The Kevin Sheehan Show - He's Back!

Episode Date: July 3, 2026

Kevin and Thom opened with the news that Alex Ovechkin is coming back to the Capitals for his 22nd season. The boys talked World Cup, Aiyuk's return video message, and considered how many games the Commanders will win in 2026 if Jayden Daniels is healthy and plays the entire season. Additionally, Thom had some thoughts on former NFL RB Chris Johnson's ALS announcement on Good Morning America earlier this week. Kevin reacted to a strange new rule the NBA is testing during its Summer League.   For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match 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. He is Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. The show's presenting sponsor is always,

Window Nation, 86690 Nation, windownation.com. If you do Windows. Hot enough for you, Tom. Is it too hot to do the show today? I think it is. I think it's too hot to do the podcast. I mean,

I'm sitting in a cool room, but I know there's people out there in the heat. And that makes me hot. So I don't think I can go on. That didn't sound right the way you said it. I am going to, I'm off radio tomorrow because tomorrow is the actual July 4th holiday, and so all of the normal shows are off. I'm going to get up early tomorrow morning and play golf. Yeah, that's a little nuts.

But by the way, you used the term normal shows. That's a bit of a misnomer when it comes to your show. What did you mean I used the term normal show? He said all the normal shows. Oh, oh, oh, oh, I did say that. I meant the regular lineup shows. None of the shows are normal, including mine. No.

Good point. What did you say? Russell was complaining about not getting calls today about something. What did you? You texted it. me before the show. What it was that you texted? What did you write? Well, basically, Russell went on

X and lambasted listeners for not calling about Ovechkin. No, people don't want to call and talk about hockey on sports talk radio. What a shock. What a headline.

Yeah, right. Well, they might be too hot to call in today. They could be. You know, today, Tom, me, I took soccer calls for over an hour. Over an hour. Soccer calls. That's just proof that it's too hot. It's affecting people. Thank you. Well, you know, what was interesting about it is that, you know, there are, on occasion, you know, you do a topic that fits well for calls and it isn't the normal stuff like Brandon Hyuk. or, you know, the backup center.

And, you know, when it's an odd topic, and I would put soccer as, you know, an unusual topic to take calls on, certainly in this market, and a lot of U.S. markets, you end up getting people that have never called before. I think I had three or four minimum today. Been listening forever have never called, but I'm so glad you're talking about soccer. I went into it with trepidation. I didn't know if we would get calls on soccer. And hours worth of calls could have gone longer if I had wanted to on soccer. Now, when the Ovechkin news broke, which was in the last hour of the show, I decided not to go to calls on that because I would have been,

I would have hesitated a bit in terms of what the response would be. I've noticed what? Well, you would have been ahead of the game because Russell threw a fit. Well, I mean, I've noticed with hockey, look, some of this could just be me and the show and the shows that I've been involved in. But everybody has kind of said this over the years, anybody that's done what we've done in this market. Unless you're talking about a playoff game the day after or Ovechkin breaking the record, it's hard to tell you. calls on hockey and get a lot of momentum for like you can with some of the other topics. It's not impossible, but you have to really be talking about like a playoff game after it

happens. Before it happens, nobody's doing the pregame on it, but everybody watches those playoff games and has some post game, you know, thoughts on it. But yeah, it was kind of too late in this show for me to do anything on Ovechkin, but I'm glad he's back. I actually, I actually actually said to Max, I didn't, I know this was breaking news today, but I thought that the expectation was that he was going to come back. I think that was the expectation. Yes. I mean, that's what I certainly expected. I wasn't shocked by the news because, I mean, remember when they played the penguins late in the season, it may have been the season finale, and the Pittsburgh players wanted to come by

and wish him well and all that, and he basically blew him off. I thought then and there there's a decent chance he's coming back and the issue all along, I think I'm correct on this, you can correct me if I'm wrong, you usually do, is that this was more

about the team's decision that they were you know, he needed... I don't think so. Okay. That's what I understood it to be. I don't think so. This was totally hit

Look, this was between the owner and the player. The player was coming back. Now, he agreed to a pretty friendly contract for the caps. Yeah. And I think, I mean, the caps are loading up with a bunch of free agent signings. Some impressive free agent signings, in fact, based on my limited knowledge of the sport, that would automatically, I would think put them in the running for a contention. next year. After missing the playoffs this year, that's not going to happen next year.

And Ovesque will have a diminished role, but we'll still, but we're still talking about the guy who led the team in scoring last year. I know. Led the team in goals scored. I mean, I was excited about the Jordan Kairu trade and Alex Tuck, and they added Boone Jenner and Deshaunus and Justin Hull. They've been really busy in free agents. and it looks like they're really making progress towards a better team. Look, they had a decent team this past year. They ended up with 95 points. They just didn't qualify for the postseason.

