The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley on Trent, Haskins and More

Episode Date: June 7, 2019

"Cooley and Kevin" today to start. They talk about Cooley's 29-hour non-stop solo drive to Wyoming. Then it's the revelation to both that Beyonce's fans are referred to as the "Bee Hive". Then it's Cooley's thoughts on Trent Williams, Dwayne Haskins, and a lot more. Kevin's thoughts on Game 4 of the NBA Finals and Andy Pollin on Stephen Strasburg's MLB debut 9 years ago finish up the show. <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 am here. Aaron is here. Coolly is here today. This show's presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com and tell them we told you to call. Coolly is in Wyoming. Tell everybody about your trip out to Wyoming. Before, you know what? We might as well do a what do what do you got here. in a moment. If you've got something, I actually have something to bounce off of you and get some advice on. But your trip to Wyoming started when and ended when? Oh, it started Monday and it ended Wednesday. And how many hours in total? So it was 29 hours. It took me with stops. And I drove by myself, and I drove nonstop.

29 hours nonstop. You did not sleep. You didn't pull over and rest. How did you pull that off? Amphetamines. Okay. Very good. I don't know, man.

I left, I planned on making it through Chicago. And before, like at 10 o'clock so I didn't have traffic. That's the biggest thing. I've done this bunches. You just got to get through Chicago. and not hit any traffic, or it really takes a long time. And I got through Chicago at about 10 and made it across into Wisconsin, and I wasn't really tired, and so I just kept rolling.

And about 4-ish, I got pretty tired. I started to get tired, and I was already almost to South Dakota, and it started to get light at 4.30, and I kind of got a second wind, and I thought, I'm going to do it. And the thing is, is South Dakota's 410 miles. and then Wyoming, it's another 300 miles. And you think you're pretty close when you get to South Dakota because you feel like, well, I'm in the West. I'm in South Dakota.

But you're not. That extra 10 hours is really kicking the balls. I made it. You called me on Wednesday morning. It was pretty early when you called, and I looked at my phone, and I'm like, what's he calling that early for? And I forget what time it was. But you were passing through Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

and at that point you told me that you had not slept yet, that you were planning what you just said, you were planning on stopping, but the sun came up in South Dakota, and that's when you decided to just go for it. And I urged you not to go for it. I urge you to find a place. Oh, you just wanted to be the person that says that?

I was the person that said that. Listen, I was fine. If I was tired, I was going to stop. I wasn't like this ultimate feat that I had to make. I was fine. I wasn't. I was tired by the time I got into Wyoming, but it was noon,

and I was not going to fall asleep. I was just, I was ready to be there. So, oh, my dog was, my dog made the trip with me, by the way,

so. A lot of Red Bulls. I would assume, I would assume a lot of Red Bulls along the way. Yeah, like an unspeakable amount of Red Bull for a 24 hours. Yes. Jesus.

I mean, when you got there, did you just crash or were you, or were you wired? Oh, no, no, no. It was like, I got here. I tried to watch TV. I got to hear at like 4.30-ish. At six, I fell asleep and I woke up at six the next morning. Like, just woke up for the first time. Well, that's good.

You got 12 hours. You know, that's 29 straight hours by yourself is, you know. It's impressive is what it is. It's impressive. It's risky, but you accomplished it and you didn't hurt yourself or anybody else. I think I've told you about my trip with one other person, 48 straight hours, L.A. to Washington. We left 7 o'clock on a Friday evening from Santa Monica and arrived at 10 o'clock D.C. time on Sunday evening. So it was 48 hours on the dot nonstop from L.A. to D.C. We took two-hour shift. That's the way we decided to do it.

We took two hours. So you drove for two hours. You rested and tried to sleep for two hours. When we arrived, we had like, I think it was like $14 combined in cash. And the gas tank was empty, pretty much on empty. So we just barely made it. But that was, I thought 48 straight hours, L.A. to D.C., now it's not one person, but it's two people, was pretty impressive. no it's really impressive it's uh that's a big trip man i mean that's you're tired when you get there

i will say this though with the with the one person nonstop like like the cars now because i don't drove my car are incredibly different i mean i'm not driving a tesla but my car you can set kind of assist and it will monitor how far the car is in front of you and slow down and speed up and you can set lane assist and it won't go out of its lane and you got to hold the wheel but that's about all you got to do i bet i didn't touch the gas or brake for 1500 out of the 2,000 miles god that's unbelievable i don't i don't know that i'd be in a position to completely trust that i mean you can't it's not like you can doze off with that no no i mean i wasn't going to doze off right if you have a Tesla you can doze off.

What was your form of entertainment? What was your form of entertainment during those 29 hours? I listened to your podcast. I listened to a book on tape called Range by David Epstein, which is really interesting. I think you'd like that. What's it about? It's about the perils of specialization in our world, where, especially in a athletics. It starts with the Tiger

versus Federer concept like Tiger in the 10,000 hours and doing everything very specialized from young age versus Federer doing every kind of thing at every age, you know, playing every sport, doing everything you can possibly do, and then

gleaning all that information and having a wide range of things that allowed him to be a great tennis player. But it is really, it was, it's really interesting. interesting because I've had this philosophy with my kids in life and professional sports is that

people now become so specialized in certain sports like golf it works. So it's like sports like football. You're way better if you play basketball or if you're running track or if you're doing all kinds of other things than just football. You just are. The Tiger Federer thing, I didn't realize, I think I knew that Tiger was very specialized And by the way, your point about football players and playing other sports makes so much sense to me. I didn't realize that Federer played a lot of different sports, but you can almost see it in the way that he plays tennis.

He's more graceful. He's more athletic. He moves better. He has better timing. Speaking of him, he actually lost today to a Nadal at the French Open, not that anybody cares. But I have faced this coolly over, you know, the last 15 years. years, you know, with my kids and you're going to get into it as well, the parents that are dead set on specializing and not having the kids play multiple sports and becoming expert in one

in the hopes, by the way, more times than not, that the kids somehow become so proficient and so good at it that they're able to, you know, get a scholarship as an example to college. I just have found that more times than not, the kids that play multiple sports end up being better overall athletes and better in their, you know, in the individual sports that they're participating in that moment. I mean, I never had a choice. Like, we didn't have a choice, really. I guess we did have a choice, but we didn't even think about it. You know, it was football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring. I mean, that's what we did. And now it's just completely, completely different. Well, and it's not, and most of the book

doesn't focus on sports. And it's not just sports. It's the lack of range in our society. Like going back all the way to med school and how now everyone specializes in one tiny little thing in med school. And doctors don't know how to fix problems that are very close to their problem because they're so specialized. Like if I went into a foot doctor with a leg issue, you'd be like,

I'm a foot doctor, bro. right so and it's just across the board it's really interesting book it was a really good read it got a little repetitive towards the end it got a little bit um a little bit boring i thought and it slowed down towards the end but there were some really good really good stuff in it all right we'll treat your trip to wyoming and david ebstein's book called range as your what do you got so the what do you got that I really have for you is that I don't know if you saw this story or not, but the wife of Warriors owner, the wife of the Golden State Warriors owner basically got into a conversation during the game the other night with Jay-Z, as Jay-Z and Beyonce were sitting right next to them.

And it got to the point where Beyonce didn't, her reaction indicated that she was less than enthusiastic about the conversation that this woman, her name is Nicole Curran. She's the wife, I think the second wife of the Warriors owner, Joe Lekob. And it became, you know, a video and then I guess a meme that really upset the beehive, which was a term that I was not familiar with until yesterday. What is the beehive? There you go. Good. So I'm not the only one because I asked Aaron about this, but I, the beehive is the legion of Beyonce followers.

