The Kevin Sheehan Show - "Football Team"

Episode Date: September 8, 2020

Kevin and Thom today on a multitude of topics. They talked about an NFL reporter's mocking of the Washington Football Team in a tweet. They discussed the end-game for Alex Smith now that he's made the 53-man roster. They discussed Nats' GM Mike Rizzo's new deal, Novak Djokovich's default at the US Open, and one of the worst coaching clock management errors you'll ever see. Some NBA playoffs too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You 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. A sports fix Tuesday, Tommy from beautiful Rojoboth Beach. That's where he is, not his normal fortress of solitude in rural Frederick, Maryland. But he's down at the beach again. He's gotten more vacation this summer than I have. I'm here in studio in beautiful Bethesda, Maryland. We are Tommy Labor. day plus one, which for sports means the beginning of high season for most cities and towns and fortresses of solitude in this country. I mean, you know how this goes. It'll be Halloween before we know it. Thanksgiving in a flash and not before too long, it'll be chestnuts roasting on an open fire with Jack Frost nipping at your nose. It always goes so quickly, but then again, I wonder how long it will go. I mean, that's the big question. as the NFL season starts on Thursday night, and then we've got a full slate of games on Sunday.

I love this time of year, but it's not a normal year. How are you this morning? I'm doing great down at the beach. Are you kidding me? We're probably coming back again in a couple of weeks. Why wouldn't you? Especially when it empties out, right? Yeah.

I mean, we've been very careful. Now, the beach actually, a first spoke beach day was yesterday we got here late sunday afternoon went to the green turtle sat outside on the upper deck had some drinks and some lunch and then walked the boardwalk boardwalk requires masks which i'm fine with i would have wore masks on the boardwalk anyway because it was pretty crowded the beach on on sunday was was wall-to-wall people we didn't go down to the beach on Sunday or Monday. Actually, we're staying at a place that has a nice pool and a sun deck.

So we went for a walk yesterday and then hung out at the pool. And today we're probably going to head for the beach because it's a lot emptier today. Yeah, I remember when the kids were really young before they were in school and we would do the beach in mid to late September. And it was just so pleasant to be down there that time of year without all the crowds. Even if some places had started to close up for the winter, not everything was fully opened, especially when you got into October. But I love the beach when there aren't people there. It's just so peaceful. And, you know, the beaches are very funny in terms of the way people view them. It's, you know, it's a very,

territorial thing, I think, with what your favorite beach place is. If you grew up going to the beach or, you know, if that was a summer vacation for you, I grew up going to the beaches of Delaware. You know, actually when I was much younger, Ocean City, and then Bethany was where we went every summer. My wife, however, grew up on the Jersey shore during the summers in beautiful spring lake, New Jersey, which is spectacular, north of where you typically vacation in, uh, and Wildwood. People get very, it's what,

I think it's what your preference is based on, your preference is based on what you grew up with. And it can be, my wife really never took to the Delaware beaches. Now, I do love the New Jersey beaches, especially where she was and her family was. I love that place.

I think the Jersey shore is awesome. But I do think that a lot of people are very, are very adamant. about what's the best place. I know a lot of people that just prefer the Carolina and the Virginia beaches, you know, on the East Coast. But you're in... You're right about tradition.

Yes. Tradition has a lot to do with it. And for us, we go to Wildwood. My wife's family, they've been going to Wildwood for over 100 years. Right. Her father, as a little boy, would go to Wildwood with his family.

We took our kids to Wildwood. when they were growing up, and now that generation has little babies that they're bringing with them to Wildwood. So it's a hundred-year tradition. And the beach of Wildwood, like I've told you before, and I don't think I really do it justice. You have no idea how wide the beach is in Wildwood. I mean, it's got to be three city blocks from the beginning of the beach to the water. I mean, so it was easy to social distance. You know, Rehobit has a small beach.

Right. The Delaware beaches are much tighter. The Jersey beaches, and I haven't been to Wildwood, but, you know, up in Spring Lake and Avon and Belmar, that area, which is where my in-laws all are. My brother-in-law lives up there as well. My father-in-law as well. Those beaches are huge, huge. Yeah. And we've grown to like Rehovitz a lot over the years.

Rojovith is awesome. So we really enjoy coming down. And you know what was interesting? I saw the plaque down an alley on one street that says, this is where radio personality, Kevin Sheehan, peed all over the wall and wound up getting arrested for it. You remember that story. Very good. You usually only remember your own stories, but yes, I was arrested at 18 years old for urinating in public right below the Rojoboth boardwalk with my good friends, Rob and Ted. Let's just say we were impacted by alcohol that particular night, and we could not find a bathroom. So we went right down below the boardwalk and relieved ourselves. And all I remember, Tommy, and it's so true.

Like, I mean, I've been arrested once, and that was it, okay? I don't think reckless driving, which I've gotten a couple times. I don't think that that's actually an arrest. But all we heard was police freeze. and we did the opposite. We took off running. And we sprinted down the boardwalk in Rehoboth, and we were being chased, and then we took it, you know, we took a right down one of those streets. And I swear to you, three cop cars pulled up, you know, lights flashing, sirens going, they jump out, and they tackled us.

And we ended up in the pack of police cars. and in a judge's courtroom at about 1.30 in the morning. And we called a friend of ours, Andy, Andy and Pete, Pete McMahon and Andy Truesdale, they were living together. They were lifeguards in Bethany. They were two of my best friends. And we called them to come down and get us. And of course, they came down, and they were just as hammered as we were when they walked into the courtroom.

And so the judge nearly found all of us in contempt and was threatening to make us spend the night there. But my good friends, they wrote a check, which is all really the Rojoboth Police Department wanted. They wanted a big old check for the baseball team's uniforms for the upcoming season or for the summer season. And we rolled. However, we were told, and I remember this, and I could have this wrong. I mean, that's a long time ago. But that public urination was a sex crime. And because of that, anybody, any person that was sexually harassed or raped or anything else,

that our mugshots would be on the list of mugshots that they would look at until we were 21 years old. I don't know if that's true. I don't know. I can't remember really the details of that, but I think one of my friends basically told me for several years that that was true. I don't know if that is or not. Who knows? But yeah, we got we, those were the, those were the 1980s shenanigans, Tommy, you know? Well, they've got a plaque down here with your name on it to commemorate the moment. Yeah, fortunately they don't. That is the truth, though, about beach memories and traditions, you know, when you're young and you're going on beach vacations with families and you remember the beach and you remember the boardwalk and you remember the parks and you remember the food, you know, all of that stuff.

Now, for many, you see, for one thing, what's interesting, and you're aware of this, in Maryland, and I'm guessing, D.C., they say you're going down the ocean. In New Jersey, you're going to the shore. Yeah, you're going to the shore. Yeah. No one says ocean or beach. Right. You're going down there's shore.

Right. But in Maryland, I know in particular, hey, we're going to the ocean. Yeah, when you're at the beach, what are you doing? I'm going to go down to the ocean. Yes, that's true. And in Jersey, it's 100% it's going down to the shore. Yeah.

I think Baltimore is going down to the shore, Han. I'm pretty sure that it might be a D.C. I think it's a D.C. thing on the ocean. Yeah. But, you know, when I was a kid, growing up in Brooklyn, we had the beach right there. I mean, Coney Island was a couple of bus stops away. So my memories of the beach are being in Coney Island,

Rockaway Beach, Reef Park, all the beaches in Brooklyn there. And when we went on vacation, we went to the mountains. We went to the Poconos. Right. On vacation, that's why we wound up moving there, because we went there on vacation every year. So the beach was a normal way of life for me. and, you know, growing up in Brooklyn, and a vacation was a mountain.

