The Kevin Sheehan Show - Draft '27 in DC + Caps-Carolina Picks

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

Kevin and Thom today with plenty on yesterday's announcement that the 2027 NFL Draft will be hosted by Washington D.C. The boys previewed and picked the Caps-Carolina series and talked some NBA Playoffs and NFL as well including a discussed trade of Commanders' CB Marshon Lattimore.  Go to zbiotics.com/SHEEHAN and use SHEEHAN at checkout for 15% off any first time orders of ZBiotics probiotics.Go To WindowNation.com. Buy 4 windows, get 4 free!Betting on sports? Go to mybookie.ag. Use code KEVINDC for a bonus!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Show's presenting sponsors, as always, is Window Nation 86690 Nation or WindowNation.com if you need new windows. Tommy's here. I am back with a bad back, Tommy.

Really wrecked it playing that elitist sport over the weekend, golf. and there were no elitist doctors to just come over and help me out. I had to make do all myself, all by myself, with just, you know, normal run-of-the-mill blue collar people trying to help me out, and it didn't work. I, in all honesty, there's nothing worse than back pain. You know I've had it during the course of my life. I've had a couple of lower back, you know, herniated disc operations,

and they've both been very successful. but I did something to my back on Saturday. On whole number five, I couldn't even bend over to swing the club or stand up to swing the club. I had to call it quits, and I was in no condition to do the show yesterday, and I'm barely in condition to do it today, but I'm feeling all right. How are you doing? You give your heart and soul to this podcast. I'll tell you that, buddy.

You're playing her today. I can hear it in your voice. heard me, I got done with radio a little while ago, and sitting is not good when you've got a lower back issue. So I had been sitting for about an hour straight. I'd gotten up a couple of times during the show during breaks, and it was harder to get up at the end. Now, I'm on sort of a prescribed hyper anti-inflammatory. I've got an ice pack, which I have been doing periodically throughout the morning and for the last couple of days. and it actually felt much better this morning, but sitting, you know what, Tommy,

sitting is the new smoking. It's not a good idea to sit for hours upon hours, and it's really bad for your lower back if you've got lower back issues. But I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm playing a little bit injured today. I'm open, though. I'm open if you get me the ball.

I'll shoot some threes like Boston did last night. I bet I could make me. more than they made. All right, what are we going to talk about today? We got the draft to catch up on going to D.C. We got caps tonight. We do have some NBA. This, by the way, from Jay.

Jay Wright's subject heading NBA coverage. First time, long time, Kevin. The first email is in response to a listener, Liam, who contacted your podcast complaining about you talking about the NBA playoffs. There are many fans of basketball. who enjoy your commentary on the NBA and would like more. This year's playoffs have been great, in particular the Knicks Pistons, Rockets Warriors, Clippers Knuggins.

Even less competitive series have had some competitive enjoyable games like the 29-point comeback by the OKC Thunder. I'm old enough to have enjoyed the basketball of the 80s and 90s. The shot making now is as good as it's ever been. More guys on the floor that can pass, shoot, and dribble. I know that relaxed ball handling rules and the number of three-pointers have turned some off, but there are many in the DMV that enjoy the game outside of the NFL and college football. The NBA ratings are as high as any other sport, yet it's talked about like it's some niche or niche sport that is dying.

I don't get it. Anyway, enjoy your podcast and hope to hear as much NBA talk as possible as the playoffs heat up. Well, Jay, you picked a good day. Because in the final segment of the show, we're going to talk about the NBA playoffs. But the reason for talking about them is what the Celtics did last night, missing a record number of three-pointers in a playoff game. And I knew that would be right up. Tommy will talk about that.

He won't talk about what the Nuggets did last night, but he'll talk about just shooting threes, baby, just shooting threes. That's what they do. Just shooting the ball. Just shooting the ball. Well, you know, that email gives me a pain in my back. I bet it does, but not as much of a pain in the ass as I'm going to be in the final segment of the show today. But we'll wait on all of the great NBA talk for the final segment.

What we're going to start with today is the big news yesterday, Tommy, that the NFL draft, I don't think this was a shock to you. I don't think it was a shock to me. I don't think it was a shock to anybody that's been paying attention, just like the stadium news hasn't been shocking news, although it's been treated that way. I don't have a problem with it being treated that way. It's coming to D.C. in 2027 with what they're saying could be a record 1 million spectators over a three-day period for the NFL draft on the mall downtown.

Crazy. Have you scoped out a location yet for us on the mall? to do our podcast live during a draft? I'm going to tell you, I seriously thought right when, you know, it became official, I'm like, once we have the ability, which I would guess would be about a year from now, to start applying for a spot somewhere, you know, in a good position, I do think that certainly for night one, we should be down there. and hopefully many of you joining us at the draft party for that first round.

Thursday night, late April, 2027. Yeah, we're going to do it. That's where we should be. Let's hope we're around and feeling better than we've been feeling recently. You know, you're right. I mean, it wasn't a surprise, but a couple weeks ago, even before the announcement came out, after Mark Seagraves broke the story, I wrote a couple of column, I mentioned in the column,

don't be surprised if Roger Cudell drops the NFL draft in D.C. pretty soon as kind of a carrot to continue the moment, to create momentum and to put pressure on those who would oppose

the stadium, and I think that this will be effective. I think it helps create momentum the announcement. There's a lot of momentum right now. Now, that may break down slowly, as details of the deal are examined, if they are ever examined by some of the media in this town, who would maybe stop putting down their pom-poms and maybe look at parts of the deal.

But right now, it seems to be full steam ahead. You're talking specifically about the stadium. Yes. Yeah. Yes, I mean, the draft is connected to the stadium in my mind. Yeah, I think that makes sense to everybody. You know, I had on Friday's radio show, and we, did we record Friday show? Oh, you weren't on Friday show.

