The Kevin Sheehan Show - Clinton Portis Unleashed

Episode Date: March 10, 2020

Kevin opened with Caps, Al Michaels, some Big 10 Tournament odds, and the latest on Coronavirus. Adam Zielonka/Washington Times joined the show to talk Caps' woes and Terps' chances. Then, Clinton Portis spent 45+ minutes with Kevin talking Zorn stories, Redskins free agency, draft, Tua, Trent Williams, and Dwayne Haskins' Instagram post about Stefon Diggs. <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. All right, I'm here. Aaron's here. Clinton Portis is going to join us on the show today. Adam Zelanka from the Washington Times will be with us shortly. We'll do some caps and turps with him and then a ton of redskins with Clinton in about 25 minutes or so. First of all, did you see the breaking news this morning that NBC is not going to trade Al Michaels to ESPN? Yeah, I'm bummed about that. Yeah, so Michaels is staying there. And I wonder whether or not that means Peyton Manning's not going to do Monday night football. Because I have this sense based on the reporting, and nobody's come out and said it, but that Peyton will do Monday night football if it's with the right person.

Toriko, it was reported a year ago maybe that he would do Monday night football or would have done Monday night football had Tariko remained at ABC at ESPN ABC. By the way, a lot of those games are going to be on ABC this year, apparently the Monday night games instead of ESPN, or at least that's what may happen with the next TV deal. But anyway, perhaps he was prepared to work with Al Michaels for 18 to 20 million a year. but it's not going to happen because NBC is not moving on from Al Michaels. It does sort of beg the question, are there any young guys that can do this? Is there anybody else but Al Michaels and Mike Tarico and Joe Buck and, you know, the ace NFL guys that can do this? I mean, Jim Nance? There are guys.

I'm sure there are guys who can do it, but if it's about who does Peyton want, Peyton doesn't necessarily know the young guys. He knows Brad Nestler. He's got to know Nestler. like Nestler would be a go-to guy for me. You know, I think he is excellent. I think Sean McDonough is excellent, but clearly Sean McDonough was not easy to work with.

By the way, you're calling a 63-year-old Brad Nestler, a young guy? Al Michaels is 75. No, I understand that, but I'm just saying that's what we are right now. Well, that's a bad, you know, there are some good young guys doing games, I think. You know, I'm not paying attention to it maybe like I used to. You know, it doesn't impact my viewing habits, really, it really doesn't. Like, if I'm into the game, especially football, if it's a good game, I'm watching the game.

You know, the announcers are completely secondary to the game and the matchup in really whether or not, you know, we've got something on the game more often than not. Caps lost last night. I watched the game. Man, that shootout lasted seven rounds. There were only three total made goals in 14 shot attempts during the shootout. Buffalo made two of them, so they won the game, three to two. That was a team that had lost six games in a row coming in.

So that's a step back for the caps last night. They had to rally from two down just to tie it in the third period and then really got a bit of a break. There was a goal by Brandon Montour with 248 left in the third period to give Buffalo a three-two lead that was waved off for goalie interference. And I didn't see goalie interference. I love Beninati and I love Lachlan. Locker was absolutely convinced that it was goalie interference. I saw maybe, maybe a sliver of this dude Jeff Skinner's skate may have just nicked Brayden Holpey. You know, it didn't look like much to me, but they waved it off.

The Buffalo fans booed for the final 248 of regulation. And the caps had to fight off the power play. overtime, but they ended up losing in the shootout. And they get a point, you know, against Buffalo. Buffalo's terrible team, man. And they play another terrible team in Detroit on Thursday night. And they are up a point in the division on Philadelphia in the Metropolitan Division. Philadelphia has one game less played than the Caps and they're one point behind.

So, look, it's not a team playing well. Again, I'll beat a dead horse. I have no idea what it means to the postseason. I'm sure they're going to be fine in the postseason. They've got veterans, their champions, and the end of the playoffs rarely, if at all, if ever, really mirror anything that you learn in the regular season. A couple of other quick things. We mentioned yesterday, I think, or maybe it was the day before.

It wouldn't have been the day before. That would have been Friday. It could have been Friday that we mentioned it. These days all run together after a while. That LeBron James basically said that he, I'll give you the quote, I play for the fans. That's what it's all about. If I show up to the arena and there ain't no fans there, I ain't playing. Close quote. He was responding to the possibility that NBA games could be played in front of empty arenas because of coronavirus. And the league was not happy with LeBron.

They haven't been happy with LeBron multiple times this year. Go back to the China situation. But this was a high-ranking league executive, quote, with no disrespect to LeBron, this is a public health crisis that's bigger than any one person. Personally, I think there's a good chance we will all be forced to play games in empty arenas at some point. The virus is spreading quickly. It's not contained and it will be, and it will not be contained anytime soon. The threat to NBA players and fans could carry on into the next season, closed

quote. And then another league executive that was a team executive called LeBron's comments, quote, short-sighted and not helpful, closed quote. I got news for you. If they play in front of empty arenas, you know who's going to be playing in front of an empty arena? LeBron James, you know? He's not breaching that contract. That contract says he has to play.

It would be really simple. Hey, LeBron, you don't have to play, but you would be in breach of your contract. We wouldn't pay you. Not that LeBron might make, you know, sort of a phony, I'm all for the fans. Stand. Can't wait to hear that. He drives me nuts. By the way, last night, Milwaukee lost again without Janus.

Now, they played a good team last night in Denver. To me, Janus is the MVP despite the closing of the odds, you know, the narrowing of the odds on the MVP number. By the way, on my site last night, Aaron, Janus was minus 150 and LeBron was plus 110. I was seeing 170, yeah. So it's narrowing down. Another quick thing is that did you see the Big Ten? tournament odds to win the Big Ten tournament? Yes.

So I found it to be almost unprecedented in my memory that the number one seed in the field, which is Wisconsin, now they shared in the championship with Maryland and Michigan State, is the eighth favorite. Michigan State's three to one, Maryland's three and a half to one, Michigan's five to one, Ohio State, six to one, Iowa's eight to one, Illinois State. 10 to 1, Rutgers is 12 to 1, and Wisconsin is 13 to 1. You have 7 teams that have better odds of winning the Big 10 tournament than the number one seed in the field. That's surprising. I don't think I've ever seen that. That's on your site. That's interesting because everywhere I'm looking at

has them behind Maryland and Michigan State and even I've seen one that has them behind Michigan, but overall they're in the top four. This is sportsbettingdime.com. Interesting. Westgate, draft kings both have them third. Okay. Well, this is what I was looking at. I've never seen anything like that number one scene. It doesn't surprise me that Maryland's got better odds to win the tournament than Wisconsin does. But Michigan State is the favorite, but just a slight favorite over Maryland.

I'm much more obviously into the following week than this particular week. This is a fun week for gambling, though. Well, it's a fun week for gambling, but I actually really would like to see Maryland and Michigan State Saturday in a third game. You know, at the Big Ten tournament, it would be that second semi-final game, Saturday afternoon on CBS. I'd like to see that. Now, Maryland's going to have to beat Penn State or Indiana, likely. And, you know, the thing that I didn't mention yesterday is Indiana, for all intents and purposes,

is playing at home in this tournament. When they've had this tournament in Indianapolis before, and Indiana's had big games, it's been a home court advantage for the Hoosiers in that building. So that's something to keep an eye on if Maryland has to play Indiana on Friday night instead of Penn State. They match up better with Indiana than they do Penn State, but it would feel very much like a road game for the Terps if they play it. Look, when Maryland was at Capital One Arena for the Big Ten tournament, I'll never forget that quarterfinal game against Northwestern. That was, I remember sitting, my seats were right in front of the Wisconsin section for whatever reason, Aaron. and during the game prior to the Maryland game, I think it was Indiana, Illinois, maybe.

You had the Let's Go Maryland chant going through it. It was just reverberating around the arena. I mean, there must have been 8, 9, 10,000 Maryland fans in the arena. And these people from Wisconsin, why is there so many Maryland people here? And I said, I turned around to somebody. I said, well, the campus is about four miles away, five miles away. Oh, really? I thought it was in Maryland. I said, yeah, Maryland's right next to, I had to explain the whole geography of the DMV.