Yeah, my preference for vacation, like I'm talking about relaxing vacation, is definitely the beach more than the mountains. And we've done... I would agree. And we've done, you know, and I know people that prefer, like, around here as an example, to go to Deep Creek Lake, you know, which is two and a half hours away, and it's beautiful. and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law had a house there for many years that we used all the time, and it was great. And, you know, when you have boys like I did, and like you did, you do, three boys when they were young,

the truth of the matter is there was more for them to do when we went to the lake, you know, and there was boating and there was fishing and there was four-wheeling and all of that. And that was more fun for them, less relaxing for us. Whereas the beach I've always preferred. I mean, at some point, Tommy, I would love to be down at the beach for a significant portion of the year. Because, look, what we do, really, we could do from anywhere now. Well, you're right. And this is the plan for us.

You know, given that maybe next September, things go back to normal. We're planning on spending the whole month of September in Wildwood, New Jersey. Nice. I mean, there's some condos there that we've rented before that are reasonably priced, probably very reasonable in September, like two blocks from the beach. And if it was COVID-free, that's where we'd be the whole month this year. That's our plan to have extended stays at the beach. To pretend we're rich. At your age, you should start to, you know, you should start to, you should start to, you should start to, in. enjoy this sunset of your life. A little time I have left, right. I wanted to start with this because I didn't see this until I was on the show this morning.

And I saw it on the show, and it really actually angered me a little bit. I don't know if angered is the right word, but I found it to be a bit disrespectful to the Washington's football team. Albert Breer, who is a big-time NFL reporter for the NFL network, NFL.com, et cetera, right? That's who Albert Breer is with. Yeah, he does, actually, he does the Monday morning quarterback. That's right. Right, exactly. So he tweeted out yesterday, and somebody sent this to me, he tweeted out, per the NFL report,

the teams that head into week one with the most cap room, And then he lists the top 10 teams in the amount of cap space they have available. Number one are the Browns, $34.7,4 million in cap space. Number two are the Patriots. Number three of the Jets. Number four are the Jaguars. Number five, he just writes football team. Number six, the Broncos, number seven, the lions, number eight, the Eagles,

number nine, the dolphins, number ten, the Titans. Number five, football team. I am pretty sure I know who he's referring to. But I really, Tommy, when I saw that this morning, I thought it was a cheap shot. I thought it was unnecessary mocking and beneath somebody of Albert Breer's status as a legitimate NFL reporter, not just a blogger or somebody who lives on social media, a legitimate longtime NFL reporter. I don't think that football team is a serious attempt on his part to list the Washington football team. And people, you know, I retweeted it and I wrote, this is an unnecessary mocking and it's beneath you.

The city the football team plays in is Washington. Use that. It's not that hard. And some people, 90% of the people were totally behind me because they are Washington football fans. But some people pointed out, well, he was using the team nickname of all the teams, and the two words that come after Washington are football team. You know, Kevin. What?

Kevin. What? Didn't you see what I tweeted in response to your tweet? I didn't. Sorry. It's unbelievable. Well, what? It's like he live in this world of Kevin Sheehan.

You know? What do you mean? All the stars and planets that revolve around Kevin Sheehan are Kevin Sheehan's What are you talking about? How was I supposed to... I have 120 responses to this retweet. Am I supposed to go through all of them and find yours? Well, mine was the only one worth reading.

Well, tell me what you wrote. I pointed out. Actually know they play in Landover. Actually, no... You said they play in Washington. Oh, okay. Okay, Tommy. They don't.

They play in Landover. Okay, so the next time somebody writes the San Francisco 49ers, you can write, no, they play in Santa Clara. Or the New York Giants, you can say no, they play East Rutherford. Well, you know what? They all have names. Yeah, well, this team doesn't have a name. That's right. It doesn't have a name.

So use the city name, Washington. I would have preferred to use Landover. I would have preferred to use Landover than football team. You know, I find your anger about this so amusing. That I admire it in a way that you still have somewhere hovering down deep a sense of outrage. Yes, I do. You still have a level of pride and a sense of outrage. You know, because to be honest with you, I think they could call them the Washington pieces of shit,

and I don't think anybody would be able to blink. Well, if you went looking for your own response to my response, retweet, which is probably what you did. You can see that most of the responders don't agree with you. At least, though, see, I don't even see your response here. I'm scrolling down. I don't see your response.

Well, that's because I retweeted it with my comments on top. You would have to follow me. Oh, I do follow you, but I didn't click the retweets of this. But anyway, be serious.

Be serious. Okay, hold on. I'm going to answer what you just said because there's definite truth in it, okay? But answer this for me. Don't you think he was mocking the football team? I think he said, yeah, I think he was. Okay, good. And you know what?

I don't even, I don't think that's a crime. I didn't say it was a crime. I don't even think it was a misdemeanor. You know, he may get credited work for mocking the Washington football team. In fact, they're the most mockingness. franchise in the history of force. I'm not disputing that. I'm not disputing that. And, you know, for opinion makers, you know, to do that, that's one thing. He's actually an NFL reporter and an established one with a very good reputation of covering the league. And all I'm saying is I thought

that that was a bit beneath him. And I thought it was definitely an attempt to mock. And, you know, the, the root cause of the mocking, could be everything you just described, or it could be a heightened disgust with the team based on all of the sexual harassment stuff going on, or it could be just an absolute bewilderment that the team couldn't come up with a name after losing the other name before the season started, which I think is completely legitimate. I think people who are critical of that have never been through trying to trademark or secure domain names and rights, that it was best, for them not to act impulsively was actually a nice change. And the team, I don't like Washington

football team. You know what I would have preferred. Just Washington or FC Washington or Washington FC. But if they couldn't, you know, protect that in the interim, just branding Washington, which is really what they've tried to do. You know, you've seen they've tried to bring. You know, you've tried to brand Washington rather than Washington football team, which is obviously clunky and cumbersome. Somebody also sent me some snapshots of various news organizations sports websites that are publishing like the NFCE standings, Eagles, Giants, Cowboys, Football Team. So, I mean, I mean, seriously. They've earned it. They've earned it all.

Okay, they've earned it all from people who, you know, are opinion makers. You know, Albert Breer's a reporter. I think that was disrespectful. It was unnecessary. I don't know if it was unnecessary. It was unnecessary. I wouldn't have done it, and I have total contempt for them, and I wouldn't have even done it. Well, you would have come up with a better name.

I mean... No, I would have just called them Washington football. Yeah. that would have been it. You know, I mean, as far as not having a name, you know,

a good organization would have been prepared for this. Well, I know that. I mean, that goes without saying. I'm not disputing their, their complete and utter

ineptitude when it comes to anything. But here's what I am saying, that when, you know, SpiroDidis or Joe Buck are calling a game, they probably won't get the buck eight and crew this year. They're not going to say, they're not going to say first and

10 at the 27 for football team, for the football team. You know, they're not going to say touchdown football team. No, they're probably not. That's not going to happen. You know, they're going probably not. And like I said, I admire that you can still find something that moves you to anger. I do. You know, that's impressive. Well, so somebody else brought that up to me. me on the show this morning. And I am, look, the net of my feeling towards the football team is that this, you know, hideous owner has sucked the life out of it for me over the last 21 years, in particular the last few, the last several.

And that I'm not nearly as passionate as I used to be. But I do get defensive when I feel like others are. mocking it. And mocking by extension the fan base or what used to be the fan base and by extension me. Like I don't I don't need Albert Breer to completely and utterly be condescending and dismissive towards the entire. I understand why people can't stand them. I and I'm absolutely dumbfounded at those people that will say that they're still all. in and have never ever had any reservations about being all in and somehow actually excuse their behavior. Like, I don't get that either. I mean, you really, you're the biggest mark on the planet to have

been insulted for two decades plus and you're still going back to the trough with your mouth wide open and your hands, you know, holding it held out. Because at some point, you were actually the problem. You've contributed to this. Fortunately, enough people fled this embarrassment that he had to get rid of Bruce Allen. Finally, it took a while. You know, it took a hashtag Bruce Allen campaign. But yeah, it's fine to make fun of them because we're one of them. But when people from the outside take it to a level that I think is excessive,

yeah, I get a little defensive. Well, hang on to that, buddy. Don't lose that. What else do I have? I know. What else do we have? Yeah, exactly. Absolutely.