Sorry. On Friday, I had Phil Mendelsohn on the radio show. And he's the chairman of the D.C. City Council, for those of you who don't know. And the one thing that just, and I asked him about it, there's just a whole, whole lot of, well, we don't know anything about this deal. Well, you do know something about this deal. It's been talked about forever, you know, and there's a whole term sheet on the deal. But, you know, it's posturing. They're going to want to get their pound of, you know, of dollars for this in return for voting, yes, I would assume. It sounds like the mayor's got a lot to figure

out and a lot to communicate to the city council. But look, I think, you know, this announcement of the draft is just a continuation of, of this is all happening. By the way, real quickly, I'm actually, look, politically, there's not probably a lot of similarities between the mayor and me in terms of the way I'm much more of a centrist than I am sort of a very progressive or liberal Democrat by a long shot. But did you? see some of the shots of Mayor Bouser with the president and Goodell? I mean, it looked like she was being held hostage in that situation, didn't it? Yeah, it did. Yeah. You know, there were some people who commented on that whole scene. Look, Josh Harris was very comfortable

up there because he actually worked for Trump in his last term as an advisor. So he has no problem being in the White House and stroking the commander-in-chief. The mayor probably figured, well, I already paid my dues. I made a trip to Mar-Lago, Mar-Lago. You know, I mean, I shouldn't have to be in the same room with him again. But she's going to have to. She's going to have to be a good soldier because this guy could say all of a sudden, I'm the mayor at D.C., not you.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, a lot of people would love to see him take some executive action in terms of the name. I don't think that'll happen. But I just, that was an observation that I made in seeing some of the shots of all of them together, especially when he was asked about other things that had nothing to do with the draft, including, you know, the social media pictures of him dressed up as the Pope. And just watching her reaction.

I've said this before about Mayor Bowser. I think in some of our bigger crises, including the most recent one, the plane crash in January, I think she's very good in those moments. I think she actually has really good communication ability and is very poised in those moments. But anyway, we can move on. Here's something that I just wanted to say about this, because I got this from Aiden. Aidan was listening to me talk about the draft on radio this morning, and he wrote, sounds like you're unimpressed that the draft is coming to D.C.

This might end up being the most attended sports thing ever, not sure why you, of all people, aren't celebrating more than anybody else. And it's not that I'm not celebrating it or not excited about it. I am, and I'm impressed. I mean, real quickly, just so everybody understands, the million-person-expected turnout for this is over three days. not a million on Thursday night, a million on Friday night. We're not going to end up with a million people simultaneously on the mall.

It'll be 300,000 plus, you know, 350 plus on three consecutive nights. I had John Orand on radio as well. I'm curious as to what percentage, and he wasn't exactly sure, what percentage of the people that attend a draft in D.C. or Detroit or Philly would be the comps are from the, you know, the area versus outside of the area. Do you have any idea what that is? No. No, I don't.

It's an important number because it impacts the revenue, I would think. Well, I would think that D.C. because of the Amtrak corridor, would attract a lot of out-of-town fans from maybe New York and Philly. Good point. Philly in particular. Good point. Yeah. But let me just... I mean, you can hop in a train. You can be down here in two hours. Yeah. Be there. Take the train back.

I mean, it's nothing. It's easy. Well, we certainly, we don't want Philly and we don't want Philly fans and cowboy fans to take over the draft like they've taken over the stadium in recent years. We want the majority of fans to be Washington fans, and I would imagine that that will be the case. Although, I don't know, were they majority Detroit fans or Philly fans, I would imagine they were. I would say, you know, by 20, by 2027, you would hope that this team has built up a number, goodwill and momentum on their fan base, that this wouldn't be as much of an issue as it has been in the past. Well, and that's why, you know, that probably is exactly the reason Aden kind of sense that I'm not like jumping through hoops over this news, which I would, by the way, I'm excited about it. It'll be a lot of fun when it gets here, but that's two years off.

I mean, the stadium conversation kind of felt the same way. It's kind of, it's nice, but that's five years away. What I'm excited about and what we have a chance to talk about legitimately for the first time is a team going into a season where they're going to be expected to be a deep into the postseason contender. And so I think a lot of this stadium and draft talk, it's all great. It's all happening because Snyder's gone and Jaden Daniels was drafted more than anything else. because it's possible that we would have gotten the draft at the stadium if they had been five and 12 last year with Drake May or with Michael Pennix Jr.

If they didn't have the ability to draft Jaden Daniels. But it certainly helped everything that the team is kind of the toast of the NFL in terms of conversations. You know, I mean, it really is in many ways. Right now, one of the most talked about NFL franchises in the league after the year they had last year. So some of these things may have. happened with just Snyder being gone. But I guess my feeling is I'm really focused on this team

and what it can do next year. And oh, by the way, a week from tomorrow, the schedule comes out. So we'll be able to look at next year and say, man, that Sunday nighter against the chiefs is going to be crazy at Arrowhead. But we've talked about this for so many years about the suspension of reality to have real conversations about the team. And we don't have to do that. anymore and that makes it much more you know interesting to talk about a potential winner and that that is much more of a of a thing for me aiden than being super excited in the moment about the draft which is two years out I hope that the next two seasons produce a draft where the defending champions or at least you know a

recent champion is hosting That would be kind of cool. You know, you mentioned the, we don't have to suspend reality anymore, which I always used to call the Surgeon General's Warning. Right. You know, now it's as if, you know, they're selling nicotine, cigarettes without nicotine in them, and they're good. Yeah.

