The Kevin Sheehan Show - Depressed By Journalism

Episode Date: June 9, 2020

Kevin had to deal with a depressed Thom today. From a new world of journalistic rules, to Incel, to Death By Dignity. Thom was on the couch with Dr. Sheehan for much of the show. Some sports too including the new DC Sports Hall of Fame inductees and how the NFL will handle the anthem in 2020. 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.

Tommy's here. I'm here. We'll get started here in a moment, but first, in a world of uncertainty, one thing's for sure. Cancer doesn't stop during a global crisis. On Saturday, June 13th, this coming Saturday, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society will host a trailblazing event, big virtual climb, sponsored by Abbey, to support their investment in groundbreaking research to advance blood cancer cures, and its first-in-class patient education and services, including financial. support and clinical trial navigation. Step up to take cancer down by climbing 61 floors or 1,762 steps. Inside or outside on stairs, on the road or your treadmill, climb your way. Join us for an opening ceremony and then take on your climb with our heart pumping playlist.

Join us June 13th from coast to coast as we come together to climb, conquer, and cure. Register at LLS.org slash big climb. You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. You're listening to The Sports Fix.

That's right. Sports Fix Tuesday, Tommy. By phone, I'm here in studio. Sorry about yesterday, but we're good to go the rest of the week. Tommy, there aren't a lot of sports stories. we didn't get to weigh in together on the Drew Breeze apology on some of the stuff that came out afterwards over the weekend, Roger Goodell's statement, et cetera. So we'll get to that. But you've got some things that you want to get to.

I know that you're a little bit fired up today about a lot of different things. So what do you want to start with first? I'm not particularly fired up. More like, and I'm just giving you a Surgeon General's warning here, more like just depressed about about. the state of the world. And I usually am not affected by this because being 66 years

old, I've lived and seen a lot of times where everyone thought it was the end of the world and everyone survived. But these are strange, strange times. Let's start off with a subject that our listeners at least, thanks to me, are familiar with.

The in-cell movement. Yes. Yes. Yes. Basically, those poor guys that couldn't get laid when they were younger or even now and they're upset about it. And they're upset. The latest news is that Abington, Virginia, a Southwest Virginia man. Was that insensitive when you said Abington, West Virginia, and I said, oh, boy. No, I said Abington, Virginia.

Oh, Virginia. I thought you said West Virginia. No. Okay, go ahead. Which is wrong. You weren't insensitive. The story's coming out of Abington, Virginia. Go ahead. Continue.

A Virginia man who blew off his hand in an apparent explosive exercise has been charged in federal court after authority said they found evidence he was making a bomb and wanted to target hot cheerleaders because of his sexual frustrations. Oh, my God. This guy blew off one hand blown off and fingers blown off the sex. second hand. And he was trying to make a bomb to attack hot trail eaters and make a mark in the in-cell movement. Well...

An in-cell, it stands for involuntary celibacy. Which means you're not getting late. Will this deter future efforts on his behalf, or will he go to jail for this? Oh, I think, I don't know. I think he's probably going to go to jail for this. Shouldn't the blowing off of a portion of his hand be a deterrent by itself? You would think so. You would think so. But I think this man's going to serve time because of the evidence they found who he was targeting with this.

I mean, he wasn't trying to blow his own hand off. You know, if that were to be the case, then yeah, I would say the man has suffered enough. Well, I'll tell you what, Tommy. He's trying to blow up somebody else. Given the fact that he's not really able to attract anybody, he needs that hand. Certainly one of them. Maybe he'll get some sympathy now. I have some out there in the field.

I have some positive, uplifting, encouraging news for you. Well, that's good, because I've got something that's going to follow this that's actually going to depress everybody. So go ahead. Well, I just, you know, the COVID. 19. Remember that? Do you remember COVID-19? Oh, yes, I do. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. So some news came out yesterday about asymptomatic spread of coronavirus being very rare. That came from the World Health Organization, which I don't even know if we can even trust anymore, but very rare asymptomatic spread. And to cut to the chase on this thing, basically what they've learned,

is that someone who is asymptomatic, and remember there are many, many, many asymptomatic cases. The infection rate, as we started to test more, found many more people had been exposed to the virus, but didn't have any symptoms of the virus. And those particular people were the ones that everybody was super concerned about, Tommy, because you wouldn't be able to notice someone who was asymptomatic. And here they were out in public, spreading the disease, to everybody. Well, in fact, people who are asymptomatic, the spread, the ability for them to spread the disease is very rare. This makes sense to me, because the one thing, there are two things

that makes sense, one, which is what the World Health Organization said yesterday, and something that came before it. I was reading a few weeks ago, maybe a month ago now, could have been longer than a month ago about really the people who have gotten seriously ill from COVID-19 are the people that have basically, for the lack of a better description, taken in a large viral load. If you take in just a droplet off a surface, you're not going to get seriously sick. If you're in an elevator with somebody who's coughing and sneezing and they're essentially spraying the virus, you know, onto your person, which gets into your eyes and maybe your mouth and your nose and your ears, whatever, then you've got a much better chance of being seriously

ill. What I'm saying is if, if, you know, a normal, healthy, younger person were coughed on much better chance of being seriously infected than if they, you know, came across a doorknob and picked up, you know, a droplet of the virus, which, by the way, to me, always made sense. know, because these very densely populated areas where you had many people in small, confined spaces is where we were seeing a lot of the death and a lot of the serious illness, especially in New York, as an example. So the World Health Organization comes out yesterday and says they're not so concerned about asymptomatic spread anymore. It's very rare. Well, doesn't that makes sense. Somebody who's asymptomatic isn't coughing. They're not sneezing. You know, they're not

