The Kevin Sheehan Show - His Shoe Broke!

Episode Date: February 21, 2019

Kevin opens the show with some weather talk and then gets to Zion Williamson's broken shoe/injury. Thom joins the show from Nats' spring training with thoughts on the Machado deal. Kevin and Thom discuss a letter written by a Skins' fan to Dan Snyder as well. Some NFL, Caps, College Hoops discussion and more. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now, here's Kevin. All right, I am here. Aaron is here. Tommy, you'll be calling in shortly. This show's presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation.com and tell them we told you to call. If you missed the show yesterday, and many of you did, I get it. It was a snow day out of your routine, not in your car. By the way, one of the things that has surprised me about the podcast so far is how many of you actually listen in your car during the day. Our biggest spikes are from four to seven in the afternoon and six to nine in the morning, the following morning, usually because we get this thing out at about noon or 1 o'clock at the latest every day. But yesterday, just behind the curtains real quickly, yesterday was not a banner day for the Kevin Sheehan Show podcast in terms of numbers because it was an unusual day. a snow day and people were out of a routine, but it was a decent show. Joel Corey was on the show.

Joel is really smart, former NFL agent, and he's such a good guest on radio. And, you know, for show hosts, people who do this on radio and television and podcast form, you love people like Joel, because not only is he smart and knowledgeable, but he can communicate. And beyond that, people like the way. that he communicates. That's so important. Isn't it actually, you know, just in life in general, in business, in life that you're able to communicate, but more importantly, those on the other end of your communication like the way you communicate, or even better like you personally, when you

are communicating, it's really one of those things in life that I think is incredibly underrated. But Joel is all of that. He's great. If you didn't listen to the show yesterday, if you get around to it. It would be great because it would help us. Listen to the interview with Joel. His thoughts on the skins, the NFL, the Steelers, free agency. That portion of the show started at the 36 minute 18 second mark yesterday. 3618. Also on the show yesterday, Aaron, and you were off yesterday because the weather was bad. It was bad. My road didn't get plowed until like 6 p.m. Yeah, we didn't get plowed until late last night either. But, you know, it wasn't undrivable yesterday. But anyway, for those that missed the show yesterday, and many of you did,

some of you that didn't miss the show seem to have a problem with me talking about Washington, D.C., being not as soft as our reputation says we are when it comes to bad weather. You know, yesterday we got, you know, a general three to five inches of snow, you know, in the metro area with some mice afterwards. It was a nasty weather day for us, a day where all of the closings actually, I think were totally justified. And it was one of those days where, you know, the local news on television, they were doing the obligatory interviews with people on the street that aren't from here, that are from outside the area. You know, Channel 4, I think it was. It may have been Channel 9. I'm watching and they're interviewing a guy from Boston who says, yeah, you know, I'm always amazed at the way it gets handled here.

Our schools would have been open. You know, the streets would have been cleared, yada, yada, yada. And then this woman from Minnesota says, yeah, yeah, this is nothing. You know, where I'm from, this would be a normal day. You know, it's crazy the way you guys react to a little snow down here. So yesterday on the show, I pointed out the following, that our forecast for much of the area yesterday was, you know, a general two to six inches of snow with ice afterwards that was going to

hit at rush hour and everything closed. And again, I think it was justified yesterday. And a lot of times we close and it isn't, but I'll get to that in a moment. But I pointed out yesterday on the podcast, and some of you took exception to this because I made the point that, you know, Minneapolis isn't that much different than D.C. Because yesterday in Minneapolis, you know what the forecast was, Aaron? Three to five inches? About four to eight. Four to six, I think, was the forecast. And they ended up with eight inches. A little more snow. Not by much. But guess what old Miss Eden Prairie woman on the street interviewed by Channel 4 failed to point out yesterday? That everything in the Twin Cities yesterday was closed. Every school system in Minneapolis was closed. I was just curious

yesterday morning to see, because I knew that there was a simultaneous storm going on in the Midwest, that was comparable to what the storm was here in Washington. Not exactly, you know, inch for inch, ice pellet for ice pellet, but they were comparable storms. And I was curious to see what, you know, Minneapolis, the Twin Cities, would really do on a big snowstorm day. And all their schools were closed. Like, you just hear from these people all the time.

We never closed for what you guys get. Well, yeah, you do. Everything in the Twin Cities yesterday was closed. closed. In fact, get this, and this will surprise many of you. I continued for a portion of the day to follow what was going on in the Twin Cities. By the way, I love Minneapolis. I mentioned this yesterday, and I think I've mentioned it before, but my wife actually grew up in Minneapolis. My father-in-law worked for Pillsbury back in the 70s, and they lived in Minneapolis. She moved to D.C. when she was 10 or 11. So still much of her life was spent here in the area, but she lived the first 10 or 11 years of her life in Minneapolis. And my brother-in-law, who's older, was a hockey player and continued to be a hockey player.

He was four or five years older, so he really grew up a lot of his younger years in Minneapolis. And it's a great city. It's very cold, but it's actually a great city. In fact, one of the things that's interesting about the Twin Cities, I think more Fortune 500 companies are based in Minneapolis than any other city other than New York. At least that's what it was for a while. Anyway, it's a nice city, great place to raise a family,

culturally diverse, more diverse than you would think. It's just a good city. Anyway, I don't need to go on about Minneapolis because what I was going to say is here's a fact that I guarantee you will surprise you. Yesterday in the Twin Cities, the snowfall that they have broke the record for the biggest February of snowfall ever in Minneapolis. They broke the monthly record.

The record going into yesterday for the month of February was 25.1 inches of snow. That was the record for Minneapolis. the long-standing monthly record. It doesn't seem like a lot, does it? It didn't to me. It's like really just 25.1 inches? That was the record for the coldest month or one of the two coldest months of the year?

You know what D.C.'s record monthly snowfall for February is? 35.2 inches. Do you know that in D.C., soft-ass Washington where everything closes after the first floor, Lurrie Falls, our top four February snowfall totals are larger than the record February for Minneapolis. Now, I know there are days here where our kids are home from school and they should be in school. I mentioned that yesterday.

