The Kevin Sheehan Show - Daniels OK Competing For Job

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

Kevin and Thom together for most of the show before Kevin went solo with what Jayden Daniels said today after training camp. Before that, the boys talked Dan Quinn, Dylan Cease's no-hitter against the Nats yesterday, and where a no-hitter ranks among the most thrilling individual sports feats. They got to the Olympics and a lot more as well. 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. Tommy's here. I am here. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, is Wind Donation.

Give them a call at 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com. Mentioned my name for a free, no obligation in-home estimate. We're going to do the show similarly to the way we did it yesterday. Tommy's going to join me for the first two. segments, and then we'll either have a guest from training camp in the final segment, or we'll do a recap of training camp practice today. Jaden Daniels is expected to speak for the first time in training camp after practice today. Tommy, I just watched, and I've watched him for the three days so far, including the joint press conference that he did with Adam Peters on Tuesday, I guess.

Dan Quinn's press conferences, every single answer is as follows. Hey, that's a really good question, Jimmy. And then he'll go into like a 60 to 90 second answer where he says nothing and barely even addresses what that really good Jimmy question was. Oh, yeah. I mean, he's very good at this. Wow. He really is. You know, I wrote a column

before training camp, training camp advance, as we like to say. And I found a quote from mini camp to a question where he was asked, you know, is there really going to be a quarterback competition? Because Daniels

got most of the reps during minicamp in June. When Quinn was asked if Daniels is a likely starter, he asked I listen closely, okay? quote, well, in true competition, that's why we set it up as we did to have Marcus have some and Jane to have some. So no, great declarations other than being true to who we are as competitors.

There's no doubt that Jane's making unbelievable progress here. And we'll have a really fun camp, but he's earned the opportunity to go compete. We wouldn't have given him those spaces and those times and those reps if he hadn't. but it was really clear that he's put in the work and he's ready to do that. So it was by intention for sure that he was able to do that. What the fuck does that mean? I know. Every single answer, I was talking to a couple of beat reporters, friends the last few days,

and that's been some of the conversation. It's like, but, you know, he's so polite. He's such a good guy. He certainly appears to be, you know, with that hat on back. He is a bit of a, you know, kind of a coach. Like if you ran into Dan Quinn and you didn't know he was an NFL coach and he's walking around with the sweats and the, you know, the long-sleeved tea and the hat on backwards, you just assume he was a coach, you know, of something.

But he doesn't say anything. He doesn't give you anything. And when he does, you really have to like perk up. That's why the other day when he said sometimes, you know, the perceived external, the external perceived weaknesses are sometimes internal strengths, that made me kind of perk up a little bit. And I'm like, I actually think he might be, I think he's being honest there for a moment. I don't know about that.

Maybe not. That was like something out of the art of motorcycle maintenance. Motorcycle maintenance. You know, your strength is actually your weakness, and your weakness is actually your strength. Yeah, that's not what he said, really, but yes, it could have been something where he just was talking. Look, Ron... But he is very cordial and seems to be very nice to reporters, not demeaning at all, not confrontational yet, no reason to be. He hasn't lost the game.

He has not lost the game yet. Yeah, but look, I know reporters who worked with him in Atlanta and media people, and he was really well-liked. Well-liked everywhere. But you know who else was well-liked when he got here? Yeah, I know. I know. Ron was. Ron was.

Ron Rivera. Yeah. He was. He was beloved in Carolina. You know, Quinn at least is coming from Dallas, where there is, you know, a major spotlight and major media scrutiny. on the team. You know, Ron was coming from Charlotte. You know, Jay was coming from Cincinnati. Mike was coming from Denver.

You know, Zorn was coming from Seattle. You know, it just, I feel like the last several coaches felt like when they left, they had been blindsided because all of them talked about what a ridiculously difficult media market Washington was. All of them. have said that. Ron said it. Zorn said it. You know, Mike thought it was a tough medium market. And, you know, I don't know, Zorn was kind of oblivious to the whole thing. But I, but it really, as we've talked about many times before, it really isn't compared to truly tough sports media markets. but Quinn

Quinn's yeah he does very nice just starts talking and doesn't give you much and you know Ron we had to learn a whole new language with Ron as Galdi referred to it as Ronis you know we had to learn Ron ease

and then we realized part of Ron ease was he would just start talking and in the same answer he would contradict himself three to four times. Yeah, you know what? You know what was funny about him? And I wrote a whole column about this once.

In a Ron Rivera answer, he asked himself about five or six questions. And then would answer it. That's how he would answer a question. He'd say, he'd ask the question, and then he'd answer it. And nothing to do with the question that was asked. Right. And if it was a long answer, it'd be about four or five questions in every answer.

It was quite straight, but let's face it, there's no reason for him to say anything at this point yet. There's nothing to talk about. I'm fine with this. You know, I've always felt like the coaches around here and the organization, you know, the old organization, just talked way too much, you know, and talked way too much about, you know, things that were really good before they actually started to play games. I'm much more into, as I've said, many times over the years, being undersold and watch them over-deliver. But that's the fan in you. As a media member, you want them to say something, don't you?

I guess so, but I also want them to win. And I always feel like, and I want them to, something popped up yesterday on YouTube for me. I was going through actually looking for sound to use on yesterday's show. And, you know, the algorithms end up, you know, dictating what you end up having pop up as options. And what popped up was the 1992 playoff game against the 49ers. All right. This was the Gibbs final game before he retired. They were the defending champions.