Like the millions and millions of fans of Beyonce, they refer to themselves as the beehive. So I heard this story on radio yesterday and I heard somebody refer to the beehive was all up in arms about Nicole Curran, the warrior's owner's wife, carrying on this conversation with Jay-Z right in front of Beyonce and Beyonce didn't seem to to enjoy it very much. It got so out of control that this woman, Nicole Kern, she was getting death threats on her Instagram account and she had to close down her Instagram account because the beehive was up in arms. There were threats, death threats. Apparently this woman in relaying this story, was in tears talking about the reaction to the conversation she had, which she says was completely innocent and was, you know,

here's the thing that hasn't happened, Aaron, and correct me if I'm wrong. Why hasn't Beyonce reached out to the beehive and said, no worries at all? She's a nice woman. She was just talking to my husband during the game about various things. Apparently, there was something about a drink that was ordered initially, that she was, you know, helping or they were buying Beyonce or getting Beyonce and Jay-Z a drink. But why didn't Beyonce come out and just quiet down the hive?

Keep it from buzzing so loud. I don't know. She doesn't tweet much. I just went to her Twitter account. She doesn't tweet, really. She doesn't tweet at all. So I don't know. So you were unfamiliar with the beehive as well.

Cooley? Yeah, I think we could have made sense out of it. What were you just doing as I was talking? Well, my dog ran in, so I put it on mute. Oh, okay. So that's my what do you got? I had never heard the term beehive before. That's all.

I have one quick what do you got. Okay. I went into McDonald's yesterday. Uh-huh. And there was a guy that was definitely in his 80s who had come in. and he had this specific order and the girl rang him up and it was seven something or whatever it was and he started getting all upset and he started pointing his finger at this girl and shaking his face and said that he'd bring it up again it's it's 40 cents cheaper every order the same thing every day and he started getting after this girl and I didn't know what to do I felt like I should have said something but um this went on for over two minutes he berated the McDonald's employee who just had not hit finalize on the menu or on the keyboard screen. She kept saying, like, sir, I just have to hit finalize for the two for three to end up

counting the payment off. I haven't, sir, I haven't, sir, I haven't. I literally sat there and waited for my food and kept thinking I wanted to walk over this and say something, but I did it. So my question is, I mean, it was egregious, but he was 80. should I have said something to that guy? Yeah. I mean, so it's really interesting that you bring this up because...

It was the worst human interaction that I've seen in a long time for someone that had never had a person. It was the worst I've seen someone to treat another person. And it was a young girl working behind the counter at McDonald's. She's just 30s, yeah. Why didn't somebody from, why didn't the manager somebody come and handle it for her? A manager did come over and then finished the deal. and then I heard both of them I was kind of in the middle

I could hear him talking to some other old man about it and them talking about it and the food came out and the girl that did the order said can you take this over I don't want to take it I mean I don't know

I it's funny that you bring it up I wanted to tell him I was disappointed in him that's how you would have handled it sir I'm really disappointed I just wanted to say I'm embarrassed for you I mean the one thing that I think you got to do is you got to say, you know, you've got to go and ask for the manager.

Because first of all, he's holding up the line, right? You know, you're sitting there waiting for him. You're a customer, and he's holding up the line. So, you know, you say something like, don't you worry about it. Let's get your manager over here to get this guy out of here or something. I don't know. I mean, it's funny. I mean, it was just me and him.

It was the most, it was a show. I mean, it was a show that I was watching. So. It was a gas. So yesterday Tommy asked me if I had ever been thrown out of a sporting event sort of as a discussion off of the guy, the minority owner of the Warriors that got tossed the other night for shoving Kyle Lowry, which we can get to a little bit later on. But I did.

I got tossed out of the Capitol Center many years ago during a Caps game. And what happened was these guys sitting behind us were incredibly rude, vulgar, disrespectful, you know, confrontational with this dude and his date who were sitting in front of us throughout the entire game. And she was, I mean, she was a 10. She was gorgeous. And whoever she was with, whether it was her boyfriend or a date or whatever,

just was not going to turn around and address these guys. He was just, they were letting it happen. And, you know, then it got to the point where, you know, they were like throwing things in her direction or at his direction. I mean, they were really antagonizing him. And so I was with a couple of guys actually work-related. This is before broadcasting. And I just turned around and I basically just told him to shut the F up,

that it was out of line, out of order, the whole thing, and to leave, you know, to leave him alone, which started the process of a, you know, an upper level section 205 brawl, which they were hammered. But I remember sitting there and thinking, they're completely out of order, completely out of line. Her boyfriend slash date isn't going to do anything about it. He's clearly not the kind of guy that's going to say anything about it.

They probably would have been best getting up and moving somewhere else or going to customer service or going to ask somebody to come to help them. But it just kept going on and on and on. And then finally I just got sick of it and just said, enough is enough. And then they were hammered. We were pretty hammered, too, by the way. And one of the guys, you know, came at me. Like, you know, stumbling, by the way, from two rows above me, which was, and so we all got kicked out of the place.

But it's sort of a similar situation where you see a female in particular who's being berated by somebody who's completely out of order. Where do you step in? How do you step in? If the guy was 80, I mean, he's not going to, at least. First of all, no one's going to kick your ass for starters, so you don't have to worry about that. I know you weren't. I didn't. I wasn't upset by it. I just, I felt like I wanted to say that it was embarrassing. That's enough. And we're talking about because she hadn't hit the register, which would have kicked the discount that he was looking for. So And then it was her second. And then as he got up, she says to me, it's my second day here.

I mean, I'm don't. She handled it really, really well. Well, good. Did you tell her that she handled it really, really well? I did. Good. All right. So.

Anyway, people like that. It's an interesting moment when you say something and when you don't. And had he been in his 40s or 30s or what? But the one would have done that, R.H. Or I don't imagine so. Oh, I think there are. I think there are assholes at every age. Well, there are, but the other thing is very few people order the exact same thing McDonald's

every single day, you know, the exact same total. Yeah, like, right, I mean, people that go into McDonald's every day, they have a general idea based on their order of what it is, but I don't think down to the penny or within 50 cents, more likely than not. And how upset would it make you if you, you know, went in one day at $7.22, and then the next day it was $7.62. I mean, that probably would have set us off. Jesus, what's wrong with people? I don't know. I just don't know. What did you get? I got a quarter pounder with cheese, and it was the first time I've had that in forever, and it was so amazing. God, that sounds so good.

I've been doing so well. I had to wait. I was at 10.30, and I walked in at 1027, and they said they breakfast. I just didn't want breakfast. I've been doing it. Yeah, you and Emma are doing great on the Peloton. Really well. I got up this morning. 45 minute. 80s rock ride with Emma. At about 5.50 a.m. this morning.

Actually, you know what? I found Cooley. You know, you and I've talked about this before. I still get up super early, not as early as I did when we were doing the show, but I still find it very difficult to sleep past 6 a.m. 6.15, it's hard for me to sleep past that. But what I've definitely found is that getting on the

Peloton bike early in the morning, I've got a much better chance of finishing the workout than if I do it midday or late day or at night. Yeah, and I think you burn more calories throughout the day. I don't know. Who knows? I think it's best for you to work out the morning. Okay. Enough of all of this. Is the Trent Williams situation a big deal or not a big deal? Yeah, it's a massive deal. Okay. Why? Theoretically, between him and Ryan Carrigan,

but Trent's always really the leader when you talk about the Redskins, the leader of the Redskins with the most tenure, undoubtedly the best player over the last 10 years, vows to not play for the Redskins. I know he didn't say, but I vowed and not play for the Redskins. say that I vowed and I'll play for the Redskins. It was reported that he's thinking that. That's the way it was termed.

Right. Is that he will not play for the Redskins because of the way he was handled. Yeah, it's a big deal. There's just been too many things coming up between the players over the last couple years and other people involved. It's concerning. I don't know what happened with Trent's surgery. or with the delay of it.