They had no clue. Last thing before we get to Adam Zelanka from the Washington Times, I may have told you guys last week that my neighbors are CDC employees. They worked for the CDC. They moved up here from Atlanta. They worked at the main headquarters of the CDC in Atlanta. and they moved up here about a year, year and a half ago. Very nice neighbors.

And he, his expertise is sort of malaria. And he spends a lot of time in Africa. Anyway, to make a long story short, a week and a half ago, I said, hey, what's the deal with this coronavirus? And he said, did you get your flu shot? That's much more important. Don't worry about the coronavirus. Last night, I saw him walking my dog, Aaron. I said, hey, any different feelings?

He said, yeah, yeah, it's much different now. than it was a week and a half ago. And I said, well, how so? He said, well, there's just a lot that's unknown. There's a lot that's unknown. And this is going to be incredibly disruptive to this nation and to the world. It already has, obviously, in places like Italy. And we've already seen the impact of the economy here, you know, retail and travel, etc.

And he's a sports fan, and he knows that I'm a big one too. And he said, look, you know, we got March Madness games coming up. And he's like, there's no doubt that some of these games are going to be played in front of empty arenas. There's no way in some of these places they're going to be able to allow people into these arenas. And then I threw out what I threw out, I think, yesterday to you, Aaron. And that is if one player on one team tested positive for coronavirus, he didn't even let me finish the sentence. He said, that team's done. He said, there's a six-day incubation period.

He's like, it doesn't matter about testing other players. They can't get a good read as to whether or not other players have it for five to six days. And I just said, well, maybe they ought to, when they announced the tournament on Sunday night, they ought to have 12 replacement teams ready to go. We're going to see stuff we haven't seen in a long time. I'm not panicked. I'm not. I mean, I certainly feel differently about this than I did a week ago, and I bet many of you do as well.

You know, even if you don't get sick and never find, you know, never know somebody who gets sick, it's impacting our lives. It's impacting the economy. It's impacting retail. I mean, I walk through the Safeway, you know, near this studio last night or late yesterday afternoon, and the shelves are empty. It's crazy. Anyway, that's enough of that.

Let's get to Adam Zalanka from the Washington Times. Adam Zalanka covers the caps for the Washington Times, covers the Terps for the Washington Times, covers the Terps for the Washington Times, probably covers a lot more than that. But those are the two topics for today. And we'll get Adam to Maryland. I know you were there on Sunday here in a moment. But, you know, the capitals have obviously, you know, gone from best record in hockey and looking like a juggernaut and looking like a team that potentially was even better

than their Stanley Cup winning team to a team that's really struggled, you know, over the last month and a half plus. I thought Saturday could have been sort of a turning point for them. They were impressive at Pittsburgh, and then last night against a team that's lost six games in a row, even though they had a pretty good goaltender back after a month. They lose in a shootout at Buffalo. What do you make of this team right now? What are their issues?

And can they get repaired in time for a big postseason run? Well, to start with your last question, there's only. 13 games left in the regular season for Washington. I don't want to say that's not enough time to get their stuff in order and get repaired in time for the Stanley Cup playoffs. I think that they have shown that they can play like the team they need to be in, you know, come playoff time. Most recently, honestly, their two best games have come against Pittsburgh,

which could tell you one of two things. It could tell you that Pittsburgh is playing pretty awfully lately. Pittsburgh's two and eight in their last 10 games. But I think it also really tells me that. the capitals, they show up when it's penguins, when it's their rivals. Everyone's firing all cylinders, and last Saturday's game was their most complete win in quite some time when they beat the Penguins 5 to 2 in Pittsburgh. Yeah, that Buffalo result was disappointing.

It also could have gone either way. That was a really late shootout, and this goalie from Buffalo, Woolmark had a heck of a game. But like you said, you know, that that's not the kind of two games in a row stretch you want to have you. You want to come off that Pittsburgh game with the momentum in your favor and a feeling of, hey, we've got this, we can put this together, and go into Buffalo and beat a bad team. That was a very bad team, like you said, six games in a row. They had not even scored more than two goals in a single game in that stretch, and technically in the shootout game. They only scored two goals before the shootout. Their biggest problems, it continues to be

defensive coverage here and there, although that's actually looked a little better recently. it continues to be just consistent scoring and setting up easy goals for themselves and not trying anything really stupid or dump, you know, dumb passes down the middle of the neutral zone that get picked off. They've had a lot of giveaways. And, of course, I can't believe I've talked this long without even mentioning the penalties. They are constantly, constantly in the box. Everyone knows it. They know it.

Orlov took a bad penalty in overtime yesterday that hurt their chances in overtime because then they have to spend two out of a five. minute overtime, two minutes out of a five minute overtime, killing a penalty. And that's not a way to win it over time. So that's the big one right there. And it continues to boggle my mind that these guys take five or six or more penalties a game. They lead the NHL and minor penalties by a margin. So that's the main thing that you're not going to get away winning a playoff series against pretty much anybody if you're going to keep playing like that. You know, I thought the penalty called on Buffalo, the goalie interference call at the end of the third period was really, really ticky-tack. I mean, I didn't even see as many times as they

showed the replay of that. I didn't really see the contact on the replay. Play Locker was sure of it, you know, listening to the broadcast. I thought, you know, if there was contact, it was barely any contact, and it wasn't truly interference. What did you think of that? Because I'll say, I mean, that was a regulation game winner for all intents and purposes for Buffalo. Yeah, I understand why the Sabres fans were upset about it. Ticky tack maybe a little bit. I think, first of all, I'm not much of an expert on it, but a goaltender interference is sort of hockey's equivalent to what is truly past interference in the NFL.

What is truly a catch before they amended the catch rules? It can be kind of referee to referee, crew to crew, a little variant, if you will. There was contact, and I think that just because there was even, a little tic-tack contact that the sabres were not going to win that coach's challenge because there was probably not enough there to say, okay, we'll overturn the call now. But to call it there in such a crucial moment, last three minutes of regulation, not of the game, but of regulation, yeah, you know, the capals got lucky there for sure. And they only have at least one point out of that game in the stamenings, thanks to Alex,

with his goal and then setting up the second goal that worked kind of, I mean, he assisted at Orlov, and Orlov's shot went off that Sabres skate. So there were some luck in this capital favorite to even get them one standings point to get to overtime. And it could have been even luckier because when you get to a shootout, you know, what they call it a skilled competition, shootouts really can go either way. That's why you don't see them in the playoffs. Yeah, exactly. One last one in the caps, and then we'll shift to the Terps. We're at that, you know, time of the year with just 13 regular season games left for the caps, 14, you know, somewhere between 10 and 14 between all these teams, where you start to look at

potential first-round matchups. You know, they won't more likely than not have to face the flyers in the first round, because I think, you know, there's a pretty decent chance that both of those teams will finish in the top two spots with the way the penguins are playing. But, you know, it's not a lot. But among the teams that they more likely than not would play in the first round, Pittsburgh, Columbus, you know, a Carolina or even the Islanders. Who don't you want to play? I don't want to play the Islanders because I don't think the Capitol's match up particularly well against Barry Trott and that system.

Sure, they'd be familiar with it, but over the course of the seven-game series, I don't know, and the Islanders have now a better scoring threat after the trade deadline, the man that they landed, Pajot, because maybe a couple of weeks or months ago, I would have said, well, the Islanders can't really score more than two a game. They don't have a threatening offense. To answer the other half, I mean, you didn't ask the other half the question, like, what might be the easiest matchup?

