The Kevin Sheehan Show - Does Colt McCoy Make Skins Better?

Episode Date: November 20, 2018

Thom is excited about his favorite Redskin Colt McCoy getting his chance and both he and Kevin believe there's a good chance the offense will be more productive with him. Before that though, they discuss the crazy Monday Night Football game and ask if this is the future of the NFL. They also discuss what will constitute success for McCoy over the final 6 games and whether or not that could lead to an offseason quarterback controversy. Then comes Thom's plea for Ted Leonsis to sell the Wizards! <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. You're listening to The Sports Fix. Yeah, Tommy's here. Aaron's here. This show's presented by Window Nation. Call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation.com to get new windows. Get them before the holidays hit and you'll save big. You've got to be a nervous father here approaching tomorrow. I'm sorry, Thursday, two days from now. Your son hasn't started a game since 2014, and he's going to get this chance to start a game on Thanksgiving Day for first place in front of the entire nation. In Dallas. Yes, but, you know, I mean, you've, I'm sure had many conversations with him over the years about what a great night that was the last time he started a quarterback at Dallas when they won on Monday night back in 2014. Tell me how you're feeling. I really just want to know how you're feeling right now. I'm a little bit nervous. I'm sure you are.

And here's why I'm a little bit nervous. How's his mother? Because I never said that Colt McCoy was like the greatest thing since sliced bread. I just said that he can play quarterback in the NFL. I mean, most people. I love the qualifying already. Well, no, because Nathan Peterman apparently can play in the NFL. No, no, I don't mean like that kind of.

I mean, I think that he can play effective and successful quarterback. Kind of way is that to talk about your oldest? I'm trying to take the pressure off of a little bit. You know, because, I mean, like this narrative that's been out there by people who watch, who study football from their living rooms and never speak to anyone who has coached or played the game, say that, you know, Colt McCoy's got a rag arm and he can't play. They remember the guy from Cleveland, you know, like six, seven years ago. Redskins in 2014 at times.

At times. I mean, he had, look at the Colts game. he had the kind of game that Jay Gruden loved. He had almost 400 yards. The game they lost 49 to 27 or whatever. Yeah, that's a Jay Gruden kind of game. It is losing 4927? No, almost 400 yards passing and three touchdown passes.

Yeah. Look at, look. Jay Gruden is like a pig and slop right now, baby, because he's got a quarterback that, one thing, he loves. And for another thing, that will run the offense the way he wants to. That's absolutely clear. I think that's true, too. I really do.

I said this to JP on the podcast yesterday that, you know, because I could sense that JP's feeling the same thing. And I'm feeling it the same way that it's awful that the injury was brutal and it's sad. And they like Jay and they like Alex a lot. Everybody likes Alex Smith throughout the league. Everybody likes him throughout the league. But Jay is probably deep down going. All right.

All right. Now I can test off these plays. Now we can start throwing the football. around a little bit. Now we can unwrap Jordan Reed. But let's not forget, you know, that Indianapolis game where he was so good when they were getting their ass kicked and he's, you know, compiling stats, stat stuffing the entire game. He was going ahead to head with Andrew Luck at the time. I'm familiar with him. I'm familiar with him. And he did have a good game and Indianapolis didn't have a good defense. The last time we really saw him as a starter is when they got shut out

against a very good defensive team in the Rams. And they're going to be facing a, good defensive team on Thanksgiving Day as well. Look, I am so happy for you and Liz and all of Colts siblings. This is an exciting time in the McCoy family and you're going to, you know, I think he's going to do well. Tommy, you know, this is what I've said about him. He is not a starting NFL quarterback. If you start him for 16 games on a good team, it's 8 and 8 on a bad team. He's a 6 and 10 quarterback. But he's a gamer. Like he's a baller. He's going to try to make things happen. He knows Jay's offense cold. And this is the conclusion that I've sort of come to in my own mind as we as a Redskin

fan looking at these final, you know, at this point these final seven games, these final six games. The offense, it couldn't get any worse than it was. No. Couldn't get any worse. You know what? And Alex played, I still. believe this and I went back and watched some of this. I actually think Alex played and was in the midst of having one of his better games

until the pick six. Well, you know, I tweeted, I was just about to tweet how Alex was playing very well so far in this game. I thought he was. Remembering you said what's going to happen? What does that mean? I said he's going to have a couple of good games, really good games the rest of the way.

But what you saw, including the injury, although I'm not going to say it's directly correlated to the injury. You saw what happens when you ask Alex Smith to do more. You saw what happens when you ask Alex Smith to win the game for you when you're behind. You get interceptions. You get mistakes. You get a pass rush with a blitz that puts Alex Smith at risk. What happened was exactly what happens when they finally had to ask Alex Smith, look, we're losing. We're losing. We're getting beat up.

You got to go out there and win the game. It was 17 to 7. But that might as well have been 35 to nothing for this Redskins team. You know? So they asked Alex Smith to do more, and he's not capable of doing more. All right. Here's the question I want to get to, and we're going to save it because I want to get to the Monday night game here. But we'll come back to it.

And that is, I want to know what will define success for Colt McCoy over these final six games. If he gets six starts, we know he's been injury-prone. And the Redskins, all of you know at this point, and this happened after the podcast yesterday. They signed Mark Sanchez to be his backup. And in this particular situation, given Colt McCoy's injury history, there's a chance. Mark Sanchez is going to take some snaps.

Yes, there is. For this football team this year. But I want to get back to it in a little bit about sort of how we would define Colt McCoy's success the rest of the year. I'm not, I'm not peasant. pessimistic right now about the team. And I'll get into that in a little more detail. But let's get to what was last night. Honestly, and I know we're prone to sort of in the moment exaggeration and hyperbole. But that will go down as one of the most memorable regular season NFL games of all time. It will. I mean... Until it's forgotten. It's not going to be forgotten. Until the next one comes along where a team score 120 points in a game. Because there'll be another one and they'll be another one. And they'll There'll be more and more because it's the cartoon network now.

It's the Big 12. I'm sorry. It was a big 12 game last night. I wasn't that excited about the contest. It was fun to watch, but it was also an abomination. You know what? I didn't actually know what your take would be, but it's not surprising that that's how you come down. But I'm going to surprise you.

I thought it was a highly entertaining game because of the back and forth nature of it being close in the big play after big play. But there was part of me last night watching this. And I'm going to get to the specific reason why here in a moment that was like, you know what? I don't mind the Big 12 on Saturday afternoons, but that's because

I can also watch a Big Ten game and I can, in college football, you've got a little bit of everything. You know, you've got wide open spread offenses, you've got triple option offenses. That's why I love college football and I love Saturdays. You can get and find whatever you want when it comes to football.

You can find 68 to 58, but you can also find 14 to 10. Yes. You know, on the same Saturday afternoon. I had the biggest problem I had with the game last night, twofold. Number one, the officiating once again, and we've seen this, too many times recently. The Redskins game was poorly officiated on Sunday. Last night, they put together some sort of All-Star crew, led by Cleet Blightmanwright to be the lead official. It was poorly officiated, inconsistently officiated.

21 accepted penalties in the game for nearly 200 yards. And these are supposedly two of the best teams in the league. With apparently an all-star referee cast. And I saw more helmet-to-helmet calls where there wasn't helmet-to-helmet, more, you know, sort of personal foul, 15-yard calls that were just absolutely wrong. They were wrongly called. Did you see Sue's chokehold? and twisting of Mahomes' head when he tried to run the ball in.

They missed that one, but I'm going to say this. You know, there was also a couple of times on Sunday where a quarterback was a read-option quarterback and then tried to slide in the midst of a crowd. You know what? If you're a read-option quarterback and you keep it on the read-option, you're a running back. I know that. But, I mean, even as a tackle, it was a questionable tackle, whether you're a fair, game or not? I hated the officiating in the game and for me it didn't take away from the excitement.

It was down the list. The excitement of the game, it was really, it was, you're wrong. It's going to be a memorable game because of the two records, the setting, which was the Coliseum completely packed. Yeah. Which was odd to see. And the highest scoring Monday Night game of all time and very close to being the all-time highest scoring game. If that game had gone into overtime at 54-554, more likely than not a touchdown would have decided it on the opening drive, and 60 to 54 would have eclipsed Redskins Giants, 1966, by a point. That was 113. If you'd gone to overtime and gotten a touchdown in a 60 to 54 final, 114, it would have been the all-time number one highest scoring game in NFL history.

If you're not, if you didn't know, the Monday night record was Redskins Packers from 1983, 4847. I here's the other part I didn't like. I thought both coaches were completely carried away throwing the football. It's why you saw defensive touchdowns. First of all, Aaron Donald was the best player in the game last night. For all the offense that there was, Aaron Donald was the best player in the game last night. And right now, to me, is the obvious choice for defensive MVP.

Even a Kaleel Mack? It's going to be close. But Aaron Donald's a better all-around player than Khalil Mack. I don't think. I think Mac is more of an impact. Really? Especially if the bears wind up going deep in the playoffs. And the bears right now are an unbelievable defensive team, and he's a big part of it. I just think Aaron Donald is a better all-around player and the best defensive player in the game. And one of the biggest impact defensive players in recent NFL history. He's unblockable. And when you have no threat of a running game, and they should

of because Kareem Hunt was 14 carry 70 yards, but when you're throwing it 46 times and running it 20 times, you give that defensive end, you give those defensive of linemen and any sort of blitz package, a chance to tee off. You're going to make some plays defensively. They scored two defensive touchdowns. I know. I know. Almost had a third. And then on the flip side, Sean McVeigh throwing it 49 times and running it 21 times with Todd freaking Gurley in the backfield. I thought they both got carried away, getting super aggressive and getting caught up in, well, nobody can stop us throwing the football. But there were three defensive touchdowns in the game and seven turnovers in the game because they didn't stay balanced enough. And there were playmakers,

Justin Houston and Aaron Donald and company on defense. It wasn't my favorite game of all time, that's for sure, but it was memorable. So I'm sort of with you to a certain degree on on why it wasn't, for me, what I want to see necessarily. There were two takeaways, personally, that I had, you know, for Redskins in particular. First of all, it was, I mean, we don't watch NFL football when we watch the Redskins play on Sunday. Or what NFL football looks like last night. I mean, it's not even the same game. I mean, when you watch that much speed,

and that much talent, you realize how bad the product has been that you've been watching. You really do. Offensively. Yeah, offensively. So that said, the other thing is you realize watching, I mean, not that we didn't know this before, but watching them one after the other, offensive play after offensive play, you see why Alex Smith was so good in Kansas City last year because of the weapons. Well, I mean, if you watched Kansas City last year, you knew why he was really good last year.