Did you like the way I just ripped up the new acquisitions? I was very impressed. You really weren't. I was very impressed with that. No, I was. I was impressed because I would have had to go look them up in order to do what you just did. So that was pretty good. I know they've been busy this off season,

but something you said, which I think is, it makes sense to me, even though in following the conversation on the periphery, it seemed like a lot of the hockey people in town, those that can talk about hockey a lot. I think I had Joe B on the show at some point talking about Ovechkin after the season, and he kind of intimated that this was going to be, you know, more of a mutual decision. The team had to figure out how he would fit in.

But to your point, if Alex Ovechkin wanted to come back and play in his 22nd season in Washington, there was no chance the team could say no. Right. Yeah. Right. This is one of the things that Ted Leontes has done right. Right.

He's an owner. He kept Ovechkin in Washington his entire career. Yeah. That's a rare thing in any sense. sport these days. True. For fans, that's valuable. You know? Yeah.

So, I mean, there was no way, if he wanted to go play, they were going to go let him play in Toronto or something like that. That was never going to happen. No. I mean, the thing that was always a possibility is if he wanted to play, he'd play in the Russian League. Right. And I think he still made, look, I think now, even though he probably won't come out

say it right away. I think we can pretty much assume this is his last year, right? I guess, but God, I mean, LeBron's 42, he's playing. You know, Rinaldo's 41, he's playing in the World Cup. Seems like, you know, I mean, when the money is what it is, I mean, he got a one-year $4.25 million deal with some incentives. That's not a big deal. So he really wanted to come back and the team wanted it to fit. within their structure financially and otherwise. I don't know enough to say what they're going to do is they're going to limit his minutes

or limit his ice time, and he's not going to be on every power play like he usually. I have no idea if that's true. That's what I've heard some of the hockey people mention if he did choose to come back, that he may not have exactly the same role, but to your point, he led them in scoring this past year. Yeah, you've got the most goals. Right. All right. Okay, good news.

Caps are getting Alex Ovechkin back for the 20-second season. Wow. If we operate under the assumption that this is his last season, I think no matter what he says, people will operate under that premise, it comes at the same time. The Wizards are welcoming A.J. DeBances for his first season. their future star, hopefully. Right. You know, so it's kind of an interesting contrast.

The one franchise saying goodbye to the legend, the other franchise saying hello to what they hope will be their legend. I guess that is true. There's one other thing about Alex Ovechkin coming back for his 22nd season. I'm sure somebody has put this out on social media, but I literally just looked it up because I was curious. This is now the longest run for a major team sport athlete in D.C. sports history. His 22nd season in D.C. eclipses somebody who...

Walter Johnson? Yes. Good. Very well done. Walter Johnson, 21 seasons as the senator's pitcher. And, of course, Daryl Green played 20 years here. for the skins. There are other long runs.

It's something that we should treasure. Yeah. Because it doesn't happen these days. It doesn't happen. Some dude named Sam Rice for the senators and the... Play for the senators. A great player. 1915 to 1933, 19 years.

A senator's infielder. Aisi blue age from 22 to 39. Joe Judge. I know that name Senator's First Baseman from 15 to 32. Sammy Ball was here for 16 years, Baxter's 16 years. Monty Coleman, 16 years. Oly Colzig, 16 years, and then

other senators. Oh, Ryan Zimmerman, 16 years as well. There you go. All right. I'm trying to think after Monty Coleman and Daryl Green, I'm going to guess might be Len Haas. I think you're right about Len Haas.

I think you're right about games for Len Haas. I can look that up. He had the record for consecutive games played. Yeah, Tress Way is moving up that list very quickly. Let me just see. Most games played in Redskins history. Len Haas played in 196 games. Where's Dave Butts on that list?

All right. It's not in pro football reference. It should be. Yeah, Darrell Green, Monty Coleman, Art Monk, Dave Butts, Tressway. That's your top five. In terms of games played. Games played. That does not necessarily mean seasons,

and some of those players played in shorter seasons. Okay. I'm so glad. we went down that path. But glad that Alex we covered a lot of ground there. We went from hockey to soccer to football.

To baseball. To baseball. We touched on baseball. With a little Chris Russell mixed in between. With Russell mixed in. By the way, you know, when we get to training camp, that's our favorite time of year for Russell. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Tommy and I one year, leaving training camp in Richmond,

got in the car. and I think we were just going to go out to lunch. And Russell was on the air in Richmond doing a show. And we got out of the car and he was talking about the kicking battle and focused much more on like the backup kickers. And when we got back into the car after having lunch, he was still on the kickers. That's a true story.

