The Kevin Sheehan Show - Curiosity Piqued

Episode Date: August 9, 2021

Kevin and Thom today with lots of Washington Football discussion. The boys talked about Ron Rivera's statement that his team has piqued curiosity in the fan base. They also talked about where WFT's schedule ranks in terms of the quarterbacks on its schedule. Forbes revealed its annual NFL valuation list last week and there's a number in that report that Kevin believes has Dan Snyder obsessed. They talked about how Gary Clark deserves the Hall of Fame more than Drew Pearson as well. Some Kevin Durant and Thom's thoughts on Kirk Cousins' ridiculous statements also on the show.  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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. I'm here. Tommy's here today. He's got to do something tomorrow, so he's with us today.

Several things to get to. We'll have a full week, I believe, a podcast this week. Maybe one day off, but more likely than that five podcasts this week. Starting today, we've got a lot to talk about, but we're going to start with this. Do you remember what? movie you told me about last week that you were surprised I hadn't watched and you're like you've got to see this movie it's an old movie it's about i don't know 10 to 12 years old it's a cone brother movie yeah yeah yeah yeah burn after reading i watched it saturday night i was in i was in my new place and the whole

setup for um the tv thing isn't typically um what i'm used to and just one of the things that popped up was movies available to you right now, and one was burn after reading, and I'm like, this is the movie I think Tommy told me about, and it was late Saturday night. I was up late by myself, and I loved it. I loved it.

It's great, isn't it? I can't believe I have not seen that before, and I don't really think I remember hearing about it. it was so good. I mean, Malcovich is brilliant in this movie. He's so good in this movie. He's unbelievable.

I mean, from the opening scene where he's fired, you know, and he does this whole, this is a crucifixion. Crucifixion. Exactly. I mean, it's brilliant right from the beginning. It's such a good movie, and I, you know, Malkovich, it's funny about him, Tommy, and all of the movies he's been in, he always plays, like, I don't know, maybe not all of his movies,

but he's best when he plays a very authoritative, brash, you know, almost an attacking kind of person. You know, even in that movie, what was the movie that he was in with Clint Eastwood, where he's trying to assassinate the president? I forget the name of that movie. In the line of fire. line of fire. You know, he's so, he's so passive-aggressive in that movie, you know, with Clint Eastwood. But being John Malkovich was great. Burn after reading was great. I'm just trying to think of all of his movies because I don't... Listen, he was, he played a psycho inmate in the Nicholas Cage

movie Con Air. He did? Where the inmates are, you know, the airplane. Yeah. John Malkovich was the psycho supposedly leader of the convicts on that plane. He's, God, he's been good in so many things, so many times over the years. Anyway, I really love the movie. I thought that Clooney was great. Brad Pitt, getting shot in the closet was such a shocker. I mean, the whole thing, the way it ended with Clooney thinking that Francis McDormann was working against him.

It was just such a really, really good movie. And the final scene of that movie with J.K. Simons and the guy that was playing, you know, the lead in the CIA, and he's explaining everything that's going on. And, you know, and he says, well, we hit us, there's one more thing.

There was a bit of a snag. And he goes, well, what was the snack? And he said, well, you know, Cox after he you know was hacking that guy to death in the middle of the street

in broad daylight one of our men decided he might try to get out and help and he did and well he shot Cox and okay is he dead no but we believe pretty much he's lost most brain function and he said okay well then we're good

it's really very funny a really funny It really is. It's great. I love the Cohn brothers. Miller's Crossing to me is one of my top five movies all the time. I've never, I've never seen it. Well, you've got to watch that. I know. I know. I know that. That's just, the dialogue on that is like music, but yeah, burn after reading, very funny, highly recommend it. Brad Pitt, I think, is the best of all of them in it. He plays such an airhead. It's such a dumbass. airhead, you know, health club, trainer. He was perfect for it.

It's funny, when I was watching it, I thought it was more recent. And then I realized when I saw Pitt, I'm like, no, no, no, this is a much younger, Brad Pitt. The Cone Brothers, I've never seen Miller's Crossing. I know it's a big miss from my list. But Fargo is the first Cone Brothers movie that I was like, oh, my God, this is phenomenal, which was followed up, of course, by the Big Lobowski. and what else have they done?

They did Cor Mac McCarthy's book. They did No Country for Old Men. They did that movie, which was so good and well done. True grit. They did true grit, right? I think they did true grit. Yes, they did. I thought true grit was good.

I didn't think it was great, but I thought it was pretty good. And then I can't remember the others. I know that I haven't seen all of them, though, obviously. Well, they did Raising Arizona. Oh, okay. I saw Raising Arizona. That's long time ago. Yeah, a long time ago.

Very funny. Yeah. Nicholas K., John Goodman. Right. Yeah. Anyway, for anybody that hasn't seen Burn after reading a 2000, hold on here for a second. I'm going to guess 2010. 2008.

Wow. It's 13 years old. A 2008, dark, you know, comedy, Cohn Brother, comedy with really an unbelievable all-star cast of Clooney, Malcovich, Brad Pitt, Francis McDormann, Tilda Swinton is in it. That was, it was great. J.K. Simons is in it. He's phenomenal. Here's another, another Cohn brothers that I think is very funny.

With Clooney in it, oh, brother, where are thou? I didn't see it. Oh, yeah, I've heard that's good. Excellent one as well. Yeah. Now they're things, they hit some clunkers from. me like Hale Caesar is I don't get it

I watched it a couple of times I don't think it's very funny Didn't see it You know The The What am I thinking of here The back to backs

Right of Fargo and Big Lobowski Here's their filmography Hold on Cone brothers' filmography Okay Miller's Crossing Raising Arizona was 1987 Fargo is 1996 Wow was that

long ago. The Big Lobowski's 1998. How many times have we all seen that movie at this point? Oh my God, yes. I thought John Goodman should have won an Oscar for that movie. He played Walter Sucheck. Of course, but did Jeff Bridges win anything for that movie or not?

No. Nobody won anything for that movie. Bridges is so good. I thought John Goodman was by far the best thing in the movie. Goodman's great, especially when he goes out of the shit of that car. but no country for old men was so well done and that is a Cormac McCarthy book and I'm not like Not one of my favorites. I know I'm in a real small minority here since that was the Oscar winner that year, but not one of my favorites. I thought there will be blood should have won the Oscar.

There will be blood was great. No country for old men was good and I was going to say that while never, a massive reader of novels. Cormac McCarthy's the one author that I've read a lot of in Blood Meridians, one of the best books ever written. And he wrote No Country for Old Men as well. Anyway, all right, well, I wanted to tell you that I watched that movie. Well, that's good, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, and it was a good, it was a very, very good recommendation. So I do have sort of several things Washington football team related that I thought we could get to right now. And then I do want to circle back to the Olympics and maybe a couple of other things. I did not, you have not

weighed in on the Kirk Cousins episode from last week. I did on the Friday podcast. So we'll do that a little bit as well. But I wanted to start with this because I know that I have mentioned many times that while I'm not a schedule guy, I do acknowledge that Washington's schedule this year has, by my count, an unusual number of elite quarterbacks that they will be facing. And I've said many times on the podcast over the last couple of months after the schedule, not after the schedule came out, but after we knew who their opponents would be, that this has to be one of the most daunting schedule. in terms of quarterbacks, elite quarterbacks, and by the way, just elite offenses a team

has ever faced. Well, the athletic ranked schedules based on the level of quarterbacks that teams would be facing in the upcoming season. So somebody sent this to me, and I read through it early this morning, and I was assuming that Washington would be number one. Well, they weren't. Well, they weren't for one reason more than any other, which I'll get. get to in a moment. But the story is written by Mike Sando of the athletic. And Sando, I guess,

last week or the week before, came out with his rankings of quarterbacks. And he ranks them in four tiers, you know, tier one guys, tier two guys, tier three guys, tier four guys. And he had help on that with like 50 general managers, coaches, coordinators, executives from around the league. So it wasn't his opinion. It was based on a lot of surveying of NFL coaches and executives. So off of that list, he created the rankings 1 through 32 of the teams that would be facing the most difficult schedule based on the opposing quarterbacks. The toughest schedule in the upcoming season based on opposing quarterbacks will be faced by the Chicago Bears. The Bears were number one.

