The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley Quizzes Kevin + Alex & Andy

Episode Date: February 25, 2021

Cooley quizzed Kevin on a subject near and dear to Kevin's heart and then they got into the Alex Smith/GQ comments before considering what Andy Dalton would like in a Washington uniform. Also, if you have time, help us out and complete this survey--The Athletic Podcast Network audience survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheyenshow. Here's Kevin. All right, Cooley's in today. Tommy will be in tomorrow. Tommy's actually getting that second of the vaccine shots. So he completes his vaccine cycle today. Good for him. Hopefully it all goes well and he'll be with us tomorrow to tell us about it. So Cooley is with me today. I did not do a podcast yesterday. I will try to make up yesterday's podcast on Saturday with another sort of interview show. I do want to... Hold on. Have you had the vaccine? I have not. Are you eligible for the vaccine at this point? I am not. Are you? No, if you're not, I'm not. Well, I mean, you know, you could have some sort of underlying

condition. No, I'm not. I'm not in any of the 1A, 1B, C categories. Now, my wife said that a lot of people are showing up at places like CVS or Giants pharmacy at the end of the day because they don't waste any vaccines. So if people don't show up for their appointments, they end up giving shots to people who are there. I haven't done that. Maybe I'll do it. I don't know. You won't. You won't. It's not, as you know, been something that's really worked me up over the last year, and it hasn't you either. With that said, like I've said all along, I don't want to get it. I certainly don't want to get it. And the more you're reading about it, the potential long-term effects, even if in the short term, you know, your symptoms are relatively benign. You know,

there's a lot of stuff that, you know, it's starting to come out. I would, I do want to get, I do want to get vaccinated. Have I been aggressive in trying to figure out how to get vaccinated? I have not. I am waiting my turn, I guess. I would rather, you know, not that I'm so selfless, but I would rather, you know, older people and people who are much more vulnerable, get it. Like my mother just got it.

My father just got it, thankfully. My father was another one of those people. He's like, whatever. You know, he's the one that said very early on, he said to me, look, if this thing's out there because basically it's a population thinning event and it's coming for me, so be it. But I'm not going to stop playing golf and I'm not going to stop living my life. And he hasn't. You know, he pretty much over the last year has done what he's wanted to do. Now, I'm not at the expense of being safe. You know, he wears a mask and he socially distances, distances. But he's not been one of those older people

that has basically locked themselves in their house for a year either. My mother, has but my mother also is more vulnerable because of you know previous she's a cancer you know survivor and so you know she should be she should be much more but she's locked her self in a house with your father with not with not with her husband yeah oh right sorry they they've been they are they're much more they're much more um concerned and they've been much more diligent in sort of their approach to not exposing themselves, where, you know, my father, who's been down in Florida with his wife, they, you know, they play golf, they go out to restaurants, they go out to dinner,

and he just got the first part of the vaccine like two weeks ago. So anyway. I met a guy a couple weeks ago in Laurel, Montana, who had gotten it a long time ago. Six months ago, at least, my age. How? He still has no taste. Well, you know, Scott got it. Scott still does not have all taste and smellback.

This dude said it's been almost six months. He tastes nothing. Well, for Scott, it's been two and a half, three months. Two and a half, two months, every bit of two months. And he does not have full taste or full smell back. That was the only, those were the only symptoms he had. He didn't have any other symptoms. And as he says,

Every time, you know, I talk to him, I'm like, do you have it back yet? And he goes, not really. And he always says, you know, if you gave me the choice of getting really sick or having this, I'd take this, obviously. But there are a lot of people that go months and months and months without, you know, taste and smell. That would be awful. But for a while, it would be probably good for someone like you or I who always complain like, like, I'm getting fat. If I can't taste anything, I'm probably not going to eat anything. He kept eating, and then he found some things that he, you know, like lemon is something that he can taste.

And there are a couple of other things like there's like certain aromas that he can smell. But for the most part, he has not gotten back his full taste or smell. Crazy. Crazy. I know. You know, and then you start reading about all these other variants. and, you know, I mean, it's concerning. It is. I, you know, I have, I've told you this before, but I have seasonal asthma, and it's the spring when the tree pollen gets really bad. I don't just

sneeze and, you know, get itchy eyes. I actually have an asthmatic response to that. I've had that since I was a kid, but it's seasonal. I don't have any issues other than the two weeks in spring when the tree pollen is really bad. But I think, based even on that, I think I actually might qualify now as, you know, having, even if it's seasonal asthma, somebody that might be able to step to the front of the line, not in front of all the old people and health care workers and all of the frontline people that were vaccinated. I was reading something yesterday, actually, about the different states that have handled it well. And apparently, the state of West Virginia has handled it exceptionally well with the vaccine.

And the governor of that state whose name escapes me right now. I'm looking it up right now because that's, yeah, Jim Justice. He's a Republican from West Virginia. In this story that I was reading, he said it was really simple. We just had this motto, age, age, age. That was it. We, you know, we were vaccinating all of the frontline workers and then it was all about every single old person and we didn't make them sign up over the internet. We gave them phone numbers to call.

Duh. A lot of old people have had issues with internet signups, you know, and getting online, you know, every day to see, you know, they want a lot of people who are 85 years old want a phone number. like he basically said there was just a lot of common sense in our approach we were going to make sure all of the frontline health workers got vaccinated and then it was age age age and we were going to make it very easy for people for old people to figure out how to get vaccinated duh because i know in some of these states it's like it's only online you know sign up and then you're like well you need to get everybody over the age of 80 and a lot of those people, they're not, you know, even in 2021, it's not like they're sitting there on social

media all day or on TikTok all day. You know, internet access isn't like a given for them. Find my news on TikTok. Yeah. I don't know. Is Jim Justice, is he a new governor? Since 2017, he's been the governor of West Virginia. But apparently West Virginia's vaccination rank, a rating ranks a among the highest in the world and the highest in this country. In terms of getting it out, getting it out effectively, you know, I don't know. I'm not going to get into my sort of the bureaucracy

and government workers and these people are dedicated. Don't get me wrong. But sometimes I think there's just a lot of common sense missing from a lot of people in government. Like, you know what, hey, we got to get this done. I know your hours are nine to five, and I know you've got 17 floating holidays and you get two-hour lunches, but this is a priority right now.

We're going to stay a little bit late today. We're going to stay a little bit late today, and we're going to get some vaccines into some people's arms. Yeah. Okay, let's do that. That sounds, hey, good idea, Kevin. I say that, and I know that it's not totally true, and Tommy always picks me apart on that.

It's just that my background was early-stay. entrepreneurial companies before I got into broadcasting. And there weren't hours. There weren't holidays. Of course you took holidays off. It was whatever it takes to get the job. It's not like you have a client. They need the product by, you know, Friday.

It's not like, oh, well, it's Friday. We don't have it to them. We'll get it to you on Monday. No, it's like we're staying there until however it takes, however late it takes on Friday night and Saturday. and Saturday and Sunday to get it done and get it to them. I just think it's a different sort of mindset in those environments and those work environments. And by the way, maybe the other one is healthier.

Maybe the predictability of a nine to five day and scheduled vacations and scheduled holidays, maybe that's healthier. It probably is. Whatever. How did we get it on to this? I don't know. I have a one other, a couple other questions for you before. Okay.

I do want to get to Alex Smith, which I did not have a chance to win in. I know you do, but on the podcast history and you as well. But go ahead. I wanted to ask you about a couple things. So I signed up with your promo code, Kevin D.C. at my bookie. Oh, you did? Yeah, I did. And I'm thinking about a couple games I wanted to ask you about today.

Okay. I haven't looked at the board, but go ahead. I'm thinking about taking St. Francis at Merrimack. St. Francis is 8 and 9. Merrimack's 8 and 6. Um, God, Maramac is only favored my three points here. Just, I'm thinking about putting a nickel on this game. Really?

Mm-hmm. Um, have you seen the gym yet? Have they pulled the stands down or are they going to leave the stands up? I'm, I didn't look too close at Maramac's gym, but I don't know. St. Francis seems like the right side here. It does, really. Take a look at that. Uh, what else?

I really like Tennessee Martin at S IU Edwardsville. That's a good league. In the Ohio Valley Conference. Yeah, the Ohio Valley sometimes, Murray State and all these teams, it's sometimes a pretty good league to bet. But the question is, Tennessee Martin is getting four and a half. Yeah. Should I buy the half point there and go to five?

Yeah, absolutely. If you're four and a half and you've got to pay minus one. On my bookie, sometimes you will get much less than a minus 120 on a half. point purchase, but yeah, definitely. I haven't looked at the board yet today. I did have a good night last night. And then the last game I really like Arkansas, Pine Bluff. There's a puppy there against Texas Southern.