Like an hour worth of kicker talk in training camp. Hey, we've all been there. We've all been there. It's not some of those days you are really stretching and you are really making it up. Can I go back to soccer to really derail the show? Absolutely. Because that's your wheelhouse, baby. It appears to be my new wheelhouse.

Yes. Okay. Yesterday's, I talked about yesterday's early games. on the podcast last evening. The England win over the Congo with Harry Cain scoring twice in the, you know, late in the game, the Belgium game, Tommy, I mean, I spoke as if I knew what I was talking about and I was pretty much winging it, saying that, you know, I can't imagine that any teams ever come back from two goals down in a World Cup game with,

just four minutes left before the stoppage time. And I was right. Belgium's the first team to ever come back with, you know, 10 minutes or less down two goals in a World Cup game. They're calling it one of the top five comebacks in the history of World Cup soccer. They scored twice in the final four minutes and then one in extra time. And that's the U.S.'s opponent, Monday night in Seattle. And then last night, the U.S. beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 after a controversial red card against Flo Baligan, one of their best players. He's like their best striker. I didn't know that until last night. He scored their first goal in the first half.

And then he got hit with a red card. Did you see what he got hit with a red card for? Yeah, that was outrageous. I was spitting, man. I was so upset and angry. Um, yeah. I mean, I just, I jumped out of my chair. You jumped out of your chair. You were so upset.

Did you even watch it? That's not easy for me to do. Did you even watch it? Huh? Did you even watch it? I saw what happened. I didn't ask that. Did you watch any of the game?

No, I didn't watch this. All right. So two takeaways from this red card thing. number one is you kidding me seriously like that didn't seem like an intentional flagrant trying to injure somebody and most of the soccer people agreed I actually said to my wife in real time

and she was watching it with me Tommy I think you'll be impressed that should tell you something yes I know I said not a good thing I said why are they going to video when they didn't even call it as a yellow card on the field I thought that was a pretty good observation. But I guess...

The fact that your wife is watching this sport with you tells you everything you need to know about it. I know it's kind of like the Olympics, you know. I now, you know, the analogy would be they missed the flagrant, but, you know, they went to the monitor and they called it a flagrant after the fact. Most people seem to agree that that shouldn't have been a red card that, you know, a still photo makes it look much worse than it did live action. But the other takeaway for me during that was,

and I actually think Fox's coverage has been very good for the most part. I don't like that Alexi Lalas guy, the American that's on the set. Nobody does apparently. He's a bit too much for me. I like the others, though. But the announcers during the game, you have to assume if you're calling these World Cup games on Fox for an American audience that at the very least 50% of the audience really is

tuning in for the first time, probably much more than that. I'll try not to be so condescending when it comes to audience size. The audience size is so large television-wise. It's got to be 50 to 75, maybe even more, people watching soccer for the first time in four years. You have to explain what just happened. That a player got a red card. That means he's been ejected from the game. That also means that the U.S. will be short-handed the rest of the way. They played 10 on 11 for the last 36 minutes of the game,

and he's out for the next game. Yes. You have to. You've got to do that. I was sitting there, my wife said, because she's not a big soccer fan. So what does that mean? I said, well, he's booted from the game.

He's out for the game. And then I realized I saw the full screen Kiron go up and they were talking about how this is now become a difficult spot. At first I was thinking, well, because they just lost a good player. No, because you can't replace the player that got kicked out. You are on, you're trying to kill a power play for 36, minutes the rest of the game. And then on top of that, he gets suspended for the next game,

which they didn't mention for a few minutes. You just, that's a bad job by Fox. You can't, you can't act like the people know exactly what goes on with a red card. Good point. And I, and those are good points. Here are other good points that I think I'm going to make about the Fox broadcast, because I've observed this with all of my world watching. You know, they do... With your wife? They do.

Sometimes with my wife, sometimes solo. Or sometimes here in the studio while I'm recording with you. They do a lot of cutaways to people in the crowd. Now, you know, it's an American audience. If you're going to cut away to some soccer grade from, you know, 1978, you've got to tell us who it is. If you're going to cut away and you're going to talk about it. somebody without mentioning their name about the greatness and the year that he had and in 92 or

whatever, you got to tell us who it is. I have no idea who these people are and most people don't. If you're going to cut away to Patrick Mahomes, okay, we know who it is. And I actually would also suggest that if you cut away to somebody like Justin Fields who they cut away to during a game the other day, you got to tell the soccer people who that is. Because to your point, most soccer fans aren't sports fans. You've said forever soccer is the sport for non-sports fans. How about identifying the camera cutaway to some famous person during the game? Since you've got an audience that isn't familiar with some of these people.