They play Aaron Rogers twice in their own division. They play Tom Brady, Russell Wilson. Those three are Tier 1 QBs. Matt Stafford, Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray are Tier 2 guys. And then Derek Carr, Joe Burrow, Ben Rothesberger, Kirk Cousins twice, Baker Mayfield. Who else did I say Joe Burrow? And Jared Goff are all Tier 3 guys. based on their rankings. So they were number one. Number two is Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, in addition to

facing Lamar Jackson twice, and Joe Burrow twice, face Rogers, Mahomes, Wilson, Allen, Herbert, Tannahill, and Carr, and Cousins. Minnesota's got the third toughest schedule based on opposing quarterbacks they will face. They have to face Aaron Rogers twice. They've got Wilson, Jackson, Matt Stafford, Herbert, Press, got Murray, Burrow, Rathusperker, Mayfield. And then fourth on that list is Washington. However, Washington, it's written that Washington is the only team in the league to face their rankings of the four highest rated quarterbacks in the NFL. The four highest rated running backs in the NFL are for them, Aaron Rogers, Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, and Russell Wilson.

They're the only team. Quarterbacks, not running back. Did I say running backs? Yeah, quarterbacks, of course. So, Rogers, Mahomes, Brady, and Wilson are the top four quarterbacks in Tier 1, according to the Athletics rankings. And so Washington is the only team that faces all four Tier 1 quarterbacks. They also, so they face the number one ranked quarterback, the number two ranked quarterback in Mahomes. number one in Rogers, number two in Mahomes, number three, and Brady, number four in Wilson.

They don't play the fifth ranked quarterback, which is Deshawn Watson. However, they play the sixth ranked quarterback Josh Allen, the seventh ranked quarterback, Dak Prescott, twice. So in the top seven, they have seven games against the top seven guys because they play Prescott twice. Now, the only reason that Washington is at number one is that they have four quarterbacks on their schedule ranked at the bottom of the league. Darnold, the Bridgewater Lock a combo in Denver, whomever emerges as the starter. Two games against Jalen Hertz and a game against James Winston, which for my money, I think they've got ranked too low. I don't think he's one of the worst starting quarterbacks, but we don't know yet. sort of their point. But in addition to Rogers Mahomes, Brady Wilson, Allen in two games against

Prescott, they also have a game against Herbert, who in their rankings, hold on. So I gave you, in their top 10 quarterbacks, they face Rogers number one, Mahomes is number two, Brady's three, Wilson's four, they don't face Deshawn Watson, if Watson even plays. They get Allen at six. They get Prescott, who's tied for seventh with Lamar Jackson and Matt Stafford. They get Prescott twice. And then they get Herbert, who is ninth. And they get Matt Ryan, who's 11th.

It's only not the toughest of the year, if not one of the toughest of all time, because they, they have Darnold, Hertz twice, Winston, who they deemed to be a bottom tier quarterback and the combination

of Bridgewater Lock. Man. Now, do you have the list in front of you? I do. The list of what, quarterbacks? No, the athletic rankings. Yeah, you mean for the teams?

I do, yes. Okay. Where is the next NFCE? team on that left. Good question. Because I read down to Washington when I read that, and then I stopped. I didn't read anymore. I don't know where the next NFCE team is. Well, it looks like the Eagles at 19. This is odd because they play all the same teams with the exception of two. Now, the two that Washington gets because they had the first place schedule and the 17th game is they get buffing Tampa and Green Bay.

Actually, they play the NFC South. So they get Wilson Rogers and Allen. So that makes a big difference with their division teams because the Eagles are 19th. The Giants are 25th on the list and the Cowboys are 28th. So based on quarterbacks faced, much easier. I would also point out, like, if somebody did a ranking of, like, the best receivers in the game, if not receiving cores, the skins have their hands full on that, too. I mean, they get Keenan Allen in week one. You know, whatever you think of Kenny Colliday, whatever, I'll strike him from the list.

They get Stefan Diggs in week two. They get the Falcons in their assortment minus Julio in week three. They get the Saints with Michael Thomas in week four. They get the chiefs in their whole group in week five or six, whatever it is. They get the Packers and Devante Adams. The Broncos have weapons all over the field. The Buccaneers have weapons all over the field. The Seahawks have D.K. Metcalfe.

The Cowboys obviously have great receivers. Right now they get them twice. It's really not just the quarterbacks. It's just the potential of the pass offenses that they face this year. are going to test this defense. This defense didn't get tested last year, which is why, no matter what you people want to say, it's why it was ranked so high on so many levels. They just didn't get tested very often.

They got tested by Lamar Jackson, and, you know, they got tested by, you know, a pretty good quarterback in Stafford, and Russell Wilson, I guess. But they were playing second and third string quarterbacks on a lot of these games. last year. And by the way, they could end up doing that again this year. That's why the schedule games, you know, dangerous. Go ahead. Yes, it is. I'm curious because this speaks to something I was thinking about today, and I'm sure a lot of fans deal with this, and I'm going to admit that I deal with it as well, because I don't consume the whole NFL at this stage of the season.

I'm not reading how other teams feel about how they're doing in training camp. So I'm pretty much centered on what's happened in Washington. And I understand how optimism can grow based on the idea that your world is only made up of your team at this point and what they're doing in training camp. and the stuff I read in training camp every day makes me think, you know, maybe they will be good. I mean, I'm talking about like the battle for left guard that supposedly is taking place now, possibly, or right guard, whichever.

And I'm thinking, well, you know, good teams, you can measure good teams by their offensive line depth. And maybe they've got some offensive. of line depth. And I catch myself, and what the danger is, in almost every city where there's an NFL team, they're doing the same thing. You know? Yeah, I mean, this is the danger of all this. I mean, you've hit on a couple of things. You've hit on, first of all, I don't pay attention to the, you know, the minutia and the detail coming out of these training camps. What I do try and, and really make an effort to do is to listen to Rivera when he speaks and the quarterback when he speaks, but really Rivera and maybe any other assistant coach, you know, as he spoke after Friday

night's thing, as he spoke after yesterday's practice as well, because I like to learn how, well, eventually if you listen to all these, you're going to know what he is. You know, is he a guy that gives you clues? Is he a guy that's just, you know, super direct and honest? Or is a guy, you know, that hide stuff? because ultimately you'll see the results and then you can track that back to what he says. I'm not somebody, and it's been this way for years,

even though I'm sort of required to do it. I think it's boring. I think these training camp things and these preseason games, you know, I'm much, I'll give you the topic that I discussed today on the show here in a moment, but you're, I don't even get into the real granular detail of training camp. I know there's a market for it, and I, you know, love to have people on like Ben and,

you know, Sam Fortier was on the podcast Friday and Nikki and JP and all the people that cover the team to talk about some of that stuff. And I can ask questions, but I find a lot of that stuff boring, but you're 100% right. None of the people that actually do follow this for their favorite team are really paying attention to anything around the league unless they're. is an injury. And one of the things that has been a story is that Dack Prescott isn't completely healthy in Dallas. He's got some right shoulder issues, which the Cowboys have actually reached out to like pitching, you know, doctors for the Rangers, some of the Rangers team

doctors, which tells you that there's some concern there. Now, that would be massively impactful to the upcoming season. Yes, it would. These are big things. You know, West Schweitzer or Eric Flowers at this point just isn't that big of a deal. Although I had been on and I was surprised that Schweitzer, you know, and this is proof that I'm not following it day to day, Schweitzer's been taking the first team reps, but apparently today Flowers got a lot of them. Well, I sort of assume they acquired flowers to have them start. But when we get to the opener, we'll find out who the starters are.