Yeah, there are a lot of days where the pavement is wet and the kids are home from school. I had those when I was growing up, and my kids have had those when they have grown up. We have closed schools too often when schools should have been open. We have closed businesses too often when businesses should have been open. There's nothing worse, I know it, for parents on those days when kids should be at school, the pavement's wet, the sun is out, and they close schools prematurely, and to be fair, more times than not, because the forecast, went awry. You know, the forecast was for something more dire and it didn't materialize. And to be

fair, forecasting these storms in our area can be tricky, really tricky, much trickier than the heartiest of Midwest cities. You know, most of you don't understand this, but the storms that we can get in D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, Northeast, are much bigger in potential. than the storms that Chicago or Minneapolis or Cleveland can get. Now, take out the Lake Effect areas of Buffalo and Rochester where they can get, you know, eight feet from Lake Effect snow. That's a total, it's totally different conversation. But Chicago, Minneapolis, Des Moines, all of those places,

they don't have the same potential that we have for crippling blizzards. Do you know that we have had three storms in the last, 10 years that produced 30 plus inches, close to three feet in some areas of the metropolitan area. The blizzard potential for major East Coast cities for nor'easters is much bigger than what it is for Chicago or Minneapolis. That's why, but I was still surprised that our top four February snowfalls were bigger than Minnesota's record month for February. Anyway, the Hardy Farm Boys in Minnesota and Iowa. You were all home yesterday too for the same snow we got here. I'm going to get to the Zion Williamson thing here in a moment. Actually one quick thing, Aaron, speaking of farm boys,

did you see what Jordan Bowhannon from Iowa said? I did see that. After the Maryland Iowa game, Jordan Bowen is a terrific player, clutch player, great shooter, farm boy from somewhere in the middle of Iowa. You know, he basically said that he got fouled on the final shot by Anthony Cowan. And when Cowan said, I got all ball on social media, Jordan Bowhannon's response was fake news. You know, shut up, Bohan. You know, you and all the other big, thick farm boys in this league, I'm sick of them. Seriously. I think, you know, we're in a big game Tuesday night in I Iowa City. It was a big game in the league in Iowa City. Are you kidding me? If we were in the ACC, we would have played Virginia Tuesday night, because is this rivalry week? I don't know if

they technically do rival. Whatever. Yes, it's, yes. We would have had, well, no, we would have had Pitt. Pitt was our ACC assigned rival. Okay, but that doesn't mean it would have been for rivalry week on television. We would have probably had UVA Tuesday night and Duke on Saturday night. That's what we would have had. And we would have been in the league that would have been tuned in, as all basketball fans were, for Duke Carolina last night. Because you know what Duke Carolina is for the ACC? It's been something celebrated not just by the fans and alum of those two schools, but by everybody in the league. I know. I got up for Duke and Carolina when I was in the ACC. I watched last night. It's a big game last night. But it helped the entire league that

rivalry. And instead, we're in this league that so many of us wish we weren't in. It's a good league. Michigan State's a great program. The coaches are great. The competition's outstanding. It is. It's not the same for us, though. We don't fit Maryland people. We fit in the ACC. I don't care about what the ACC is now versus the way it used to be with Syracuse and Pitt and Louisville and all that. We're still a better fit as a charter member and the third winning us program in the history of the greatest basketball league of all time, the ACC. That's where we belong. Not in this tractor league playing 5250 games. As a Maryland fan, seriously, would you rather be playing Virginia and Duke this week or Iowa and Ohio State? If I believe that we were playing

Virginia and Duke, I'd much rather be it. I just don't believe it. Well, we would have been. We wouldn't have. Yes, we would have been. We would have played Virginia minimum of once a year, and we would have played Duke twice a year. No, well, we wouldn't have been guaranteed to play two crossovers. Two crossovers, but it wasn't guaranteed to be Duke or Virginia. No, it was Duke and Pitt when they established it. I think it was just, when we was established it was just one at the time. Whatever.

You know what, I'd rather play them once a year than Iowa twice a year. Fair enough. You know what our season ending game is this year? Minnesota at home. The place, by the way, that never closes schools for snow. You're determined to make that a rivalry now. Enough of that. Look, I feel the way I feel.

It's not going to change. I'm trying. I'm trying. The league is good. Top to bottom, the Big Ten this year is the best league. You know, last night I'm watching Rutgers in Michigan State early because it was a 630 start. These 630 starts, by the way, the Big East has them too. Because I think Georgetown and Villanova started at 630 last night.

Is that right? Last night, Georgetown Nova? Good win for Georgetown. Yes, 630. These 630 starts everywhere are ridiculous. I mean, give me a break. But Rutgers was taking it to Michigan State last night. They had a 12-point lead at one point in that game.

They lost the game. But the league's good. It's good. I just, I'm never going to change in wanting to be in the old ACC and still having a preference to have been in the new ACC. I still wish that's where we fit better as a basketball. We are a basketball. Maryland is a basketball-first university in a football-first league.

I want to be in the basketball-first league again. That's where we belong. You know, remember very early on, in a very, you know, non-transparent way, you know, Wallace Lowe and Kevin Anderson moved us to the Big Ten. And, you know, there was a financial benefit to moving from the Big Ten. I would still like to see that penciled out. we never got out of paying the ACC exit fee. I would still like to see the numbers on that,

how much of a financial boon it was to go to the Big Ten. I know it was a financial gain. I'm not saying that it wasn't, but I don't know that it was what everybody thought it would be. But remember shortly after Maryland committed to the Big Ten, there was discussion that another ACC school was going to follow, and the discussion was North Carolina or Virginia, We're potentially going to come with Maryland, not Rutgers, but Virginia or North Carolina.

That would have really made it better because we would have entered the league with an existing rival. If North Carolina or Virginia had moved to the Big Ten with us, we would have had an automatic natural rival in that league. And we don't have one in the Big Ten, Aaron. Is there one team that really you get fired up to play? Headstates getting there. A win football? Not in basketball. Overall, I just dislike the Penn State fan base.

Of course, I've got my youngest there because he couldn't get into Maryland or waitlisted. But anyway, it was, there's nothing, I like the league, I like the basketball league. I don't like the way the games are played. I hate the grinded out. I mean, Carolina last night was just beautiful to watch play. They had more shot attempts than we had in the entire game in Iowa City with like 13 minutes left in the game. It's sort of the way I'd like Maryland to play. No one plays like Carolina.

Very few play like Carolina in any of the leagues. Anyway, look, the Big Ten, the truth of the matter is it's a really good basketball league. I'll be excited for some of these games down the stretch, the Michigan game at home. I want us to do well in the league. I want to go win the tournament in Chicago. But anyway, to Zion Williamson and the Shoeette incident last night. Amazing. 36 seconds into the game last night in the Duke Carolina game, which by the way, each year gets hyped even more and more and more, doesn't it? And the people that show up, President Obama was at the game.

You had, you know, Griffey Jr. at the game. There were just so many people, so many celebrities show up for this Duke Carolina thing. And I said yesterday on the podcast, it is the number one thing. on my bucket list. I've never been to Duke Carolina at Cameron Indoor, and it's the number one thing I've got left on my list. I want to go to one of those games. It would be a lot of fun. I've heard it's incredible. I've been to Cameron Indoor, not for Duke Carolina, and it is great. It is great. You know, I'm not objective when it comes to this, but the truth of the matter is it's a phenomenal atmosphere. It's also incredibly small. You know,

Xfinity or Coal, which all of the longtime ACC schools, coaches, players, fans will tell you, was the second most intimidating environment in the ACC, the old ACC, was coming to College Park and playing a big game. You know, it was twice the size. You know, the Xfinity crowd and the coal crowd's twice the size of Cameron Indoor. And I, you know this, how loud Xfinity can get. I don't know that Cameron Indoor can get that loud. But then, again, there's nothing more consistent, nothing more creative, I guess.