But certainly, Columbus Blue Jackets have really cooled off. They had a hot stretch in the middle of the winter, and their rookie goalie Elvis, I can't even pretentive pronounce the last name of Rizikins. Elvis was winning a bunch of games for them, but I wouldn't trust the rookie goaltender in the playoffs, first of all, and Columbus has really cooled off. So even though Torterale has been there and done that,

and even though Columbus upset Tampa Bay last year, it's a completely different team now. And the Capitals get pretty lucky if Columbus ends up is that number one wild card, and Capitals are the number two division winner, you know, where Boston would maybe, they would win the President's trophy, and the Capitals would have the division,

the Metro Division. they would get the number one wild card most likely. So as it stands today, as I look at the standings, Columbus would be the match-up, and Carolina or the Islanders or the Penguins, if the Penguins kept losing a little bit and fell a little further, they're all kind of in the mix, if anything. You know, maybe the Capitals would want to play the Penguins on this round,

because that's the team that they keep showing up for. They've beaten twice in a row now. And that's the only team they can seem to get out of bed to make sure they play a 60-minute game. Yeah, I mean, I was thinking the same thing. Adam Zalanka from the Washington Times joins us. He covers the Caps, he covers the Terps, he covers a lot of different things for the Washington Times. Tommy's newspaper.

All right, let's get to the Terps. You've been covering them. You've been at the games recently. You wrote about Anthony Cowan. Cowan is 0 for three in the Big Ten tournament. He's one and two in the NCAA tournament. Do you think this year's different in the postseason? I think this year has a good chance to be different.

I could be very easily proven wrong. You play the tape right back. But this is a stronger Maryland team than we've seen the last couple years. You know that as well as anybody. And I think you've got a more complete version of Anthony Cowan than ever before as both a leader, because that's what Turgeon and every other teammate of Cowens has been said all year, that he's become this vocal leader and they take after him now, maybe more so than they did in the past.

They needed him to take that mantle this year. And also as a player, and the team up between him and Jalen Smith, is like very few others you're going to see during the tournament. I guess it depends on really, like, you know, how do you define success for this team? What would be a disappointment versus what would actually be an improvement? Is it just making the Sweet 16 since they haven't done that in a handful years and they haven't done that in Cowan's time here?

Is it going further in Sweet 16? It depends on what matchups they're going to end up drawing. As far as this week, also with the Big Ten tournaments, since they continue, like the last three years at least in a row, they've lost that first game they play, even if they're the three-seed or the five-seat. This year, they're the three-seat, obviously. You know, they could draw number six Penn State.

They haven't had good luck against Penn State lately. They could draw number 11 Indiana. Indiana can be, they can catch fire when you don't, when you don't expect it. I've only seen a little bit of them this year. They really should hope to just at least win two games in the Big Ten tournament to get, you know, improve their NCAA seat. as high as possible, right? Right now, I'm seeing them as a four seed in some brackets. I think

they deserve a three, but they're not going to get a three if they lose that first Big Ten game. Yeah, I think they're more likely than not a four if they lose on Friday night, and if they win one game, I think they're up to the three line. I had Patrick Stevens on the radio show. He thinks they're solidly a three if they win, and they've got a chance to be a two if they get to the finals. I told Aaron earlier, I'd like to see a game against Michigan State on Saturday. That's what I'd like to see. You know, I don't want them, if they win the Big Ten tournament, great. If they get to Sunday, that's phenomenal. I think it's good preparation for next week. I think all of these teams in that league, Adam, are ready to play other teams outside of the league.

And I think one of the things that's going to happen is it's going to get easier early in the tournament for a lot of these teams. You know, I've seen this, and I've talked, to coaches over the last couple of years. And the Big Ten has as many good coaches as any league in the country. These teams are incredibly well scouted. You play 20 games. It's hard to run your stuff. It's hard. It's hard to get anything done in some of these games. And I just have this sense that early in the tournament for a lot of these teams with talent, they're going to find it easier. You know, matchups are everything. You know, you don't want to get, you know, a hot three-point shooting team that, you know, goes 15 of 28 from behind the ark. You could get shot out of a building

in a one and done for sure. But I have a feeling ultimately they're going to have a chance to make, you know, make it to that second weekend. I think so too. And being a three-seed versus a four-seat is going to dictate that a lot, what your match-up is going to be in that second-round game. And thinking about the other teams in that conference that you're mentioning, not just Spartans and Wisconsin, who, you know, as we know, they're the number one seat in this league. They kind of, they're the hot team right now in terms of just winning, just coming, arising from the middle of the pack and taking that mantle and taking share of the Big Ten title. But I'm also looking at, you know, Iowa with Luca Garza. I wonder how, I'm curious to see how well they do.

Ohio State, who doesn't have the greatest resume, but has beaten. Dangerous. A handful of teams in the top ten this year. a bunch of quad one wins. They could be very dangerous in the tournament. And then the next tier is like Rutgers and Penn State, who had nice, surprising years. I liked both of them for different reasons.

And I'm a New Jersey guy, and it's going to be fun to see Rutgers actually in the tournament again. But they're less experienced with March basketball. So I don't know if that maybe comes back to them, that they're relatively new to the scene come March. I think, you know, it's funny because we've had conversations about Rutgers on the podcast since the Maryland Law. there a couple of times. And I, you know, Aaron and I sort of warned everybody before that game that

it was not a good matchup for Maryland on that particular night for a lot of reasons. But one of the reasons is that they're good. And you're right, no tournament experience. But Pichael can really coach. And they've got a closer in Gio Baker. Like they got a guy that can take the game over, create his own offense, create shots for himself and others. And he's been doing it all year. I think they're a threat to win a game or two. I do. I think Illinois is a threat to win a game or two. I think you hit on it with Iowa.

I think they're a threat. You know, Penn State, I just don't think they're playing well right now. It doesn't mean they can't get it together in time. And I'm with you on Ohio State. I think Ohio State can make a run to the final four. And I think Michigan State could win the whole thing. So, you know, we didn't even mention Maryland in that mix. I mean, in some ways, I think some of these other teams have as much,

much of a chance to make a deep run as Maryland does, but I'm not minimizing Maryland's chances. I think they can win two or three games in this field. And if they ended up in the final four, I don't think it would be a shock to anybody except for the Maryland people that can't stand Turgeon. And that's where we'll end it. You know, you heard what he said about the thousand pound gorilla. You know, he talks about pressure all the time. He talks about the criticism, you know, a lot. I've had him on the radio show, you know, multiple times this season. And, you know, he's been pretty honest about sort of the, you know, the criticism and what kind of coach he is and he's defended himself.

And I think he's a good coach. I think people that know basketball understand that he's a pretty good coach. But the results haven't been there. They celebrated the other day. This was big for him, big for his team. But this is a March sport. Do you think he's going to feel it here when we get not this week? weekend necessarily, but when we get to the NCAA tournament, you think they're going to feel

in the same way that they felt it at times on Sunday at home? In terms of what? The pressure. I think he's got to feel, he's got to know that a first-round exit, nobody's even going to care about the Big Ten regular season tournament at that point. Yeah, for all the celebrating that went down in college park on Sunday, and it's sort of like things were bottled up for a while. while, obviously, it's the first conference title of any type,

share or outright in the Turgeon era nine years. And he's talking about the monkey off his back, the guy sitting next to me in the media row from some other radio station, I'm not sure which, might have been out of state. He said, oh, that's a shot. That's a shot, he said. I was like, pretty much, especially when you're directing that toward the crowd, where he appreciates the crowd.

He appreciates the kind of home court advantage they had this year, but I know that he knows that there are some critics of his, just like Cowan probably feels the same way, within that mix of students and alumni and supporters. But yeah, no, it all goes away. That goodwill that was built up, sort of, if you will, that would go away if they're upset in the first round, and they're a four-seed or a three-seat,

and they go down to East Tennessee State or whoever? Yeah. Oh, no, that's bad news for him. And I don't think we sit here and talk about, well, is he going to get fired for this? But what you said, you nailed it right on the head, It's a March sport. And for everything that they've gone through

and how they've proven to be one of the 10 or 12 best teams in the country this season over the last four months, it would be a giant disappointment if they don't win a game in the NCAA. Totally agree. Last thing, because you were there Sunday and you were there a week ago Saturday night.