You know, we'll have a sense in watching some of the preseason games, and yes, I'm going to watch the preseason games. But Tommy, the last 10 years, that fourth preseason game, I barely watched any of it, any of it. Well, there hasn't been a great fourth preseason game since Mike made Albert Haynesworth played the entire game. In Arizona, yeah. Yes, that was the last great fourth preseason game. Yes, good point. So I, you know, this time of year is easier, you know, when we do what we do, then, you know, June and July, I guess, because we're counting down now. And you can come up with topics to do that aren't necessarily, oh my God, they just sign this dude to back up, you know, the backup to Chase Rueh.

He might have a chance of making the practice squad. I don't give a shit about any of that stuff. And the NFL changes so dramatically year and year out. It's week to week, really, for 27 of the 32 teams. Really, there are five to seven teams that either have the quarterbacks that mean they're going to be a contender as long as that quarterback is healthy, and we know who those teams are. Or you're just such a bottom-feeding gross franchise, which this one's been, you know, at times, certainly, or you're one of the 23 to 27 teams year and year out,

that you're not going to know anything about them until they start playing games in several games. And Washington fits that category, no matter how much people are obsessing about Tamara K Hemingway or John Bates. I know. You know, that's logical. That's logical. but if you're consuming, and I think a lot of fans do, trading camp information every day, I can understand why there would be a sort of groundswell of optimism. Yes.

But my point is, save for a handful of cities, in every other NFL city, fans probably feel the same way about their team because there's supposedly good things happening in their training camps as well. I bet they don't feel that way in Houston. No, no, they don't. I said a handful of cities that don't feel that way. You know what? You're right.

And again, I think that the people that are really, really immersed in that, it's niche. But it's okay because they're into it. And by the way, when we get to cut down date, a lot of those people are going to know a lot more about roster spots 50 through 60, you know, based on what they've been reading. But ultimately, you know, I'll take, you know, that first 35 to 40 when we get to opening day and start to evaluate then.

because that's, you know, it's, who was I, I guess I was having this conversation with a caller this morning, or it may have been Ben. It was with Ben. Rivera said, I guess yesterday, that he's going to play these preseason games. And it's interesting because, you know, when they went to the 17th game and they came out with the actual schedule in May, it was later this year than the normal, one of the things that I noticed, and I talked about it on the show, was that not only were there 17 regular season games and now three preseason games, but the schedule has it where there's a long layoff between the final preseason game and the season opener. Typically, your final preseason game would be on a Thursday night before Labor Day weekend, and then you would have your opener the following Sunday.

Now, Washington has 15 days between their final preseason games. game against Baltimore and their opener against the Chargers. And I bring this up because one of Rivera's comments yesterday was we're going to play our guys because one of the reasons we're going to play our guys, you know, in this preseason is we've got more than two weeks between the final preseason game and the opener. That's plenty of rest recovery, injury recovery, et cetera, time. And by the way, you also don't want it. being, if they didn't play in that third and final preseason game, Tommy, you wouldn't want

three weeks to pass, actually like 22 days to pass between the opener and the last, and the last time you played. Because if they played all of their starters for, say, three quarters against the Bengals, their second preseason game, it's on August 20th, and then treated the third preseason game, like they've treated the fourth preseason game in previous years, it would be 23. days before those guys played again. So I think you're going to see the preseason handled differently. I think you're going to see teams play their starters in all three games and maybe even longer than usual in all three games. Here's my one ask, and it's

because I've seen the really good teams do it. Not every good team's done it, but if you look in recent years, teams like the Patriots when Brady was there, the Packers, the Seahawks with Wilson and Rogers. A lot of these teams understand that without game planning in preseason games on either side, that there's really, you know, you're looking for effort, execution, you know, talent. But for getting something out of it from a team standpoint, what some of these teams have figured out is pass offense is rhythm, it's chemistry, it's reps. And we've seen in preseason games in the past, you know, call it five to ten years,

Tom Brady throw 18 passes and a half or 23 balls and a half on 25 plays. Like, why are you running the football in a preseason game against a team that hasn't game planned for you? Get your quarterback and receivers, especially when they're new like they are in Washington, and give them as many reps with as much as the playbook of pitching and catching as you can get. Like, I'd like to see Fitzpatrick on Thursday night in the first quarter. If he gets two series in the game, let's just say he gets two, I'd like to see no less than 12 pass attempts. If they run 15 plays, I want 13 passes.

I don't need to see Antonio Gibson or McKissick or Barbara carry the ball. Now, when we get to the... Okay. Okay, let me ask you this then. I mean, and Mike did this, Mike Shanahan would do this. There are coaches who have held back in preseason games, and not giving you a look at pretty much anything that they really had in mind or any of the talent that they really were ready to unfold.

That doesn't happen anymore? You don't want that to happen anymore? Nobody's ever disclosed anything from a game planning standpoint in terms of how they're intending to play. I know that. I know that. But, I mean, look, I mean, RG, we didn't really know except for me what we were going to see from Robert Griffin to third. Well, Mike knew. Mike knew.

I was the first one in that, if you recall, in that minicamp to identify the pistol formation and bring it to every. everybody's attention that they were going to do some things. But I predicted it would be red zone plays, not the full game or not have it, you know, everywhere in the field. You know, Terry McLaren, Terry McLaren was pretty much, you know, held back a little bit in the preseason his rookie year. And I was hearing things. I remember hearing that they loved McLorn.

And I remember thinking, well, okay, why isn't he, you know, being, targeted a lot in these preseason games. Well, they weren't, you know, they weren't doing that. I think really what it should be is it should be a lot of offensive, you know, throwing the football, getting into a rhythm, running the routes, getting the ball out, getting pitch and catch chemistry against another opponent. I don't think these teams get much from running the ball in, you know, offensively. Defensively, you know, it's always been super vanilla. Everything is vener. in these preseason games.

Nobody game planned. Even the true dress rehearsal, they don't. I know. I agree with all that. Now, getting back to my optimism train that I'm like starting to hop on a little bit. Do you have a sense, or am I off base that they have more offensive line depth than they've had in the past? Yeah, I mean, they acquired flowers. Leno,

drafted Cosmi, who am I forgetting? You know, right there, those are three guys that all potentially could start, which if they were, would mean some of last year starters, like West Schweitzer, is a backup. Like Cornelius Lucas could be a backup.

Yeah. You know, um, yeah, I think on paper it would certainly appear if they've got more depth everywhere. Wide receivers, certainly. Offensive line, yes. Secondary. Is it a leap?

Is it a fallacy? I might just blow in smoke to think that good teams, one of the signs of good teams, is good offensive line depth. I mean, the Ravens do not have great skill position depth, except at running back. But they're always deep. on the offensive line. Always. That's the team that comes to mind to me.

