The Kevin Sheehan Show - Hide The Report Card!

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

Kevin and Thom today w/sandwich talk to start which included reviews of the Monte Cristo, Croque Monsieur, and Hot Brown. The boys reviewed the NFLPA "Report Card" on the Washington Commanders and answered whether or not any real damage was done by it. Kevin recapped the Terps' loss at Ohio State and the guys talked about whether or not anyone will ever match or exceed Wilt Chamberlin's 100-point single-game record set 61 yrs ago today.  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 don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheyenne Show is Kevin. Tommy's with me today. This is a review that I'm going to read from Apple Podcasts, where we are currently the number eight football podcast in America. This comes from Timps, quote,

I am a Raleigh North Carolina long-time listener. I am a WFT fan only. So I tend to skip through the whiz, Maryland, and Caps talk. Of course, the football team talk is second to none. Great guests and fair insight. Love Tuesdays and Thursdays with grumpy Laverro. And the discussion on everyday topics such as covered bridges.

Who goes on vacation to look at covered bridges? Kevin had me in tears making fun of Tom about this a few years ago. I do remember that conversation very much. Also love Cooley, although his shows tend to be longer. Well, yeah, because they're usually after a game. One request, add more gambling talk, 10 minutes a week on smell tests is not enough. Thanks for all the hard work over the years. Go skins.

I will tell you, Timps, thank you, by the way, for the five-star review. and also the five-star rating and the one to two-sentence review, which is really like four sentences. I would also just remind everybody, I think I mentioned this recently. There's a follow button on Apple Podcasts. It's in the upper right-hand corner. There's a plus and a follow. If you're not following us, just click that button real quickly. That helps us as well.

If you're listening on Spotify, the follow button is kind of mid-left side. So if you click the follow button, that helps us a lot. But I can't tell you how many times I read a tweet, an email, or one of these reviews. And people ask for like a daily smell test pick. Tommy, I have always considered the smell test to be more of a niche thing for the larger part of the audience. Also, you know, look, it's won a lot over. over the years. I understand that. Thank God. You know, it's like I think it's 12 out of 16 years or 11 out of 15 years, winning years, including this past year. But it's really more about the segment itself and the

conversation and, you know, when I used to do it with you or Cooley, having fun with it. I just don't think that if I put out a smell test every day on like basketball games and then baseball games during the summer. First of all, then it's kind of like she and you're losing. You're killing me. On a Friday football segment, everybody understands its football will take it as kind of entertainment,

although I know a lot of people play my picks. I understand that. But if I started doing this as kind of like a tout service, then you start to anger people because they start to lose on your picks. And then the relationship with the smell test becomes much different. Like, the smell test is still very much dating early marriage years because it's only for a portion of the calendar. If I were doing this every single day, I think people would want to divorce with the smell test.

So I think less is more with the smell test. What do you think? I think you're right. I think it is. Even though the dominance of sports gambling is all encompassing at this point. We had you as a guest in the class that I teach at Georgetown, the business of sports media, because a good segment of that class, we teach about sports gambling, because a lot of sports gambling companies are becoming media companies as well.

It's becoming, like, all-encompassing. But, look, we have a menu for success, and there's no reason to basically change, add a little, you know, item here or there, a little appetizer, a new meal here or there to mess with that success. I'm sorry. I agree with you. And I get a lot of ideas from people. I get pushback from others, including people that I'm working with on this. You know, the athletic is a partner of mine.

They've been great, by the way, for the most part. Actually, for the whole part, I shouldn't even say for the most part. That sounds like there's something wrong. I actually love the athletic. as a subscriber and as a consumer, and I've loved working with them. They are doing a lot of our, you know, ad selling because they've got a bunch of podcasts. But a lot of the ideas come in all the time, and I'm like, look, I'm always looking to make it better. We had this conversation recently, so I don't want to bore anybody.

But right now, the menu that we have is pretty much par excellence. Yes. I don't know if we want to F with it that much. Yes. I mean, listen. I mean, we're number five in Bermuda right now. We're the number five football podcast in Bermuda. Why would we want to mess with that?

Same with Bahrain. Absolutely. Yes. Yes, and we're big in Ireland, too. We are big in Ireland. We are big in Ireland. Yes, we are. We are big in Jordan.

I think I've told you that before. And think about. this everybody. We're giving you this for free. We're not charging you a dime. Exactly. Not yet anyway. I'm kidding. Doesn't John Kent Cook live in Bermuda, or am I thinking about somebody else? I don't know. He might. He used to own a newspaper in Key West for a while. I don't know if he lived in Key West. He may live in the island somewhere, to Caribbean somewhere. I don't know. I don't know where. I think I remember John Kent Cook moved to whatever house they had in Bermuda and has lived there ever since.

I may be wrong about that. It's too bad that he's not living here after maybe his father had left him the team or given him a much easier way to buy the team in 1999. You know, we talked about some of the biggest mistakes over the last quarter of. century and franchise history. You know, I always say the biggest single mistake that Snyder made was firing Marty Schottenheimer after a year. I'll stick with that for the most part as my number one. I mean, there are lots of others. I'm talking about football only.

I'm not talking about toxic workplace culture. Don't jump all over me. But really, the most hurtful incident is Jack Kent Cook not making it easy and basically making it impossible for his son to keep. the team, for the team to stay in the family. And I don't know that we still, to this day, really understand why he did that. Do you know why? Look, I mean, we have come to glorify Jack Kent Cook, you know, because he was the owner

of a team that went to four Super Bowls and won three of them. And he did have a certain style about him. But he was no angel. and he could be really brutal and bitter the people who knew him. Okay. So, I mean, I think family relationships were always complicated for him. I mean, how many times were he married, three times, four times? Yeah, everybody was.