Well, you may have a good football team, although nobody seems to think so. Nobody seems to think so, Tommy. Nobody. The highest I've seen is 4 and 12. And, you know, this guy, Seth Walder or Walden or whatever his name is, the analytics guy at ESPN for football. I mean, I just love these guys. and he did 20,000 simulations of the NFL season. He's got a final score for every game.

And I'm sure it gets a lot of clicks and a lot of people. Oh, how did we do against the Cowboys in week seven? But seriously, there's nothing more ridiculous than putting any stock into those things. I've mentioned this many times in the past to you as well. The most difficult league sports league to predict, and it's not even close. The most difficult sports league to bet, and it's not even close, is the NFL. Like your Washington football team simulated 4 and 12 record on ESPN means nothing, especially during a damn pandemic.

I mean, there's a lot of reasons to be pessimistic, but it shouldn't be because all of the experts think that they're going to stink. that should never be the driving force. You should evaluate it yourself and understand that you really don't know either. I don't know either. Vegas doesn't even know when it comes to the NFL. It's so hard. You're right about all that.

You're right about all that. The problem is, for the past three years maybe, those experts have predicted these kind of records for the Washington football team where locally, people would say, how can they be doing that? Don't they see the talent? And they've been right. They've been proven right at least in the last two to three years. True.

So I agree with you. I agree with you. I mean, how anyone can actually predict anything in this year of all years, you know, I don't think they're going to win only four games. I think they'll win a minimum of six. You know, I think they're going to be better than that. You know, one of the one of the things people aren't talking about is the switch to the four-tree defense and how that's going to impact them when all your strength is up front.

I have some optimism about this being a much better year than people think. Again, we have to have this conversation, you know, assuming that the pandemic's not going to shut down the season or make the season so competitively unbalanced that you really can't make anything of it. I mean, assuming 16 games with relative health and not having every single good player in your team out for four weeks because they were infected, this team is better. I'm going to place an overwager on their five and a half win total. I'm not like expecting a lot of wins over the total, but I think that they're going to be better, coached. You know, there's a big leap there, the leap of faith that, you know, Ron Rivera's first

year as the coach isn't going to be impacted by his fight against cancer. I mean, and if that's the case, obviously he's got to do what he's got to do and everybody wants him to be healthy. But, you know, from the day they hired him, I'm like, wow, they got a legitimate coach. And then the staff is legitimate, especially on the defensive side of the ball. And then the big wild card, by far and away, the big wild card is Chase Young. It's not Dwayne Haskins. That's a long-term wild card. That is, are you going to have sustained success?

Well, you've got to look at the quarterback and we don't know. But in terms of a big jump forward this year, from three wins to say eight wins, which in this expanded playoff format first season of seven teams in each conference, could put them in contention after Thanksgiving. for a playoff birth, Chase Young could be the difference in that in one player. If he is what Nick Bosa was to the 49ers, or better, and Tommy, it's one of those things. We're going to see on Sunday. We're going to see that speed.

We're going to see how difficult it is to block a guy like Chase Young on third and nine. We're going to see if the Eagles believe him to be what everyone else believes him to be by how they game plan against him. if he ends up being that kind of a difference maker, even if pain and Alan and ionitis and sweat aren't exactly what we think they are, which is, you know, real talented guys, he could elevate everything. And he could put them in games that they weren't in last year.

He could give them chances. I think they'll be well coached defensively for the first time since Greg Williams was here. I mean, think about that. They have not had good defensive coaching. I don't think Haslett was terrible. Let me say that. I don't think Greg Blasch was terrible either. But they really haven't had a top flight defensive staff since 2007.

2007. So Chase Young's this wild card that could make this, you know, a significantly different season than the last year. I think that that's true. I'm not, you know, I'm going to wager on over five and a half. I wouldn't wager on more than eight. but if they won eight, I don't think it would shock me. I think a wage over five and a half is good. I mean, like I said, I think if they're average offensively or even below average to some extent,

I still think their defense is going to be really good. And I think the coaching has a lot to do with it. I mean, the coaching is a significant upgrade over what it's been here in the past. and I think switching to the four-three defense is going to have an impact on them defensively. They'll have more of their top talent out there on the field regularly. And you're right about Chase Young. I mean, you know, the two most important positions on the field are the quarterback and the guy who goes to get the quarterback.

And this guy that goes to get the quarterback could be a true special, like, game-changing kind of player. You know, they haven't had someone with his upside in a long time, probably since Sean Taylor. I mean, someone was asking me over the weekend, and I talked about this on the show, they're like, well, you thought really highly of Montez Sweat. I did, and I do. But it's not in the same category as Chase Young in terms of college players. Montez Sweat, to me, was an obvious first-round pick as a college player.

at Mississippi State watching him. Chase Young is an obvious number one overall pick when you watch him, like a once in every five to ten years kind of a talent. They haven't had anything like that in a long time. So that's a major, you know, what if Chase Young is what people think Chase Young is? Well, that changes your team overnight. changes your team. And you only have to go back to a year ago to the 49ers team

and what Nick Bosa as a massive talent. And by the way, most people think Chase Young's a cut above Nick Bosa. But to go back to that team last year and to see the difference in that team with Nick Bosa on it from the year before. Now, they had a starting quarterback last year who wasn't hurt, so it was a little bit different. But to see what he did to players like D. Ford and Buckingham, and Armstead and Warner, you know, and what those guys who were already thought to be pretty

talented, Tommy, and then all the sudden with the presence of a true elite player, they, they were elevated. And that could happen with guys like Allen and Ionitis and pain and sweat and, you know, and Ryan Anderson and others. It'll be up front. I mean, it could. And so that's in play. Doesn't mean it's going to happen. And I don't want to be the guy, as you described. I don't want to be the fan because I haven't been recently in recent years that says, oh, everybody's wrong. This team's much better than that.

I haven't necessarily fallen into that trap. But I do think this year there's a good chance that they're going to be wrong on certainly the five and a half. I think it'll be an improved team. If you, you know, taking into consideration the given in the equation, the given in the equation, the assumption in the equation, which is you have a somewhat normal NFL season, which is a big if. I agree with a lot of what you said. The question that hangs over this team is the aura of self-destruction. The question being, what can go wrong?

Did you see this story? What could possibly go wrong? You know, we were listing all of the things that were going on with the team off the field, from the arbitration to the Beth Wilkinson investigation, to the smear campaign lawsuit, to the, you know, to the discoveries in, uh, motions in, in Virginia and in California. Um, did you see the, this story on Snyder, uh, on Friday from the post, um, about, uh, the, the Deborah Katz, Lisa Banks, um, uh, group, um, that's representing some of these women, including Mary Ellen Blair.

essentially said that the NFL told Snyder to back off from using private investigators. Now, Snyder's attorney, that guy that you described as a heavyweight, Joe Tacopina, said that that's bullshit. This was in a hearing in a Virginia court on Friday, Tommy. There was a hearing there where Snyder's attorneys are trying to compel this Mary Ellen Blair, this executive assistant to Snyder from 2013 to 2017, they want to get into what her ties to Dwayne Schar and the potential smear campaign are. And the court actually did rule in favor of Snyder's motion for discovery in the case on Friday. But what got revealed at least by her attorneys

is that the NFL's told Mr. Snyder to back off. He's using private investigators to rattle the cages of the people in this smear campaign lawsuit, and according to the other Mary Ellen Blair's attorneys, even some of the women in this sexual harassment stuff. But Snyder's attorney said, nope, it's private investigators being used for the smear campaign stuff, the lawsuit against the India-based company. I don't know what to believe.