I think it's important to have offensive line depth. Is it crucial? It's not crucial if you've got an elite quarterback. Aaron Rogers took his team to a Super Bowl with a banged up offensive line without much depth. We've seen it happen before, but we've also seen, look, this team in 2017, was just wiped out on the offensive line. Remember, they were introducing each other on Saturday nights before games, you know, during that season. But it wasn't, you know, it wasn't a great team and they didn't even with Kirk. You know, obviously they didn't have an elite quarterback. Had a good quarterback, not an elite quarterback.

But, yeah, I think it's important. I think, you know, Tommy, the truth is the position where it's most important is it quarterback. I know. How many teams seasons have been derailed when they haven't had a quality backup? But it's hard to have a quality backup when you've got nine teams in the league that don't have a quality starter. Well, Washington has three quality backups. Well, Kyle Allen's not getting any time right now. He's hurt.

No, I know. I know. Right now, like, it's Heineke, you know, behind Fitzpatrick. And, you know, I did get – I had a comment. conversation with somebody before a round of golf on Friday last week, I think it was. And this dude was still trying to sell me on the fact that, you know, Heineke's got a chance in these preseason games, if he plays well. And, you know, even though it, he said, even though it looks like you're right based on the reps and based on what everybody's saying that it's really not a competition,

you're going to find out in the preseason games that it's a competition. Okay. I would, honestly bet almost any amount or any loved one in my life on Ryan Fitzpatrick being his starting quarterback unless he gets hurt. Like I just don't think that there's even a fraction of one percent chance that Taylor Heineke starts unless Ryan Fitzpatrick gets hurt. I think Fitzpatrick could go out in these preseason games and throw one touchdown in seven interceptions in six quarters and still be the starter against the Chargers. But for those of you that still think that your guy who played well, really well in the playoff game, not only should be the starter, but still has a chance to be the starter,

I think you're delusional. I just don't, this isn't a competition. Now, how many quarterbacks do they have in camp besides them and Stephen Montez? Is there anybody else? No, that's it. I think that's it. Okay. I don't know.

There might be a fifth one out there. I mean, if you're a Taylor Heineke fan, you have to admit what's been his biggest problem? Staying healthy? Right. So if Kyle Allen isn't healthy, and once Taylor Heineke gets exposed on the field and winds up getting hurt, then they don't have a backup. Let me rephrase. Taylor Heineke's biggest problem so far since playing college football, has been getting the opportunity to play professional football.

That's been his biggest issue. I mean, he's 28 years old. I know. He's not 23. And he's played in a whopping eight games and started in two, one of which was a playoff game. Are you counting his XFL career? No, I'm not.

Okay. I'm not. Maybe I should. There was something, there were a couple of other things, Washington football related, which we'll get to. We'll get to that. Some Olympics, some Kirk, I want to hear what Tommy thinks, RG3. There's a bunch of stuff to get to.

We'll do that starting right after these words from a few of our sponsors. I wanted to start this segment by sort of segueing from your thoughts about, you know, fans, in their optimism about training camp, but also being dialed into one team. Because Ron Rivera said something Friday night after that practice at FedEx Field, which just so everybody understands, I don't, from what I can gather, I wasn't there. From what I can gather, I don't know that any, I don't know anybody other than some media people that were there. But what I can gather from the media people that I've talked to, there weren't 20,000 people there. You know, they were giving away 20,000.

They claimed it to be a sold out deal. I actually thought it was going to be an interesting measuring stick. First time, you know, back, you know, on your optimism thing. Would they, you know, would they get, the tickets were free? Would they actually be able to give them all away and get 20,000 people? From what I can tell, there was probably somewhere around 10 to 12,000 based on multiple people I've talked to. But still, that's not terrible. That's about as much as they got for their last home game in 2019.

But I will just mention this right now, if I didn't mention this on Friday. I do think it was a really good idea to do what they did. I think that they, I think Jason Wright and the organization is in a mode that it's never been in. It's a mode they're not used to. It's a mode that Bruce Allen and Dan Snyder wanted quelled immediately when Brian Lafamina tried to go down this path. And obviously they're not getting any pushback from ownership now. And that is to admit you need customers and to do everything you can to attract customers. Why?

Because they really do need them. Remember what Brian Lafamina told us when he said, you know, I think it's a pretty good idea if you're selling tickets and you have them available. to let people know they're available, you know, which is what Bruce and Dan never wanted to do. They wanted to create this, you know, perception, this fantasy that, you know, there was a waiting list. But anyway, I think what they did Friday night is smart. I think you're going to see a lot of offers and a lot of marketing-driven things to get people to the stadium. You know, there's only so much that they can control with respect to how many people watch the games, but they really want to get people to the stadium.

But anyway, Ron Rivera said something after Friday night's practice at FedEx Field. And I'm looking for the, God damn it, where is the, I had it up a second ago. I'll paraphrase here rather than looking for it. He basically, well, here's part of the quote. Part of the quote was in talking about the fans. He said, quote, I think they're curious. We've piqued their curiosity from last season, and we've got to get a hold of them, closed quote.

That is a really good summation, Tommy, of where I think the majority of the fan base is. And the fact that he said we've got to get a hold of them, he knows. You know, he's involved in this organization. He knows where season tickets stand right now. Doesn't mean that single tickets won't be purchased for the Chargers game or the Giants game early on. But being curious, I think, is the majority of the fan base. Now, I put out a poll and I gave three answers as to how you're feeling as a fan, sort of a fan sentiment, you know, poll.

The three answers were you're legitimately excited, the arrows pointed upwards. number two is your curiosity is peaked as Ron Rivera suggested or number three you're still mostly checked out you know these are the people that have just said over the last you know two three four five ten years I'm done I can't do it anymore it's not just the losing it's the you know it's the way in which they behave so far in my poll 46 0.8%, the major, which is the single biggest group of people based on this poll, say they're legit excited with the arrow pointed upward. 41.3% curiosity peaked, still mostly checked out 11.9%. Now, I took calls on this for a couple segments, and I would say more people said curiosity

peak. That's where I am. I'm not, I'm not a legit excited arrow pointed up. You're not going to get me again until I see it this time. And I want to see it for a while. I thought that was an honest, accurate assessment. Yeah, I did too. I mean, there is reason to be curious. I'll be the first one to admit that. They won their division. It was a 7-9 record, but they won their division, and there are some pieces to get legitimately excited about. So I think that's a, I think that's all you can ask of the fan base at this point after all what they've been through. Yeah. I don't think you can ask them to, come on, jump right back in again.

I think you've got to show them something. Here's the rest of his quote. I have it. He was talking about the fans, you know, and them being back in the stadium on Friday night for the first time, even though there were a limited number of fans, obviously, for what the last home game last year. I forget what it was now. And he said, I'm telling you, this place can be special. It really can. With that fan base that this organization has had for years, being a team that started in 1932 with a lot of tradition in history with five world championships,

three of them being Super Bowls under Coach Gibbs, we want to be able to get those folks back in the stands and get them behind us. I think they're curious. We've piqued their curiosity from last season and we've got to get a hold of them. I think people are curious about who we can be. We've got a lot of good football players. We're still learning and growing, et cetera. I think this is a guy going back to when he got hired, Tommy. More so than Jay Gruden, who was just looking for a job, more so than Mike Shanahan, who had had a relationship with Snyder prior to being hired,

but also got paid a shitload of money and wanted back in the game. This guy didn't have to come here. this guy probably had another choice. I don't know if it was the Giants or the Cowboys, but probably he'd be coaching, I think, somewhere right now if Washington didn't hire him. He loved the roster. Mike Silver told me that, you know,

going back a year and a half ago, which made him think that he could turn it around defensively faster than maybe he could in other places. But he's come in eyes wide open about everything. Now, there was that stretcher, in the season where, you know, he was providing pop quizzes for quarterbacks and games, and he was talking about going for two, you know, on the road with no fans, the whole thing. You know, not calling timeouts.