spreading big viral loads of the virus. You know, they may spread on a surface, a droplet of it, but they're not really, you know, the concern anymore. So I wanted to share that good news with you. I thought that was very good news because, and by the way, all of this stuff will, in fact, impact sports as we learn more about this in terms of how these sports get rolled out. I've mentioned to you before the NFL's in that good position as they've been from the beginning to be able to sit back and watch Major League Baseball, the NHL, the NBA, maybe Major League Baseball, be the guinea pigs in this thing. Well, understanding that people who are asymptomatic and maybe, and can't spread it, means that people who are asymptomatic who test positive are going to be able to

play, perhaps. And so, anyway. Okay, Dr. Shan, that is good news. But explain this to me, this latest report. Israel are closing their schools after opening them. A new policy orders any school where cases emerge to close. Apparently 200 students and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at 42 schools since the schools opened.

So now 42 schools have been closed down. 7,000 students and teachers are home in quarantine. Why is that? How many of those people are seriously ill? Well, they're students. They're kids that are ones who you say are not susceptible. Right. How many of them are seriously ill?

I don't know how many are seriously ill. I don't know. I can't answer the question. I can't answer. the question. I don't know why they're all home. This is a very disturbing development. If they're opening the schools

and then closing them again, any kind of closed area where you're going to have people collectively together on a regular basis would seem to be in danger. Yes. But perhaps the information yesterday from the

World Health Organization says, which by the way is common sense pre-coronavirus. If you're feeling sick and you've got symptoms, go home. Okay. You know, I agree with you. Look, I agree with you. I have no idea what's

going on with the virus anymore. I just stay up here in my new Frederick Fortress of Solitude and don't bother anyone. I think that, Tommy, that the, and I think we've talked about this a lot, but we'll just talk about it again. I think that these

leagues, they have to have a plan, for the few players that test positive. You can't go into an NBA restart thinking that you're going to shut it down if you have a Rudy Gober incident. That's been completely dismissed as a reason that they would shut the league down if they're going to restart it because I think we all understand that players are going to test positive. The issue is what happens in the event of a large outbreak or serious. illness. How do they handle that? And no one really has explained in any of these leagues that are

contemplating restarting the NBA for sure, the NHL almost for sure, and Major League Baseball maybe. No one's explained what the protocol, what the procedures are for a large outbreak. It's essentially we'll deal with it when we get to that situation, which isn't the worst of ways to go with it, because by the time you get to a large outbreak, if and when it happens, you're going to have so much more information. They're going to have to deal with it when they get to it. And, you know, it may be beyond their control as to how they can deal with it. Right, because of the states.

Because they can't know, because they can't control what players think. And what happens then on an NBA team if two guys test positive, and they're not sick, And you can tell them, you know, they're asymptomatic, but they test positive. And the other players say, well, I'm not playing with these. I'm not going out there anymore. I'm going home and be quarantined. What they can't control is the player's fears. I think that the player's fears are a bigger issue in your mind than they are in my mind.

With that said, if someone gets seriously ill, that's when the fear will. become front and center. That's when players will say, I may be negative now, but I'm not playing in a game because he played with that guy a week ago, and that could be an issue. And really, when I say how a league handles a large outbreak, it's really how a league will handle A, a large outbreak of positive tests, or B, even a very small number, even one number of someone who gets seriously ill or worse. They don't have a plan for that right now, and that's going to be a figure it out as they go situation.

Going into the restart of these leagues and potentially to the start of a major league baseball short in season, there is definitely a possibility that these seasons will not be finished. Yeah, I think it's stronger than you do, but I agree with you. The possibility for me of a season being suspended and then finally completely shut down has to be serious illness, not positive tests, because you're going to have positive tests. That's a given. I agree.

So... Here's something else I wanted to talk about, okay? Related to, somewhat related to the coronavirus. virus, who had 109,000 deaths in the United States, the debt rate had slowed down. Very much so, yes. Yes. It has. And again, this is not the virus season, you know, so that's certainly understandable.

Well, there's been some things out there about how actually it's mutated and become less threatening. I've read some of that as well, but who knows? Go ahead. Okay. So my point is, a friend of ours, closer to my wife than me, out of Washington State, died yesterday. She died with dignity under Washington State law. Did you know that you can take your own life in Washington State?

I didn't know that. It would be one of the states I would guess that you could do it. it in, but I didn't know that. I didn't know that either, but they have a definite dignity law where if you are, according to doctors, have six months or less to live, you can decide to die. And how has that process handled? Through a pill, through basically medication given by professional that, you know, that, you know, basically slows down your heart rate and shuts down everything.

and that's what this person did yesterday. I mean... You're not bringing this up because you're considering moving to Washington, are you? No, no. But, I mean, I had no idea. Look, I think that people should be able in situations like that to end their own life. Now, that said, it's easy for me to say, I'm not the one who's dying. I don't know if I would have the courage to do that.

Oh, my God, no. I mean, but again, you're not in person. pain right now. You're not suffering. Right. That's what I... I know. I'm not suffering. I can't imagine what it would be like, but I mean, that takes tremendous... I was just blown away by... I guess, you know, I mean, like you said, with the pain involved, you don't know what your attitude would be, but still, I think it takes tremendous courage to do that. Yes. I mean, I think it does take tremendous courage. But, you know, in many cases,

it might be very obvious to the person in that situation that it's better than what they're living. Why did you bring this up? So depressing. I told you, I had a lot of bad stuff to bring up today. Okay. Is it called to die with dignity law? Death with dignity law? Death with dignity. Yeah. I was unfamiliar with that. So was I. Just something to keep in mind if things get too bad.