You know, the geeky kids down there with their play sheets and their chant sheets, whatever. I'd like to go to that game. Anyway, on the game itself, I don't know that if Zion had played the entire game, Duke would have won the game. It would have been a different game. I understand that. Carolina was awesome. Do you know that the two teams in the first half? The pace was so incredibly frenetic in that game. I mean, I would love to know what the average shot clock time left when the first shot attempt on a possession went up. I bet more times than not,

the shot clock didn't hit 20 seconds before a shot went up. I mean, it was that kind of pace, which you just don't see in the Big Ten, by the way. Michigan State plays that way. Iowa tries to play that way. Michigan State plays that way. I love Vizzo. He's a great coach. But I mean, Carolina, Luke May has really, you know, he's a senior, he's one of those rarities in college basketball. He's made it to his senior year. He's 6-8, 6-9, 250, 260, whatever he is, Aaron. He can really play. He had 30 and 15 last night. Now, would it have been different with Zion in the game? Of course it would have been. But you know who's an incredible player for Carolina, too, is Cam Johnson, the transfer from Pitt. He is really, really a good player. He's an NBA player. I just, in watching

the game, and I've watched Duke a lot this year, it would have been a more competitive game. I don't know that North Carolina would have lost that game. I think Carolina still would have had a legitimate chance to win that game last night, had Zion played in that game. In the first half, the two teams combined to go three for 34 from behind the arc. Did you see that? It was like they were missing so many and they were firing up those shots so quickly. I was curious and I went online and checked the stats at half time. Three for 34 combined.

It's not shocking for Duke because that's always been Duke's Achilles' heel all year. Look, that's always been Duke's Achilles heel, period. Yes. If you go back through the history of Kay and Kay's teams in the tournament, when did they get beat before they should have. gotten beat, you know, an upset to Lehigh or a sweet 16 game to Florida or Michigan State when they were favored. I'm talking about games that they were favored to win where they got bounced earlier than projected. Almost to a game, it was when they didn't shoot the three well because

they totally relied on it for many years, completely relied on three-point shot. And they were vulnerable to a bad shooting night against, especially, you know, I think Michigan State bounced them a couple of times, good defensive teams that physically beat them up a couple of times in those games. They got ousted. Anyway, here's the other, there are a couple of other things that came out of this game. The thought that, you know, I heard last night after the game, the discussion, well, what would Duke be without Zion Williamson? And I bet he comes back, but that's another conversation that I'll get to here in a moment. But what would Duke be without Zion moving forward?

And everybody said, oh, they're no better than a sweet 16 team. Are you serious? They lose Zion Williamson and all of a sudden they can't get past the second weekend. That's what the guys on ESPN were saying last night when the game ended. What are they without Zion Williamson moving forward? They're a second weekend team at best. They have three first round NBA draft choices still on the team in Barrett, Reddish, and Jones. That's more than any other team in the country has.

They have four now. projected first round picks. And without Zion Williamson, they would still have three NBA first round picks, two top five picks on their roster. And you're going to tell me they can't win the national championship? Well, then I would tell you that Shoshchevsky's not a very good coach. How many coaches right now in the country would take Duke's roster without Zion Williamson and say we can go win a national championship? Anybody would. That's a joke, right? That they're only a second weekend team without Zion Williamson?

They can't get it together with three NBA first rounders on their roster? That would be an indictment of Shoshchewski. They're still, still a threat to win it all. I don't know that they would win it all. I'm not suggesting that they're a better team without Zion Williamson, or they're an equal team without Zion Williamson. I'm just suggesting that they still have more talent than anybody else has. without Zion Williamson.

Now, the discussion about that came up last night immediately after the shoe blew out and you get the shot of President Obama saying, the shoe broke. The conversation that immediately started with, this is the problem, you know, with not paying college players. He should have been allowed to go to the NBA. He needs to shut it down now. I love the people that right when he got hurt said, and it was their immediate reaction, how unfair this is. He should shut it down now. Colleges have to start paying these players.

The NBA's got to give up on the one and done rule. I don't have a problem with that, by the way. Let them go. Let them go right as 17, 18-year-olds, right to the NBA if that's what they want to do, because at least if they're in college, we know it's their choice. I would prefer that. this point I would just prefer that because it takes away the, you know, the excuse that they didn't have a choice. They do have a choice now. They could sit out. You know, it's not a one and done

have to play college. It's a one and done, a one year removed from high school. So Zion Williamson or Cam Reddish or R.J. Barrett could have sat out this year so that they didn't injure themselves and they could have gotten, you know, Uncle Phil to coach him up. And they could have gone down to the health club to get a good trainer, and they could have hired a publicist and paid for all of that, by the way, on their own, out of their own pocket, and then, you know, entered the NBA draft in 2019 and not played college basketball and not risked their future. They could have done that. You know, and that's where, to me, the whole argument of they should get paid falls flat on its

ass, flat on its face, because I'm always amazed that, Some of you with business sense don't understand the value proposition of playing college sports for most college players, like 99.9% of them. Look, the Zion Williamson's of the world, the LeBron Jameses, the players that actually had a profile coming out of high school, and they are very, very few and far between. The players that could have gone to the NBA and become a star right away that had a public profile and a marketing platform as a high school player, although most of you listening actually didn't know Zion Williamson until he played his first game at Duke. Those that follow recruiting knew, but he wasn't on the cover of Sports Illustrated like LeBron was at 16 years old. Or whatever age it was that LeBron was anointed, you know, the chosen one. There are a couple of things here.

Number one, you can't pay the players. the numbers you read about, the millions and billions are what we call in the trade gross revenue numbers, top line revenue numbers. They're not profit. 95% of college programs would not be able to pay the players. Now, if you want to take Alabama and Texas and Ohio State and put them into this semi-professional status, fine, do that. and let everybody else compete with the existing rules. But 95% of programs would not be able to afford to pay their players because they don't make a profit now.

And if they do, it's barely a profit. Those are top line numbers, not net numbers. Gross numbers, not net numbers. Do you know how expensive it is to run a football program at a major D1 university? Secondly, there is benefit to the players playing in the SEC in football, in the ACC in basketball, Bama, Maryland, Iowa, UCLA, Duke, Texas, Clemson, North Carolina, all of them. Some of you miss the benefit. I don't understand it.

There is free training, free coaching, and a free marketing platform. Do you know how much that would cost? Again, for Cam Reddish, who says, I'm not going to go risk a year at Duke. and my health. I'll sit out, have Uncle Charlie coach me instead of Mike Shoshchevsky, get a trainer from down at the health club to get me ready, play some pickup games at noon with the 30-year-olds that are off for lunch that are playing at Bethesda Sport and Health, and hire a publicist so that people know who I am before the draft comes out in June so that I get endorsements as a rookie player in the NBA.

go ahead, do that. The training, the coaching, the marketing platform you cannot quantify. You cannot quantify what it means for Tua, Trevor Lawrence, Zion Williamson, Cam Reddish, R.J. Barrett. You cannot quantify. Someone can. I can't. I'm not going to do the research here. It's hundreds of thousands of dollars, minimum of publicity, of marketing, of, of, creating an image, a brand. How are you going to create a brand not playing college football or college basketball?