Hopefully they won't make that mistake in the title game when the camera pans to you and they don't mention you. Yeah. You know what my brother said to me? I was talking to him yesterday, and he said, if the U.S. made it to the World Cup final, he's going to sell his tickets. We won't be going. Yeah. Yeah. Those tickets enter a whole new investment level. Yeah. And I said to him, I said, if a team like Argentina with Messies in the final, and you could get, you know, a hundred X, you're not going. I'm going to make sure you're not going.

None of us are going. If that price keeps skyrocketing from where it is now, that's insanity. I don't even like it. I mean, I like the World Cup, and I'm looking forward to going, but that's crazy. And he's like, well, no, no, he's like, I mean, I won't even tell you what he thinks the price would go to if the U.S. was in the World Cup final. he's like it'd be it'd be an all-time sports ticket all time

I think it would I think it would look it this was only I'm going to dazzle you with some knowledge here this was only the second knockout victory in the history

of the United States only 2002 was the only other one correct yes this is it I think they've only won I don't know

seven or eight World Cup games period. Is that really, they've only won seven or a USA World Cup record. I could be wrong, you know. Maybe I knew I went too far. I knew that was a pretty far. Yeah, the U.S. all-time FIFA World Cup record, 12 wins, eight draws, and 20 losses in 12 tournament appearances.

But this is the... I screwed up. I can't believe I didn't stop what I was in. you were correct. This is only the second time that they've advanced with a knockout round win to the round of 16, and they'll play Belgium on Monday night in Seattle. Let me just one last soccer thing. Sunday night, England plays in Mexico City against Mexico. They're already saying something that I would have guessed already, and that is, this may be the most intense environment for any World Cup game in a long time. If you saw the game the other night, I actually lost power.

We lost power in our house. I didn't get to watch the Mexico win the other night. You know, I've told you that my oldest son moved from L.A. to Mexico City recently. I told you that, correct? No, you did not. I thought I did tell you that. You think you might want to have told me that? No. I thought I told you that. You know what? You're not on my list of people to tell important things to. He had lived in L.A. for about five years. He hated L.A.

And he loves Mexico City, people that age. I've been now a couple times. It is a great city. And he's got a lot of friends that live there, and he was able to keep the same job and travel from there. And so he's living there. He was there the other night. He said, this is the most insane thing I've ever seen. The partying in the streets is unbelievable. And I said, if they beat England on Sunday night, that will be, I mean, God knows what will happen if they lose. But, you know, that stadium at 7300 feet, Aztec stadium, I think it's called.

73,000, you mean? 7,300, no, 7,350 feet is Mexico City. Oh, okay, feet. Yeah. So there's the altitude thing that, you know, it's higher. It's, I mean, it's 2100 feet more than Denver. So they're always at an... Where Bob Beeman jumped 29 feet.

Ah, two inches. Very good. In the, uh, yeah. Long jump. 68. 68 Olympics. Right. Record that stood for decades.

A very famous Olympics, the 68 Olympics in Mexico City. Um, but the, uh, the decibel levels, the intensity of the crowd. I mean, you know, we probably only see something. like this in our country, an LSU football game at night against Alabama, something like that. In terms of the intensity and now, there isn't the built-in advantage of Mexico playing at home and accustomed to the altitude. But that'll be, I will watch that game Sunday night. I will definitely be into watching that game on Sunday night. That's a round of 16 game, Tommy. Sweet 16, I think they call it.

No, I don't think they do call it. All right, that's enough soccer. The most impressive thing, I think, about the American win, is that they accomplished it with one man down while playing two countries. Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yeah, Herzegovina, yeah. Right.

I mean, it's hard enough to beat one country. All right. Brandon Ayyuk was silent for a while, but I guess he just couldn't help himself. So there's more there. Tommy wrote a really interesting column about Chris Johnson, who revealed the other day that he's got ALS. We've got a lot of stuff to get to.

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I promise you they'll take care of you if you mention that you heard about Window Nation on this show. 86690 Nation, Windonation.com. I got this from J.C. and Reston. He actually sent it to me before the radio show today. He wrote, Kevin, no question in my mind, Ayuk finally took someone's advice and shut it down. Now the question is,

will he undergo a public makeover so the next time we see him, he looks normal enough for the team to sign. I, on radio yesterday, Tommy, said, you know, maybe we've buried the lead on Brandon Ayuk here over the last day and a half, two

days. It's now four full days since he's posted. It got to this morning, didn't post yesterday or last night, almost five days since he posted. But I think that was enough for him. That was enough of a respite for him because

he was back on social media today with a 37 video of him in a parking lot dancing around in a pair of burgundy shorts, burgundy shoes in which the headline on the video with music blaring is mood, M-O-O-O-D, as in I'm in a good mood, because I'm going to be a commander soon. Yeah, I wouldn't hold your breath, Brandon. But maybe he knows something we don't. This guy.

