The Kevin Sheehan Show - Do You Want Adrian Peterson Back?

Episode Date: February 8, 2019

Kevin opens up with a few more thoughts on the Wizards, the NBA trade deadline, LeBron James and Kevin Durant. He then gets to the report that the Redskins and Adrian Peterson are in contract talks. Should AP be re-signed and why would we he want to stay? Conversation about Frank Robinson, Kyler Murray vs Michael Vick, and Jim Zorn who was hired 11 years ago this weekend. A look back at how it happened and what the reaction was with Andy Pollin. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now, here's Kevin. All right, I am here. Aaron is here, and this show is presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation.com and tell them that we told you to call. There were no more Wizards trades yesterday before the deadline. Hence, the takeaway for me, as we discussed yesterday when Tommy was on, is that they traded, Porter and they traded Morris for the money. I mean, do they actually think they can still make the playoffs? I'm a Bobby Portis fan. I think he'll help, but the Wizards are not going to make the playoffs this year. And this is how, you know, the conversation more likely than not went with Ted in the rest of the front office, you know, on Wednesday and perhaps even early yesterday. It was get me under the luxury tax threshold. I do not want to pay the luxury tax.

and please get me to the playoffs so I can make some money this year. For those that don't know, for organizations like the Wizards, getting to the playoffs and having two additional home games and sometimes three, four, or five additional home games, is profit margin. If not, they're either losing money or breaking even, and the Wizards have been in that boat as a franchise for a long time. I remember Ted telling Tommy and me several years ago that they needed to make the playoffs because he's losing money.

And from a pure profit and loss standpoint, you know, pure revenues minus costs, especially the salaries they pay. If they can't get, you know, 20,000 into the arena two, three, four more times than the 41 that are scheduled, they don't make money. So trust me, he wants to make the playoffs at any cost. Now, you know, the cheap narrative on Ted is a bit of an exaggeration for me. I mean, he is spending a ton of money on Scott Brooks. The Wizards are also right now, based on the two moves they made. They are in better shape next year, salary cap-wise. There is a way with Jabari Parker's contract, Dwight Howard's contract,

even some maneuvering with Jan Maheemey's contract, that the Wizards could end up with $30 million plus in salary cap room this coming off season, and that could be enough to be a player in what is a loaded free agency market. So I'll give them a little benefit of the doubt that they were thinking beyond this year, the luxury tax, and thinking a little bit into the future. But if they were really thinking into the future,

they would have traded Areza and Green also. But look, they still have current, they don't have a lot of players under contract. You know, and I was thinking about keeping Green and Areza, it's probably because they're going to try to keep them next year and beyond. You know, they clearly think the two of them can help them make a run this year. And again, I don't think they're going to make a run this year. I don't think they're going to be in the playoffs this year. Have you watched them recently on defense?

They're among, if not the worst defensive team in the NBA. And they didn't add anything to help them on that front in Parker or Portis. I do like Bobby Portis. I liked them a lot coming out of Arkansas. I think and thought he would be a good NBA player. It's been mixed results so far with a bad team in Chicago. But anyway, they've got other players I've got to think about. They got Sataransky.

They got Bryant. They've got, you know, Areza and green potentially. I want three things. I'll wrap this up with three things that I want from the Wizards moving forward. All right? Three things. One, I want them to play Troy Brown Jr. The rest of the way.

Can we get more information, more data, Ted, more data on whether or not this guy is a player? He didn't play at all in the last two games. Zero minutes from Troy Brown. Can we get him 10 to 15 a night? Can we find out what we have, at least get a look at, you know, I know he's young and I know it's about 20, 21, 20, 22, et cetera, but then he'll be out off contract. He won't be under contract at that point. But could it be already obvious that Ernie picked another dud? He's averaging, listen to this, Troy Brown Jr. is averaging the fewest minutes per game of any player picked in. in the top 23 in the first round. And it's not even close. Go look up the minutes of the top 23 players in the draft. He was, what was he?

17 overall? I can't even remember what he was. He was in the top 23. I looked at this earlier. I can't even remember what number he was. I think he was 17. He's averaging the fewest minutes per game of any player picked in the top 23 in the draft. And it's not close.

If he can't play on this team right now, a team that isn't going anywhere? What does it say? Play him. That's number one. I want to see Troy Brown play the rest of the way. Two, I want the Wizards to be a player in free agency in 2019. Be relevant, try harder, think bigger. Ted, Ernie, if Ernie's still there.

Kevin Durant, Kauai Leonard, Kyrie Irving. How about Kemble Walker? Go get Kemble Walker. He and Beal together? How about Kemble Walker and Bradley Beale together next year and for the next few years? That's Lillard and McCollum. I mean, that's your Portland back court. Think bigger, though.

Inject your franchise with the thought that you are a legitimate franchise and a player when it comes to free agency. And stop talking about sports betting in your arena during Wizards games and start building a team that those customers will actually want to bet on, Ted. all right we've heard more from him on sports gambling than we've heard from him on his basketball team that's part of my second thing that i want i want us to i want the wizards to be relevant think big kevin durant's not coming here kawai leonard's not coming here i get it go after kemble walker lastly the third thing i want from the wizards and i know that this is very likely impossible but we thought the same thing about gilbert arinas and we thought the same thing about gilbert arinas and we thought the same thing about Richard Lewis.

And Ernie made it happen. The third thing I want from the Wizards, after Troy Brown playing, trying to become relevant in free agency, trying to think bigger and go after something big in free agency, the last thing I want is I want them to do their best to dump John Wall and his contract on somebody else. I know it's a long shot. But remember how Ernie duped Otis Smith in the Gilbert Arena's deal? he got the better of New Orleans when he dealt Lewis in his contract, which was the second

biggest in the NBA at that point to New Orleans for Areza and Ocifer. It might be totally impossible given the amount of money left on Wall's contract. You might need three to four to maybe five contracts back to match his. But you know what? You need players next year. You don't have enough players under contract right now. And if you can then deal those players shortly thereafter, I just think it's a path that must be explored. It's probably out of the question because of the money, and obviously because of the injuries to Wall. There may not be any market for Wall, but it didn't appear at the time that there should have been any market for Gill and there shouldn't have been any market for Lewis. And somehow, Ernie was able to dump those contracts.

Look, there might be somebody that would take a flyer on Wall, that he can come back in 2020 and beyond, you know, and resemble the player that he was. It's a long shot, it should be explored. That's the last thing I want. I want them to explore the dumping John Wall option. One last thought, and none of this takes into consideration. The three things that I wanted, this last thought is that none of this takes into consideration the possibility. I don't know if anybody's talked about this, but I was thinking about this as I was thinking about the Wizards not making any moves yesterday. What if Bradley Beale wants to be traded? What if he asks for a trade?

What if he wants out and he wants to go to a contender? You don't have to deal him. He's under contract. those three things that I want, the first one doesn't matter. The second one, you could potentially be an even bigger player in free agency. But Bradley Beale, I don't think, is going to go anywhere.

On that note, did you see, Aaron, the NBA All-Star draft last night on TV on TNT? I didn't watch it. I did see that it was happening, though. Adet Okunbo and LeBron were the two team captains making the picks. It was actually very

entertaining. Really? It was really entertaining. It's probably the best thing that isn't a game, and I'll get to a game from last night. It'll be better than the game itself. It was, by the, I bring this up and I segue into it because Bradley Beale was the last pick. Out of the 24 players, he was the last pick, and he went to Team LeBron as the last pick. And remember when it wasn't televised last year, one of the concerns was they didn't want to embarrass the players that were picked last. Right.