The SEC, Bama, the ACC, Duke, Carolina, major sports brands. If you're a good player and an NBA future player in those leagues, you come into the NBA with a brand that you would have never had had you not gone to Alabama or Duke or L.A. you or North Carolina. You would have never had it. Again, the exceptions to the rule, LeBron James, maybe Zion Williamson is the exception to the rule. Aaron, you would have a better feel for that

in terms of what his true profile was. You really follow recruiting. I don't follow it like you do. But Zion didn't have LeBron's profile. No, no one's had LeBron's profile. There are plenty of people listening to this show that did not know who Zion Williamson was before Duke's first game in November.

I would say Zion was one of the more, more well-known recruits coming in. He's definitely not LeBron's level, but as far as, you know, freshmen coming into the league, I'm trying to think who I would even necessarily compare him to. He was up there. He was very highly up there. There was a social media frenzy around some of his dunks in high school. Yeah, there was the social media, and the way that he did get recruited, the late commitment to do got a lot of people buzzing as well.

All right. So you have those exceptions. You know, you have, and they are rare exceptions, of the players that might have a public brand going straight from high school into the NBA. These colleges, man, college sports, the players benefit significantly. I haven't even gotten into the value of an education if you stay two, three years, at schools that would cost $50 to $60,000, in some cases, $70,000, $80,000. in some rare private school instances if you're from out of state, or if it's a private school, it doesn't even matter if you're in state or out of state. Look, I think there are lots of things that should happen.

I think they should get larger stipends. They should not be without cash in their pocket to live a normal year in college, being able to go out to dinner, being able to spend money with friends or on a date or whatever. I increase the stipend. I also think that every single player that plays in these schools, that at any point in their life, if they want to come back and get their degree, they can do it free of charge, in perpetuity, that scholarship for the ability to go back and learn and further educate yourself should exist. In some cases, I think it does now.

I think it does. But for many years, if you left early, if you went after. your freshman or sophomore year, and let's just say at 40 years old, you decided, you know what, I want to go back to school. I want to go get my education. Or if the NBA, if you didn't make any money and you didn't make it in the NBA and you decided you want to go back to school, you should be able to go back to that school for free. I think these things are okay. I think, you know, benefiting economically from an autograph session, those things are fine. But you can't pay these guys hundreds of thousands of dollars. You know what?

Maybe you pay for the insurance policies. Many schools do. Maybe you pay for the Lloyds of London insurance policy on a Zion Williamson. You know, that's easier to sort of identify. There are probably a half dozen to a dozen, depending on the sport and the school of players that are clearly going to make a living playing professionally. And maybe the schools should pick up those insurance premiums.

I mean, I'm not, this isn't a black and white issue where I'm like, they don't get a dime. There are ways that it can be. improved. But as far as Zion Williamson and or most college players, there is massive economic benefit by playing a year in college. The marketing platform alone is worth a lot of money. How much money would Tua have gotten in endorsements? Well, actually, let's take it back to somebody who already got paid massively in endorsements as a rookie player, Robert Griffin III. If Robert Griffin the third hadn't gone to Baylor and won the Heisman

trophy and been this exciting, electrifying college football player and instead sat out a year and got trained down in Texas and worked with a publicist to increase the awareness of who he was and what he could potentially do in the NFL one day.

What would he have made coming out in endorsements if nobody, if he didn't play college football and win the Heisman trophy and play in the big 12 and playing some big college games. What would he have made? Nothing is the answer. Nothing. No one would have known who he was. He wouldn't have been coached well in college, and maybe he wasn't anyway.

He wouldn't have had the training, the free medical, which, by the way, he had ACL surgery at Baylor, playing, yes, maybe if he hadn't been playing football, he wouldn't have gotten that first torn ACL at Baylor. But, you know, all of this, oh, they got a profit from their likeness, they got to get paid, the schools are making all this money. Yes, they're making a lot of... they're generating a lot of revenue. Most of these schools aren't making a lot of money.

A lot of these schools rely on states to provide them with funds to keep their athletic departments viable economically. And I'm talking about in Power 5 conferences. Anyway, the other part of this is, you know what, Zion Williamson, if you want to quit on your team and your coach and your program and your fans, and hang it up.

And by the way, if he's legitimately hurt, he's legitimately hurt, there's nothing. This is a conversation that is about a guy that, let's just say, from a health standpoint, in two weeks, is ready to play again. I can tell you this. I can't speak to, this is a matter of perspective because no one can speak from anybody else's perspective

when they don't understand the family dynamic, the family economics, all of that. Okay? I can just tell you that I don't, I wouldn't want my, son to quit. I wouldn't want him to hang it up. And maybe it makes total sense in his situation to do it and not to risk it. And if that's what he chooses, I understand it. Personally, though, I think ultimately it's one of those regrets that he may have. But then again, if he came back

and played and got seriously hurt, that would be a major regret too. I understand. It's not an easy situation. But I would be disappointed personally if he doesn't come back in play. And again, you're naive if you think that the players don't benefit from this relationship with these big time programs and coaches and platforms. You really are naive. Somebody should pencil out just the branding impact from a dollars and cents standpoint on its own. Forget all the other stuff, the free training, the free coaching, the free medical, the free food, the free everything, the free classes, if you're interested in that. Just the branding alone that a player gets playing at Alabama and the SEC or LSU or Florida, you know, or Ohio State or Michigan,

and in basketball, at the big, you know, and having that platform, you know what March is going to do to some players that are marginal NBA players and you have a good run in March in the platform that is the NCAA tournament, March Madness, it's going to make somebody a lot of money somewhere down the road that they would have never had a chance to make had they not gone to college and played. Anyway, that's just my view on all of that. God, there was a tragic event. Late last night, I guess, Jim Beheim was driving along a highway and hit somebody and killed them. The man, the details, it was a 51-year-old man, the man was outside of a car on Interstate 690. The vehicle was involved in an unrelated accident due to bad weather.

They had bad weather there. This guy was the passenger in the car, and they exited the vehicle, and somehow Beheim's car attempted to avoid the vehicle in the road and swerved over and hit this guy. Killed him. I don't think there's any report with respect to Beheim's condition, right? I think he's fine. I mean, he said he immediately went to the police station, was cooperating, you know, all that stuff and was going to be released without, you know, any issue. Okay. But as far as condition, it seems like he's fine.

It was just to hit the pedestrian. All right. Let's get Tommy in here. But first, let me tell you about Window Nation. Window Nation should be on your list if you're considering new windows. I would urge you to give them a call. At the very least, at the very least, have them come out and give you an estimate. It's free of charge.

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86690 Nation or Windonation.com and tell them that I sent you. All right, let's bring in Tommy from spring training, Nat, Spring Training. And since we last talked, Mani Machado signed a 10-year, $300 million deal with the Padres. Your reaction to that and then what it means for Bryce Harper. Well, what it means for Bryce Harper is we know he's going to get more than Maining Wichata because he was the higher value free agent, I think, throughout the whole process. You know, it could go two ways from Manning Wichado. I mean, the Padre seems to have a pretty good team on the verge of coming together.