You asked me to look at it yesterday. Is it anything else happened over the next day? No, no. The lock and four thing was the last thing in all the discussion that followed, including Jay Gruden, speaking about it, Morgan Moses coming to Trent's defense on it. But let me, so, you know, it seems like nobody really knows a lot of the specifics. Obviously Trent does and the team does.

would you guess that his level of unhappiness has more to do with this medical situation or wanting a new deal? Because those were the two reports. Ian Rappaport saying he wants a new deal. Jason Locken-Forris saying he's upset about the handling of the medical situation. And by the way, you know the medical situation in question is that tumor that was on a scout that turned out to be benign. But for, you know, a moment or two, there was some concern that it could be malignant. it. Right. So just so you understand, I really like Trent Williams. And so I don't want to speculate on the situation and say, I think it's all about money. So I'll play both sides of it

for you. Okay. Obviously, Trent wanted a new contract, and everybody in the league always wants a new contract. And it's funny because you've made the highest pay-liff tackle in NFL history and then four years later, you're vastly underpaid. But you hit that 30-31, and you know that the next one is probably the last big ones. And if you were to be hurt or something were to happen, there is no last big one. So I understand where that's coming from. I think that he would have appreciated them making a bigger attempt to pay him and to ensure that the best player in the Redskins over the last 10 years stays the Redskins.

It would look bad, in my opinion, and does look bad when people hold out when they're already getting paid a boatload of money. Yeah, I mean, his contract is still top seven for left tackles. So I don't think the optics of him saying I'm not going to come back because you're not paying me. are good for Trent Williams. So that's all, if you're looking at it both ways, you could always say optics for him to say, geez, money, not good. He does not want to do that.

The other side of it is really interesting. I don't know what happened with his benign tumor, if it was a delay, if this is all I can say, man. At least everybody in the building, if I ever had anything weird when I was playing, I immediately was sent to a doctor in which it was handled that day. Right. So to this point, if I were to go to Larry Hess and say, oh, the head athletic trainer and say, dude, I feel like there's this, there's this weird thing on my skin or there's a weird, I have a weird sensation.

He would, I wouldn't go to Hess, but if I did, he would go immediately to the right person or send me to where I could have another opinion. Yeah, you know, the way you just described that makes me believe that I don't know that like he said, what's this growth on my head and somebody said, eh, it's not a big deal. We'll get to it next week. It just makes no sense. No sense whatsoever. I mean, what I did throw out to Tommy yesterday, and I don't know what made me think that this could be in play, it's a total, you know, guess, is that, you know, the word, the way the reds,

The description is the way they handled this situation. Jay did say, use timing in his answer, but the initial reports were that there was, you know, a scare, that there was at least for, I don't know how much time, but a brief period of time, the thought that it could be malignant. I'm wondering if, you know, maybe they scared him unnecessarily. Maybe the reaction was very, very, very, concerned to the point where it scared him unnecessarily and it turned out to be nothing. I shouldn't say it turned out to be nothing. There was a tumor there. It was benign.

It got removed. I don't know. It could be anything. So here's what here. So I'm going to, I'm going to stay with you on this. Dr. Tony Castellaro has always been there for anything that happened. In that world, he helped my mom with finding the right doctors and breast cancer.

or if I have something, he was the team doctor forever and still is. It has been the most upfront and honest person with anything that I've ever had or my family's ever had. To the point of no doctor would really tell me the things he'll tell me, but there's a trust there. And I'm sure that he would have, I'm not sure, but I would assume he would have consulted Trent, or if I were Trent, I would have 100% consulted him.

It's been a relationship that I've cherished knowing Dr. Tony Castlero, who I think is one of the most brilliant people in the world. So I don't know if that were part of it. And I'll give you this as well. And all of this is leading to speculation that I don't want it to, that it's about money. And I don't want it to lead to that because I don't know that answers, and I'm not saying that.

How many times do you hear a player saving in this second opinion outside of it? Say that again? There's doctors. How many times do you hear players go get second opinions outside of their organization? I mean, common. Of course. Plenty of times. If you had a tumor, it's not uncommon.

So I don't know. Right. I just don't know. But the optics of all of it for the Redskins are not good. Whether it be medical or contractual, it's not great. Well, no, 100% right. It's not great regardless of what it is because you're arguably your best player of the last several years

and one of your leaders, team leaders, and by the way, a critical player with two new quarterbacks, especially one of them being a rookie, has at least according to one report vowed to never play for your team again. That's not good. No matter what the reasons were, his fault, your fault, whatever it is, it's just not good for them. How, how, so let's just, so the answer here is no one's really sure what the breakdown is.

How much of it really is this medical thing, how much of it really is having to new, you know, wanting a new deal. Let's just assume that both are in play to a certain degree, which would mean that the money is part of this, because I think that that's reasonable to assume. He's got a lot of leverage right now. He's about to turn 31. he's critical to what they want to do as a team. This is, you know, as much leverage potentially as he will have for the rest of his professional life. So let's just assume that the money and getting a new deal is part of this.

How do you think the team should handle it? I would have been having a conversation with Trent Williams about paying him again if I were involved. He is, if he's not the best left tackle in football, he's the most athletic and he's in the top three or four. The only thing you worry about with Trent is injuries. And I think that we're past the marijuana thing. He's, to me, made it far enough that I'm not going to ask that question anymore. He's also one of the most stand-up good dudes that I've been around in a leader of your team, and that's not made-up bull. That's real. That's Trent. He is, he's awesome in that locker room, and he's awesome as a guy, which is why I don't want to say, this is just about money.

because it just doesn't seem like Trent to me. So I think that I would have been having conversations with Trent Williams about getting it done. And I think that you still have to have a very honest conversation about what it's going to take to keep him. If it can't fit, then they need to handle this as best as possible and getting the most they can possibly get for Trump. Do you think that Bruce is inclined to give him a big contract extension, one that would be good, enough to keep him here. This is one of those interesting situations where I don't know if it's just at this point if it were just Bruce, you know, this is one of those owner intervened conversations.

If I own the team, I'd say, look, look, here, let's talk. I would if I own the team. If I were then, I would personally sit down with Trump. But no, I don't know if they're inclined to pay him a big contract. I know that they're in the midst of trying to negotiate a big contract with Brandon Sheriff that apparently they're not anywhere near close on. And so they're not in a great cast spot, but redoing Trent could help them for the next couple years.

Reddoing him to make him, what, the highest paid left tackle in the game? I mean, there are degrees of extending him here. You know, Schaefer was always so good at this with Clint. and John Jansen and Samuels in terms of giving them more up-front money right now to help yourself on the cap over the next few years. All right. So you'd pay. They really are, they really are in a one-year deal with Trent Williams, though.

If you look at his cap through 2020, there are two years left, but next year's an all-cap savings year if they were to release him. Now, it's like $14 million in 2020, but you save $12 and you. cost you too. Although I say that, they're keeping Vernon Davis as of right now, who's in all caps. Yeah, they are. Savings number. So a big, a little bit different number.

All right, so you'd pay him. You would pay him, and you'd keep him here, and you'd make him a redskin for the rest of his career. Let's, for a moment, say that they decide not to, that Bruce does not want to give a guy turning 31 years old with a history of injuries, with two years left on his deal, even though it's for all intents and purposes from a cap standpoint, you know. I mean, his cap number in 2020 is 14-6, just so you know. It's 14-7 this year. But his dead cap number, if you were to move on from him, is much less than it is this year.

And I think that's what you're referring to, right? Yeah. Okay. I mean, the only way you don't pay him is if you think it's over, and that's the tough part of this business, is if you don't think that he's got four great years left, then I think at that point, the one thing I would ask if I were the player, which I did not get, is that I sort of got, is that it's over.

What could they get for him if they couldn't come to an agreement, and it was at least partly about the money, and they decided to move on from him by trying to trade him? What's he worth? Not more than that. Well, I say that in looking back on the Antonio Brown situation. Right. Antonio Brown is a first round pick, no doubt. But when you have to negotiate a massive contract on top of giving away a pick,

especially for a 31-year-old, I don't think that you're getting a first or a second for Trent Williams. I could be wrong. There's more value in left tackle than there is wide receiver in the NFL. Houston got a second and a fifth two years ago for Dwayne Brown. And how old is Dwayne Brown? At the time, he was the same age. Same age as Trent. He's 33 now.