I would hope that Beal is so thrilled to be an all-star and among the 24 best players in the game right now that it wouldn't matter that much to them. Or it puts a chip on his shoulder. That's the other thing. Perhaps. But this is the thing. Televising it, if you're going to do the draft, you had to televise it. That was the whole purpose of the draft. Yeah, last year it was so stupid that they did it in private.

You know, Curry and LeBron last year. It was actually entertaining. Part of what makes it truly entertaining is Ernie and Kenny and Shaq and Bark. Right. You know, as part of the half hour show. But anyway, what was pretty funny is there was a line. LeBron took Anthony Davis on his team and then started talking about, you know, Anthony Davis and Janus interrupted him and said, you're tampering. You're tampering right now. But it was actually, I thought it was entertaining. For those of you that watch, you may or may not have felt the same way. As a follow-up to now the insufferable trade period ending, I'm really glad that Davis didn't get traded to the Lakers.

And the Pelicans say they are going to play him the rest of the year when he's ready to go for the integrity of the game. I like that. I think that's the right answer. As you should do. You know, this comes a day after Kevin Durant told the media to grow up when he was complaining like a petulant child. And a day or two after LeBron went off on the,

injustice of Harrison Barnes being traded during a game. Durant, you know, we had this conversation yesterday, so I'm being repetitive to a certain point, but Durant who signs one-year deals and rants about people and then rants about people asking him about his future is so backwards when you think about it. He signs one-year deals and then goes off on the media for asking him about his future or not talking about his future. He should be so thrilled that so many people care about where he's going to play next year. And if he's not thrilled about it, sign a longer-term deal.

Just stop with the year-to-year drama. He's got to stop with these occasional tantrums. Not because they make him look overly sensitive, which he is, but because they make him look stupid. You know, that was a stupid rant. It was nonsensical. He put himself into that, he continues to put himself into that position, playing for a high-profile team, and signing one-year deals. And LeBron, who has traded anybody at any time and would have traded Harrison Barnes at half-time

had Harrison Barnes been on his team and brought back Anthony Davis. If Harrison Barnes had been on the Lakers and Harrison Barnes was something the Pelicans wanted for Anthony Davis, LeBron would have shipped him out in the second quarter, would have pulled him out of the game himself and said, sorry, pal, you're traded. Harrison Barnes, I looked this up. I knew it was a lot. He made over $24 million, or is making over $24 million this year for playing basketball. Not a bad gig. The other night, during the game in which he was playing and he got traded, he earned nearly $300,000 for a couple of hours of work. I think he can handle it. LeBron and KD need to stop. They are the ones chiefly responsible for the hysteria that surrounds free agency every year. and the trade deadline, theatrics, which are insufferable each year. They both need thicker skin.

Meantime, the games resumed last night, and the Lakers Celtics game was great. I understand, you know, I'm doing what I told you I shouldn't do yesterday, which is spend too much time on the Wizards and the NBA. But I watched the Lakers Celtics second half. Lakers were down by 18, 19 in that game. It was a great game. it was better than any of the trade deadline drama. For me, anyway, I like games.

This was a game in which both teams were actually interested in winning than wondering about where they'd be the next day, which was nice to see over the last week. Rajan Rondo hit the game winner at the buzzer to beat the Lakers in Boston. To beat the Celtics. To beat the Celtics in Boston, excuse me, for the Lakers to beat the Celtics in Boston. It was a crazy play.

Ingram had a shot block. the ball got knocked around. Rondo ended up with it, and he buried a shot at the buzzer after Kai Rie had given the Celtics the lead on the other end. It's a great basketball game. I bring that up because I have always been a massive Rondo fan. And the Lakers, because of him and LeBron, are interesting to me, even without Anthony Davis. Now, they do not have a chance to beat the Golden State Warriors in a Best to Seven series. Nobody does. But if the Lakers get to the playoffs, and that's an if right now. They're on the outside looking in right now. I think they're a game, game and a half out. But if they get into the playoffs and they play anybody else but the

Warriors, they will have a chance against anybody else. And they'll have a chance because they have the two highest IQ players in the NBA on the same team in LeBron James and Rajan Rondo. They're on the same team with some other good players. You know, Tyson Chandler, a winning player. Kuz Ingram. I like Josh Hart. He's not playing that much anymore. I like Mo Wagner. He's not, he didn't get much run. But if the Lakers get into the playoffs, to watch a series involving James and Rondo, LeBron and Rondo on the same team, will be very interesting to basketball purists, because those of you that really are into this sport, you know that these are two of, if not the two smartest, highest IQ basketball players in the league, and they're on the same team.

And these playoff games come down to very often high IQ. Experience high IQ basketball. They're an interesting team, even without Anthony Davis. Not good enough to beat the Warriors, no chance. But if you're Denver or you're Oklahoma City or you're Portland, do you really want to see LeBron and the Lakers in the first round? Probably not. All right, I'm done with the NBA in basketball.

Let me move to the Redskins for a moment. Julie Donaldson reported, from NBC Sports Washington, reported that the Redskins and Adrian Peterson are working on a new deal. This is, you know, with everything that's been going on, this has sort of been forgotten about. Like all the things that the Redskins are going to start doing here as we approach things like the first date that you can apply a franchise tag on a player, which comes up next week, I believe.

I don't think they're going to use the franchise. franchise tag as an aside. But when I read the tweet from Julie and JP, I think retweeted Julie's report that the Redskins and Adrian Peterson are working on trying to put together a new deal for Adrian Peterson to come back, I had an immediate reaction. And my reaction was, why? Why would Adrian Peterson want to come back to the Redskins? And two, why would I get excited? as a Redskins fan to have Adrian Peterson back. I'm curious. Is anybody excited about this?

Now, I put out a poll right before the show started, and overwhelmingly so far, most of you want Adrian Peterson back. I'm on the record for backing the blow-it-up plan for 2019, taking all the pain in 2019, cut Alex Smith, take the cap hit now, cut Josh Norman, cut Brown,

cut Foster, Mason Foster, that is, cut Zach Brown, cut all the players that are teed up to be released like Vernon Davis that will provide significant cap savings. I would trade Kerrigan. I'd even trade Trent Williams for draft picks for future draft picks. I had Charlie Casserly on the show on Wednesday. Listen to that interview if you haven't listened to it so far. I just like Charlie. I think Charlie's a really good guest, and he's really can't. and his discussion about a lot of things. I love some of the things that he said about the Patriots. But I posed the nuclear option to Charlie, and he had a great answer.

He said, you know, Kevin, he said, when you're working in television, it makes sense. When you're on the inside, it really is a hard thing. It's very complex. He's like, look at Cleveland. When they started down this road, how many of those people are left? And that's a really fair point. But the Redskins have had the same people for a while now, and it would appear as if none of them seem to be on the verge of losing their jobs.