So I think he was a complicated guy who didn't let his complications get in the way of his success. as opposed to the idiot who owns the team now. And, you know, I mean, let's remember now. I mean, look, we're talking about John Kent Cook as an alternative to Skipper Dan, and everybody looks good pretty much in that light. But, you know, the post, I mean, those years from 92 to 99 were not particularly good years for the franchise either. No, they weren't when Gibbs left. No, they weren't. They were not. Right. There was nothing but losing pretty much. Here's my theory. And I have a feeling that

somebody out there listening really knows why. And maybe you'll, you know, send us the answer. I think that Jack Kent Cook was self-made. And I think John Kent Cook, his son, and the son that passed, right, was Ralph. Because that's where Raul John came from, right? The son Ralph and John. And that maybe he just looked at his boys like, you know, kind of silver spooners. And that maybe he didn't have confidence in John to take the team over and and keep it at the same heights. I don't know that.

That's just a theory. because Jack Kent Cook was self-made. Yes. Yes, he was. A Canadian guy who, I think, basically started out selling encyclopedia. But, yeah, I mean, you're right. He was definitely self-made. That's for sure.

How did we get on John Ken Cook? Oh, Bermuda. We're number five in Bermuda, number eight in the U.S. in the football category. Follow us on Apple and Spotify by hitting that follow button and rate us and review us if you can. So Tommy sent me,

we're going to get to the report card on the franchise on the show today. And we'll get to some sports on the show as well. Tommy sent me a video of karaoke night last night. Oh, my God. I mean, God, bless your heart. By the way, This one...

Come on. That was good stuff. First of all, it was the first night of Tommy Purify. Well, tell everybody what that means. Okay. Well, I decided that since I have this part-time gig now, as a performer, I needed a stage name. Okay? And I've always liked Tommy Purify.

I know you have. I think that's a great name. You know, I'm the lost Purify brother. there were these guys named James and Bobby Purify who had a hit song in the late 60s called I'm Your Puppet. And I always love that name, and I thought, I'll be the Lost Purify brother, Tommy Purify, who surfaces years later.

So I changed my name on the, you know, there's a cue that you go into where you sign up to sing. And so I changed my name to Tommy Purify, and I was introduced as Tommy Purify last night. And then I broke out a brand new song. Yeah, you did. It was called Cool Jer. A great song.

Yeah. Cool jerk by the Capitals. Never heard of them, but I do know the cover of the song. Uh-huh. The Go-Go's covered the song in the early 80s. Really? Yes, they did. Well, Tommy Purify covered the song in,

in 2020, buddy. Yeah, I know you did. I want to play this at the end of the show like I've been doing, allowing people to hear your incredible voice. Okay. But the volume's not great on the recording that you sent. It's very, very low. And you're distant from, you're distant from,

I'm assuming Liz took the video of this. A member of my staff. A member of your staff took it. Remember my staff. But they're kind of far away from you. And the speakers in the joint weren't super strong. You didn't. So my one comment is, are you going to, by the way, are you going to tweet out this video or not?

I don't know yet. I might. I probably will. I probably will. Well, why would you even ask that question? Well, I was curious. I was curious about your level of confidence in it. I mean, you typically don't give a shit.

No, this was my best ever. It was? This was your best ever? Yes. No, no. Absolutely. Yes. Yes.

This is the best one. You didn't move a lot. There wasn't a lot of movement up there. And I know that you're not as mobile as you once were, but you can dance. I've seen you dance. And you were not, you weren't really, it was more kind of just standing up and singing with that incredibly high-pitched voice that you have. Well, look, I'm just breaking into the business, and I haven't gotten the whole thing of

singing and dancing at the same time. I really want to concentrate on the singing part first. You know? You're focused on the... That's pretty much why. Well, then maybe, I would say then if you're just focused on the singing part, right now you're trying to get to be a better singer, we're probably at least a day. dozen videos away from you starting to dance a little bit. Because you, you, you're very confident singer.

You are. You know, it's a little pitchy in spots. I didn't think that the song was perfect for you. I think, you know, you singing a harder rock song with a little bit more of conversation in it works for you better. So, you know, this was not your best performance. Well, I'm sorry Mr. American Idol.

My crowd, my followers, my peaks, they thought it was my best. Did they? Okay. I mean, if I'm Simon Cowell, I'm there probably saying not the right song,

you probably could do better. Man, do you think, honestly, what do you think you are? Do you think you're a surprise, where are you on the level of voice? That's interesting. I'm not a bass. I can tell you that.

No, you're not a bass. You're not whatever. But I'm not a soprano. You're not? I'm an alto, maybe. No, I don't think I'm a soprano. What's not when I sing? Okay. I think I'm an alto maybe. You hit some high notes there.

Okay. Okay. You're upset with my review. I can tell. No, not. No, don't believe me. You can't change what I witnessed yesterday at Kennedy's on Miramar Beach. Was the crowd really into it? Yes, they were. Okay, well, then send out the video and get some comments on it.

I was slapping five as I walked away. Well, I mean, if you hold your hand up, everybody's going to slap it. No, no, no, no. It wasn't me. It was the crowd as I walked by. Okay. All right. It was like you walking down the hall of your studio after you're done with a podcast.

I think I think I've seen better from you. but here's what I've got to give you all the credit in the world for. You're not afraid. You'd be one hell of a backup quarterback. You are not afraid to step up when they're holding the mic saying, whose turn is it? You're ready to roll. You got a lot of courage there.

Well, I've only got one week left in my run here. Why can't you do it in Frederick? Why can't you do it in Frederick? I'll tell you why. Because in Frederick, you're not outside in short sleeves with a palm tree behind you. That's true. Feeling really good about yourself, yeah, with a couple of red stripes in you. Yeah. Yes.

