years to get to the point where we felt good about it,

meaning their control. And he said, I was fortunate that my boss, the owner of the team, was willing to support us. And Jim Crane, the owner who fired him, just about any knowledge as well. they all knew. I think, I think, I don't think something like this happens with a control freak like Jeff Lew now and not knowing about it, you know, I mean, I think he absolutely knew everything that was going on and signed off on it. Yeah, that's the kind of statement that when you make that, you're, you're really naive because the reaction's going to be one of two things, either A, you're a liar, B, you were too stupid then to know what was going on right in front of you as the

general manager. Like, that is the, that is a. That is a. stay quiet and accept the punishment position, which he didn't take. He put out that long press release. One last thing on this. First of all, what do you think is going to happen to Alex Cora? He's gone from Boston. Is he going to ever manage again? Will A.J. Hinch ever manage again?

You know, here's the thing about A.J. Hinch, this is interesting. H.A. H. H.A. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. is well-liked by the media who cover him. And I understand why. I haven't. covered them in the World Series. When that whole sexual harassment scandal started, you know, with the reporter who was screened at by the Astros

front office executive, the only one from the organization who spoke up publicly and said this was unacceptable was A.J. H.N. So he is well-liked. I don't think he should work in the business again.

But he may get some kind of coaching job I don't think he'll ever manage again, but he may get some kind of coaching job with some organization. Alex Cora, I think since he's considered the mastermind in this, I think his suspension is even going to be longer than 8-day hint. I think he could wind up being suspended for two years from baseball, and who hired the guy who's been suspended from two years? Who does that?

I can't fathom how any organization. Yes, okay. That's true. But, you know, and as much as Alex Cora is liked and respected, if I'm advising the owner of, you know, the image implications, Alex Cora is not working for my organization. So I don't know if he'll ever get a job again either. A.J. Hinch should have been fired for taking Zach Granky out of the game in Game 7.

That's what he should have been fired for. I was at, you know, I was at Matt Winterfest this weekend. We broadcast live from there. And I can't tell you how, I forget which player it was. But one of the, one of the, oh, it was Kevin Long, maybe the hitting coach, who basically volunteered how happy they were in that dugout. When A.J. Hinch went out and got Granky. And it was the same thing Mark Lerner said. Yeah.

During the documentary premiere. Right. It was like, the whole world recognized that. My God, that's where they've lost the game. That was it. And they brought in the guy that the Nats signed, Will Harris, who promptly gave up the home run to Kendrick. Yeah, I know.

By the way, just an aside, Kevin Long told me that, because one of the questions I asked them was, you know, this concept of about guys who can hit, you know, just rolling out of bed, you know, no matter what. And he told me Hallie Kendrick was, you know, working out in Arizona at this point, but he hadn't picked up a bat since the World Series at the end of October. So it was at least two months since Hallie Kendrick did any hitting. And the first time he picked up a bat down in Arizona for a workout,

he was spraying the ball all over the place. And he looked like the Hallie Kendrick we saw in the post. professional hitter. Yeah, there are guys who can just do that, and he's one of them. They're guys that can walk into a gym at any point in time, at any point in their life, and they can still shoot it, you know? Oh, stop talking about me like that. When you're a hitter, when you're a professional hitter like he is,

he can hit rolling out of bed. He's got that whole thing figured out. I'm glad he's back. One last thing, actually just one baseball thing, switching subjects, but I'm sticking with sort of the Nats here. What do you think about Josh Donaldson signing with Minnesota? He got $92 million, you know, an option for that fifth year, which may pay him $100 million in aggregate for the total amount of the deal,

far less than what people were talking about. Should the Nats have hung in there a little longer and been more aggressive? This is a complicated answer, because I can't answer any question about third base without Anthony. And my answer on Donaldson would be if the learner decided to go over the luxury tax to sign Josh Donaldson, I would have been living if I was a NASF. You mean you won't do it for Anthony Rendon, but you'll go over this imaginary line of demarcation that you have perceived as being, you know, too risky to be involved in for a free of. agent like Josh Donaldson. So no, I would not have gone in on that money. Once you didn't pay Anthony Rendon, I wouldn't turn around and compound that mistake of not paying Anthony Rendon by then going

over the luxury tax and paying Josh Donaldson. I wouldn't do that. That was just sick and like craw. I mean, they're, and they've got, they've got a problem. They'll be competitive. They'll probably win 90 games. Starlin Castro will probably be, you know, part of the mixture at third base. Maybe Carter Keyboom will step up and be really good as well. But they have a number three hitter hole that they've got to take care of. You know, maybe Victor Robles moves, you know, he's not going to be bat in eighth or ninth this year. No. And in its second full season. Well, that seems, actually, that seems like the move. You move Robles into that. three spot, right? Don't you? Or unless it's key boom? Or else you move Soto up from four to three.