Well, I mean, why would I watch Kansas City last year? Well, because they were a freak show last year, watching a playoffensively. I only watched them when the Redskins almost beat them. Yeah. When the Redskins almost beat the Chiefs. Yeah. That was last year? Was that last year?

I was the year before. Uh, wasn't last year. Wasn't? I'm forgetting now. I don't remember. But there was, that's probably the only time I've watched Chiefs, at least in the past two years. So, I mean, it just drove home. that Alex Smith has been limited here in so many ways,

not the least of which are the offensive. Oh, yeah, yeah, the Monday night game last year, of course, yes. So that notes are the two points. I wasn't as excited as social media was about the game. A couple of things about the game last night. I mentioned the fact that they just both teams basically abandoned the run, which I thought was unfortunate for, I think if either team had stuck with it a little bit more,

they perhaps would have had a better chance. I mean, in Kansas City, I mean, Kareem Hunt is, the running backs in this league for, you know, Gurley and Hunt and Elliott and Bell when he's playing when he decides that he wants to play. I mean, Hunt's right up there with all of them. He didn't get the ball enough. I also, last night, thought that Sean McVeigh did not, did not handle, mishandle the clock at the end of the game. Yeah.

A lot of people, including that horrible broadcast crew of Tessetour, Witten and Bougar McFarland. Let me just say, Witten and Bougan McFarland know the game, and you get some good information from them about what's happening. But just the broadcast, them as broadcasters, the mix, the whole thing is just off. Why can't we just turn Jack Buck and Hank Stram on radio to listen to that? But I had no problem with what Sean McVeigh tried to do. Kansas City had three timeouts, and the only chance of losing that game on the Rams part, or the best chance that they could have lost that game, was to not think we've got to hold on to the football and not give it back to Kansas City.

There's no difference between 50 seconds and a minute 15 with that offense. With that team. You needed the goal with Sean McVeigh, when he got the ball back with a minute 18 left at his own 35-yard line, with Kansas City holding three timeouts after an interception was, and this is the only priority. Priority number one was, do not give the ball back to Kansas City. They have three timeouts.

They can't get it back. And priority number two was refer to priority number one. Because that's the only thing that should have mattered in his mind was we're going to make first downs. And if we're going to do it, throw on the football, we're just going to throw the football. And we're going to make them use timeouts after we complete passes inbounds. And we're going to go down, hell, let's go try to score at this point. put the game away. Anybody that thought that that was a bad job managing

the clock, just tuned in for that last possession, because the game was a game in which Kansas City, all they really needed, now they didn't score, they didn't get in field goal range. He threw another interception on a pass down the field,

but there was plenty of time for them to get in field goal range. Hell, there was plenty of time for them to score, touchdown, and win the game. The way they've been moving the ball, yeah. And the strategy that Sean McVeigh employed was, I don't want them to have the ball back. He actually completed two passes that had Kansas City in a position of calling defensive timeouts anyway. It's not like he didn't make them call any of their timeouts, but they did throw an incomplete pass, and they did

get the ball back with one timeout left. Memorable game, I am sort of with you, you know, I think the lack of a real balance on either side meant the defenses could tee off, which is why you saw eight sacks in the game and seven turnovers in the game because the quarterbacks were, despite all of their production, an incredible production on the night. They were, you know, they were getting hit.

They were getting pressured all night long because for whatever reason both coaches decided they weren't going to run the football. But I'll tell you what, in a game like last night, Tommy, the other thing too, I mean, rank the best players in the game. I just gave you Aaron Donald, but I mean, you've got Aaron Donald, you've got Mahomes, you've got Gurley, you've got Tyreek Hill,

You've got Kareem Hunt. I mean, you've got just ridiculous talent in that game. Travis Kelsey. Yeah. Robert Woods. Robert Woods. I mean, all of those, all of the players, there's so much skill in talent on the field with those two teams. I'm going to make this declaration for about the 10th time this season.

I don't think Kansas City is going to be in the Super Bowl. I just don't. I think they're bad defensively. And the Rams give up a lot defensively, too. And I don't know that the Rams can go to New Orleans and win. They're the only team that's got a shot in the NFC of going to New Orleans and winning. But I don't think, I think a defensive team and a team that can run the football, the chiefs are going to get beat in the playoffs.

I think the chiefs are going all the way. I think they're going to Super Bowl right now. I don't. I think we need to change what the idea is of a good defense in the NFL for this. Why? Because they're based on these high-powered offenses, I don't think they're. are any elite really good defenses anymore. I think a good defense these days are defenses that can get off the field on third down and force turnover. So we need to relax out standards for what defense is.

Let's call it something else then. Well, here's, let's not call a defense anymore. I know what Aaron's getting at though. Let's come up with a new name for it. I know what Aaron's getting at though. It's like when you combine everything. Let's just call it surrender. Who has a good defense in the NFL? When you saw last night. The Redskins. No, they don't. No, they don't. When, when you saw last night all flags flying. A lot of them were defensive holds, illegal contact, because that's about the only way you could stop, you know, that talent. Let's also say this. There are really only four teams that can do what those two teams did last night in the league. New Orleans, and I would say maybe Pittsburgh is the other one. Maybe Pittsburgh is the other one. They were shut out through three

and a half quarters in Jacksonville on Sunday. So it's probably not them either. So it's three teams. It's the Rams, it's the Chiefs and the Saints. But last year, Philadelphia doesn't get to the Super Bowl without great defense in the NFC championship game or great defense in the divisional round game against Atlanta. You know, New England had opportunistic defense. I still don't think New England's had a great defense at any point here in recent years.

And two years ago, you had two teams in Atlanta and New England play that I wouldn't say defense certainly didn't carry either team to that Super Bowl. You'd have to probably go back to Seahawks and Denver Super Bowl for a dominant defense. Yeah, Carolina had a really good defense against Denver, too. So that was a more recent Super Bowl, Carolina, Denver. The defensive teams this year that will likely be in the postseason or Houston, the chargers, if they're healthy, but they lost somebody, I think, the other day,

and Bosa just came back. Chicago is going to be a really difficult team to deal with defensively, but they are. But they can't go into New Orleans and win. They can't go to L.A. and win against those offenses. Unless they put the quarterback out. You got to find a team too that not only can get some stops because you're not going to get enough of them, but can get, you're not going to get a lot of them, but you've got to get enough of them. And that is like in a 12-possession game, you got to somehow get them off the field half the time without points. and hold them to three field goals on the other.

So that's 21. Hold them to 30 somehow. But you've got to be able to run the football too. You've got to be able to run the football and keep the ball away from the opponent. Chicago is an interesting team. I'm becoming more interested in Chicago day by day because they have a really good defense and they've got a creative offense as well. God, I didn't think I would say that about the Bears a few, like a month ago.

But they've been impressive. here recently. Impressive. What? You were going to say something. Is this your plan to try to talk enough that we don't have to talk about Colt McCoy? Is that, is that the plan? Is that what you're trying to do? You're talking about the Chicago Bears? Trying to keep the ball out of your hands. When Colt McCoy? I'm running the football right now, trying to eat clock. Well, you know what, pal? It's not going to work. All right. So you didn't like the game last night. No. All right, very good. By the way, what? A couple of things about Colt McCoy. My prediction was not that he would come in in relief of Alex Smith being injured.

I know. Some people just went nuts and say, you were right, you were right. And I wasn't right. That was not the prediction. The prediction was that he would come in in relief because of performance. However, I think we were awfully close to that. No, we weren't. Oh, no. Listen to this, Kevin. No one paid attention to this. Oh, boy. Jake Rudin's screaming at Alex Smith when he came off the field at one point and we asked him in the post-game press conference. This was Gruden's answer. I wanted to make sure he was okay. We had a couple of issues with the play getting in. I thought it got in the way early and we weren't getting it in and he wasn't hearing me. What have you? I was just making sure he was okay and his mind was okay. I did hear that. It's unlike him based on his

history, but I did want to make sure he was okay and in the right frame of mind to lead us back to a win. That's a coach that's ready to pull a quarterback. Well, boy, it's so easy to say now, isn't it? Well, I mean, who says that? Who says I wanted to make sure my quarterback was in the right frame of mind? But I will tell you this, I would have had he not been, if you would come in here today after Alex Smith had an average game

and Jay Gruden talked about that incident, I would still tell you there is zero chance he gets pulled this year. Zero. Well, you're not listening to the coach. I'm listening to the coach, Tommy. The coach is very frustrated, obviously, this year. I didn't say he wasn't. I've heard that he's been very frustrated.

And all it took was a two interception half for him to get ready to pull the plug. So I think eventually, and particularly maybe in this game, it's a move he would have made anyway. I also think now that, look, Col McCoy's been here forever. He was here through the Griffin thing, you know? I mean, so he is part of the old history of this franchise that everyone wants to forget. I said this at the time, and I'm convinced of it now more than ever. you know when kirk won the competition to be the starter in 2015 there was no competition there never was a

competition i mean jac gr it was it was basically a situation was anyone but robert that was everyone but robert that was the situation and the only guy that they could sell the owner on when scott mcclwin went in and talked to the owner about paul and robert the only guy they could sell him on was Kirk Cousins. They could have never sold the owner on Colt McCoy. If you had left it up to Jay Gruden, I think he would have went with Colt McCoy. I don't think that that's true, but I will take it two years later and tell you that if it had been up to just Jay Gruden, they would have never made the trade for Alex Smith and that Colt McCoy would have started this year. And he would have said, give me one year with Colt and we can drive. If you want to draft a young

quarterback, but I want to play Colt McCoy with what I think is going to be a much improved defense and just a much improved team getting all these players off injured reserve. That's what I want to do. Because I still, to this day, don't believe, I mean, Jay Gruden didn't even evaluate the college quarterbacks. He wasn't even asked to look at the college quarterbacks. He admitted that. We know that Doug Williams had nothing to do with the trade.