I mean, because right now, things out there are pretty, we were talking about this before the podcast. I don't know where I fit in anymore. Well, let's go there. Let me ask you a question. Let me see if I can sort of phrase this the right way. We have seen in the last week in your field, not mine, journalism, a lot of shit go down, a lot of stuff that's having.

happened here over the last week to two weeks. I think it's honestly, and I hate to be the one that speaks in hyperbole because I've always, outside of sports, I've always, you know, asked those in my life, you know, be careful. You know, this happened back in this year and this happened then. You know, we have had moments in our lives or in our history that were much more threatening or much more you know, tumultuous, et cetera. But these last three and a half to four months have been truly, you know, it moves to the, it moves very much into the top two or three of tumultuous times in our lifetime. But in your specific field, you know, you've had that New York Times opinion head had to resign. There have been others. James Bennett, the New York Times

Benet. Yeah. had to resign overrunning the Tom Cotton op-ed piece. Right. And the Philly Enquirer, the editor of the Enquirer, a guy by the name of Stan with Snowski, who was editor of the paper for like 10 years, took them through some very difficult times, and won a Pulitzer Prize there for public service, had to basically resign from the paper because of a stupid headline, and it was a stupid headline that said buildings matter.

So my question to you is, are we in the midst of a journalistic philosophical shift of sort of letting the mob quell free speech to a certain degree? Is this where we're headed? It looks like we're heading that way, and it makes me sick. I mean, I don't even recognize this. business anymore. What you're seeing is the college campus from 10, 12 years ago, now in the workplace, and in this case, in newsrooms, that college campus where anything, any kind of speech that offended them, they didn't want on campus. You know, they wanted state zones where you

couldn't put up any signs or even have any thoughts that were different than what they felt was appropriate. Now those people are in jobs, and they're in jobs in newsroom. And what happened at the New York Times, where the editor, the op-ed editor, James Bennett, had to resign for running this Senator Tom Cotton piece about how the president should have abused military force against the protesters and rioters. You know, that upset a lot. of people. Look, Tom Cotton, to me, is, you know, he shouldn't be a senator, but I didn't, he's not from my state. I mean, his views are abhorrent to me, you know, but he was a U.S. senator writing about something that other people in a country probably believed should have

happened, however a poor it may be. And it's happened before presidents have used military truths against people in the streets. They've got, you know, George Bush did it in 92, I think, with the Rodney King riot. Okay, so, I mean, so while uphorrent, it was, it was on the op-ed page, opposite opinions. You know, that's the purpose of the page. And the New York Times, in the New York Times reporters, particularly the black reporters, where, I mean, just basically threatened the management of the paper if they didn't do something about it. So this guy had to resign.

And this is what the editor, this is one of the most chilling things I've ever heard of newspaper editors say. The editor of the New York Times said he pulled his staff. Anyone who sees any piece of opinion journalism, headlines, social posts, photos, You name it, that gives you the slightest pause, please call or text me immediately. That is horrific. That means you're going to have reporters ratting on other reporters if they're particularly offended by something that they see the reporter write in a story or something like that. I mean, look, I come from an age where, you know, if you,

If you dare to question the editors, they basically screams you back to your desk. Now, that doesn't happen anymore, apparently. But if I'm an editor now at a newspaper, I'm scared to death to edit any piece of copy that any reporter has. For fear, I'm going to lose my job because I didn't edit it according to what the mob wanted. And it's ridiculous. I am so glad I'm at the end of this business. than the beginning right now, because it's not something I'd want to be part of. How many?

I mean, this is advocacy journalism, and it's been happening for a while. It's been creeping in for a while. And now it's in the mainstream. It's in the New York Times. And the Wall Street, and the Philadelphia Enquirer. How many of your friends in your business have you talked to about this? You're calling them every day anyway, old friends, and a lot of those friends are journalists. Do they all agree with you?

Well, you know, it's funny because, again, this is the generation that was in college 10 years ago. So it's a generational thing. People that I've been in the business with, for the most part, are offended by what they're seeing, are offended by the way these things are going. And, you know, these positions that are undoing these editors, younger reporters and their 20 think, well, this is fine. You know, this was a viewpoint that put people at risk, you know. And it should have never ran and people should lose their jobs because that kind of speech isn't allowed.

So it's a generational thing within the business. People are saying you put people at risk? Yeah. I mean, but the black, look, the black New York Times, reporters said an article saying the use of military force against demonstrators put young black people at risk. That's what they're saying. I don't know. To me, um, an op-ed column, you know, physically, uh, putting someone at risk to me, it seems crazy. You know, I ask you the question. I agree with you, Kevin. I agree. And, and then you, you know,

Times has published far worse op-ed pieces. Yeah. Far more inflammatory abet pieces. Like from the Taliban. Yes. Among others. Yes. Twitter right now and social media

is an insane asylum. And I don't think normal people, normal subjective, I understand that. I think most normal people that I've had conversations with about everything that's going on

you know, aren't in agreement with the social media mob, aren't in agreement with those in journalism that are pushing back against free speech, aren't in total agreement on all of the issues about what everybody's protesting about. The big things, to go back to the conversation of two weeks ago, the big things I think everybody normal seems to agree on, which is, you know, going back to the incident that, sparked this particular two-week run, the George Floyd incident, was murder. And everybody wants the police officers involved to pay a full price.