There was a bunch of that, you know, as he was battling cancer, by the way, at the time. But this is another statement to me that just says, this is a guy. Remember, he lived the RFK experience as an opponent in big games for the Bears. I think he just has a grasp of what it is. and I don't think he's fooling himself. Like, by the way, maybe other people are in the media, fans, about how, you know, people are going to come back, you know, immediately. Like, they're just frothing to get back at it.

I think he understands. And he says, you know, in that quote, we've got to get a hold of them. We've piqued their curiosity. Now we've got to get a hold of them. They're curious. So I'm telling you, Tommy, they got to play well this year. year. They've got the owner's got to stay

out of it. They've got to play hard. They've got to play smart. They've got to behave. They've got to win nine games, eight games, look better. And, you know, you need a year or two of those, you need a couple of years of that back to back. And then

he's going to have a hold of a lot more of them than they've had in the last few years. You know, it is remarkable that the coach of the football team is basically acknowledging that nobody comes to to see them play. Yes.

That is remarkable. I'm giving him credit for understanding that. Yes, I do. I give him credit for what he said, and I think it's accurate, but still, it's amazing, given the talk that we've heard here over the years that a football coach for Washington football

that say, yeah, nobody's showing up. We've got to find a way to get them back in the stand. Yeah, you know, people like the new team president, although he has nothing to do with the football operation. He's made that very clear to me. He's got nothing to do. He has, he's got to build a business, and I love this description, that is losing resilient. I love that. That's his mantra, basically, to build a business that's losing resilient.

You may say, how do you do that? Well, the Cowboys have done it. Believe it or not, the dolphins have done it. The Dolphins have one of the better business situations in the league, even though they haven't won in a long time. There are a lot of reasons for that, and I could go into them on another show, that's stadium experience,

it's fan-friendliness of your stadium, it's investments in other things outside of football, which we've heard Jason Wright, you know, sort of allude to. But they've got two guys who I think are smart, and I also think Tommy are likable. And that, if they can win side by side with being likable in their leadership positions, especially on the football side, they're, you know, he's going to get a hold of the people that he knows and recognizes left.

Remember, they never wanted to admit that before, even though they had an internal poll, an internal poll that told them how much the fan base hated the owner and hated the team president. But there was one other thing I wanted to get. Go ahead. Let me just point out that you're right about a lot of that, but the team president isn't going to have the erred of fans if he keeps putting out Pavlum like Dan Snyder

just let his managers run things without interfering with them like he did a week ago. I mean, that was absolute horseshit, and he's going to lose credibility if he keeps saying that stuff. Well, he's going to lose credibility with people who are paying attention to him. You know, you picked that out of the John Kimes story, and you were right to do it. And again, I told you what I think he was trying to say, which is Dan's more the ideas guy, and Tanya's more of a day-to-day operator. But whatever.

For now, look, when the season starts, he's an insignificant figure. for fans. He means nothing. He's a team president. He's not Bruce Allen team president. He's a business only. He's made that very clear that he has nothing to do with the results on the football field. So he's not going to be making the calls for replays from his box? No, he's not going to be doing that, even though he probably could do it better than Bruce. I wanted to, I wanted to mention something that I think I missed last week. It was the Forbes list of NFL values for teams. And Washington had grown, had gone up since last year. They had fallen to eighth overall. They had the slowest growth in valuation of any team in 2020. And I talked. I talked

a lot about that back then because I said this is an example of how the name being lost and a lot of other things for them, obviously, the loss of, you know, fans and, you know, people in the stadium. I'm talking about pre-pandemic. It was during the pandemic, but before they started to lose the money from fans. The value of all these franchises are up just significantly because of, because of the new TV deals. New TV deal, yeah. Yeah, it's up an average, an average of 14% across the board. Washington was up to $4.2 billion in valuation, a 20% increase for them, which is really significant.

And so it's even above the average of the league. well, you know, it's the TV deals and the fact that they had such slow growth a year ago. So that was a big part of it as well, is they had such slow growth a year ago that they came up, you know, more than everybody else. Anyway, what I wanted to get to is this. Number one is for those of you who said, man, Snyder won big again. Well, I mean, they're referring to the buyout of the minority investors on. a valuation of $2.2 billion and the team's worth $4.2 billion. Understand this. The team is valued at $4.2 billion right now. It's actually, if they were to sell it, it's actually worth even more.

They would get close to $5 billion if this thing were ever actually made available. $4.2 billion is an estimation of their value, but you only realize that if you actually sell it, it's such a rare thing that an NFL team is sold. The Cowboys valuation is $6.5 billion. They're number one. The Patriots are $5 billion. The Giants are three at $4.8 billion. The Rams are at $4.8 billion at $4.2 billion.

But the reason, and I tried to explain it at the time, that Fred Smith and Bob Rothman and Dwight Schar didn't get a $4.2 billion dollar valuation. on their 40% sale back to Snyder, which, by the way, Snyder had to borrow from the league, as Tommy pointed out, to make happen, is because it's a minority stake. And a minority stake never gets majority value. Now, the other part of this, to be honest with you, is I'm pretty sure Snyder's going to end up selling back, you know, a 30 to 40% stake to another group of minority investors, and I believe they will be minorities. I think the NFL quid pro quo with waiving the debt limit, probably taking it easy on him with respect to the Beth Wilkinson investigation, and then loaning him money to buy out his previous investors, is to take on new investors that I think will be a push for a diverse minority ownership group. I bet you that happens within the next year.

But I bring all this up because the lead was these valuations. But underneath the lead was a very interesting thing that if you went through this Forbes story, you found out how much revenue these teams generated in 2020. Now, remember, 2020, they didn't have gate receipts, so revenues were going to be down for the teams that didn't allow fans, like the Cowboys allowed fans. But listen to the difference in revenue between the Cowboys and the rest of the league. Remember, Jerry is Dan's hero, right?

Tommy, Dan's hero. The Cowboys generated $800 million in top-line revenue in 2020. The next closest were the L.A. Rams with their new stadium at $422 million. Washington's revenue in 2020 was $388 million. Do you guys remember the days where it was Washington and Dallas neck-in-neck for the the two biggest revenue-generating franchises in the NFL and the, you know, Snyder and this is the new wave of owners. You know, Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder, they're marketing geniuses. Well, you know, Jerry's really good at this.

He's really good. He's twice as good as anybody else, pretty much, in the league. Now, they allowed fans last year at a lot of their games and a lot of stadiums didn't, but that's not where the difference is made up. $800 million, a lot of that, is corporate sponsorship revenue and other things like apparel, et cetera. And Washington's at 388. I mean, Snyder must look at the difference and go, oh, my God. And this is why...

Oh, I'm sure. He looks at the difference and says, this is what I've got. working against me, I'd be doing what Jerry did if it wasn't for everybody, all the dummies who get in the way. No shit. That's what he would do. If he ever were allowed an interview and somebody were to say, Dan, you and Jerry used to be neck and neck in top of the league revenues.

Now Jerry's pulled away and you're sort of right there, you know, in that next tier, you know, two tiers down revenue. Why did that happen? It would be, well, you know, we had a bad color. with Bruce Allen. We had some terrible coaches. We'd had this. Bruce would be the latest. I inherited a bad stadium. You know, the whole thing. The whole thing, it'd be everybody else's fault it is. But that is, just so you know, I guarantee you guys out there, this is something that burns him. He was right there. And of course, these revenues have tailed off. We've seen that.

you know, in a lot of the information that gets published. A lot of times it's hard to find this information because the league basically produces this information in aggregate. But Forbes has always done a really good job of finding out, you know, sort of per team economics, you know, per team revenue and per team operating income. Jerry's team operating income, right, pre-tax, is $280 million on $800 million in revenue. That is an excellent margin in the NFL. And Washington, in the meantime, made $25 million pre-tax on $388 million in top-line revenue.