He wasn't told until he walked in that morning and he was told then what, to not answer any calls and don't talk about it. Jay Gruden may have been involved, but this was a Bruce Allen engineered trade with Andy Reid. Bruce Allen needed an answer. He needed a legitimate, you know, perceived top half of the league starting quarterback, and he traded for one. Jay Gruden, if he had been running personnel, Tommy, we would have never seen that trade for Alex Smith. I believe that. To your point, I'm agreeing with you, I just don't think it was the case in 15. Oh, I think it was absolutely the case in 15. I don't. I mean, because how...

I know you're going to go back to 14 and say he's benched. No, no, no, no. No, no. I'm going to say that when I talked to Colt in 2015 and asked him if he was aware there was a competition, he said no. Absolutely not. Now, what kind of coach has a quarterback competition and doesn't tell the players? You know, a gutless coach.

I don't think Jay Gruden is that. Well, remember, he had to tow the company lines. publicly after the Indy Combine. When he talked about a competition and they said, there's no competition. And I think it all along, it was going to be Robert the starter. And I think the plan was, if we're going to sell the owner on pulling Robert, we can't sell my cult, which I think was the same thing that Bruce probably,

well, Bruce, I think. Bruce loves Colt. He's one of his biggest fans. But I think the trade for Alex Smith was in part to appease the owner. And second part to save Bruce. the embarrassment of having Kirk Cousins walk and go into the season being vilified for going with Colt McCoy. You could be right about Jay Gruden's feelings then. You could be right. But here's the league has sort of come down on this conclusion as it relates to Colt McCoy. He's not

a starting quarterback in the league. No one thought of Colt McCoy as a starting quarterback back in the league. There were plenty of openings, plenty of opportunities over the years, last few years, plenty of chance for him, chances for him to get, you know, a contract, a starting contract, and nobody in the league, the league is spoken on Colt McCoy. They don't believe he's a starter. Now, Jay Gruden may have thought in 2015, he's a starter in my system, but we got to, but what, I got to, I got to put Kirk out there because we can't sell Cole. Anyone but Robert? Well, there's no doubt that they were in that mindset. They were in that mindset when the season ended in

2014. It was anyone but Robert's situation. Tommy, he didn't want anything to do with Griffin after the 2014 season. Remember the comments about him after that Tampa game that year? Essentially, Jay Gruden, give him credit, he's always honest, but that was a honest moment he'd probably like to have back. Because he publicly summarined his quarterback, starting quarterback, and probably pissed off Bruce, who Bruce sold. the owner that Jay's going to come here as a quarterback guru and get Robert up to speed.

Yes. And you see, all this revolves around the owner. The whole quarterback thing still revolves around the owner. How can we appease the owner? How can we sell the owner? How can we convince the owner? Because the Griffin thing is true. They had to convince him.

They had to convince him that Griffin couldn't start. Right. And that they had no chance to win with him. I mean, look. And to do that, they may have had to come with somebody that he was more inclined to say yes to. Yeah, Colt McCoy. I don't believe that happened, but I'll believe that it's possible that it happened. Colt McCoy still loves Jay Gruden.

So Colt McCoy felt betrayed in 2015. I don't think he felt betrayed by Jay Gruden. He loves Gruden. I don't even think he felt betrayed by Bruce Allen, because Bruce Allen was a guy who brought him here. Bruce Allen has always been a big fan of Colt McCoy. I think it all centers around the owner still. You know, the guy that has nothing to do with football. That guy, Dan Snyder.

The whole quarterback thing still revolves around the owner. It did in 2014 and 15 with Griffin on the roster. I think the Alex Smith trade does dwell. I think that was a try to save my ass, Bruce Allen move. And it was also to appease, Dan. I mean, again, I think Dan, I think, Dan would have hit the roof if you went into the season with Colt McCoy as your starting quarterback. I think that even you might be right about that.

There would have been less people in the stands for the Indianapolis game than there were if Colt McCoy had been the start. Tommy, Colt McCoy is not a 16 game starter in the NFL. You're not going to win anything with him. You don't know. You do know. What's the track record? Well, the track record is he got opportunity. He got opportunities in San Francisco and in Cleveland.

Cleveland, how many starts to be able? That's five years ago, six years ago, Kevin. It was 2010, 2011. Come on. He got, you know, opportunities in San Francisco. And nobody's ever looked at him and said, yeah, you're an NFL story. Trent Green, Rich Gannon. I threw up Trent Green the other day about maybe sort of the real first chance being right now.

Yes. And what if he plays great? what if he plays great? You got a four-year contract with the guy that broke his leg. I know. I know. Okay. I feel like we're jumping all around here.

And that always happens here with him because he comes unprepared. No, I was prepared today to talk about one thing and one thing only. We have to get to the wizard situation at some point. Let me take a moment before we get back to the Colt McCoy conversation, Tommy, because there's a lot more to it. I see it down in your notes. and tell you about Wind Donation. Do you hear that noise? It's your alarm going off at 4 a.m.

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Speaking of Thanksgiving. What are you doing? You know I've got this situation you're familiar with that's come up before where I have to watch the football game. Obviously, I have to watch the Redskins Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. Right. We all do. But, but, you know, watching football has always been a challenge at my in-laws' house.

Oh, yeah. You know that. You and Andy, that's the same issue. That's always been a challenge. And then, part, are you, so you're going to, where are you going? Jersey, Philly. We're going Westchester. Oh, Westchester.

Where my sister-in-law now hosts Thanksgiving. It'll be about 30, 35 people there. It'll be big. And to be, to be fair, the issue has never been, well, you can't watch football. on Thanksgiving. It's just they, I told you, like, my in-laws are like, they make the Walton's look like a motorcycle gang. They're, they're so pious.

And, and, you know, I mean, I always felt like, like the worst person in a world to ask them, like, well, can I watch football? You know, I felt like. God, they must, do they like you? You know, I don't know. I think, I mean, if they're that way, I'm wondering if they even enjoy your company, like they probably miss out on the best parts of you.

I don't know. I feel like one of the apostles at the last supper turn into the guy next to me and say, well, this guy, Jesus is awfully interesting, but the Cowboys Redskins game is on. That's what I want to watch. You know, that's what I feel like because they're so, I mean, at some point, the guitars will come out and we'll be singing Jose Feliciano's Feliz Navidad at some point. On Thanksgiving Day. Yes.

So, so, I mean, if I ask. them, they'll accommodate. In 2012, they set me up in the basement in front of the big screen TV. So they have a big screen TV. Brought me dinner downstairs. But that, you see, that's, but you feel so guilty. I know. I know what you're saying. You know what you're saying. So I mean, why don't you just come over to my house for Thanksgiving? Send, Liz, to Westchester and just say, you know what, I got to do the early podcast with Kevin on Friday morning. And you can do the podcast with me on Friday morning. You come over. We've got a smaller group. You know, We've hosted for like 20-something years.

And we've had crowds as big as 40, 45 at the house. It's only like 15, 16 this year. I'm going to make it 17 with you. And we'll sit there. There is a plan around the game because my wife doesn't want to wait until after the game and she hates doing early. It's a 4.30 start. It's a 4.30 start.

So she said, is there any way that we can just do a quick halftime dinner and we pause it and you get to the game the third quarter a few months? minutes late and I actually said fine to that. I don't think that's a big concession to you. I mean, I'll be caught up within, by the time the game's actually early in the fourth quarter, all of my boys will be on board, and I'll make sure all the guests are on board that nobody's checking a phone to see what the score is. We'll be 15 minutes behind. You got a 15 minute halftime, 15 minutes, 30 minutes for dinner. We're back in front of the TV. How long have you been married? Too long. How many years? Can you remember?

Yeah, it's 25. You don't know. It's 25. 25 years. Now, in your first or second year, would your wife had asked you to have paused the game to eat Thanksgiving dinner? And would you have said yes? See, I had a similar situation that you had. My in-laws, and early on I probably spent more Thanksgiving with my in-laws, they're not massive sports fans.

One of my brothers-in-law and his oldest son, they're big sports fans. And thank God for them, because if not, my father-in-law couldn't have cared less. One of my other brother-in-laws couldn't have cared less. And it would have been, I know what you're feeling, but you've been married forever as well. Yeah, but my point is, my point is, the longer you're married, the more they win. That's what happens. You don't even notice it's happening. No, you go through that, the more they win, and then you get to the point.

point where you're like, now I'm going to do what I want to do, damn it. I don't know if that point ever comes. The longer you're married, they do it subtly, they do it slowly, but they have patience, more patience than you'll ever live with to the point where you're saying, yes, dear, I'll pause the game so we can, I'll pause the most important game of the year. So, so, pausing it's not a big deal. Thanksgiving. Look, when I did the pregame show for 12 years, and this is the first years, you know I'm not doing it, I would, if I, if I, didn't stay at the stadium, which was 75% of the time. I finished the pregame show, got in the car, and drove home, because I didn't want to deal with that stadium or the stadium traffic. I didn't.

And I would drive home, and I, you know, I devoured the game. And typically, Tommy, I would, by the time I got home, it was 115, 120. I wouldn't listen to any part of the game. And I would start it. And by the time I got to the, you know, the early second quarter, I was caught up. And it was live. Those were on your terms. They weren't somebody. You weren't accommodating somebody else. This is, here's the problem. I have now, this is their third straight Thanksgiving Day game for the Redskins.

2016 against the Cowboys, 2017 last year, the Giants at home, and now 2018. And she was very accommodating the last two because I was working. I'm not working this year. Right. I'm not on the air working on Thanksgiving Day. So I think I can give in a little bit and say, half time's fine, honey, sweetie, love you. And I'll catch up, we'll catch up by mid to late third quarter and be live at that point.