Well, the other thing about left tackle is 31 is not the end of the line. Right. Whereas as a receiver, usually when you hit your early 30, so you are on the decline. You get offensive linemen that play for. Trump Williams is a better player than Dwayne than Dwayne Brown. You would agree with that? Yeah, yes, I would agree with that.

I just think it's more than a third. What was Dwayne Brown's contract situation? Did they have to renegotiate a new contract with Dwayne Brown when they signed him? Sorry, I don't know the answer to that. I don't either. In 2012, he signed a six-year $53.4 million extension. So it was coming towards the end of that deal. It was coming towards the end of that deal.

But I don't know if there was a holdout or a threatened holdout. I don't have the information on that. But here's the thing about the Trent wanting a new deal. I just sort of feel like the position, which is a top three important position, top four important position. Some would say top two. I would say, you know, pass rush or quarterback. You know, quarterback one, pass rush or two in that order.

But certainly, you know, a left tackle. is a very important position in this league. I just think as we move towards training camp, I have not gone through the list of teams that have a solid foundation at left tackle, but that if you got an injury situation with a contender, that you could really strike gold having Trent Williams available then. It's like the Jason Taylor situation when Philip Daniels went down.

I know the Redskins way overpaid for Jason Taylor, who was older at the time, and it's a different position, an important position. But I, you know, the Jason Taylor trade included, you know, a second, a fourth, and a fifth or something like that, second and fourth. I forget exactly what it was. But I just feel like the redskinned that Trent Williams is worth a lot more than a third. I'm with you. Here's the other thing you got to think about is who has Cavs face.

Right. At this point. you know, who can afford to take a big signing like that? Because you can look at all the left tackle situations, but you could say half the league probably can't make that deal. Yeah. Second and a sixth for Jason Taylor in the midst of training camp in 2008. The Colts could do it.

The 49ers could do it. do it. The Titans, there's some teams that could do it. And there's some teams that definitely need left tackle. The Raiders could do it. The Raiders are uncertain at left tackle. If it came down to he is absolutely demanding a new deal or he's not going to report, would you stick it to him and say, fine, sit out, we're not going to pay you? Or would you try to trade him? I try to trade him. Yeah, I would too. I don't want to, and I don't have an answer right now at left tackle.

That's the other problem. I certainly don't want to play Eric Flowers right now on left tackle. You mentioned to me, Donald Penn. So Donald Penn is one of the, he was probably the only left tackle free agent that would give you the gap year. And he's a Utah State guy, but Donald Penn's been a good tackle for a long time in this league. He's actually, he played with me for three years. We came in the same year at Utah State. Great dude, still loves football, still wants to play.

I'm not advocating that we signed Donald Penn and move Trent. I'm saying you try to do anything you can do to make it right with Trent first. But Donald Penn's played at a high level for a lot of teams in the league, for three or four teams in the league. Played Tampa for a while, played at Oakland for a while. Remember Oakland when they made that playoff run, and then they got crushed in the playoffs. That was when Donald Penn got hurt.

Right. Yep. Has Geron... Has Geron Christian shown at any point in this first year that he's got to try to, chance to be a starting tackle right or left in this league? Not right now. I don't think he's capable of doing it right now. He's coming up an injury, which means he's had no offseason, or no real progressive offseason. So I wouldn't trust that it would be Jerome Christian as right now.

You'd have to go sign somebody. They'd sign the Donald fan, I'm sure. You do agree with me that Trent Williams has a hell of a lot of leverage right now, right? Yeah. I think a vast amount of leverage. I mean, they don't have anybody to replace him. They don't have depth behind him right now. No, you have to go sign somebody. And then you're, you have less depth as it is anyways. It's not a good deal for them. You know, it's also the, like the doctor thing I was thinking about it yesterday, you want your players to trust your team doctors. And if it was, that was the case, That's no good for a lot of the young players. Can't trust the team doctors.

Yeah, I mean, Morgan Moses essentially, for all intents and purposes, backed him up and agreed with his stance on the medical thing. Yeah, well, obviously Morgan Moses doesn't trust the team doctors. Right. So what do they do there? Like, what are the examples you can point to? I mean, we know that we've had two quarterbacks break legs that had complications due to infection, et cetera, that required multiple surgeries. Is that on the team and the team doctors, or is that just something that occasionally happens? I don't understand all of this.

I mean, you speak highly of their team doctor. Do you speak highly of their team training staff? Where is the issue? If there is an issue. This has been the most injured team in the league the last two years. You've claimed at times that they don't have, you know, the top-notch, you know, state-of-the-art nutrition, you know, facilities, et cetera, that they've been getting better, but they haven't always had that.

Is all of this stuff that the players have issues with? It may be some of the instances of what they have issues with. I don't know how far you can take the nutrition program where the players endorse it or don't endorse it. I think it could be taken. vastly to another level where you're hiring an overall wellness position that oversees all of the training staff, all of the doctors, all of the weight staff. And then I think that there's a lot of positions that you could hire within the building

to add to your staff. I think they're understaffed at those positions. But that said, that doesn't have to do with infection and surgery, which I think is an outlier or whatever, I don't know what Trent went through. I don't think that came from in the building as an issue. So I think that some of the injuries do occur through lack of elite nutrition. And you just look at, so I did an interview on my podcast with James LaValle, who's one of the forefront blood chemist and nutritionists in America right now.

he's convinced that 50% of injury has to do with some lack of nutrition or some deficiency in your blood versus just being chance. The Redskins don't test blood. Do other teams? I don't think at this point a lot of other teams do. I know that he works with seven or eight professional organizations, not in the NFL, but the Orlando Magic and the Chicago Blackhawks. and some racing teams, and he does test blood in those instances and finds a ton of great results out of it.

The Redskins aren't an organization. This is a statement, agree with it or not. The Redskins are not an organization that thinks outside the box and pursues new innovative things on all levels, right or wrong. To the extent that I would be doing it, If I had the money to do it, correct, right. To the extent of some of the NFL issues, I think that they're not leading the pack, but I do think they attempt things.

But honestly, it goes back to, like, we had this initial conversation about the book on tape I was listening to. The Redskins specialize in so many little things, and everyone in the building specializes in certain little things. And I think that you have to look for answers outside of the box in a lot of cases. You have to look for people who see things in a different way at this point. What do you have to lose is the other question? What has gone so great so far? I'm not saying that anyone in the building doesn't do a good job. I think the people there do the job they're asked to do.

I think that there are other opinions that could probably benefit them. I think the organization is led by, in terms of its team president, a guy that is not an innovative thinker, is not an out-of-the-box thinker that is stuck very much in decades past with a lot of things. That's my view. You don't have to comment on that. What are you hearing about Haskins so far?

What have you seen as it relates to Haskins so far? I think that everybody has been impressed with his ability to throw the football in a big way. I think that he's done a very good job building a relationship and developing some leadership skills within the building. I think that he has been slow on learning the offense. And the reason I say that is because it continues to be said. If he were on the progressive incline that everyone wanted it to be, then the conversation would be, wow, we're so impressed with how fast,

Duane has started to grasp this offense, just like they're saying, wow, it's so impressive the way he's throwing the ball. But I don't see that as a massive issue at this point. I think that he's got an entire summer and training camp to continue to grow in his understanding of the offense. And with any rookie quarterback, you're going to simplify some things in your offense. And so I think they're going to put as much as they possibly can on him to get to an understanding of what he's capable of knowing.

But I think it's been slower than maybe they would have liked. What about with Case? I mean, it's not like you're hearing Jay say how quickly he's picking up the offense either. I don't think it's been especially fast with Case at the same time. I don't know the right thing to say with the case situation because it's evident that Dwayne Haskins is going to play at some time of this year. if it's not week one.