What? If they do that, it seems so counterintuitive. I mean, everybody out there that is closer to him or even the situation in San Francisco, they're all, none of them are supporting him. I mean, we played the T.J. Hushmanzada from the other day. I mean, he said if Adam Peters signs Brandon Ayuk, he should be fired on the spot. This was his former, you know, personal coach. Grant Cohn, this reporter out in San Francisco, I've had him on the show,

who's been sort of a Brandon Ayuk supporter, but more of a 49ers, you know, critical of the way they've handled it. He actually reported this morning that the four. 49ers may be in the process of going after money they've already paid him. Wow. Like bonus money. Yeah. Because he was such in violation of the contract and then I saw something over the weekend that some people thought that the conduct has been detrimental to the league or to the team.

That seems like a reach to me because conduct detrimental typically deals with, like domestic violence, like real criminal activity. This guy's just immature and unprofessional. I don't think they can get them for conduct detrimental for appearing to be a bit off. And I don't know if that's really what he is. But Andrew Brandt, long time, you know, NFL front office exec and he now runs the sports business school at Villanova, tweeted out earlier today. I think it was right after Ayuk's latest video.

He tweeted out he's making Instagram videos just begging the 49ers to cut him. He's bashing the Niners, bashing John Lynch, bashing his agent, bashing the NFLPA. He's talking about signing with the commanders. I'm just thinking Adam Peters, the GM or anybody associated with the commanders, you want that? You think the commanders want a piece of that? I can't see it. I can't see it. Yeah, I can't see it.

more either. I think the chances. I had Nikki on the show yesterday, Nikki Jabala, and I just said, all right, percent chance he's on the team September 1st. Because she believes and reported, and I have felt the same thing all along. I think many others have as well. There was legitimate interest. They were going to, at the very least, kicked the tires on IUC once he got released. They weren't going to trade for him. But there was certainly an idea that once he got released, there was a pretty good chance if he was medically fine that they were going to sign him at some point, you know, in the future when he got released. Now I think the feelings changed. I'm guessing the feelings changed. I'm not reporting that. No one's told me that. So I asked her and she said,

I think it was, you know, well above 50% a month ago, but now it's probably at 30%. That's high for me now. I'd put it at like 10%. What would you put it at? That's about right. I mean, I'd put it at 10%. It's just so counterintuitive, not just to what the GM would do, but what this owner would do.

I don't see that happening. I don't see Josh Harris, you know, very cognizant of the reputation this franchise inherited. And apparently, based on some national media response still carries with it, bringing in a guy like this.

Yeah. I also, I'm also going to give it some room here for things change, especially when camp doesn't start for another month, basically, another three and a half weeks. And, you know, what J.C. wrote to me is, you know, still possible. that he, you know, what would he have to do to turn around the narrative on himself, making it more acceptable for a larger group of people to be okay with signing him?

How old is he? How old is he? 28? Here's what he would have to do. He'd have to be 28 in 1974. Without social media? If you're 28 in 2026, you can't go weeks without calling attention to yourself. I think that if he hired an agent, maybe he has, and somebody that he would listen to that would tell him, all right, number one, shut up.

Number two, we're going to apply for reinstatement. number three is we're going to schedule a meeting with John Lynch, Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers, you know, decision makers. And you're going to apologize for what you've done over the last three weeks. And at the same time, we're not going to ask you to apologize for whatever you did prior to the last three weeks. We don't have enough information. I'm winging it here. but he's got to be, he's got to show some contrition.

Because that's the only way he can get them, I think, to release him or to accept him back. Because even if he applies for reinstatement and he's reinstated, and he's already said he's not going back, but he has to go back. So it's number one, shut up, get off social media. number two, apply for reinstatement. Number three, we're going to schedule a meeting, and you are going to apologize to the 49ers, and you're going to say, I'm sorry for the behavior over the last month. I'm still hurt for these reasons. I'm upset that you treated me this way or whatever the issues are, but going public the way I did

and calling you the names and insulting you publicly the way I did, I apologize for that. And then lastly, he's got to be willing to show up for the first day of camp, reinstated. Without anything else, public. Nothing else. Yes. And then... I don't think he's capable of most of that. Well, I don't think he is either.

I'm also thinking this thing through on the fly. The message would have to get out there that he's done these things, that he applied for reinstatement. He is planning on showing up for 49ers camp. He requested a meeting, had a meeting with the 49ers, expressed some level of apology for the insults that he's been hurling their way over the last month. And he's focused on football now.