Yes. You're right. I mean, it is a tremendous difference. but my point is that about, you know, by 2027, I mean, if this team projects, if this team with their quarterback projects like we think they're going to do, it shouldn't be any problem getting Washington fans excited about the draft and to be part of the draft. Yeah, yeah. I think that there's, I think that

the next two seasons are going to be really exciting seasons, and it's possible that Washington fans will start taking over their own stadium and their own draft in 2027. And again, I think what's going to be so interesting about these last five years at the old stadium is that they will probably be the best five years that the stadium had because there will be many a big game. I mean, this upcoming season, you know, we've talked about, you know, Washington's opponents, you know, in the upcoming season,

it's going to be, there are going to be some big time games that the NFL is looking forward to seeing. Washington and Detroit at Northwest Field, the rematch of the Hail Mary game against the Bears, the Eagles, you know, they're going to be some massive games. And of course, on the road, they play the Chiefs, the Packers. Wow. I'll have my mock schedule out, either by the end of this week or early next week. The schedule, I may wait until Tuesday so I can do it with you because you love my mock schedule. I love it. I think it's great.

But you've created this. I give you credit for creating this industry. This industry didn't really exist before I started to do it. I'm not saying they got it from me. No, but it didn't exist. Right. Right. When I was doing it, no one else was doing it. I remember the first place I heard about somebody else doing it. It was the Rams. The Rams had some mock schedule contest that they did maybe 10 years ago. And that was a good three or four years after I started the mock schedule. No, I give you credit for this. This is your baby.

So look, it'll be really cool. The shots of our, it's going to. It's going to. to be great for our city. It'll be great for the show if we're still doing it in two years. It'll be great for, it's going to be phenomenal for the city, I would think, you know, for, I mean, seriously, we've had big marches with people coming in from all parts of the country and even the world. But to have a three-day event in which hundreds of thousands of people are on the mall for three consecutive days, let's just say 30% or 40% of them, 50% of them are from out of town, that will be a big boost to the economy weekend. Big boost.

Absolutely. Isn't it amazing? I mean, maybe no single development speaks to the growth and power of the NFL than taking what used to be a phone call among executives and turning it into potential. a million-person event. It's crazy. It really is absolutely insane. The draft used to be done via phone calls between executives.

That's a long, long time ago. Yeah. Well, it's in my lifetime. All right, but it's been televised now for, you know, 45 to coming up on 50 years. But when I became an NFL fan, it wasn't televised. I know. I know. Yeah. I mean, Oren told me that the day three, because of Shadur Sanders, was the most watched day three in the history of the draft.

And that the ratings from the draft just dwarf everything else in sports other than NFL games and college games, college football games. It is, it's, you know, as much as I mock the, you know, the, you know, the, you. the predictions and the grading and the, you know, it is, it's always been so much fun to watch and to follow. I mean, so much fun to watch and to follow. And I think even more so for people who have been big college football fans. Yeah. But yeah, Shadur Sanders, by the way, is going to wear number 12 because Tom Brady wears number 12. There you go. Brady. was a mentor to Shadur Sanders. I know, and the Raiders didn't draft them.

No, they didn't. And there's this video going around that I saw from the other day where Brady was on something with Dion and with Shadur. And Dion started talking about Shadur's new car. It was a Rolls Royce, and Brady basically said, I wish you'd spend more time in the film room than in that Rolls Royce. Nah. There you go. There you go. All right.

Well, that Rolls-Royce will stand out in Cleveland. What will, yeah, exactly. What will this dress beyond the economic impact from the weekend? Like, I would imagine that there's some sort of projection of what it does for just the increase in overall tourism with the city and the city's most beautiful places being highlighted for. three straight nights in front of millions and millions of people. Well, I've always said that people don't understand because it's an abstract kind of thing. One of the values of having professional sports teams in your city is that when they're broadcast on national television, it's a three-hour commercial for your city, you know?

and that has value. Okay, you can't necessarily quantify it, but yeah, it's very valuable to have your city in the spotlight for something positive for a couple of hours. I always compare it to Baltimore, not that this on Baltimore, but who would care in Podunk, Illinois, about Baltimore, except when the Ravens are playing on Sunday night football. And there you go.

You see shots of Baltimore all night. They talk about the Baltimore Ravens. And for three hours, one night, out of probably their whole lives, these people were thinking about Baltimore. Now there's value in that. Was there a place that you were introduced to via sports in the way you're talking about, that you then became obsessed with going to? Obsessed with going to?

Well, just interested. going to then. I tell you what, you know, it's kind of straight. I guess I can't think of anything offhand. I can't. I can't. I'm not saying these people then become, oh my God, I can't wait to go see Baltimore. It's just that they think about a city that wasn't ever, that they didn't ever think about.

What's yours? I think college football games or even pro games when the Rams were in L.A. When I was a kid, and it was dark and damp and dreary in late November, or late October through the late fall into November. And on Saturday afternoon, you'd have a shot of, you know, the Coliseum with USC playing UCLA. And there was something magical about California anyway. And I think my first trip to California, I think I was 20, 19. No, I was 19 because my buddy and I drove cross-country after our sophomore years in college. And we spent a lot of the summer out in California.

But I remember being just, you know, mesmerized by it's dark, it's cold, it's dreary on the East Coast. And then there's sunshine and it's beautiful. And the blimp is flying over the Coliseum and you're seeing shots of the Pacific. ocean. And I just remember being, God, I want to go to California so much. I'm sure there were other California related things that made me want to go to California, whether it was the Beach Boys or the Rockford Files to bring it back to something that we both love. But there was something magical about California through football in late, you know, fall, early winter. I mean, New Year's day, the Rose Bowl, how beautiful that field was, how beautiful the shots were, you know, of the

surrounding mountains. That always made me want to go to California so much. I can't think of another city necessarily where, you know, like if it was a baseball city or something like that, but even Dodger Stadium, even seeing some of those playoff games because the Dodgers... Oh, of course, with the mountains in the background? Oh, my God, yeah. You know, Chavez Ravine in the mountains right behind Dodgers Stadium and watching all of those World Series games between the Dodgers and the Yankees or playoff games with the Dodgers involved. Like there was something about those L.A. sports teams. And usually it really was, you know, the most attractive when you were watching at home in the dark. And it was still, like that was kind of the first, you know, recognition of, oh,

Why is it light there and dark here? Well, because of the sun and the three-hour difference. But, yeah. I want to ask you something about the draft coming to Washington. It'll be in late April. Yep. The 2027. Now that is usually, and tell me if I'm wrong, a prime class trip period to Washington.