Nobody wants systemic racism in law enforcement or in society. People want that rooted out and kept out. The big things people tend to agree with. But it has gotten to the point where if you don't believe in what right now the loudest voices in our society, which are voices in particular, Tommy, on social media because they're instantaneous, they're live. It's a running live stream. And you as much as respond to a tweet that gets misinterpreted, you can get fired. You can lose your job in this environment. That's insane. That is completely insane.

And I went through this last week. I went through this last week. What do you mean? Now, the point is, and I got to say, there's a little bit of security about this. I don't particularly give a shit because I can't, I mean, I don't give a shit if I get fired. Right. You know, I don't particularly care. Well, you're all, there's a little bit of it.

Where could you get fired from? That's true. I mean, the newspaper that you work for, they're not quelling free speech right now, are they? No. Yeah. Well, I, no. My point is I agree with everything you said.

I mean, there was a poll that came out from NPR and Maris College last week that said 55% of Americans' polls thought the police handled the riots and protesters just fine. Now, you wouldn't know that if you followed social media. No chance. Bottom line, Tommy, in your business, my God, if you are so emotionally unstable as to have a major problem with somebody who disagrees with your view, then the way it used to be is journalism's the wrong field for you. Go into something else. Because there are more arguments in our environment, your environment, and if you're offended by somebody's position, So be it.

Kevin, this is what we've seen happen in college campuses for the past 10 to 12 years, at least or longer. It wasn't that way in the 60s? No, no, it wasn't like that then. It wasn't like that. Well, I don't know because I wasn't usually paying attention to the time on college campuses to these kind of things. But, I mean, and they've all graduated now, and the idea of safe zone, safetyism, that one person described it is right now in vote. Did you, I mean, I've seen so much.

I'm trying to consume as much from all sides. And by the way, the fact that we have to say all sides, most of the sides are the sides that want the New York Times op-ed editor to resign. That is most of our media. But what really bothers me is what I'm seeing from our leaders. Forget what I'm seeing from our media. I mean, we've already, you and I have already described our distaste for the president. This is, regardless of your politics, regardless of policy agreement or disagreement, this is a person that's very limited, intellectually and otherwise, and has become incredibly divisive.

And it's just the absolute worst kind of person for a crisis. And we've had back to back. because it's all about him as a narcissist, not about the team. I've mentioned that many times before. Any book on leadership you ever want to read, the worst kind of leaders are always those that are self-absorbed because they never do what's right for us. They always do what's right for them.

And this one in particular is not only self-absorbed to a level that I don't know if I've ever seen before, but there is this borderline level of intelligence combined with outrageous immaturity. Now, with all of that understood, did you see the video of this Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Fry? Oh, yeah. At a rally over the weekend in front of... It was sad.

Oh. It was sad. It was worse than sad. It was scary because this was perhaps a guy that is reflective of future leaders to where they're submissive. I mean, now, he ultimately did say in front of that large gathering in a very weak voice. By the way, he looks like he's in eighth grade. Yes, he does.

It's amazing that he got elected mayor. It's incredible that he got elected mayor. He must have done it behind a curtain. He really looks incredibly young, not just like, you know, I don't even know how old Jacob Fry is. I'm actually going to look that up. I'm going to guess that Jacob Fry is 40. You think he's that old? Yeah, I think so.

He's 38 years old. And he's from this area, born in Oakton, Virginia. He looked like a pizza delivery guy. He went to Oakton High School in Vienna, Virginia, and went to William and Mary after that. He was a distance runner on the track and field team at William and Mary. How about that? He won the 2002 Colonial Athletic Association 5,000 meter title in track.

Who knew? Well, he certainly was looking to run someplace in front of that mob. So Jacob Fry, the mayor of Minneapolis, and let's give you a brief history lesson here, because it was just about a week and a half ago during the riots in Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd, that he demanded that an actual police precinct, with police in the precinct, leave the precinct quickly as the demonstrators were coming through with torches. I still, out of everything that's happened in these last couple weeks, that is the most shocking to me.

Now, the video of George Floyd being killed is the obvious most shocking. And by the way, I have to emphasize that clearly, so somebody doesn't think that I'm not getting. giving it its proper due, which I am. I understand what happened that particular late afternoon Memorial Day 2020. I've seen the video. I know what the cop's history is. I know what the other three cops did.

By the way, did you hear about one of the cops? He had only been on the job for a couple of days. That's a hell of an introductory week. Anyway, back to what happened on Saturday. He was at a rally, and it was a defund the police rally, which, by the way, just already has taken on so many different definitions. I can't keep up with all of what defund the police means. You know, anywhere from, no, no, no, that's not what we mean at all.

It has nothing to do with that. It's actually a recipe for chocolate chip cookies to the abolishment of police altogether and the insertion of social workers to enforce laws. It's somewhere in between, I understand that, but there's been a lot of conversation and a lot of different definitions about what defund the police means. But anyway, he was at one of these rallies on Saturday, and they demanded that he agree with them, not about defunding the police,

but about getting rid of the police altogether. And he had the mask on Tommy, and it was one of the most pathetic scenes I've ever seen. It really was pathetic. Now, ultimately, he did. reject the notion of abolishing the police. He said it, you could barely hear it. You know, as he was taking his mask off his face and he was speaking in the lowest possible hush tones. And then the mob basically turned on him. He didn't get hurt. I'm walking out of there.