That's all he wants. He wants to play football. He's healthy. He's sound of mind. and he's ready to play some football. But today's video, you know, I don't even know what to make of it. I just, there's no way somebody told him, yeah, we're about to cut you. And Washington's told him, yeah, once you get cut, you're going to get signed.

I don't see it. I think this guy just is unserious about everything. Beyond the immaturity and the provoking and the insulting. he's just not serious. And I mean, I could take the leap in saying he's not smart enough to figure out how to affect the outcome in a positive way for him. But I think it's mostly, look at these videos. This isn't somebody who's serious about returning to football. This is somebody serious about continuing to attack his current employer.

Now, he did not do that on today's video. He just said, you know, coming soon. Good mood. He's in a good mood because he's going to be a commander soon. I mean, it is possible that we're watching somebody that's actually in need of help. You think? No, I just think he's a product of his era. Really?

Yeah. Okay. A lot of the players that are speaking, out on this that have known him, they think he needs help. There have been a lot of players that have said, this guy needs some help. And even George Kittle, his teammate said, yeah, go ahead. Let's see how that works out for you. Even though he did say the last time he saw him on the field, he looked good.

I wanted to mention something real quickly that I read today. It is an NFC East column on ESPN.com where the four beat reporters for the four NFC East teams make predictions for the upcoming season. And the last question that they answer is who wins the NFC East in 2026. Now, they do this every year. And there have been plenty of years where I've seen, you know, John Kime is the ESPN, most of you know this, ESPN reporter for the skins, Jordan Renan is for the Giants, Todd Archer is for the Cowboys, and Tim McManus is for the Eagles. And I've seen plenty of years where, you know, Kime will pick the Eagles and, you know, you'll see three Eagles picks and a Cowboys pick or three Cowboys pick and an Eagles pick.

But this year, in this particular column, the Eagles writer Tim McManus, picked the Eagles to win the NFC East. The Cowboys writer Todd Archer picked the Cowboys to win the Eagles. NFC East. The Giants reporter Jordan Renan picked the Giants to win the NFC East. And Washington's ESPN reporter, our good friend John Kime, picked Washington to win the NFC East. They all went with the team they're covering. You could actually make the case. I think for three of the teams, I don't know that you can make the case for the Giants, but anything can happen. They have a good roster. But you can make the case for Washington. They have a new coach. They've got a winning coach. Yes. Yes. So yeah, you could make the case for pretty much any team, including Washington

in New York, because Philly looks like they better, you know, better get off to a pretty good start or there could be some ramifications for old Nick Siriani. I think Philly is judged out a different scale than the rest of the team. Billy is judged on how successful they are in the playoffs. These other teams are being judged about whether or not they'll make the playoffs. Right. That's fair. That's totally fair. I asked the question today and took calls on this on radio.

If I told you that Jaden Daniels is healthy for the entire season, he suits up, he starts 17 games, he plays all 17s start to finish, fully healthy. How many wins? Double digits. I said 10. I said 10. Yeah. Double digits. I'll be conservative and say 10. I mean, it's not. Because if he's healthy, that means that the parts that they put in and around him have been positive contributions. Right.

So if that's the case. It doesn't necessarily mean that. You could remain healthy all year on a team that doesn't give you much support and, you know, not get injured. Okay. So I think at least 10. There's on the list of important things for Washington's upcoming season, number one and then count five spaces, as Coach Thompson would say, before you get to number two. number one is Jaden Daniels being available to play 17 games,

certainly no less than 15, fully healthy. Because without that, you're not going to have a season that's going to be a good season. Last year, four start to finish games, and really only three start to finish healthy, because one of those games was the Green Bay game in which he got hurt. if you have him for all 17 healthy, I think there's a really good chance they win 10. But I need to see what everything around him.

You're assuming that means everything around him would be good. I'm not assuming that. But I do kind of feel better about the chances that the defense could be more respectable. They swapped out the entire team defensively. All right. We have some other things. You wrote a column about Chris Johnson that I want to get to next after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's.

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All right. I had Jay Gruden on the show the other day, and I read the news about Chris Johnson, and I said, what are your memories of Chris Johnson? He goes, he's just flat out one of the best to ever do it. He's one of the greatest of all time. And certainly when it comes to just flat out explosiveness, speed, you know, being able to score from anywhere on the field, he was certainly that kind of player. But you wrote about him today, as it relates.

relates to the revealing that he has ALS on Good Morning America the other days. So tell everybody what you wrote. Well, what I wrote was he appeared on Good Morning America, owned by ABC, which is owned by Disney, which is a partner with the NFL. The NFL owns 10% of ESPN, another Disney property. Okay. And he was interviewed by Michael Strait, who is a, commentator in the Fox

pregame show along with Howie Long and that whole group there. But he's a, but he's part of Good Morning America, right? Yes. He's a Good Morning America co-host. Never

asked this guy, Chris Johnson, about whether or not he thought there was any connection between him playing football and him developing ALS, which is the, only question that needs to be asked when you have a football player talking about AOS right now.