So if I'm involved in this organization, I don't want to say that Case is the definite starter. I almost want to be up front and say that Case, if Dwayne's not ready, Case will bridge the gap and we're happy that he's here and that's his job. And if things were to go incredibly well and they were to be four and one, then Case will continue to keep his job.

But if not, he's bridging a gap. You can't come out and then, say the case is incredible at understanding this offense, yet Dwayne has good arm talent. That would crush what you're doing with Dwayne. Yeah, no, that's fair. Why can't you just come out and say, look, Dwayne Haskins is our starter if he's ready. If he's not ready because he's a young player, we have two veteran quarterbacks, and one of them will be the bridge until Dwayne's ready.

Why can't you say that? You can say that. Do they even need... You can 100% say that. Do they even need to say it with people like us because we know it to be true? They need to say it for them because players need to know where they stand. And maybe they have told them that. But my bet is that they have not.

Okay. That people in sports love the idea of competition and whoever wins the job, wins the job. That's the way it's going to be. And then a lot of instances, someone wins the job and the other person says, well, I don't know. I don't see that they really won that job. And I really don't get it. I think they can say that.

But I think that's what it is. As soon as Duane's ready to play, he's going to play. What are you hearing about Montes what? That he's phenomenal. That he destroys Eric Flowers every day in practice, which is actually true. All right. But should we be impressed by that? here's the thing that I think

I like the most about Montes Sweat right now. He's going to beat bad tackles, and it goes back to Doc Walker. How many times does Doc say, well, they got their JV playing today. They got their backup

offensive line, and we should crush them. The fact is that you should crush them. If you're an elite pass rusher, and they have a backup left or right tackle, you should crush him. They should have to chip and add backs and tight ends to your side and you still have to at least one sack in that particular game, if not too, but be incredibly disruptive in that game. Montes what will be disruptive when he has less of talent, lesser talent.

Will he be disruptive when he's playing against good players? I think it'll be effective. It's hard to say that he will at some point in his career if he continues to grow into his potential. He has incredible potential. It's not just potential. He's ready to play right now. It wouldn't be overwhelming to me if elite left tackles

were able to protect against him, but he's going to quickly develop into a good rusher. As long as he stays healthy, there's a natural progression, just a natural progression. I wish he had a jersey number that wasn't 90.

Wish he had something. I kind of like 90. I wish he, I actually think, well, if he, I wish D.Ns and outside linebackers could wear single digit numbers personally because he looked super fast in that. But I prefer

you know, something in the 50s. I think he would look faster. What about, what about any of the receivers right now? What, what, do you have any sense as to whether or not, you know, anybody has stood out, rookies or veterans, and that there's any, you know, new reason to be more hopeful.

Well, Jay said that Trey Quinn's clearly the best slot. Right. Didn't he say somewhere that he's the only one catching it out there? Yeah, he did say that. He said he can catch, he said, no, he said, what makes Trey Quinn great, really good? And he said, well, first of all, he can catch it. He catches everything.

which is important for a receiver. Doesn't that tell you a lot about the rest of the receivers? I guess maybe. Yeah, I think that they're going to have to find some guys. You're hoping that Paul Richardson steps up in all the big year. And I think that there's a lot that you're going to count on with McLaurin in terms of that speed threat and some underneath stuff. It's a free-for-all receiver right now.

You and I both liked Kelvin Harmon. Did you get a chance to see him in any of the OTA days? I think Kelvin Harmon. Yeah, I think Kelvin Harmon looks good right now. I've been impressed with Calvin Harmon. But I don't know that Kelvin Harmon is a 70-catch guy or even a 50-catch guy in his first year. You may be.

I think McLaurin could catch 50 balls this year, and I think Richardson could catch 50 to 70 balls this year. And I think Trey Quinn could potentially, catch 50 to 70 balls this year. The problem is that you still don't have a one who you can target. The one thing I like about Calvin Harmon, though, especially from

watching college, is that he to me is the guy that you can trust in a third down situation on the outside like they used to trust Pierre Garcone. Right. He used to run a five to eight yard stop route and and make a play on third and five.

God, that used to be, I mean, Pierre caught all of those. and sometimes in super tight coverage. He got just enough and, you know, was able to catch all of them. Who has more carries in the first month of the season? Adrian Peterson or Darius Geis? I don't know. I don't know how healthy Darius Geis is at this point.

Everyone said his recovery has been incredible. So I got to assume it would be Darius Geis if he produces initially. If he comes in and has an initial production, that they would consider it probably a 50-50-type split as of week one, but guys could win that. Do you hear what Jay said about Samajai P. Rine yesterday? Said that P. Rhine's been the guy that's been the most impressive. He's been out there taking all the reps.

He's really improved not only in the running game, but also in the passing game. Yeah, Jay has this thing with running backs, though. He's always naming every running back and saying every great thing about every running back. And that's awesome, man. That's terrific for Somaget. But that's not realistic as of right now with Geis and Adrian Peterson ahead of him. That means nothing to me. And Chris Thompson.

Jay said yesterday, let me read the rest of Jay's quote because it's funny because you're 100% right. You know, he used to do with Mack Brown and Byron Marshall and, you know, all of them. But yesterday he said, you know, after making the comments about Samadai's, P. Ryan, he said, then we've got Byron, Chris, Craig Reynolds, who by the way, I've never heard of, that have also done an excellent job. That's a loaded backfield. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Yeah, he mentions every running back on the roster that's out there working out. Tell everybody, maybe you said this on your podcast or your last podcast, but tell everybody what you told me about Jimmy Morland, the seventh round pick, the cornerback at his job.

JMU. I think Jimmy Morland's got a chance to be the starting nickel. And I think he has the chance to be the starting nickel in week one. I think Jimmy Morland's a dude, man. I think he gets it and I think he's

nasty. I think my dog's barking like crazy at someone pulling up at the yard right now, so I apologize for that. That's all right. Do you need to go? I got two minutes. But yeah, I think Jimmy Morland has taken a lot of reps with the one defense.

And my thing is, because he's a seventh round pick, nobody in the media wants to commit to Jimmy Morland. And the common statement that I've heard is, the way they talk about Jimmy Morland is kind of saying that this guy's got a chance to make the team. That's not why they're talking about Jimmy Morland this way. Jimmy Morland's got a chance to be the starry nickel. You don't really, no, I mean, look,

whenever it comes to a seventh round pick in May, in June, with OTAs and mini camps, veteran and rookie, you know, you don't, as a media person or as a fan, you're crazy to just assume that because they're saying great things about Jimmy Morland, a seventh round pick, that he's a lock to make the team. And what you're saying, no, no, no, no. This time he is a lock to make the team.

He's actually got a chance to be the starting nickel corner. Right now he's the favorite to be the starting nickel corner because he's that good and that ready. Yeah, he's got a chance to make the team because he's going to start. That's exactly right. But here's the thing with Jimmy Morland. He's played at JMU and no one's challenging Jimmy Morland at JMU. So you have one game film against NC State last year where he's playing against Kelvin Harmon

that NFL teams evaluate. Guys like Cooper Cup coming out of small schools or even Carson Wentz are available based on production to go higher in the draft and based on that they touch the ball and that they're involved, Jimmy Moreland's not challenged that often at JMU. So you're looking at a guy playing at the Delaware State and not have the ball thrown at him often saying, how do we

know? Jimmy Morland's my favorite one of my favorite picks of this draft. He'll be productive. All right, you got to run. You got anything else for me that I didn't bring up? I don't have anything for you, buddy. But I miss you.