Aaron, did we talk about this? I forget if we talked about this yesterday. The students were weak on Sunday. They didn't fill up the wall. You know, it's almost, I've gotten to the point, I don't want to come off as OK Boomer on this. But you've got a team playing for the Big Ten regular season title Sunday at noon. It's not Sunday at 7 a.m.

And I understand the clocks moved forward. But I thought that crowd, even though it was a sellout, I thought it was dead on Sunday for the most part. Did we talk about this yesterday, Aaron, or not? Yeah, we mentioned that. What did you think? It was... Go ahead. Oh, yeah, go ahead, Aaron.

Go ahead, Adam. Okay. Yeah, I'm not sure if I would use the word dead necessarily. I agree with you. It wasn't full, even though they announced it was a sell out a while back, a couple weeks back, just like the Michigan State game. I don't know if it's a factor of everybody showed up in Michigan State game. Game days there.

They spend the whole day there. They're going raucous and everything, and then it's a bit of a letdown game and a dud of a loss to the Spartans, that now I'm not going to maybe come back in eight days for this regular season finale. But that shouldn't be an excuse, first of all, and you're still a top 10 team in the country, and it's Anthony Cowan's Senior Day. Yeah.

If it's anybody's Senior Day, and you've got people who love it. You know, what I remember, them being loudest, not loudest all day four, but they were loud when Travis Valman and Will Clark got into the game the last 26 seconds. They love their bench guys in their underdog stories, for sure.

It's not loud when sticks had dunks, you know, it maybe it just wasn't the same atmosphere as Michigan State game. It wasn't, and I, and I, I say, I bring that up,

because, I don't know, to me, it's frustrating, but I understand the fair weathered nature at times of all sports fans these days, you know, especially young people with, you know, sort of the options and, you know, they want to be a part of a viral video. I mean, flash mob and Sunday wasn't a flash mob game, whatever. All of that stuff sort of plays into a lot of that. But, you know, Maryland considers itself, and as an alum and Aaron's an alum, and I think you're an alum too. Like, we consider ourselves to be a major basketball school, you know, not Duke, Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, but capable of being in that next group of schools. And the home court advantage is tremendous for big games. But, you know, I think it speaks to sort of the lukewarm nature right now of the fan base of, you know, just expecting the worst. You know, they lost to Michigan State in a hyped up situation. They get beat at Rutgers. And there was just sort of an expectation that this season was going to go out on a Dudd like others have. And I think that's unfortunate.

They've been ranked very high. They were playing for a championship. It was Anthony Cowan's Senior Day, and you had empty seats in the student section. I just thought that was a week showing from them. But anyway, thank you for doing this. I'll talk to you soon. Appreciate it.

Glad to be here. Thanks for having me on. Have a good day. Adam Zalanka, everybody. He writes for the Washington Times, does a really good job of covering the caps, Terps, Nats during the summer, at Adam underscore Zelanka. It's Z-I-E-L-N-K-A on Twitter.

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Enter Kevin D.C. time to bring in Clinton Portis on the show, and we're going to cover a lot of Redskins stuff, a lot of NFL stuff, and maybe even some college hoops, because Clinton, as I've mentioned to you guys in the past, the reason I've always enjoyed conversations with Clinton or doing shows with Clinton is because he's a huge sports fan. He follows every sport, knows a lot about college sports as well. Tournaments coming up, so we'll get his thoughts on that as well. But let's start with the Redskins. So last week, the Redskins gave Trent Williams the ability to go seek a trade.

Give me your prediction right now on the team that makes the deal for them and what the Redskins get back for them and the kind of contract you think Trent will get. Man, I'm not sure, you know, just because you don't know what players are emerging now that everyone know Trent is available. But I would think Cleveland, I would think the Browns are the Jets. You know, I think the Browns and the Jets have pieces that the Redskins might want. You know, you're talking about a D.B. A secondary guy, someone young, to include in the trade, not just picks as I've read.

So I would think the Browns are the Jets, especially if they could get Denzel Ward. I think that would be a no-brainer, given that he's still, you. young, he still has potential. He has a lot of potential. So, therefore, I think that would be ideal for the red skin, but for Trent, you got to look at the situation being somewhere Trent want to go as well. I know he's not just going to jump up and go anywhere. And, oh, yeah, I just want to go here because of X, Y, Z, or because of the money.

I think Trent is that wherever he goes, he's going to be comfortable. So if you look at Houston, you know, I know he lives in Houston and that's his area. So if you look at Houston, I could see the Texans as a surprise player in it. If the Texans, in Ben Standing reported last week that Arizona and the Texans were two of the teams that were going to be interested, you know, are you saying that if Houston signed Trent that they would keep Tunsel or they would move Tonson, I think they will move Thompson. Thompson. Thompson played right side before, right? Didn't he play right side in Miami? I think he did. Yeah, I think he did for a little while. You're right.

But when I said move them, I'm talking about trading him. Would they trade Tunsel or would they keep them and play him at right tackle or potentially Trent at right tackle? Why trade him? That's the first thing. I'm asking why. Because you've got to pay him. You got to pay him too. Well, you don't have a lot of guys. You're talking about a two, three-year window for Trent and Tonsul probably has another 10 years left.

So I don't think you need to move him. If you could go out and have both, I think Houston needs the running games. You know, you look at Lamar Miller going down, Duke Johnson, Stephanie. I think they need a running game. So if you could go out and you got Larry and Tonsol and Trent Williams for Deshaun Watt. I think that's pretty good. You know, you already got a great receiving court. You let Jabadi and Clowne go.

You're paying wide on defense who's getting up an aide. So I think you could do it. What happened to Trent Williams here, Clinton, ultimately? I mean, what really happened? Why did he turn so sour towards the Redskins? You know, there were people, I think you and I had this conversation. A lot of people that knew Trent were saying it was about, you know, about the medical, his distrust. And at the same time, when he came back, he even admitted that it was partly, at least partly about the money.

Ultimately, what happened here? Man, you know, I saw LeVar Arrington. And LeVar said something that it made my eyes pop. And that was every star stud clear for the Washington. Redskins leaves on bad times. No one rides into the sunset and still in great standards. I think London Fletcher, London Fletcher might have had that exit. But if you look at everyone else, it's been one of those situations where I'm going back to me or, you know, you look at Stephen Davis or Westbrook, you know, guys who you felt were at that point of capturing

the city and giving all that they had to an organization, and somehow it's soured. And I think with those players, you know, you look at Santana's situation, still being able to play and it kind of don't use them, to sweep them out. And I think Santana is one of the most loyal individuals that you'll ever find.

So when you look at a lot of guys, you know, you look at Chris Cooney in his exit, you know, it's just one of those situations where it's like maybe this guy isn't ready or maybe this guy feel like he could still deliver it and it's your turning over the keys and there's no competition for your turnover it's just hey this is who I'm going to go with and this is who I'm handing the keys to and I think for a lot of people that's a slap in the face that's just honest real talk I had the opportunity to experience so many guys that were coming in that were supposed to be the savior. I saw Adam Archiletter. I saw Albert Haynesworth. I saw Donovan

McNabb. There was so many guys that the reins were just turned over to that was supposed to carry the organization. And when you're the guy that's busting your butt that's working, that's put the city on your back that's carried the organization, it feels like a slap in the face to a lot of people. You know, you look at LeVar situation, not to keep bringing up LeVar, but you look at LeVar's situation, and it got messy in a couple of weeks. It got messy in a couple weeks. No one knew what was going on. All of a sudden, it was messy. It was back and forth in the media, and LaVar was gone.

You know, you look at Chris Samuels had to do, was due to injury, but you look at myself, you look at Chris Cooney, you look at so many guys who left it on the field for that organization. The captain comes down to one of the situations you feel like you don't get

what you deserve. You know, I deserve, even if I don't give you what I normally give you, I'm going to give you more than whoever this replacement is. And I think if you look at so many of the guys that happen, you know, you replace the guy and then this guy gives you nothing. You know, you look at the Josh Norman situation, which was quiet.