But I get his point, overall point. But I would do it. And he said it should absolutely be considered. A former general manager in the National Football League, a Super Bowl winning general manager, said this is the kind of thing you have to consider when you're in the Redskins position, in particular what would drive that. And what is driving it for me is the fact.

fact that they do not have a quarterback. You know, if Alex Smith hadn't gotten injured and you'd gone 8 and 8 or 9 and 7 and either just missed the playoffs or, you know, made it as a wildcard team and lost in the first round, this would not be a conversation. But because of the loss of the quarterback and the prospects of, you know, potentially either Colt McCoy or Josh Johnson being your starting quarterback in 2019 and, of course, the salary cap hit that Alex Smith, you know, will count for in 2019 is what drives this conversation. And it should be considered.

The team won't consider it. We know why. They think they're close. But I would do it. I would take the pain in 19. I would add the draft fix. And then at the end of 2019, I'd get rid of Bruce. I'd get rid of Jay.

I'd get rid of everybody else and try to find a legitimate general manager, give him the autonomy to build it from scratch, including the hiring of it. a new coach and staff. So that's my preference. So because of that preference, I would not resign Adrian Peterson. I would not. I want Geis to be my guy from the jump. Now, if he's not ready because of the injury and because of the infection that came after the surgery, you know what? Let me go out and find a young guy in the fifth round. Redskins have been terrible at drafting running backs. You know, they've missed on so many over. the years, you know, in different rounds.

But find a young guy. I mean, Philip Lindsay was an undrafted free agent. If you're going to, again, this is my preference. This isn't the team, obviously the team isn't thinking this way. And I'll get to that in a moment. But my preference would be, let's blow it up. I'm going to play Geis if he's ready. And once he is ready, he's going to be my guy.

And I'm going to draft another young guy. And I'm going to use Chris Thompson because I really like him. And I'm going to keep Chris Thompson. Unless somebody wants to. trade me a second for Chris Thompson, and then I might trade him too. I'd be into trading anybody that brings back real opportunity for young players that will help me down the road. Now, for Adrian Peterson, I don't know why you would bring him back if you're thinking long term. His performance against Tennessee was an all-timer. I loved the way he played. Don't get me

wrong. He was probably the single biggest reason they won seven games and that they were competitive in most of their games was Adrian Peterson. But I'm not worrying about 2019. I'm worrying about beyond. So why are they talking to Adrian Peterson about bringing him back? Well, we know why. They want to bring him back because they believe they are close. The we're close, you know, delusion is going to delay the inevitable. Or maybe it won't because maybe they'll win six or seven games or eight games in 2019 with a young quarterback on the roster, with a rookie quarterback on the roster. And this time next year, they'll be thinking that 2020 that they're really close now. So we could be a year from now in another, we're close. You know, they could still

be having the same conversation. We're really close. We won seven games and look at how well, Daniel Jones came around and he's really developing and Geis was good and man John Allen was a monster. And you know what? All of those things would actually lead to them being legitimately closer than they are right now. But the we're close thing right now is frustrating. It's amazing to me that they just don't see the reality of a team that has a quarterback situation that for now, as we speak today, is bleak. they have a need for not one, two, or three starters. They have a need for two to three to maybe four to five on each side of the ball. I mean, let's take the most optimistic outlook on this team, on the roster. If you start on offense, the most optimistic you could be is they need three starters.

They need a starting guard. They need a starting wide receiver, at least one, if not two. I'll go with one, being very optimistic here, and they need a starting. starting quarterback. So they need three starters on offense, which includes the most important position on the team. That's optimistic, because it presumes that Geis and Morgan Moses and Jordan Reed and either Crowder or Quinn takes over the slot position at receiver, there's a lot of optimism there to say that they only need three starters on offense. On defense, though, they need two to three linebackers, with one of them being a true pass

rusher. They need a corner. They need two safeties. That's four minimum, more like five defensive starters they need. Two to three linebackers. One of them's got to be a pass rusher. They've got to get finally a pass rusher on this football team, a real pass rusher. They're not easy to find. I understand that. They need a corner. They need two safeties. So that is four minimum on defense, more like 5. When you add it up, it's like 7 to 8 new starters. That's the optimistic view that you need 7 to 8 new starters minimum. That's not counting on others that you haven't really necessarily been able to count on. You know, I'm not counting Jordan Reed or tight end. I'm saying, hey, Jordan Reed's healthy and we know that that is probably not going to happen.

7 to 8 minimum new starters out of 22. That's not close. By definition, that's not close. That's not close. And Adrian Peterson isn't the key to a playoff run in 2019. He was great this year. The Tennessee game, man, he tried to put the whole team on his back to keep them alive for a postseason birth.

Not a better game played the entire season by any player on the team than Adrian Peterson's game in Nashville on that next to last weekend of the season. But at 33 years old, going on 34, thank you so much for what you gave us last year. You are a true pro, but we're moving on. I'm not paying Adrian Peterson four or five or six million dollars, even if it's for one year. I'm not. I'm not in good enough shape, salary cap-wise. That's got to go elsewhere. It has to go elsewhere. And the other side of this is if you're Adrian Peterson. Now, Cooley and I debated this late in the season as to what his market would really be. I don't know that there's going to be this significant market for Adrian Peterson. And you know what doesn't help any running back? Is Sean McVe's use of Todd Gurley in the postseason? It's so minimized the elite running back. Now, it didn't win a Super Bowl, that strategy. It lost in the Super Bowl game.

But I just, Adrian, there's got to be a team that is closer to contending with an offense that better suits Adrian Peterson. Remember, this was not a real, this wasn't the, the line them up in an eye formation, give him the ball between the tackles, let him bounce. This wasn't the best running game for him. got Bill Callahan back. Now maybe Kevin O'Connell sees it and he's going to change something about it. I don't know.

There's got to be a better situation for Adrian Peterson, doesn't there? Than Washington? I don't know that there would be a better, like an obvious better money situation, but there's got to be a better situation. Remember, Adrian Peterson would come back

knowing that Darius Geis, if he's healthy, is going to be the guy that they really rely on or want to start to see. Anyway, I would not resign Adrian Peterson, but that goes hand in hand with my current feeling,

which is not going to be executed by the team, and that is that they should take all the pain in 2019, punt on the 2019 season, and that be it. That's what I would do now. I don't see them being close.

I think most of you understand that they're really not close. I mean, and if they're close, what are they close to? $500, $9 and $7, a wild card, for how much longer? Anyway, that poll that I put out right before the show started, 80% of you say that you do want Adrian Peterson back. Now, some of the comments are, you know, at what price? And I understand that. I didn't put that into the question.

but that's a key part of this too. Like, if you tell me that I can get him on a one-year deal for two and a half million bucks with some incentives, but his market's got to be bigger than that, doesn't it? Anyway, I don't think it's an overwhelming market for Adrian Peterson, about to turn 34 years old, but I think somebody would pay him four, five, somewhere around there for a season. Maybe a little bit more if you've got a ton of cap space, and you have a need for a running back. But anyway, that's it on Adrian Peterson.

By the way, you had mentioned to me that this new football league is about to start. Yeah, the AAF. And which one is that? This is Charlie Ebersols. The XFL, which is Vince McMahon, it starts next year. And that's the one with the D.C. team.

That's got a D.C. team. And that has apparently PEP Hamilton as the head coach, as it was reported yesterday. And where are they going to play? The Ex-Othel. The United Stadium. Okay, so right across the river from Nat Stadium. Right across the street.

Yeah, not even across the river. So I haven't been to that new stadium. It's actually really nice. So that's the XFL. That doesn't start until next year. The AA, what is it? The AAFL. The AAF.