Same here. Enjoy your trip. Is the family out there yet? Or they are showing up next. Oh, they're there now. All right, good. Yep. All right, good. Well, enjoy it. I'll call you over the weekend. All right, buddy. I'll see you. Chris Cooley, everybody. Always good to catch up with Cooley. Quick word about Window Nation. Need new windows? How about trying out a buy one, get one free deal? How about buy two get two free? By four, get four free. There's no limit at Window Nation right now. I know you like free, how about zero zero-zero. That's zero down payments, zero payments, and zero interest for 12 full months. Any style, vinyl, wood, fiberglass, any color, all engineered for the specific climates that we all live in. Buy one, get one free, no limit. Plus, wind donation will come out

to your home within 24 hours, seven days a week, to accommodate your busy schedule and provide you with exact pricing, not just an estimate. A price with a 30-day price protection guarantee, and all Windonation windows come with a true lifetime warranty. Plus, with over 10,000 positive online reviews, you can't get more reliable than that. But you've got to act fast. This amazing deal won't be around for long.

Call today. Buy one window, get one free, no limit, plus zero-zero-zero-down payment, zero payments and zero interest for 12 full months. Save thousands by calling today at 86690 Nation or going to windonation.com. That's 86690 Nation for free Windows. Tell them that I sent you. A couple of quick things before we get to Andy Poland. Andy's going to join us to talk about an anniversary date and we'll do a few other things too. The game for tonight, no Durant. I'm starting to wonder if First of all, somebody said, he tore his Achilles. That's what it is, and they're not telling us.

Well, why wouldn't they tell us? Secondly, I think with the torn Achilles, we've seen some shots of him. I think he would have still been on crutches. I think that's true. But clearly this injury, I think he's not going to play in this series, is my guess. Clay Thompson will be back tonight. And tonight, for me, Aaron, is a must win for Golden State. I do not see them winning two games in Toronto if they are to lose.

tonight, which is exactly what they'd have to do to come back from 3-1 down to win the series. I think this is a must game for Golden State. They're laying four and a half, unlike the first three games in this series. I love Toronto in the opener. I like Toronto in game two, and I like Toronto in game three, some two and one in this series against the number. I really don't like the game tonight one way or the other. Golden State's a four-and-a-half point favorite. The action is sort of split. There is some sharp action. I heard from someone that I know real well that would know this said there is sharp action on Toronto again, which is why the lines come down to four, four and a half somewhere in that area. I don't love the game tonight, but I am really intrigued because I think

Toronto by winning tonight is going to win the series and they're going to be the NBA champions. And certainly we'll look back at game three when Golden State played very shorthand. but I think the other night had Clay Thompson played, I still think Toronto had a chance to win. Let me just say that I think Toronto can win tonight. And if you forced me to play it, I'd probably take the points. I'd probably take the points in all of these games. Toronto was so impressive the other night. I think they notched it up a little bit in terms of their confidence level.

But Clay Thompson back tonight makes a big difference. And Golden State's a champion and they're desperate. it. So I probably won't play the game, but I would lean a little bit Toronto, but I'm very intrigued by it, and I know that not everybody is, but I'm looking forward to the game tonight. And we'll be able to talk about tonight's game on Monday show because game five isn't until Monday night. Meantime, how about the story, and I think I briefly mentioned it with Cooley, the story about the minority owner, Golden State investor slash a minority owner. His name's Mark Stevens. He's the guy that shoved Kyle Lowry in game three the other night. And then apparently let loose with some

vulgar language in the direction of Kyle Lowry. The league was outraged. All of the players were outraged at this. And this guy's getting a half-million-dollar fine in a one-year ban from the NBA. A one-year, one-season ban. Can't go to any NBA games, and he was fined $500,000. I would really actually at this point like to know specifically what he said. But I do agree with this. I think the fine is steep, and I think the ban is steep personally for what I saw as a shove, and he can't do that, but it wasn't like he attacked Kyle Lowry. But I will, I will concede this point, and I understand this, that it is a good precedent to set. Like, you can't put your hands on players. Now, sometimes you have no choice. You're trying to catch a guy that's, you know,

barreling into that first row or those floor seats and then into the first row. And you're trying to help out. You're trying to protect yourself sometimes or protect somebody that you're sitting with. This guy went out of his way to shove Kyle Lowry and drop probably a couple of F-bombs in his direction. And so that's completely out of order. And you can't put your hands on a player. And the message has to be sent that these players, if we want these four seats to continue, if we want these players as close, or these fans as close to the action, then a certain level of behavior has to be exhibited. Now, in terms of the language, look, every one of these arenas has, you know, a dozen people, you know, close enough to the court, where they are.

are they are antagonizing the players on the court. And as long as it doesn't cross the line, you know, where it becomes super threatening or there is a racial component to it, I don't know what you do about that. I don't think this has anything to do with the language. No, I think it has to do with the shove and him putting his hands on Kyle Lowry and was a very minor shove. It was a minor. With an outrage, an outraged response from not just everybody in that particular game, but

people like LeBron James who weighed in on this as well. It was a minor shove, but it was so, he went so far out of the way to do it that it was ridiculous. I mean, it would have basically been the equivalent of if Jerry Jones was walking down the Redskins side line and just shoved Dwayne Haskins when he was just on the side. Well, he didn't go so far out of his way to do it. He leaned over another person to shove them. I'm watching it right now. He didn't, it wasn't like he leaned and stretched and pushed. He's within arm's length of him. Yes, but he reached over another person.

It wasn't instinctual. It wasn't anything. It was a, I want to shove this guy. No doubt. No doubt. And he looked angry and he looked like, you know, I'm sure this would not have happened had it been Steph Curry, you know, coming in his direction. I don't generally have a problem with him being punished and punished severely. I guess more of my issue is just the outrage from so many people about this as a.

if Lowry were attacked. But again, have to send the message. You can't put your hands on players. And the fact that it was known or does change things, I think. Yeah. Well, I think drunk fan is one thing. Drunk fan or even non-drunk fan, sober fan. You would not have been able to fine sober fan $500,000. You would only be able to ban him for for one year. Last night in the NHL finals in game five, which St. Louis won two to one, there was a controversial, very controversial, missed call in the third period. It was a blatant tripping call that was missed against St. Louis that led to within seven seconds of the blatant trip, what turned out to be the St. Louis winning goal in the game. They're up three, two. They go home with a chance to win the Stanley Cup at home in game six.

You know, I know that there's a lot of discussion about the misses and there was that hand pass, remember, in the Western Conference finals that was missed. Here's one thing I don't think you'll see. I could be wrong. I just don't think you'll see it in the NHL. I don't think you'll hear the outrage. I think you'll hear the outrage, but I don't think that you will see the league kow to the Bruins in the way that the NFL did with the Saints. I think that these controversial calls in many ways, as I've said many times, including as it related to the MISPI call in the NFC title game, that they add to NFL, the legend of the NFL, that the controversy itself becomes part of league lore. And I don't think that it's hurtful. I think long term, you know, it doesn't hurt at all in terms of the memories that it creates.

I think it becomes in some ways beneficial. I'm not saying that I want every game to be decided. way. But I didn't like the way the league completely cowtowed to Sean Payton and the Bensens and the ownership of the Saints. We've seen major controversial calls impact major games, championship games, playoff games in the past, and everybody's lived. You know, everybody's been able to live, breathe, and move on,

and they become memories for your fan base about the time we got screwed by, you know, referee named, you know, whatever his name was and the missed call. but I don't think you're going to see the NHL figure out a way to make it right with the Bruins. Carson Wentz signed that big contract extension. Did you want to say something about that? By the way, you look like you want to say something. I was just going to say the big difference there is, you know, a direct, if that call had been called for the Saints,

the Saints win that game. You can't say that about this one. That's the big difference there. You can't definitely say that about this one. contributed to it, but a two-goal lead in the third period is hard to overcome. They almost did. They almost did. But if it had happened in overtime, you could have said that it led to it.

Absolutely. But yeah, I mean, you know, it's, this is the thing. The only calls in sports that you can definitively say impacted the final result of the game or the ones that happened pretty much on the last play or close to the last play where there was no turning around what the result. of the right call would have been. You know, like in the case of that, the Saints would have had a chance to win with a walk-off field goal.