It was a peaceful group, for the most part, but he was ripped verbally on his way out. Yeah. Kevin, he was overmatched. A lot of people would have been... For the job or for the moment? For the moment. And maybe for the job, too. Well, for the job of those four or five days, yeah. I mean, you know, it'd be hard. You have to find a special mayor to be able to deal with that.

Now, that said, if there was ever a police department that needed dismantling, it seems to be Minneapolis. I mean, where they've got a police union. and the police unions are a big problem with this. That is out of control when it comes to its culture. And maybe he knew something about that precinct in particular where maybe there were a bunch of bad cops there. I'm just giving to the benefit of doubt.

That was a bad police department. Well, I mean, Derek Chauvin had 18 complaints against him. Now, I can't put that in proper perspective because I don't know what the average number of complaints against a police officer is. I have heard that basically every police officer has, you know, a number of complaints against them for something. I don't know if 18's a lot. It seems like a lot to me. But to your point, why was that cop still working if he had all of those complaints?

Why was that cop if he had all those complaints working in a job that was beyond sort of parking meter checks? You know, where he was actually dealing. So I'm not going to discount the possibility that that person shouldn't have been on the job in the first place and that there needs to be police reform. I think there's been police reform. There's been across the country a lot of police reform over the years. Not the country. It depends on what you're talking about.

I mean, the Justice Department had to be called into Spokane and Baltimore to oversee the police. departments there. You know, I mean, and there hasn't, again, there hasn't been the kind of police reform that calls to accountability. That culture has not been changed. Right. And that's what needs to be changed. Now, that said, the fund, the police, does anyone know if it was a member of a Republican

National Committee that came up with that slogan? Yeah, I mean, defund the police. The Republicans are saying, yeah, there we go. Look at their doing the job for it. You know, words matter. Say what you mean. If you don't mean, get rid of paying police, then say it. Don't come up with a phrase like defund the police and expect people to decipher what you mean.

Ridiculous. Well, the people have had, in being. efforting to decipher what it means and there are lots of different definitions of what it means. That's part of the problem too. If you're going to come up with a movement on an issue, not only get the slogan right, but let's all define it and be on the same page in terms of what it means, because that's definitely not occurring. I've seen so many interviews with various people talking about defund the police. And again, it's almost ranges from, oh, no, no, no, it has nothing to do with the police.

It's a recipe for a chicken catch atory. It means get rid of all the police. We don't need police in this country. We don't need law enforcement. We can use social workers to enforce the laws. We can use social services to enforce the laws. Look, I'm not an expert in this area, and that wasn't necessarily the point of bringing up Jacob Fry. My instinct is to believe that we need police officers in this.

country, good police officers. That's my instinct. I think it's a logical one, and I bet it's the prevailing opinion of America, even though you probably don't get that sense here over the last week. If you're just on social media, you're just, you know, on especially more liberal television stations or reading liberal newspapers. I think the majority of people would prefer the police, black and white. That's my view. I have no idea if I'm wrong or not. I brought it up. I brought up Jacob Fry for this reason. In times of crisis, in times of instability, and by the way, I say that understanding that most of the protests over the last week in particular have been mostly peaceful, and they've been

very nice. They're continuing today, I understand. I don't know how long this will go on. It certainly seems like it's not going to stop anytime soon. And by the way, I've been actually very inspired would be the wrong word, but impressed by a lot of the young people of all colors and religions with being involved and being active, even if they're not completely informed through and through on all of these different things. But I go back to Jacob Fry. This was going to be my point. In these situations, perceived weakness is a problem, and he's perceived to be incredibly weak,

not because of his physical appearance, but because of his actions over the last two weeks. And it's that kind of submissiveness, Tommy. When you project weakness, people take advantage of that in any aspect of life. And that guy has projected weakness at the most incredible level. levels. And a lot of our leaders have, you know, here recently. It's not just people who are afraid to write or say what they want to say. It's our elected leaders in many cases that are that are cowtowing to the mob right now. Look, it's a fine line. I mean, you know, I mean, just because the majority may not, you know, speak to a certain issue doesn't mean the majority

is right. That's true. You know, I mean, sometimes you have to speak up for the people who don't have the voices in power, the minority that don't have a voice in power. But I agree with you about this guy. That was a terrible look. I mean, you know, seeing him, and he's seen, like he literally did seem like a guy showing up at your door with three pizzas and being told you weren't going to pay for them. Right. I don't have any money, but you have to pay, because my boss is going to get really upset if I come back without the money.

Get the hell out of here, Shorty. Get out of here. Yeah. I mean. I mean, that was pretty bad. You know, here's what David Simon, who's a good friend of mine, who knows something about policing. The Wire. Wrote the book called Homicide, and then the TV show called The Wire.

We could really get revolutionary and change policy by ending the drug war and defunding mass incarceration. He means related to the drug war. And directing police agencies to focus on real crime. But that would require us to recognize that police departments were long tasked by us with a bad policy. They have spent so many millions of dollars, billions of dollars. and so much time and effort in measuring their success and failure on drug arrests and drug convictions. And I'm not talking about high-level drug dealers. I'm talking about street-level stuff.

And it had totally warped our police departments in focusing on this. And like he said, I agree with them, taken resources away from dealing with real crime. I mean, I think he's got a real good point here. All right, quick word about hydrant. Top performers in business and sports often attribute their success to their morning routine. Whether it's waking up early like we do or setting their goals for the day, exercise or meditation, but not everybody's got the time to do it all. With hydrant, you can jumpstart your mornings.