Well, I'll be able to watch the game up in Westchester without having to pause it. But I will feel like, you know, I feel like a Roman gladiator doing it. I'll feel like a Roman soldier. I'm telling you, I don't want you to feel this way. It's never been a situation where they would stop me. I'm convinced if I said to her family, you know, can I bring in some hookers to perform at, you know, during the lunch, dinner? They'd say, sure, fine, go ahead. But, you know, they'd make you feel like, like six inches tall.

But it sounds like this isn't their thing. It's your thing. And they're actually being very nice. You know, remember, you probably remember this story. A really good friend of mine, Kenny, who is a massive cowboy. fan. And the Cowboys play every Thanksgiving. Yes, they do. And his in-laws would not let him watch the game on Thanksgiving Day. And on one particular year, do you remember this? Oh, yeah. They held the Disney World trip that they were going to pay for, for him, his wife, and their kids to go to Disney World,

held it over his head saying, you get Disney World, but you're not watching the Cowboys on television because it was that weekend that they were going to go to Disney World. That was terrible. And I said, you can't have this. No. That's just, that's... You see, that's mean. These people... But yeah, your people are different. Yeah, they're different.

They kill you with kindness. So you'll go watch it downstairs by yourself. Or you could come over to my house. You know what? You're invited. I'm tempted to do it because you've never invited me over to your house. You've never invited me to your house. You say that all the time, and I'm wondering the last time you invited me to your house.

You know? You know how you flipped the script there every once in a while and you did it the other day with the name thing? you've never invited me anywhere other than to Shelly's for a cigar and dinner and a bunch of beers but you are, you're invited we have room for you this year.

I don't think. It looks like you're seriously considering it. Of course I'm seriously considering it. You can come over. It's a small crowd. You'll miss out on some of the more entertaining of my family members

because they're in different spots now but it'll be great. So come on over. And well, I got to get a new big screen though. I got an issue here. in the next 24 hours. I got to get somebody from Best Buy or Samsung to come over and fix my big screen.

My 4K big screen went out last night in the middle of the Rams Chiefs game. Who does the... I've never heard of anything in this day and age. I've never heard of that. Me neither. Tommy, I didn't want to miss any of the game, so I went to another room and watched the remainder of the game. But after the game, I was fiddling with the remote controls

and everything, unplugging, plugging back in, trying to figure out what the hell was going on for an hour and a half. And I couldn't figure it out. So I got to come up with a solution. You see, I saw an ad this morning for big screen TV store, that big screen TV store. And I thought,

I almost got right on the phone right away and said, can you deliver one tomorrow? Because I need it. Yeah. You know, I can understand the TV going out if you were watching the Wizards. I mean, because that that would make any TV break.

did we just spend way too much time talking about Thanksgiving? Well, it's important. Aaron mentioned something to me. Well, first of all, I was able to get an invitation, a legitimate, honest invitation in there, and he actually is considering it, and it would be a lot of fun if you came over. You're invited.

I wanted to say, because Aaron brought this up yesterday, Aaron just casually mentioned to me, he goes, this is the best sports week of the year. And I've done the segment on this. particular sports weekend. I think it is the best of the year. I think this Thanksgiving week of the combination of, first of all, if you're a college basketball fan, it's incredible all week. All day, every day, it's all day every day starting yesterday, the Maui and the Alaska and everything that's going on. And then you get on Thursday, you get three incredible NFL games.

You got three important games this year. You got the Bears, Redskins, Cowboys, and then you get to watch the Saints at night, which is right now the best show. And I was going to go back to last night because I didn't mention this. I still think right now New Orleans is actually a cut above both of those teams we saw last night. You know what? I think he said that. Yeah. Okay. I think perhaps I I did in that long spiel on the game because I was trying to run the clock out on Colt McCoy, but we're going to come back to Colt McCoy. But then you've got Friday college football, sun up to sundown. And then, Saturday is rivalry college football Saturday.

And then you've got a great NFL Sunday. What weekend is better than this? The NHL all week too. Okay, the NHH. But I'm just saying if you throw in there something for everybody. Something for everybody. I'll take the first weekend in October. When you got NFL football, you got college football, you've got major league baseball

playoffs, you've got NHL hockey opening up that weekend. And you know what you have for so many years, so many times in October, early November, you've had a big fight. How many times have we been in? Usually first early November. First Saturday in November. Yeah, that's right.

No more, though. No more. Okay. What will define success over these final six games for Colt McCoy? Like, how is he going to be evaluated? Because the expectations are low, I believe. But that would be from most people that are just football fans. But I actually, Tommy, believe that Redskin fans, a lot of them, and I would put myself

into this category. I'm actually excited to see what the offense looks like with Colt McCoy. Well, it was hard. Look, I know everybody falls in love with the backup quarterback, so there's some of that going on. Everybody likes the other guy. There's some of that going on. And sometimes when the other guy comes in a game like Colt did, no matter who it is, the offense will sometimes go up tempo a little bit more. And it really did. It was very noticeable. Oh, it was very noticeable. Yeah, how quickly the ball was getting out of his hands compared to most of what we've seen from Alex Smith. Yeah, now, sometimes, again, sometimes that happens with whoever to back up quarterback is.

Sometimes it turns into disaster. The expectation for Colt McCoy, you know, I think if he stays healthy, you'll get a quarterback that will take this team that will win the division for the NFC East. It doesn't, you know, we're talking about really. Three out of six. They got to win three games. Right. And if they manage to beat Dallas and Philadelphia once, that's it.

They don't even have to beat Dallas. They've got to win. I'm just going to tell you right. It's three wins. Three out of six, and at nine and seven, they're going to win the division. But if they beat Dallas again. Oh, if they beat Dallas, they're going to beat out Dallas for the division. This game on Thursday is to essentially, you know, guarantees.

that they win the division before Dallas does. Yes. Because they'll have, in essence, a three-game lead. Right. So, I mean, I think he's capable of that. I think, you know, I think a reasonable expectation or hope would be for him to stay healthy. Because they're not going to win if he doesn't stay healthy. Mark Sanchez is not going to win the NFC East for you.

You know, Cole McCoy has to stay healthy enough for them to win those three games. I think he can do that. A couple of things real quickly before we get to this in more detail. Number one, you know, there were, I went through Twitter before the show to see people's reactions to Sanchez and see how many people were saying, what about Kaepernick? Oh, by the way, some people were, they wanted RG3 to be traded for, which was hysterical. That would never happen. The Kaepernick thing is real simple.

I mean, they're not, you know, and I've said this before about Colin Kaepernick, you're not going to bring Colin Kaepernick in to be your backup quarterback. You're not going to bring MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, every national news outlet and every national sports outlet into your practice to interview your backup quarterback. Not at this point in the season. Anyway, you might do it in August. You're not going to sign Colin Kaepernick now. That would be completely and utterly insane.

I mean, I don't even know what their opinion on Colin Kaepernick is. But if you brought in Colin Kaepernick and you said, actually, we think Kaepernick's much better than Colt McCoy, and we're going to start them on Thanksgiving Day, that would be different. You're not going to bring Colin Kaepernick in to be your backup quarterback. It's just non-common sense. I mean, it's just the opposite of it. The other thing, too, is that what was the other thing about Colin Kaepernick that I've been? was going to say, is he's not very good. Stop with the Colin Kaepernick. He's a backup quarterback at best, but you're not going to bring all of that attention into your organization for a backup

quarterback. You're not going to do it. Back to Colt McCoy. I think the definition of success here over the final six games is an offense that looks much better, which I think it will. I don't know if it's going to be much better. It's going to be better, though. The offense is, I think Jordan Reed's going to be the biggest beneficiary of Colt McCoy here over the final six games. And part two of that would be if he can win three of the six games, if he can lead the team to three wins in six, and they win the division and get to the playoffs. Or as a nine and seven team, believe it or not, that wouldn't be out of contention for a wild card spot winning three games. Nine and seven would still be in contention this year for a wild card as well. I think the

Offense has to look better, and they've got to win three of the six games with him contributing much more to the wins than the last quarterback did. And I'm not talking about by not turning the ball over. We know that Alex Smith was basically just on board as a passenger to six and three. He was not a significant contributor to six and three. They ran the football. They stopped the run. They got turnovers. They got the benefit of field goal kickers, missing kicks.

penalties being called in key spots. It was a nice little run here. They still need that run of luck in good fortune and winning the turnover battle and all that. But if the offense looks better and they're moving the football consistently and they're scoring more points because of completed passes and big plays made by Colt McCoy with his feet and his legs. And they win three of these six games, success. And then we will be in an offseason quarterback controversy. Yes, we will. No doubt if that happens. With a quarterback who's making, what, $94 million? We'll be making 70-some million at that point.

Yeah, I mean, it's in the 70s. Right. In terms of guaranteed with the four-year extension. Yeah. So, look, I think he's perfectly capable of that. I think the Redskins certainly believe he's capable of it. I think Jay Gruden thinks his chances to accomplish that increase with Colt McCoy as the quarterback as opposed to Alex Smith.

So if the head coach thinks that this guy is the guy who can do it, then why shouldn't we think that? Tommy, the other thing I was thinking about is that the Alex Smith thing was in the process of potentially blowing up a little bit in Bruce Allen's face. You know, he is, the consequences for that trade and everything that's happened the last few years are, should be his job as team president with a replace. a legitimate, you know, talent evaluating, you know, team general manager coming in to replace him. I mean, I said to you, look, if you're not going to move forward with the last guy,

you've got to have a solution. And their solution was to trade for Alex Smith. And Alex Smith was in the midst of a season, which was not impressing anybody. It was also, to me, not representative of what Alex Smith was and could be. And that's why I was still prone to giving it more time. you know, at the 7, 8, 9 game mark. And I'll say again, I thought he was in the midst of a pretty good game Sunday before the pick six. And the blow-up that you're describing on the sideline with the head coach,

it was going to lead to his benching anyway, which I totally disagree with. But here's what I was going to say to you. You know, Colt McCoy, if he comes in off the bench and plays well, and they go to the postseason, on some level, that is huge credit. to this front office, do you know how many teams are not prepared for their starting quarterback to go down? And how many times in recent years we've seen a team utterly unprepared. The Cowboys, many times over the last decade, have been unprepared for an injury to their starting quarterback. And the Redskins have had, and we've all agreed on this, that Colt McCoy's a really

good backup quarterback to have. And they've paid him and they've kept him there for exactly this situation where they're in a playoff race, the starter goes down, and they have prepared with a competent solution at backup so that your season doesn't go off the rails. So if Colt McCoy comes in, plays well, and they win three or four of these final six, and they're in the postseason, and they're hosting a game as a division champion, and their season didn't come off the tracks, on some level, it's one of Bruce Allen's best ever decisions. Like you, I know you're right now about to throw up in your mouth about giving Bruce Allen credit for anything.