Could have missed the field goal. Certainly could have missed it. But for the most part, it would have been a chip shot, just like if they had gotten the interference call against Josh Doxon in the Houston game, the game that Alex Smith got heard in, if they'd gotten that right, it would have led to a walk-off game-winning field goal attempt for the Redskins. Carson Wentz was signed to a... big contract extension, $128 million with $108 million in guarantees, $66 million at signing.

And it's a deal that eventually can grow based on where the length of it is to $170 million. And this is the right thing, I think, for the Eagles to do. They don't have Nick Foles there anymore. And they're signing them early. They don't want to deal with that fourth year and the possibility of, you know, went saying, no, I'll get to a free agency or I'll make your franchise tag me. You know, this is what you do when you feel like you've got the vision. Now, he's performed too.

Not last year, but his rookie season for sure. But they feel like they have their franchise quarterback. You get that done now so you don't deal with the possibility of him, entering the final year of his deal or close to the final year of his deal or having to pick up the fifth year option or whatever. They're pretty sure about him. I did have one other thing that I wanted to mention. You know what? I'll do that with Andy actually. Oh, Nadal beat Federer today, which again, I know most of you don't care about. But Rafael Nadal, and I talked about this last year when he won his 11th French Open, which is amazing.

It's just remarkable that you have one player that has won 11 majors, the same major, the dominance that Raphael Nadal, he's the greatest Clay Court player in the history of the game. He's potentially on the verge of winning his 12th French Open championship. He is 92 and 2 all time at Roland Garros. His lead over Federer, this incredible rivalry, one of the great rivalries in the history of sports, it's just that the U.S. hasn't really indulged in it, you know, during it,

like the rest of the world has. But Nadal Federer is equal to now Navratilova and Everett. In fact, it probably is close to exceeding it. Nadal leads the head. head-to-head matchup with Federer 24 to 15, 6 and 0 all time in Paris. I think he's only lost once on Clay to Federer. But you have a sport right now which has the most, it's the most dominant era in the history of men's tennis by far with Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer during this stretch. and a lot of Americans have missed it.

You know, I was a big tennis guy in the 80s and the 90s, really, really enjoyed tennis back then, and I don't watch it anywhere near as much as I used to. And the reasons for it are multifold. I mean, I think, you know, the lack of an American champion or the lack of a real charismatic kind of player, you know, all of that, I think, plays into it to a certain degree. but it is an era that has seen just an amazing run by Roger Federer and Raphael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

I mean, Djokovic has 15 grand slams. 15 he's got. Federer's got 20. Nadal's got 17. Djokovic has 15. They're 1, 2, and 3. So this is clearly not even debatable. The greatest era in the history of the world.

the sport, and it has been a very popular thing for the rest of the world, not so much for the U.S. The ratings will be barely negligible. You'll barely notice the people watching Nadal Federer today, or even the French Open Final on Sunday morning. I don't think anybody can even name the two women that are in the women's final because they're both surprise finalists. Now, if Serena was there, Serena's probably the only thing left that is a draw for American tennis fans. But they now have between them, the three of them, 42 majors, more likely than not

on the way to 43 major championships. Top three all time when Pete Sampras won his last major in 2002 at 14, that was a record that was thought to be one that was going to be very difficult to break. Three guys now have broken it in the greatest era in tennis history. If you're listening to us on iTunes, rate us, and review us. If you haven't done that, that's helpful. It's pretty easy to do. Just look for the ratings and give us five stars. Give us the number of stars you think we should get. Maybe write a quick short review that really helps us a lot. And also subscribe doesn't cost you anything. And let anybody else know that wants to listen to the podcast that it's also available at the Kevin Sheehan Show.com. All right, let's bring in Andy Poland, who we haven't talked to in a while.

You've got an anniversary date, but I've got two of them before we get to yours. One year ago today, one year ago today, the Capitals won the Stanley Cup, winning in Vegas in Game 5, 4,3, which set off a celebration, the likes of which, you know, I don't think any Stanley Cup championship team is ever experienced. And the fan base and all of the front running part of the fan base that jumped on for that postseason run, it was enjoyable. I mean, I was at the parade. We did shows from, we did a show from down at the parade, and it was really cool. And it was one year ago tonight, June 7th. In fact, 41 years ago tonight, Andy, 41 years ago tonight, Game 7, Washington Bullets, 105, the Seattle Supersonics 99, and the Washington Bullets won. They're only in Washington.

their only NBA championship title. Both happened. The Caps and the Bullets on June 7th, June 7th, last year for the Caps, and 41 years ago, 1978, was the Bullets one. The Bullets one I remember very well, and I'll never forget that night and that game. That game was shown live. Remember, we were in the era of very often having taped delayed playoff

and even NBA title games, but that game was in Seattle, So we got that game on the East Coast live. I think it was like a 9 o'clock, you know, East Coast time start. And the Bullets won the title. It was awesome. Yeah, I was in the actual central time zone. I was in Texas.

You were in Dallas, yeah. Not Dallas yet. I was in Beaumont, working my way up. So I was like A-Ball then. And I remember watching that live. But here's what always gets me about the clip that they show for that. And it's so old now, it's grainy. But it's the bullets celebrating the win as they're dribbling out the clock.

And Elvin Hayes is dancing off the court wearing his warm-up because he had fouled out. Yes. I mean, could you imagine game seven of the NBA finals, one of the biggest stars, you know, whoever it might be, Kevin Durant, LeBron, whoever it is, fouling out of the game in the crucial moments? Well, look, you know, Elvin Hayes did not, first of all, if you go back to their previous NBA finals experience, which was 1975, getting swept by Golden State. Elvin Hayes was a major disappointment in that series. He did not play well at all. And the truth of the matter is he didn't play great in the NBA finals in 1978 either.

And in the seventh and deciding game, as you mentioned, fouled out. In fact, I'm pulling up the box score right now because I don't want to misspeak because it was not a good, a good game. for him in that seventh in deciding game. Here's the box score right here. Hayes ended up with 12 points in that game. You know, 12 points in a seventh in deciding game, but they got 19 from Bobby D who was, you know, really the piece that they added in 1978, they got him over the top because they were already a great team and a contending team with Wes and Elvin and Phil. But once they got Bobby D. He put him over the top, but they had, Bobby Dandrich had 19 in that game. And Wes Sunseld made key free throws down the stretch to ice the game, ended up with

15 points, nine rebounds in that seventh and deciding game. And CJ, Charles Johnson, off the bench, with 19, including Andy, do you remember at the end of the third quarter, a three-quarter court, 53-footer that went in? And it was at that point you thought this might be their night to finally get it done. of all the years that Elvin and West played together, I bet there weren't five other times that Wes outscored Elvin in a game. You're probably right. I mean, there may have been more than five, but there weren't many at all.

Yeah, because Elvin wanted the ball. I mean, that's, yeah. And Wes, Wes told the story in later years when they were both long retired. He said they were playing a game in Phoenix one time, and Larry Wright had a big half, like 20 points of the first half. And as they were going to the locker room, Elvin said to him, you won't be seeing the ball in the second half. Yeah, you know, I had Phil Schneer on the show last week.

I think it was last week. I love talking to him and talking about those particular teams. And, you know, he's told me in the past, you know, that Elvin wasn't the easiest teammate. You know, he wasn't wherever he was at any point in time. But God was he a great player and a Hall of Fame player. And one of, I think one of the most, I don't know that he gets, do is, you know, one of the top three, four, five power forwards in the history of the game?

Probably the area he played in, you know, I mean, you got to remember after the bullets and Sonics played back-to-back years for the championship, the NBA took a huge step forward the following year with Bird and Magic coming into the league. So, you know, they were kind of left in the dust by what followed them. Well, I mean, the Sonics bullets in 7879 were the last to, you know, NBA finals in obscurity, basically, because it was 1980 that Magic and the Lakers, you know, and his game six with Kareem out in the spectrum against Philadelphia, launched the Magic Bird era. No question.