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Drinkhydrant.com. Hey, Kevin, we got some sports news, local sports news breaking. What? The new D.C. Sports Hall Fame class that's being inducted into the D.C. Sports Hall of Fame. I'll just give you a heads up. Get ready. You're not on the list. Well, that's a big, that's a big omission. How did that happen? I know that. I agree with you. But you know, is this the naming of the next class? Yes.

Okay. Ken Beatrice. Ken Beatrice is on the list. Oh, good. Good for him. That's awesome. Yes. Ken Beatrice, Herman Boone. Right. Austin Carr, Gary Clark, Bob Dwyer. Who's Bob Dwyer? Bob Dwyer was the head coach of the greatest high school basketball team that many think in high school basketball history,

the great Carroll teams of the late 50s, the one that John Thompson played on, those teams. Jill Ellis, who she? Who? Jill Ellis? I have no idea. Okay, Will Jones. Of course. Legendary coach at UDC was one of lefties' early assistants basketball legend.

John Lucas. John Lucas into the D.C. Sports Hall of Fame, obviously because of his days at Maryland. He played for the bullets, too, but that would be for his days at Maryland. Yeah, and also the Nats and the Mystic's teams will be noted as teams of distinction. Oh, they're putting in, you're saying they're putting it. in the whole teams? Yes, under teams. Okay, well, they just won championships.

I would assume that the caps are already in it then. I would assume so too. All right, so. But I don't know. Ken Beatrice, you mentioned. Ken Beatrice, many of our listeners know who Ken Beatrice was. Ken Beatrice was the pioneer in this city anyway of Sports Talk Radio. He was not on a sports talk radio station.

He was on WMAL radio for years. where he hosted a three-hour nightly sports talk show. You know, Fall 3-2, WMAL is the number. Call me. And Ken Beatrice was, for some of us, you know, at a young age, a legend. Tommy, I went into, I went up to Jennifer Street with friends and asked to meet him, and he brought us into his office, and every other word was an F-bomb. And he's smoking. He's a chain smoker.

and I got to know him a little bit, you know, when I got into this business very much at the end of his career. He did a show on WTEM on 980 for several years when there was finally a 24-hour seven-day-a-week sports talk station. But Ken Beatrice was really unique and very, very good at what he did. He was a very good broadcaster. You said Herman Boone, Well, I mean, you know, one of the great movies, obviously, remember the Titans. And Herman Boone was the black head coach at T.C. Williams, who was played by Denzel Washington in that movie, which was such a good movie. Who else?

Austin Carr. One of the great high school players in the history of this city played at Mackin. I think I could be wrong about this. I think Austin Carr still holds the single game. game NCAA tournament scoring record. He scored, I think, 60-something points. I think it was 68. Was it 68? I didn't think it was that many. I think it was. But he scored 60-something in an NCAA tournament game for Notre Dame. Went to Notre Dame. Yeah, Austin Carr went from here to Notre Dame. And then who's the next one? Gary Clark, the only Redskins on the list. I mean, how many Redskins are

in the D.C. Sports Hall of Fame? I don't know. I'm sure probably quite a few. Yeah. You know, basically, what they've got is they've got this banner that hangs at Nats Park. When you walk into the center field entrance and if you turn right to walk down the third base side, you can see this giant banner hanging from, I think, one of the parking garages that has everyone listed on the D.C. Sports Hall fame. It's pretty cool. I know a couple of years ago, somebody who's on the committee, on the Hall of Fame Selection Committee, we had on the show.

I thought it was you and me, to talk about it. It may have been Mark Tuey. It might have been Mark Toey, who we had on. I know Andy O. O. O. was on it. And I know Troy Broughtman is on it. He should be. Yeah. So I don't know who else is on.

Why aren't the two of us on that committee? I don't know. I don't know. By the way, we are misunderstood. By the way, I don't want to be on the committee. I don't want to commit my time to anything so trivial. You know, listen, I told you, look, I still stick by my idea. You know, you and I create the D.C. sports talk hall of fame,

and then we just induct each other. We just induct each other? each other, and we give each other award. And when I induct you, you'll say, oh, my God, that's such an honor. That was really, I didn't expect it. And then you'll induct, you'll nominate me and induct me. And I'll say, oh, my God, this is such a surprise. I am so thrilled to be a part of this great group of two, Tom Leverro and Kevin Sheehan.

And we'll induct other people if they pay. But after we induct each other. Yes. If they pay us. if they pay us. Actually, Ken Beatrice really and truly in terms of a sports talk Hall of Fame, that conversation starts and ends with Ken Beatrice. It does. Warner Wolf, not Warner Wolf? Warner Wolf did some talk radio, but Warner Wolf was known for being, you know,

the television sports director and anchor at Channel 9 before he went to New York. You know, he did some talk radio, you know, So did, you know, Al Koken and so did Bernie Smilovits and so did, oh, God, the baseball expert, Tommy. You know, why am I blanking on his name? Phil Wood. Phil was great with Bernie Smilovitz doing a talk show at the same time Ken Beatrice was doing one. This was in the 70s into the early 80s. But Ken was the first in this town and he became a big-time personality because he really was the only one for a long period.

period of time. And he hosted the Redskins Post-Game show, which was different when Ken started to host it. The post-game show used to many, many years ago, consists of Chris Hamburger's, you know, an Orsmann Chevy post-game interview with like a player or two from the locker room. And that was the post-game show. But when Ken Beatrice came along, Ken Beatrice would do a, you know, point-by-point post-game analysis where he would get, you know, he would share his opinion with you. And sometimes it wasn't overly positive about the home team on the home team network, which made it unique back then, you know, where you got into truly, you know, an objective analysis of how the Redskins played and the opponent and how the game went.