I'm trying to figure out what the level is. Are we talking curve level? Are we talking manhole cover level? It could actually be one of his finest moments, and he hasn't had many. You know what? That finest moment would be dwarfed by the fact that the guy who they thought would be the starting quarterback. They're going to have to pay $80 million to, and he may not even be the quarterback moving forward. Yeah, but the best thing that would have happened for them is that he

didn't get benched, that he got hurt. So they had somebody in case of an injury to a quarterback that they'll tell you, by the way, was really starting to come on. And I actually saw some signs of it the last few weeks. I did. And I would argue that the more you asked of him, the more you were heading for something like this. Maybe not a gruesome injury. but Alex Smith, the end of Alex Smith. But they were never going to bench him. I don't know why you think that. The coach was screaming at him.

Because they traded for him. And they've got 71 million guaranteed. Is Bruce Allen on the sideline? Yeah, but we're Scott McLuhan to help convince management that they got to bench Alex Smith. For one half, you don't need to convince anybody. You're the head coach. I don't think he was on the verge of doing that. I don't.

I think this is one of your things that you're going to get stuck on in five. years from now, you're going to be telling me how Alex Smith was on the verge of being benched anyway. At that point, I will have forgotten what happened, so it won't matter. The coach questioned the frame of mind of his starting quarterback. Because he had just thrown two pick sixes and he wanted to make sure that everything's fine. We're going to get it back together. It's only 177. Get your mind right. Why don't you Google NFL head coaches who question the right, the frame of their starting quarterback? See how many you come up.

That's the way you want to frame what was going on there. That's what he said. Well, what was his direct quote? He said, where's the direct quote? Okay, the direct quote is basically, you know, I got to look for it again. I remember hearing the quote in the presser in thinking, you know, he was definitely concerned about his quarterback. He was mad. He wasn't concerned?

No, I think he was concerned. Oh, my gosh. I think he was more concerned that Alex may have been affected by those two picks. Was he screaming at him? Where did we read that? Where did we hear that they were... I saw it. Here, I have his exact quote here on Alex Smith's second interception and what happened after.

I just wanted to make sure he was okay. We had a couple issues with the play getting in. I thought I got it in way early and we weren't getting it in, and he wasn't hearing me, what have you. I was just making sure he was okay and his mind was okay, just staying positive. There's a lot of football game left. People throw interceptions all the time. It's unlike him based on his history, but I did want to make sure he was okay

in the right frame of mind to lead us back to a way. Yeah, that's... He's not a rookie quarter. He's not yelling at him about the mistakes he's made. No, that was in the post-game press conference. That quote is concerned. I'm not saying, I'm not saying that that's a good thing, that in the moment, Jake Rudin being concerned about Alex Smith after throwing two picks is a good thing.

I'm just saying that it wasn't on the verge of I'm so pissed off. I'm going to bench him. Kevin, the coach said he was worried about the frame of mind of his starting quarterback, and this is a sanitized version. This is the post-game quote version of what really probably happened on the sideline there. I'm telling you,

you know, going into the second half, if they were down like 24-7, Udine Colm-M-Corp. Well, first of all, the injury was in the third quarter when they were down 17-7. Right. So they didn't bench him after the two picks that ended the first half.

Right. So if he really was going to bench him after being pissed off or really angered versus being concerned. They had half time for him to make a change, and he didn't make the change. Another pick, which was a very distinct possibility, since you were playing from behind. And another possible score by Houston 24-7, bye-bye Alex Smith. He's gone.

Look, they were on the move. The drive that he got hurt on, he took the sack that knocked him out of field goal range. It actually didn't knock him out of field goal range, but Jay decided to punt on the 54-yard field goal attempt after the injury anyway. But they actually were moving the football. on that drive. But again, Alex Smith was having to do more. Okay. And inevitably... Let's net it out. I don't think

that there's any chance in hell for performance that Alex Smith would have gotten bench this year. You think it was on the verge of happening. The only thing I will say to you is I do know all right, for near fact that there's been a lot of frustration from Jay and other coaches about Alex's performance this year.

So I do get that this is probably something that Jay would have loved to have tried, Colt McCoy at some point. And that is in his own mind, he's probably been thinking, we'd be better off with cold in there. But I don't think he would have done it. I just don't think he would have done it. You traded for him and you gave him $71 million and guaranteed money over the next four years beyond this year. He didn't do any of that. He didn't trade him for him. pay him and again on that sideline.

You think he could have made that decision unilaterally? On the sideline? Yeah. During game. Yes. Okay. Who's going to stop him? You think Bruce Allen's going to run down on the field?

Bruce Allen's in the booth making the replay challenge decisions. Is he going to run down on the field and stop Jay from making that move? Let me take it a step further. Do you think that he could have done it or would have done it during the course of a week leading up to a new game, inserted Colt McCoy as the starter for performance reasons? No. So you only think it would have happened in game. It's the only way he could get away with it.

And then what would have happened after that was? Well, if they came back to win, then it changes the narrative to what he wants. If they come back to win, he doesn't have to do anything after that. It'll take care of itself. I think the chances of that happening would have been slim at 3 and 6 and 0 at 6 and 3. I'll give you the slim had the season record-wise been going poorly, but at six and three, in a bad half, there was no way he was going to do it. And we had this situation, and he didn't do it.

We just had this situation. He threw two picks. They're down 17-7 at halftime, and he came back with him as the second half starter. Right. One-two-pick half is not going to do it. A three-pick game down 21 points? Oh, so it's three instead of two? How many three?

I mean, that pick six was back-breaking. Yes, it was. Yes, it was. But like he said, it's not the kind of play he usually does. It's the kind of play he might usually do if you ask him to win the game for you. All right, my definition of Colt McCoy's success is a better-looking offense. That is quantifiable, but it's also eye test. We saw a little bit of it with the eye test when he came in off the bench on Sunday. But it's quantifiable in yards per play in particular.

I think if the yards per play average is increased significant, significantly. You'll see that. I think the eye test will be are the receivers that have been open all year long in the quick game in particular. If the ball's getting out quickly, getting to Jordan Reed on some of those quick shallow crosses or some of the digs to the wide receivers, getting out quickly, the chains are moving. They're moving the football. They're scoring points. You'll know it when you see it also. But it'll also be backed up in numbers, in part because the numbers were so bad. other than the turnover ratio. And they've got to win three of these final six and get to the postseason. And if that happens, there's going to be a conversation with it when the season ends. Yes, it will. And you define Colt McCoy's success as? Pretty much that day.

You win a division. You win a division. I don't particularly care about the numbers. You win a division. Simple as that. You win a division. You host a home playoff game. What if they get in as a wild card at 9 and 7?

I don't see that happening. I think they'll win a division. The wild card thing's not out of possibility in the NFC. It's going to be, boy, the NFC, there's a lot of possibilities for those two wildcard spots right now. I mean, you know, I personally think there's now something wrong with Philadelphia, and they're going to lose to the Rams. That's a seventh loss, and they'll probably find an eighth loss in there somewhere, and it may be the Redskins. Yeah, they've got to play them twice. In one particular game.

and 8-8's not going to do the division. It's not going to get the division done, and it's not going to get a wild card done. But in the NFC North, you got Minnesota, you got Green Bay. That's a huge game Sunday night. Carolina is still in the hunt. Seattle's still in the hunt. And the Redskins Cowboys loser on Thursday is still in the hunt for a wild card.

And in the Redskins case, they'll still be in a division race. Yes, they will. Where the Cowboys, for all intents and purposes, that five and six if the Redskins are seven and four would almost be eliminated, not mathematically, but, you know, practically speaking, would be eliminated from the division race. I want to do one thing before we get to the John Wall and the Wizards situation. I want to play for you what Jay Gruden said in his presser yesterday about the clock

management situation at the end of the game. This is something, Tommy, that he didn't do and didn't handle well. Cost his team chance at more plays, more time at the end. And he still doesn't get it. listen to what he said yesterday. We've got the question, too, right? Aaron, because it was a John Kime question, I think, yesterday in the press conference. So we'll play the question and Jay's answer here.

There was a little bit made about the time management at the end of the game and all that. How much do you go back and look at those situations like day after when you're looking at other plays and all that and how you handled it? And did you look at yesterday and think that would you have done it the same or would you have done anything a little bit differently? I don't know what the issue is. We had two timeouts off about three and a half to go. If I ran through them right there, they would have got the first down. It would have still been the same thing, you know.

So I don't know what the issue is, but we had a chance to have two timeouts and the ball with two minutes to go. If they didn't call the touch foul on Josh Norman, we would have had two timeouts, two minutes to go, and the ball. They probably would have punted, backed us up, you know. So I would rather have my timeouts in two minutes as opposed to maybe 2.30 and no timeouts, you know. So, yeah, I think the majority of coaches would play it the same way.

I don't know. Could be wrong. Well, he's right about that. The majority of coaches perhaps would have played it the same way. The good coaches wouldn't play it that way, though. And here's the part that's a problem for people that understand this. He wasn't even really aware of how the whole thing would have played out there. Like, he was totally wrong.