No question about it. All right. So we've gotten through those two. Tell us what happened nine years ago today. Nine years ago, tomorrow, actually. Tomorrow. June 8th of 2010. Now, you got to remember, you go back to 2009 when the Nationals had the number one pick,

and Stephen Strasbourg was among the most hyped players in any baseball draft. He was considered like Nolan Ryan's speed with Greg Maddox control. This was going to be a generational pitcher. He'd struck out 23 batters in a game while he was pitching college for San Diego State. He had been allegedly clocked at 103 miles an hour. This is going to be a complete game. game-changing pitcher. So they draft them number one,

plays some games in the minor leagues, 2009, 2010. He comes to spring training, and they have Pudge Rodriguez as a catcher on that team. Now, Rodriguez had started his career in Texas when Nolan Ryan was pitching there, but he was also

a member of the Detroit Tigers when they had Justin Verlander. So after catching him in spring training, the Washington Post goes to Rodriguez and says, well, does he compare to Justin Verlander? and Rodriguez says no, Nolan, as in Nolan Ryan. Right. So that just took the hype up further.

He blitzes basically through the minor leagues. He goes seven and two, 1.30 ERA, 65 strikeouts. And he's ready to go. So they determine that June 8th against the Pirates is going to be his debut. You've been around here a long time? I've been around here a long time. I can't remember anything hype the way this was. I mean, ESPN did it shows from there all day.

They had 200 media credentials, which is like what you get for a championship series, maybe in a World Series. And it was just all day craziness. Bob Costas was in town to call the game. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was huge. And Costas has said,

we'd never see anything like this in baseball in history. And nobody knows more about the history of baseball than Bob Costas. And it's one of those things that doesn't happen that often where the actual event, outruns the hype. It did. And he was spectacular that night. He struck out 14, including the last seven in a row.

And already people started talking about Hall of Fame. You know, this, oh, this guy is it. He's clearly, just as advertised, he's going to be great. He's going to be the most dominant pitcher on and on and on. And for a while, remember we were following when his starts were going to be, whether they had a rain out or whatever happened that they would miss a game here and there where he would be pitching and they would fill the park for him wherever he went not just here but like cleveland was having a record low attendance year they had like 40,000 to watch

a pitch and he had about seven or eight starts and then boom August there's the older collateral ligament Tommy john out for a year comes back at the end of 2011 pitches looks pretty good 2012, you go, okay, he's ready to go, and nobody's really expecting much from the nationals. So when they say in spring training, oh, yeah, Strasbourg's on an innings limit, everybody goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, fine. And then they're good, and they're in first place most of the year. And then we get to, like, July, go, oh, wait a minute, the nationals are going to be in the playoffs, and Strasbourg isn't going to be able to pitch.

And that set off a controversy, which I think you can reignite today in the same way you can reignite the RG3 debate about whether he should have stayed in the Seattle playoff game. Right. And it has gone to this day, but he was shut down, didn't pitch, and people still insist that maybe they would have won the World Series if he would have been able to, but he wasn't able to pitch. And since then, he's been good, but not great.

You know, he has not won a Cy Young. He's been an All-Star three times. He's never won more than 15 games. He spent time on the injured list. And you'd have to say, yes, he was worthy of being the number one pick, even though Mike Trout was in that draft, but Trout went 25th. But he has not been what we thought he was all going to be 10 years ago tomorrow, or nine years ago tomorrow. That debut was one of the most spectacular debuts in most electric nights.

I can ever remember. I wasn't there. I watched it on TV. And in fact, we'll play for you right now, the Bob Costas call of Strasbourg's last strikeout. And the O2. He strikes out the side for the second. in straight inning, he brings his total to 14. We started the night saying, hey, it's just one game. Keep it all in perspective. It is difficult to restrain yourself. Unleash all the superlatives.

They all seem to apply. It was incredible. I mean, it was an amazing night, and he was destined, according to everybody, to become, you know, the next Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan, you know, Tsai Young. You know, he was destined to become that. And then obviously the injury, I think the most memorable, you know,

other than opening night, his debut, was game four at Wrigley Field when he was, remember, supposedly in the moment, too sick to pitch in a series where they were down to one. And this is why you had Stephen Strasbourg. and somehow he really did, you know, a guy that had missed too many starts, right? Like every year it seems that he's always missing starts because of injuries. You know, he's the orchid, as Tony has referred to him. He's very delicate. And in that particular moment, there was a lot of pressure.

Dusty put some of that pressure on him by going public with him, you know, having like the sniffles. He essentially, you know, tried to tell him. to man up. And he did, and he came out and he pitched a gem in that game. I think he struck out double-digit numbers and was incredible in that game. And that was, you know, that along with, you know, I think that along with the Jason Worth home run in game four to even up that first playoff series against St. Louis are two of the most memorable moments in Nat's history, both of those coming in the postseason. And then the other one would be opening night for Strasbourg, years ago tomorrow. Because, you know, Harper debuted, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Harper's

debut come on the West Coast when they were on the West Coast in L.A.? Yeah. Yeah. Dodgers, right. So those moments with Strasberger, incredible, the jury's still out on his career, right? I mean, you, you, he's, what is he, 29, 30 years old, somewhere in that neighborhood? He's 30 years old. He's got 100 wins, 100 wins in nine years. So if you're talking to Hall of Fame, he's got to win another 150 games, and I don't think that's going to happen. Right. Well, I mean... He's good.

He's good, but he's not... When he's healthy... When he's been healthy, at times he's been better than good, at times. Like, his best doubting is brilliance. When you see it, you just don't see it consistently enough. Right, right. And because there are too many injuries and too many times somebody drops a fly ball and he falls a part, that's what's kept him.

The other thing is, is that he's not the best pitcher on the team. No. You know, you have a guy who's a sure Hall of Famer, it seems, and Max Scherzer, and he was very comfortable. You know, a lot of guys, they like to be Numero Uno. They don't like it when a guy comes along and takes their place. He seems quite comfortable slipping into that number two spot. And, you know, that's also part of his makeup, which maybe keeps him from being as great as he could be.

I would say that one of the surprising things about Strasbourg is he's never thrown a no-hitter, right, Aaron? A guy that threw as hard as he threw and how hard we thought he would throw and how he would be a high-strikeout guy and a Nolan Ryan kind of guy. He's never thrown a no-hitter. I also think another surprising thing about his career, Andy, is that he ended up signing the long-term extension here. And by the way, did it at what a lot of people perceive to be a meaningful discount. Because remember a lot of the discussion about Strasbourg is that eventually he wanted to go back to Southern California. Well, no, he likes it here. And it's a $175 million extension, which some said was $50 million below market value.

But it also may include some outs. So if he has a spectacular year, I guess he could, you know, conceivably leave. But, you know, I think also after he signed it, he had another injury, not that long after. And it's one of those things where you look at it and say, yeah, great, they got him at a bargain price, but they didn't get Nolan Ryan. They didn't get Roger Clement. They got a guy who's a good pitcher, not a spectacular pitcher. Now, you're right about that.

You got a guy, though, that when he's on, you know, at 6'5 and whatever he weighs and he looks the part. You know, he looks the part at times. And he's actually, I think this year at times, pitched well when they haven't gotten enough run support for him. All right. How is everything going? You good? Yeah, I'm good. And if you'd like to read about this, I wrote a blog for WTOP.com.

So anybody wants to go read what we just talked about. It's there. And then you're on with Tommy this weekend on Saturday and Sunday morning, 106.7. The fan. I appreciate it. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks. All right, Kevin.

Take care. All right, that does it for today. I don't think there's any, there's no new Trent Williams News. I'm on Twitter. I don't see anything new to you, Aaron. Nothing. Because it seems like twice this week we've gotten burned with right when we've gotten done. Oh, there's going to be a Friday news dump.

There's definitely going to be a Friday news dump. Back on Monday, I think J.P. Finley will join us on Monday. And we'll have, you know, a lot more to talk about. Have a great weekend. Thanks to Andy. Thanks to Chris Cooley. Thanks, of course, to Aaron, who does a great job. Back on Monday.