You know, what's funny. Did you see what I tweeted out when that news came out? No, of course not because you don't pay attention to anything I do. I'm not on Twitter like you are. Sorry. Go ahead. Okay. I tweeted out a picture of Rockford, and I said,

Hey, Dan Snyder, $200 a day plus expensive. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, with that first $200, he's going to go get some tacos there down by the shore, all right, in L.A. And then he's going to go back, and Rocky's going to be in his trailer waiting for. him. Beth,

Davenport, you know, his good friend, he'll need her at some point in this, in this, what was the,

why am I blanking on the police detectives? Dennis. Dennis, Dennis Becker. Yeah. Dennis Becker.

And then, of course, there's the guy who would have qualified to be a front office executive for this team, Angel Martin. Angel was great. What a sketchy character,

Angel was. But you're right, he would have fit in perfectly with Bruce and Dan over the last couple of years. Absolutely. You know, as different... I was going to say, as different as we are, thankfully. We do have a lot of the same favorite shows.

And Rockford Files, you know for me, and I know for you, it was my favorite show when I was a kid on NBC on Friday nights. I loved James Garner playing Jim Rockford. Well, I'm thinking that since we have the same cable company, you have access to the NBC streaming channel, Peacock. Yes. Okay? Okay.

Well, Peacock has all the Rockford File episodes, every single one. How long did the show run, Tommy? Five, six years, something like that? Six years. Okay. Six years it ran. And Peacock has them all. I've been watching them.

That's awesome. By the way, I'm also watching, just to drive off the track. I'm also watching a mini-series that you might like, maybe you've watched it before, on Amazon called Sneaky Pete. Oh, my God, I've heard so much about that. It's right up your alley. So many people say that it's awesome. Yeah.

It was on for three years. We're in the first season still. But it's something you would love. How did we get to this? So you might want to give that a try. Oh, we get. Well, we're rocker. Right, right.

and private investment. $200 a day plus expenses, exactly. Right. So the woman who was executive assistant to Snyder for four years, I wonder if she could make a defense and plead guilty to all this. But say, look, I had to work for this guy for four years. I mean, you must understand the shit I had to eat for four. for four years being his executive assistant.

I mean, the person he probably turned to every time he was pissed off about something. I mean, I wonder if that's a legitimate defense. If she could say, yeah, I did all this, but come on, Judge. I'm only a human being. I don't think. Who could work for this guy for four years? I don't think that Neil and Rockville, the attorney of choice for this program, would say that that would be a defense.

Oh, Neil, Neil, Neil, Neil can't be. objective. Let's face it. Well, you know, one other thing, as long as we're in that area. So, obviously, I don't know whether or not it's true. Her attorneys say

that the NFL's told Snyder to back off using private investigators. His attorney says they haven't. Whatever. The other thing from this weekend, as it relates to the owner, was this Washington football culture, you know, one hour outside the lines on ESPN hosted by Jeremy Shapp.

I mean, I'll save the suspense for any of you. There's nothing new in this show. Nothing new. It's a complete... I was surprised that they did that the ESPN went down this road. I don't see the benefit of it. I'm glad you said that. Now, I mean, I guess there's some power and benefit and seeing faces and voices of the people that were quoted in the post stories.

But in terms of anything truly different or new or, you know, moving the story first, along, it's, it's, that, that didn't happen. It was basically a ripoff of the two post stories, except it was, you know, one hour television, uh, thing. Um, you know, there were more, you know, you can put tone to the, to the, to the, to the, to the quotes in the post with some of the women like Alicia Klein and Tiffany Scorby and, um, uh, some of the others that were, or on the show, like, you know, one of the things that stood out to me is just the description from Tiffany Scorby in particular about what you're told, which we read about, you know, the paperclip thing wasn't in there. But, you know, Mr. Snyder, don't look him in the eye.

If he's walking down the hall, you've got to turn and walk the other way. You know, there is, look, I mean, come on, people. I mean, I know everybody has some experience with bad bosses and have been in businesses with some out-of-control egos. But it doesn't make it right. you know, treating, you know, people poorly, which has been a reputation that he has carried for years. You know, take this sexual harassment thing, put it to the side for a moment as it relates to him. I mean, 40 plus women coming forward with claims about the organization personally, I'd lean that it happened. I mean, with 40 plus women.

But specific to him, you can put that stuff to the side and say he said, she said. but the stuff about how he treated people and the ego is it's off-putting, you know, totally off-putting. Tommy, I mean, this was sort of the way I was raised. You know, treat superstars like normal people, normal people like superstars. He's not that person. He treats superstars like beyond superstars and normal people as less than normal and beneath him. And, you know, that is, you know, there's a massive insecurity in there. There's obviously the Napoleonic thing going on there.

There's a lot at work there. That's the one thing that when you hear it described rather than just written, I would have loved the paper clips in order to be part of that. You know, you, and we've heard these stories over the years. We've heard these stories. With that said, I want to be clear about this. He owned Red Zebra. I say he owned.

He was the majority shareholder. and equity holder in a company called Red Zebra that owned the radio station that I worked for for 12 to 13 years. Not once, to my knowledge, was anybody at the radio station? We were not employees of the team. Okay, we weren't working in that building. But not once was anybody told, you must call him Mr. Snyder. You cannot look him in the eye when he's walking towards you. You have to turn around and walk the day.

I never heard any of that in terms of specific to us. but we did hear the stories from the people that worked out there over the years. And, you know, sometimes you have to witness it firsthand, but I believe that stuff to be true. Anyway, there was nothing, nothing revealing to me in that one-hour show at all. No, and like I said, when we discussed it in the last podcast, ESPN doesn't usually go after NFL owners. There's no upside in it for them.

They're partners with the NFL. It's frowned upon on the corporate side. And that has an impact on what ESPN does. And if you believe that, then, you know, the fact that ESPN would broadcast this thing about Snyder without any particular new information makes it seem to me like Snyder, very vulnerable as an NFL owner, as a status as an NFL owner right now, that they would feel empowered to do that.

I hear what you're saying. I actually wonder whether or not this desperate attempt, and I don't even know if it's desperate, it could be just an angry attempt or just an attempt to clear his name. With all of the stuff about Dwight Schar and the smear campaign that led up to the first post story, which now, you know, has gone public. obviously over the last three weeks to a month now. We've been talking about the smear campaign against him, the lawsuit against the India Company,

the two filings for motions for discovery in two different courts. I wonder if this is him desperate to say, I had my own minority owners coming after me. I mean, what is going on to, I don't know, It's a digging his heels in situation right now, but it also could be an indication that he really feels threatened for the first time. Yeah, but I think the threats are more that are more worrisome for him coming from Park Avenue in the NFL headquarters than his minority owners. I mean, minority owners are just that. My minority owners.

I mean, it gives them a seat on Sunday in the suite to impress their friends, but they have no power. Zero power. All right. We will save our season predictions for Washington's football team for the Thursday show. Does that sound good, Tommy? You'll have a prediction. I'll have a prediction. We'll save it for Thursday's show and do it then.

No power rankings. We are going to do power rankings, not this Thursday, but next week we will start our power rankings just so that you get annoyed with the power rankings. Quick word about Roman. Talking about erectile dysfunction, guys, is not easy. Usually we just brush it off or blame ourselves saying things like, I lost my mojo. Or we avoid it all together with excuses like I had a long day at work. Or, sorry, honey, I'm just not feeling it.