You know, just so you know, and I know you're mocking me right now. I'm not mocking you. I'm actually going to play these games. But I just want you to know, and for all of you out there, your odds of winning a game involving tonight, let's just say Michigan, Iowa. That's the big game tonight. huge game tonight, national implications tonight. Your chances of winning or losing the Michigan-Iraway game are no different than the

Merrimack St. Francis game. It's not like betting Merrimack against St. Francis, why would you do that? I mean, you can't win that game. It's the exact same chances. The point spread, trust me, on the Merrimack St. Francis game has been well thought out, and it's the right point spread. and they've created basically the same chance for you to win or lose that game as they have for Michigan and Iowa. With that said, though, Coley...

Now, they're not coming live to you from Hamill Court. Is Hamle Court like a CYO, CYO Jim? Probably. You know, speaking of that, and this podcast today is brought to you. Thank you, Cooley, brought to you by My Bookie at My. by bookie.ag. Get yourself ready for March Madness right now. Sign up. They're going to match your deposit halfway up to $1,000 if you use my promo code, Kevin D.C. All of the college basketball games here over the final two and a half weeks leading into what will first be the conference tournaments. And then we are two weeks away now from the conference tournaments. We are three weeks away

today from that first, you know, round of 32 in the round of, I'm sorry, sorry, 64, 32 games a day, you know, Thursday, 16 games a day, Thursday and Friday. We are exactly three weeks away from that. I was talking about it this morning. I'm really into college hoops. I think it's actually a really good season, and I think it's going to be a great tournament. I just knock on wood that you don't have COVID cancellations or forfeitures or, you know, postponements or delays.

Hopefully not. They're going to play the whole tournament in the state of Indiana. you know, sort of a bubble. But MyBooky.ag, as I've mentioned before, you're going to get quality, fair lines, fair pricing, and you're going to get paid if you win, and they're going to give you free money to sign up. So use my promo code, Kevin D.C. at MyBooky.orgie. I did have Cooley a good night last night. Now, it was one of those nights where it was great because there was a game that I liked really early,

but I just didn't know that it started that early. I really liked Wake Forest getting three against Clemson. It was Wake's first game back. They were catching a short number. It seemed wrong. And I didn't play the game because it started at 4 p.m. And I thought it started at 6. And so terrible clock management.

And this is when you don't get a bet down on a game that you really like. Then you're rooting for it to lose. And it did badly. Wake Forest only scored 39 points. And they got beat 60 to 39. But that's like a win, right? Because I wanted to bet it, but I didn't bet it, and it lost, so it's almost like a win. And then there were several games lists.

You know, Murray and I, Tim Murray and I, Tim, for all of you who don't know this, Tim is working with Aaron Oster, the producer here, is working for Vison, you know, the Brent Musperger Gambling Network out in Las Vegas. Tim's hosting a show that Aaron's producing at nighttime. West Coast time. I think it runs 10 to 1 Eastern, so it's 7 to 10 Vegas time. Murray and I are texting back constantly back and forth because he's betting a ton of college hoops. And yesterday, the two of us were just on the same page. He immediately sent me early in the day. He goes, I like Rutgers a lot and I love Arkansas. And I said, yep, I go, I really like Temple.

And I said I liked Wake Forest. I said, I like Temple. I like St. Joe's. and I really like your Rutgers as well, and I like Cincinnati. I also liked Miami of Florida. And Miami of Florida, Cooley, was getting 12 and a half against Florida State. They were my one loser last night. Wake would have been the other, but because I didn't bet it, it pretty much turned into a winner. Miami of Florida was catching 12 against Florida State,

and no one was on Miami last night, nor should they have been really, except for me. Florida State's really good. and Florida States, you know, Florida State's been on a bit of a role. They're ranked high. Miami got absolutely run out of the gym on Saturday by Georgia Tech. At one point, I think the score was 52 to 19 on Saturday. So, you know, here's Miami coming in off this terrible loss to Georgia Tech. I think they ended up losing the game by 30.

And Florida State sort of rolling. And, you know, they were laying a number that the, The public perceived is short. Florida State had blown out Virginia over the weekend by 21. By the way, I want to mention them here in a moment. So I took Miami. It was never close. I mean, they were down 25 to 8 to start the game.

It was never close. And we have decided those of us that liked Miami last night, we are putting them now on what we refer to is the not playlist. You're not allowed to play them no matter how right they look. They're on the not play list. Well, if they're on the not playlist, could they be on the always-been-against-them list? No, you can't do that either because, like, they play Clemson next. And Clemson, like, if Clemson's only like a six-point favorite and all the public's on Clemson,

you know, Miami's going to look right. And they might get it done. But in the previous two games, when you get beat as badly as they've been beaten in the last two games when they've looked like the right contrarian side, we just throw them on the not playlist anymore. That's where they make it. When I say not playlist, you can't play them or you can't play against them either.

So that's sort of... Yeah, I got that. The Miami Hurricanes and old Jim Larenega, they have been eliminated from my playlist. I will not play a game involving them. But Arkansas won last night. By the way, UVA lost again last night. UVA has a really interesting season going because they're perceived to be a top four seed in a region,

like one of the top 16 teams in the country. They have now lost three games in a row. They got blown out by Florida State. They lost a really good game against Duke the other night. They lost it home last night to NC State, who's really not that good even though they've been playing better. Virginia does not have one decent win all season long. They don't have one good win. They played Gonzaga in December and lost by like 25.

You know, somebody might say, oh, well, they beat Clemson when Clemson was ranked. They did, and they beat them by 35, but Clemson also then lost like two games later by 35. wins over North Carolina, you know, North Carolina got blown out last night by Marquette, and Marquette's not going to the tournament. I love Virginia's team. I love watching them play. I think they're so well-coached. I think they're going to be in a tournament.

I don't understand how anybody looks at their profile and thinks it's that much better than Maryland's. Maryland's schedule brutal, and Maryland has five wins that are much higher quality. than any of Virginia's wins. Now, Maryland, the metrics and the analytics are treating them very well. Like in Ken Palm right now, I'm looking at it. They're 28 in the country with 10 losses. That tells you how good the analytics are treating them. There's not one team that's ranked in front of them in Ken Palm with anywhere near the number

of losses. I guess that's not true. Rutgers has nine losses. then everybody else is basically from zero to six losses. Maryland has 10 losses. There are so many teams below them that have five, six, seven, eight losses. The analytics are treating them really well, but Virginia still somehow is 14.

I don't get that. They haven't beaten anybody. I've watched some of the last couple of Virginia games. Why? because my internet's really slow and I have direct TV and so I don't watch Netflix between 6 and 10 o'clock in the evening so I find myself watching sports. What? Uh-huh.

Do you want to get deeper into this or do you want to talk about Virginia? Well, I don't, what do you, so why? The internet's slow because more people are on it. which is from Huesnet. Huesnet will never be a sponsor of this podcast. It's busy. Why don't you just get normal cable? What about DirecTV?

Yeah, I have DirecTV. I don't have DirecTV internet. There is not cable internet. I live in a rural area. Right. I've heard that there are people lobbying in Wyoming to get rural internet. as the cable run to rural or better internet to rural areas because if you want to entice people to move to Wyoming,

a lot of them, especially if they're going to move to Wyoming and work and do Zoom things, they're going to need internet. You ain't doing Zoom at my house. You know the craziest thing about Huesnet is you get a certain amount of gigabytes and then when it uses them up, it's like you have unlimited internet except it goes slow after you use up X amount of gigabytes. Well, when you're watching that, you're like, hey, did someone leave Netflix on? Got to make sure you turn it off before we go to bed. Oh, my God.

I'll tell you what, seriously. About 20 days into the month, we're in slummo. I don't know what I'd do without Netflix. Well, you can still watch Netflix. It just buffers a lot between six and ten of five. Well, then you can't watch it. No. It's the worst.

Out here, out here in Pal Wyoming, we got to let it buffer a little bit. So it takes us about four hours to watch a half hour show. So I find myself watching a little more regular television. So what do you think about Virginia? They don't score laid into the possessions. Well, yeah. What I was thinking about Virginia is if they don't score initially and early, their offense just isn't good enough.

Now, Tony Bennett usually is a guy that moves the ball really well. They play a half-court offense. They always play it slow. Yeah. Play great defense. I mean, everyone's watching Virginia. over the last few years. Right.

It's an innovator on defense, and they're a half-court offensive team, which is fun to watch because as to basketball that I grew up watching college basketball, was too moral at Utah State, five passes before anyone shoots. Yeah. And they were good, they were good, they were consistent.

They got open shots, they got open looks. Virginia doesn't. They don't get shots late. And they can't score late when they need it. They're going to struggle if they can't find ways to score. later in possessions because that's the style they're trying to play. He was a good coach, right? Utah State had some really good college teams. Maryland played them in the tournament one year in the first round. They beat him.

2005. What did you say? I think it was 2005. 2000? No, it wasn't. It was the late 90s. They may have played him again. No, it was definitely after that. It was when I was in the NFL. Utah State played Maryland in the tournament when you were in the NFL? Yes. I know they played them.

in the late 90s. I'm looking it up right now. You think that they played Maryland in 2005? Tested in City League tournament history. I don't think that's true, to be honest with you. Okay. No, I don't want to subscribe to the thing that I'm trying to look at. I know they played Maryland.