They had a really rough regular season, but they made the playoffs through the back door because Minnesota beat Green Bay on the final Sunday of the season. Washington had lost to the Raiders the day before. They were about to be eliminated, but Minnesota saved them. And they ended up going to Minnesota winning big in the wild card round. And then they went to – and then they went to Candlestick. And it turned out to be the final game of Gibbs. you know, version one. And I ended up, you know, getting sucked into it in watching the third quarter and fourth quarter because they were down 17, nothing in the game.

And then they chipped away. It was 173. Then it was 176. And then there was a turnover. The field was a mess at candlestick that day. And Steve Young fumbled and Washington recovered. And Mark Rippin on a goal line. quarterback sneak gets into the end zone on maybe the third play of the fourth quarter to make

it 1713. Jacoby's in the game, the offensive line, and you hear, you can hear a pin drop at candlestick, but the sound, it picked up all of the discussion and Rippin literally takes the ball and spikes it and says, you MF, C, S.S. We're coming. And Jacobi's pumping his fist in the air. And it was like this. And Madden's talking about it. Madden's like, this is the heart of a champion.

Gibbs had talked, at one point he said, Gibbs had talked all week about how, you know, we don't have a chance. The 49ers are, you know, rolling. We've been, we were lucky to get into the postseason. Gibbs undersold everything. And Madden was saying, I knew better. I knew that this team wasn't going to go away.

And, you know, they ended up after they cut it to 1713. And by the way, you see just the bench and the excitement, and they are going to win this game. And they stop San Francisco on the next drive. It's a three-and-out. And they're driving it down the field. Madden's like, man, you talk about a game changing on a dime. This game was all 49ers in the first half.

It's been all Redskins in the second half. This champion, you're going to have to kill it. And, you know, Rippin hits Gary Clark for a big play, hits Ricky Sanders on a third down. And then, with about eight minutes to go, they're about to take the lead. And Rippin goes to hand the ball off to Brian Mitchell, and the hole is gaping.

He's going to score. The ball's at like the 22-yard line. He's going to score and they're going to take the lead and they're probably at that point going to go on and win the game, which, by the way, would have put them in the NFC title game the following week at Dallas. And the ball slipped out of Rippin's hands before he could hand it to Mitchell. Balls on the ground, 49ers recovered it. And they ended up kicking a field goal.

Washington had one last chance, but they couldn't get it done. But that kind of, that's what I'm. get excited about. That kind of team and that kind of connection that you have with a team, because not only are they great and not only are they tough, but they just go into every situation underselling everything. Nobody, they were a nine-point underdog that day. The week before at Minnesota, they were a five-point underdog. They kicked this shit out of Minnesota on the road. You said you were there at that playoff game? Yeah, I was there. You know, it's funny because Gives and I both had cigars after the game.

Did you really? Yeah. Yes. That's when he was still spoken cigars once in a while. Yeah, and, you know, that 49er game, look, the Cowboys ended up going to Candlestick the following week, and that was the win for Dallas that ended up being the first Jimmy Johnson Super Bowl two weeks later in Pasadena, which, by the way, I was at that game. I happened to have been in Vegas with a bunch of friends for the Super Bowl. Bowl, but we ended up deciding to go to the game. Well, somebody got really hot at one of the tables, and our marketing host gave us six Super Bowl tickets, so we went. But, like, Gibbs never really said anything either.

I'm fine without them saying anything. I want them to win, and I want them to win in a way in which, you know, I don't like, I want winning any way it comes, but I'd prefer to come the way it came during the Gibbs era. That's the thing about that team, Tommy, and those teams. They were just first-rate, they were a first-rate class organization through and through. It was hard to dislike the Redskins in the 80s and early 90s.

Yeah, it was. You're right. As an opponent, if you rooted for like the Eagles or the Giants, you still had a tremendous level respect for Washington. Yeah. But man, back to Quinn. He just, every, he's great with names. Every single person is addressed. Nikki, great question. John, great question.

Ben, great question. You know, every beat reporter there gets addressed by name. and that's a really good question. And then the answer has nothing to do with whatever the question is, or it barely has anything to do with it. Yeah. But again, it's not hard to do now because there's nothing really to pin him on because, I mean, it's a whole new team, you know?

I mean, nobody's screwed up yet. There's nothing to really. to really talk about. Nothing to talk about. You can't, I mean... Except when Jane Daniels is named the starter. Right. I guess.

Yeah, I mean, even when the preseason games, you know, when this first one comes on the 10th, I mean, there will be a lot that everybody watched, but we know this as fans. It just doesn't mean anything. I mean, it means something to them, you know, because they're trying to decide on roster spots 45 through 53 or 48 through 53 or whatever. But it's never really transferable in any way to the regular season. Uh-oh, here we go. First interception of training camp, Mike Davis, they picked him up from the Chargers in the offseason. He snagged a low throw from Jaden Daniels.

Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Now we've got something to talk about, baby. I did see, and one of the things that Quinn answered, he was asked about Emmanuel Forbes, and he said that he's 15 pounds heavier than he was a year ago. And I've seen, you know, I've not been out there. I've seen some of the pictures.

I've seen some of the video. He doesn't look 15 pounds heavier to me, but what do I know? I'm going to camp. I'm going out to camp next week. Okay. And I'll give you an eyewitness report, although on 15 pounds, I have a hard time to stigishing what 15 pounds looks like.

Okay. You know, I wanted to mention something real quickly. The NFL Top 100 list is being revealed. This is the one voted on by the players. This is what the players think of players. And the NFL network puts out the top 100, and they put 10 out a day. And they've reached the top 50. Terry McLaurin was number 97 on the list.

He made the top 100. He was 94 last year, so he fell three spots. And John Allen came in at number 54. He was 52 last year. You know, despite the season that the defense had, players around the league have a lot of respect for John Allen. You know, he came in at 54. I would imagine that that will be it on the list. Yes.