And they say because they're only a one act in San Diego, there's no football team, there's no basketball team, there's no hockey team. There'll be a lot of interest. I'm a little bit skeptical. I think it could turn out sort of like Robinson Canoe when he signed a huge contract to play in Seattle. And it's pretty much never been heard from again. I think that could happen to Machado. Important in the reports I read that the Padres themselves were surprised that Machado wound up signing with him.

So, I mean, I'm not sure he made a decision other than for the highest bidder. And, you know, most athletes wind up doing that day. Most athletes do go for the money. But I'm skeptical of his long-term success in San Diego because I'm skeptical of the franchise. Do you, have you changed your mind at all on Harper to Philadelphia? No. So that's where you are right now. Give me the number.

Give me the number he gets. I think it's close to $350. I think it's $3.50. Okay. And they're both in a corner. I mean, Harper pretty much, if he doesn't have a long list of bidders that Boris is trying to claim that he does, I don't believe that. If he only pretty much has the Phillies, then maybe the Giants were a shorter-term deal. White Sox?

White Sox, they bowed out of Machado because they said they wouldn't go to $300 million. So I don't know how much they're willing to go for Harper, even though he's a higher value free agent. I just think both that, you know, like I think Harper's in a tough spot. The Phillies are in a tough spot because the Phillies got their fans all hopped up with all this stupid money they said they had to spend this winter. So they can't afford to come away with nothing. and Harper may be very limited in his choices

and he may be having regrets about not taking that $300 million deal with Washington that's not there anymore. So I think they're both in a corner. All right. Look, my reaction to it not following the day-to-day granular detail of all of this here in the off-season is that for all the hand-wringing over, you know, the market isn't what anybody thought it was. They're not going to get the money they thought they were going to get.

Well, Machado signs for a deal that most projected, you know, based on most projections, was actually higher. He had to wait for it, but he got $300 million for 10 years. And Harper, you know, six months ago, we were talking about $400 million, may still end up at $350 when all of a sudden done for 10 years. Listen, that whole narrative about the free agent market and that teams are holding back and not spending, that's carrying water for agents in the players' union. That's a myth.

It's an absolute myth. And you've got a bunch of writers out there who either sympathize with the players or are working as, you know, as unwitting tools of the agents. and touting this narrative out there. That's not true. It's just not true. What else is going on down there? I actually had one question for you.

You know, we were going to get around to it eventually, but I was thinking about him. I read Boz yesterday or early this morning, I forget when, on Juan Soto. And he thinks that Juan Soto at 20, more likely than not, will be much better than the player at 19. And, you know, one of the things that during the season, And I think you said this last year, and if you didn't, then I apologize.

But many said that the one thing about Juan Soto is you don't know until, you know, teams have a chance to figure him out. And that usually comes later in the year or in year two. What do you expect from Juan Soto in his second year? I expect him to do better, to have a better season that he did last year. I mean, he had a historic season for a 19-year-old. 116 games. He had 22 home runs, drove in 70 runs,

hit almost 300. I think he's elated to be playing with his friend, Victor Roblois, in center field now. It's ironic because Robles is the guy that we've been waiting for for for years. You know, I mean, we got a glimpse of him a couple years ago, and because he wasn't healthy when the nationals ran out of outfielders last year. They skipped over him and went to Soto, who kind of emerged almost out of nowhere to be this kind of player. And him and Soto, Robles and Soto are close.

They dress next to each other in the clubhouse. They're both very loose, very friendly. I think Soto is going to have a better year, and I think it's in part because Robles is going to be playing next to him and it's going to be in the lineup with him. Do you think it was more the emergence of Soto or the end of Soto? expectation and projection of Robles that allowed the learners and Rizzo to think in terms of a future without Bryce Harper? Which was more impactful? I think it's the emergence of Soto. I mean, the expectations for Robles have it changed. He's still, you know, a very highly regarded five-tool player. Now, there were, there were expectations that started to emerge last spring.

about Soto, but he was not on the radar as long as Roe Boys was. And the fact that Soto was such, turned in such a veteran kind of season for a rookie. I mean, the things that you saw him do in terms of plate discipline and not getting into slumps and not chasing bad pitches and being a guy who basically did what he told, you know, was a good teammate who paid attention to the veterans. I think that was found money. You know, found money is a great feeling. Robles was the guy they've been betting on all along.

And then all of a sudden, they reached in their pocket. They found a swat of bills, and it was Juan Soto. All right. Okay, anything else you got from spring training is we are live on site with our beat reporter from spring training, Tom Levero from the Washington Times. It's a different spring training than last year. You know, I mean, this is kind of a cliche storyline. It is a little bit tougher.

They are working on more fundamentals. But one of the big differences is half the team isn't walking around limping. Right. I mean, last year at spring training, you had Daniel Murphy and Adam Eaton, basically on one-leg each. You know, they were running around out there, and you could see them limping. and these are two of your starters. And you don't have that this year. What you've got is Hallie Kendrick coming back from an Achilles heel

who looks stronger, faster, and better than ever. So you don't have this notion of, you know, our player is going to be ready. And Kendrick was really missed last year because he can play second base. He can play all the outfield positions. He can play third base. He's like a $290 career hitter, and he's a great guy in the clubhouse. His impact, if he stays healthy this year, is going to be huge. I mean, look, the team has a lot to feel good about right now in spring training,

and obviously that's the time to feel good. Last spring, I'm not so sure they felt that good. Did you want to say anything about Rendon and what he faces long-term contract-wise, the column that you wrote for this morning? Well, you know, it's so funny because you remember Harper came in last year and met with reporters and said, if you ask me about my contract or free agency, I'm going to leave. I'm going to walk out the door. And this is the guy who supposedly loves attention.

Rendon hates attention, stood there before reporters yesterday, answered every question about his contract with great answers, including, you know, the answer where he said, you all guys have this impression. that we work for Scott Bores. He works for us. Really? And we've gotten into, that's what he said, you know.

And it was, it's obvious, but it was great to hear him to say that. And he did this thing where he said, we've gotten into some jibber-jabbers before. So now we're all trying to figure out a way

to use the words jibber-jabbers every day. All right. Because that's something like probably from 1920. Yeah. All right. I wanted to get to, you sent me a note last night. Aaron texted me last night about a letter that someone wrote to Dan Snyder,

a letter that, you know, he copied me, you, Cooley, John Kime, Hogshaven, and a lot of other people on, I guess. And it was a letter that you said, and I had not read it yet, you said really resonated with a lot of Redskins fans. He's like, look at your social media. your Twitter account and how many people have retweeted it, et cetera. Same with your account as well, whatever. So I read it this morning.

The guy's name is Mike Mason. And by the way, Mike's a clear musician living in Nashville, Tennessee. So Mike, if you are listening to the podcast, and apparently he does, I love Nashville. My sister lives in Nashville. It is one of my favorite places. And my son, who is also a musician, one of my three boys, we spent a week down in Nashville over the summer. And to me, it's just such an underrated city.