I mean, if he had you, they wouldn't have had two, timeouts at the two-minute warning with the ball because they would have run the third down play, which they did after the two-minute warning. And by the way, there wouldn't have been a punt. There would have been a field goal attempt, which there was because they were in field goal range. So he was very confused by the whole thing even a day later. And it just goes to show you that in that organization, there's just, there's nobody that understands and pays attention to these kinds of details, and he's not a details guy. You know, he's not a granular detail guy, paying attention to all of that stuff.

That ends up being a big difference maker in a lot of these games. He costs them a chance. It's not debatable. He cost them a chance at more time and more snaps at the end of the game. You tell me if you were watching that game, if they could have used more time and more snaps at the end, down 2321. Considering the decision they had to make that they had what, eight seconds left, or for the last play, and they either had to get,

they had to either get close enough for a field goal where they were out of bounds or else throw Hail Mary. So then they do what, the 63-yard field goal attempt? Another 10, 12 seconds could have been a difference maker. I like Jay. I mean, Jay is a good guy, and he's got a great sense of humor, and he's a good dude. This is the kind of thing, and he's not alone on this.

That's why he said, and he was right. A majority of the coaches would have probably handled it the same way. But the really good coaches wouldn't have handled it that way. And they would have had the opportunity, a better opportunity to get in better field goal range to kick. It's not a guarantee that you're going to win the game. It just increases your chances of winning the game. But you keep saying the better coaches.

No words, the coaches that agree with you. No. Andy Reid would have done the same thing. Andy Reid's terrible at that. I know that, but you think he's a bad coach? No, I don't think he's a bad coach. So don't say only the good coaches would have done it. There's lots of good coaches who would have done the same thing Jay did.

I didn't say that all of the good coaches would do it. I said the better coaches would have done it. So, yeah, of course, some of the better coaches wouldn't have done it. Look, I mean, Bill Belichick had a premonition that Russell Wilson was going to throw an interception. If he didn't call a time out to save more time for Brady, I still think that that was a boneheaded decision, but it paid off for him because Wilson threw an interception. He had the premonition that he was going to throw the interception, and if he called the timeout, it wouldn't have happened.

Look, Tommy, here's the thing. Bottom line is, this isn't Jay Gruden's strength. His strength is, he's really good at getting people open in a pass offense. He really is. He's very good at that. I don't know why organizations have to be so stubborn and have to be, in this particular case, perhaps even insecure on issues like this. just admit you don't totally understand it, have somebody walk through it on a board with you

as to why you would have had a minute 10 or a minute 11 with the ball instead of 52 seconds with the ball and how that would have impacted your chances and increased your chances of winning the game and then employ somebody to help you with that. Sean McVeigh's done that. He's got somebody that's responsible for just that in Los Angeles. clock management, game management, score management, all of it.

So he doesn't have to focus on it. He can focus on what he's really good at, which is getting people open in the pass offense. You know, all that said, I want to be fair to Jay Gruden. I think he's done a pretty good job coaching this year. I think it may be his best year. I think last year for them to finish seven and nine with the team they had, injury-wise, I said it at the end of last year. I thought he did a pretty good job coaching that team last year.

I think you did, Tom. I mean, last year... They lost a lot of games because of missed opportunities by the coach. They could have been better. They could have been better. The Kansas City game could have gone better last year at the end. That was another situation he didn't understand. Still, apparently, he doesn't understand to this day.

I think this has been his best coaching. But that team last year with the injuries they had should have been a 4 and 12 team, not a 7 and 9 team. Sometimes, and Gary Williams has said this to me many times, sometimes it's the teams that didn't make the tournament or didn't do well in the tournament where he did his best coaching job, where no one would really understand that except for him and people that followed the team super closely. I thought Jay did a decent job last year.

I don't think he's a terrible coach. I think he's a middling coach. He's somewhere in a group of 32. He's somewhere between 16 and 20 on the list of coaches. They can do better if they want to do better, and they might be in position if this season goes south here over the final six weeks. to be in the market for a new head coach and a new general manager.

But he doesn't... You mean a general manager. What did I say? You said a new general manager. They don't have a general manager. Okay, right. No, true. New, an actual general manager.

Yes. With not reporting to the current team president. Right. You know who has a general manager? The wizards do. They do. All right, let's get to that. By the way, Ferris Chrysler Dodge Jeep.

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And I promise you, you won't go wrong, going to Ferris Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Fairfax. Find out everything they have online right now, live inventory, live pricing at ferrish cars.com. Okay, how about your wizards? They're your wizards. I know they are. So Tommy, this I've been consumed. Could you have seen this falling apart, this bad, this quickly? I don't see how anyone could have. So I told you three weeks ago, I guess, that I had heard something about John and practice and Scott Brooks. And I've talked to a few people since yesterday and all of the people to a person, to a man, have said, oh, this isn't the first time.

This is not the first time he's MF, the head coach. Really? And so something's not right with him. You know, I'm not just talking about the delusion of being, you know, part of the best back court in the NBA and, you know, this incredible, you know, frustration he has about not getting star calls over and over again. You know, it's delusional. He and Bradley Beale are not the best back court in the NBA. They've never been the best back court in the NBA, and he's not the best point guard in the NBA. And he isn't where he thinks he is, nor.

is Bradley Beale. I think they're both delusional. I think they both have this impression of themselves, and this has been the biggest frustration for me as a fan, that they have behaved in a way on the court, on the court, because off the court, we're just hearing about some of this stuff this year, really. I mean, we knew the Gortot stuff. We knew the Randy Whitman stuff, you know, with John. We know that the Beal wall relationship hasn't always been super close. But the on-court delusional, sort of self-absorbed, elevated, you know, opinion of themselves has always been the most frustrating thing for me because they're good players. They are good players. John Wall is an all-star point guard, but they haven't arrived at the level that they've thought they've arrived at. And that's,

you know, that happens when you win in May and June. When you go deep into the playoffs and you have memorable games where you carry a team. And John's had a couple of great playoff games and so was Bradley Beal, but they have not been beyond the second round. And a lot of players that are better than them and back courts who are better than them, even those that haven't won championships have gone further. I just think, you know, and that is something I would think that coaches somehow, you know, could have been more effective in coaching that out of them and making sure that they didn't get too comfortable believing that they were something that they weren't. I think Randy Whitman was that guy personally, but they couldn't stand Randy, so they had to get rid of Randy, who was a

better coach than Scott Brooks, Tommy. He's a better coach in Scott Brooks. I agree with you. Here's what happens. The longer you are under the rule of the dysfunctional tenure of Ernie Grunfield, the more dysfunction is going to come. The worst things are going to get. The height for John Wall was probably maybe game seven against the Boston Celtics

He played poorly in that game. Well, he played poorly because coming off double knee surgery, he was sixth in the league in minutes played, and the Celtics going into game seven, their strategy was, let's wear down John Wall, because they have nobody on the bench to spell him. They had a horrible bench that was put together by this idiot of a general manager, an absolute moron.

I mean, let's stop, let's stop it now. I mean, this is ridiculous. us. It's an embarrassment. And you're going to tell me with these reports that they're going to make trades and blow it up, he's going to get to rebuild it again. You can't let that happen. I'm not going to. I'll stop it right now. You can't let that happen. I would take you as a general manager over him seven days a week. Kawhi Leonard would be in a wizard uniform. Steph Curry would be in a wizard's uniform. Now here's the other thing. Now, wait, wait, wait. Ernie, Ted has owned this team for eight years and let this fester. Only, only eight?

2010 as majority of the basketball team. Right, the basketball team. Uh, and he's let this could go on. And, you know, transparent Ted, I mean, he wouldn't even acknowledge that Ted, that Ernie got a contract extension last year. They try to keep that secret. For a fan base that deserved more, he's basically pissed on them for the past eight years. You know what? Ted Leoneses needs to sell the basketball team. He's not capable of. of owning that basketball team. He needs to sell the Wizards. He can make a lot of money.

I think he wound up buying the Wizards for, what, $400 million. Now they're probably worth close to $2 billion. Why are you saying this? Because he's... You know he'll never do that. But he should because he's in case. Look, he's, all of a sudden he's become Ace Rothstein talking about, you know, sports betting and gambling all the time.

Yeah, well, that's true. You know? He's encouraging people to use, like, predictive. modeling and math to beat the sports book. All of Ted's AOL guys, they're going to take down the sports books in Vegas and other states where it's now going to become legal. That, by the way, is irresponsible. He's got the e-sports thing going on.

Every other tweet is about Team Liquid. The electronic sports team he owns e-sports, Kevin. I know what he's sports, but he owns an e-ports team? He owns Team Liquid. Team Liquid, one of the most high-profile teams. Honestly, whatever you're talking about. about right now. I don't know anything about it. You need to Google 10 team. It's his favorite team. Team liquid. Team liquid. That's his favorite team. Really? So he's got

that going on. You've got the, you got, you got, you got, you got, the arena football champion. And they're in Washington Valley. Washington Valley, they're the arena football champion. They won the championship? Yeah, they won two games last year, but they won the championship game. Is that true? You're making that. No. It's true. Every team made the playoffs and they won In a 14 league, every team made the playoffs, and the Valor won the arena football. I didn't know any of this. So he spread too thin. I didn't even know that the Valor had started.

I thought it was like something where it was going to start in 2019 or 20. This is the second year of the Valor. No, it isn't. Yes, this. Really? No, this is the third year coming up. Yeah, coming up, this was the second year. Yeah, this will be the third year.

This was the second year. Are they playing at Capital One? Yes. Does anybody go to the game? No. I've been to a game. Tommy, does anybody write about these games? Oh, the post cover.

or some. I wrote a column about them once. Because I'd like to see for myself. This is part of the summer of Ted. They want the Caps won the Stanley Cup and then the arena football league and the Mystics almost won the WNBA. The Mystics went to the NBA to the WNBA final. So, so. Okay, back to Ted selling the basketball team.

He can't run it anymore. He can't run it. He's got too much going on. I mean, and he has no credibility with the fan base. Zero credibility. Well, he didn't with the hockey fan base until last year. No, no, he had credit. He kept Ovechkin here.