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Get roman.com slash Kevin D.C. One last thing, Tommy, Washington football team related. They cut down to 53 on Saturday. And I just wanted to give, you know, 30 seconds of thoughts on the final roster. I think the big surprises of the summer were, you know, in the way they played out last week. Adrian Peterson being released. He got picked up by Detroit, by the way. Alex Smith making the 53-man roster, which we'll get to here in a moment.

And Troy Apkey, you know, beating out Sean. Davis to the point where Sean Davis, who got signed with $2 million and guaranteed money, got released by the team. He got picked up immediately by the Steelers, his former team. But, you know, other than that, I think, you know, there weren't a lot of surprises. I think it's going to be interesting to see who is the significant contributing group when they start to play games. I think we have an idea of that. All of their draft choices made the team. They all made the final roster, all, every single draft choice for them. Chase Young, Antonio Gibson, Sadiq Charles, Antonio Gandy Golden, Keith Ishmael,

Kalee Cudson, Cameron Curl, who made it as a safety out of Arkansas when they released Sean Davis. And James Smith Williams, who was their second of two seventh round picks, a pass rusher from North Carolina State. I remember on draft, the shows following the draft, people were saying, this guy can really rush the passer. But he made the team at the most loaded of positions. But the biggest story of all of it was Alex Smith, making the 53 man final roster, not going on injured reserve, as Ruben Foster did, which means his season is over. He will not play in 2020. But Alex Smith making the roster. And, you know, Ron Rivera admitting that he got some 11-on-11 work with people, you know, flying around at the bottom. I mean, he's wearing the yellow

jersey. But, you know, that story continues to be an amazing one, Tommy. what do you make of that? What are they trying to do? I don't know. I don't know what the end game is here. I don't know who's behind this. I don't know if they're legitimate. I mean, the only way to really know is if Dwayne gets hurt in week one,

and in week two, they've got to have a backup to Kyle Allen. Is Alex Smith going to legitimately be the backup? or they're going to, you know, call up Montez, the quarterback from Colorado, who's on the practice squad to back up Kyle Allen. I don't know if we're ever going to find out this year what the end game is, because the goal, obviously, is for Dwayne to be upright and play all 16 games. And I think Kyle Allen's the backup. I don't think they specifically said that.

I don't know. What do you think it is? I don't know. I don't know what it is. It can't be part of this ceremonial Alex Smith, you know, comeback thing. You don't give a roster spot. I mean, an NFL coach would rather two broken glass

than do that. So, I mean, I think they think he can I think, look, the sight of him playing in an NFL game just horrifies me. But if he's physically able to play, I still think he's a good quarterback.

So, and the thing about Dwayne, he wasn't, I mean, he may be different playing this year. He probably is. Last year, he was a little bit fragile back there. I don't know. Fradual would. You know, he bowed out of a couple of games. Oh, you're talking about the injury stuff. Yeah. Fragile's not a word that comes to mind. I think they were trying to be, they were taking precautions. The ankle? In games that didn't matter. Yeah, the ankle. Yeah, I mean, I think that was them?

I don't know. Well, I mean, he said it was Dan. He's allowed to call him Dan. Yeah, that's right. I think he showed that he may not be durable unless all the offseason work changed that. I don't think that Alex Smith is going to play football again in a real football game, taking real snaps as a starter or even as a backup. I don't. So what do you base that on? I base that on Project 11 and looking at a leg that didn't resemble a leg.

in understanding and learning that he nearly died, in understanding and learning that the recommendations were amputation. And I just don't know, and reading about Dropfoot, about him suffering from Dropfoot right now. I just don't, I mean, maybe it's just part of me thinking, I don't want him to do it. I don't know why he'd want to do it. I understand the work to get back to the point,

where you could say that you could do it, and it's an inspiration to your kids, and it's an inspiration to those military guys that you spent time with in San Antonio. I just don't think he's ever going to... And Tommy, beyond that, I've said this before to you, and I think you agree,

this shouldn't be the organization that he does it for. If he's going to go out... I agree. And if he's going to go out there, and he really wants to play again, and he gets himself back physically to where he can play, and play well because who's going to take a chance on 36 going on 37, you know, if he can't really do it. And the last time we saw him, he was very mediocre, you know, and that was at 34 years old. So I don't think this is the franchise that can afford another significant injury to this person.

So why are they keeping him on the active roster? on the active roster, I don't know. He counts what he's going to count for, cap-wise regardless. They're paying. Right. You know. I also think they don't mind having him around Dwayne

and Kyle Allen as well, you know, because he is. I mean, we know what Patrick Mahomes said about him, that he was the biggest influence. He was such a great mentor. So to have him around the building and have him around these young quarterbacks, I think, will be helpful. That's a heavy price to pay for a teacher, a roster spot.

I agree, which is why I'm sort of surprised that they didn't IR him. Or have him make the roster and then IRM, which means he could come back. You know, the IR prior to the 53-man cutdown means you're done for the year. That's where Ruben Foster ended up. If you, you know, once you get down to 53, if he then goes on IR, say this week, you have the ability to pull him off at some point. and that keeps him in the building, working with the young quarterbacks, and maybe that will happen. Tommy, the only way we are going to know is if they're down to their third quarterback or they're down to their second quarterback,

and he's now the legitimate backup on game day. I don't know who asked him the question after Ron Rivera was going on and on about Alex and, you know, why he was on the roster and how he had progressed. and him continuing to take one step beyond where they even thought. And the very last person to ask the question in the press conference, it may have been Barry's Verluga, said, so let me understand, I'm paraphrasing here, let me understand.

If he had to play Sunday against the Eagles, you're telling us that he could play Sunday against the Eagles, which, by the way, is the right question. Like, let's get, let's jump to, let's get to the point here. Like if he's got to play Philadelphia Sunday, Willie played and Ron just said, yeah, yeah, it was not convincing at all, if you heard it.

The Redskins, not that they care. I mean, it's just one more log on the fire for the football team. But if they get down to their third quarterback and they bring in somebody from the practice squad to be a starter and Alex Smith is not the starter, then they'll get crucified for this dog and pony show of wasting a roster. I didn't even think. On a guy who's never going to play.

I didn't even think about it from that perspective. I just thought about, well, we'll know. But you're right. If, let's just say, Dwayne got hurt against the Eagles, and Kyle Allen came in, and Alex was inactive, so he's the inactive quarterback on Sunday. and Kyle Allen comes in and Kyle Allen plays. And then next week at Arizona,

Kyle Allen's a starter because Dwayne's still down and they bring up Stephen Montez from the practice squad to be the backup and they make Alex inactive again. Well, then it's a bit of a fraud. Yeah. Well, actually, that's not true. They could very easily explain, look, we couldn't cut Alex and bring him back to the practice squad.

He's not eligible for the practice squad. So, you know, Stephen Montez was. So there would be an explanation. The bigger explanation would be if two quarterbacks go down and they bring in two new quarterbacks, one to start and one to back up. And by the way, both of them are veterans. Well, then you would know. And I guess there would be a little bit of a backlash to that.

Well, there should be. I mean, this team should not be in the hero-worshipping business. Grant, look, I'm sorry to sound so mean, but particularly Ron Rivera, a coach who wasn't even here last year. Right. You know, this whole thing about proving a point, Alice Smith has proved his point. Yeah, agreed. He's proved it.

I mean, you really have to risk being crippled to prove your point? I mean, come on. It's ridiculous. I agree with that. I also, you know, I said this before, not to sound, you know, uncaring or callous about this. But, you know, it's really time to move on here, you know. And I know that you got to pay him and you can continue to cheer him on and cheer this story on.

And you can even have him in your building and he can be a part of it. But, yeah, we're talking about now football and they have tied up a roster spot with Alex Smith. So if it became perfectly clear two, three weeks into the season, that they never had any intention of him playing, well, yeah, I mean, I don't think that that would have been football number one before anything else. I just, it's hard for me to fathom them putting him on the field to play. It always has been, even though I contended that if he was considered able to play that I thought he would beat out Dwayne Haskins. It's clear there was no real competition. I mean, Dwayne Haskins' competition was against himself.