But at the same time, Josh was brought here, given the face of the organization, he's supposed to be the savior of the organization, savior of the defense. He come here with high hope best cornerback in the NFL or one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL. And then under that tenure, it wasn't treated. whether he was in the right coverage, the right defense, had the right front line, no matter what the situation was, and the reason it didn't work, you look at it as Josh Norman's tenure wasn't what you assumed it would be, you know, and you see so many guys lead, Walt Harris,

Ryan Clark, Antonio Pierce, you see so many guys leave the organization and go on to greater things. And I think for a guy like Trent who experienced a lot of this, who saw a lot of this, you say, man, you know what, is the grass green on the other side? Can I go somewhere else? You know, I didn't go anywhere else. Santana didn't go anywhere else. So we can't say, no, Chris Cooley didn't go anywhere else. So we can't say, oh, yeah, you know, this experience was better.

But you look at it and it's like, man, you know what, I deserve at least another year to compete. It's never the competitive side of things. is never really there. It's just a change of guard and, hey, this is who I like. And then you're watching that guy from home like, this guy can't hold my job trap or whomever that guy is. And it's just one of those bitter feelings. And, you know, for myself or for Cooley or for Santana,

guys who've got an opportunity to stay around the organization and get into broadcasting, you know, Fred's smooth. Some guys get that opportunity where you look at it And some guys are negative, you know, and they speak negative. I speak truth. I try to speak truth about whatever. I'm not talking bad about the player. I'm telling you what this player showed me.

And if next week he changes, I'm telling you he upgraded, he played better. So a lot of guys have that sour taste in their mouth, and it is never really clear on what the issue was. You know, I just sat there and I listened to you talk, and I understand your perspective, and I've gotten to know you a little bit, and I know how you feel. And I would say this to you. I would say that had you guys been on teams that won, it may have ended differently. And because the teams didn't win, now look, you and Cooley in particular in Santana, a part of the best four years during the Snyder ownership era,

the Gibbs four years, which were still losing record years. Gibbs ended up with a losing record in those four years, but you went to the postseason twice and had, you know, the tragedy of Sean not happened, had Gibbs stuck around for, you know, a few more years, things may have been much different, you know, and I'm not suggesting that they couldn't have been. That was the most optimistic, you know, many of us felt. I mean, I was very optimistic about Marty Schottenheimer, and it's so funny that you brought up Lavaar Erington because I was talking about Lovar this morning on the radio show. and I don't even know how it came up, but somebody brought up LeVar's name, and I said, you know,

LeVar's best year was with Marty Schottenheimer. He had the most sacks when Marvin Lewis was the defensive coordinator in Spurrier's first year, but his best year was with Marty. And if the owner hadn't gotten in the middle of it, hadn't, you know, hadn't decided that Marty was too much of a dictator and he wasn't having any fun owning the team. And if he had let Marty run the team the way he wanted to run the team, I think LeVar would have had a phenomenal career, would have been an all-time great Redskinned, the Redskins would have won. I'm getting to this. Ultimately, it all circles back, it all comes back to the owner. You know, this team has been poorly owned for 21 years, and because of all the coaching changes and all of the losing, that's why it hasn't turned out

well for the players at the very end. You know, Gibbs, you know, there were great superstar Hall of Fame players like Art Monk and Gary, you know, Gary Clark Hall of Fame worthy, you know, and players like that who ended their careers in other places. But that was after Joe had gone and retired the first time. I just think ultimately, and, you know, I know he's your friend, you know, and he's coolie's friend, but ultimately sometimes you guys who are friends with the owner don't understand that it all starts at the top. And the reason it hasn't worked out well for a lot of the

players is because the teams didn't win and the coaches were always changing. And they weren't loyal at that point to some of the players because they were trying to create something new. So I would agree to this aspect. And I'm going to start with the owner. I'm going to address the owner. As the owner of the team, your task were putting a winner on the field. And the next thing is when you're not putting a winner on the field, people begin to question what you are putting on the field. Oftentimes, that guy that's giving you your all, i.e., I'm going to use me. That guy that's giving you their all that's carrying your organization

goes from the solution for the problem. And it's all because a change of guard. So when you're asking for someone else to come in under Coach Gere, everything that I've done, everything that I ever did is the norm in today's games, right? I did it before it was time or accepted. I did it before, you know, if you look at the NBA, guys take games off. They get rest nights. I rested in practice.

I wasn't taking games off. Now, guys get rest in practice. You can't hit. You can't do this. You only have on pads this amount of time. So I was before the curve. Everyone, oh, man, he's this, he's that. he's a prima donna, but now that everyone is getting it, no one is a prima don't know. You're ahead of

your time. You were ahead of your time. I was ahead of my time. I was ahead of my time in that aspect. Because on the field, I still don't think you've seen a guy that played with the energy that I've played with. And that's been, what, 10 years removed. I still haven't seen a guy run up and down the field for everyone who questioned, hey, is he in shape? Well, you go show me another guy who ran 60 yards throw a block and come back to pick up a blitz that he's not supposed to pick up and then carry the ball and still get 100 yards. You don't see that. You see what I'm saying?

So for me, I think when you look at change, a lot of coaches come in and they fear the power or they fear it instantly. Let me see what my superstar is going to do. If the superstar isn't the quarterback, he's moved. Everyone else, if the superstar is not the quarterback of the team, he's movable. You look at Trent Williams. He's movable. Trent Williams has been a main thing in this organization for quite some time.

You go back to LaVar Arrington. I think LaVar Arrington could have worked in Greg Williams' defense. But the media, once the media get involved, once everybody starts... Don't you go there. Stop with the media. Listen to me. I know this, because when we were in the locker room, no one knew what was going on. We didn't know it to the media got it.

about anything going on with LeVar. Because LeVar wasn't a distraction in the locker room. He wasn't not talking to the other linebackers. He came out to practice and did what he was supposed to do. Then it got bad real fast. For myself, everyone, no one understands what happened in my situation. The Redskins never actually to take a pay cut. They never asked me to do anything.

I asked to be released just because I couldn't get along with Coach Dorn. I asked. I asked this the year. I asked this two years before it actually happened. I asked for it in San Francisco, the last game of the season, in 2009. That's when I asked to be traded or released. 2010 came. I got hurt.

2011, Shanahan, I mean 2008. This happened in 2008. So 2009 came. I got hurt. 2010 came, which brought Shanahan back. I was already over it. My mind was already made up that this is it. me. No one ever came and said, hey, CP, take a pay cut. Hey, CP, do this. Hey, CP, we're not going to bring

you back. It was, I was done. I was drained. In my mind, I've given everything I possibly can to organizations that's not appreciating me. I understood Mike Shanahan's situation in promoting Cal. When Cal came, hey, we run the ball five times in the first half or 10 times in the entire game. What the hell? Like, that's not what I do. But it didn't even bother me. So in my mind, it was just one of those situations. You know what? It's time for me to move on.

It was nothing against those guys. It was nothing against the organization. When I went to Dan, Dan told me, no. He said, no, no, no. I said, Dan, you know what, it's best for you. I appreciate you. Your family, the organization, and everything that you all done, I just don't feel like I could deliver what you need me to deliver.

So therefore, I'm just asking you to let me go. The lockout happened two days later. You see what I'm saying? The lockout happened. I was injured. I had already lost. I was losing the passion and the love for the game. You see what I'm saying?

Because my passion and love for the game disappeared when I seen them remove Sean Taylor locker and take it to the red skin to FedExfield, which was, it turned out to be great. But at the time when we're all born and we're all, oh, man, Sean, Sean, and I'm sitting right next to a locker with Sean Taylor and you remove it to put another guy in it, I realized I was replaceable. So in my own head, I was stuck in my own head.

It had nothing to do with the organization. It was small things that kept happening. We have a streak. We go to the playoffs, and then you bring it a new offensive coordinator. My offensive coordinator changed every year. Every year, I got to adjust. Every year I got to adapt to a new system.

Every year, I got to figure out how this guy wants me to go out and do my job. That shit gets old. That shit gets bored. It becomes annoying. You know what I mean? If you've been playing football for 10, 20 years of your life and you feel like, hey, you know what?