The AAF. Is this the league that Josh Johnson was going to be a part of? Yes. He is not playing in it right now because he's, you know, negotiate with the Redskins, but the San Diego Fleet still own his rights. But he's not going to play for them. As of now, he's not. He can't play for them.

Right, because he's trying to get the contract. At this point, the Redskins are more likely than not going to pay him more than what's the San Diego team called? The fleet. The fleet. They're going to pay them more than the fleet's paying them, I would imagine. Yes. Where are these teams in the AAI? There's eight teams there.

There's Atlanta, Memphis, Orlando, and Birmingham in the Eastern Conference, and San Diego, Arizona, Salt Lake, and San Antonio in the Western Conference. Wow. First of all, there's not one northern. city. Which makes sense for a February start. Makes sense. And the reason this was brought up prior to the recording of today's show by Aaron is Aaron said that he's going to wager on the games this weekend. I was like, eh, you know what, for fun, I might try to throw down a little bit on one of the games. I'm looking for the lines on these games. Where are they? Five times has it. Huh? Five times has it. Yeah, I'm going to pull. I'm going to see if I got them on my.

one of my sites right now. There's some interesting names in the league. Give me some interesting names. Okay, just going down the quarterback list, you have, well, Josh Johnson was supposed to be there, Aaron Murray, Garrett Gilbert, Christian Hackenberg, Zach Mettenberger, Scott Tolzeen, B.J. Daniels, Stephen Morris. You know, a lot of these guys who are decent in college,

and the coaching list is wild. The Orlando team's coached by Spurger. Now, that would be fun. That would certainly be fun. I can't find point spreads for the games this week. I can. I can pull it up for you. They're not on any, either one of my two sites that I use. Five times has it. Here's a story on how odds makers set lines for a new league that hasn't played a game yet. You know, so what was interesting about when you said you're going to bet it this weekend, I do remember betting the USFL. I mean, why wouldn't you? I mean, I was in college. The USFL launched. It had Herschel Walker in the league. It had Doug Flute.

in the league. It had Kelvin Bryant in the league. Washington had a franchise, the Federals, and they posted lines on them. So if they're posting lines on them, we were betting them in college. I got the lines right here. Is anybody bigger than a three or four point? There must be a quarterback that's made a difference here. It's interesting because actually the one team that I really like is the biggest underdog in it because it's the team with Aaron Murray and I've always been an Aaron Murray fan. The Georgia Aaron Murray. Yeah, the Georgia Aaron Murray. The Atlanta Legends are five-point underdogs to the Orlando Apollos. I actually like the Atlanta Legends there. Okay, there you go. Aaron's going to be betting some football this weekend in the first non-NFL betting

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There is no limit. Zero percent financing for five full years. That's 86690 Nation or windownation.com and tell them that I sent you. Frank Robinson passed away yesterday at the age of 83. And I'll save, you know, a real lengthy conversation for Tuesday when Tommy's back in. Tommy wrote a really good column. Read that in the Washington Times. Barry Zerluga wrote a really good column.

The Washington Post read that one. Tim Kirchen wrote one, and that's the one that I'm going to just, I want to read one paragraph. I heard him tell this story on SportsCenter last night, and then I read it in his column on Frank Robinson. The thing that struck me is that, I mean, I personally don't really remember Frank Robinson's career. I mean, I remember some of those Orioles teams being really good in the 70s, but my real first baseball memories.

And I was, you know, my father, I was very young, but I do vaguely remember being taken to RFK Stadium to see the Senators play, but I was super young. But my first real baseball memories are of the Oakland A's and their dominance for three years in the mid-70s.

But the respect and the way Frank Robinson was revered, was so interesting yesterday to hear everybody. It was so genuine. At least that was my impression of how much this man was respected and liked by not only baseball people, but the media people who covered him. They were really, this one hurt. And Tommy wrote a column and it's a really good column. Tommy rarely mentions to me, like he'll always email me his columns and I read them

most of the time, but he rarely will say, hey, read my column on Frank Robinson, but I can tell that he was touched by this as well. But Kirchen had a paragraph in his story, and he told this story last night that I thought was really interesting. It was when he was the manager, when he took over for Cal Ripkin Sr. in 1988 as the manager of the Orioles, they were already at that point 0.6 on their way to the historic Owen 21 start in 1988. And when they got to Owen 18, they were on the road in Minneapolis, and Frank Robinson took the beat writers out to dinner after the game, and Tim Kirchen was one of them.

He was covering the Orioles at the time, and Kirchen asked him if he had received any calls of support from anyone of interest during this tough time. And Frank Robinson said, yeah, the president called me today. And Kirchen writes that Frank Robinson was very much a kidder, and he responded with, no, seriously, has anyone interesting called you? And Frank Robinson said, the president. And Kirchen said, I challenged him again.

And finally, he yelled at me over dinner, damn it? I just told you twice. The president of the United States called me today. And so Kerchin wrote, he said, well, what did the president say? Now, in 1988, you know, in the spring of 88, Reagan was the president. Because the election came in November of 88, when Bush beat Dukakis in the 88. election, right? Bush to caucus, yeah, in 88. So Reagan was the president. So Ronald Reagan picked up the phone and called Frank Robinson during this 0-18 start to ask how he was doing. And

Kerchin said, what else did he say? And he said, Frank, Reagan's saying to Frank Robinson, Frank, I know what you're going through. And Frank Robinson's response was, Mr. President, you have no idea what I'm going through. Close quote. I mean, that sounds like it. So there are some other good stories that all of these people have written on Frank Robinson. I know and realize what a great player he was and how Cincinnati Reds fans regret that trade more than any other. But we'll go into it in more lengthy detail when Tommy's here on Tuesday.

There is one thing I want to bring up that it struck me yesterday when I was thinking about it. Frank Robinson has statues in Cincinnati, in Baltimore, and in Cleveland, and as part of the Washington Ring of Honor. Is there any athlete who's held in, who's had such a connection to multiple cities, as many cities as? That was a big part of Tommy's column, is that, you know, there are these statues built in three different locations for him. The answer, it must be no. I mean, I can't imagine that it's yes. but it was, you know, I remember that first Nat season at RFK when they started off 50 and 32. They were in first place with Frank Robinson managing the club in that first year.