Anyway, to make a long story short, he sent this letter out. And I'm not going to read the whole thing because it's rather lengthy, but it's a letter to Dan Snyder that talks about the importance of the Redskins to him and his family and how it was this shared experience. And it got them through tough times. And, you know, mentions Daryl Green and Sean Taylor and jersey numbers and jerseys he purchased. and just how important the Redskins were to him and his family, which is a similar story that, you know, not just thousands or even tens of thousands,

but millions of Redskinned fans have, whether they live here or outside the area. And by the way, I think you know this. This was a surprise to me when it was told to me, I don't know, five, six, seven years ago, that most Redskins fans, what the Redskins know is the hardcore portion of their fan base or what used to be before the last couple of years. Most of them live outside of the area. You know, 70% of their devoted fans live in other areas. Part of that is it's such a transient city, and people are always moving,

and you don't leave your fandom just because you moved to Northern California to take a job. You know, if you were a Redskinned fan growing up in Fairfax County, and you got a job, and you're still a Redskine fan. But anyway, he talks about how, you know, at one point his father was serving a brief sentence and he had to drive 650 miles and on the on the drive there through a telephone call with his father his father's first words were so how's kirk doing you know and how important you know he made the case like many of us could how much of a part of our lives this football team was so he actually mentioned um he mentioned me in the

letter that he sent sent to Dan Snyder. He, and I'll read this portion. He said, it's the complete lack of appreciation or connection that Dan Snyder has for people like me. Take a deep breath. Jeff George, Gibbs

2.0, Sean Taylor, Levar Arrington, RG3 McNabb, Josh Norman, Champ, Portis, Fletcher, Norv, Shannie, McVey, McGVey, Greg Williams, Marty, Scott McLevin, Captain Kirk. You know what it's led to? Nothing. nada, zip. And he writes, now it's your turn, Mr. Snyder. It's your turn to sell me on you. It's been long

enough. I've listened to Kevin and Cooley every day and now separately, and you know what? Kevin's right, apathy, and he writes it in all caps. It's more dangerous than anything else, and I'm there. I hate the Cowboys and their fans so much, but how pathetic is it when I hate the Cowboys more than I love the Redskins? I'm going to keep watching for now, but I'm not buying anything until something changes. And if it doesn't, I'll probably stop watching too. Give me something besides my dad's stories or any tape to be proud of. Please, for now, HTTR. He signs off on the letter.

And look, this is what we've all talked about for a couple of years now. This is the feeling that many of my friends have basically, Tommy, I grew up here. You didn't. And I grew up going to RFK Stadium. And all of my friends growing up, we were all massive Redskin fans. And it wasn't just, you know, game days where we were watching games. It was RFK and the feeling at RFK and just how important it was to our lives. It was. I mean, we probably make all of these things far too important than they really should be in anyone's life. But whatever, you have, you have your life. the things that you are attached to emotionally and sometimes it's sports, sometimes it's music, sometimes it's whatever. But this has changed. It's changed in recent years. I have obviously always been a fan born and raised, but you know my feelings have changed a little bit in recent years. Now, I still have a show in which the majority of people that listen to the show listen to you and me together or me by myself because they are Redskinned fans more.

than anything else. But the feelings changed. I would say 90% of my friends who were season ticket holders are no longer season ticket holders. And that 70% of my friends who were Redskinned fans are totally apathetic about the franchise. And that is danger. And it's been in that area for a while. And we talked about this particular year being another rock bottom. I'm sure there's another rock bottom to come, but I know you wanted to say something about this letter that Mike Mason from Nashville, Tennessee wrote to Dan Snyder. Well, I thought it really seemed to hit home with a lot of Redskins fans who, you know, in a way, I mean, because it's not anything that you and I haven't said, and I haven't said

in columns in terms of, you know, what's been going to be. on and what's wrong. And, you know, we keep trying to sometimes beat people over the head with this isn't normal. This isn't good. It's going in a direction that that's going to take a long time to come to turn around and move the other way. But I guess to hear some of the fellow fan spelled out pretty eloquently. I think that had a big impact. And it's sort of like social media can make things snowball and this thing has snowballed and I'll be curious if Dan Snyder ever sees it. That's what I, that's the first thing

I thought of because Mike wrote a very nice letter and an emotionally, you know, a passionate letter. But I would guess that thousands have been written to Dan Snyder in recent years that strike a similar tone, that have a similar feel that have, you know, a visceral sort of, you know, emotional feel to it. it. And I have no idea if he reads these letters or not. I would guess in most cases not. Yeah, I would guess in most cases as well. And I would guess in most cases, the person in their

media or fan community office or whoever would read something like this would keep it away from them. Instead of saying, boss, we've got a problem. This is a letter that, would get at the lead key. No doubt. And by the way, more likely than not, that's happened many, many times over the years. And it may be one of the reasons, and we've talked about this a lot too over the years,

that they seem to be so detached from what the significant majority of what was their fan base, the way those people feel. You know, I've said this a million times. And those that are recently involved in the organization, organization from a media standpoint, a little bit closer to the organization, like we were for many years being owned by Red Zebra, which Dan Snyder was the significant shareholder of, and being the rights holder for the Redskins games for such a long period of time. I hosted the pregame show for

13 years. And so others have said to me, man, the stuff that you used to say about them being detached, I can really see it now. And it's true. They have these events. during the course of the year that the hardcore, you know, 15, 10, 15,000 show up for, and they view it as reflective of the fan base as a whole in terms of the way those fans treat them, which is like they've never stopped winning. You know, how many of those draft day parties, you know, at FedEx did you and I do together on a, you know, a Friday or a Saturday? And 10, 15,000.

Actually, I wound up. doing more than you. I wound up doing a lot more than you. Not for the first few years. For the first few years when you weren't there, I was doing them by myself all day long by myself. But that's true. I think in the last couple of years I was like, no, I don't really want to do that

anymore. But we would be sitting there on the club level as 15,000 people. I think for the RG3 draft year, I think they had 35 or 40. thousand in the stadium. Oh, yeah, because I remember being on the field. Yes. As he was on stage and the place was packed. To watch the draft.

Now, in that particular case, you got the number one player that they flew in, they helicoptered in, and he would sit there with Larry on stage and there'd be a couple of questions and that was it. And I was like, you know, and the team's takeaway from that was always, whether it was that event or Harvest Fest or it was like, this is. is what our people feel about us. Even though we keep being mediocre or we keep sucking, they still are biting,

they're taking it hook, line, and sinker. And the truth of the matter is, those people represented a very small portion of what the fan base used to be. Those are the people that were going to continue to spend and never stop spending and never stop thinking that we were right around the corner from a Super Bowl run.