Let's take a look at that. Hold on. it's weird the way this works because I looked it up by Utah State and they just have how far they go but they don't have the teams they play you almost have to go to like the coaches so go to Gary Williams because he would have been

the coach in 2005 and on his thing so yeah 98 they lost to Maryland yeah the 98 year was Maryland's loss to St. John's and the Sweet 16 unfortunately it's terrible they were favorite it's crazy they lost to Arizona

in 2005 why did I think they lost to Maryland. And Maryland. Yeah, Maryland beat Utah State and the first round, beat Illinois, beat Arizona. Or 98 was Arizona, 99 was St. Johns. And you're saying, 2005.

They did not play Maryland again in the tournament. Yeah. How I mixed that up, I'm not sure. I didn't think they did. I mean, I think if you tested me right now, I could probably name every single Maryland

opponent in the NCAA tournament. under Gary Williams. And that's a lot of tournament games. Man, he coached a lot of tournament games. They went to the tournament 12 straight years, went to seven sweet 16s. So that's a lot of tournament games. But I remember the Utah State game from that year.

I just didn't think that they had played him again. Actually, I don't think I could name every team. I'll tell you there's no way you could name every team. Well, I can tell you this. Gary Williams started with the team that was on probation. The first year they went to the tournament was the 1994. spring in 94. They beat St. Louis, and God, that was an unbelievable day at T-Bones in Bethesda, Carl McCarty, Gary Williams, Jimmy Patsos, all of the owners of T-Bones in Bethesda,

great neighborhood bar back in the 90s in the early 2000s. That place was packed on that Friday afternoon. Actually, it was a Thursday afternoon for that game. It was Maryland's first game back in the tournament after coming off probation. They beat St. Louis. They beat UMass. as a 10 seed, UMass was the two seed in the second round to go to the Sweet 16 and they lost to Michigan. The next year with Joe Smith and Keith Booth year two, I want to say they beat Gonzaga, Texas. Do you have this? And lost two. And then lost to Yukon in the Sweet 16.

Yeah, yeah. Which, by the way, there were several players sick. Marilyn was favored in that game. They were ranked, I think they were a three-seed or two-seat in the three-seat in the that region last that year. And then Gary had his back-to-back only time ever, back-to-back first round losses. The first one was to the College of Charleston. No. Oh, the first one was to Santa Clara? Yes. That was Steve Nash. Steve Nash, they lost to in 96 in the first round, and Gary tells such a great story. He's like, they, you know, they had watched the tape. They knew how good

Nash was and then they got to the game and they watched this dude with basically, you know, socks falling off his calves and ankles and the players are watching them warming up and they're like, yeah, right. Nash torched them. Torched them, knocked him out. And then the next year was college of Charleston, right? Yeah. Okay. So then we go to 98. You're going to do it. I love it. Utah State, Illinois, Arizona. Yeah. They lost. Arizona in the Sweet 16. Arizona went on to win the national championship that year. The next year was the Steve Francis year.

They were two seed. A lot of people had them winning the national championship or getting to the final four. This was the most disappointing exits in the Sweet 16. They lost to St. John's in the Sweet 16. That was the Ron Arte's team. They, okay, in the first round, all right, hold on. The second round was Creighton. The first round

They beat a 15 seed Yeah, they were two seed Was it Valpo? Was it Valparo? There we go. All right, good. Then, so back-to-back Sweet 16 losses, the second one in 99

with Steve Francis was disappointing. The next year, they beat Iona. Am I right? And then they got absolutely blown out by Earl Watson and UCLA. Maryland was favored in that game over UCLA, and I'm telling you, if you've got the score up, I'm going to say it was like 105 to 72 or something like that.

Very close, 105 to 70. How about that? It was a mismatch from the beginning, and that was the disappointing exit because it was a good team, but then the next year was their final four teams. So it started with a win and a close win over George Mason. All right, they started with the two George. George's, George Mason, and then Georgia State.

Lefty was coaching Georgia State. Then they beat Georgetown in the Sweet 16, and then probably the most emotional win because it was their first win to go to a final four. For me, anyway, they beat Stanford, Casey Jacobson and Stanford. I've told that story many times. Juan Dixon at the first timeout, the under 16 timeout, Casey Jacobson was a star. You could hear him, people that were at that game, heard him audibly say to Gary as he was walking off the floor after the first TV timeout,

dude can't play. Like, what does that mean? He stinks. He can't play. Maryland torch Stanford and then lost to Duke blowing a 22-point lead in the final four game at Minneapolis, the officiating impacting that game. And then 2002 was the national championship year. That is easy.

It was Sienna. It was Wisconsin. Those two games, by the way, were at the MCI Center. Capital One Arena. It was packed to the rafters, all Maryland fans. They blew Wisconsin out. And then it was Kentucky, Yukon, Kansas, Indiana. Then in 2000, you know, they won the national championship.

2003 was the famous Drew Nicholas buzzer-beater against UNC Wilmington in the first round. Then, in the second round, they beat, they beat, hold on, hold on. They beat Xavier. They beat Xavier in the second round, and Xavier was actually a higher-seated team. And then they were down 17 in the Sweet 16 matchup against Michigan State. I'm on the phone with Van Pelt, and he says, fuck them. And he says, I'm turning it off.

And I'm like, all right, go ahead and turn it off. And then I'm calling him like 30 minutes later. Are you watching this? He's like, shut up, you're lying. They'd come back, tied it up, and then they lost. with about three seconds to go. I want to say it was 62 to 60, 6462 to Michigan State. 60, 58. Okay. I didn't get that one exactly right. I wasn't that far off. You got the team, though. Then in 2004, they won the ACC tournament with John Gilchrist's big run.

By the way, in that Sweet 16 loss to Michigan State, Steve Blake in his final game, had a three-pointer from about 35 feet that just barely hit off the front rim at the buzzer that would have won the game. The next year 2004 was the year that they lost to Syracuse, as Syracuse went on to, they were the defending champion, actually, in the first round, U-TEP, was it Texas-Sel-Paso? Yes. All right, good. Close game, right?

86-83. And then Syracuse, they lost by two. They had a chance to win the game at the end in the second round to go to the Sweet 16. And for all the money, can you guess the final score? 72 to 70? Yes. Was it? Yes.

The next year, they did not go to the tournament. They were really good. They beat Duke twice that year, the number one team in America, but they lost Chris McCray to suspension or they lost them off the team late. that hurt they would have been back that was the first year you know since you know gary's last probation year that they didn't make the tournament they went to the n i tis they went to the n i t semis in madison square garden that year um i i want to say they lost to south carolina or i'm not sure it was i don't have that okay um 2006 2006 i can get that 2006 was in the nit semis 2006 was another nit year and then in two thousand six was another niti year and then in

2007, really good team. DJ Strawberry, Mike Jones, had some big wins during the year, beat North Carolina late in the year. They beat Davidson and Steph Curry in the first round, and Curry had 36 or something like that. Steph Curry was just being discovered at that point because it was the next year that they made their run to the Sweet 16. Davidson did. Merrill beat Davidson and then lost a Butler in the second round by a point, or maybe it was two points. They had a chance to win. By three, they had a chance. Okay, Mike Jones had a chance to tie it at the end, didn't. That was a disappointing loss because I think if Maryland had played Butler that year, you know, 10 times, they would have won seven or eight of them. DJ Strawberry was banged up, I think, if I recall. The next year was

the beginning of sort of the Vasquez. Well, Vasquez played in the other one too. They missed the tournament the next year. And then 2009 was when they lost to Memphis in the second round after beating, oh boy. Oh, oh. This is more recent. Yeah, I know. 2009, they got to the ACC tournament final lost to Duke. And I want to say the team they beat had like gold jerseys. They did. Was it UT Chattanooga? No.

No. Big school. Bigger school? Bigger school? Mm-hmm. In the first round? Mm-hmm. Gold jerseys? They might not be, I mean, they have a gold.

Oh, oh, Cal. Cal. They beat Cal. God damn. And then they lost to Memphis. They got blown out by Memphis. And then the next. year was the most devastating loss maybe in Maryland basketball history.

They won the ACC regular season title. They beat in the first round, Houston. And then they lost on a buzzer beater by Corey Lucius in Michigan State at the buzzer. 83 to 81. Is that right? No. 82 to 80. What was the final score?

85-83. Which one was it? 8583 on the Corey Lucius shot. And the shame of that, Cooley, is that the whole draw had opened up. Northern Iowa had upset Kansas. And so Maryland essentially was the highest-seated team in that draw. They would have had they survived that last second shot with Dremont Green on the floor, Corey Lucius, Delvon Rowe, the whole group.