That's a different kind of animal. That's a different kind of animal. Were there kudos sent his way when he finally got rid of McPhee? Yes, there were. There were a lot of people who were ready to see McPhee move on. And it was ready for him to move on. Although part of the problem with George McPhee was Ted wouldn't let him hire a coach with Stanley Cup experience because Ted didn't want to pay to coach any money.

That's why they kept bringing in American Hockey League coaches to coached. the team. So, and again, that was Ted as well. But to let Ernie continue, to let him have gone on for this long is irresponsible. And particularly in a town where basketball could be so big, particularly in a franchise that's, like I always say, he's been walking through the desert since 1980, his fan base has. They deserve better, they deserve a better owner that Ted Leones this. He needs to sell the NBA team. Well, he's not going to. Sell the wizards, Ted.

He's not going to. Sell the wizards. Let's start the hashtag. Ted, sell the wizards. Sounds like a Thanksgiving Day column in the Washington Times. We both know he's not going to do that because we also, we know this. But he loves basketball. But basketball is his first love.

Having grown up in Brooklyn, he's a big basketball guy. And he's wanted so much more for this franchise. And by the way, let me just cut to the chase here. I'm not going to disagree with you. And I've said this for a few years. years now. Yes, you have. I'm okay if they move on from Ernie. I just hope that they get a really good general manager. I like Ernie. I don't think Ernie's a terrible general manager. I don't think he's a great general manager. And I think for whatever reason, and in part, and everybody knows this

in town, Ernie's such a good guy and works so well, I'm sure, with owners and people in front offices. And Ernie's just a guy that you'd want in your organization. With that said, it's time to move on from Ernie. I'm fine with that. Let's bring in a really good young general manager, somebody who's got a really good eye for talent. I like Scott Brooks too. Scott's a great guy. I mean, he's such a, he's a great guest on radio shows, on podcasts, but you know this. When they hired him, I'm like, because I criticized him in the lack of any structure and any discipline and any plan offensively with a really talented team in Oklahoma City. And I thought that they needed to hire a guy like Thibito. I mean, Coach Tibbs would have come in here

with more structure, more discipline, but I'm getting it now. It's like the same reason it didn't work with Randy. Your star wasn't going to have it. Your star wanted the freedom and wanted to be able to sort of do what he wants to do. And you have the general manager who will always side with the player. I might want to point out this great guy that you talk about, Ernie Grunfeld. He's a good guy. You know what?

I think Eddie Jordan's knees are still hurting from the way he kneecapped him when he tried disciplined Gilbert Arenas. Poor Flip Saunders, may he rest in peace. His knees were probably still sore from the time he tried to discipline Andre Blotch and had the rug pulled out under him by Ernie Grunfell. And as far as being a decent general manager, Andre Blotch, $35 million contract extension. I can't even begin to describe how moronic and stupid that was. And you could possibly say that this guy was.

was a good general manager with that on his resume? He should have been put in jail for that. I've done this a million times, but, you know, many of the trades, more trades have worked out than haven't worked out. No, I'm asking you about one. It was a terrible move. Okay, that's a terrible offense. Look, I think extending Gill the way they extended them,

and I think that was an Abe Poland, last sort of Abe Poland inspired move. I don't care about any other move. And I know, I don't even want to hear about its other moves. There's one move that that should have landed him in Montgomery County Prison along with Gilbert Arenas. And that was extending Andre Blotch. There's a terrible thing to do. All right. What's your solution again for general manager?

I don't need that solution. Just get them out. Ted needs to sell the team. Ted sell the wizards. Okay. A couple. So a few things here. Number one, we haven't even explained to those that are unaware.

Candice Buckner in the Post. ESPN first reported yesterday that basically everybody's on the block for the wizards that they're willing to trade anybody. Candice Buckner in the Post basically pushes back on that, says that that's exaggerated that John Wall and Bradley Beale are not really available for trade. Tommy, I have no idea how anybody would trade for John Wall, that contract, those knees. It doesn't make any sense to me that a team would take, John Wall. Makes total sense to me why a team might deal for Bradley Beale. More on that in a moment.

So what happened was a report about a practice a week ago now, or close to a week ago, where Jeff Green got into it with Wall, and then Brooks tried to intervene, and Wall basically told the coach, F you. And then at the same time, Bradley Beale was shrugging his shoulders, essentially saying this organization is messed up and pointed to the general manager, Bernie Grunfeld. It was down at the other end of the court. And said it starts at the top. It starts at the top. So a lot of dysfunction reported.

At the same time, Candice Buckner reported that the practice yesterday was one of their best practices of the year. They play the Clippers tonight. I'm really, I'm so disappointed, but I also have sort of felt that this was coming over the last year. But we're still, I mean, we're a year and a half removed from a game seven in Boston where the Wizards had a lead going into the fourth quarter with a chance to get to the Eastern Conference Finals, and two and a half years away from a series that they would have won to get to the Eastern Conference Finals had John Walden not gotten hurt in the series against Atlanta. And so there was so much promise there for a few years.

There were things that have happened the last few years that I totally disagreed with. You know what my number one was. I would have never, ever let Trevor Arise go. He was the maturity in the locker room. He was the defense. He was a great corner, just a great three-point shooter in general, and I think was a big part of that first run there. And then Paul Pierce was a big part coming in. They replaced, you know, Arisa with Pierce, some maturity, a veteran presence that Wall and Beal sort of looked up to and allowed to lead. But once you had that out, it was, you know, it was dicey.

You know, John Wall and Bradley Beale are not leaders of a championship organization in terms of players. They're not. John, I'd be fascinated to know what they know about John's whole psychological makeup. I think watching him play from afar, this is a major projection, just understand that. But I see a guy with like attention issues, you know, ADHD issues. If you watch him play, he's so not focused. He so is in a situation where in one month. moment, he's on the attack, and he's really, you know, energetic. And then you see those possessions

where he comes across half court, and he dribbles it between his legs three or four times, is the shot clock's winding down. He turns his back on the defense, and it ends with him shooting some off-balanced 22-footer. And it's like, that's the possession that followed the other one. And there's never been the ability for John to, like, really grasp the game. You know, and understand what's going on in the game, he's a terrific athlete, and he's a good basketball player. You know, watching John Wall when he's been healthy, baseline to baseline, you can talk all about, you know, he's not, you know, some of these other guys who can create their own shot and knock down jump shots, and you can't go underneath screens on, and you can't get too close to and all that.

All that is true. He's not that kind of player, but he's been a really good player, but there's just been something missing from him. I think there's been something missing from Beal too. There's just something that's just not right. And maybe Beal will be better off in another organization with a different team and a different structure and maybe more structure because he's got talent. You know, he can really shoot it. But I'd love to know the whole wall situation.

I've just heard bits and pieces of it over the years. You know, he's reported and, you know, overweight, out of shape. he's looked at times this year, and I've watched almost every game, Tommy. There have been some games where I wonder, did you just sort of show up right before the game tip to get ready for it? Well, he's playing like a guy, and he's acting like a guy who got paid. And the best part of his payment doesn't start until next year. It's $38 million in the first year of a Supermax deal.

That's what he's acting like. Think about this. Dwight Howard, who's hurt again, by the way, is arguably, the stabilizing force on this team right now. We haven't even gotten to the March, April, Dwight Howard's saga that every team goes through every year. We haven't even gotten to that yet. So this is disappointing for me because I wanted this to sort of, you know, the last couple of years, you know, I kept saying to you and other people, look, they're not even in their prime yet. You know, they're going to, you got to hope, their best hope is for these two players to really mature.

turn into really wily veteran players that goes with their skill set and their athleticism. You know, that's how they're going to take the next step. And, you know, Ernie's got to add the right pieces, you know, bench pieces, a third wheel. You know, the Otto Porter thing is, you know, at that moment, what were they supposed to do? They could have let Otto, you know, just sign the deal with the Nets and go to the Nets. Otto Porter is not even a third scorer on a team. He's a fourth score and a glue player and a guy that doesn't. a lot of different things. But I am now in favor of two things. One, blowing it up. Two, you can't

blow it up until you have the guy that you want to fix it during, you know, as you blow it up. And by the way, the blow it up answer isn't that easy because you're just not going to get what you think you can get for John Wall because of the knees in the contract. And Bradley Beale's contract is less difficult to deal with and probably him at 25 years. years old, he's much more attractive. I don't know who anywhere would want Otto Porter in his contract. This is why, like last year at the end of the season, I said, whatever it takes to get Kauai Leonard, and that means if you have to trade the entire team, no one should be off limits, including Wall and Beale and Ubre and all of them. Trade them all, and you've got a top five player that you can

build around, well, what happens if he doesn't want to stay here? Well, then whatever, you start over that. You start over again. You start over again, but you had to get a top five player. I would have traded whatever you needed to trade to get Jimmy Butler. But the answers aren't easy here. His contract is onerous and his knees are a problem. Kevin, the NBA is the worst league to have to turn a team, a franchise around. It's the most difficult. Zion Williamson. But it's still the most difficult. Zion Williamson. To turn a franchise around. It's like turning around a battleship. in a river. It's hard to do. It is hard to do. And, you know, I was on with Tony this morning and we were talking about this a little bit and he said, you know, Tony goes, I told you from the beginning they were never going to win a championship with John Wall. I'm like, championship was never, look, the NBA is one of these leagues where in the last few years, if you're not Golden State or the team that LeBron's on, championship's not the goal. Right. You can't win a championship. In the NBA, you have to have a top five player on your team to even remotely get close to a championship series, not win it.

Get close to winning a conference championship. You've got to have a top five player on your team, and the Wizards haven't had that. They were close two years ago to getting to an Eastern Conference finals, and they were certainly perhaps even closer the year before, because they were very likely better than Atlanta with John Wall healthy, where I don't think they were better than Boston. No, the year before was probably a more feasible thing if John Wall had been healthy. Like I said, against Boston, John Wall was dead by game seven, and the Celtics knew it, and they knew all they had to do.

He hit the shot in game six to force the game seven. I know that. But they came out and said their strategy was we were going to wear John Wall out because we knew he was tired. Yeah. Beal was phenomenal in that seventh and deciding game. But yeah, he was whatever he was down the stretch. What was it?