It's not the same atmosphere. No. Then I'm just some idiot, you know, from Frederick singing, you know, on a Friday night with a rest of a group of bunch of idiots. Right. Down here, baby, I'm somebody. I'm a star. Right. Here comes Urbana's own.

Tommy Purify. All right. I did, we're going to get to... I got one other thing. Okay, go ahead. I got one other thing. Yeah. I got one thing.

It's a food thing. I know, you know, you like talking about food thing. Yeah. Okay. Do you like Monte Cristo sandwiches? What's that? Is that ham, egg cheese? Or is that, is that...

No, that's the... Yeah. Croke Monsieur or Croke Madame. What is, it's, it's, it's ham and something. I don't know what it is. Okay, specifically, it is, it's, uh, egg dipped or battered dip ham and cheese that is pan or deep fried. It is a variation of that French, uh, dish you just mentioned. Yeah, the crook monsieur, the croak madame, whatever, which, whichever one, yeah.

Yes. It is for me, okay, it's one of my favorite meals. Oh, yeah, it's great. Here's what I don't get. Yeah. What I don't get? There's some kind of mystery to it because most places don't have it. And when they do have it, they have all kinds of rules about it.

What do you mean? There was a place down here that sold it, but they only sell it for a couple weeks of the year, and they don't do it sell it on weekends on their menu. and now they stop selling it. They're done until next year. Well, it's certainly not a seasonal item. No, it's not. I don't understand why.

There's one place in Frederick, one place that I found that sells it, but it's not on their, it's not on their menu all the time, and it depends what day or the week it is. I mean, there's this mystery involving Monte Cristo, And it's such, did you ever have a Benegans, Monty Crystal sandwich? Did I ever have a what?

Benigans. Remember Benegans? The fast food chain? I do remember Benegans. Yes. I took a girl on a date to Benegans when I was like 19 years old or 20 years old. I remember that. There was one right in Chevy Chase near the, like, old Lord and Taylor or whatever there in Friendship Heights.

Well, they had. way, by the way, after taking her to Benegans, she was not fired up for another date. I probably should have done better than that. But the reason I did it, I remember specifically was we had been there with a bunch of friends getting drinks before heading out for the night. And that's where I met this particular girl that night. And I said, why don't we just meet at Benegans and have drinks and go from there? But anyway, I do remember Benegans. Yes, just like I remember TGIF Friday and all those other, you know, chain places. Right.

Yeah. Well, Benegans had a Monty Cristo sandwich that was a death row meal. In other words, what would your death row meal be? What would your death row meal be? A Monty Cristo? Yeah, Benegans' Monty Cristo, not any Monty Cristo. Wow. Benegins.

Monty Cristo. And now they're gone. They're all closed up. They're gone. You know? and this place, Harry Tees down in Destin, served a sandwich that was pretty similar, not as good, but pretty similar. And then all of a sudden, it's God until next January.

Oh, that doesn't mean. Well, it's not moving probably as much as they'd like it to move. I mean, if you were down... When I Google and Frederick, you know, Monty Crystal sandwiches near me, the only place that comes up is this place I told you about that doesn't have it on all their menus. I mean, it's a great sandwich and nobody sells it. I can tell you, you can go, I mean, all of the French restaurants all will sell those croak messieurs, croak madams. You know, I don't know which one has the egg and which one doesn't or whatever.

Or it has the sauce, whatever kind of sauce it's called, like Mourne or something like that, whatever it is. but they all have those sandwiches because my boys love those. Whenever we go to this place called Monomigabee, which is in Bethesda, it's a chain restaurant, but it's actually really good. It's good. It's right there on Woodmont Avenue. And for brunch, they have that always available. God, they actually have a really good brunch.

I'm from, since you have spent time in Louisville, because that's how it's pronounced if you're from Louisville. It's not Louisville. It's Louisville. And you were there at the Muhammad Ali Museum, I think a year ago. I may have been a year ago. Have you ever had the hot brown at the Brown Hotel? Yes, I did. That's a sandwich.

I didn't have it at the Brown Hotel, but I had a hot brown while I was in Louisville. That's pretty good. That is a good sandwich. If I couldn't order the Monte Cristo, the Betting's Monty Cristo, that would work. I mean, it's not my top one. But you're right. That's a good one. Brown is for those that don't know, and I'm pulling it up here just so I get it exactly right.

The last time I had a hot brown was the last time I was in Louisville, which was for the Maryland Sweet 16, the one Sweet 16 that my guy made it to when they lost to Kansas in the Sweet 16. And I went down for that Sweet 16 and I was with one of my sons or were two of them with me. I forget. But I said before we leave here, I'm going to take you guys. to the Brown Hotel and we're going to have a hot brown because Tommy Louisville was a place that I actually in my former professional life spent a lot of time in. When Dixie, I've told you that they were a big client of ours. They had a lot of stores in Louisville. And so I spent some time there. And that's when I discovered the sandwich. Every time I've been back to Louisville since,

it's a given. That sandwich is an open-faced turkey breast and ham and bacon sandwich. sandwich covered in creamy Mornay sauce and baked and or broiled until the bread is crisp and the sauce begins to brown. Cheddar cheese or American cheese may be added for the sauce. You can also get mushrooms and very rarely people use canned peaches on the sandwich. I don't remember canned peaches and quite honestly, and I love mushrooms, I don't remember mushrooms being a part of it. But that open-faced turkey with the ham, with the bacon, and that moray sauce over that bread that's kind of toasty and crispy.

Oh, my God. That is a knife and fork sandwich, by the way. It is not a pick-up sandwich because basically it's smothered in the sauce. But that thing is outstanding. God, it almost makes me want to just go to Louisville. Why can't we get a hot brown up in Frederick? You know, I had a hot brown in Adams Morgan once. I forget the name of a restaurant.