The guy ducks, it goes right to Lucius, and Lucius knocks down the buzzer-beater. That team was good enough with Vasquez, Hayes, Millbourne, Jordan Williams, et cetera, to make a Final Four, which could have been Gary's third final four. And it just unfortunately ended just so abruptly. They had come back, they had taken the lead. Vasquez hit the shot to give him the lead. No timeout called. By the way, they're trying Izzo's over there, screaming for a timeout,

as Lucius catches the ball, but they didn't give them the timeout, and Lucius makes the shot, and that's it. Why did we just do this? You loved it. It might have been your shining moment of the time we've been together. I think supermarket trivia would be more fun, though. Who did they lose to in the first round of the NIT tournament in 2006? Oh, I was there, Manhattan. Am I right?

You are right. Yeah. That was the low point. Gary Williams had just an amazing run, right? He takes over a program from Bob Wade, you know, all the trouble that Maryland got into. They essentially got shut down for all intents and purposes for something ridiculous. And then once they started to go to the tournament, they were, you know, they were a top 10, top 15 program for, you know, basically 15, 16, 17 years. and the only time in the postseason that it was just utterly disappointing was that particular year.

And the bad part about that year is the ACC tournament, I think it was that year, was played in D.C. at MCI or Capital One or whatever it was called at that point. And they needed to win a couple of games. If they had won a couple of games, they may have gotten a bid, they didn't. And it was just a – it was the first time. the first time that you, you know, for them that they really weren't a significant factor on the national scene, those two years. They went to the NIT back-to-back years. And then they went to the NIT again, actually. That's the thing. I mean, like all the complaining about Turgeon and from people,

and he's only been to one sweet 16 in nine years. And it's not good enough. I understand that. I still think he's a good coach, and I'm not going to come off of that. But Gary's last, you know, 2003 was his last sweet 16. His final year was 2011. So basically, Gary's final eight years, he didn't go to a sweet 16. He went to the tournament four times in those final eight years, and they didn't, you know, they didn't lose in the first round any of those years, but they didn't get to a sweet 16. They had some disappointing losses.

You know, the Michigan State loss was crushing. But anyway, I could actually, if you really wanted it, I could name lefties, years too. That's going to be up to you there, pal. I don't want to do that. No, that would be totally insufferable for anybody to have to listen to any of this. Hopefully you sped forward during this. What is an area that I could quiz you on one of these days?

Nothing like that. Nothing that is an absolute waste of space? Yes, a waste of space. No sports trivia. like that. That was awesome, though. Well, I mean, you know, that was the height. I mean, Gary is a Hall of Fame coach because he had some great teams. And what's really interesting about his run is how many teams actually, there were so many of his teams, Chris,

that you really thought were capable of winning the national championship or getting to the final four that didn't. And it's really, this will be the last thing, I promise them we'll get to Alex Smith. and some of the other things. You know, a lot of the complaining about Turgeon is what you heard about Gary before he made his first final four and then won the national championship. There was a period there, and we just went through it, where they were, you know, the sweet 16 seemed to be the ceiling. Like they went to like four or five sweet 16s before they won the national championship, but they couldn't break through that ceiling. And the criticism, when they lost to St. John's, Gary was criticized. were like that team with Steve Francis, with Obinaekeesi, with Loran Prophet, Yusikavichis,

that team should have been in the final four. And it really felt like it should have been. It had been ranked basically in the top five all year long. They had been ranked number two, you know, for like 10 weeks of that season. And they were out in the Sweet 16. That was painful. And there was a lot of thought that Gary, you know, had a ceiling as a coach. Good thing that Nobody bailed on him. And Turgeon, you know, the argument is different, obviously, because it's not like Mark's taking the team to lots of sweet 16s every year. But they're winning a lot of games and going to the tournament.

This is going to be the sixth year if they make it and they should. The sixth out of seven years, they're going to be in the tournament. I'd rather be in the tournament every year than take my chances of not being in the tournament every year. Well, that's an easy one. Yeah. Although some people say, let's roll the dice. And maybe when we make the tournament, we can win the national championship. I think that varies in how you recruit and play guys and how you go about moving forward.

But with the transfer portal stuff, it's really hard, especially right now. It's a free year in college sports. I think last year was really unfortunate for Mark. He had his best team. It's not even close. The Diamond Stone, you know, Rashad Soleiman, that team was not as good. good or cohesive as last year's team. And they didn't get to play the tournament. If they had played the tournament, I think they would have made a deep run. I think they definitely would have been in

the second weekend at the very least, which would have put them in a Sweet 16 or an Elite 8 game. And I think they had a chance to really, you know, be among the final few teams standing. And he would have gotten a contract extension and the conversation about him would have been over, at least for a few years anyway. But we know what happened. We didn't get to play the tournament last year. All right, I do want to get to this Alex Smith stuff, which we will do right after this word from one of our sponsors. If you've been thinking about Windows, please give Windonation a chance. I've been endorsing Windonation for over a decade now. I wouldn't continue to do it if I didn't have complete trust in them. Right now, they are offering up their virtual home show

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Alex Smith did an interview. with GQ Magazine, with Clay Skipper. And it got into a lot of what he went through with the injury. But then there were certain questions that he answered that created a bit of a stir. The first question that he answered was, you know, why play football again this year? And he goes through the experience that he had had down in San Antonio when he was, you know, doing physical therapy with a lot of the military,

injured people. And he said, you know, in the back of my eye, head I never thought it was actually going to happen. I put this crazy thing out there and was like, let's see if we can go get it. Really a big part of me was skeptical. Like that's not going to happen anyway. I'm going to hit the wall before I get there. It was really scary when I finally got the clearance right before camp from all the doctors. I got this big round of imaging done and all the doctors, all the military doctors, all the doctors in D.C. were like, you're good to go. I never thought I'd hear those words.

They were like, if you want to play football again, you can do it. And so the next question gets into some of what was discussed a lot the last couple of days. The author that wrote the story says, I assume you were talking to the Washington football team throughout the process, were they surprised to hear that you were ready to go. They were, Alex Smith said. They never thought I was coming back. No one there. I did all my rehab outside of the building. They do ACLs and stuff like that, but walking in with what I had, it's like you've got three eyes. So what was their response? Alex Smith was asked. And Alex Smith then said the following. So there was a very small group of people that actually thought that I could do this. I think the rest of the world either doubted me or they patronized me. Yeah, that's really nice that you're trying. You know, like, hey, that's really nice that you're trying, pal.

luck. When I decided to come back, I definitely threw a wrench in the team's plan. They didn't see it, didn't want me there, didn't want me to be a part of it, didn't want me to be on the team, the roster, didn't want to give me a chance. Mind you, it was a whole new regime. They came in, I'm like leftovers and I'm hurt and I'm this liability. Heck no, they didn't want me there. At that point, as you can imagine, everything I'd been through, I couldn't have cared less about all that. Whether you like it or not, I'm giving this a go at this point. And then the writer says, so you convince them? And he said, well, yeah, I mean, they tried to put me on Pup, the physically unable to perform list for two weeks.

Then they tried to IR me. I felt like I still hadn't had my fair shake at that point. I wanted to see if I could play quarterback and play football. and I feel like I hadn't been given the opportunity yet to find out. So anyway, those were the comments that he made in this GQ story that got a lot of attention. I mean, it's funny, after I did the radio show yesterday morning and I did a bunch on this, I see everybody, you know, in the national shows, you know, it's done in Washington. Alex Smith rips the team on the way out, you know, et cetera.

Or that, you know, and people were taking sides, right? You know, the people that always blame the team for everything are saying, there they go. They, you know, they didn't welcome them back. I mean, here's the guy that, you know, had been injured for two years. He's making this miraculous comeback, et cetera. I have very strong feelings about this, but I'll let you go first. What are they supposed to do? The guy had this gruesome of an injury as it gets.

He almost died. To think that he's going to overcome it. in the time frame that he overcame it is insanity. To think that even if he does overcome it, that he's going to be capable of playing for an extended period of time is insanity, which he didn't play for that long, half a season. You know that you got this contract on the book, so you're just, okay, well, we're going to find out because there's really nothing else we can do.

even if he comes back and is 75% of what he was, at that point it still makes him the 28th best starter in the league. It wasn't like you were taking Tom Brady or Peyton Manning and getting 75% of that. You're a new staff. You're trying to completely rebuild. I'm sure they like Alex. Everyone that meets him likes him,

He fits in, so I'm sure it's like, okay, well, he's here. We got to pay him. He's on the roster. We like him. Whatever. Let's give it a shot. But do we really believe it? No.

Should they be faulted for not believing it? No. Um, it was where they got, they got stuck with it. I didn't think he would really play. I didn't think he would play really well. Remember the bet we had. You thought there was a chance actually, but you didn't know the severity of it. The severity of what?

You didn't, when you bet me... When we made the bet, I didn't know the severity of it. Yeah, that was in 2019. Yeah. Now, I was in the facility every single day over the next year and watched him rehab and knew he was getting closer. But I also knew that he had drop foot. Yeah, but you did not know that he nearly died or nearly had his leg amputated. Yeah, I did.