Because the spring breaks? Yes. I think April and May, I mean, I mean, the town is filled with class trips. You know? So I'm wondering if there's a cup runoff over situation. I mean, how many, you know, cheeseburgers can you sell? I mean, how many beers can you sell?

How many hotel rooms can you book? You know, that's, I mean, look, I'm just saying there has to be a situation when they're figuring out these economic benefits is, what would be your normal late April economic cash register? I would imagine that it's nowhere near what June, July, and August are, right? Those are the three biggest tourist times of the year, I would think, for our city, where tourism is... I would think April and May and maybe June. I think... I'm sorry, I just... When I'm down in the city and I see blocks of buses, of school kids,

from out of town. Yeah. It's a good question. It's a good question because, you know, almost anybody that isn't from here will say that their first trip to Washington was on some school trip, you know? And so, but I don't, you might be right,

maybe those are the months. I mean, spring breaks are usually either late March or early April, you know, right around Easter, whenever Easter, you know, tends to be, it moves, obviously, from late March to second week in April. And I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. But I don't know what we can't handle. I don't know what a cup runneth over situation would be in terms of the amount of people.

That's actually going to be interesting stuff to learn as we get closer from people who really understand. Yeah, we can handle X amount of, you know, people in the city spending nights in hotel. and going to restaurants. I'm sure there's, you know, a number that's... Yeah, but you're right. Washington is probably as equipped as any city in the country to do that. You know, I hope when they do try out the economic numbers benefits and impact that this event will have, that we can get access to what the typical tourism economic benefit is for that same time period as well. I'm sure it's less, significantly less. I just satisfy my curiosity.

I did find something here that Detroit, when they hosted the draft in 2024, the Detroit Sports Commission estimated that the economic impact was $213.6 million for the city. I don't know. I don't know what it will be. be, but you know what? It could certainly help defray some of the city's costs for the new stadium. I mean, think about what they're, I mean, we're going to host a draft, and then we're probably going to host a Super Bowl within about a five or a six-year period, more likely than not. And Super Bowl's... That's ambitious. Well, six years for...

That'd be 2033. Yeah, that may be ambitious. Why? Do you don't think within three years after opening... Well, it assumes the stadium opens in 2030. Well, that assumes the stadium opens in 2030, and then it assumes that they would get a Super Bowl there within three years after opening it. Right. L.A. did. So, I don't know.

Okay. Congrats to everybody that made this happen. Joe Maloney, who was on with me last week, Joe had a lot to do with this. So the NFL's coming. here in 2027 and then the new stadium more likely than not in 2030. But before then, we should have a couple of really good football teams. That's for sure. Hoping for really good football teams.

I think you could safely say that's what we're expecting. Yes, the expectations are there, Tommy. You know where the expectations aren't for the caps to beat the Carolina hurricanes? We'll get to that and more after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, guys, a good Mother's Day gift idea for you. It's Gold Belly. I've been talking about Gold Belly for a while now. In fact, I just got a delivery recently of some of my favorite pizza.

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The caps of the eight teams left have the longest odds to win the Stanley Cup. Out of the final four teams in the east, they've got the longest odds to win the Eastern Conference. Pretty interesting that the odds makers don't give the capitals much of a chance. I've also seen some of the advanced analytics sites that give Carolina a significant advantage in this series over the cap. But you get a good number coming back on the caps if you want to bet them to win the series. Plus 158.

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Yeah. Speaking of betting. Yes. I didn't cash a ticket this weekend on the derby. Did not cash a ticket. I didn't even see, I didn't even see the derby in part because... Yeah, the ratings are the highest they've been in like 20 years. Oh, good.

Good. Yeah. I know journalism, my guy Eddie C's pick, did not win it. He had journalism winning the derby. came in second. It was, who won the derby again? Sovereignty. Sovereignty?

Yeah. And what was sovereignty? Where did sovereignty go off at? I don't know what the odds were. It wasn't part of my trifecta. Okay. It was a muddy derby, correct? Yeah, it was.

So like the prequeness, which comes up now in two weeks, is a more honest race, maybe the best, the most honest of them all. Because it's a lot less horses. Right. You know, the Kentucky Derby was 19 horses, is usually 20. Yeah. So it's almost like a demolition derby. The Preakness is usually maybe 9 or 10, and usually the best horse that day will win the Preakness.

That's not always the case with the Derby or with the Belmont States, which is significantly longer than the other two races. Yeah. I was injured on Saturday. I was not paying attention too much in that moment. And I knew it was on, but I just didn't watch it. Did you, by the way, real quickly, before we get to the caps, because we are going to break this series down. Tommy has a lot prepared for this matchup.

Did you hear what happened to Mike Toreko at the Derby on Saturday? I saw that he got sick, but I don't know what it was. So, you know, he's been the host for NBC and the Triple Crown events for several years now, right? He had to leave the broadcast because he was having a very strong reaction to a nut allergy. And he had to go take an EpiPen shot and was treated by EMTs at Churchill Downs. He began feeling better later Saturday night. He said, quote, I've had a nut allergy my whole life. and I'm usually very, very careful.