Really? Yeah. Yeah, that's the first time I ever had one. It was at a restaurant in Adams Morgan, but I don't remember. It was many years ago. Many years ago. But, I mean, if anyone out there is selling Monte Cristo that's worth Eden, please tell me where I can go get it. Tell me where I can get a hot brown without going to.

Louisville, I'd like to know that. By the way, speaking of Adams and Morgan, I'm trying to come up with the name of the place. I can't come up with the name of the place. But my son, who lives down in that general area, brought home the other day some ice cream from this ice cream place down there that I swear to God is some of the best ice cream I've ever eaten. And I want to give it proper credit here, but I can't remember the name of it. but they had a sea salt caramel caramel and also a Girl Scout cookie chocolate number and a coffee that was just perfect. It's better than anything I think I've tasted in a while when it comes to sweets. You don't really care about sweets. Yeah. Don't do it for me. I have to come up with the name. I could text them right now and edit it in, but I don't feel like doing that.

All right. Do you have any other anything nontinent? sports related to get into. Let's get through all of that right now. No, that's everything on my menu of that portion of my menu of X- Okay. We're going to get to the Washington Report Card thing next, but I just wanted to mention, yes, I watched the Maryland game last night, of course. I said on the podcast yesterday, beware if you think that point spread, Ohio State, getting a point looks sketchy, it is. And by the way, Ohio State went off as a one-point favorite in some places last night.

So before the game started, I knew that Maryland was in trouble, you know, based on the way I view these things. And the group of friends that are also gamblers, text message, one text message group with Tim Murray and Steve Sands on it. Both of them texted, uh-oh, when they saw that Maryland was only a one-point favorite. They went to a one-point dog before tips. So again, these are the games, and I can't make you play Ohio State last night, but I think I should be able to convince you not to play Maryland. Just sit back. You didn't need to be on the game.

You could just watch it and hope. But in all seriousness, as it relates to the Terps losing last night at Ohio State, The Big Ten is brutal, Tommy. It is brutal. There is one bad team, Minnesota, and everybody else you play when you play them in their place, especially last night's senior night. Terps kind of got screwed with the schedule. They're playing two senior night games on the road.

They played Ohio State last night and they get Penn State over the weekend. They had their senior day at home against Northwestern, which they won on Sunday. But, you know, usually you only you only, you don't. only have to play one road senior night game. Here's the one thing. My biggest takeaway from the game last night. I think they've played so well recently, even in losses. And I thought last night was the first game in at least a month that they didn't play well. I thought that they were bullied around a little bit. I don't want to hear about the bad calls either. Although the tech on Kevin Willard, I still can't get an explanation on why he got teed up.

early in the game. But I thought they got bullied a little bit. I don't think they defended as well as they've been defending. I think they really went after Jemir Young to try to take him out of his game and it worked. And it was, I thought, the least impressive performance from Maryland in over a month. So I was a little bit disappointed in that. I had a feeling they were in trouble last night based on the point spread. but they had played well on the road at Purdue at Michigan State, at Nebraska, you know, over the last several weeks.

Even though they lost those games, I thought that they had played well. I thought that they got punked a little bit last night by Ohio State. And Maryland's been the tougher team in most of their games. They finish up with Penn State on Sunday. And, you know, they have a chance right now to drop pretty significant. significantly in the Big Ten standings if they don't beat Penn State. And that's not going to be easy. Penn State's won, I think, four out of its last five. They beat Northwestern last night on the road. So that's their senior day Sunday. Won't be easy. I'd expect Maryland to be an underdog in that game when we get to it.

And if they lose, they could end up being like the seventh or eighth seed in the Big Ten tournament. If they win, they still have a pretty good shot to be in the top four and get the double by. It's not impacting their NCAA tournament hopes. I've already mentioned to you and everybody else. They are a lock. It doesn't matter what happens on Sunday or in the Big Ten tournament. They are an absolute lock to make the NCAA tournament. But seating is taking a hit right now with the loss last night, and then Sunday will be big.

But that's all I got on the Terps. I'm assuming that you were in mid-cool jerk during the game. Yes, I did some other songs, too. besides last night besides cool jerk but that was that was the big one well maybe it was the other songs that got to the standing ovation nope no we'll get to we'll get to report card time next right after these words from a few of our sponsors Tommy just asked me about my date at Benegans and I told him that you know I remember something about the girl I remember she was a tremendous athlete. She was a track star in high school and in college. And I do remember that she had braces

and you said to me, tell me, tell everybody what you said to me. Presumably, they were on their teeth. Yes, they were on her teeth. They were not on her legs. Not that there would have been anything wrong with it. But no, when I said, my memory is that she had braces, they were braces on her teeth. Yes. They were on her teeth. This, segment. Clear that up that she was a track star, you know? Right. Yeah, well, I mean, that's true.

You shouldn't have even had to ask after I told you that she was a track star. I mean, you know, unless you were thinking about braces somewhere else. Boris Gump was a track star. He used to wear braces. Yeah, but those braces came off when he was running. Remember, they just popped off. And by the way, this girl was not as attractive as Jenny was. because Jenny, it was a true

superstar. That's Robin. That's Robin Wright. That's Robin Wright. I wanted a goddesses. Robin Wright Penn there for a while. One of the goddesses. Oh.

Yes, she's a goddess. She's still gorgeous. Still. Yes, she is. Absolutely. She's not married. I mean, she and Sean Penn, they divorced, right? I think so.

Yeah. Is she remarried? I don't know. Should we look it up? sure I mean she was in I didn't watch House of Cards but she was in House of Cards

either um no she is oh she she married after Sean Penn she's been married in divorce now three times she's two kids one of them it would appear with Sean Penn

who's been spending a lot of time I've noticed recently over in the Ukraine with Zelensky yes All right. So this segment of the show is brought to you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie.

Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. And they will provide you with something that most books don't provide you with. And that is winner after winter. No, that's my job. What they are going to provide you with, though, is the opportunity to cash in and cash out quickly. And that is unique in the sports book world. You make one deposit. you wager that deposit one time and you're eligible to cash out immediately.

Perfect for like the NCAA tournament where you may just want to bet on a few games and then, you know, move on to whatever you're going to do over the summer before football season. But go to my bookie.ag, use my promo code Kevin D.C. and take advantage of that offer. So the NFL Players Association surveyed 1,300 NFL. players, asked them a bunch of questions about their own team. This was not something where players commented or answered questions about other teams. They answered questions about their own teams. And these results were made public yesterday in the form of a report card that basically ranked the teams and their facilities and their resources one through 32 in the NFL. Now, just to give you an idea, some of the categories, treatment of families, how the organization

treats their families, food service and nutrition, weight room, strength coaches, training room, training staff, locker room, team travel. Washington, Tommy, finished 32nd out of 32nd teams. And here was what was written about this. The Washington commanders are ranked 32nd last in our team guide, besides the strength coaches who received great feedback. And they did. The strength coaches Englehart and some of those guys received very high grades. But the rest of it, basically, they finished in the bottom of the league. The rest of the club's operations and facilities were rated by player respondents at the bottom of every single category. The locker room does not have confidence that club owner Dan Snyder is willing to invest to upgrade the facilities as players' responses rank him 31st in that category.

By the way, Michael Bidwell ranked below Dan Snyder in confidence his team. He charges his players for meals. For meals, charges them for him. Yeah. Yeah. That may be coming if Dan keeps the team. continuing with the overview. Players had significantly more concerns with each area of the facility than the player respondents on any other team.

For example, they were the team most consistently identified as having an understaffed training room. Players also reported that they have some of the smallest hot and cold tubs for players, recovery, and only 35% of the players feel like they have enough personal space in their locker room. Finally, there are complaints of lack of warm water. and issues with poor drainage in the showers. Only 22% of players feel like they have enough space on team flights, and the commanders are one of six teams in the NFL that make a segment of their players have roommates before games, and one of seven teams in the NFL that do not offer their players' first-class seats.

Now, the grades given by the Washington players for these categories were as follows. treatment of families. F last in the league. Food service and nutrition, D plus. Weight room C plus. Strength coaches, A plus. Training room F minus. Training staff, D.

Locker room F minus. Team travel F minus. There's more detail to this, but needless to say, the players that play on the team aren't overly impressed with the team that they are. are playing for when it comes to these kinds of categories of you know a lot of this is facility based and availability to certain things to you know train them and keep them healthy and keep them fed

etc but it's funny somebody tweeted me and said you mentioned the other day that they have skimped on travel in recent years as an indication of the don van nata story you know and the financial trouble and the cash flow issues that they've had. Yes, they have traveled in a much different way, I've been told now, for several years. Whereas those first 10 to 12 to 15 years when Dan Snyder was here, the facilities weren't great, but they traveled in a first class way, not anymore. What's your takeaway from this? Well, you know, for most sports franchises, in the off season, if you had a story like this, land, this would be the worst day of their off season.

For the commanders, it's just Wednesday. That's all it is. It's another day in the week of the calendar that can't get past zero when it comes to days without a fuck up. Just can't do it. I mean, it's just stunning. that this followed the Vanada story, which followed the Washington Post story. I mean, it is, look, if you're exhausted as a fan, imagine people who have to make sense of this

and try to, try to consume it, you know, so you can understand it. I mean, it's exhausting. It's literally exhausted. It's got to be exhausting for everybody involved. I think that's true, but it's also exciting. because it's coming to an end. Yes, it is. Yes, it is, but,

but, you know, the big question is when. You know, when? Everyone wants to know when. I think soon, but when. I think soon, too. Did you read Sally the other day? Yeah, that was pretty good.

That was a pretty good takedown of Goodell and the other NFL owners. Absolutely. There's this line. Hold on. I want to find it, so I quote it directly. she was referring to a Jerry Jones quote about sort of negotiation or, you know, because remember that the post story the other day said that the league wants Jerry Jones

to kind of broker a peaceful ending to all of this. And they think that Jerry's the guy that can get through to Dan. Here it is. Jerry Jones once said about dealing, described his philosophy in dealing with problems. Quote, it's kind of for me like sitting in a bar and over the back of your shoulder you see 300 pounds coming and whatever you've done, you've made it mad. Whatever you said or whatever you did or whoever you winked at, you made them mad. The mistake would be to jump in front of it and try to mess with it. The smooth thing to do would be to step up Matador style, take him by the shirt,

and escort his momentum into the jukebox. So she writes at the very end about the league. Well, I'll read the whole last paragraph. The owners have Snyder by the shirt. That $450 million debt ceiling from the league wasn't pure generosity. It gives the owners leverage. By the way, I would debate as to whether or not they gave that to him because they knew it would give them leverage in the future.

But whatever. So she continues in terms of it gives the owner's leverage. So does the Mary Joe White report into the allegations that he's a sexual harasser, and so does an ongoing criminal investigation of his finances. Meeting Snyder's demands never works. He inflicts maximum hell on anyone who accommodates him because he mistakes it for Suckerdom. After accommodating him for years, perhaps now Goodell, Jones, and the other owners realize that. They allowed him to take a whole organization captive, looking the other way as Snyder made victims of his workforce and dupes of his customer base.