Well, you never told me that. Well, at that point, I didn't know that he nearly died. I did know that he nearly had his leg amputated. You had never, you had never told me that. But I just knew that he was, I knew that he was much better at that point. The bet that we made for those that don't know, in 2019, not last year. In 2019, early in the season, Cooley and I had a wager. Cooley said that he would be on the 45-man game day roster for a-game before the end of the year.

And I said he wouldn't be. So I won the bet. But go ahead. You did win the bet. In 2019. All they had to do was activate him for one game. Well, maybe you should have exerted your influence around there. Seriously, I should have had some poll with that.

I don't care that they didn't believe in him. Not even a little bit. Why would you? Nobody that was left over other than the owner, essentially, had anything to do with acquiring him. It is crazy that he made it back. And that's how I feel. And I think everybody is impressed by it.

And he should be impressed by it. And if he wants to continue to play, I think he's still a backup quarterback at this point. I don't feel sorry that no one was gung-ho about it. I just don't. I wouldn't have been. If I came in, I would have looked at his film the year before with Jay.

I would have said, look, if this guy doesn't have Travis Kelsey and Tarik Hill, which we certainly don't, he's a checkdowns 175 to 225 yards a game complete 64% because that's what do you think he is

and without his mobility what am I getting out of it nothing and that's what I would have thought now the one thing that I told you and that I believe in and I loved is with a new head coach first time new head

new offensive coordinator also first-time offensive coordinator, they needed a pro to install their offense for them. They needed a guy to get that offense and team better to show them how to operate. And Alex can at least do that. And he did do that. And they did get better on offense. And a lot of credit should go to Alex for a lot of the rest of the offense,

understanding what Scott Turner was trying to accomplish. Right. He did a great job this year in doing if it was just that. And he did more. He had a couple big-time games. So look, I don't know, sorry for the fact that he wasn't pushed in there and said, you're the best and you, it's just, that shit doesn't happen, man.

Yeah. I don't know. And I do, I do appreciate his intelligence to know they didn't want him back. It doesn't, I mean, I knew the day that they didn't want me to play there. That day, I knew. I went on the field and like, hey, well, let's let Niles Paul take this route. I was like, that's weird because that's been mine since I've been here. Well, yeah, let's see what Logan can do.

Okay. Uh-huh. Let's do see what he can do. How about, let's see what I can do. And I was, that hurt my feelings, man. That sucked. It hurt my ego. And I'm sure it hurt Alex's ego as well.

But that was the situation they were put in. It was fine. So the first thing that I would say is that, when you read things like this in print, sometimes they're not truly reflective of the tone. Like the tone would have made you think differently. Like, I think there's a chance that he was essentially just saying it was so improbable, it was so crazy, and he was just trying to use the fact that they felt that way about him to hammer home that point. I mean, look, one of the things he says, you know, when the military doctors and all my doctors in D.C.

were like, you're good to go, I never thought I'd hear those words. Well, nor did they, to your point. No one. Okay, but I, but my sense of it is, is that I don't think personally that this interview was Alex Smith, you know, taking shots at the team. I don't, I don't either. Okay. Well, a lot of people did, and that's fine. And by the way, I don't know that it wasn't, that's just my guess. I don't think he was trying to come off as hostile, you know, or antagonistic. what it appeared maybe in print. I don't think that that was probably the tone. With that said, to your point, the team was 100% justified and it was totally rational to plan as if he was never going to play again. Nobody, including him, thought he would. The team certainly didn't

think he would. And for the team to, by the way, hope that he never did isn't a terrible thought either. You can root for this guy, but remember this. They don't want to be put into a position to play a guy that's, you know, 60% of his former self, especially when, you know, they're paying him what they're paying him, and there would have been a huge cap savings had he retired or had he, you know, there was an insurance policy on a catastrophic career-ending injury, too. But there was no reason for them to plan on him playing again. And when it became actually within the realm of possibility that he might be able to play. And this is what I said to you and to Tommy on this podcast over the summer

and even into the early portion of the season. When they decided not to pup him, not to IRM, and he was on the roster, and I said, this team, unlike any other team, more than any other team in the league, this team should not be the team that puts him out on the field. They shouldn't be. There's too much at risk for this team to put him on the field and have it go poorly. Because if it happened in Jacksonville or if it happened somewhere where the initial injury didn't happen or if there wasn't recent history of major issues with trainers, with medical,

with the whole Trent Williams situation, this team, more than any other, given their recent history, should have been very concerned. and very hesitant to put him back out there. And, you know, JP had this thing that I read last night, that he talked to team officials, and one person said on the condition, I guess, of anonymity, look, when we finally did put him out there, we were so sweating it. Do you know what would have happened to us?

Had he gotten hurt again? Yes. So, A, there was no reason for them to think that he would ever play again, So they should have planned accordingly. B, they should have been hesitant to put him back out there. They had more risk than the other 31 teams combined almost. But they did put him back out there. They did give him a chance.

And they gave him a chance for a lot of reasons. He proved that, you know, in practice that he looked good. They wanted to get Dwayne as far away from the field as possible. So when they benched him, they made him third stringer, remember, and inactive, and elevated Alex to backup, which put him one snap away. As we discussed here the day after the Rams game, I would never have put him back out on the field. After watching him in that Rams game, I thought they had gotten super lucky to have survived that half. It was one of the worst quarterbacked halves I have ever seen as a football fan for 50 years.

One of the worst I've ever seen. He threw for 37 yards, got sacked six times, and did not have one first down. They punted on every drive except for a fourth down that they went for. He was terrible. We know the Aaron Donald first sack jumping on his back, and he got up and we're like, oh, thank God. But he was tossed around like a rag doll in that game. And, you know, the funny thing about that game, remember what Ron Rivera said? Ron Rivera said, Kyle could have played, but we didn't feel, we thought it was risky to put Kyle back in there.

And I'm like, risky to put Kyle. It was safer to play Alex. It was safer to play Alex. was so fortunate to survive that half. But then I give Ron Rivera credit. He came to Alex's credit, and he said, look, that was a rough half. But we've seen him in practice, and he's played and looked much different than we saw in that game. That was a rust half. We weren't very good around him, and he kept him in that backup role when Kyle Allen came back and quarterback the win over the loss of the Giants and then the win over the Cowboys. And then, you know, he got hurt in that Giants game.

and Alex came in, and Alex did play well at times the rest of the year. It worked out. Fortunately, it worked out for him. He got to play. He won comeback player of the year. He won five games as a starter as part of a five-and-two closing stretch where the team, you know, made it into the postseason. It worked out for him. It worked out for the team. But the team took the risk. And the only thing missing from that story and maybe it was edited out. It could have been. It would have been nice for Alex to be a little bit grateful for the opportunity because if you're really eyes wide open on this, and I think he's smart enough to realize this, he was here for the whole Trent Williams thing. He knew what was going on. This organization took a huge risk putting him back on the field.

They didn't owe it to him. They didn't have to do it. They did it in part because, they thought, you know, in the moment he was their best option. It's not like they had a lot of good options. And it worked out. But for me, Cooley, it's now time to wish him the best and move on. Thanks, Alex. We don't take anything you said in that GQ or article personally at all. We love you. We're supportive of you. We're so glad that everything happened the way it happened. And we're so, so pleased with how you played for us. Hopefully, you're feel the same way about us, but we can't bring you back at $24.4 million in a cap number, and we're just going to move on with something that we think is more stable for us.

It's time for them to move on from Alex Smith. Not just because of this, but it's just time. Yeah, I completely agree. It's time. We're good. It's time to go in another direction. And just in as much, look, it's just really hard to say he's going to be better than the 25 other quarterbacks. Is he going to be better than 25 other quarterbacks?

I don't think so, man. No chance. There was a, there's a new thing on the NFL network, the quarterback index, ranking the 59 starting quarterbacks of the 2020 NFL season. The 59 starters backups, you mean? 59 guys that play in the NFL season. and Alex Smith came in at 27. Below Andy Dalton, Tassum Hill, Jalen Hertz, Jared Gough, Ryan Fitzpatrick. That's where he is, though.

Yeah. Now, if you were to give him the reins of a team that had three big time weapons, things might be completely different. No, they wouldn't. He might, sorry, sorry, let me rephrase that. He might be the 23rd. best quarterback. 21st best quarterback. He's not a starter anymore. But you're not winning Super Bowls if you don't have a top 15 quarterback. You weren't winning Super Bowl with him to begin with in

2018 before the injury. That's why Andy Reid moved on. I know. He's so move on. Move on. And you know, I had I had several people say to me, you know, you went overboard in saying that he should be grateful. I don't think so. Again, I explained why. This organization took a big risk. You cannot undersell the risk that this team took. It would have been much different with another team. If he were playing for the Cleveland Browns backing up Baker-Mayfield and he had come in and gotten hurt in Cleveland, it wouldn't have been the same.