I know how to do this. And then a new guy comes in and say, no, you're going to do it this way. No, I'm not. No, I'm not. So I want to make sure that I have this straight. So after Zorn's first season in 2008, that was the year that you got benched in Baltimore on that Sunday night game when it was really cold, and you and Zorn did not see I-Dye. You didn't like him.

He didn't like you. At the end of that year, at the end of that San Francisco game, which was the final game of the year, you asked for your release. Exactly. I asked to be released or traded. And Dan said no. Dan, me, Dan, Vinny, Coach Doran, and, as a matter of fact, Dan, wasn't it, Vennie, Coach Zorn, Sherm Lewis, myself, sat down and tried to iron this out. I say, man, listen, I'm not trying to get this man fired.

I would rather leave. I would rather leave because I already understand before the Baltimore benching, he didn't want me to play in the game. I was in his office the week before that even happened. So everyone looks at it as, oh, you fumbled or you made a mistake and you got missed. No, the man didn't want me to play in that game from the beginning because his words were, I want to seek you in a full week of practice. So therefore, I'm going to sit you out this game so you could heal and recover

and I can get a full week of practice out of you. I said, are you shitting me? Like, are you serious? You want me to miss the game so you can see me in practice. You look at that game, and before we went on break, the Stillers game is where it all happening. We had a blow-up on the sideline. Go back to that. Which game was the blow-up on the sideline?

The Stillers. Oh, yeah, yeah, the game that was at home that felt like a road game because they were all Pittsburgh fans there. Exactly. That's the game that everything soured. Then we had the by-week. I think we played the Cowboys. the Ravens, and maybe we played the Seahawks after the raisin? Yeah.

So it was Pittsburgh, Dallas back to back. Those were both night games. One was Sunday night. One was Monday night. I forget which. It was Pittsburgh, Dallas, Raven. No, here it is. I just pulled it up.

Then you went to Seattle and won. Okay, you won that game at Seattle. Then you lost to the Giants at home, and then it was Baltimore, Cincinnati. and then the playoffs were out, because that was the team that started six and two, and then fell apart the second half of the season. Okay, now let me give you the whole rundown since you just gave me that. It happened Pittsburgh. We come back from by, we played Dallas.

If you look at Dallas sets, I didn't even really get carriers. I think I had 50-something yards. We tried to throw the ball. We go to Seattle because Zorn comes to me the week of, the week before, because he was going back to Seattle, he pulled me to Seattle. he pulled me to the side, say, hey, this is a really big game for us. It's going to be loud.

I'm going to have to rely on you. I'm going to have to lean on you, and we're going to have to run the ball. Did I deliver or not? Look at those Seattle steps. Here it is. You ready? 29 carries, 143 yards.

You had two catches in the game, and you guys won the game 20 to 17 at Seattle. We win 20 to 17 at Seattle. Everyone celebrating, everybody high-fiving Coach Zorn. The media pulled me to the side to do an interview. You know what Coach Zorn come over and say to me? What? Man, that was a great game.

I sure would love to see you practice right when the camera store rose. Even the woman that was interviewing me looked at Coach Zorn, like, what was that all about? I'm looking puzzled. Like, what? Did he really just say that? They were like, what's going on? Oh, my God. But by the way, you're making my point in many ways because ultimately they hired a guy that should never have been a head coach.

These were the mistakes made by ownership and front office. As a player, you can't control what the front office is doing, what ownership is doing. I can't control that. I can't go in. I understand that. But you made my point that it all starts at the top. So with that being said, as a player, every time it's a change of, it's a change of guard, they're out. The big time players, if they're not the star quarterback, hey, it's let's move on from you because you were good in someone else's system.

I need to find my own go-to guy. By the way, so as long as we're going down memory lane here, the game, so, so I, so, So that season ends badly. You ask for your trade or release, which, by the way, I don't think you've ever told me this before. And I don't know if you've told anybody else this before. I remember a lot of the things you've told me over the years. I don't think you've ever mentioned that. So you don't get your trade or your release, and you come back the next year.

Just give me real quickly, did you come back to 2009 unhappy? Yeah, I came back to 2009 unhappy. I came back to 2009. If you go, if you get Santana on this show and you talk to Santana, I told Santana in 2008 that I was getting ready to retire. So, but you came back because you were under contract. You come back at Zorn's second year, and I'm just going to insert something here before I get to the game that I really remember.

So you guys lost to the Giants, and then you beat the Rams 9 to 7. in the home opener in week two. And Clinton, I was doing the Jim Zorn radio show. He was coming on my show, Tom Leverro and my show, every week to do the coaches show. And we would do it on Tuesdays of the week following the game. And after you guys beat the Rams and were one-and-one, I asked him, and I knew it wasn't going to be received very well,

but there was a lot of speculation that Zorn was going to get fired. even after a win and you guys were going to Detroit the following week and they hadn't won a game in forever. Right. They were 0.6th. Right. And so I said to him, I said, you know, this is a tough question to ask, but I think, you know, there's discussion about this. You guys go to Detroit. They haven't won a game. Do you feel pressured? Do you need to win this game to keep your job? he turned red, beat red. He stared me down in that little studio that we had at Redskins Park, remember right inside the front door, and he said,

why would you ask me that question, we just beat the Rams? And I said, well, that's a fair response, but the question's fair too, because you're playing a team that's winless, and there's already rumors flying and speculation flying that your job, you know, could be in jeopardy if you lose to the lions. I'm asking you the question.

And he was incensed. And when the interview was over, he sat there. He tried to lecture me, and I said, look, man, that's the question you have to ask today. I'm sorry. I said, what you don't know is I've been in this town. I followed this team forever, rooted for this team, and under Dan Snyder, no coach is safe at any point. And so it's a natural question for media and fans to wonder. And he sat there and he said, well, you know what?

you are right. There aren't many coaches that last a long period of time with this owner. He knew he was in trouble. And you guys lost to the Lions. He didn't get fired then. But of course, that's when they brought in the bingo caller. Sherman. That was Sherm Lewis. Sherm Lewis. I mean, Sam Smith. No, Sherm Lewis. Sherm Lewis was the bingo caller. He was calling bingo at a senior hall. And Vinny went out and brought him in as a consultant as a play caller. And it was miserable the rest of the year. But that leads me to this. The Kansas City game at home. It was in October.

It's the first time I remember the stadium being barely even half-filled. People were losing interest in droves. And this is what I remember about this game. And tell me if you remember this. You had a really long run early in that game. And a younger Clinton Portis, maybe two years younger, scores. And you got run down at like the five-yard line. Remember that?

But that's not what happened. If you look, Mike Sellers, who I thought, now I'm not, I'm not blaming Mike. If you look, I'm running and I'm behind Mike as my shield. So I'm thinking Mike Sellers is just going to keep running. Right. Mike decides Mike tried to cut the guy. I wasn't expecting Mike to dive. I was right up on Mike hip pocket.

The guy had to come between, he had to run into Mike to get to me. When Mike doves, he dove, and I wasn't expecting it. So, therefore, I think the face at the time might have been Mike Adams. Therefore, when Mike, I'm sitting here on Mike outside shoulder, and I'm going behind him thinking this is going to feel a walk-in because of Mike doesn't move with the entire tenure, I throw my arm on Mike and follow Mike into the end zone. This time, Mike decides to die.

When Mike dove, it was not. Like, I was left standing there, and the guy was already making a play. So, younger me, probably would have cut back across field, or probably would just outwraining everybody. But if you look, Fred Davis is on my right side. I'm not going to go back and look. I believe you. I believe you. By the way, there's no way that was Mike Adams.

He never played for the Chiefs. Mike was an intern at the station, and I've gotten to know him really well. He just retired, actually. well whoever their safety was made a great play you know and for me that should have been a house car that should have been a touchdown that's one of my and when i see that clip i'm always thinking man i could have just cut back across field in that touchdown but at the same time what really happened in that play was when mike doves i wasn't expecting it so i wasn't prepared to do anything else but by the way just before we because i want to get to some other things here we this has been fun

actually to talk about. But when they hired Shirm Lewis to come in, Jim Zorn, when we were doing the show at the park on days when we would do the show at the park, he would come into that studio, Clinton, I swear to God. He would sit down and he would listen to the show. And like in between breaks, he would ask us questions about things we were talking about. And at one point, I just said, don't you have any work to do? Like, don't you have a team to prepare for? He's like, yeah, yeah, I'm going to get back to that. But basically, he knew he was done. You know, he was counting the days until he was out of there.