Right? I would think so. I don't think I'm forgetting anybody. Bobby Wagner hasn't been on the list yet, and I don't think he's going to be on the list. Montez Sweat, by the way, was on the list at number 82. That's the first time I think he made the list. what'd you say? That doesn't surprise me.

You know, I don't know how this list is that, I mean, these are the one that the players voted on. Yes. But I know, particularly in the past 15 to 20 years, when players vote, they tend to vote how their agent wants them to vote, which means for the agent's clients. Right.

So, you know, people love the idea that the players should pick these lists and the players should vote for awards, the players are the worst of all. They're worse than fans. They're work because they often vote for, you know, clients of their agents. They do that a lot. Okay. Well, you just ruin this list in any conversation of it. Well, the other thing, too, is, you know, we talk about this as it relates to Pro Bowl. The all pro list is where the media selects all pros. And the bottom line is that players and coaches, they don't have a chance to watch as much football as people in the media do.

They're getting ready for their next game and their next opponent. I, of course, would be shocked if anybody other than Patrick Mahomes is number one on this list, no matter who his agent is and who the players want to be number one. This review that we got, this comes from Patrick. Patrick writes, no longer benefit of the doubt, Kev. Hey, Kev, not sure you can call yourself Benefit of the Doubt, Kev, if you're picking them to go 10 and 7. That makes you conductor Kev on the hype train.

love the podcast, especially episodes with Tom and Doc, and he gave us five stars. Thank you, Patrick. I'm not on the hype train. A 10-win season at this stage? I'm just telling you how I feel right now. I've had this strong feeling growing for a while now. It's, of course, related to Jaden Daniels. all right

but I you know I decided to give it out early you know I've seen a couple of them and I'm looking to see oh it was Colin Cowherd who lists who says Washington's going to be the surprise team in the NFL this year

but I think he's an idiot you do know that don't you Colin's not an idiot you may not like he's an idiot no he's not an idiot no he's an idiot he's not an idiot he's not an idiot he's not an idiot he told Derek Cheater told Derek Cheater Derek Cheater that he, you know, that he batted once against Nolan Ryan, and Derek Cheater

had to correct him saying that Nolan Ryan had been retired for several years. And that's why he's an idiot? Because he does that all the time. How many of those mistakes do you make all the time? Never. None. I think, zero. I think Colin, yeah, just ask you, Colin is one of those guys. I'm not necessarily a big fan of Colin Cowherd. What I am a big fan of as it relates to him. And I know him a little bit. You know, back when he was really on ESPN radio and we were part of the ESPN family,

he and I did a couple of things together, and he came on the show, and I think I went on his when, you know, there were Redskins-related topics. But anyway, long story short, he is one of the true hard workers and I think real creative show hosts. of the national guys out there.

Not everybody loves them, and I, you know, I'm not like a massive fan at all, but I respect the work and the preparation and the creativity, because this job is, as you know, as a columnist, there's a creative element to it, and I think he does a great job with that. He is not done. You and I, you and I, we don't have a staff to do that for us.

Understood. Yeah. You're right. The guys in these big networks, they have like five, six producers coming to them with idea after idea. But Colin is one of those dudes that does everything on his own. And I just, you know, I know people that worked with him. And I'm not saying that he's the most well liked or the most well respected. I just respect how creative and how good and how hard he works at it. He's not dumb at all. But whatever. He picked Washington to be the surprise team in the NFL. And I think somebody else has too. I will tell you that by the time we get to September, I think they're going to be one of those picks in the NFC that people kind of, you know, you're looking for that surprise team.

Like who else? The Giants aren't going to be a surprise team. The Bears, I guess, some people might pick the Bears to be a surprise team. The Packers are not a surprise. They're being picked to contend for the NFC North with Detroit. I had Aaron Schatz, the DVOA creator on the show the other day. He really likes New Orleans.

That would be a surprise. That would be a surprise because that coach is on shaky ground. Dennis Allen? They brought him back. I was surprised at that. But, you know, I went back. During the season last year, I remember that DVOA had two things that were interesting during the course of the season.

They had Philadelphia ranked very low, like 13th or 14th, when they were 9 and 1, 10 in 1. And I remember saying, man, DVOA, for whatever reason, does not like the Eagles. And sure enough, they imploded. And DVOA really liked at times New Orleans last year. They went 9 and 8. They did go 9 and 8 last year. and a lot of the losses were winnable games. They were very good defensively last year.

But, yeah, as you look around the NFC, it would not surprise me when people start trying to pick the surprise team, the team that didn't make the postseason last year that has a chance to make it this year. Well, Philadelphia will be, well, Philadelphia did make the postseason. Atlanta will probably be the team that didn't make the postseason last. year that most people will pick because of the division they're in, because of, you know, who being the quarterback. But I think Washington might get a lot of that love. The other conference just is so

much better. Yeah. I mean, in the AFC East, the Jets, Dolphins, Bills, the AFC North, all four of those teams ended up with a winning record last year, and Cincinnati lost their quarterback. The The AFC South has Houston, Jacksonville, Indy. The AFC West has Kansas City and the Chargers. You know, and the best quarterbacks are there as well. Yeah. Anyway. I want to talk about this no-hitter that was thrown against the Nats yesterday.

Let's do that. I know you want to talk about the Olympics. We'll get to those things and more right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's. Yeah, Kevin, have you rid the Metro lately? I have not lately. We wrote the Metro recently. We were in town at the Smithsonian for the Folk Life Festival, and we were doing some other stuff,

and we wrote the Metro recently. And, you know, I know the Metro seems to have fallen on some hard times compared to its heyday, but I always enjoy riding the Metro. I think it's a terrific system, and it served as well that day. And one of the great things about the metro is it stops within a half a block of Shelly's back room. You get off at the Metro Center Rail Station and you use the 13th Street exit, and then you walk a half a block up 13th Street, and you're at Shelley's back room. See, that's the kind of, they make it easy for you to get to Shelly's.