If he had gotten hurt here, the distrust that so many people had in this organization's ability to protect its own players. Well, they would have been, I think to that point, I understand what you're saying, is the PR look of it, the imagery of it would have... The business of it, Cooley. The business of it. Those things would have ended up being part of the business of it. But they would have had no actual financial or legal obligation towards Alex Smith. No, I understand. I didn't say it.

I mean, he was cleared. Yeah, I did not say that. I meant that if this team, let's just say that the Rams. second half didn't go well, which it didn't, but let's say it ended poorly with him being injured seriously again. Can you imagine? Yeah, it looked fat. Oh, yes. Would it look terrible. So, and by the way, they knew that. They knew that. Look, bottom line is, it worked out. You know, they got a little bit lucky. He got a little bit lucky. They won some games. They were in a terrible division and played in the playoff game.

But, you know, he got hurt again, and he's going to continue. He's probably never going to be totally healthy. And there's no place he's going to get. I had Jeremy Fowler on this morning from ESPN. He's really good, and he's definitely dialed into this team. And he said, first of all, there is a meeting scheduled next week between Alex's people and maybe even Alex and the Washington people. and they're going to figure out what's next.

And he sort of indicated his gut is that they come to a conclusion that it's time to move on from one another. You know, part of it is, he's like, you know, this quarterback stuff that's going on, you know, they don't have the solutions in place yet, but he sort of feels like this will be a meeting to say, we wish you the best of luck, and we're going to release you. So personally, I hope that's what happens. I then said to him, you know, where's he going to go? Like obviously Urban Meyer and Jacksonville makes a lot of sense.

Or any team with a quarterback that, you know, you want a backup and you want some real maturity and you want a real veteran presence and you want even a mentor for a younger guy, okay. But is there any place in the league that you think would sign him to start? No. Me neither. Best case sign him to compete? Where? I mean, New England?

New England could end up starting him. I mean, that was the one team I thought of, but they're going to try to address quarterback here. Alex Smith isn't on the quarterback. He could end up having a chance to play in Denver. He could end up having a chance to play in New York. He could have a chance to play in New England, I mean, chance in Chicago.

Okay. I guess Chicago wouldn't be that unrealistic because he knows Nagy. And they have nobody. That's true, but they're trying to get somebody. They're not trying to get somebody. They're not trying to get Alex Smith. Right now, as of right now, he ain't going anywhere as a starter. Okay, so if Nagy ends up with Marcus Marriota and they get to July,

and he hasn't solved it with anything other than Marriota, maybe he says, Alex, come here, and you can compete with Marcus. And if you're ready and you're physically capable and you win the job, you'll be the quarterback next year. Okay. I could see something like that. You see the Marriota trade thing is almost dead now. Well, that's not what Jeremy Fowler said to me this morning.

He said that he thinks, first of all, he was of the belief that Stafford and Wentz is not, the beginning of what's going to be wild, wild movement, you know, quarterback carousel movement. He said he believes the next one that'll drop will be Marriota. He said, of course, the contract may make it so that the Raiders need to release him. However, if there's more than one team interested, you're going to potentially trade something for him just so that you're guaranteed to have him rather than having him waived and then you don't know if you'll get him or not. That may have been the situation, by the way, that Jay Gruden was trying to explain to me about the Kansas City situation a few years ago. He thought that they could have waited for Kansas City to waive him.

Cleveland was interested in Alex Smith, so ultimately we're going to have to trade something. But he took a shot at Bruce and Dan for overpaying for Alex Smith. But anyway, on Marriota, he thinks that's the next one to drop. And he does think that Washington's one of the teams in the mix. and he thinks it's a fourth or fifth rounder. You know, it's somewhere around a fourth rounder for Marriota. Yeah, well, it's a fourth rounder, and you've got to pay him $10 million for the first year,

and then you have the chance to negotiate with him. It depends on how the year goes. If he starts and plays, it turns out to be, like we said before, approaching $20 million for a year. But again, if he wins that job, starts and plays for them, and he's good enough and he starts, you know, enough games to earn $20 million, that means he must have been the best option for that.

Yeah, well, the best option doesn't make him worth $20 million, and that's the question that you're going to run into. All right. The next question is this. Sam Darnold. Jeremy Fowler did tell me something about Sam Darnold. And then I also had Matt Bowen on the show this morning. I like Matt.

I know you do, and I do too. And he had a lot to say about a couple of players that I don't think we've given enough thought to that could end up here. We'll do that next right after this word from one of our sponsors. March Madness is approaching. I want you to think about MyBooky for all of your sports betting needs. MyBooky is located at mybooky.ag. And if you use my promo code, Kevin D.C., they will match your deposit halfway up to $1,000. So if you deposit $1,000, they'll give you an extra $500 to play with. Deposit $500, they'll give you an extra $250 to play with. Even if you have a spot where you're currently betting on sports, a second spot. You'll get the free money to wager with, and you'll have a place to comparison shop when it comes to point spreads, money lines, pricing, etc. My bookie is one of those places you can be assured of getting paid if you win. You're going to get quality lines, fair pricing. It's a place that is reputable and I stake my betting reputation on it. I've used my bookie. I'm a customer of my

bookie. I've got other places too, but I use my bookie and they have terrific lines, terrific pricing, and it will be a place that if you are into sports betting and tread lightly, you will be fine at. MyBooky, my bookie.orgie.orgie.orgie. Use my promo code Kevin, D.C. All right. So, first of all, Houston reiterated yesterday and even today, they're not trading to Sean Watson. And I talked to Fowler about that. And Fowler seems to believe also that he probably won't get dealt this year. Anyway, I asked him about Sam Darnold. And he said there's definitely going to be a lot of interest in Sam Darnold. And he believes that Washington will be one of the teams that will be interested. And he said, you know, I mentioned that he said that there's going to be a

meeting next week between Alex's people and Washington's people to figure out his future here. He also said, after talking to several NFL executives, it is their belief based on Washington's activity, whether it was Stafford or sniffing around in other situations, that Washington's starting quarterback in 2021 is not currently on their roster. And I think that that's a fair conclusion. Stafford, you know, the reports of maybe some interest in Carr and golf and Marriota, and now maybe even in Darnold, they're looking to upgrade. You know, Matt Bowen said to me this morning, He said, I view Taylor Heineke and Kyle Allen as strong number twos. And he said, I'd be surprised if they don't view them the same way.

Now, if you had to play them, you know, with a good team around them, okay, you can compete because they did last year, but are you going to, you know, are you going to win a Super Bowl? Are you going to go deep into the postseason with either one of them? No, they're strong number twos. He brought up the following name. He said, I think Andy Dalton would be a great fit for Scott Turner's offense. and I said, give me a prediction. Who's their starting quarterback?

He goes, it's a wild prediction. He said, but I have a feeling Prescott definitely ends up in Dallas, and a guy like Dalton becomes very interesting to Scott Turner and Ron Rivera. I started thinking about this, Cooley. I think Dalton would be a good fit. Do you? Yes and no. I don't think he'd be a terrible fit.

I don't think he'd be a massive upgrade. I'm not overly impressed with Dalton. And it's funny, though, when he left Cincinnati a year ago, right now we would have been considering Dalton after he was the starter in Cincinnati. Definitely. He went to Dallas and was a backup and now we're done with that. I mean, he looked terrible in a couple games, especially against Washington early when he was hurt. He wasn't as terrible later. He came on late.

He had a good finish to the season. after, you know, he recovered from the hit in our case. Another nice thing about Dalton is it's not going to cost you a fortune. Like, what did Dallas have to pay Andy Dalton? I don't know. I'll look it up. I forget. But what about, okay, by the way, I think you're right.

I think Andy Dalton, Cincinnati, we'd feel differently. He sent a one-year $3 million contract. Yeah. Seriously, that's all anyone thought of Andy Dalton. I know. That's brutal. Is the Dalton at his best? Is he a good fit for Scott Turner's offense?

Yeah, but is he a great fit? No. I like it, though, Kev, if it's just to fill the gap year, I think it's probably got more long. than Ryan Fitzpatrick. Right, because he's 33, not 38. So it could be a, let's find out if Dalton could be the guy here, to some extent. Right.

Yeah. Is he an upgrade over Heineke and Allen? I think he is. It sounds like you don't, though. I'm not saying I don't. Yes, he's been, like right now based on the history of the quarterbacks that we're talking about. yes, he would be absolutely an upgrade. How big of an upgrade is a question.

But if you pay Andy Dalton $3 million a year, then you can find out in training camp if he's an upgrade. Right. You don't have to start him. There's nothing you have to do to keep Dalton or worry about Dalton as a starter at $3 million a year. You pay Fitzpatrick $8 million a year. He's got to be your starter.

Okay, so which would you choose, Dalton or Fitzpatrick? Dalton, let's just say Dalton that there's some, let's just say there's more of a market this year for him. I'm not saying that there is, but there might be. And let's say you've got to pay him $4 million. And you've got to pay Fitzpatrick 8. Which of the two options would you choose? There's such, I hate both these options.