I ate something that had a nut in it and had a nut allergy causing your throat and your nose and all that stuff to kind of clog up and swell. It affects your breathing a little bit, close quote. He said, I'm embarrassed. He also said, I'm embarrassed about the attention. Not to make this all about me today, because I am playing injured. But you know who else has a nut allergy? Today's the day. Today's the day you can do that. I have a nut allergy.

Now, it's not a peanut allergy. I can eat peanuts like, you know, I love peanuts. I love peanut butter. But I have a tree nut, you know, like walnuts. I have that allergy. Now, my wife, for some reason, has always been skeptical about my walnut allergy and has on occasion attempted to test whether or not it was true. and by just slipping some shaved walnuts into a salad as an example,

just to see if she could kill me. And I'll never forget, she actually did this many, many years ago. This sounds so awful, but it's true. She just didn't think that I was legitimately allergic to walnuts because she saw me eat peanut butter and saw me eat peanuts all the time, and she didn't know the difference. and so I didn't catch them in the salad. And I looked at her and I said,

are there nuts in this salad? Did you put any nuts in the salad? Because my throat started to itch and started to swell a little bit. And she's like, why? And I go, because I'm having an allergic reaction to eating this salad right now. And she goes, oh my God, I did. I put shaved walnuts. I didn't.

And I'm like, and I lost it. I went fucking. holistic. And fortunately, there was Benadryl in the house, and Benadryl, I don't, I've had, you know, I've eaten nuts accidentally over the years, and usually you just drink water and take some Benadryl, and you're fine. But I never had an EpiPen. Actually, I did have an EpiPen shot at one point. I did have one at one point in the house, but I don't have one anymore. But peanut allergies, like all these food allergies. Honestly, when I was a kid, nobody knew anything about any of this stuff. Let me ask you that. Does that mean that when we were really young, were people walking down

the street and falling over dead? I don't remember that, do you? If there was a peanut nearby? No, I don't remember that. Do you? So, I mean, I don't understand. Is it an evolution? I think it is. That speaks to the poison of our environment? Or what is it? It speaks to not, you know, getting enough exposure to some of these things when you're younger. I don't know what it speaks to, Tommy. Honestly, I, you know, I dealt with this. You may have dealt with it with your boys, but I definitely dealt with, you know, the schools and the peanut allergies. You can't bring peanut.

You can't bring peanut butter. And I'm like, I remember when I was first kind of exposed all of this when the boys were first going to schools. And I'm like, huh? I'm like, what am I missing? Well, a kid, if they even breathe peanut butter, they could die. I'm like, I had no idea. Now, I knew the nut allergy I had. I was unfamiliar with peanut allergies.

Tree nut allergies like walnuts are, I think, I don't know what's more serious. I honestly don't. But I don't remember it being an issue at all. in school and maybe kids were, you know, going to emergency rooms to be treated for things that I didn't know about, but I... Maybe. Yeah, I don't know.

You know what I'm allergic to? Hockey talk. Yes. I was just going to say hockey talk, so let's get it over with. Well, I'm curious in all seriousness why the caps are considered to be such a long shot

to advance when they had the best record in the east. And I know that that doesn't hold up. I mean, look at Winnipeg the other night almost got beat. They were the president's trophy winner. And they were down in that game to St. Louis, Game 7, and they scored two goals in the final two minutes of the game. Did you see that or highlights of it? I saw highlights of it. The last goal was scored with three seconds left in the third period. but they were down 3-1 and that would have been, you know, the President's Trophy team getting ousted in the first round.

I mean, I don't know how seriously to take all of this discussion about hockey and sizing up series odds-wise because we see the unexpected happen in hockey more than any other sport. But one of the things that apparently Carolina is very good at is puck possession. And so when we're watching tonight, and I'm being serious here for a moment, when we're watching tonight, the caps can't let Carolina dominate puck possession. And they go in stretches where they can just be overly dominant with the way they play. And the team they just played, they had some puck possession moments,

but overall the caps dominated that stat. And what Montreal didn't get what apparently Carolina can get, consistently is your favorite, you know, key to any hockey game, which would be? Traffic in front of the net. Traffic in front of the net. And we didn't see a lot of traffic in front of the net for Montreal because Washington was bigger and stronger. That's not necessarily the case against Carolina.

So that, you know, puck possession, I would imagine certainly, teams, power play, you know, offense defense will be huge as well. I can't make a prediction on this series. I have no idea. But Tarek El-Bashir on the show Friday told me that Logan Thompson is playing as well as any goaltender in the postseason right now, and we know that that's the most important thing, is goaltender play. Yes, it is. I can carry a long way. So the caps have a shot. He is playing very well, yes. So they should have a chance.

Well, they should have a chance. And they want 51 games this year. They should have a chance. I know we're talking about matchups here, but they seem to have enough talent to figure out a way to overcome the matchup problem. That's up to. I guess that's up to your young coach, Spencer Carberry,

who is a candidate for coach of the year in the NHL. And who I've had multiple people now tell me he's one of the better X's and O's coaches in the game. So there you go. He's an impressive individual. Yeah, he seems to be. In the limited exposure I've had to him so far. He appears to be an impressive individual that Spencer Carberry, doesn't he? Yes, he does.

He seems like a sharp guy, that guy. Yeah, well, all right. And he's very clean. He's very scrubbed. Well, yeah, he's bald and he's, he looks very well kept. Yes. Yeah. Just like me.

Just like you. No, actually the opposite of you. I don't know who to pick in this series. I mean, I'm going to the game tonight. I'm going to game one tonight. I know. I may not know what I'm doing, but I'm posting. I mean, Tommy sends me a text yesterday and he says,

the caps are playing Tuesday and Thursday, which means I've got to do the podcast in the morning. And I'm like, I had no idea that the game started at 4 o'clock. Well, because it doesn't. It starts at 7. You and this leaving at 2 o'clock to get down to the arena for a 7 o'clock game, wow. You know what? You're punctual. You'd be perfect in a Tom Coughlin coached locker room. Because remember with Coughlin, it was meeting time starts at eight, but what that really meant was you better be there by $7.55.