O for his final 10 shots, I think, in game seven. And he's never going to be the guy that you should be relying on to score at the end of games anyway. The only hope, and I was looking through all of the different possibilities. The only hope is Ted selling the team. Hashtag Ted Sell the Wizards. Hope that actually, you know, that we can perhaps actually tangibly get to here because Ted's not selling. the team is perhaps a deal with Phoenix, you know, to get a veteran player in there like Beal. You probably take Ryan Anderson back and a bunch of picks. You need to get picks from a team

where you've got a chance to land one of those top picks and get one of those top young stars like a Williamson at a Duke or a Barrett at a Duke. You know, that's what you're, that's, that's the plan. You didn't get Kauai Leonard. Are you going to try to clear your books and sign Kauai Leonard? He's not going to sign here as an unrestricted. free agent. No, if he has a choice, he's not coming to Washington. That's kind of why you've got Porter, Beal, and Wall all under long-term contract in the first place, because nobody else would come here. Again, Ted sell the team because Ted Leonzes has zero credibility. The Wizards have zero credibility within the league. And I might want to point out that Steve Jobs

Widow bought 20% of monumental sports and entertainment about a year and a half ago of the whole company, she could wind up buying the wizard. She could. And there's a couple of guys that why do you think Ted would sell the wizard? You've locked onto your thing here, your headline. I don't know if he would. You love locking onto a headline. I think he needs to be shamed into doing it. Shamed into doing it by whom? You? Yeah, I'm leading the charge. You know what? I think Ted can't be shamed into anything. Let's say one thing about Ted Leonis. Outsized ego. All right? And competitive. He's not going to be shamed into anything. I do think, though, that we are at that point that you've wanted for a long time and you've

advocated for a long time, and that is a complete blow-it-up situation with Ernie gone. Eight years. There's been so much damage done over eight years. What are the chances that they turn it around from five and ten, and they win 43 games and win a playoff series? What are those chances? Because they've got the talent to win 43 games and be a six seed or a seven seed in the postseason. They still have that talent level. I'd say the chances are 2%. Two percent. Yeah. So the chances are nothing. We haven't gotten to the Dwight Howard dysfunction yet. We haven't even gotten close to that.

I'd feel better if Gortot were on the team about their chances to turn it around. Okay. I'm with you now. Okay. Ted sell the team? Well, Ted's selling the team isn't going to happen. But Ted firing Ernie and hiring a new general manager and blowing the whole thing up. And not being cheap, not being cheap about it. Well, it wasn't cheap with his head coach. If you, if you can't afford to own an NBA team, get out and let somebody else with money. Oh, this is your, this is your thing today. You came ready to get Ted to sell the team. When is that column, tomorrow's column? Listen, or is it a Thanksgiving morning column? When he took over when, when a.

On that great website, Washington Times.com. When he took over the team and bought them from, you know, the Poland family. He was handed a lot of bad contracts, sponsorship deals, TV deals, and stuff. That was eight years ago. You know what? If you can't own an NBA team and you can't afford the freight,

let somebody else who wants to. NBA teams are worth $2 billion now. I don't know if the Wizards are worth $2 billion. Pretty close. It's funny that you say that because as a fan of this team, lifelong fan of the team, and I'll acknowledge,

as everybody has, all the wonderful things Abe Poland did for this city, which he did. Abe Poland was a cheap owner of that franchise. Abe Poland employed Wes Unseld, his good friend, and an iconic figure in the organization long past the point that Wes Unseld should have been the team president and general manager. And it was a much worse organization for a long period of time. they're, you know, from 83, you know, through the Beef Brother, you know, the Mahorn ruling days, they were competitive. But once those two guys left, it was a horrible organization until Ernie was hired and

at least they started to go to the playoffs on a regular basis with Gilbert Arinas and Antoine Jamison and the Kuran Butler team, the big three team, remember Tommy? Another fraud. That we were told without injuries would have won the East that couldn't play defense. but I, when Ted took the team over, I was optimistic. Well, everybody was. I was optimistic. Of course.

I mean, this was the guy who does things the right way. He does, he knows how to own a team and put together a good product in hockey. And I thought the same was coming for the basketball team. And I also, and we also knew because we, you know, we did one of those lunch with legend things with Ted, probably at the time he had just taken over the basketball team. that basketball is his first love. Right. He grew up in Brooklyn. And he knew, and he has said this, but he knows what the wizards are.

They are the sleeping giant, not the Redskins, as Brian Lafamina said when he got hired. But the Wizards are the sleeping giant in town. If they were ever really, really good and a legitimate championship contender, most of you have no idea how big this would be in this city. It would be massive, massive. You know what? You talk about a damaged Redskins fan base. they have flesh wounds compared to the Wizards fan base.

Flesh wounds. The Wizards don't even have a fan base, but there's a basketball base in this city that would love to have the professional team be a contender. Well, maybe the Go-Go will be in the G-League. See, I know the Go-Go. I just didn't know what the other one was. The Liquid.

The Liquid. Yeah, I didn't know what that was. You got e-sports, baby. E-sports are coming. That's the future. I just didn't know Ted owned a team. Yeah. What do you think that was?

that team cost him? Actually, he outbid a bunch of high-profile bidders to get it. Who were the high-profile bidders? Peter Goober, the movie producer, was one of them. He made a big deal of it. I think Tony Robbins is one of his. You know, he's a big Tony Robbins guy, Ted is. He had Tony Robbins talk to the Capitals a couple years ago.

Is there anything? Did he blog about what's going on? Because usually he blogs about, you know, everything. I don't know. I haven't read his blog in a long time. They play the Clippers tonight. That's going to be actually interesting to watch. watch. Ted'll be right there. He'll be right there on the bench.

Hashtag. Ted's probably heard some of those F-bombs that John Walls dropped because he's right there on the bench. The only owner in sports that sits on his team's bench. The only one. Cuban, every time I say this, people say, what about Mark Cuban? He sits behind the bench, not on the bench. Ted Leonis is the only owner in sports that sits on his team's bench where stands on the sideline during the majority of the game. Jerry will come down at the end, the Home Depot owner, the Falcons owner. Arthur Blank will come down at the end.

Ted sits on his team's bench during the games. It's interesting. So he's got to know everything that's going on. He's right there, right in the middle of it. I'm with you finally. I'm ready to blow it up. At the same time, I think it's going to be really hard for them to do this. Yes.

I just don't know what they're going to get for any of these players right now. in a fire sale situation, but they do, if there's an opportunity to get Phoenix's first round pick or picks, future picks along with a Ryan Anderson or somebody, I think now you got to go for that. Because this team right now is currently constructed is not going to contend for anything. They could be a playoff team this year. I wouldn't knock them, I wouldn't discount completely their playoff chances this year, but it's not going anywhere. with this group anymore. You know, right before, when they were two and eight,

were they two and eight last year or two years ago. Two years ago they were two and eight, right? When John came off the injuries, they started two and eight and they won 49 games. Yeah, they won 49 games. At two and eight, I came on the show that day and said, it's time to trade John Wall. And they went on that 40 to, so. They ended up going 40 and 19, I think, over their final 59 games that year.

but he wasn't healthy at the beginning of that season. That was the big issue at the beginning of that issue. At the beginning of that season, he was not healthy. All right, what else did we want to get to today? Anything? That's it. Aaron's nodding. He's saying no.

You know, I mean, he's ready for it to end. If I don't get a chance to see you on Thanksgiving. What's your prediction for Redskins on Thanksgiving Day? Redskins are going to win. They are? Yeah. As a seven and a half now, seven and a half point underdog. Yeah, Redskins are going to win.

We're in 27-23. Oh, God. This is a big day in your household for Colt McCoy. I'm rooting for him. He's hard not to root for it. Oh, my gosh. And he's, he's, I mean, his teammates love him. The coach loves them.

I mean, you know, and it's not just the golly gee whiz stuff. I mean, he's competitive. He's very competitive. You know, he's a tough guy. I mean, look, you know, I fell in love with him after he came in and half time in the Tennessee game, 2000. 2014 when Kirk threw a hitch to Garsohn and he ran it 79 yards with it. Yeah.

And his post-game press conference, look, I'm as jaded as you get. I've seen a lot of stuff that's a lot of malarkey and garbage. I saw a guy who never thought he'd be in that position again, never thought his football career had been taken from him. And then in that moment was resurrected again. and the joy of that moment was as real as anything I've ever seen in a press conference. I know. Your press conference reviews going back to RG3 or hit and miss. They're not always completely spot on in terms of your takeaway.

But I think you're right about Colt McCoy. And who will ever forget? You know, the Monday night game, Redskins are in the midst of a terrible season. The Cowboys are rolling. And Colt McCoy goes in there. and I think he was like 25 for 30 for 300 some yards. 299 yards. 299.

Ran for a touchdown. And had that big fourth down crazy play to Jordan Reed that he made. Jordan Reed, I think, is going to be the biggest beneficiary and the wide receivers also. I think they're going to move the football. Well, they may get a little bit healthier for this game. Chris Thompson may be back. I don't think Thompson's going to be back. I think Dunbar's a possibility for Thursday and maybe Crowder.

Oh, that'll help. I don't know that Thompson. God, they could use Thompson. They really could use Thompson. All right. Happy Thanksgiving to you. Happy Thanksgiving to you and everybody out there. If your plans change, you're invited.

Even if it's a last minute thing, you can certainly come over and spend Thanksgiving with us. I got to figure out the TV solution, but we've got other TVs in the house. Well, you're going to have to do something about the TV solution. I just want to point out Friday morning, Andy Paulin and I are on 1067 the fan from 6 to 10. Get your postgame Redskine stuff on 1067 the fan Friday morning. filling in for the junkies. Saturday morning, Andy will do our regular show 9 to noon, and I'm on Wednesday afternoon this week with Chad Dukes 4 to 6 on 106.7. And on Friday, I'm going to listen to that right after I listen to my podcast, which we'll

have out on Friday morning, but I will listen to it. It'll be great. Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, buddy.