I don't. I like Fitzpatrick first and Dalton's second. I don't, I don't, obviously. I would do Fitzpatrick, even if it's only for a year or two, at $8 million plus with incentives, before I would do Dalton. But I would do Dalton before Cam Newton. I would do Dalton before Tyrod Taylor. I think I would do Dalton before Jacobi Brissette. And I'm talking about like the free agent guys, the low to mid-priced free agent options out there.

I would do Andy Dalton before Mitch Trubisky. Of course. You would do Dalton before you would do Fitzpatrick. Did you say that? No, I would do Fitzpatrick before Dalton. Okay, good. Yeah, even at twice the money. And even though it would be for a year or two.

Yeah, I would do Fitzpatrick before I would do Dalton. Me too. And quarterback, and you have plenty of cap room, you're not worried about $4 or $8 million. You shouldn't be. No, not with their cap situation. Not at all. And you're not making any sort of long-term commitment to either one of them.

I mean, what's Dalton really going to get? He got one year, three million. You know, it might be the Colt McCoy, two year four million dollars, two years six million or whatever it was. Yeah, like he might not be getting three. Yeah. Because even when you played well, you're like, dude, you had Amari Cooper and C.D. Lamb and Michael Gallup.

I know, but they also had a terrible defense. But that doesn't mean. It was complimentary football there. I went back and looked at the games, and we see a lot of the Cowboy games. The Cowboys sucked last year because they were terrible on defense. And even though they had some speed up front, when they lost DAC, obviously, they were in big trouble. Dalton comes in and he isn't good initially, all right? Although he did lead that drive to beat the Giants the day that Prescott got hurt.

And he was nine for 11 in the fourth quarter in that game for 11 yards, including the game winning drive. When he got hurt and then sat out a few weeks, he came back, he played very well in an upset winner. over Minnesota. The Thanksgiving Day game was not good for him. The Baltimore game was actually not nearly as bad as the final score indicated. I think they missed a field goal or two in that game when it was still tight. And then they beat Cincinnati, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. And he was good, you know, down the stretch, losing to the Giants in that final game when they had to win to have a chance if Washington lost to Philadelphia. But over his final, when he got back after being He started seven games in those seven games.

They were four and three. And he threw, I think it was 13 touchdowns, four picks, and was decent. Like, I was a Dalton fan. I remember you and I were doing the show together, you know, during the Kirk days. And I was like, I'll take Dalton. Can we get Dalton for, you know, a second round pick or a second and a fourth? I'll take Dalton, you know. I think Jay always liked Dalton.

He did. I asked him about Dalton. He also, he loved Dalton. You know, he's 33. It's funny the way you said that, because I think if we didn't have last year's vision in our minds, that it would be a much more attractive deal. Like if he was just coming, if he was just leaving Cincinnati, it would be different. But we do have last year.

Well, it wasn't that different for him. What do you mean? They didn't, he didn't get paid. I know, true. So, I mean, we might have thought it was somewhat different, but it wasn't. Fair point. But I'm just talking in terms of how we would think of him. If he, if this was, if he was in Cincinnati this year and they're drafting Joe Burrow this year and they're moving on.

And he's available as a free agent. Regardless of what the market forum would be. And you said $3 million for one year, let's find out what we get out of the Red Rocket. We jump it. Yeah, red rifle. Red Rocket. Yeah. I think everyone knows what that is.

Yeah. You know, I'm bringing up these names because it's very possible that as you think about all of these players, that Winston remains in New Orleans, Prescott remains in Dallas, Watson doesn't get traded. You know, Jeremy Fowler told me this morning that there's now some talk that the new coaching staff in New York, they really do like a lot of what they've seen in Darnold and that maybe they won't trade Darnold. And, you know, if they do, like, to his point, he's like, there's going to be a market for Darnold. You know, it's funny, and I mentioned this this morning on the radio show, I remember people saying, why do you want Stafford? He's got a losing record.

And I'm like, because I really like staff. I've liked him for years because he's good. And then the league spoke to what Stafford was, much more than I could or you could or any of our listeners could. You know, there were 12 teams. But we weren't surprised because you asked me what I would give up for Stafford. You kept telling me you were going to have to give up a first rounder. I'm like, you're going to have to give up two.

Yeah, you were the first one that said, too. Yeah, no, but I mean, the league spoke. Like a third of the teams expressed interest, four or five teams basically made offers. And I'm not so sure that if Darnold were made available, the league wouldn't speak to Darnold, too. They're not looking at results in his situation in New York. They're looking at the player. They're also probably looking at how they had evaluated coming out of Southern Cal. And I know that the discussion is a second and a mid-round pick, which, by the way, if there's more than one team and I bet there would be,

It'll end up being a late first maybe or next year. It could be like a third. It could be the Wendstiel. It could be a third this year and a conditional first or second from next year, depending on how many snaps he gets. It'll be a little less than the Winsdale is what I would bet you. That's what Fowler said. It's going to be less than the Wensstiel.

He thought so. But I wouldn't, if there's a couple teams interested, which if you get it done before the draft stuff, there certainly is. it'll be a little less than Wence because Wence has had some, he's played some really good football where Darnold hasn't. I mean, Donald's played, we both, we've talked about it. We know Darnold's played all right.

Yeah, he's had some good games against good team. Wences played some really good football. Right. Like almost MVP level football a couple years ago. You also had, you know, the Frank Reich situation. Darnold doesn't have a Frank Reich out there. You know, a coach of a team that believes in him, and that team is a quarterback away from potential.

winning a Super Bowl or certainly competing for one. Darnold doesn't have it in the league. Anyway, I bring up these lower-to-mid-tier free agent guys because ultimately the big names may just not be available. So if they are going to end up adding somebody else, and it's not just a day three draft choice, you know, you're talking about the people I mentioned. You're talking about Fitzpatrick and Dalton and Cam Newton and Mitch Trubisky and Jacoby

Brissette and Tyrod Taylor and Andy Dalton. You know, that's where you're, that's what you're talking about. By the way, I'm an absolute no on Cam Newton, an absolute no on Cam Newton. And I don't think there's any chance in hell he's a possibility. If he were a possibility, I think he would have been a possibility last year. year. I did like Jacoby Berset a lot coming out of NC State, but after that year and Indy, you got to wonder like he was with Reich. You know, he's a good situation. And what did they do? They went out and said, you know, 75-year-old Philip Rivers gives us a better chance.

And now, you know, Wednesday does. Don't do that. You love Philip Rivers. I love Philip Rivers. But I'm just saying, Berset got a year. You know, he got that opportunity to prove it to that staff, right? And he did. Absolutely. And he didn't. know, Tyrod Taylor, I mean, just to me, he's just become sort of a journeyman. And I've watched Tyrod Taylor playing some games where I'm like, hey, you know what, I kind of like him. I don't. You don't. But Dalton, to me and Fitzpatrick, of all of those guys, the lower to mid-tier free agents, you don't have to give up draft capital, you don't have to give up player capital.

It's just, you know, low to mid-level money. You know, Dalton and Fitzpatrick would be among that list. you know, including Marriota, I think I'd want Dalton and or Fitzpatrick even before Marriota. Because you got to, and you're going to have to trade for Marietta, more likely than not. Yeah, not much.

No. His contract will be a lot bigger than Dalton's though. Yep, that's the thing with Mariotta is you've got to eat that deal. Yeah. What else you got? And you're saying 20 million bucks, if he plays in a bunch of, games in what's his performance going to be. You know, is it going to be worth $20 million for the year?

Right. He'd have to play really. In a new offensive and and in a new offensive system. Oh, one other guy, Teddy Bridgewater. First of all, you know, he's got years left on his contract. Secondly, there was a story that I found earlier this morning that the reason Carolina is so willing to move on from him after one year is that the discussion, is that he's just not physically right and hasn't been since coming back.

That there's just not, there's a physical limitation with him. And with Teddy Bridgewater, you need him to be physically fit and do, you know. Well, he was never like a move around guy. Well, he was an extend guy, though. He could extend. Yeah, but he was never the really super mobile dude. Nope. I was never a huge Bridgewater fan.

I liked him. I always liked him. I don't dislike him. The guy that I would really love, but, you know, I like Darnold. That's who Bridgewater reminds me of. Winston would be. Or not Darnold. Sorry, go ahead.

Darnold reminds me a little bit of Stafford. Bridgewater, he reminds me of somebody. We were just talking about and I lost my train of thought completely. Darnold reminds you of somebody that we? You're just talking about. No, Bridgewater reminds me of somebody. Oh, completely spaced out. Oh, he reminds me of Dalton a little bit.

That's that kind of play. You know what I don't want? You're getting out of Bridgewater. I don't want a guy that's physically limited anymore. Which, we just went through that. Look, let's have a guy that's fully put together physically. No matter what. No matter what his age is.