Yeah, of course. Yeah. Okay. And by the way, that's promising to me, because I do think that Ron certainly had the ability had he looked at Dwayne, talked to Dwayne, met with Dwayne, watched Dwayne to say, uh-uh, it's not going to have this dude. He's not the guy. Now, again... Yeah, I think you're right. Well, again, I mean, the other point to the counterpoint to that would be, well, what are his other choices? Well, his other choices were to draft somebody or to sign somebody in free agency. They did trade for Kyle Allen, and he could have started Kyle Allen. Kyle Allen started a bunch of games for him last year.

A bunch of games for him last year. So it could have been that. It could have been that. All right. There are other things that I want to touch on real quickly. Right after real quickly, I tell you about my bookie, because listen to this opportunity. The NFL season opens Thursday night. How would you like to have the Kansas City Chiefs plus 54 points?

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By the way, they're going to double your first deposit also on this. It's a no-brainer, but bet the chiefs plus $54 for $50. I'm even going to do that. That's at mybooky.org. It's an absolute lock. I was thinking about this promotion when I read it. It's a hell of a promotion. Now, just to be really clear, you can't just, you know,

log on and put in all your information and sign up and bet 50 bucks on the Chiefs Thursday night plus 54, and then close your account down on Friday. You can't do that. You have to wager for a certain period of time. There will be rules about it, which, by the way, tells you that my bookie's pretty confident, Tommy, about getting that money back eventually. But that's betting. And you never get this kind of opportunity in betting to take a Super Bowl champion plus 54.

Go to my bookie.orgie.orgie.orgie and use my promo code, Kevin D.C. Did you see what happened to Novak Djokovic on Sunday? Yes, I did. I mean, not live, but I've seen it. What did you think of it? Well, look, I don't know anything about tennis, but I saw repeatedly one expert after another saying that they had no choice but to do that. Right.

That, you know, that was part of the game, part of the rules. That they had to eject them from the tournament. and he seemed to accept that, didn't he? Yes. Yes, he did. So what's the big deal? The big deal is it's stupid. For those that missed it, you can just Google Novak Djokovic being defaulted from the U.S. Open.

Let me just mention one thing. Novak Djokovic, Tommy, was the top seed. He was going for Grand Slam number 18, I think it is at this point, 18 or 19. You know, this has been the – I know no one watches tennis. anymore in the U.S. it's a much more popular sport, much more popular in Europe and South America, the rest of the world, Australia,

than it is... Canada is still a popular sport. Yeah, it just isn't what it used to be in the U.S., which, you know, there was a period of time in the 70s, the 80s, even through the 90s where tennis was a massively popular sport in this country. Oh my God, you could... They were building courts left and right over the place, and they were always filled. You couldn't get on a court.

even after the public tennis craze, you know, in courts being packed and waiting to get onto a court to play tennis, watching tennis was popular through the, you know, through the Andre Agassi era, Pete Sampras era, and even, you know, even beyond that in more recent years. But this has been the golden era of tennis, which the U.S. has not participated in. You know, the top three all-time Grand Slam men's winners are Roger Federer with 20 grand slams, Raphael Nadal with 19, and Novak Djokovic was 17. I mean, this is, even though the U.S. hasn't really watched it or had players participate in it, it has been the golden age of men's tennis. I wouldn't say it's been the golden age of women's tennis,

even though you've got arguably the greatest women's player in the history of the sport. and Serena Williams. The Everett-Navertolova era was, you know, followed by, you know, Steffi Groff, who came on. That was the golden era of women's tennis. But Federer Nadal Djokovic, one, two, three in Grand Slam men's titles. Well, Djokovic has got 17. Tommy, before he got ejected on Sunday, he was such a prohibitive favorite to win the U.S. Open with no Federer, no, no, Nadal. Nadal is not there either. It's a slim downfield because of COVID-19. that the over-under on the number of sets he would lose for the rest of the tournament before his Sunday match was one and a half. He was in the round of 16, so that's round of 16, quarterfiners, semifinals and finals.

He had four matches left to play to win it. The over-under on the number of sets that he would lose the rest of the way was one and a half. Not matches, sets. That's how big of a favorite he was to win this. Now, if you haven't seen what he did, he slapped a ball back in the direction of a lineswoman, not angrily, not aggressively. He hit it back with his racket, and it hit her in the throat. And she went down like she got shot. She went down like a ton of bricks.

And by the way, I know when you get hit in that Adam's apple throat by something, there is that sense of, you know, you can't breathe, you can't, you're choking, whatever it is. It's not a comfortable feeling. but she lived. She didn't have to be hospitalized or anything else. They threw them out of the tournament. It is a rule that you're not allowed to take a ball and put it in an area or slap it in an area outside of a point going on that puts anybody in danger. It was totally accidental. It was totally unintended.

I just don't think that I think you got to fix that. You can't. You can find them. You can point penalty. you know, game penalty him. He can't toss him out of the tournament for that. He didn't berate her. He didn't stand over, pointing at her, and then slap a ball in the direction of her.

She just was an innocent bystander to a very incidental, you know, I'm slapping the ball back in your direction. A, wasn't happy with the result of the point, but it wasn't aggressive or angry. I just don't get it. You don't have a lot of thoughts on this. Let me just get... No, I got one thought. Okay.

I've only covered tennis when they've had the tournament in D.C. And usually at the paper, the low man on the totem pole wound up covering that tennis tournament. Okay. And, you know, when I first got there, being low man on the seniority chain, I had to cover the tournament. and sit up in that God-versaken press box and walk up and down those stairs. I did it many times. Yeah. But actually, the only other tennis, professional tennis tournament I've ever been to

was in 1992 in Las Vegas in November. Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova played a battle of the sexist set. It was the same weekend as Bowdofiel-Wil-1. Oh, really? It was a Friday night at Sears in the outdoor stadium at Sears, and I got free passes to go. I didn't have to write about it or anything. That's the only tennis tournament I've ever seen in person besides the one in D.C.

And Connors easily won, I think. And actually in a book that came out a few years ago, he said he bet a million dollars on himself that he would beat her in the tournament. Yeah. Yeah. Other than that, I really don't have any interest in tennis. I remember texting you once when I was listening to your show on the way in years ago, and you were talking about Tennics, and I think I TNexed you. I said, you really got nothing to talk about this morning. Well, you know. But we used to joke about that all the time.

Yeah. Well, you know that I love, I was a huge tennis fan. I'm not anymore. I mean, I haven't watched really any of this. So one of the, one last thing on this thing. You know, the Jokovic is the guy that basically, you know, thumbed his nose at various countries, including the U.S., and their handling of COVID-19, then held a party and everybody got COVID-19, including him. You know, he's an anti-vaccine guy.

You know, he's a bit, he's a bit nuts, but I didn't think that. this warranted an ejection at all. And, you know, right now, the Derby, the U.S. Open, you know, all of these events that are going on as the NBA playoffs and the NHL playoffs and football starting back up and all this, I mean, they need every, you know, hook they can get to get anybody to pay attention to it. And Djokovic is the only big name on the men's side in the draw. I just thought it was, oh, this is what I wanted to say. Somebody tweeted, this out, and it was pretty funny. In golf, basically, the player would be forced to take the glove off, sign it, and hand it to the person, which is true. I mean, and getting hit by a golf ball is a

hell of a lot more dangerous than getting hit by a tennis ball. Like, if a marshal at a golf tournament got hit in the back of the leg, I got hit in the front of the leg by Jason Day at the Masters a few years ago. But the player would come up, take his glove off, sign it, and then be on a away. And at the U.S. Open, they tossed the guy. It just doesn't seem very proportional, the punishment to the crime, which wouldn't even describe this crime. You mentioned the Kentucky Derby. I barely knew it was going on. Did you? I watched it. Really, it's one of my friendly, most favorite event. I know it is. I barely knew it was going on. The massive favorite Tis the Law, I think it was, got beat by an eight to one.

horse authentic, I think. I flipped it on literally as they were loading the horses into the gate. That's when I flipped it on and I watched it. Partly because my son had a wager on

some 43 to 1 long shot and he's like, turn it on, it's about to go. So we turned it on. That was the only reason I even knew it. By the way, that 43 to 1 long shot came in 30. The horse showed. And I had to explain to him, don't bet, you know, a 43-1 to one to win.