And we've all been doing that now for years. But he was the first one really to do that in this town. You know, after him, you know, at Sports Talk Radio, it would be the junkies and it would be maybe Andy. I mean, Andy was on the air when 980 launched. He was the director, the sports director. He hosted multiple shows. But that would be it. The junkies, because of an incredibly successful run over a long period.

period of time. Two decades plus, right, Tommy? Am I right about that? Yeah, absolutely. And Andy's still on the year. And Andy's still on the year? Yes, he is. Did you know that he got hit by a car and a bike about two months ago, three months ago? Did you know? He's fine. He's fine. He's fine. Of course he's fine. Because he's going to live to be a hundred. He's indestructible. Yes. Oh, God. Never misses a day of work. He's going to live to be a hundred. Yeah, he has loved that bike over the years, hasn't he?

He's going to bite. Was that guy a buddy of yours? Who? This is Brennan guy. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't know who he is. Not a friend of here?

Why would you think he'd be a friend of mine? Because it was on the trail, which, by the way, it was on the trail, which is where it happened is maybe a mile from my house. That's it. Okay, but you don't know, man? No, no, I don't know. He was an much older dude, wasn't he? Wouldn't he like in his 60s?

He was 60. How old are you a much older dude? Well, I actually thought for whatever reason he was like in his mid-60s. By the way, Tommy, one thing's for sure. If I had been there and that had been my, child. This dude, the least of his worries, would have been getting caught and getting arrested. Oh, yeah. Me too. I mean, now, the... But here's the thing with me. I noticed this to me because I had, I yelled at somebody a couple weeks ago when I was walking about something. I don't know. And,

you know, I forget, I'm 66 years old. I mean, I look in that mirror sometimes, and I'm still the 30-year-old guy who, when he had to, can kick somebody that. It's the fight in the dog, brother. I don't look in that mirror and see the 66-year-old guy who people would say, don't beat up an old man. I would just say, you know what, sir, honestly, you're going to have to turn around and I worry about you. You seem fired up.

You seem to have some real fight in that dog, but you're, you're, You're an elderly fella here. This person's much younger and much more fit. See, I don't see that guy. It's dangerous, I know. All right, quick word about Roman, and then we'll get to the Breeze apology, the Goodell statement from over the weekend,

and give you our thoughts on that to finish up the show. If you were to guess on average how many days people in the U.S. have to wait to see a doctor, what would you say? A week maybe, actually, on average, people have to wait around 29 days to see a doctor in major U.S. cities. Basically a month, if you're dealing with a condition like erectile dysfunction, you want treatment ASAP.

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commitments and you can cancel any time. So if you're struggling with ED, go to get roman.com and use my promo code Sheehan for a free online visit and free two-day shipping. That's GetRoman. Roman.com promo code Sheehan, S-H-E-E-H-A-N for a free online visit and free two-day shipping. All right, let's get to the Roger Goodell statement from over the week. And I think at this point, everybody knows that Roger Goodell came out with a very strong statement on behalf of the league. We think it's on behalf of the league. Roger Goodell videotaped himself delivering a message where he said, we the National Football League condemn racism and systematic oppression of black people.

We the National Football League admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak and peacefully protest. We at the National Football League believe Black Lives Matter. I personally protest with you and want to be a part of the much-needed change in this country. Without black players, there would be no National Football League, and the protests around the country are emblematic of the centuries of silence, inequality, and oppression of black players, coaches, fans, and staff. We are listening.

I am listening, and I will be reaching out to players who have raised their voices and others on how we can improve and go forward for a better and more united NFL family. That was from the commissioner over the weekend. I thought that there was two obvious takeaways from this. Number one is kneeling for the anthem is not only going to be allowed, it's going to be encouraged as a form of protest, the thing that Colin Kaepernick was protesting, which is obviously racial injustice, specifically the treatment of African Americans by law enforcement in this country. The second takeaway for me is something I'm not so sure about necessarily, but I think they've really. open that door for a Kaepernick return? What did you make of Goodell's statement over the weekend? Well, I mean, the way it sounds, I'm not sure you'll be able to get in an NFL game

if you're not kneeling at this point. I don't even know if they're going to have spectators. Yes, I would think that you're going to see a lot of kneeling. Are you going to have to kneel and beg for forgiveness to get in? I think you may have to kneel just to get in the game right now. Oh, boy. Here's a byproduct of this. That's going to be interesting. You know, everybody may be on board the first week.

We'll continue throughout the season. And what about players who don't want to kneel? They don't have to kneel. Well, again, but we've heard a theme here. Yes, we have. A theme from people that said, if you're not with me, then you're against me. Yeah, but see, those people, but Tommy.

If you're not kneeling with me, and I've seen this from players, silence, it won't be tolerated. Tommy, here. So not only will they expect you to kneel, but you'll be expected to speak out. Tommy, this is silence won't be tolerated. This is the problem, is that those that preach tolerance the most have been intolerant to opposite opinion. And in this particular situation, a player, just using this as an example.