Victims of his workforce and dupes of his customer base. And he responded by taking the lead captive too. And now the only way to get rid of him is to throw him into the jukebox. I think that that's what they want to do. but they want to try to dance with him a little bit to see if he can be escorted out of there with some level of peace. But anyway, I thought of, in reading this report card, I thought of my favorite line from you of maybe all time. You know, in terms of the players and their feelings about the organization that they're working for, my favorite Tommy line of all time was when DJ Sweringer got cut on Christmas Eve 2017 or 2018,

whatever year that was. And he was, you know, he was basically calling out Jay Gruden and calling out everybody. And he had become a problem. And they cut him. And Tommy said, if they really wanted to punish him, they wouldn't have cut him. They would have made him stay. And that's kind of what this report. card indicates with the players that are here. It's like the pure, the punishment for these players

is staying in this organization. And it's always been that way. By the way, I think there's a difference in the organization now. Whatever you think about Ron Rivera, okay, Ron Rivera is actually in Jack Del Rio. They're respected and liked by a lot of the players. I do believe that. I believe that they're respected by a lot of the players and coaches from around the league. That's why John Alan Allen was willing to stay here. You know, for so many years, it's been always an issue of, well, you can only get the people with money or the people who don't have better options. That's been proven a little bit wrong, not a lot wrong.

They've still missed out, I'm sure, on a lot of people over the years because agents know what a shit show this place has been. But, yeah, I think the question I would ask you. and then I'll answer it as well. Do you think this hurts them? Does this really hurt the organization, this public confirmation of what a disaster it is to work there? Yeah, I think it hurts.

Look, I'm thinking that Ron Rivera is a normal human being as well as some of the other coaches, and now their embarrassment is public. now they're basically I mean they have to show up and he has to stand at the podium at the combine knowing that the rest of the league thinks

that these guys are like the bus terminal of the NFL yeah I think it does hurt the organization as much as it's seemingly immune from being hurt because it's bleeding from every possible place it could bleed from

I think it does. I think it reflects. As much as you say about Ron Rivera, he's the guy in charge of the football operation. Yeah, but most of these are about expenditures that the owner hasn't made. Training, training, training staff? Well, I mean, that's been an ongoing problem.

That's fine. Yeah, the DEA came in. It's funny. It's funny. We forget, we forget, and this is a story that's never really been tracked down. We forget that the training. trainer from, I forget the

guy named Larry something. What? The one that the DEA pulled out? The DEA came in and got? No, no, no, no, no. That was Ron's guy. You're talking about Bubba Tire? No, no, no, no, no. The guy who got all the records

stolen out of his car at the NFL Combine a few years ago. Well, no, that's Ryan Vermillion. I mean, that's no, it's not. It's before You're right. You're right. You're right. I forget his name. But, I mean, that should have been a huge scandal.

I mean, Jesus Christ, medical records taken out of the back of your car for all these players. Right. Yeah. I mean, again, we forgot about that. Yeah, we did. So this is reflective on the guy in charge of football. What was that guy's name? I mean, he.

I forget, Larry. something or another. He was the trainer when the Trent Williams stuff was going on. I know. I know. That's what's bugging me here that I can't come up with his name. Yeah, but so yeah, I think this does

it does impact on them. They may feel like they're used to it. They probably feel like, oh, you know, I mean, what can they do to us that they haven't done to us before? But every little bit takes its

tall. Well, so this is what I found interesting from reading this report and looking at other teams as well. So Washington was 32nd and then Arizona was 31st. But then after that, the chiefs were 29th. The Chargers were 30th. The Rams were 25th. The Bucks were 26th. The Bengals were 27th. I don't think, look, with respect to Washington, it may be different because it already comes with, you know, a majorly stained reputation. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't happen in a vacuum. I know that.

But I don't think the top five teams on this list, the places with the most luxury and comfort, are Minnesota, Miami, the Raiders, the Texans, and the Cowboys. None of those teams have won anything of note forever. The teams at the bottom of the list take Arizona and Washington out of the equation. Actually, Arizona went to the playoffs two years ago. Everybody else has been to the playoffs in the last two years. The Chiefs, obviously, the Bengals, obviously, the Rams, the Bucks, the Pats, the Patriots were 24th,

and then the Jags are 28th, and they were in the second round of the playoffs, and the Chargers were 30th. So I think this is definitely kind of an old school. You know, if you pamper your employees too much, it's not necessarily a good thing. Perhaps, you know, from the Doc Walker School of I'm only looking for players who grew up in homes without air conditioning, without garages. You know, like, I don't know that it actually means anything with respect to winning. And I think there are people out there listening that would highly debate that because they'll say, well, you can't attract the best players if you've got the shittiest place to work, except that the chiefs are 29th on this list and all they do is win.

The most important thing that you have are good people, smart people on your staff, and then you find great players specifically at the quarterback position. And then if you're Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City, Joe Burrell, in Cincinnati, Tom Brady in Tampa, Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville, Justin Herbert and L.A., you can overcome that as an organization and still win. This is not an indication of whether or not you can win or not. No, but it does speak in some ways, particularly with this team. We always heard that Dan Snyder will spend whatever it takes to win.

Right. Okay. And this would indicate that kind of bullshit. Because this is not, unlike other things, all the stuff we talked about here, there's no salary cap on any of this. Right. There's nothing stopping an owner from spending whatever he wants on this material here. You know, you just hit on something that's so true. Number one, all of this, all of the last few days, the flurry of news over the last few days, including this thing, just confirms what a lot of us have known for a while.

but probably didn't emphasize enough, even though we've talked about it a lot. And that is they've had major cash flow problems in this organization. And this organization has been rinky dink, even more so than it was ever in the first 10 to 15 years of Snyder's ownership. Secondly, when you say, you know, there's always been this thing, Dan just wants to win and it'll do whatever it takes to win and it'll spend whatever. and that's a better position. I remember for many years, as we sat here and we talked about, they're never going to win as long as he owns a team. Before the last few years,

there was a contingent out there that would say, look, you could end up having a worse owner that doesn't want to spend any money. At least you've got an owner that wants to win. That was always kind of like the pushback. At least you've got an owner that desperately wants to win. And we would say, yeah, but if he desperately wanted to win, he'd actually, you know, learn from all of his mistakes, but he never could admit that he made any mistakes.