Bet it to show you would have made some money. Absolutely. But, uh... And when you bet to try and you box it, that's where the money is. Yeah, a little trifecta. Little trifecta box. You and I should go to the track together. Have we...

No, no, that wasn't you. It was with Rigo that we did... We went to... You went with us to the dog track in Florida. I did. We did that. We did that. We went to the dog track.

to see the Greyhounds run. Everybody knew you by first name when we walked in. In Hollywood Park, yeah. But, no, we've never been to the horse track. You know, I mean, I go to Charlestown now, although I haven't been lately, because it's so close in Frederick. And I really like the way that he run things in Charlestown.

But a couple years ago, it might have been about five years ago, I put a $6 trifecta bet on the derby, and I won $1,700. I think you've told me that story before, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I've won my trifects bet on the derby a few times over the years. You know, when I was in college in particular, I went to the track a lot.

I was at Laurel too much. It was, you know, a Friday afternoon at Laurel and then into the car and a drive up to Atlantic City. That was my friend group. We were troubled for sure. Let's take a break. And I've had the good fortune of covering three derbies in my time. I'm glad I was covered at least one. I covered three of them, including the Smarty Jones Derby, which was one of my favorites.

Was Smarty Jones a Triple Crown winner? No, Smarty Jones. Everyone wanted him to be the Triple Crown winner. He was a big, lovable horse that people loved got a lot of publicity. He would have been a great Triple Crown winner. he got beat in the Belmont by a nose, I think, by I think Birdstone, a horse run by Edgar Prado, Maryland jockey named Edgar Prado, beat him right. Edgar Prado felt so bad after the Belmont that he apologized for winning

because so many people wanted Sparty Jones who win that race. Interesting. I don't remember, like, I mean, when it comes to that sport, I mean, what was the, I can't even remember the recent Triple Crown winner. I forget. But it was only, it was only two years ago, right? Yeah, yeah, it was very, yeah, very, I mean, I remember, I remember Seattle Slu, right? And Affirmed.

And Affirmed, yeah. Right, and Secretariat, obviously. I mean, I don't remember watching it. I do remember watching Affirmed in Seattle Slew in the late 70s. who was the Triple Crown winner just a couple of years ago? You're of course going to be like, oh my God. Oh, there have been two of them? Justify and American Pharaoh?

Yes, there have been two of them. Two of them, after so long of not having any. Yeah, Justify in 2018, American Pharaoh in 2015, and the one before that was affirmed in 1978. So there were 37 years in between Triple Crown winners. Wow. Yeah, the absence made it a bigger story. True.

True, because in the 1970s, there were three of them. None in the 80s, none in the 90s, none in the aughts, and then you had two in the 20 teens. Stand by for a word from one of our sponsors. All right, Tommy. The Nats have actually won three. three of four, which, you know, is encouraging Max Scherzer pitched last night. They had a weird lineup last night when they beat the race. The race have the best record in the National League,

in the American League, excuse me, and the Nats beat them. They won three of four, which is pretty good. But the big news from over the weekend was that the Nats, or at least it was reported, the Nats have signed Mike Rizzo to a three-year contract extension. Boy, it took a while. And I know there was a pandemic. I don't really understand the process by which learners, you know, negotiate and handle contracts with GMs and managers. But I'm happy for him if it's the money that he wanted and the deal that he wanted. I hope it was because he's the best general manager in this city by far.

Yeah. He's one of the best general managers in the game. But still, the learners, they're still, they're still so short-sighted. It was a three-year extension, you know? I mean, the Giants, when they signed their GM last year, they signed them to a five-year deal. You know, most teams, the Toronto GM, a couple years ago, was extended to four years, a four-year deal. A three-year extension is still, I mean, Rizzo should be getting a five-year extension and should be paid among the top two or three general managers in baseball.

I don't know what the terms of the payments are for him, but the years, it's still sort of an insult, and it still shows. What about the money? What about the money? The last deal he had was at $4 million a year. Let's say it's up to $5 million a year. Where does that rate him? Where does that put him in terms of GM salaries? If that's what it is. I'd have to check. I mean, you know, I mean, obviously, what's his name in Chicago? Theo, I mean, makes a lot more than everybody. But I'd have to see what other GMs are making at this point in order to give you a handle on that. There had to be some interest from other teams in Mike Rizzo, given what he's done here. and maybe for even more money than he signed with.

I mean, you would be able to tell me whether or not that's true. I do have this sense maybe from you that he really does like living here. Yes, he does, likes it a lot. Plus, he likes what he's built. Yes. You know? I mean, not that he doesn't recognize the challenge of being able to do it again with another organization, but he does like living in Washington.

and he does like the legacy that he himself is pretty much created here. I mean, he knows what life would be like for Washington baseball and the learners if Mike Rizzo wasn't his GM. Nobody knows better than him. Right. All right, well, I mean, this is... Now they still have to do Davey Martinez. Yeah, right. His deal is up at the end of this year.

there's a club option to pick up 2021, but he needs an extension. Well, I mean, he does, but so did Barry Trots after winning a little thing they call the Stanley Cup. I mean, Dave Martinez should be fine. They're not letting him go anywhere, right? Unless his demands get crazy. But, you know, there's a way to show people that they're wanted, and it's a way to show people that, you know, if we could get away with paying you, With Nichols, we would.

Right. There's a lot of businesses that operate that way. Yeah. May I take a moment just to talk about the NBA for a second? Well, you know what? It's your podcast, so I'll give you permission. I've already mentioned that the games have been really terrific. The game last night between the Clippers and Nuggets was really, really good.

Really intense. The intensity is, I think, the most surprising thing to me, especially considering that, you know, it was just two weeks ago. where teams and players were talking about, you know, ending the season to bring attention to what happened to Kenosha. You know, the Clippers and the Lakers apparently were ready to walk from the Orlando bubble. It's not what you're seeing in these games. You're seeing tremendous intensity. I mean, real playoff feel to these games, desperation to these games. I've really enjoyed it.

The game last night was, was, phenomenal. The Clippers were down 12. They were on the verge of falling down two games to one. I bet the clippers. That's the only wager, a legit wager I've really made other than Middle Tennessee State on Saturday, which I'll get to in a moment. To win the whole thing at plus 250, it was about time Paul George really arrived at the playoffs. He was great last night. Kauai Leonard, you know, had just some incredible plays down the stretch. A couple of just perfect pick and roll pocket passes that set up dunks and free throws. And then he, he had the block. I'm sure you've seen it on, it went viral late last night and has been today.

The middle finger blocked shot on Jamal Murray trying to dunk on him at the rim. It was incredible. I love the Clippers. I think they're going to win the title. But to me, the Clippers against the Lakers is the NBA championship series. The Bucks are down three one. They basically won a game on Sunday with the Tenacompo with the Greek Freak basically laid up. I don't know if he's going to play tonight to try to keep their season alive. But I'm telling you, Tommy, that team is so god-awful coached. I mean, I've never seen. There are three teams watching the postseason right now. I don't get it.