Right. I mean, you know, I think Robles moving up will give them more options, but right now, there is no answer for protection for Juan Soto that Anthony Rendon, and they don't have a number three hitter, and that's a problem. A quick word about mybooky.orgie.A.G. Super Bowl's approaching two championship games this weekend, lots of college and NBA during the week, hockey as well. You're looking for a place to play. MyBooky.ag is the place. You can trust them. They've got reliable points spreads. They have plenty of ways to bet, and they're reliable in terms of getting your payout and your money out when you win or if you win. If you join right now, MyBooky will match your deposit halfway. So put in $1,000, they'll give you an extra

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I just wanted to mention about the national championship game that what we saw Monday night was the completion of the greatest individual season we've ever seen by a quarterback. Maybe the best individual season of all time, which is the season that Joe Burrow had this year. Won the Heisman Trophy, won the national championship, set the record with 60 touchdown passes. I mean, you know, the numbers, the SEC records, you know, that he set, he was brilliant all year. And it's really remarkable that it's an LSU quarterback. If you're a college football fan, this is the one position they have not been able to fill. You know, they won their fourth national championship on Monday night, but they've had terrible quarterback play on teams that should have won more national championship games.

But Joe Burrough was unbelievable on Monday night. The extend the playability that he has is, to me, what makes the Aaron Rogers comp the best. one. He is so good off schedule in the same way that Mahomes is, Russell Wilson is, Aaron Rogers is, and that's why I think ultimately he's going to be a great NFL quarterback. But to throw for 956 yards, 12 touchdowns rush for two more in two playoff games. It's incredible what he did this year and what he did in their biggest games of the year, including the Alabama game where he threw for 403 touchdowns, etc. I also also, I also. think, Tommy, that LSU's season is one of the greatest team sports seasons of all time.

You know, they beat seven teams that were ranked in the top 25. They beat four teams that were ranked in the top five. That's an unbelievable season, and they destroyed their opponents in their final three games. The Clemson game wasn't a destruction like the Oklahoma game and the Georgia game was, but they won that game by 17 points. Now, I thought it was a game that Clemson could win. Trevor Lawrence was off. They were up 17 to 7. They had a chance at 35, 25, I'm sorry, 28, 25 to get right back into it and didn't.

LSU was the better team. It was a very intense game early on, man. To give you an idea of college football games, as you all know, but compared to the NFL. That first quarter, there were six punts in the first quarter of that game alone. Six pints. There were five possessions from Clemson, four from LSU. That's an entire half in the NFL.

Sometimes that's into the third quarter in the NFL. The first half took two hours to play, and the defense was incredible early. And then, of course, it became an offensive explosion. for the second and third quarter and then it slowed down in the fourth. LSU was the better team. They won. The smell test did not come through. Aaron, did you play the game? You didn't tell me if you were playing that game. Did you play Clemson or not? I actually, I played Clemson in the first half, so I hit.

Oh, on their team total. What was their team total on the first half? 14 and a half. Yeah. Because they wouldn't have covered the first half. Remember they were 28, 17. 17. And by the way, that was the ballziest call of the game. LSU had to call a timeout to avoid a delay of game on a third and 10 at the Clemson 34-yard line with 21 seconds in the first half. And they want to get a field goal there. They're up 21-17. And so they put the offense back out there, and you're expecting a throw beyond the chain so that if it's completed,

you know, you can get up there after the clock gets stopped, spike it and get your field goal team out. They run a quarterback draw with Burrow for 29. yards. I mean, he's such a good runner, too. Who runs that play in that spot? If he gets stopped short of the first down, the half is over. They don't have time to get the field goal team out to spike it. If he, you know, so that's such a risky call and it was, and he runs it for 29 yards and they end up kicking a field goal, they end up scoring a touchdown on the next play on a throw to moss. But anyway, the game was, you know, it wasn't a close game at the end, but it was still a highly entertaining game, I felt. And one last thing, Tommy, and I think this is something that you can,