That's the thing that Dan looks at this guy, Jason Wright, and anybody else in that business side and says, we need to get these, we have to increase our revenue, and we have to do it even if the team on the field loses. Well, let's see if they can do that. I think for their situation, the team has to win. Has to win. Yes, I think so, too. What's interesting is, and this is no surprise, you mentioned how high the Patriots are, okay?

I mean, and you mentioned the Cowboys. The Cowboys have always been up there, and the Rams were not up there when they were in St. Louis. Yeah, but the new stadium. Yeah. Yeah. Right. But the Patriots are an interesting thing because, I mean, there was a time in our lifetime where the Patriots were a bottom feeder.

Yes. They talked about moving them to Hartford. I know. It's true. And obviously the Belichick-Bradie marriage and all that success elevated them to an elite franchise. You know, it's interesting. I'm drowning in newsletters. I read about eight newsletters a day.

You do? And it's taken up too much of my time, yeah. And I get this one called The Huddle, and this guy wrote about, you know, will professional athletes eventually get equity and mention Tom Brady as an example? I mean, if you lay the success of the New England Patriots at the feet of Tom Brady at some point, Do teams start offering athletes equity as part of their contract negotiation? Well, I mean, look, for a lot of you out there, you'll understand this. You know, compensation can be doled out in many ways.

You know, depending on the company you're in, you either want, you know, all in sort of cash compensation, you know, cash, bonus, et cetera. Or if you're in the kind of company that you think is going to rise in value, you want equity. you want equity, whether it's in the form of stock options, or if you're an early person in the company, you want outright equity. There's no way that NFL owners are going to give out equity. Now, when I say no way, I guess a player like Brady may earn it, I don't know how that would be factored with salary cap stuff.

I don't know either. You know, that would be, you know, okay, we just gave Brady a half a percent in options. And so this year's options are worth based on the Forbes valuation at, you know, $400 million. I don't know. I don't think you can do that. By the way, I mean, I would think it would be more a basketball thing, you know, where, you know, you don't have the same competitive level in attracting players.

Like in the NFL, you have a chance, you know, basically. on salary cap and draft and by the way, you know, just a different feel of playing in bad markets. Like in the NBA, there are a few markets that attract all the players. In the NFL, it's not necessarily that. You know, you can be in Indianapolis or Green Bay, you know, or even Jacksonville and still make money and still attract players without having to, you know, incent them with equity. one of the things I was just doing is because this was the first time Washington's 388 million all right it says according to Forbes they had 25 million in operating income on that I mean that is just unacceptable for Dan to make that little money on that revenue and there's just no like the

average sort of operating income numbers are in the 20 to 25 percent range it would appear so that's got to be a much bigger number. It's got to be north of $100 million in operating income. And that's all because of the product and the embarrassment and the erosion. You know, their revenue and their operating income are a total reflection of the erosion of the fan base because their TV cut is the same, you know, as 32 other teams. So it's all the other stuff where they've lost and they've lost. lost big in recent years. And by the way, I think Ron Rivera is probably somebody on the football

side that understands some of this stuff. That's my guess. I could be wrong. Jason Wright understands it. Anyway, I would hope the president of the team understands it. Right. Yeah, well, he definitely understands it. There was something else I was going to say about this, and now I've forgotten. And so if I remember, I will say it when we come back after these words from a few of our sponsors. The other thing that I was going to say is that there were a lot of teams based on net income that lost money last year during the pandemic, at least according to Forbes. I know a lot of people will, you know, I roll that. But you have huge expenses, remember, in the NFL too. But anyway, I spent 10 minutes on Friday, maybe 15, I don't remember how much time I spent on Friday,

talking about that day, Tommy, which followed Dwayne Haskins playing in the Hall of Fame game, RG3 getting a gig with the SPN, essentially marking the official end of his career, and then the absolute bizarro world of Kirk Cousins in his comments about, you know, contact tracing. I wanted to give you a chance to weigh in on all of or any of the three. Well, I don't know how Haskins did on Friday night. I wasn't paying attention. I was really paying attention. And I just wanted to mention somebody, something.

I tweeted this from a story I wrote years ago in The Guardian about the Pro Football Hall fame. Originally, the Pro Football Hall fame was supposed to be in Jim Thor, Pennsylvania. Okay. That was part of the plan of having Jim Thorpe buried there. And then the commissioner of football, Bert Bell, died of a heart attack, and that plan got scuttled, and then it wound up in Ken. This is an aside. Robert Griffin Affaird, he doesn't, you know, until we produce the 30 for 30,

he doesn't mean anything to me anymore. Good luck to him in his gig as a college football commentator. He'll probably be good at it. and what was the third thing? Oh, Kirk? I don't know what there is to discuss, Kevin. Is there another side to idiot? No.

Is there? No. It's honestly one of all of the things, and there have been some dumb things, I mean, Montes Sweat, you know, after coming out of the meeting that the team held with the world, you know, top immunologist, you know, answering questions and explaining the vaccine, Montes Sweat came out and said, well, I'm not going to take it because I haven't gotten COVID yet. I'll take it when I get COVID. But you're like, were you sleeping during the meeting?

I don't think anything dumber has been said than what Kirk Cousin said about being able to avoid close contact. By the way, several of you, you know, pushed back on, you know, his body, his choice. that's my belief too. Trust me. I believe that. However, however, in this business, if you're going to choose this business and you're going to get paid all that money and these are the rules, well, it is selfish in my view to put your team at a potential competitive disadvantage. That's my position on that. But my emphasis on this was what he said on Friday during this bizarreo 10-minute conference call or press, you know, conference, where he actually said that he might put plexiglass up and around him to keep him from having close contact. Now, maybe he wasn't

being literal, but the point is he thinks he as a football player can avoid close contact. He can't. his profession requires him to be constantly in close contact with people. He's got to put his hands under the ass of a teammate a lot of times every Sunday. He might not get it that way, but how about in the huddle or how about when he's being tackled? And there are five guys on top of him, you know, either with the ball or he just threw it. It's football, dummy. It's close contact. I mean, you know, all I could think of was that scene in Anchorman, where Ron Burgundy is in the telephone booth crying about how his dog Baxter got thrown off the bridge.

And he yells, I'm in a glass case of emotion. I mean. He's a Rod Burgundy in the NFL. You know, I don't think Kirk is dumb. You know, I, you know, I've told people this before. I've had conversations with Kirk in the past. I know what Kirk is, I think. He's very religious.