Or you'd be fine. I don't know when that happened because that's not me all my life. It doesn't seem like you in any part of your life. No, but there, you know what, maybe punctual? What? Being a boss. When I became a boss, like an editor and charge of reporters, and I had much more responsibilities.

I put much more value on being where you were supposed to be and doing what you were supposed to be doing. Well, I got news for you. You're going to be where you need to be tonight and what you're responsible for in plenty of time, even though we didn't start recording the podcast today until after the radio show. You're going to get there with plenty of time to spare

to get to your seat high up above Capital One arena where you can barely even see the ice, You're right. You're right. You know, those seats. Oh, they're terrible. They're terrible. They're terrible. When I post the pictures from up there. I don't.

I mean, well, the Nats press box, too. Oh, it's terrible. If you're interested, here's a little, you know, inside baseball in terms of sports in this town, where the media sits for these games, which is why I never sit where the media sits for for any games that I go to are not only the worst seats in the house. They're not even in the house in most cases. They're so far above the house at Nats Park and at Capital One. And then at Skins games in Landover, it's the worst possible angle to watch a football game.

You're in the corner of the end zone. They're not at the 50-yard line. It's a corner of the end. The corner of the end zone, you'd be better off being behind the goalpost. Listen, in 10 years, we may be. buying tickets to cover these games. So you're not going to hear any complaints out of me. Maybe, yeah. Nope.

The players are handling the actual pre-game and post-game conversation about the games. So if you want to cover it yourself, we've got a great suite. We'll sell to, you know, 15 of you. You can all chip in. I don't know. I'll go contrarian and say caps in. Everybody that's picking the caps, say seven games. everybody that's picking Carolina says seven games.

So I'll go shocker. The caps in five to get to the Eastern Conference finals. Where, by the way, they might play Toronto. And Toronto, that would be, because Toronto beat Florida in game one. And Toronto has, right, correct me if I'm wrong, they haven't won the cup or been back to play for the cup since like 67. Isn't that the longest drought? Something like that. You know what?

If that happened, I'd have to talk my way into the paper sending me to Toronto for those games. Toronto's a great city. Great city. Such a great city. You'd want to go, right? Yes. I think I told you this on last week's show, maybe one of the last week's shows, that I had a friend of mine that went to Game 3 in Montreal and said it was one of the best live sporting events he's ever been to in terms of the atmosphere.

No, you didn't tell me that. Yeah. You could hear it on TV, the Bell Center in Montreal, and they had not had a playoff game there in a while. But he said it was so electric pre-starting like the national anthems and the players coming out. Like he said, it was just incredible. And by the way, Montreal won that game that night.

Right? That's the game. they won game three where they blew up blew out the cap yes uh yeah Toronto has not been to the cup finals since 1967 and they won it that year they won the Stanley Cup finals that they actually won four times in six years in the 60s they were like the Celtics of the NHL in the 60s. They won in 62, 63, 64, and 67, Tommy.

How about that? But haven't been back since. So, Washington... I've always liked the Maple Leafs because Joni Mitchell mentioned them in a song that she did. Oh, then she mentions them in a song. Yeah.

Johnny. Not exactly Carly Simon, but not bad, Johnny Mitchell. Not bad, Johnny Mitchell. All right. We both like the caps in five. for whatever it's worth. Up next, some NBA talk and some NFL talk to finish up the show after these words from a few of our sponsors. Guys, personal experience with a product that I want to tell you about, it's zbiotics and their product called pre-alcohol. Let's face it, after night

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Remember to head to Zbiotics.com slash Sheen and use the code Sheen, S-H-E-E-H-A-N at checkout for 15% off. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelly's. Well, Shelly's back room at 1331 F Street, Northwest in the district tonight will be Caps Central, pre-game and post-game. It'll be filled with Caps fans, so if you want to be among your brethren, make sure you stop by. The specials this week include a cassidia burger and a bacon-mushrum chicken melt, especially good there. Grilled chicken breast, smoked bacon, sauteed mushrooms, provolom. on a potato Kaiser roll. Okay.

Those are some of the specials tonight at Shelley's backroom. I'll tell you what else is special. Coming up on Monday, May 19th, Shelley's will host the D.C. Graves Cigars and Curveballs Fundraising. Yes, it will. And yes, it will. The tickets are not for sale yet on the website. They will be soon, but don't fret.

You can also buy tickets at the door. There'll be no problem. We can accept credit cards at the door for tickets. And the big news is the hot item for the auction, the live auction that we do, is in Sean Taylor autographed jersey, autographed Redsons. Incredible. It's authenticated, too, with a letter of authentication that comes with it. You have to be there to bid on it.

So you've got to come to the event. It's $100, a great donation for a great cause. You know, we're a tax-deductible organization. If you need to have any more questions, just email me or send me a note on social media, and I'll let you know. But we couldn't do it without Bob Matarazzi and Shelley's back room and the generosity that they have. It's the place to be. And Monday night, May 19th, it will be the place to be.

Can't wait. Always one of the best nights of the year. All right. So did you watch any of the NBA playoffs? Have you watched any of it? I'm just curious. I'm assuming not. Yeah. Absolutely not. So last night was perfect for you because two thrilling games in terms of the finishes and the closeness of the games. The Knicks overcame a 20-point deficit in the second half, came back and beat the Celtics on their home floor in games. one, 108, 105, and overtime. And then the Nuggets Thunder, you know, OKC, Tommy, had the best record during the regular season. They had the biggest margin of victory in the history of the game in this past regular season.