So that's why he's never going to win. But in terms of spending money, no. Those days are long gone. And by the way, if somehow he digs his heels in and keeps the team, kiss any chance of winning completely goodbye, even for a year, because you're just not going to be able to attract anybody to this place. And by the way, I think one of the big things that's missed from this, and they were not pulled on this. But one of the things that would make Washington truly repulsive to think about is a place to play is that, my God, they have no fans.

They play in a terrible stadium that's falling apart, and they have the lowest attendance. And some games, it's like there are no fans actually rooting for them. And I know that there are other places in recent years that have been pretty bad with respect to opponents, fans, but nothing is equal to Washington. And players, you know, that have choices are like, do I want to go play in a place where you have no home field? It's a shitty stadium. You get no fans. And yet, you'll hear John Allen, who is top shelf when it comes to character, say, this is the greatest, you know, fan base of all time. No, it's not. John, you were at Alabama.

You played the facilities at Alabama were 10x compared to Washington, and the fans and their passion were 100x compared to Washington. But he always says the right thing. Right, right. Look, I found the name of that trainer. It was Larry Hess. Larry Hess. God damn. Yeah.

Man. Larry Hess. He was there for 17 years. Of course, yes. Okay. Yeah. And you'll appreciate. This is funny.

He got fired at the end of December of 2019, and here's the headline from NBC Sports Washington. Firing Larry Hess shows that Redskins are committed to changing the culture. Where was this headline? NBC Sports Washington. Firing Larry Hess shows that the Redskins are committed to changing the culture. And the next guy they hired got investigated by. It's a D-D-A.

Yeah. Yeah. And now they had to go back to that guy who was here in the 80s, Bellamy, who apparently I've been told is that... I've heard he's just an absolute gem of a person. He's a terrific guy. Yeah. I mean, he was the assistant trainer when Bubba was there when I covered the team. It's a great guy.

He was at Temple University for many years after that. All right. A couple of other things to finish up when we come back right after these words from a few. of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelly's back room. Well, you know, my time down here in Florida is winding down to a close. We've got about 10 or 9 days left to have to head back to Ice Station Frederick, which has not really been Ice Station Frederick this winter.

As I understand, it's been a pretty mild winter. So I'm looking forward to some spring weather when I get back, But I'm really looking forward to getting back to my home away from home, Shelly's back room. You know, maybe more so than my actual condo. And here's why. Shelly's has better TVs. They've got eight large-screen, high-definition TVs. That's much better viewing than what I've got at home.

They might even have better furniture than what I've got at home. They've got these great, you know, overstuffed shares. cozy couches, and, you know, it may be honest with you better than my place. I mean, it's that nice. And then the best part is they have a very attentive staff that, you know, will see for all your needs. And I got to tell you, my staff at the condo is not quite as attentive sometimes. Right.

So I'm looking forward to getting back home, and the place I'm looking forward to getting back home to the most is Shelly's back room at 1331 F Street Northwest. That's awesome. And have a smoke and a drink. That's awesome. Great place. It really is fun. And, you know, you can go in there with family members or you can drop them off at the museum

and then head to Shelly's and hang out with the gang there. So I wanted to end with this because I think this will actually be interesting to you. So I know we've talked, I think, you know, a time or two about just some of the individual scoring performances of the year in the NBA. You know, Damian Lillard the other night had 71. That's the second 71 point performance of the season. Donovan Mitchell, you know, had the other one. I mean, so far in 2023, you have had a – hold on, let me get the list up here again. Sorry about that.

So far in 2003, you've had Mitchell go for 71, Lillard go for 71, and Lillard also went for 60. Last year, in 2022, you had 360-point performances. Carl Anthony Towns, Kyrie Irving,

Luca Donchich. In 21, you had a 62, 60, and 60-point performance. Last night, Jalen Brunson, who Tommy, your Knicks, okay, your team, the team you played for, the Knicks won their seventh straight game. And Jalen Brunson had 39 points, 30 in the first half, and he was 15 of 18 on the night.

He has been absolutely killing it. And last night you had more 40-point-plus performances than any night this year. Lillard had 41 for Portland last night. Brandon Ingram had 40. Donovan Mitchell had 44. Jason Tatum had 41. Zach Levine had 41. It's the most this year in 40-point performances in one night in the NBA.

So before I get to the list, you know, and we start talking about Wilt, because that's where I want this conversation to go. I remember when you and I were doing a show, we did this thing, you know, you heard it here first. And I remember specifically two very long-term. predictions that I had. I said, number one, and this was rather, you know, morbid, but I said, somebody's going to die on an NFL field. I mean, it's awful to say that, given what we saw with Buffalo and Cincinnati, and Damar Hamlin. But I remember making that prediction because the game was getting just wildly physical with incredible athletes. And the other thing I predicted was that we're going to see a 70-yard field goal at some point. Well, neither one of those two.

thankfully the first one hasn't come true and the second one hasn't come true but i do think somebody's going to kick a 70-yard field goal but i was on radio this morning talking to my producer denton and denton said to me um what do you think will come first the next 100 point game all right you know the the the the record of 100 will somebody ever top wilt are we headed in that direction or something i had mentioned to him during a break a hundred point half because last night the Knicks had 81. We've already had two 90-point plus halves, first-haves in games the last two years.