And I think they've been fooled by that. group over the years. I think that's why for most of us they have seemed so detached. And you know, the funny thing is, if you had Ruth Allen in front of you, the Prince of Darkness himself, and you read that letter to him, you know what his answer would be? It would be, look, that's the kind of passion that we love to be in our fans. That would be it. That's the kind of passion we love in our fans. Our fans are more passionate than anyone else. And I think, They don't, but Bruce, the passion is. You're basically saying that, I mean, this guy's telling you, you're breaking his heart.

Yeah, but, you know, they probably think, you know, as you describe that, you know, with Bruce sitting in front of you reading him that letter, they do believe that it's passion, and deep down, they'll never admit this. They just feel like, yeah, he's coming back. Once we get to five and three next year, you know, which we're really close to. do, he's not going anywhere. He'll buy all the stuff he's always bought. He'll pay for tickets.

I really believe that they have felt all along that they keep baiting this hook and that people keep biting. Now, in the last few years, there's no possible way that the economics of the situation have made them feel overly optimistic. I mean, there's been too much lost revenue just from a crowd standpoint, a merchandise standpoint, I would guess. And so they have felt it to a certain degree, but I don't think it's changed their feeling that the people that aren't coming to the games, the people that aren't watching the games,

the people that aren't buying the merchandise are just more disappointed than they are disgusted. You know, it's two different emotions, right? Being disappointed is we feel you. The injuries, we were right there. We were really close. We're really close next year if you do things right. Versus being disgusted that Bruce Allen still exists. in the organization, which is really what the true, there's either total disgust about Bruce Allen

or there's total uncaring. Nobody cares. Yeah. Indifference. Absolutely. Absolutely. And this guy is trying to tell you that he desperately wants to care, but it gets harder every day. I think that that really sums it up for many. Last thing, before I let you run, I don't know if you saw this. Kevin Colbert is the long time head of football operations slash general manager for the Steelers. And with this whole Antonio Brown thing and Antonio Brown having meetings with all management, including Art Rooney, the second or third, whatever it is at this point, and the Steelers moving on from Antonio Brown and committing to trading him, Kevin Colbert was with a group of reporters yesterday.

And I don't know that I've ever heard. And I'm sure someone will come up with an example or six of them. where there's a comparable, there are comparable statements from a front office person in the NFL, but Kevin Colbert yesterday backed his starting quarterback and gave him the level of seniority and autonomy and leadership. Like I've never heard anybody in an organization. Listen to what Kevin Colbert said about Ben Rothlisberger yesterday. He called him, quote, the unquestioned leader of the locker room. quote, he's the elder statesman and the Super Bowl winner.

If our players were smart, they'd listen to him because he's been there. He's done it. He can tell them, no guys, what you're doing is or what you're not doing, it's not good enough. He went on to say, I honestly believe that this level of leadership, and I'm paraphrasing there, can be a burden on him more often than he may like to admit, because he has to. He's got 52 kids under him, quite honestly. Then he goes on to say, I want them to step up and say, Hey, Ben, what do I have to do?

Can I do this better? What do we have to do to win a Super Bowl? I think that once you win it, you've got 53 guys who can say what it took. Right now, he's the only one. So I have no problem with him. He can call me out, that's fine. What he does, I totally respect. I see too many times he's won games for us and come through

in situations closed quote. Man, you talk about going out on a limb to say this is the only guy in the organization that matters. Yeah, and what do you think the reaction's going to? I mean, who's going to trust Ben Rathesberger in that locker room when he seems like the biggest teacher's pet in the NFL right now? Well, remember what Antonio Brown tweeted about Rathlisberger last week, He said Rothelsberger had a, quote, owner mentality, closed quote.

Kevin Colbert just nearly gave him owner status. He almost elevated him above his head coach. And you know, the interesting thing about this is you can't talk something like this into existence. I mean, what he described is from all accounts from what we've read, is what Tom Brady has in New England, but only because of Tom Brady's actions and performance, not because somebody is saying, you need to follow this guy.

People just see it when they arrive in New England. I mean, he basically sets the tone with the way he carries himself. Ben, whether right or wrong, has turned some people off. I mean, how does a guy like, you know, Alejandro Villan New England, Waiva, the guy that is a veteran, is a war veteran. Remember, he was the guy that Pittsburgh rallied around before, and they sat back on the anthem thing and then came out as a team. I forget how that whole thing, but he's like in his early 30s, how do you think a guy like that feels to be called one of Ben's 52 kids? You're right. You're absolutely right. I mean, I, that was really a misguided,

foolish, over-the-top reaction. He's probably, Antonio Brown's probably driving him now. That's exactly what it is. You just nailed it. Antonio Brown's got them all up in arms the way he's behaved the things he said, dictating a trade. And by the way, and I had Joel Corey on yesterday, this is a painful situation for the Steelers. Being forced, they're not forced. I mean, they're apparently, you know, they're complicit in this now if they go ahead and trade him. It's going to be painful. The salary cap hit that they're going to take by trading Antonio Brown.

It's going to hurt their team, trading him. But I'm sure they have come to the conclusion that keeping him hurts more. But, you know, I think what you said about Brady is interesting because I don't know that you would ever get that publicly from Kraft or Belichick or anybody in the organization. And I think it's a mistake that Kevin Colbert made. I think it stems from what you just said, the Antonio Brown frustration. But it's the wrong thing to say publicly.

You can say, Ben is the leader of this team. that that's obvious. He's the unquestioned leader, and he's a Super Bowl champ, and he is one of the all-time great Steelers. But when you start talking about him having 52 kids, and they should go to him, and man, I think he went overboard yesterday. I think he absolutely did. It's so interesting. I think he regrets it. I think it's so interesting, Tommy, because it proves that even the most stable of organizations, in this day and age, in part because of social media, media, in part because of what can be said and what can be generated via social media thoughts at 2 o'clock in the morning that a player may regret. But in this day and age, even the best

of organizations, the organization that's had three head coaches, three in their existence, the Steelers have always been the most stable in the NFL, that even they can basically, you know, fall on hard times. And I don't know that they will fall on hard times. They might win the division and be a playoff team next year. But right now, they seem to be misstepping more than usual. It can happen to anybody. But this is why I tell you, and I try to tell people, that media and controlling the message, whether you like it or not, is more important than ever, because when it spins out of control, it hurts you on the field. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, they're an interesting story next year.

I mean, two players who are Hall of Fame kind of players just didn't want to play for him the last couple of years. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I think Kevin Colbert went way overboard. I don't think that that was really good public relations counsel. But I think you're right.