I just don't get it. But I guess it's a player's league and the players get to dictate the way they play. But the Lakers, Rockets, and Bucks, three teams that just stand. All five players offensively, except for the guy that's got the ball. just stand. I've never seen less movement from teams in my life. We know what the rockets have been. You know, it's, you know, James Harden creating or Westbrook, who's been completely out of control trying to create. It's just painful to watch. The Lakers are the same thing with LeBron and maybe a little two-man with LeBron and Anthony Davis. But God, the Bucks, this guy Boudenhulzer

cannot figure out a way to make it easier for a Tentacompo. I mean, I'd start by just putting them on the post or running a couple of low block to low block screens to get them free. They don't think of anything like that. I'm not trying to make it out like I'm a genius and I can coach an NBA team. But what's really clear to anybody that's coached at any level is that when you get to the NBA, there are certain teams where the players just say the job is not to strategize or to create, you know, structure. The job is just to be the player's friend, you know, to be supportive of the players and maybe to have some guidelines on who plays and who doesn't.

But it's painful to watch some of these teams play. At the same time, the intensity of these games have been great, really, really fun to watch. So I still like the Clippers to win the whole thing, but, man, they're getting tested by a Nuggets team. Tommy, you've wanted the big man, you know, in basketball for a while now. Let me just tell you that the best big man in the game, the best perimeter center, the best post center, the best passing center, and it's not even close, is Yokic in Denver. I mean, Nicole Yokic in Denver is a stud. And last night, he was doing everything. He was Walton as a passer.

I'm not exaggerating. He was Walton as a passer. passer ended up with eight assists. He had 12 rebounds. He throws an outlet pass like unselled used to. And then he takes you on the block and he's got multiple moves on the block and then he takes you out and he buries three-pointers. He's the best all-around center in the NBA. And I don't even think it's a conversation. That's how good he is. He's a problem for the Clippers right now, a problem. And Jamal Murray's good and Millsap can play and Grant can play and Harris can play a little bit,

and this guy, Porter Jr. is really a star in the making. But Tommy, if you want to watch one team and one player that you would enjoy, watch Denver and Yokic play. He's a throwback to, now he shoots threes, which isn't a throwback to Walton, but to watch him play from the post or to watch him play from mid-range as a passer, to watch him on his outlet passes,

spectacular player. Two-time All-Star. I mean, I'm not acting like I just discovered him. But for some people who haven't watched, he is just a joy to watch. Sounds like a new era in the NBA. No, it's not that. But it's been fun to watch certain players in this postseason.

I wonder what's going to happen with the NFL starting this weekend if it's going to be totally lost. The ratings have been terrible anyway. But I would imagine that starting this weekend, there aren't going to be many people that watch the games. I would think not. I've got something else that I want to end with, and maybe you have something else. But I do want to tell you about Manscaped first before we get to that.

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Didn't really work. They got beat 42 to nothing by Army. So not a good start for the smell test. picked up right where it left off last year, which is poor. But what happened in this first college football game of the year that I watched because I had Middle Tennessee State is perfect for coaching blunders, which really doesn't start until next week. But I don't know that we'll see a bigger coaching blunder the rest of the year.

This actually became viral on Twitter for those that were watching college football or paying attention to this game, in particular. The head coach of Middle Tennessee State is Rick Stockstill. He played quarterback, I think, at Middle Tennessee State many years ago. He's been there forever. At the end of the half, down 21-0, first in goal at the two-yard line with 45 seconds left and two timeouts left. Middle Tennessee State's quarterback bobbled the snap, fell on it at the 12-yard line. The play ended with 40 seconds to go. You're down 21-0. It's second in goal at the 12. The goal, the 12, the goal, should be to score, right, Tommy, to at least at the worst case, get three before the half.

I mean, most people would think of it that way. I was certainly thinking of it that way because I had Middle Tennessee State. I needed them to get on the board, get some momentum. By the time they took the next snap without calling either of their final two timeouts left, as this coach, through his mask was looking around just completely bewildered. Maybe he couldn't see the clock. I don't know. By the they took the next snap after looking over to the sideline to get the play in and then faking like they were going to snap and then checking back with the sideline to see, oh, is that the right play? They snapped the ball with three seconds left in the half. They threw a pass out to the left flat. The receiver caught it, got tackled at the seven-yard line, and the half was over.

It was the worst clock management I think I've ever seen. And we see a lot of stuff over the years. I mean, in the first game of the year, I don't think I'll see anything worse than this. We see this stuff all the time. That's why I have a segment, coaching blunders. Half the coaches in the NFL, probably 65% of the coaches in college, they don't know how to do this. It's still amazing to me to this very day. This one was so incompetent, though, that I think it's shady. And I'll tell you why. I think it should be investigated.

I'm being completely honest. Any seven-year-old that plays Madden would have not. known to use a timeout at some point. You know, maybe we want to try to score here. Let's use one of the two timeouts we have left. The over-under first-half number was 27. Another score would have made the first half over-under number 28. Now, a field goal would have made it 24, would have kept it under.

Somebody needs to investigate this. I don't want to make a terrible accusation against a head coach or a sideline about something like this. But this was such a level of incompetence that you have to wonder why they did it. I mean, who doesn't want to score when you're down 21-0? Who purposefully tries not to score when you're down 21-0-0 at the end of the half in football?

In a goal-to-go situation, what was really amazing, Russ Tucker, who I like, he's been on the podcast a lot, was on the call of the game. The play-by-play guy and Tucker didn't even pick up on it. I was sitting there going, what are they doing? Are you serious? Have they called the time out, but the clock's still rolling and we didn't notice it? It was the worst thing I've ever seen in a clock management hour.

Let me just say, it equals the worst thing I've ever seen. I'm sure there are two or three others that if I remembered them specifically are up there. You'll never see anything worse than this. You might see something as bad. You'll never see anything as shady, as sketchy, and on the flip side of that, incompetent as this. And what was so funny about it went viral, and all the Middle Tennessee State fans and all the people that follow this team in that league are saying, oh, first time watching Middle Tennessee State and Rick Stock still, huh? This guy's an expert at doing this kind of stuff all the time.

So maybe he's just one of these coaches that's just terrible at it. But even being terrible at it, I mean, you've got to know that you need time on the clock to score points. Like, they're not going to give you an extra couple of plays after the clock gets to three zeros. It was so bad. They lost 42-0. They weren't going to win the game anyway. But anyway. Crazy.

One last thing. Yes. Everybody is reporting. Ron Rivera is not at practice today. Today is his first treatment for cancer. Got it. Yeah, I'm seeing that on Twitter, too. I mean, best wishes to him.

And Jack Del Rio is the guy waiting to be in charge if Ron can't go. I mean, look, I'm telling you right now, part of the reason that I'm slightly optimistic about this team, a lot of it has to do with Ron Rivera. And he's got his staff, and maybe he doesn't have to be there on game day. But I hope he will be, and I think he will be. His health is the most important thing. All right, I'm done. Do you have anything else?

That's it, the beach awaits. That's the show. Enjoy the beach. Bram Weinstein will be the guest on the show tomorrow. He is the Washington football team's new play-by-play radio voice. And he's a friend. He'll join us on the show tomorrow. Have a great day, great evening.

Great tomorrow morning. I'm on radio. Don't forget on the team 980, on 980 a.m. 95.9 FM, the Team 980.com, and the Team 980 app. 6 to 9 a.m. If you're back in the swing of paying attention to sports with football season starting, listen to me on radio and then join us here on the podcast for a twist. By the way, Friday, we will have Chris Cooley on the show, on Friday's show,

to preview Skins, Eagles, Washington Football Team Eagles, and the Washington Football Team season. All right, Tommy, I will talk to you on Thursday, and we'll have our season predictions then. Okay, boss.