That was a miserable, miserable season. All right, let's get back to this team, okay? Hold on. I'm going to give you one last nugget. Okay. So we have been practicing, some plays that actually were working. And I think this is when the genius comment came about,

with me mentioning having a genius. Yeah, when you, when you referred to him as a genius sarcastically. So it wasn't sarcastic. It was, we had been, we had been practicing a play.

The defense was killing us with a backside blitz. The defense was interrupting the play with the backside blitz, the entire length every time we tried this play. So it never went into the game. But the play was actually a good play. So I decide on my own, you know what, I'm going to scan the entire field. I'm going to go right to left. Linebackers, cornerback safety, cornerback safety.

I got everybody. Anybody that I see coming, I got it. I do this in practice. I pick it up in practice. It called us corner blitz from the boundary, which you're always, you always have to be prepared for a short corner blitz. So knowing guys walked up man to man, I'm thinking, you know what, probably the corner blitz is coming.

So I'm just going to scan the seat who's out of place, who's getting ready to get help, and I'm coming backside to pick up this blitz. I do it in practice. I hit whoever our cornerback was at the time. It was like a live drill. I hit whoever the cornerback was, and offense, defense kind of, got into it. I said, in the huddle, Jason, or whoever, I think Jason was our quarterback at the time, whoever the quarterback was, I said, listen, bro, you go have time. I got it. Don't even worry about it.

I got you. We get into the game, and, you know, Coach John kept saying, this can't be done. It has never been done, and all it is. I said, okay, we go into the game. I tell, I think it was Jason Campbell, I tell Jason in the hotel, I say, man, don't worry, you got time because I got them. I'm not getting out on the route, so don't even worry about it. The play comes, and I'll be damn, I spot corner blitz. As soon as I see corner defense, as I'm scanning the field, I come all the way backside, pick up the corner. And I think Jason actually threw, it was either a big play or a touchdown. that. Everyone is happy and celebrating, you know, if you don't know the play call, you don't know

what just happens. Everybody is happy, celebrating like, good job, you know, like, damn, CP, that was big, like, you know, that was smart of you. We get back into film session after I'm accused of not getting out on my route and doing what I want to do, but this saved us, right? this play saves us in the game. After I'm accused in the media of doing what I want to do and making up my own plays, guess what turned into our go-to protection? That exact scan. Now I got everybody.

If you look, I think it was 2009, either 2008 or 2009. The reason I was blocking so much is because I started being responsible for everybody on the field that the offensive linemen have. You know what I have found? I'm going to read it to you. So this was in 2008. This happened, just so you know. You said after the game, you said,

outside of Jim Zorn and the coaches on the team and maybe the quarterbacks, I guarantee you, I know our system better than anybody else. I guarantee you when we go into Blitz pickup, I don't miss my man. So I don't know what it is. If anybody's got a problem with me, they need to talk to me. I know what's going on. And then you said, we got a genius for a head coach. I'm sure he's on top of things.

He's got everything figured out. All I can do is when he calls the plays, try to execute them to my best of my ability. The next day he was on with me. And I asked him about your comments about calling him a genius for a head coach. And he said, quote, he's a big part of our offense. he's sitting on the bench. He's going to feel like he's bench. This was the Baltimore game.

I don't blame him for that. He's in every down back. That's the way he sees himself. That's the way we see him. He needs to be on the field. I felt the same way when I played, close quote. That's pretty fun. That's BS.

If you, like if you knew that Baltimore game, it was two plays that happened in that Baltimore game. We had the longest shift motion of all time. We came out of the huddle and we were already up against the play clock. So I think someone was supposed to shift and then I was supposed to run out into motion. Whoever it was, Jason never lifted his foot up for the receiver to come back off the line to go into motion. I'm looking at the play clock and as the play clock is running down, I know we're not going to have time. So I try to run to the position that, you know, it's, I'm.

I'm switching out for you. So I try to run out early to get outside of the receiver, and the receiver moved. The play clock was going to expire. We were at one second or two seconds left. So it was no way it was going to happen. I tried to save the play and save us a time out. And he got upset because it was a penalty on me.

But if you look at the play clock, it was about to be a penalty regardless, and we weren't in the right fit. Then I fumbled, then I fumbled behind that, where I, to this day, feel like my knee was on the ground. It re-stripped the ball. I felt like I was down. Here, Reed, was turning for a touchdown. I get bent. Those plays happened consecutively, like on two possessions back to back.

He was a dope. But me already knowing this man didn't want me to play in the beginning. He told me the week before the game that he was going to rest me that. game so I could practice the entire week the following week. Look, this was a long way to get to, you made my point when you are in an organization that's dysfunctional at the top, that doesn't make the right decisions at the top, you end up with bad coaches like Jim Zorn who don't stay very long and then get replaced by other coaches who get replaced by other coaches. And ultimately, that's why it doesn't, more times than not,

turn out well even for the revered players in the organization. I want to get to, because we've spent so much time, I just want to get to the other things that I specifically called you about anyway. Free agency starts essentially a week from today. I think the Redskins, I've been told they're going to be aggressive. They've got salary cap room, names like Amari Cooper, Kenyon Drake, Austin Hooper. I've heard a lot of those names so far. What are you hearing? What do you think they're going to do?

And how do you think they're going to handle free agency? I think not having joined Reed, Austin Hooper is the number one target. I think if you get Austin Hooper, you open up the guys that you already have, which would be great because you have some young talent in McLarence Sims and what's the other team? Harmon. Harmon. Harmon. Calvin Hornet.

So I already think you have young talent right there. So if you can land Austin Hooper, that's a plus. But if you can get a number one to go with those guys, a guy, but you need some size. You know, you need a guy which Amari Cooper would be great. He's explosive. We've seen Amari Cooper break a tackle on a slant and take it to distance. You need a veteran with that receiving corps to grow those guys. So if you can land a veteran-wide-receiver and a tight-end, you're already set on offense.

Now, if you can land Drake. as well, I think Drake fit with the guys that you have. If Geis can come back healthy and love is healthy, then I think Geis, love, and AP are all kind of

of the same type of bat. They're explosive, they're physical, but if you can add a guy like Drake to the mix, that's a big ad. And defensively, with these young, I mean, going back to a 4-3 was the best thing the rest of the best thing the rest of the kids could do.

Now you have at the D-Line position. You're a lineback in court. I just saw they were talking to Bostic. So if you get Bostic back, you have Ruben Foster. You got the young guys that had good years this year. Maybe you add a linebacker with some speed. And you know who I think you should go get.

Isaiah, yeah. And Samson, I mean, Isaiah Simmons. Just so everybody knows, you told me this on the radio show. so those that just listen to the podcast don't know this. But Clinton Portis thinks that Isaiah Simmons at a Clemson is the next Lawrence Taylor, and you would take him before you would take Chase Young at number two. Listen, I told you about Isaiah Simmons.

Before his code, before anyone else saw him, before anyone else was on his coat tail, and saying, you know what, this could be a possibility. I just think he gives you so much leeway with what he's capable of. When you look at the D-line, if your guys from last year, if sweat takes it up or not, and you're looking at Allen, pain, ionitis, maybe Kerrigan back at D.N. You're looking at these guys as rotational, then you don't really, I mean,

Chase Young, everyone needs to chase young. But at the same time, I think you take Isaiah Simmons, and it solidifies your front seven, period. Then you look at the secondary. You know, I think Landon has stepped it up. I even think the corners play well, given, you know, the opportunity that they had. I'm not sure of Dunbar's situation and how he's feeling. I've seen some rumbles about Dunbar, won the lead, not knowing if he would be here, whatnot.