And he was an interesting guy, certainly, and for those that covered him during those four seasons, right? How many, no. I think he only had two. Three, oh, was it two seasons? Yeah, I think Mani Acta took over in 2007. Right. So for those two seasons in D.C., those that got a chance to cover them for the first time, they also feel the same way. So we'll go into more detail on that with Tommy. I know he'll have a lot to say on Tuesday. Also wanted to mention real quickly before I get to another subject, is that Todd McShay, who came out with his 2.0 draft, mock draft, had the Redskins taking a wide receiver at 18 overall. the wide receiver from Oklahoma, Brown, from Oklahoma. In comparing Kyler Murray to previous quarterbacks that were smaller,

he said, quote, I think he's the most explosive quarterback we've seen in the draft since Michael Vick, closed quote. You know, it's, look, I don't know how much. Actually, I do. I have a sense that many teams pay attention to the Kuyper's and the McShay of the world. Believe it or not, they do. I mean, I think Charlie Casserly was the one that told me years ago that at a minimum, they pay attention to all of these mock drafts, especially the people they respect, to get a sense as to what other teams might be thinking. That's at a bare minimum,

but some of these teams actually do rely sometimes on evaluations from some of these guys that live the draft, you know, 24-7, 365 days a year. And that is a, that is a, that's quite a statement to say that he's the most explosive quarterback we've seen in the draft since Michael Vic. RG3 was an explosive quarterback, you know, and there were Vic comparisons with RG3. When anybody makes these Michael Vic athlete comparisons, explosive quarterback comparison, it usually leads to whether or not that particular comparison includes a quarterback that can throw it better and more accurately than Michael Vick. Because that was always the problem. Not that Vic didn't have a big arm, like Griffin had. Griffin's got a big arm, but that he just wasn't consistent with his accuracy in the pocket. and Kyler Murray, you know, McShea says, you know, basically that it's not just the speed and the vision and the explosiveness and the big arm,

but that he's a more refined passer than Vic was coming out of college. Now, he's smaller than Vic. Kyler Murray may be at least two to three inches smaller than Vic, who was for his career, I believe, I didn't look this up, but I think he was listed at six feet throughout his career, wasn't he? He was never a 5-foot-11 list, you know, roster height. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was six. Yeah, six feet. Here it is.

Always listed at six feet in the NFL. Kyler Murray is going to be listed as, you know, if it's a program height, it's going to be 510, 511. It's going to be flutie-esque. It's not going to be Vic. But that will get the attention of some. It'll certainly get the attention of fans. and for Redskins fans, you know, if you think that Kyler Murray's the next Michael Vick, then that's going to

you know, that's going to launch the conversation that we've sort of had already, but we'll have more times heading towards the draft as to whether or not you'd be fine if the Redskins traded up. If they gave up future picks to move up to draft Kyler Murray. Anyway, more explosive than Vic. And Vic's weakness, again, most people would say, say and I personally I always thought Michael Vic was fine throwing the football he had a big arm a big arm and he always looked good as a lefty as Tommy was talking about yesterday all right I wanted to get to

something else and that is that this weekend could be um described as the beginning for many people the beginning of college basketball season this is something that I love Aaron loves it too We love college basketball, not just Maryland, but we love college basketball. And college basketball's popularity in recent years, and really probably for 10 to 15 years, somewhere in that area, certainly the late 2000s until now, the popularity of the sport has waned. It's not nearly as popular as it used to be. Now, there are lots of reasons for that. Number one is that you just don't have to have.

have a chance to, you know, it's the same argument that's always been there, but it's just been so much more pronounced in that there are so many players and the best players when you get to the tournament tend to be there. You don't know who they are until you get to the tournament and then they're gone. You know the one and doneers. They're just, there's too much. The stars and the sport are the coaches in college basketball. They're not the players. And at one point, you know, and you've got to go back many years, it was the players. You know, the players you got to know over the course of at least two or three years before they jumped. And now it's, you know, it's the best players are, you know,

already on the mock draft board when they sign, you know, for the one year that they're going to play in college. That's certainly impacted it. The popularity of the NBA, the rise in popularity of the NBA during the LeBron era, has definitely impacted college basketball. And the NFL, not that it hasn't always been the most popular sport in the country, but the fact that the off-season, the Super Bowl now, you know, there was a time where the Super Bowl was in late January. Now we're into the first week in February. And once that ends,

we're counting down towards the Indy Combine and Free Agency and the draft. I mean, there's so much talk about the draft now, and it didn't used to be that way. And college basketball, the bulk of their season, remember, you know, is, you know, side by side with the NFL's season. You know, they start in November. They start in mid-November, early to mid-November, and they play a significant portion of their schedule during football season. That does not help the sport at all. It hurts the sport a lot. But in recent years, basically, this has become, really, for all intents and purposes, a one-month-of-the-year sport. I'm pushing it to two months here by saying that college basketball starts this weekend. And I say that it starts this week.

weekend because the Super Bowl was last weekend. There's no Pro Bowl Sunday, thankfully. Thankfully, they got that out of the way last weekend. The Pro Bowl used to be the week after the Super Bowl. You've got this whole NBA drama of the trade deadline that we've now gone through. We don't have to talk about that anymore. And the NBA is still at that portion of their schedule in early February where most people aren't paying attention. It too, in many ways, is a playoff sport, although it's much more popular in the regular season than it ever was before. But college basketball, basically for many people, starts right about now. The majority of people who enjoy college basketball are just starting to pay attention now that football's over. And, you know, I'm going to tell you

a couple of things about what you've missed here during the season. You have missed, it'd be hard to think that they missed Duke. Like the one thing that this year has had, the one thing that this particular season that it's had before people started to pay attention, it's had Zion Williamson and the Duke freshman. Well, they might have missed that there are people besides Zion Williamson on that team. Yes, like Cam Reddish and R.J. Barrett and other players that are going to go in the top five of the NBA draft in June. But the interesting thing about Duke, if you watch them play early in the season, which many people did when they played some big games early in season, right around Thanksgiving, the Maui tournament, and people were paying attention because people were going nuts over how good they were and people were talking about, wow, this may be the best team we've ever seen.

It's another, you know, comparable to a Fab Five situation or better. I mean, how are you, who's going to beat them? because they opened up by smashing Kentucky, and then they got to Maui, and there were a couple of close games, and then they lost. They lost to Gonzaga. And it's like, okay, well, they lost once. Well, they've lost twice now,

and they've had close calls. They lost at home to Syracuse, and they've had other close calls along the way, including a game against Virginia, a few weeks back in Durham that went down to the wire, and they played Virginia tomorrow night at U. Hall. It's number two against number three.

So you start the college basketball season for many of you this weekend with a massive showdown game tomorrow night, 6 o'clock, John Paul Jones Arena, in Charlottesville. Now, they may not have Ty Jerome. Ty Jerome got hurt. And if you're wondering what Virginia's been doing during the course of the season, they've been ranked anywhere from one to five all season long after their stunning first run upset last year to UMBC. UMBC does not appear right now to be a tournament team. They didn't appear to be a tournament team this time last year, too. But I don't know that Virginia will end up getting matched up with UMBC again. But Virginia is incredible again.

I mean, maybe better than they've been. They have multiple players on Virginia's team. You know, the discussion about Virginia not having NBA talent, not having great athleticism, it's more of a system that Tony Bennett runs. Uh-uh. All right. Ty Jerome Kyle Guy and DeAndre Hunter all look like next level players. DeAndre Hunter is more likely than not a lottery pick as a sophomore.

He is quite a player, and he was the player that they were missing when they played UMBC because he got injured in the ACC tournament. And so he wasn't in that game against UMBC when they lost in the first round. DeAndre Hunter is a star. He's a star player. So here's essentially what you've missed so far. if you really haven't been paying attention. You've missed out on the Duke freshman. They are a show.

They're entertaining, but they're not unbeatable. They are beatable in a one and done. I would not pencil Duke in to the NCAA Final Four or title game. They're going to be a favorite to get to the Final Four. And right now, they and Virginia look like number one seeds. Both of them more likely than not will end up being number one seeds. One in the east, one in the west or Midwest, potentially because Tennessee is the number one team in the country.