A player who chose not to kneel wouldn't be choosing not to kneel because they're for police brutality against African Americans. Again, this goes back to what I told you last week. I have the ability, and most people I know have the ability, to be emotionally involved, emotionally outraged, emotionally upset

about more than one issue at a time. That's why I was outraged by what happened with George Floyd. I continue to be outraged. by any sort of bad cops continuing to be allowed in police and in law enforcement. At the same time, I was also unnerved by the unrest. But apparently you weren't really allowed to be unnerved by the unrest, at least according to some, because if you were, that meant you were part of the problem. The person that doesn't kneel in an NFL game can say,

I am all for your issues. I am 100% on board. And by the way, let me make a list of the things that I've been doing to participate actively in trying to end systemic racism in this particular area of life or this particular area of life. However, however, I don't approve of the method. I think that this is an important moment. It's something that is important to me to be respectful to the flag. I understand why you're kneeling, and I know, and this is something Drew Breeze apparently didn't know, which is still mind-boggling, I know why you're doing it, and I know it has nothing to do with you being disrespectful to military or veterans or the flag.

But I'm going to stand. That's my position, and I can be, and these things are mutually exclusive of one another. I hope by the time. I hope, I hope, yes. What? Kevin, you're not listening. You haven't been listening to the messages that are out there. Well, that's going to change. There's going to be pushed back the other way, Tommy.

That's a position that won't be allowed, particularly of the NFL, players are going to call each other out. And it could get really ugly, really ugly. I mean, because, again, silence is not tolerated. If it's silent, they're complicit. Here's the problem with the approach is it's a bullying approach. Now, some that are listening would completely disagree with that or say that's too bad that it makes you uncomfortable. It's not that it makes you uncomfortable. Eventually, it's going to get pushed back on because people, again,

believe in most of what everything, normal people, compassionate people, decent people, believe in most of what everybody's protesting. What they don't want is in the various areas like defund the police or whatever that means. Or you're not allowed to feel unnerved by the unrest. There is disagreement. And again, to your point, silence will not do for some. But back to the original point, which is the anthem. And players in a locker room that decide to stand versus Neil

with their teammates. I hope by the time we get there, there is more tolerance of an alternative opinion. Let me stop you. Let me stop you right now. By the time we get there, that's September and October. You know what kind of virus is going to be going through the country then? The presidential election.

In what universe do you think things are going to be toned down? Things are going to be worn down. It will be worse in September and October than it is right now. Intolerance will be higher on both sides. I don't know how I'd feel personally if I were a player in that locker room, but there are going to be some players, regardless of whether or not they totally support the reason that their teammates are kneeling that are going to say,

I still feel it's important to stand for the National Anthem. I think that there are going to be players that do that. And I would hope that we're at a point, and you may be right. Maybe it'll still be so volatile and so, you know, any sort of alternative opinion will be shut down immediately. But we'll see. Again, Tommy, my sense of it is, is that the people that have been sitting back in at least partial disagreement with some of these things or without, you know, having enough information to have a definitive opinion, I think a lot of those people don't like getting bullied at all.

Interesting times. Interesting times. Here's the... Depressing time. Here's what I want to mention to you as it relates to the anthem. I had Andrew Brandt on the show this morning on the radio show. Did you know that the NFL currently doesn't have an actual policy on the anthem? like you can kneel, you're allowed to kneel.

Now they've encouraged players to stand, but there's nothing prohibiting a player from kneeling. Eric Reed continued to kneel last year during games. I know. Kenny Stills, who was in Houston last year, continued to kneel during the anthem. Those players weren't fined. They weren't punished for that.

It's interesting because I didn't know that. I thought that there was essentially a policy in place that prohibited those players from doing it. And even though there were a few players that were doing it, it was deterring everybody else from doing it. Now, obviously, there are certain owners like Jerry Jones who had strongly encouraged his players to be as one and to stand for the anthem

and to recognize, you know, that many of their customers want them to stand as well. And it's good for business, which, by the way, it probably is. a lot of cities. But that was number one. Number two, you know, here's the other sort of practical part of this. If there are no spectators in the crowd, they're not going to play the anthem, although they may have to now. They may have to. I'd see ironic thing. They should have done away. This is only something that started about 15, 20 years ago, and they probably should have done away with it a couple years ago when they had the opportunity. Now, if they got rid of it now, it would

look like they're trying to hold back. No doubt. Yep, they can't do it now. And even three years ago, I remember saying, just get rid of the anthem. I mean, most people that watch a football game aren't exposed to the national anthem and whether or not players are kneeling or standing. But four years ago, it would have been Donald Trump who objected to get rid of the anthem. This time, it would be the protest. Yes. Yes. It would be everybody. How ironic is that? Right. Just three years later, it's actually the people that would have been fine with just getting rid of it, although it would have been perceived to be a little bit cowardly and as a cop out back then too. Now it would be they can't afford to not play the anthem even if it's in front of an empty stadium with just players on the sideline. In fact, you watch, there'll be a lot of players that will demand that the television networks carry it, even though they haven't for years.

The only time you see the anthem is the Super Bowl and maybe the championship games and maybe that, you know, kickoff game on Thursday night in September. That's it. 95% of the people that watch a football game are watching it from home and they never see the anthem. And I would suggest to you that 20% maybe more of the people that go to the games never see the anthem because they're still coming into the stadium or they're at the concession stand. All right, you got anything else? I got nothing else, boss. We accomplished a lot today. We have a lot out there for people to listen to and maybe even disagree with a little bit, probably a lot.

All right, we're done for the day. Listen to me on the Team 980, 6 to 9 a.m. in the mornings. You can download the Team 980 app. You can listen on the Team 980.com if you're home and not in your car. And as I've said before, I urge you as it relates to this podcast to rate us and review us if you get a chance to do that. on Apple Podcasts. All right, Tommy, I'll talk to you on Thursday. All right, boss.

I'll see you.