What? Would you draft Mac Jones? Kuiper just came out with his new mock draft. He's got Mack Jones going eighth to Carolina. Because he's physically limited. Yeah, but not because of injury. Yeah, no, I understand. Eight, huh?

Mm-hmm. He's got every single one of the quarterbacks going in the top nine. Here's Kiper's new update. Lawrence won to Jacksonville. In the two-spot, the Jets trade in Atlanta. moves up and takes Zach Wilson and the Jets keep Sam Darnold. The third picks Devante Smith. The fourth is Kyle Pitts, the tight end.

He goes to the Jets, by the way. So the Jets keeps Sam Darnold. They add Kyle Pitts in that swap with... They take Pitts at four? Yeah, they take Pitts at four. Sewell, the tackle to Cincinnati at five. Jamar Chase to the Eagles at six. And then the 49ers trade up to seven with Detroit,

and they take Justin Fields. The Panthers take Mack Jones and then the Patriots trade up with Denver to the nine spot to take Trey Lance. So all... 49ers aren't taking Justin Fields. Who isn't?

49ers aren't going to take Justin Fields. And those are all the quarterbacks. He's got all of them going before number nine overall. I wonder if that's ever happened. Five quarterbacks in the top nine picks. I'll tell you what. though, if five quarterbacks go on the top nine,

whoever's sitting at 10, 11, and 12 are going to get some dudes, man. Yeah. If you don't need a quarterback and you're sitting at 10, you're like draft them all. That's Dallas. And then Giants are at 11. You know, so you get five quarterbacks that go in the top nine. You know, you're going to have guys like Sartan,

who he's got going to the Cowboys at 10, Jalen Waddle from Alabama going to the Giants at 11. Parsons, the linebacker from Penn State going to Detroit. I mean, if Parsons goes at, Parsons not going at 12. There's some issues maybe around him. If you do some reading about him, there's going to have to be some real vetting on Parsons. By the way, they've got, Kuyper's got Christian Darrasaw, the tackle from Virginia Tech going to Washington at 19.

Them getting their tackle. Gotcha. Sure. By the way, you know what I'm noticing and looking at this? There just are very few defensive players. Like the quarterback, quarterback, wide receiver, tight end, tackle, wide receiver, quarterback, quarterback, and then the first defensive player is Patrick Sartan, who goes to Dallas at 10. Then it's wide receiver, then it's Parsons, then it's tackle, tackle, corner to Denver, corner to Arizona.

Where's the, where's a pass rusher in this draft? Where's, when have you ever gone? I mean, Parsons, you know, Parsons can do it all, by the way. When have you ever gone? I'm 20 picks into this draft right now. I don't see a pass rusher yet. Rousseau. On after Lee's mock, he has him taking Quitty Payne from Michigan

and pass rusher at 12, San Francisco at 12. Yeah. And then Jalen Phillips out of Miami. he has going at 14. So those are two pass rushers. And then Gregory Rousseau from Miami again at 18. So those are-Rousseau opted out. He had a great 2019. He opted out COVID concerns. And he really is a talent. And a lot of people like him a lot. And Kuyper's got him going 21 to the Colts. But he met, he's young. He's young and he opted out, but he was dominant in 2019. and then Phillips is the guy that essentially stepped in

and played well for him in this season. Okay. What else you got? All right. Nothing, buddy. I don't have anything either. The Tiger Woods thing was just, God, I mean, I didn't talk about it yesterday. It was a weird day.

It was one of those days I'm just so happy that he survived that crash. I was reading the, you know, all of the injury information. There was a, there's been so many of these, you know, doctors and orthopedics that have sort of weighed in based on the information that's out there. And, you know, there's a lot of what Alex Smith suffered in one leg. He has a lot of the infection risk right now. You know, that's really where the risk is for him of the next couple of weeks because there were two open, you know, fractures.

Two of them. Was he wearing a seatbelt? Yes, he was. What happened? I didn't read enough. Do you want to explain to me what happened? It was no alcohol, not impaired. It was one of those. So we'll finish up with this, actually, because every, I don't know if you feel the same

way if you have an answer to this, but there was, for me, a road. and an intersection that was very dangerous growing up. There were fatalities there. There were always accidents there. I'll get to that in a moment. But apparently where he lost control and crossed over the median and then the SUV flipped multiple times hitting a tree and coming to arrest in a bunch of brush on the other side of the road.

Fortunately, there were no cars coming up that side. But this was, according to everybody, this is one of those places where there are always accidents. It's just a very dangerous downhill swervy. And, you know, they talked about it, that there have been fatalities here. This is one of those spots that has had over the years many, many accidents. So he lost control. I mean, the car does have one of those black boxes that I guess now exists in cars.

I actually didn't even. I didn't even know that. I didn't know that. And so they're going to be able to, you know, I don't know if he was on his phone or. Yeah, on his phone or they'll certainly know, rate. to speed. By the way, the fire department rescue guy, you know, had his cam on, his body cam on. You know, everybody's waiting, you know, for the moment that TMZ gets that. So you see what it was like right after the accident with Tiger and his conversation with Tiger. Anyway, so it was just,

it was one of these dangerous sort of areas. He probably was doing, you know, above the speed limit, lost control, and it was just, you know, lucky that it wasn't life-ending because apparently there have been many fatalities in this spot. There was an intersection for me growing up, coolly, and it still is to this day. River Road in Bethesda and Wilson Lane, the intersection of Wilson Lane and River Road in Bethesda, for those of you familiar, you know where it is, if you're not, if you get off the beltway at River Road and head south towards D.C. rather than, you know, north towards Potomac, you're a couple of lights away from Wilson Lane and River Road. And that, that intersection, Cooley, there have been multiple tragic, you know, fatal accidents at that

intersection, including one that was very, you know, well known for people that were in high school when I was in high school, because that's right near my high school. Ben Quinn was a, you know, an all met wrestler, all met football player headed to Virginia Tech, and he was killed at that intersection. I wasn't in high school yet. I was younger, but, you know, everybody knew the story of Ben Quinn and that accident. And then in recent years, I can't tell you how many times there have been like flowers left because there was another fatality. I always wonder, like, can't they fix this? Can't they put in another light before the intersection or lower the speed limit or fix the road or whatever? but did you have a road like that or an intersection like that growing up? No, not that I can think of.

Okay. There's always, I mean, it's just everywhere out here in the wintertime. It could be a disaster. I asked that question. I had a bunch of people send in answers to me on Twitter. Muncaster Mill Road, and there's a couple of them in PG County. you know, just areas. Well, if you're in Leesburg, dry mill roads,

it doesn't have a lot of accidents, but it's tiny and people go fast. And they almost, it's like they're using it to bypass route seven a lot of times. Yeah. And then there's a million people riding their bicycles on it, and you're like swerving around bike. I don't know,

I don't know how there haven't been more disastrous crashes on that road, but there hasn't. Yeah. I can think of. Well, I'm glad, Thank God. Thank God he's alive. You know, I hope he plays golf again. I'm not one of these people, you know, that are like, can't talk about his future.

I mean, it's terrible. I mean, it's just, thank God. Yeah, why can't we? I want to know what his future is going to be. Of course. I'm sure the first thing he thinks of is, can I play golf again professionally? Well, I mean, I hope it's after, you know, he's thrilled to be alive to be a father and be with his kids and, you know. Right.

But it's definitely going to be up there on his concern list. I just thought it was very funny in that afternoon. Like there was a hashtag going around. Hashtag don't speculate. Okay, well, I don't want my media people speculating if they don't know. But what's wrong with us speculating? I mean, what does that even mean? No shame.

Terrible to even think about him in his golf career right now. I mean, just let's hope he's alive. Well, of course. Can't we be both? Can't we actually really hope that he's alive and then, you know, think about, God, if he does survive this and he's got serious injuries, will he ever play going? I mean, who doesn't? Everyone thinks about that.

Yeah. I just think it's funny the way people react sometimes. It's like, get over yourself. Like, it's okay to do the right thing all the time or else. Well, the bottom line is an emotional reaction. There's rarely a true right or wrong. Like, you know, you're in an emotional response and how you respond is. how you're responding. Like, I think it's hard to be super critical in that moment, unless, you know,

you have significant responsibility in that moment, which, you know, we didn't. I will say this, it was an eerie couple of hours there when you didn't know. It felt a lot like the Kobe Bryant Day. Now, the Kobe Bryant Day, it started with TMZ reporting that he had died in the helicopter crash. You know, with Tiger Woods, he was in a very serious car accident. And then, you know, you waited until you, you know, finally got the word that they were non-life-threatening injuries. And thank God for that. Okay. We're done for the day.

Cooley's done for the week. Tommy will be back with me tomorrow. We'll talk to Cooley on Monday. And who knows, maybe there will be a new quarterback or maybe there will be other resolutions. It sounds like the resolution with Alex Smith is coming next week. All right. Have a good one, Coley. Goodbye, Kevin.

Goodbye. Goodbye, Chris.