And that would probably be the biggest surprise to anybody just tuning in to this college basketball season. Rick Barnes has always been one of my favorite coaches. He was an assistant for Gary Williams when Gary was at Ohio State. And then, you know, ACC fans know him from his years at Clemson, and then he was at Texas, and now he's at Tennessee. And somebody said this to me the other day. He was Jimmy Patsos. Jimmy Patsos said Rick Barnes.

is a great coach, and he's also been incredibly smart because what he's done is he's basically coached at football schools where he's been under the radar, no pressure, but he's won. He's been to a final four. He took Texas to a final four. That was the year Syracuse won it, and Syracuse beat Kansas in that final, right? I think Syracuse beat Texas and Kansas beat Marquette. Was that the Final Four matchup that year, I think? Sounds right. The year that Carmelow won it with Syracuse. That's the only final four, I believe he's been to. He's been to a bunch of elite eights with Texas, and he's a hell of a coach,

but he's got Tennessee right now ranked number one in the country. Now, they have not played Kentucky yet, and they still have Kentucky twice. And Kentucky has been a team. They were the team that got blown out by Duke early, and then all of a sudden over the last month, they have gotten it together, and they are annihilating people. Good teams in the SEC, like Mississippi State. They beat Kansas in that.

SEC Big 12 thing. They beat crushed South Carolina the other night, and they've got massive games, two of them, first at Rupp next weekend against Tennessee, and then I think either the final regular season weekend of the year or perhaps the next to last week of the season, they will play at Tennessee. But Tennessee is the number one team in the country. You probably didn't know that if you're just paying attention, and they have a player in Grant Williams, who is right now among the players that are player of the year worthy. And I mentioned this guy a couple of weeks ago after a game he had against Vanderbilt where he went 23 of 23 from the free throw line and a 43 point output in an overtime win against Vanderbilt. But if you remember the way Dantley played, Grant Williams

reminds me of Adrian Dantley. He is an old school player, but he's great. And Tennessee has a legit shot, a legit shot to get to the final four. They are that good, but so is Kentucky. So right now, the ACC with Duke and Virginia and the SEC with Tennessee and Kentucky may have the four best teams in the country. That's why people early in the year said about the Big Ten. The Big Ten may be the best conference top to bottom, but they don't have as many championship contenders as the ACC does with Duke and Virginia. And I would put North Carolina into that category as well. All of a sudden, the heels are starting to play very well.

They're a young team. They're starting to come together, and they've been, no team runs like they do, no team scores like they do. I mean, there are a couple in the country that do it, but they're dangerous as well. But the Big Ten, top to bottom, maybe the best league in the country. They may end up with the most teams in the tournament,

I would guess eight or nine when all is said and done. At one point it looked like they could have 10, but they're beating up on each other. And, you know, in terms of other teams to keep an eye out on, the Big East is crazy. You got Marquette and Villanova at the top of that league, and they play each other this weekend. All right, Marquette is home to Villanova. They get Villanova twice. Those two games will decide the Big East title. Is Villanova a contender again?

Absolutely. They started off slowly. They got blown out by Michigan early in the year. They lost, I think they lost a game in a Big Five showdown. Was it Penn or Drexel that beat them? Somebody in that Big Five Philadelphia group beaten over early. Well, I think Penn won all their Big Five games. Well, then it was Penn, more likely than not.

But they've been rolling in a Big East that's top-heavy. I think Georgetown's a decent team. but it'll come down to Marquette or Villanova. Back to the Big Ten for a moment, Michigan State appeared to be a national championship contender a few weeks ago, and now they've lost three straight games. They also lost a key player, but they are still very good. Purdue is very good.

Michigan is very good. And yes, we've said this, and it's not just, it's not delusional, you know, hometown, you know, favorite team, Rose Colored Glasses talk. Maryland is a dangerous team in March. They should be. They have plenty of talent. They have two big guys who are more likely than not.

Bruno Fernando's probably a lottery pick. Jalen Smith could be a first round pick. I think he'll come back for another year. I think he should. They've got a lot of NBA talent on their team. They've got a point guard who's legit. Maryland's one of those teams that when you get to selection Sunday, All of the pundits will be saying, watch out for Maryland.

They're a team that could win two, three, four games and make a deep run in the tournament. They are talented enough to do it. I know, and I can feel it right now. Many of you shaking your head saying, nope, no, Turgent, nope, coaching. I can hear, I can feel it. But this is his best team. And, you know, draw will have a lot to do with it. The way they play down the stretch will have a lot to do with it, but they've got a chance.

Gonzaga is good again, Nevada's good. I personally think a lot about Kentucky and North Carolina right now as teams who are outside the top five as we speak that will be very dangerous when we get to March. And Michigan State, to me, is always a team that by the time we get to March will be a tough out as well. But this weekend is really when, you know, I don't know what they can do about it. There have been so many discussions about, You know, moving the season up, starting the season in December and ending it in April or May, here's what you can't do.

You can't push it up so far that all of a sudden you're competing against the NBA playoffs. Well, not just that, but then players are also starting to think more about the draft than their team. Yeah. The season's going to stay where it is. It is what it is. This is a sport in which if you love college basketball, you're paying attention. If you're just a sports fan, you're not paying attention. until right about now.

And this particular weekend. It's a good weekend, too. I mean, if you're going to pick a weekend between Duke, Virginia, Villanova, Marquette, Kentucky, Mississippi, State, Wisconsin, Michigan, like, there's a lot of good games this weekend. Wisconsin plays Michigan. Wisconsin's already beaten Michigan once. They were the first team to beat Michigan. And you mentioned it, Villanova Marquette and Duke, Virginia on Saturday night.

That one is, you know, there's an injury there. It's going to be really important for Ty Jerome to be available for that one. He's crucial to their hopes of beating Duke and winning an ACC regular season championship. And why is that important? I'm going to mention it right now. Because when we get to the tournament, the East Regional is in Washington. So I guarantee you that Virginia and Duke both want to be in D.C. for that Sweet 16 and Elite 8 weekend.

a huge advantage. The other locations are Louisville for the South, Kansas City for the Midwest, and Anaheim out west. And so the ACC runner-up is more likely than not going to be shipped somewhere else as a number one seed potentially. But there would be a big advantage to Virginia or Duke playing in D.C. Unless, of course, they're playing Maryland in a Sweet 16 game, which I would hope would happen. And then it would be a Maryland home crowd and a dominant one at that. but Duke has always drawn well in Washington, and Virginia will draw well if they get to a Sweet 16 game in Washington.

All right, there's my college basketball thing. Enjoy it. There's a lot of talent. There's a lot of interesting storylines. A lot of really good teams should create a really good march. There's not a single team, in my view, that is a prohibitive favorite. None of those teams are locks to be in the final four. I would be surprised personally if this isn't the year for Virginia, if they're healthy.

I would be surprised too if either Tennessee or Kentucky, one of those two isn't in the final four. I think they're both exceptional teams. I'm looking forward to those two games over the next month as much as any other not involving my team. All right, let me tell you about Ferris, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep in Fairfax. If you're thinking about something new, call Ferris or go out to Ferris or go to their website, ferrishcars.com, where you will see all of their inventory with live pricing. and their best deals as well. They've got plenty of inventory on the lot right now.

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Some of you have those means. If you're able to pull it off and you're looking for like a Jeep Grand Cherokee, something like that, head out to Farish. They'll give you a great deal and talk to Ralph Perkins. All right, let's bring in Andy Poland. It's Friday. Andy and I enjoy these conversations. Even with football season over. I actually just talked about how college basketball for so many people starts this weekend.