Right. You know, you're touring around town. Maybe you're with the family or something like that. And you tell you tell your wife and kids, and I know I've done this before. That's the red line, right? That's the red line, I believe. Yes, it is. Yeah.

This is the plan right here. You tell your wife and kids, why don't you get off at the Smithsonian exit? I'm going to get off here at the Metro Station exit, and I'll meet you later. Yeah. Okay. And you can do that because you can go into Shelleys, have a nice to go. have a drink or two, then pop back on the metro and get off at the Smithsonian exit. Okay, it's great access for those moments that you just want maybe a moment.

Just one cigar. You know, it does have to be a whole night, just have to be a whole afternoon. Just you say to yourself, like sometimes I do, well, I could really use the smoke. If you're near a metro stop, you're near Shelly's back room, 1331 F Street, Northwest in the district. So yesterday, Tommy, the Nats got no hit at home by Padre's starter, Dylan Cease. He walked three, struck out nine and 114 pitches. There were a couple of interesting moments. I think it was in the sixth.

There was a blooper to right center. Second baseman went back. He bobbled it, but the center fielder came up with it. I think that would have been in there, but it would have been close. And then in the eighth inning, the same second baseman Bogarts, he actually botched a ground ball but was able to get control of it just in time to throw out the runner. That definitely would have been an error. But it was the second no-hitter in Padre's history. And I was wondering, and I'm sure I've asked you this before, but I don't know what the answer is, have you ever, as many games,

as you've been to and covered, have you ever witnessed live a no-hitter? Well, thank you, Max Scher, for providing me with that opportunity, because for most of my baseball writing career, I had not seen a no-hitter. Mark Zuckerman, early in his career at the Washington Times, saw Hideo Nomo's no-hitter at Camden Yards for the Red Sox. I wasn't there, so I had missed out on a few. I saw Mike Messina come close a couple of times. Never quite did it, but thanks to Scherzer against the Pirates,

which really should have been a perfect game, but the catcher in the ninth inning stepped out in front of a pitch to get hit, basically. You know, I forget what the catcher's name is for the Pirates, but that was a no-hitter. So that's the only no-hitter I've seen. and I was very, I'm very happy to have done that since I've been a baseball writer for over 30 years. It would have been tough not to have witnessed at least one no-hitter.

So yesterday was the second time since the Nats moved to D.C. that they've been no-hit. The first one came last summer in Philadelphia, and Michael Lorenzen did it. And so yesterday was the first time they've been no-hit by a road pitcher, either at RFK or at NATs. Park. I said something, Tommy, at the end of the podcast yesterday, and Chip tweeted me and said, you never root against your home team, even if the opposing pitcher has a no-hitter going. In fact, you root for one of your own players to break up the no-hitter. That was in response to me saying yesterday that if I'm at that game yesterday, I'm rooting for Dylan Sees. I'm rooting for him to throw the no-hitter. I want to witness a no-hitter in person, especially given that it's, you know,

late July and the team that I'm rooting for is out of it. I'm not going to root against them if it's a big game, if it's a must-have game. But do you think it's acceptable to root for an opposing pitcher to pitch a no-hitter if he's got a no-hitter going. Okay, it depends on, I mean, if it's a playoff game, your team is in? No, no. Okay. If it's a game at the end of the year to make the playoffs, no. Okay.

So, yeah, I mean, if there's really nothing at stake, I don't necessarily see a problem for one, I mean, especially if you're there at the ballpark, you know, you want to witness history live. I have no problem with rooting for the opposing pitcher to complete his no-hitter. I don't know at what stage of the game that you turn, turn-code, that you become the turn-code. Is it the seventh inning? Yes. Probably. That was what just popped into my mind. I'm like, if they get through six and they've got the no-hitter intact, at that point, I'm rooting to see it because you're nine outs away. Yeah. I could, I could understand. understand that. I don't think you have to turn in your fan card for something like that.

You know, what's interesting, what happened in what used to happen in a press box, it doesn't happen anymore because there's children in a press box now. But what used to happen was usually about the fifth inning, if a pitcher had a no-hitter, somebody would start a pool. And basically, all the writers, everybody in a press box, we put in a couple of bucks, and then you get to pick out a number from the lineup card of the team opposing the no-hit pitcher. So you've got like, you know, one through nine. Right, in terms of the batter that will break it up. Yes, or zero.

We'll get the no-hitter. Right. You know, and that was always a fun part of the no-hitter. because, you know, if it gets broken up, you collect about 50, 60 bucks or something like that for your entire day's work. I don't think anyone does that anymore, because, like I said, they're children now. Okay. Because the writers are children or are there children in the press box?

Oh, God. No, the writers are children now. C.J. Abrams actually really got bat to ball on the final at bat and roped one to right field. but it was just a bit too much and it got caught. But, yeah, if I'm there, I'm rooting for it, watching it on TV, you know, I would still be rooting for it. And, you know, this is game number, you know, what is it, 103, you know, out of 162, and they're not going to the postseason. They just got swept by the Padres.

And, yeah, I would have been rooting for the no-hitter. And no one likes to get swept, especially after the national. were coming off sweeping the Reds and had some momentum. And then to get swept by the Padres like that, that may be a factor if you're a fan. I mean, you know, you want your team to win one game of the series. In the big scheme of things, it's not necessarily important, but you just lost all the momentum you had coming out of the All-Star break and sweeping the Reds. So that was, it wasn't like the middle of a three-game series.