And the Nuggets came in with Yokic and Westbrook, who's playing really great and Jamal Murray. And they never seemed to be in the game. They were, you know, basically in between down 12 and down 5, the entire night and then they made a run over the final minute and won the game 121 to 119. But in the first game, the Boston game, the Celtics set an NBA playoff record with 45 missed three-pointers. They shot 60, which was not a record for a playoff game, and only made 15 of their 97 shot.

attempts, 60 were three-pointers. Look what you're missing out on. That's so funny. That's so funny. You know, the whole year, all the discussions from players who used to play the game included was about, you know, the game has deteriorated into a three-point shooting contest, and then they turn in this kind of performance, you know? And it has, and here's the thing, you have a generation that doesn't know any better. When they're watching it, it's like music, okay?

You have a generation that grew up listening to a certain kind of music when the music that people used to listen to was jazz, okay? Good, fine jazz. The NBA at its peak was like good, fine jazz. It doesn't resemble that anymore. Yeah. So, I don't know if I agree with that. But I will tell you that I watched both games last night. I had nothing else to do.

And I watched both games last night. And I was really off put by the Boston New York game. As I was, by the way, with a couple of games from the past weekend, I didn't get a chance yesterday on the show just to completely destroy James Hardin for his performance against the Nuggets in Game 7 on Saturday night. God is he one of the all-touching. most joyless players to watch in my lifetime of watching NBA basketball. I've never seen somebody that's now 15 years into his career be so clueless as to the difference

between playoff basketball and regular season basketball. I saw some numbers on him. Hardin now has 42 playoff games with as many turnovers as made field goals. He's got 35 playoff games with under four football. field goals made, 55 with under five field goals made. He made two shots in a game seven. He's such an ISO, dribble the ball, the life out of the ball player. It's just joyless to watch. And it was kind of disgusting to watch that because I really wanted my guy to get a round further in Kauai Leonard. But you can't win with players like James Hardin on your team at this time. You just never will.

I actually feel that way a bit about Luca Donchich, too. I think the way he plays, he doesn't recognize there's a difference with the way he's guarded and the way everybody else is guarded and the intensity and the urgency of the postseason. It just doesn't even resemble at all, close to what happens in the playoffs. Anyway, I'm watching this last night. it had to be one of the dumbest games by a team I've ever seen because it's not that hard to drive the ball against the Knicks because they are guarding you and they're,

although they missed something like 14 uncontested threes, Boston did. But they could get to the rim, they could go to the post. Now Porzingis was out in the game. after an early portion of the game, I think he was sick. I think that's why he went out. But Tatum is just settling for threes. Derek White. Jalen Brown was one for 10.

I mean, over all of the years of watching basketball or participating in basketball, when you're being coached and it's like we're not hitting tonight or outside shots, let's try to go inside now. let's try to drive the ball. It never happened. It was truly one of the dumbest things I've ever watched in basketball. With that said, as they had the lead erased and they ended up losing by three in overtime, I thought afterwards, I'm like, they lost, they missed 45 three-point shots in the game,

and they still almost won the game. I know this about guys that shoot and are shooters. They think the next one's going in. They probably were in that locker room last night or today thinking to themselves. That'll never happen again. There's no way we will ever miss 45-3s in a game, shoot 25% from behind the arc. It's what we do. We're great at it.

And we still almost won the game. So I don't expect Boston to change much, and I also expect them to win the series because I don't think they, I think they're right. I don't think they'll have another game like this. But it's just not fun to watch. I am with you on this. I totally disagree with you on the abilities of players of today, the skill level, the athleticism. The game itself in some of these playoff games have been phenomenal. teams are straight ISO and just doing nothing but searching out a matchup to shoot threes against.

I hate watching that style of game. And by the way, the Knicks play that way a lot too with Jalen Brunson. He dribbles the life out of the basketball. He just made his last night. I didn't enjoy the game at all. It was exciting because it was close, but I hated to watch each possession in the moment. I don't know if they're, you know, part of me, Tommy, is that I think one of the reasons the game has evolved into this is A, the three-point shot, B, the acceptance of longer three-point shots, C, what happens defensively when you have guys that can shoot it from that far out. It changes the dimensions of the floor in terms of how much you have to cover.

But the other part of it is that it's the 24-second shot clock with zone being allowed over, what, the last 10, 12, 15 years, and guys getting bigger and more athletic and longer, it's just hard to run like a normal offense in that scenario. When you can play zone, it's not college zone or high school zone because there is defense of three-second. which does not get called much, it's really hard to get a decent shot off in 24 seconds by involving all of your players. So I do think there are some reasons for it. It's still not that much fun to watch for me. I like watching Golden State.

I like watching Denver. I like watching the teams that don't play pure ISO and rely solely on the three-point shot. Anyway I disagree with you With that said You not watching You are missing out on some great basketball

That looks like the jazz that you refer to You know Watching Nicola Yokic I know we've said this many times He's already going to go down As one of the five or six greatest Big men in the history of the game But he's already

But he may be on a his way to being, you know, in the conversation as the greatest of all time. Last night, he had 42 points, 22 rebounds, six assists, two block shots, a steel. And he was guarded, man, because Oklahoma City plays defense that is just smothering. They are so good defensively. Shea Gilgis Alexander is the definition, Tommy, of a mid-range, player. They've got, you know, size, they've got defensive players. You would love watching Alex Caruso play. It was a great basketball game. And there have been several of those, but there are a couple of them, like the Knicks Celtic series is going to be a tough watch.

Cleveland and Indiana, I mean, defense optional. Cleveland doesn't play it at all. But I think if you invested in watching Denver and Golden State right now, especially with the veteran players you have, that there would be some appreciation for how good the basketball is played by those two teams. What Golden State did in game seven at Houston the other night was incredible. Jimmy Butler and Steph and Dremont. People hate Dremont. I get it. He's a pain in the ass. He's so good. He is just one of the smartest and highest IQ players of all time, and he just can't control his emotions. And that's always diminished sort of what I think is a borderline Hall of Fame career.