You know, it's really become, it's not what it was and it's not what it used to be when people paid attention to it year round. And, you know, they may have watched the Duke game here or there with Zion Williamson. But, you know, now that the Super Bowl's over and the NBA trade deadline shenanigans are over, you know, they're starting to pay attention to it. And it's actually a pretty damn good college basketball season right now. But anyway, I digress because I know you want to talk about what happened exactly 11 years ago to the day this weekend. Yeah, I think you were there for this news conference. I was. I was there.

I was anchoring the coverage of this at 980, and I remember this was on a Sunday. And it was Sunday, February the 10th, which is what it reaches this year again. And I was driving the night before to a Maryland Bavis. basketball game with my son, Jeremy, and listening to the radio. And there was a report, actually, had been confirmed at that point, that the Redskins had hired Jim Zorn as head coach. And I said loudly in the car, head coach? Really?

I mean, I was stunned by that. And sure enough, there was, I don't know, it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon, 3 o'clock, whatever it was. And they said, could you come into the station and anchor the coverage? So I set it up, you know, here Joe Gibbs had retired, and they had been waiting for the Super Bowl to end so that they could interview Steve Spagnola, who was the defensive coordinator for the Giants. And when he turned him down, he was wondering where they would go. And I was as stunned as anybody that was going to be Jim Zorn. So I listened to the news conference.

And the thing that still sticks out to this day, even though it's a relatively minor thing, is he pointed out that he had had his kids there, all decked out. in red skin colors, maroon and black. And Snyder interjects from the sideline saying, and yellow. Yeah, and yellow. I know. God, that was so, keep going, because I have a story that I want to share about being out there that day with Bram Weinstein. That is always one of my favorites to tell. But it's just, the whole thing was just, who?

Jimsy. And remember, they F the whole thing up by hiring him as the offensive coordinator before hiring the head coach. Well, as was later revealed, I'll back up in just a second, but after the news conference was over, that's what I started with. I didn't blast him because I didn't know

right away how bad it was going to be, but I said that's not really getting off to a flying start when you don't even know the red skin colors. That's a bad thing to begin with. And there were just things that he said, you know, about how excited he was for this. He said, I'm really excited about to be the Redskins head football coach. And that is quite miraculous for me to even say today.

Well, that's like a pinch me moment. I can't believe Dorothy that we're in odds here. He said, my hope is to hold the tradition and the fight that the Redskins have always had in high regard. And then Dan Snyder actually talked at this. Now, here's another thing that I remember was that Joe Gibbs was there. But Gibbs was wearing a jacket with an open collar and was sitting next to Dan Snyder's wife. And it just seemed odd. I mean, obviously he was brought in to give the seal of approval, but I don't think old Joe was all in on this. But anyway, he sat there through it. And Snyder said, we're proud that our search was diligent. and resulted in today's announcement.

His take was, yes, I know it's February 10th. It's late to be hiring a head coach. We tried to hire everybody else. Yeah, but we were very diligent, and if you look at companies where you hire CEOs, it's often a lengthy search. He also said, after our first six-hour interview with him, they interviewed him for six hours.

I told Joe Gibbs that this guy would make a terrific head coach, but we stayed true to our commitment to interview every candidate. So anyway, that's, and we all know what happened there, though there was a honeymoon period where they did start out six two. Yeah, and he was calling plays and he was gambling, but they were paying off, like locking up games late by going forward on fourth down and the running game was very effective with Clinton Fortis. they had had, that's one thing that Gibbs always did. He built up his offensive line and his running game, and Zorn was able to benefit from that until the injuries started to hit. But he also said early on, you know, play calling, that just comes naturally to me. I'm just a natural play caller. And we later found out, no, he really wasn't. Yeah, there were, there are a couple of

things that stand out. First of all, remember that Jim Fossil was very, very close to being hired. Well, no, he went in, and what Fossil said is, I'd like to hire Jim Zorn as my offensive coordinator, and I'd like to hire Greg Blotch as my defensive coordinator. So they went ahead and hired those guys before they had their head coach. But they were planning on moving forward with Fossil, but do you remember that they leaked out Fossil as the leading candidate, and there was massive backlash from fans, you know, whether it was. was sports talk radio or whatever the medium was of the day because it wasn't really social

media necessarily in a major way in 2008 as much as it is now anyway. But there was backlash. And you remember the Redskins then were very sensitive to fan reaction, clearly not as much today as they were then. And Fossil was basically eliminated. And the Spagnolu thing and And, you know, they had, remember Jim Morrow was a candidate, I believe, and Jim Schwartz and others. But I remember the fossil thing in particular. And I remember we were, remember when we used to do shows from the car show downtown, from the convention center? That's probably the other station. That's when, you know, we were on different islands for a while.

Well, I just, no, because in 2008, we were back together. But anyway. No, no, but it was the summer of 2000. This was prior to that. Okay, so that's true. Okay, so we were down at the car show and the whole fossil thing fell apart. And I just remember, you know, that whole day saying, are you really going to react to fan react?

Because all of us had taken all the call segments on fossil and nobody wanted them. Nobody wanted fossil. And they backed off to that. So that was one thing I remember. The other is the day that it happened, the day that he was hired, Bram and I were doing a show live. from Redskins Park before the Zorn Press Conference and then after the press conference

and you just reminded me Joe Gibbs was there. I remember because we had Joe on. But during the press conference, after the color reference and all of the other ways in which he handled the questions, which, by the way, it was just unimpressive, you know, the whole press conference. He just was not a very impressive communicator.

There was nothing that left you with the thought of, wow, they just hired the next Gibbs. But we're sitting there listening to it, and Bram writes on a piece of paper and hands it to me. And on the piece of paper is 2, 13, and 1. As if to say, that's going to be our record with this guy. And we just both started laughing so hard, and I can remember saying to Gibbs, you know, we're talking a lot. I mean, we believed anything Joe would tell us back then pretty much. But it was definitely a sketchy hire,

and it looked like a hire of desperation because no one else wanted the job. Fossil would have taken it, but they backed off. And this more than anything is what I've been told in recent years is what really made Dan move on from Vinnie. Dan still loved Vinny when he fired him in 2000, in late 2009, still loved him. personally as a friend. But he just, the whole, the fact that Vinny convinced Dan that Zorn was more than an offensive coordinator and could be a head coach when he was clearly not cut out to be a head coach, probably not even cut out to be an offensive coordinator, given that he never got that

opportunity anywhere else. Am I right about that? I'm pretty sure I'm right about that. Well, you mentioned the name Jim Mora, who was in line to be the next head coach in Seattle because Mike Holmgren was retiring. And Holmgren's last. last year, Mora told Zorn, you better look for another job because when I become head coach, I'm not even keeping you around as a quarterback's coach. So he wasn't even going to keep the lower position in Seattle, and that's why he was open to the idea of looking elsewhere, and they said offensive coordinator, great, but they hired him before they hired the head coach, who was going to have him as his office coordinator?