You know, I'm sure he's putting up a noble fight. He's putting up, you know, the best face he can on this, like a lot of athletes do who wind up with this horrific disease. I mean, it's absolutely horrific. But not one question. It was obscene to me. I mean, how can you, I know there's no more... It's Good Morning America, Tommy. That's not a hard-hitting interview show.

Well, I mean... But you can't do that. That's like having Monica Lewinsky on the show and not asking her about the stain on her dress. Well, but they probably wouldn't have if they had had her on the show and Good Morning America or the Today's show or any of those shows?

Those shows are entertainment shows. That's 60 minutes. You can't. sure that. It was an obscenity. It really made me sick to listen to that. I mean, because studies have proven that

the odds are greater if you play football, you can develop this disease. Dwight Clark, the symbol, the cat, one of the greatest catches in the history of the NFL, who went on to become an NFL executive. He was convinced that he

developed ALS because of playing football. Okay, so it's too big. I mean, you're talking about a disease, and you're in a industry where your odds increased to get the disease. How can you ignore it? Well, you wouldn't ignore it. You know, 60 Minutes people wouldn't ignore it. But these shows are not, they're not hard-hitting interview shows, are they?

This is not a hard-hitting question. But they're fun shows. They're entertainment shows. And why would you have an AOS figure victim on if you're trying to have fun and entertain? You know what? That's a good point. That's a good point. Why would you have him on the show at all?

The only reason he was on the show was to reveal that he had ALS. Yes. Okay. I changed my mind. I changed my mind. If you're going to do that, then somebody's got to ask the question, even though mostly old ladies are watching these shows, I think. And I'm not looking for an interrogation.

Right. You just have to acknowledge it. Right. I mean, because later on on his social media account, Chris Johnson did acknowledge it. He said there are questions about whether or not he developed him playing football, and he urged the league to do further studies about it. Right.

You know, it would have been nice. to hear Michael Strahan, who made his living in that business and who still makes his living in that business, ask something about that. Well, I don't even know who does Good Morning America with Michael Strayhan. I can't tell you that I will turn that show on.

I don't watch any of those early morning shows. I know Savannah Guthrie is on the Today Show with, what's his face, Lindsay Zarni ex-husband. right? Am I right about that? Craig Melvin. Craig Melvin? Yeah. I think... I think Buddy Hackett does the show with Michael Strayhan.

Who does the show with Michael Strayhan? I honestly have no idea. Good morning, America. One or two guys, I forget. It looks like Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos, along with Michael Strayhan. So Stephanopoulos would have... Wouldn't he have asked the question? Maybe he wasn't there.

I don't think he did the interview. Oh, okay. All right. So sad. What's the life expectancy for him? In the column, I wrote that, I'm not saying that, you know, people shouldn't play football.

I'm not calling for the demise and death of football. But I don't know how you can be apparent and sign the permission slip without at least being aware that you are increasing the odds, however slightly, of your son having a horrible, horrible death.

You once believed that football would eventually go away. I wouldn't go that far. I think that's what you used to believe. I think we had conversations. about that. I thought it was in trouble because, and let's face it, I think high school football is not necessarily on the rise.

No, no, that's... What is on the rise, flag football. Yes. No, trust me, I mean, it started, you know, a little bit even before my kids were young, and two of my three boys played football, tackle football when they're younger, and my wife and I talked about it and considered the risks versus the rewards of being a part of a team in that particular sport. And, you know, there's a lot of benefits that just come from playing sports in general and being a part of a team. But football, no doubt, 10, 15, 20 years ago, maybe, 15 years ago, for sure, really started to scare parents and the participation levels dropped exponentially.

And flag started to increase and now flag's super popular. And the thing about football at the youth level, somebody's going to hear this and totally disagree with me. It's an opinion. I think football's the one team sport of the major sports that you can start playing in high school for the first time, tackle football, and have success. I think you're right. harder in basketball, baseball, um, to just all the sudden,

you know, show up for, you know, tryouts in before your junior year in high school. Yeah. You're just a superstar natural athlete. Yeah. And, but even then, the, the opportunities, there's, you know, the roster sizes are so much smaller. Football's roster sizes are bigger.

There's a, there's more of an opportunity. Um, but football also just, yeah, I, I think that the sport lends itself to, to, now you've got to have the, you know, there, people that don't like to get hit, don't play football. People that don't mind getting hit, play football. That's a big thing, you know, for youth sports when it comes to football. Does the kid like contact or not? Because if he doesn't like contact, why would you ever make him play football? Why? And some parents do. And I've watched that before and it's not pleasant to watch when that's not the inclination.