And I said, I think we're going to see a 100-point half by a team. And I don't think Wilt's record will ever be matched. Even in the game that's being played right now, which is just prolific scoring right now, and individual scoring, players don't play as many minutes as Wilt played. So it's going to be much harder

to get to Wilts 100 for an individual performance. But I think we're going to see a 100-point first half at some point in the next few years, which is amazing. I don't think we'll see a 200-point game because if you've got 100 in the first half, it's probably not a close game, so you'll score a lot less than the second half. But we saw a game last Friday night end 176 to 175 in double overtime, the Clippers and the King. second highest scoring game of all time. So which do you think will happen?

I guess really the question for you is, do you think Wilts 100 will ever be matched or exceeded by an individual? Well, it's interesting that you discuss this because today is the 61st anniversary of the day that Wilts scored 100. Oh, my God, it is. I'm looking at the date right now. It didn't even occur to me. Good job.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. March 2nd, 1962 at the Hershey Sports Reef. Sunny Jurgensen was there. Yeah, Sonny was there with the Redskins basketball team. They played a charity game before. The Eagles basketball team. Oh, the Eagles basketball team.

You're right. Yeah, he was playing for the Eagles. It would have been the Eagles. Yeah. Yes. So, Sonny was a good basketball player. Excellent. You know, and a terrific athlete.

But, no, I don't think Wells' record is ever going to be broken. You know, because, well, one thing, I mean, I mean, the term, load, management means players, you know, I mean, you're right, they don't play as many minutes, they don't play as many games, and I just think that it's just not going to get broken. It's an unbreakable record. I mean, we're talking about, you know, we're still talking about 29, 30 points away from what Wilf did. So I would say, I would agree with you that the 100 point half is much more likely than Wolf's record

ever be broken. And you know what's amazing about those scoring numbers are impressive, considering the level of defense that they play in the game today. I mean, that's the most impressive part, you know? Yeah. I do think. And the rugged and the growing schedule that some of these players have to play, like playing every other game or, you know, playing three games and taking a game off. I mean, that's not easy. No, it's not.

hangnail we're out two weeks yeah you know it's amazing and looking at the single game highest you know best performances of all time is this list is just dominated by wilt chamberlain i mean he had the hundred all right that's the most cobi's 81 everybody knows i think most people know is the second best individual scoring performance of all time then wilt's got number three was 78 he's got number four with 73

he's got number four tied for fourth with 73. And the other player tied for fourth with 73 is the great David Thompson, who did it on the final night of the season in 1978 when he and George Gervin, the ice man, were battling it out for the scoring title. And earlier in the day, Gervin went for 63. And Thompson needed, you know, something like 67 or something to win the scoring title. And he went out and got 73 on the same day. That's, That, by the way, should be a 30 for 30. You know, something about that particular day. You're right. Then it's Wilt again at 72. Elgin had 71. David Robinson had a 71 game.

Then you got the 71s this year with Donovan, Mitchell, and Damien Lillard. Then it's Wilt, Booker, Jordan, Wilt, Wilt, Mervich. Wilt, Wilt, Wilt, Wilt, Wilt, Wilt, Wilt, Wilt. I mean, now I'm down to 65 points. I mean, the number of games that this guy had of, like, 60 or more. Are you kidding me? Like this guy is just, there's no player in the history of team sports who is the outlier statistically that Wilts is. Nobody. No. Nobody. I mean, in other words, when you argue errors, when you argue, you know,

quality of opponents, when you are so overwhelming, I mean, that you just like overwhelm the game. I mean, just consume it. It's your game and everybody else is lucky to be there. Every argument doesn't mean anything. You have just literally, I mean, it should have been called the NBA then. It should have been called Wilts Chamberlain. That's what the game should have been called. We're going to play Will Chamberlain today.

The man has 33 career games of 60 or more points. 33 of 60 or more. Are you kidding me? I mean... And I might want to point out to you. And by the way, all of these games, Tommy, he played 48 minutes in almost every single one of these games. Or 53 minutes. There's one game where he got 78.

That's his second best performance. The game went to, let's figure it out, 63 minutes is three overtimes. Game went to triple overtime and he played all 63 minutes. That's crazy. Yes. And as much as I do think that Wilts is the greatest. player in the history of the league. This past Saturday night up in New York, the Knicks celebrated the 73 World Championship team. Here comes Willis Reed. A team that had actually had actually

six future hallfamers on the team. Can I try to name them? Can I try to name them? Yeah. See if I can impress you at all. Six future Hall of Famers on that 73 Knicks team. Okay, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusher, Bill Bradley, right, Earl Monroe. Yes. Okay. The one that people forget coming up. That's five.

Phil Jackson. Well, he is in the Hall of Fame. Hall Famers as a player. As a player. Oh, boy. No one ever gets it. Okay? Yeah, give it to me. Jerry Lucas.

Oh, Jerry Lucas. Okay. Derry Lucas was on that. Because Willis was, his knee was really running down at that point, and they had traded for Lucas to basically be their center for a lot of the season. But my point is in both NBA finals, where Willis Reed faced Willis Chamberlain, Willis Reed was named the MVP of the finals, both times, 70 and 73. He's your favorite player.

The greatest player in the history of the league and Willis Wellis, I'm basically one leg in 73. Outplayed him. All right. You got anything else? I got nothing else for you, boss. I give you music. I give you games.

I do it all for you. I want to give everybody a heads up. I'm actually going away for the weekend, but I am going to have a show tomorrow. In fact, there's going to be two interviews that I have recorded that you'll hear on tomorrow's show, and I think you will enjoy both of them. But in terms of any kind of breaking news, if it's real breaking news, like we have to do it, I'll figure out how to get a podcast out.

But if not, I'll be back on Tuesday. And there will be something else that I'll put out more likely than not on Monday as well. Tommy will be back with me on Tuesday as well. I think we're done for the day. That's it. Okay, boss.