Borderline. All right. You got nothing on this, right? Absolutely nothing. And I can't convince you to why. watch like game one tonight of Minnesota Golden State. You won't do it, will you? I'm going to be at the Caps game. I'm a working man. That game starts at 10.

Well, you know why? At 10 o'clock, I'll probably be at a press conference, post-game press conference. And then you'll go to Shelly's, right? No, I won't go to Shelly's. I can't do Shelly's when I do Caps games. It's too long. When you get home from, don't you, aren't you wired when you get home after working? I don't know if you feel this way. I think we've talked about this. When I get done with a show or a podcast, there's like, or I get, aren't you a little bit wired?

Talking to you? No, I'm not a little bit wired. You're a lot wired? No, I'm not wired. When you work and you finish writing, do you feel wired? No, I don't feel wired. Do you feel anything anymore? Yes, I do.

You don't feel any sort of an adrenaline after you've written a really good column? Yeah, I do, but usually not at 10.30 at night. Oh, see, if I work at night, which, you know, I don't do as much anymore, although after Redskin Games this year, I did podcast post-game shows. And when I was done with it, I couldn't go home and sleep. It was impossible to go home and sleep. But I guess I just take work. more seriously than you do.

Yeah, that's it. That's nothing to do that. You're still a baby compared to me in terms of age. Maybe you're 71, and then speak to me about being wired. The last thing... When you're 71 and wired, you're going to be wired to an EKG machine. I hope not. I hope not, because then I'll be missing out on all these great games at the new stadium.

going with my grandkids. So somebody sent me something that I just, it isn't true, okay? It was one of these, you know, aggregators or, not aggregators, one of these fake news sports people on Twitter, that Washington after drafting Trey Amos was looking to trade Marchon Latimore. And so this person sent it to me and said, I mean, I'm not going to mention who the person is, but the person said,

I have some sources that are telling me there's some truth to this. I'll just tell you that this particular person probably has about a 12% hit rate on the, I have some people telling me that there's some truth to this. I don't see any truth to Washington being interested in trading Marshawn Latimore. I actually think if they had been interested in trading Marshaun Latimore, that would have happened before the draft. it wouldn't have happened now.

You would have gotten better value in this year's draft. And by the way, Washington needed picks in this year's draft. Now, could I see a trade deadline trade with Marshawn Latimore move for Washington? Yeah, if he turns out to be not what they thought they traded for, and you get a team that's desperate for a veteran corner coming down the stretch, maybe you could flee somebody at the trade deadline. But I'm not thinking that way, and I don't think they're thinking that way. You know, if you take Adam Peters and Dan Quinn at their word,

and I'm not saying that you should on things like this, because they're going to be more positive publicly than maybe they are behind the scenes, but they have high hopes for Marshawn Latimore being the player that they drafted. you know, that they traded for, not drafted. Because he came in injured, he came in late in the season, and now he'll have a full off season to get healthy, and to get acclimated to the system. So I do not think that they are going to trade Marshawn Latimore before this season begins.

I think that is a long shot, a major long shot. A trade deadline move. We'll talk about it when we get to October. I don't think they're going to trade them before the season. Yeah. One last thing real quickly. Phil Sims was asked by Abdul Carter for his number 11 after LT turned him down, and Phil Sims turned him down.

Why aren't the Giants just saying to Abdul Carter, here are the jerseys you can no longer ask for, or even talk about? Why don't they help the kid out? the team needs to step in here and make these decisions. You'd think that they would do that. Like you're making the kid look bad. You know, this is where, like, PR has to go to people and say, we're making Abdul Carter look bad asking for jersey numbers that he can't get.

We should be protecting him. If he can't get these jerseys, let's tell him so he doesn't look foolish. You know, asking for these things in public. You know, this reminds me of, well, first and foremost, it reminds me of the Thysman, Dwayne Haskins number seven situation, which, you know, the owner, Dan Snyder said, well, it's up to Joe. No, it shouldn't have been up to Joe. It should have been up to you to say to Dwayne, you've got to look for another number because this is a protected number worn by one of the greatest quarterbacks in franchise history and the man who quarterbacked our first Super Bowl victory back in 82. But it also, Tommy, reminded me of like the PR under Snyder, when they would book a guest with us and then the guest wouldn't show and we would say what happened. And they'd say, oh, we forgot to tell them to call in. And this wouldn't happen frequently, but it would happen occasionally. And it got to the point where I just stopped teasing that, you know, Bashad Breeland was coming up at, you know, 1.30 or, you know,

Kendall Fuller was going to be our guest at 2.30 because we couldn't count on them to actually deliver. And I think after like the third or fourth time it happened, I called the guy who was the head of PR and I said, you know, you shouldn't do this because it makes the player look bad. It makes us look bad because we booked it, you know, we teased a guest coming up and the guest doesn't show. But it makes the player look bad too because it makes the player look like they blew it off. it wasn't very, it wasn't important enough to them or that they're not very responsible. And that's on you because the player, according to you, wasn't told to call in. And I mean, this was the quality of the PR group for that organization for a long time.

But it's the same thing with the Giants. It's like, protect the player. Let the kid know, here are the numbers you can choose from. Here are the numbers that are not available to you. Rather than letting him now go public with two different numbers where he had to where he asked the player, and the player said no. It's just, it's kind of stupid. But anyway.

All right, what else? I got nothing else for you, bud. You better get going. It's 225. You're going to be late if you don't get moving right now. The game starts at 7. All right, bye, wise guy. All right, I'll talk to you on Thursday.

Thanks for doing this later than you wanted to do it. Okay, boss.