I think you should handle that situation. But finding a cornerback. If you find a cornerback in maybe adding a safety, Monta, because Monta, you know, he's great a game, and then maybe he missed a game, and, you know, he's back for a game. So if you add another safety and keep the depth with Montaa, I think, you know, I think that kind of solidifies it. But your number one, your number one pre-agent target, I think it's Hooper. A Healthy Hooper was actually leading the NFL last year amongst all the great tight ends that's out right now. So if you could add Hooper into the mix, I think that gives Haskins an escape route,

if Haskins is our quarterback, underneath a easy target to get to a guy that can get open, and I think that would be a big addition. Do you buy any of the discussion that the Redskins are seriously interested in Tuaua at number two? It's a possibility. You know, for me, I don't think you could not buy into anything. with the number two position or train back, whatever it is, I don't think you could ignore the rummless. I don't think you could ignore the fact that the tour is sitting there

and if tour is healthy, then it's a possibility. So I think he's going to be a great young talent if someone told you today that the tour is going to be the tour that you saw Alabama before injury, that's a chance you got to look into. But if you don't take tour and Haskins is your guy, then that's another situation. Whoever you take will need Austin Hooping. Last thing before I let you run, because this was a topic yesterday for me on radio,

and it was a topic yesterday on the podcast. And I just want your reaction to this. So over the weekend, Dwayne Haskins on his Instagram account, sent out sort of an animated picture of him in Stefan Diggs. Just having thrown Stefan Diggs a pass, Stefan Diggs in a number 14 Redskins jersey, and he writes, you know, DMV connection.

And I said yesterday, and I'm a Haskins fan. I've become a Haskins fan. I'm rooting for him. There's a lot that I like. You know, some of the things that you and I talked about during the course of the year, I think he's innately very competitive. I think he progressed at a level

that was very exciting to watch. And I like them. But I didn't like this Instagram post. And this may be part age. I'll concede that. But what I said yesterday is that, you know, for me, a guy with seven starts and a hell of a lot still to prove, shouldn't be openly recruiting, shouldn't be playing GM, shouldn't be borderline tampering. Actually, I think, you know, it's been written about that that's a borderline tampering situation. and all the while sort of creating, you know, at least the impression that his current group of wide receivers isn't good enough. You know, it didn't make me super angry, but I just thought, you know, I'm rooting for this guy, and I think that's a social media post that he shouldn't make. What do you think?

Well, I think if you can look at that two ways, you know, if you're a receiver and you put up some Brady throwing uter ball, which everyone would love to see or love to catch a pass from Tom Brady, then how it has to feel. That's exactly what I said. Let me interrupt. Let me interrupt for one second. What I said yesterday in this whole process is I said, how would Dwayne feel if Terry McLorn put a post up there with James Winston throwing

him a pass saying, you know, Tampa to D.C. Now, I know it's not the same because there's one quarterback, There are four receivers on a field sometimes, sometimes five. But still, I presented it the same way you did. That's interesting. But go ahead. Well, I think Adna receiver could never be wrong because receivers rotate. As far as the quarterback position, the quarterback is normally the same in the game.

Unless you're the same, you don't have a quarterback that's coming in and on and off the field to make plays. So I just look at it as one of those situations. Stefan Diggs would be a great catch for the Washington Redskins. I don't care who else you have that receiver. I think Stefan Diggs opened up the field for every receiver that you already have. And if they could pull that off, I think that's a great addition. I'm on board with Haskins and anyone else that would like to see Stefan Diggs in a Washington Redskins uniform.

I just don't think as the quarterback, which in college, you know, you get these college mindsets and all of this that you want to go out and recruit. If you look from Haskell's perspective, it's kind of taking their attention off of people putting up to a in a redskins uniform or all the conversation about the redskins taking the quarterback. So it's kind of diverting. Hey, you know what, let's focus on the receiver or anything else. I just think Haskins has to continue doing what he's been doing this all season.

That's leading by example, improving his game, getting better, and continuing to make a connection. I just don't think he has to go back and forth with the media or a politicist to get anyone to come. If it's a DMV connection and he got an inside key to Stefan Diggs or he knows Diggs wants to get out of Minnesota, you know, just figure out a way to make it happen. For me, I mean, we had Laverneous Coes and Rod Gardner. When I realized Santana wasn't happy in New York and LC wanted to go back to New York, it was a quick phone call to say, hey, LC want to leave. I wasn't, I wasn't politicking for LC to leave.

LC came to my house and said, hey, bro, I can't take this. I want to go back to New York. And a day or two later, Santana come to my house. Like, man, I'm sick of New York. I want to get out of there. And I'm like, ooh, coach. I think I got some information for you, you know.

Yeah. And you've told me that story before, the L.C. that Clinton's referring to is Laverne's Coles. But it's one thing to do that, you know, behind the scenes, not publicly, versus, look, the net of it is, if he had come to you and said, should I send this Instagram post out,

you would have said what? No. Yeah, thank you. No, because you're just giving people something to talk about. They're already talking about the maturity, you know, your maturity, or you not being there or whatever it is. Just, you know, you're trying to erase the conversation. Like, you know what, let them talk about something else and just go out and prove it.

Yep, he's got a lot to prove. It's one of those situations where you're trying so hard. And I've even been a victim of this, always trying to get the truth out. and tell my side of the story when a lot of people don't give a damn about the truth. You know, they want to jump on the negativity or whatever they believe or perceive you've done or you didn't do. So you can't get them on your side, you know what I mean? And then once you prove to them that they were wrong and it was wrong, whatever that it was,

you ought to prove it. And then all of a sudden you see all the supposed fans or the people that were pulling for you, but when you're, you know, kind of in the storm, when everybody wants Haskins gone, let's take tour and the next best thing, and then, you know, if it happens or it don't happen, you just prove them wrong. Thank you for doing this. As always, I always enjoy it, and for whatever reason it seems there's always something new that comes out of it that we learn, and I don't remember you telling me this in the past that you asked for your, asked to be traded or released at the end of the 2008 season.

But it's always good to catch up. Thanks. I'll talk to you soon. Hey, hold on. Before you leave, my pick for March Madness, LFSU, baby. Who? FSU. I mean, I would love to see it for Leonard Hamilton because he's been coaching forever, and they're really good. But for whatever reason, man, that dude always comes up short in the tournament.

His teams do. I just don't think so. I think he can lose in the ACC tournament. and, you know, lose late in the ACC tournament and then go on the run for the NCAA tournament because they don't really lose consecutive games. And, you know what I mean? They might have a slip up during the season, but then they get back on track. So I say losing the tournament and get on track during March Madden.

Did you get to a Maryland game this year or not? No, I didn't. I watched Maryland. I lost with Maryland every time I took them, man. Be careful with that. I called you and asked you about it. And what did I tell you? You called me before the Penn State game in December,

and what did I tell you to do? Stay away. Stay away or play. I said play Penn State or stay away. If you don't have the stones to play Penn State, then just stay off the game. That's what I told you. You did.

It was too late then. Well, don't call them. me after you've made the play. Call me before. I'll talk to you soon. All right. Peace out. All right. See it. It's always good to catch up with Clinton. I've told, I've said this to a lot of you, you know, on the podcast over the years, out of all of the former players that I didn't know when he was playing, because I did not know Clinton when he was playing really at all. I mean, I think we did an event or two together, but I didn't really know him. He is such a good dude, good-hearted dude, great sense of humor, and has an unbelievable memory when it comes to all this stuff.

And plus, real big sports fan, too. I just wish you wouldn't gamble. All right. Other than that, that's it today. Don't forget, I'm on radio 7 to 10 a.m. Weekday mornings on the Team 980, the Team 980.com, the Team 980 app. You can download the Kevin Sheehan Show podcast app if you want. and you can watch Aaron's

the show that Aaron produces in the afternoon on NBC Sports Washington the Daily Line with Tim Murray and Michael Jenkins and, sorry, Sarah Perlman. And Sarah Pearlman, who's doing a great job. All right, have a great day. Tommy will be with us tomorrow.