It was a game the Nats had to win if they wanted to avoid getting sweat. So there was a little bit of significance to it. That would not have been a factor for me. If I were at the ballpark yesterday, that would not have been a factor for me. I would have been rooting for Dylan Cese to throw the no-hitter. Once we got to the seventh inning, I would have been rooting for every one of the players on the team that I root for to get out. That's what I'm... No hitters are

No hitters are one of those thrilling individual accomplishments in sports. I mean, it's up there. Like, what else is... Think about just individual performances in sports that just end up being incredibly thrilling to watch. A no-hitter, a perfect game, even more so. but that's near the top of the list.

You know, as far as other sports, it's hard to really find something that you can pick out. Like in basketball, if you're watching a guy have a, or at least in the old days when this didn't happen as much, you're watching one player on a scoring tear, you know, where he's like Kobe getting 60 in a game.

81. Or something like that. Or, yeah, that, that, something like that. In football, what would it be in football? In football, I think actually, well, first of all, like the no-hitter is just, for starters, it's different because it's rare. You know, it's very rare. It's, you know, you don't see them, you know, more than four, three or four times a year. A perfect game maybe once every couple of years.

So that adds an element to that that you don't get with the guy that has 60 in the NBA one night or 55. I mean, I'll tell you what, with NBA-wise, as we were talking through that, I know that there are better examples of this. But in terms of being just thrilling to watch, I think of in recent years some of the games that Jimmy Butler had for a Miami Heat team in the postseason that we're wasn't supposed to win, you know, wasn't supposed to beat Boston, wasn't supposed to beat Milwaukee. And it was literally a strap the team to his back. And it was not just scoring where he would get 50 or 45. It was rebounding in steals and defense.

Like that was thrilling for me to watch. And I would think there were a lot of basketball examples, but again, not the rarity of a no-hitter. football-wise, I think when a defensive player takes over a game, that's thrilling to watch. You know, like Lawrence Taylor in his heyday had some games where he was so obviously the best player on the field, and it was on defense that he was controlling the game. Like, it's kind of rare, especially in today's NFL, to get a defensive. defensive player that totally, you know, in essence, impacts the game in such a way that there's nothing the other team can do. Miles Garrett's had some of those games in recent years.

LT had a game on Thanksgiving Day. I think it was his rookie year. It might have been his second year against the Lions where he had, you know, he had a 95-yard interception return. He had, he basically took Gary Danielson with one hand and threw him to the ground. I don't have the stats in front of me. I bet there's multiple sacks, multiple forced fumbles, you know, an interception return. He had several of those games. I remember he had a game in New Orleans against the Saints and the Superdome

that was one of the most dominant performances I've ever watched. It was like one of those prime, not a prime time, but like a late afternoon window game against Bobby A Bear and the Saints, and he just dominated the game. I think that's fun to watch. I don't, you know, in terms of individual... They are totally different from a no-hitter. Yeah, they are.

I mean, since the no-hitter is so unique, you're watching this drama unfold with every pitch. Every pitch has meaning to it at that point. Right. You know, I mean, it's something you can quantify. It's a very unique event. You've never seen one in person, right? No, never.

Yeah. No. It's funny, when you go to just a run-of-the-mill, you know, June, July, August baseball game, one of the things you start with is, who knows, maybe we'll see a no-hitter today. And usually, you know, that's over usually pretty quick. but I think I've been there. I don't think I've ever seen one where it's been super close. I don't think so.

You know, a good time to see. I don't know if you'd have to look this up, see what time of the year do most no-hitter's happen. But my instinct tell me September is a good time because you face some pretty weak lineups in September sometimes. You know, minor league call-ups, players who have been traded from good players who have been traded leaving behind a decimated lineup my instincts tell me it's September if you were looking for a chance September might be the best

chance but I could be wrong I was actually going to guess that it would have been early in the season when it's cold and sometimes you see lower scoring games the ball's not traveling as much That's true. That's true as well. But early in the season, it's hard, especially in these days, it's hard to have pitchers throw that many pitchers to pitch a perfect game. That's true, too. I mean, no-hitter. Here are the perfect games in the World Series era. There have been 24. So I won't give you the picture. June 28th, August 15th, June 13th, April 21st, May 29th, May 9th, July 23rd. I haven't seen one September 1 yet.

So September 16th, Tom Browning, 1988. September 30th, Mike Witt, 1984. September 9th, Sandy Kofax, 1965. October 8th, Don Larson's perfect game. That was obviously a playoff game in 1956. Right. And in 1908 in the World Series era, Addy Joss, Cleveland,

in the World Series in October of 1908. I thought Don Larson's game was the only playoff perfect game. Maybe this wasn't a World Series game, but I just figured it would be since it was October in 1908. All right. Olympics. You love the Summer Olympics.

You love the opening ceremonies. You've been to so many of them. So tell us what's on your mind here on the first day of the Olympics, even though they've been playing soccer for the last few days in France. Well, today is the opening ceremony, which holds a special place in my heart. from the 2000 Olympics I covered in Sydney, Australia. Yeah, you didn't go.

Where I made the now famous decision, I was sitting in a bar with some of my boxing writer buddies who were there covering the boxing in downtown Sydney, and you had to get on a bus, a media bus, and go 45 minutes to the Olympic Stadium. and I had to do that at some point in the afternoon to go cover the opening ceremonies, which were at night, which I had to write about, at least at night in Sydney, which was daytime, you know, back in the States. So, you know, with every beer, the opportunity to cover those ceremonies drew farther and farther away

to the point where my friends convinced me, look, we have it on TV. right here. You just stay right here, right? So that's what I did, which is a no-no. At least it used to be an absolute no-no in journal. You don't cover an event from TV like that, especially if you're supposed to be there. But it seemed like a good idea at the time, and it's the only time I've ever done it. And nobody knew the difference. Nobody knew. Nobody's the ceremony. It wasn't an event. It was, you know, a bunch of pageantry and songs and stuff like that. I've never been to the Olympics.