His father is a preacher. This is a Jesus thing. And he's not going to change his mind. Tommy, I agree with you. But you know what? Say it then. Say it. Don't try to tell us that you're going to do everything in your power,

including surrounding yourself in Plexiglo. to make sure that you're not in close contact and you're not risking, you know, your availability to a team who, by the way, has no backup quarterback, none, and a team that has high expectations this year after, you know, adding seven new players to its defense. So you can't, like, did he really think anybody was going to buy that? Just come out and say, here's the deal, people. My religious beliefs. Because of my religious beliefs, I'm not getting vaccinated. This is a personal and private decision based on my religious beliefs. And if there's some sort of health thing that he's specifically concerned about, he's got some condition that somebody in his religion or some

doctor said, well, you have this. You probably should wait until, you know, it's got two billion more doses. I just, you know, I do understand, and I have three young people in my life, three young men in my life, and not all of them agree. They're all vaccinated, but not all of them agree that they're vaccinated for the same reasons, and not all of them agree on this subject. You know, some say, look, their football players are not going to get sick. It's sort of what I said. To me, I think they should mandate vaccines. Lamar Jackson would disagree with you. about that. How sick did he get? According to John Harbaugh, he had pretty severe symptoms. So, you know, beyond just the, it's a long shot, though. We all understand it's a super long

shot for vaccinated or unvaccinated, certainly for unvaccinated, for vaccinated, but it's a super long shot even for unvaccinated young fit people to get sick. However, that's not the point. You made the point. It is about the greater cause of eradicating this virus, keeping our health care system from being overburdened. And by the way, the more and more you read, and I understand this thing's a changing thing, but these long haulers, you know, who may have had very minimal symptoms when they had COVID, both young and old people, but now still don't have taste and smell back. My good friend Scott Van Pelt still doesn't have full taste and smellbush. back. You know, this is now eight months after he had it. Who knows, he may never have taste and

smell. There are worse things like having brain fogginess. That's a long-haul symptom. Migraine headaches. Other long-haul symptoms that aren't necessarily life-threatening, but are life-impacting. So, I don't know. I just, again, back to away from the vaccine itself and to Kirk's comments. They were really stupid. And I don't think he's that stupid, but I think he thought for whatever reason he could, you know,

convince people that he would be responsible as a team leader to keep himself from getting shut down for another five days for close contact. Like he could stop that from happening. He can't. He can't stop that from happening. He will never be mask on,

socially distanced, And even if he were that, there's no guarantee that he's not going to be close contacted or that he's not going to get COVID. He plays football. He's in close contact every single day. I don't get it. I think some of these guys should just say, I'm not getting it. It's against my religious beliefs. I don't need to get into the detail.

It's a private matter. I'm not getting it. It's my position. I'd have greater respect for him if he did that. Because I do think that's what it is. So do I. It's what it is, too. What do we think of Kevin Durant

after he became the all-time leading men's basketball Olympian when they won gold the other day against France? By the way, it was a hideous game. And it was shown on live TV, which was nice, because all the other games you had to pay for with the Peacock Premium. him. Kevin Durant, all-time Olympian winner in men's basketball.

Do you have any thoughts? I have no thoughts. I think he's one of the greatest players of his era. I have a lot of respect for Kevin Durant now. Kevin Durant's burner accounts on Twitter and a lot of the reaction to various things in Golden State, there was definitely a sensitive bitchiness about him. you know, that was off-putting to me. But in the last year or two to watch him come back from that injury, to watch him play this year for Brooklyn,

to never in any of those games get worked up over him getting hacked around and pushed around. He was not a guy constantly complaining to officials. Not one excuse made at any point during the postseason this year. Obviously, his team was injured, and they probably would have won the title had they had at least one of those two guys, you know, Hardener or Kyrie with him. I thought he was just sensational in these playoff games. He had two of the all-time great playoff games.

You know, the Game 5 and the Game 7 in the Milwaukee series, where he scored 49 and 48 respectively. There's something about watching Durant in the postseason that just concluded and then understanding that a lot of players didn't go to Tokyo, Tommy. A lot of players that legitimately were too tired or didn't want to go and backed out of going. Some of them were legitimately injured and couldn't go. Durant's always gone. Durant had every reason after that Milwaukee series, which ended in late June,

to say, I'm physically spent. I mean, that series was, I mean, a physical grind. for him more than anybody else. And he was over there, and he was carrying that team. And yet, in terms of a player, I've never debated, he's one of the greatest players of all time. But I don't know. There's a lot of respect gained from me for him over the last couple of months,

including the last two weeks. Okay. You got nothing. Any other Olympic thoughts? I've got a couple. You go. uh... the in the metal count for people who pay attention to that thing the united states

finished with one more gold medal than china thirty nine to thirty eight uh... for people who care about that you better enjoy it because it's the last one you're ever going to see because next time around for the twenty twenty four games the united states it's not going to be number one China has been building, I mean, you know, this Olympic machine all towards getting these gold medals.

In 2000, China had 28 gold medals. The United States had 37. This year, the United States had 39. China had 38. In total metals, the difference in 2000 was 35 between the United States and China. it was 23 for these Olympics. The needles going one way. Okay.

And I mean, I don't care one way or the other, but for some people, this is how they can work. Weren't there Summer Olympics, many of them, when the U.S., you know, pre-1989, that the USSR had the most numbers? Yeah, well, the U.S.S.S.R consisted of 20 countries. I understand that. I understand that. You know, I mean, you were competing with East Germany,

you were competing with, you know, Yugoslavia and all this. So, I mean, China's coming in the Olympics. And, you know, I mean, it's, they obviously, given the way that country operates, they have a system in place that's designed to breed kids right from an early age for this kind of goal. Interesting. Do you know what else? Go ahead. No, you go.

Well, the other thing is just as a personal aside, if it were me and I had been covering these Olympics, I would have put in every single story I read, I wrote somewhere in the fourth, fifth, or sixth paragraph, just to let you know, outside the Olympic bubble, there is a country that is suffering with its worst COVID outbreak of all time that some of the leaders of this country actually cried that the prospect that the Olympics were coming to their country and a majority of people didn't want anything to do with the games. To me, I mean, basically on August 6th, Japan and Tokyo,

they had a record number of coronavirus cases. you know, burning the hospital system and a slow vaccine rollout that they had. To me, every single Olympic story would have had a reference to this. Because not to mention it is to ignore the biggest story that is taking place in that city every day. Why do they have a slow vaccine rollout? I don't know. Is it availability or is it pushback from people? I don't know.

I doubt if it's pushback from people. I would doubt that it's availability. It's Japan. Well, I don't know what it is. I don't know what the reasons are. Well, I know it's the most important story in Tokyo every day was the coronavirus. And you sit there writing giddy stories about track and field and not mentioning that, you know, meanwhile, in the rest of the world, this was happening.

And I know you're probably, you probably wrote. virus stories, but I wanted it in every story. Otherwise, it was illegitimate reporting. Okay. Well, so when you are there for the, you know, 200 meter final, you write about the, you know, the race and whoever won it and then, but before you even get to that, you write what? No, no, no, I didn't say that. Sixth or six paragraph somewhere high in that story. I put in there. I tell you why, call my Surgeon General's Warning for coronavirus in Tokyo. I mean, to honestly report these events that were taking place and to ignore, in all, virtually most of those reports, the biggest story going on in the city, it's just, it's dishonest reporting.

But that's me. Every story, every column, every column you would have written, you would have included it? Everyone. Every single one. I don't. I mean, if you're writing for, like, the Washington Post and they've got three or four people over covering the Olympics, and I don't know what they had, I have no idea. I don't even know who was over there. Was Barry over there?

I think I did read a column. Yeah, he was there. Was Liz over there? I don't think so. I don't know. Can't you just have one person on sort of the big picture of? No, everybody's got to write it? Because what if I don't read that person's story?

What if I read this other story? You know, and I'm thinking, wow, this is great, you know. They're having this great time at the Olympics. Everyone's enjoying, you know, this sprint and everything's wonderful. And I have no idea that, you know, the biggest story in the city is that the hospital system is stretched to its capacity because of the coronavirus. Yet there's a party going on. Hmm. I learned something about the Olympics that I didn't know this weekend from somebody who I was actually playing golf with. And I looked it up just to make sure that it wasn't, you know, sometimes people will tell you something, Tommy, because they think, you know, oh, Laverro will be interested in this. He's a sports writer.