You know, that's not the nature of the kid. You know, there are kids that that's their nature. By the way, the majority of young kids don't like contact. It makes sense, by the way. But, you know, you could play flag all the way, get to, you know, your junior year in high school, and if you are okay with contact, you can play football. And then you could go on to play it at great levels. you were really talented. But yeah,

flag is so popular now. I mean, hell, our starting quarterback. In 2028, it's going to be an Olympics, and that's when it's really going to take off. Our starting quarterback played in that big, you know, thing with Brady that was going to be in Saudi Arabia. I give the NFL credit. I give the NFL credit for jumping on that and realizing what a marketing tool it could be for them. They're so, they're a brilliant business.

Well, and the brilliant business is because it's such an obsession in this country. And as long as it is, there are going to be players that will play in the NFL. It's possible that the demographic of an NFL roster will change from where it is today because you'll get even, I guess, a decrease in players that are from maybe more affluent backgrounds, where they're not being allowed to play football, whereas in other environments, it's a way out. That's always been the case to a certain degree with sports, period. But football's always been, you know, a bigger mix demographically when you've looked at rosters in terms of where the players are from, where they grew up, how they grew up.

Yeah, I don't know. I can't imagine football ever going away in my lifetime for sure. And I would bet my kids' lifetimes as well. All right, we've got more show. There's actually a crazy NBA rule that's being considered that I want to talk to you about. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought you by My Bookie. You're betting the World Cup somewhere other than My Booky, or you're not betting the World

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Kevin DC so I'm so into the World Cup that I am following all of the news of the World Cup and guess what just broke. Listen to this the guy Flo Balagan that got the red card last night and can't play in the game against Belgium

on Monday night the FIFA disciplinary panel is considering an even longer ban for him. They will review last night's play and consider more than the automatic one-match ban issued via World Cup red cards. And a U.S. soccer spokesperson person said after the game, it would appeal any suspension longer than one game. They're not allowed to appeal the one game. I had no idea that they could ban them for more than one game. Now, for that to come to fruition and be an issue, they'll have to beat Belgium because it is the knockout round.

All right. There's something else I read. I wanted to read to you. I read this to you right before the show, and we, you know, we muddled through it. to try to understand it, but I think it's pretty wild. I did not know that this was going on in the NBA G League, but it has been since 2019, 2020. The NBA is going to test a new rule during their summer league,

which starts next week in places like Northern California, Salt Lake, and Las Vegas. The new rule is called the one free throw rule. If you get fouled shooting a three, if you get fouled shooting a two, or if you get fouled on an and one, or if you get fouled and the teams and the penalty, you will only shoot one free throw, but it'll be worth the maximum amount that you could have gotten via the call.

So if you were shooting a three, you go to the free throw line, you shoot one free throw. If you make it, it's worth three points. You get fouled shooting a two, you go to the free throw line, you only shoot one free throw, it's worth two points, etc.

etc, etc. The reason for this is to, you know, game flow, to speed up the game flow. These games are lasting two hours, 40 minutes, 25, you know, two hours, sometimes longer than that. So everybody's trying to speed up their games. I think that's a kind, I think that's an interesting rule. Now, it would not apply in the fourth quarter, I'm sorry, would not apply in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter or in any subsequent overtime period. So if you get fouled shooting a two with two minutes or less, you shoot two free throws. What do you think? I don't know.

I mean, it's not baseball or where the rules were carved in granite for decades. It's basketball, you know. I don't think I'd mind if they raise the rim for crying out loud. So, I mean, a three-point play, you know, I mean, it's just kind of like, you know, just like, just made everything seemingly possible right now. So I have no particular passionate interest in foul shooting points. I mean, I think on one hand, you know, this isn't a problem begging for a solution. I just, as a basketball fan, I'm not looking for the games to be sped up like baseball had an issue with that.

I'm not looking for an answer to free throws, which does stop the game and, you know, you have to shoot two or three or whatever. I just don't think it's, I don't feel like there's a lot of pushback from fans on, oh, these free throws, it's terrible. I mean, this isn't the extra point thing. I didn't even think the NFL had a major problem with the extra point, you know, but in terms of it being, you know, kind of a zero play. But this definitely is not, I don't think, a problem looking for a solution. We'll see how it works during the Summer League. You got anything else? It'll give you something to watch in the Summer League.

What are you going to do for the fourth? Actually, I'm going to a barbecue, family barbecue up in Westchester. It'll be 96 degrees. A little bit cooler. You're traveling north at least. Yeah. Stay cool, happy forth to you, Tommy.