How many of them have you been to? I've been to two Winter Olympics, 1998 in Nagano and 2002 in Salt Lake City, and one winter Olympics in Sydney, which I think is arguably, at least for the writer's standpoint, was the greatest of all time, because Sydney was such a great town.

I know people are going to rave about, Paris, and I'm sure it's deserving, but in Sydney, they have professional, the people who there are professional partygoers. They know how to throw parties in Sydney. And the exchange rate, at that point in Sydney, it was like monopoly money. I mean, people had to go out of their way to spend their per diems. That's how unbelievable it was. So we were spending than money, left and right. And I got to stay for a full month because you get there a week

for the Olympics to write stories. You know, they have athletes there before the game start to do interviews and stuff. Then you have the two weeks of the game, and since my paper had failed to get me a room in the Olympic Village,

which again was 45 minutes from out of town, they had to rent a hotel room for me in downtown Sydney. intended it for the whole month. So they told me I could stay, you know, for the whole month. And so the last week was mine in Sydney. So that was, that was great. But let me pay you something. And this is unusual. I am not a big fan in the Olympics. Not a big fan at all. I think they're corrupt. I think they're a scam. I think they are detrimental to the cities that they host them. One of the dirty secrets about the Olympics is more people leave town than come into town when you're hosting the Olympics and businesses who expand and build with the hopes of reaping the rewards of the Olympics.

In Sydney in particular, wound up going bankrupt because of that. So I am not a fan in the Olympics, which is unusual because most writers who have been to the Olympics love it. I love the competitions and stuff, but the actual concept of the Olympics is a corrupt aberration for me. And it's distasteful. You know, these 2004, they were supposed to be in D.C. There was a committee that then D.C. bid on hosting these exact games. Right. And if that had happened, your stadium, your football stadium would have gotten built.

That's true. And Ted and Ted Leonesis probably would have gotten his new arenas in D.C. Although wasn't it a combined Baltimore-Washington bid? Yes, it was. But they still would have needed two stadiums, yes. I'm assuming. Yes. You know, I'm looking.

The bid was, the bid was to build a new Olympic-sized stadium. Right. In D.C. Yes. You know, the 2028 games are in L.A. And then the 2032 games, Tommy, just eight years away, Brisbane. I know where they are. Yeah. I know.

Yep. Yeah. That was a trip. Oh, it's true. I'll go with you. I'll go with you there because I've been to Australia and I've been to Sydney. I love. You're right.

It is a phenomenal place. Just a really long trip. but certainly worth it when you get there. You know what I did to fly to Sydney? What? You know, I wasn't looking forward to being in coach for that long of a time. Right. That wouldn't have. I flew from here to L.A.

On U.S. Airways, and I always, I generally flew first class because I was, you know, a platinum member. And always got upgraded. and I spent the night in L.A. and I was going to fly from L.A. to Sydney, which was about 14 hours. I had written, and I did this in Nagano, too, and it worked. I written to Qantas Airlines,

a letter to their PR department, explaining who I was and that, you know, I was going to cover in the Olympics in Sydney, and as a professional courtesy, from one media member to the other, could they possibly put me on an upgrade list that if a first-class seat became available. And son of a bitch, they did.

Not only did I have a first-class seat, it was a double-decker first-class. So I was in the upper deck, and I had the whole deck to myself, the whole thing. Oh, that's the way to go on a trip like that, for sure. You know, when we went... I drank 14 Victoria Bitters on the way over. My in-laws lived in Australia, lived in Sydney for about three years, four years back in the late 90s, early 2000s.

And we went over there. And my youngest, my oldest was a baby. And we did, you know, we did the flight to L-A-X to L.A. and he was screaming, crying the entire flight to L.A., the entire five-hour, six-hour flight to L.A. And we were sitting in business class with him. And, you know, people I could tell. And look, I've been on those flights where you're just like, oh, my God.

And I always have empathy for, you know, the parents, the younger parents with the young child. I mean, there's only so much you can do. And I just remember when we landed, I just told everybody, look, the good news is, for those of you getting off here, it's over. For those of you staying on the same flight to Sydney, we're on it too. And, but yeah, that's a 24-hour trip door to door, you know, basically, from D.C. to to Sydney, to the east coast of Australia. Yeah.

And that's how I flew back, too. I flew back first class. I'm not... All I did was write a letter. I never promised them I would do anything. I never said I would write anything great about Qantas or anything. They just did it. Let me just tell you, this may offend some people out there.

There is no chance that I would fly to Australia in coach. I couldn't do it. I absolutely couldn't do it. I don't think I could either. I don't need first class, but I need business class. Yeah. And so that's just too long of a flight for somebody. I mean, I'm six, two and a half, six three, whatever I am,

and I've had back issues, as you know, there's no way I'm sitting in coach for a 15-hour flight. I don't, honestly, when I went out to L. LA a few weeks ago, I flew business class. I couldn't. That's too long of a flight. On the way home, I'll sit in like premium economy, you know, coach economy with the extended leg room because the flight home is much faster than the flight out. I'm flying to, I'll tell you what, though, let me just tell you, I'm going to Ireland

at the end of next week. I think I told you this. Maybe I didn't. We're leaving end of next week and the following week I will be off. and there probably won't be podcasts that week, although I'm going to do a couple, I think, in advance. But worse, we could not, we have not yet been able to upgrade to business, so we are in premium economy. Now, the flight there isn't, you know, it's like coming back. It's not bad.