And you're like, wow, that's really interesting. And then you say it and it's actually not true. So I went and looked this one up. Did you know that South Korea, first of all, South Korea, military service for South Korean men is mandatory by the time you have to serve 18 months by the time you're 28 years old. So you have until 28 to enlist to serve 18 months for all men in South Korea. But one of the exemptions provided is if you go to the Olympics didn't win a gold medal. And so there were two golfers in particular, Sung J.M. and Siwu Kim, who are both big, you know, players on the PGA tour, successful players who have not yet turned 28, and their times winding

down. So while I really ripped the Olympic golf last week on the podcast, I'm pretty sure I did it on the podcast. Well, I would have had to do it on the podcast because I was on a radio last week. when I said to me, Olympic golf should be abolished as a sport. It's stupid. Like these, these aren't Olympic athletes. None of these players care about winning Olympic gold. They'd rather win, you know, they'd rather win the Arnold Palmer at Bay Hill, you know, in March than win this tournament. And I was wrong because for Sung J.M. and Siwu Kim, a gold medal would have meant they can continue their golf career

without having to halt it for 18 months. Yeah, if it gets you out of the Army. Yeah, so that was one thing that I wanted to mention. And then I wanted to finish with this. I watched several of the speeches last night. I didn't watch any of the Hall of Fame speeches on Saturday. I watched Drew Pearson. I watched Peyton Manning.

I thought Peyton Manning was great. I thought Charles Woodson was really emotional. I loved his mother's introduction to him. but I want to just go back to something that I hit on when Drew Pearson got into the Hall of Fame. And it's this, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. And I've done this before. You know, as a lifelong Washington Redskin, Washington football team fan, to me, there is one egregious, majorly egregious omission right now from the Hall of Fame, and that's Joe Jacoby. Joe Jacoby should be in the Hall of Fame.

100% period. End of discussion. It's criminal that he isn't. I think the others that deserve consideration are Brian Mitchell, Larry Brown, even though he had a very short career, he was an NFL MVP, and Jerry Smith, I've mentioned him before. And then Gary Clark. And every single year, for a long period of time now, when another receiver that has, you know, decent numbers, but not Gary Clark numbers goes into the Hall of Fame, I say, well, Gary Clark should be in the Hall of Fame before this player. Drew Pearson went into the Hall of Fame. Drew Pearson's been, you know, screaming and yelling for this Hall of Fame thing for years. Something, by the way, that Gary Clark does not do at all. And, you know, Drew Pearson, I mean, remember when he didn't get in two years

ago or whatever and he was crying and talking about this is the, you know, the disgrace. and whatever. Drew Pearson is not a Hall of Fame-wide receiver. I'm sorry. And I, as a Washington football fan, I was at the end, you know, of a lot of Drew Pearson, you know, soul-crushing moments against my team. He was a very good receiver, a really good receiver in the 1970s. I'm not in early 80s. I'm not saying that he was, but he's not a Hall of Fame receiver. in my opinion. But if he is, which he now is, then Gary Clark has to be in the Hall of Fame. So does Cliff Branch, by the way. But Gary Clark played 167 games in his career, not counting USFL. Drew Pearson played 156. So they have a comparable number of games in their career.

Now, the era in which Pearson played, at least the first portion of that career in the early to mid-70s, it was tougher for receivers. It was a different passing era than you got in the mid-80s. I understand that, but they were contemporaries for a period of time. You know, Pearson played until 83. Clark was in the USFL and got into the NFL in 84. You know, it's not like we're not comparing Drew Pearson to Andre Johnson, okay, or Julio Jones. Gary Clark had 699 career catches. Drew Pearson had 489.

I mean, are you kidding me? Drew Pearson is number 172 in the all-time reception list. Gary Clark's got nearly 200 more catches. No, I'm sorry, he's got 210 more catches than Drew Pearson has. Gary Clark's reception yardage, 10,856 yards. Drew Pearson, 7,822 yards. Gary Clark, 65 career touchdowns. Drew Pearson, 50.

Okay, slightly different eras. Still, these numbers aren't even close. Gary Clark was a two-time Super Bowl winner. Drew Pearson was on one Super Bowl winning team. Four Pro Bowls, three all pros. Pearson made three Pro Bowls and three all-pro teams. Pearson was named to the NFL 1970s all decade team.

You know, the Cowboys threw the ball a lot with strawback in the shotgun more than a lot of teams in the 70s did. Clark wasn't a member of the all-80s group, but that had a pretty, you know, dynamic group of receivers in the 1980s, led by you may have heard of him Jerry Rice. Gary Clark was, Drew Pearson was a clutch receiver, the Hail Mary, the bomb from Clint Longley in the famous Thanksgiving Day win against Washington. He had two clutch touchdown catches and a win over Atlanta in a playoff game.

He was a clutch guy. He made big catches. Stawback loved him. Gary Clark came up big in his biggest games. There's no difference in the clutch factor. I'm just sorry. I get frustrated once a year with somebody in Gary Clark or somebody in Jake or somebody in B. Mitch. But this is so outrageously different in terms of the numbers. How can Drew Pearson, because he was on the 1970s all-decade team? Who cares? Let me point out what other name.

I guess somebody should care. Yeah. Well, you're right. Everything you said was right. Let me throw in other Washington football name that should be under consideration and in discussions. And that's Pat Fisher. Pat Fisher made three Pro Bowls, was a two first-time first-team all-pro, two-time second-team all-pro. And I might as point out, the guy who he used to make his life miserable, Harold Carmichael, he got in.

I know. Pat Fisher should come under consideration as well. 56 career interceptions. Yeah, look, the numbers are impressive, and as you're ripping through him, I'm like, oh, okay. But, you know, my immediate reaction, he's not in the same conversation as Clark Mitchell, certainly not with Jake. Nobody is. But with after Jake, Clark, Mitchell, or Larry Brown. He's not in that conversation.

I think he is. I think he's in the same conversation as Larry Brown. Anyway. Anyway, one of these days, look, one of these days, I guess, Jake's got to get in at some point, even if it's via the senior thing. But the Gary Clark, the Drew Pearson thing, Drew Pearson's been whining for several years. He was a great player, like he really was. And, you know, he was part of all those great Redskinned Cowboy games of the 70s and the early 80s. And maybe because, you know, Clark was part of a three, the posse with Monk and Sanders that, you know,

Monk's in and Monk deserved to be in, but maybe, you know, he is sort of overlooked because it was part of a group, but Gary Clark was a great NFL wide receiver, and he was a badass, tough, competitive dude who delivered in all of the clutch moments. And his numbers are embarrassing, putting him side by side with the guy that just got in Drew Pearson. They dwarf Drew Pearson's numbers. So, you know, the numbers argument is a one-sided beatdown. And then the qualitative, the other part, which is, you know, Gary Clark was every bit the clutch performer that Drew Pearson was.

And every bit the winner that Drew Pearson was. And Cliff Branch, I was looking through this in sort of thinking about this again. Every time I get into this, it's a deep rabbit hole, you end up going down. The guy that really, if Drew Pearson is in, deserves to be in, is Clefellon. Cliff Branch. You know, Cliff Branch is one of the greatest postseason receivers in NFL history, and his numbers also, you know, are better than Drew Pearson's in the regular season. But anyway, you got anything else? That's all I got, boss.

All right. You're not going to be here with me tomorrow. I don't know who will be here. And for those of you that have asked for Cooley, we're figuring it out. He's going to be back. I just don't know when. He is having a good summer, and he's coaching. We're going to have to work that out. But have a great day and evening. I'll be back tomorrow. Tommy will be back with me on Thursday.