I want your opinion on as well. A lot of Ravens fans, a lot of NFL fans are suggesting that Lamar Jackson and the style of play is not going to lead to a championship. And I didn't do this because we didn't have a podcast yesterday, but I spent time talking about this on radio. It's silly to to take the result of that game Saturday night against the Titans and come to that conclusion because they didn't play their style of play in that game Saturday night. If you're going to use that game to say, you can't be a quarterback run, you know, being your leading rusher and be that kind of zone read, you know, running quarterback team and winning the playoffs. It just doesn't work. Well, they didn't do that on Saturday night. He dropped back

71 times in the game to throw. 71 times. They dropped them pack. They panicked in that game on Saturday night. They got behind and they moved away from what had gotten them there. And that is being a primarily a running team with a dual threat running quarterback. And it's a shame because I don't think they needed to get away from it that early, but they panicked.

Greg Roman, John Harbaugh, whomever, you know, ultimately, you know, made the decision on the playing, and they dropped a quarterback who's not a drop-back quarterback 71 times. He threw 59 of them. There were a couple of penalties in there, and there were several scrambles in there on plays that were supposed to be throws. He also had a lot of dual-threat-option-style runs and power sweep and power-off tackle quarterback runs. But you can't use that game Saturday night as a way to to back up or to prove that that style of football doesn't win in the postseason. I would also add this to it. Colin Kaepernick in 2012 proved that you can play that style of football and get to a Super Bowl,

and they had a chance to win the Super Bowl against the Ravens that year. He was a dual-threat quarterback. He rushed for 183 yards in this particular round of the playoffs that year against the Packers, and they got to the Super Bowl. They won 14 of 16 games. They did not lose the game Saturday night because of Lamar Jackson and the style of offensive football they played. They gave up 195 yards to Derek Henry. The defense had something to do with it, and I thought that the coaching staff, getting away from their style of football, heard them more than anything else.

I agree. I agree with everything you said. And also, you know, this notion that the story now on Lamar's, you know, the story now on Lamar's, is that he can't win the big game. This was his second year. His second year and people are already deciding that, oh, this guy, he's only a regular season quarterback. He can't win in the playoffs.

His second season. Come on. Yeah, it was ridiculous. It was ridiculous. So many quarterbacks in the history of the game took many, many years before they won their first playoff game, many, many chances. before they won their first playoff game. This dude is going to lead them to great regular seasons,

and yes, some playoff success as well, somewhere down the road. May not happen right away. It hasn't happened right away in his first two seasons. Remember last year as a rookie starting quarterback in a playoff game, he had only started at that point seven or eight games. It wasn't like he was the starter of the entire season. I just think the reaction to the Jackson and the Ravens losing on Saturday night, was just especially when it comes to style of play was completely off base.

The other thing too is that, you know, matchups, you know, styles make fights, matchups in one and done situations, whether it be in the NCAA tournament or the NFL playoffs, the two, you know, sports, college football too, where you can, you know, play one game, be off and be out, that matchup was the worst possible matchup for them. If New England had beaten Tennessee and they were close to doing it, Edelman drops a pass that keeps them moving towards field goal range and a game-winning field goal, they would have played Houston Saturday night. Baltimore would have, and they would have annihilated the Houston Texans. They already did about a month ago. The Titans are really smart defensively. They're good defensively.

They're underrated defensively. And they also have right now Derek Henry in the midst of an all-time run in the postseason when it comes to rushing yardage. I think they have a chance Sunday at Arrowhead. I really do. I think the Titans have a legit shot to win that game. We'll see. Back tomorrow, Tommy, can you come on Friday instead of coming on tomorrow? We'll just do Wednesday, Friday this week?

Sounds good. Okay, we'll do that and we'll preview the championship games. But I will have a show tomorrow, I promise. Thanks to Aaron. Thanks to all of you. Back tomorrow.