It's not bad. It's not bad. Coming back is longer, you know, because you're not, you're going against Jetstream. The win. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I said, look, a lot of times for me, you know, my problem is with, not necessarily lame. Right. And so, like, when we flew to Spain, we flew economy, coach, but it was just me and my wife in a two-seat row.

Right. You know, so that's easy. That's what we have going over right now. And I'm okay with that. But not regular back of the bus coach. The premium economy where they have the extra leg room is almost like right now for a long flight. I don't care about short flights. I'll sit anywhere on a short flight, although I hate middle seats.

I don't want to be in a middle seat on any flight. But on a short flight, you know, two, three hours or less, I don't really. care. But once we get to, you know, coast to coast or to Europe or the really long flights, like the one we just described, you know, you did and I've done before to Australia, I just, at this point in my life, there's no way I would sit in coach. Yeah, I couldn't do it. I'd say, have fun. But I'm very particular about where I sit on a plane and very aggressive in making sure I don't get put in a bad situation.

You know, I really plan it very well. Because for me, my airplane seat is like parking at a sporting event. Well, yeah, I mean, look, if you're on a long flight, you want that to be comfortable. Did you see the news, by the way, speaking of airlines, Southwest is going away from that open seating that they've had forever. You know, like Southwest Airlines, I actually, for several years was a lot. a big fan of Southwest. And I mean, it was always a BWI flight, or more often than not, it was a BWI flight. But did I get this right?

I saw this, like, I thought I read this, that Southwest is doing away with its, you know, what made it kind of a popular airline, which was, hey, you know, we're doing group boarding, and then you pick your seat when you get on. They're doing away with that. The Greyhound bus of the airways, I used to hate Southwest. Oh, that's when I, that's when, you know, I wasn't paying for. Right. You know, back in those days, I've grown to love Southwest and a loyal customer.

And again, I always pay for early boarding to make sure I get to pick out, and I'll see what I prefer. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You know, but if they want to go with, you know, picking your seats, like I said, I always make sure that I pick the seat that I want. And in flat, in less than two weeks, I'll be flying out to Spokane by way of Denver, flying to Denver. Is this your out and back trip? Yes, to pick up my granddaughter. Right.

Yeah, you do that trip every summer. Bring her back. It's not an easy trip because you go out and then you come back almost immediately. Yes, I go out on a Monday, I come back on a Tuesday. And that's a long flight to Spokane. Yeah. All right. Are we done?

This was... I think we're done. I'm not... The only other thing I was going to tell you about the Olympics is there was a time when I loved watching the Olympics. It was the time in which there was nothing else on television, basically, other than the Olympics. And now, I don't know what the ratings are for the Olympics. I know that it is the number one draw for non-sports fans, for women in particular. Women are a big part of the audience and older people for the Olympics.

Tommy, I can't see myself sitting down and watching a lot of this. If I know that Katie Ledecki is swimming in a big event, I'll probably watch that. The track and field, I'd love to see, you know, Quincy Wilson from Bullis. We've, you know, we had his coach on the show a couple of weeks ago. Love to watch. I actually really do like the track and field, and I will pay attention to the basketball for sure. You know, and as they move along and get into metal play, which I'm assuming they'll be there, I'll probably watch those games.

Other than that, I mean, that's it for me. I mean, I'm not watching. I can tell you this, I'm not watching Fencing. There's a whole lot of interest for me. There's not a lot of interest for you. All right. I'll tell you what. One last thing.

Yeah. When I saw it live, I was very impressed with it. Team handball can be a very exciting sport. Okay. Very exciting. Team handball. What about fencing or equestrian? Well, I tell you what, if you ride, if you're riding a horse while you're fencing,

I think that's jousting. That would be fun. Okay. How about archery? What does archery do for you? Not much. Yeah. There will be a lot. I mean, you'll be, as you're sitting in front of a TV over the next couple of weeks, and if you're, you know, flipping channels, it's even money you're going to hit an NBC related channel with an Olympic event on it. Because I think it's on, like, so many different networks.

Yeah. Actually, now that I'm thinking about that, I wonder if the basketball, if we're going to have to watch that on Peacock, probably will. I would bet. Well, I just figured out that I'm going to have to subscribe to Peacock because one of the all-time great TV shows, which has never been shown in reruns, which has not been shown in reruns on streaming, homicide is coming to Peacock. I never watched Homicide. What was Homicide?

Oh. I'm somewhat familiar with it. Oh, unbelievable. One of the best shows in the history of television. Really? And there's eight seasons of it. Yeah. And they couldn't get it on streaming because they had so much good music throughout the show,

and they had a hard time with licensing for some of the songs that they were trying to get on. So it would have been on a lot earlier, but now they've settled it all, and it's coming to homicide. It's coming to Peacock. So I'm going to have to subscribe to Peacock now. Okay. Another streaming subscription. All right.

Thanks. Have a good weekend. I'll talk to you next week. Okay, boss. All right, I've got more with a final segment on what happened at training camp today. That's right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie.

Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. They'll give you a cash bonus on your initial signup. You have to use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., and if there's something already written in the signup, area for promo code, just erase it, and write Kevin, D.C. And you'll be playing with house money right from the start. All of the preseason futures bets are up. I mentioned the other day, offensive rookie of the year odds are up. Caleb Williams is the favorite at plus 136. Jaden Daniels is the second pick at plus 590. How about defensive rookie of the year? Washington had some

early second round selections. Mikey Sanristil plus 3,500. He is the 11th choice of the defensive rookies to earn defensive rookie of the year. Sanristel actually came in to Jaden Daniels press conference today after practice, interrupted it and asked him if LSU would have had a chance to beat Michigan had they faced each other in the first. the playoffs. Michigan, of course, won the National Championship. LSU did not qualify for the

playoff. And Jayden Daniels told them, get out of here and then said, we did have the number one offense in the country. Michigan's defense was number two. Sanristill was trying to get Jaden Daniels a little bit off his mark during his press conference. But Mikey Sanristil, plus 3,500 at my bookie.ag if you want to wager on him, you bet 100, you win 3,500 if he's the defensive rookie of the year. Johnny Newton is at plus 3,900, if you're wondering. Mybooky.orgie.org promo code, Kevin D.C. All right, no guest here in this final segment of the show. We were hopeful of getting another player like we did yesterday with Luke McCaffrey.

Hopefully that'll happen next week. of times. But there was a Jaden Daniels press conference following the third day of practice today. And while there wasn't a lot there, there was this. This was Ben Standig's question. Listen to it. Listen to the follow-up question. And listen to Jaden's answer. When's the last time you were not the official starter at this point in whatever camp you've been in? two years ago at LSU what was what do you what do you like about do you like having to compete for that role as opposed to saying you know you're going into the year as a starter do you prefer the comfort of like okay I kind of know that and I'll be work on different things

no I mean I like competing you know I'm a competitor so um regardless if I was announced the start or not you still got to compete you know you still can't be content of your job you know comfortable um I think it's just just your job instead of deal. You got to go out there and compete. So for me, it's not a problem at all. You know, I like competing. That's up to DQ and AP for the decisions and stuff like that. But for me, I can control how hard I go out there and practice and how I compete. So if there's a headline from day three of training camp, that was probably it. Jaden Daniels essentially saying he's okay competing for the job. He is alternating with Marcus

Mariotta with the first team so far. Remember, Dan Quinn said on Tuesday this will be a journey and a process. I think ultimately what will be big in solidifying Jaden Daniels as the starter will be the joint practices with the Jets and the dolphins prior to the first two preseason games, maybe even more so than the games themselves, because he'll probably get more work in joint practices than he will in the games. Although I do expect him to play, as I've mentioned before, both Cliff Kingsbury and Dan Quinn have a history as head coaches of playing their starting quarterbacks in the preseason.

But Jaden handled that answer perfectly. I think he's handled a lot of this stuff perfectly. He wasn't going to say that he's not going to compete even if he were named the starter. he's out there right now grinding it out. I watched his whole press conference. He's got a lot on his plate. He's trying to tackle an entire new system, as is everybody. He's not at a disadvantage there because everybody on offense is working through a new system with Cliff Kingsbury.

And the same can be said defensively. I mean, you've got a completely new coaching staff. So, you know, coming in as a rookie quarterback in his. first year. It's not like there's an existing quarterback here that knows the system and has an advantage. But anyway, that was basically it from camp today. He threw an interception today. As Tommy and I mentioned, Mike Davis picked off a low throw. Oh, I did want to mention one other thing. Zach Selby, who writes for commanders.com, somebody sent me this link because I've mentioned Kaz Allen's name a lot.

He was an undrafted free agent from UCLA last year. Ron had mentioned him unsolicited a few times in camp last year as a guy that really stood out. Zach Selby wrote that while the commander's receiver room is packed, it's likely that some of the players we've gotten used to over the years are on the roster bubble. And then he writes, one of those players is Kaz Allen, a 23 undrafted free agent from UCLA. Allen caught two touchdowns today. That was yesterday's practice. Both from Daniels. Alan is one of the more experienced, actually it's from Wednesday's first full day. Alan is one of the more experienced returners on the roster as he has made a career out of it during his college days.

Whether he earns a spot will depend on if he can stand out among the several other players, both rookies and vets alike, who are competing for a spot in the restructured kickoff. Perhaps Alan is ready for the next step after spending his rookie season on the practice squad. Yeah. Just a name to watch. I think they worked on kickoffs today, or at least Quinn said that they were going to

work on kickoffs today. I haven't seen much information out there about how that went. But we will keep an eye on that one because those are going to be two. key special teams spots this year. Who are your two kickoff returners? And they may be position players. You know, we've heard Dan Quinn say the other day, they got to have running back skills.

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sneak to cut it to 17-13 in the fourth quarter. And you just hear, if you listen carefully, you can hear Rippin and Jacoby and everybody on that offensive line just screaming. They were in championship defense mode at that point trying to hang on to it. And it was just a memorable moment. They didn't win the game, but it was a memorable moment in Gibbs's final. game during that first act of Joe Gibbs from 81 through 92. All right, have a good weekend back on Monday.

I'm Pat Summerall here with John Madden. And John, it seems sort of fitting that these two teams who have dominated pro football the last 10 years should be in a game of this magnitude. Yeah, you know, if you're just look at what's happened since 1981, the Redskins and the 49ers, these two teams have had the best record in football. They've played in 10 out of the last 11 NFC championship games. They've won seven of the last Super Bowl. So when you get to the playoffs now, these two teams should play each other.

You know, Joe Gibbs came in last night and he said they're calling this game Mission Impossible. Joe Gibbs likes that kind of talk. He said, and we just kind of keep going and going and going because they still are the defending champions. They have that championship fiber. If you go play pass or you go anything to the outside, it's usually a great. Jimmy. Gap, goal line smash goes with that thing we did about grit and guts and down. He came close this time.

Touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown. What you fucking, like that fucking poxswain. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You talk about something changing.

Oh, yeah. that change.