My other favorite story, and I'll paraphrase it, but Tommy's told it many times, and he's probably told it to you as well. Tommy happened to have been out at the park the day that Zorn got the call to go home, get a suit on, and get to Snyder's house because he was going to interview for the head coaching position, and he was on the phone with his wife, and Tommy overheard the conversation, and he heard him saying to his wife, no, no, no, no, honey, no, the head coach. I'm going to interview for the head coach. She was clearly shocked that anybody would interview him for the head coaching position. You know, the other thing, too, is when it got late in that final year in 2009, and it was clear that he was not going to return, and we had, you know, him, you know,

saying that he would comply with the bingo caller, you know, being brought on board. Sherman Smith. Sherman Smith being brought on board, which, by the way, prompted one of the funniest, you know, Vinnie Serrato sound bites of all time when they asked what Sherman Smith had been doing. And he, He saw, I don't really know, but I know that his uncle is the offensive coordinator at Eastern Michigan. And it was like, what? Like, who cares what his uncle? I think it was his son. His son's the offensive coordinator at Eastern Michigan.

He had no idea what Sherman Smith had been doing, had no idea that he had been calling bingo games at his senior home. I thought he actually said that. Or maybe Sherman Smith was said that when he came on. Yeah, Vinnie in that initial conference call didn't know much. But one more thing, though, to put it in the correct order, he didn't have to comply for Smith to come on as a consultant. But he was asked about a week in, well, what do you think of Sherman Smith? And he said, this is Orne. Bless his heart, he doesn't even know who's on the roster.

Then they had that disastrous game with Kansas City. and Vinnie Serrato came to him in an attempt to make him quit and he said Smith is going to call the plays and Zorn said I was told that Smith was going to call the plays and I complied. That was how that was put. Well, you know, during that whole he was so what was the day, so you're saying that he they hired Sherman Lewis, it was Sherman Lewis right?

Sherman Lewis, yes. We keep saying Sherman Smith. When they hired Sherman Lewis, that was before the Kansas City game? It was that early in the season? Yeah, he was, he was, he was, he was getting the land of the land for a couple of weeks. Right. And it was never said, oh, this is the guy who's going to call plays, and nobody would have expected it because he'd been calling bingo at the senior center for years. Yeah. The one thing that I remember about that particular year, Tommy and I were doing the coaches show, you know, as part of the sports fix. And so we were out there every Tuesday to do the coaches show with Jim Zorn.

I've told this story many times, and I think I've told it to you many times, but he couldn't have been nicer, but to illustrate just how disengaged from the day to day he had become, by the time we got into mid-2009, after our 30-minute, you know, and it would be 20 minutes, whatever it would be, segment with him on the coaches show, he wouldn't leave. He stayed and listened to the rest of the show each team over the final, like half of the season. And it was really, it was hysterical because we'd say, you know, thanks, coach, for joining us, we'll catch up next week, good luck against the Cowboys this weekend or whatever. Oh, thanks guys for having me, whatever. And then he'd just sit there.

And, you know, we were doing the show from the studio out at the park. And during the break, we would talk, and then he'd put on, he'd keep the headphones on, and he wanted to listen to the show. And then during each break, he would ask questions about what we had just talked about, you know, during the show. He was like, oh, wow, wow, that's really interesting. what you guys were talking about there. It's not an exaggeration, and Tommy will back me up on it. There were days where, you know, we would do that coach's show. You know, our show was 12 to 2 every day, and we would do that coach's show, I think,

at 12, like right at the beginning of the show. And sometimes we'd say, all right, see you later at 1225, and he would sit there for another hour. No exaggeration. Like, he's the head coach of a football team, and he's sitting there listening to sports talk radio in on the set. And the one thing I remember saying to Tommy, there is no way he's going to quit. There's no way because he had never, ever made that kind of money before.

And if he had quit, he would have given up the money. And, you know, the wife that said to Tommy overheard said, the head coach you're interviewing for was probably telling him, I don't care how embarrassing this is for you. You are not quitting. You are collecting every cent of that contract. Because really Zorn had never made until the Redskins hired him to be their head coach a significant amount of money. I mean, relative to head coaching money.

Not only that. I've been told he did not have an agent and why would he if you're a quarterback's coach. So he negotiated the deal himself, which I believe was three years, three million a year? Yeah, and that's the number. I think that's about right. And I think that last year was, was that a team option for the last year? I forget whether or not it was. It might have been, yeah.

So he might have not gotten even that third year, right? Yeah. I mean, it's just remarkable. And as you say, a nice guy, but totally naive. And remember, I think there's a soundbite that Zabstil still plays where he talks about Chris Cooley's ankle surgery. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

The Cessimoid bone. Yeah. It was, he went and watched Kooley's surgery. Watched it. He was so fascinated and he watched it. Remember, too, that he went on bike rides with George Bush. Oh, yeah, they were buddies. Yeah, they were bugs.

Yeah, well, he's in great shape. He was always, he was always, and, you know, I enjoyed watching him play quarterback, too. Oh, yeah. He was pretty decent quarterback back in the day. Tommy's favorite line about him is he'd make a great neighbor. You know, that Jim Zorn was a nice guy. He'd make a great neighbor. He just was not much of a head coach.

as it turned out. But anyway, things have not improved that much since he's gone. So there you go. All right. Another anniversary date. Why not? This would have been, well, we probably just passed. No, they would have been 2010.

It would have been early 2010 that he was fired. So next year will be the 10-year anniversary of him being fired in early January. Yeah, yeah, it was January. They got off the plane from San Diego. They played the Chargers in a game that the Chargers were resting everybody because they were in the playoffs, and they still lost. And by the time the plane hit the ground, he was fired. Though I've asked Cooley about this, and he said, getting on the plane,

they knew this was going to be his last ride. I mean, it was not a shock when he was fired once they got off. Right. All right, thanks. Appreciate it. Have a good weekend. You too. All right.

Thanks to Andy. That was such an interesting time. the Jim Zorn. That season was weird. I just remember Tommy and I just looking at each other with this, is he going to leave? And he, could you talk about Redskins when he was in the room? Oh yeah, we did. And I remember multiple conversations and I can't remember the specifics of them necessarily, but having multiple conversations about other sports, about other teams. And he was a very interested guy. Like he was curious, always asking questions. and like we would get to the break

and we'd have a quick conversation and he would, you know, and then he'd put the headphones back on and listen to the next segment. And it was like, I remember, I think I said to him jokingly many times, they'd be like, don't you have something to go, something to go do? And he'd say, well, yeah, no, I've got to get to some things.

And there was one instance in which he said, if you want me to leave, I'll leave, I'll say, no, we enjoy your company. It's, feel free to stay as long as you want. But it was odd. And once they brought in the bingo caller, Sherm Lewis, not Sherm Smith, Sherm Lewis, Sherm Smith was the running backs coach. It just got really, really, really strange in that organization. And they did.

They wanted him to quit. They wanted him to quit. They didn't want to pay him the rest of the money. But there was no way that he was going to quit and give up that money. Anyway, all right, that's the show for today. All right. Enjoy the weekend. A lot of college hoops over the weekend.

unless you're betting the AAF like Aaron. Good luck with that, by the way. I'm sure you've got, you know, the odds in your favor. I'm sure this is probably another opportunity to take the man down. Actually, this might be an opportunity to take the man down. If you can actually figure it out. I would, you know what? I would not doubt. I would not doubt if there are limits on some of these games with some of their sharper betters offshore and Vegas. I will not be betting the AAF this weekend. want. Anyway, have a good weekend, everybody.