I think it was an emotional response to this whole Antonio Brown thing. He's driven them crazy. All right. He's driving me nuts and he doesn't even play for it. Exactly. The one thing, you know, did you find it interesting that the caps are moved on from Devante Smith Pelly? And I guess they're getting ready to make some sort of a trade here before the trade deadline. You know me. I'm not following that in great detail, but I didn't know if you had been following it at all. I mean, he was a Stanley Cup hero last year. yes he was he was he was definitely a Stanley Cup hero look I guess it's the kind of thing you can't judge it until you see what else the caps do

at the trading deadline if there's another connected shoe to drop here that will make because I think Brian McClellan's done a really good job as general manager in making deals and keeping the team together and building the team with

the parts he's brought in so at this point McClellan to me gets a benefit and a doubt until we see the final result. Yeah, I enjoyed his performance in the postseason last year. He was a clutch player. But yeah, it seems to be that they're clearing space to make a move here. And what is a very, you know, I've mentioned it many times, and I'm not watching these games night by night, but, you know, following it enough to know, this is an incredibly competitive, you know, situation in the East in the NHL this year. It's amazing. I mean, the Caps right now are, you know, basically five points out of the playoff race. They're five points out of

fifth place in their own division. So it's going to be an interesting stretch. And, you know, tonight they have, they get Toronto tonight at, in Toronto, you know, one of the teams that, you know, when they beat him in the playoffs two years ago, right? Many people thought Toronto was the next, you know, powerhouse, but it's clearly become Tampa more than Toronto, even though Toronto is very good as well. All right, enjoy the weather. It's warming up here. I know you'll be happy about that, but man, we had a weather day yesterday.

I'm real sorry to hear that. See ya. See you. Quick word on Ferrisch, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Fairfax. They should be on your list if you're considering something new, especially if you're considering a Chrysler, a Dodge, or a Jeep. Also a Subaru, because they've got a Subaru dealership. Go to Farish Cars.com right now to see their live inventory and their best deals.

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Ralph's a good friend, long-time friend. And if you're not in Northern Virginia and you're listening from Maryland or D.C., it's not that hard to get to. It's right off the Beltway, right off, you know, just go to Route 50 and it's a couple of miles in, right in the heart of Fairfax and Fairfax Circle. ask for Ralph, tell them I sent you. They've got great service too when you buy a vehicle there. Mark does a phenomenal job with the service department. You're in and out very easily and quickly. You can find out everything you need to know right now at ferrishcars.com. Live inventory, live pricing, best deals, ferrish cars.com. Also, I've mentioned this before. If you're listening to the podcast and you haven't subscribed, please subscribe. Really helps us. It live. us into a certain number of episode downloads on each show, and that helps us from a monetization standpoint, which it's going fine, but we want it to go even better. So the more downloads we get, the better chance we have of really monetizing this thing. And it helps us if you subscribe. There's no cost to subscribing. There's no information you have to give. But subscribing on iTunes,

Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you can subscribe, just locks us into you getting the show every day. And you don't have to listen to it every day. I know some of you listen much more during football season than you do during non-football season, but it'll help us when we get to football season. Plus, even if you don't listen to our football season, keep downloading.

Yeah, keep downloading. Download quick click, then you can delete it. Yeah, we're not proud. We'll ask you to do anything. Also, rate and review, if you don't mind, too. That really helps us. of you have done that and I appreciate it so much. And believe it or not, that's almost as important as the subscribing. The reviews and the ratings have been great. So encourage others to do that.

And for those that aren't listening that want to listen, that were fans of the radio show with Tommy or with Cooley, let them know. Tommy's on twice a week. Cooley's usually on at least, you know, once a week, maybe once every couple weeks. Let them know that we're still doing a lot of the same stuff. And if they don't know how to do a podcast, and it's not hard, as most of you have figured out, just tell them to go to the Kevin Sheehan Show.com, and they can listen right there on the website. So appreciate all of that. Two more things real quickly to get to before we will wrap it up for the day. The Cowboys basically are moving on. I don't know if people saw this from David Irving and Terrence Williams. Now, David Irving, if you recall, had some issues there because he was

healthy and then all the sudden wasn't playing. So we brought that up as the Cowboys approached the postseason, that it was strange that David Irving was on the roster and healthy but was not playing. So there were some issues there with David Irving. Terrence Williams, they're apparently moving on from as well. And so I had some of you saw that, some of the Cowboy fans that listened, saw that and said, that predicted that the Redskins would, you know, of course go and sign both of those players as the Redskins often do with former Cowboys, and it doesn't work out. I could see the Redskins being interested in either player.

David Irving, by the way, to me, is an explosive pass rusher, much more so with his hand in the dirt. But I think he's an explosive pass rusher. I mean, he had a couple of games in 2017 that were just dominant. Terrence Williams, I mean, I can tell you this. If RG3 were still the quarterback, he'd want Terrence Williams here. Terrence Williams was the guy that RG3 wanted Mike Shanahan to draft in 2013. Would have been 13.

I think that's right, yeah. When Shanahan drafted Jordan Reed. It came down, you know, Griffin apparently, Shanahan told us this on the air once. Griffin was really pushing for Terrence Williams. And Terrence Williams played at Baylor. And Shannahan said no. this Jordan Reed, if, you know, he's got a chance to be a star pass catching tight end, and they took Jordan Reed instead.

Anyway, the other thing I wanted to get to was the clear indication that Landing Collins is not going to be tagged by the Giants. That surprises me. I am surprised by that, and I believe it's perhaps even a little bit of a red flag. You know, when you take a player with that kind of talent and you just say, go ahead, we're okay with you hitting the market as an unrestricted free agent, it's strange to me. You know, you always have to, you know, as a team that's then willing to look at signing a Landon Collins, to me there's a lot of, you know, serious due diligence in digging you've got to do to make sure that you're getting the right kind of guy.

You know, the Giants organization is a pretty deep. decent organization. I can't stand John Mara for the things that he's done to the Redskins over the years. The $36 million salary cap was John Mara and it was an initiative really by him more than anybody else. And it was wrong. It was wrong. He basically set the Redskins and other teams up for this particular thing by talking much more about we are not going to sign big name free agents during this, you know, during this lockout period during the, I'm sorry, during the uncapped season. And little was said about releasing players in an effort to take a bigger hit during the uncapped year and players you didn't want anymore, like Albert Hainsworth as an example.

Anyway, to make a long story short, the Giants are a pretty good organization. I'd really want to know why they are not tagging Landon Collins. Maybe they don't think the price is worth the player. And maybe they will make an effort to go ahead and sign him as a free agent. But, you know, Landon Collins, his hero, his hero was Sean Taylor. And he's talked about, you know, in the past, wanting to be a redskin. I would be somewhat surprised if he still wants to be a redskin, you know. But at the same time, you know, that's a player you absolutely have to look into, don't you? They have a major need at the position, and he's a major talent.

those two things are both facts. The Redskins have a major need at the position, and Landon Collins is a major talent. Need, talent, it'll come down to whether or not they have the ability to make a deal on that. Now, they still could tag him, you know. He just went in and cleaned his locker out yesterday, and that seemed to be an indication to everybody

that he didn't expect to get franchise tagged. Well, he's also saying that if he does get franchise tag, he'll sit out for the off season, which, okay. Yeah. I don't think that that would stop them. If they wanted to tag him, I don't think that threat would stop them from tagging him. Collins would make roughly, I think, 12 million on the tag.

I think that's the average of the top five at the position. And, you know, he's coming off, you know, still his, rookie deal. So he hadn't made that much money yet. But anyway, I would bet still, this is just a gut feel right now, I would still bet that Land and Collins somehow ends up in a giant uniform. I don't know why I feel that way. I just feel that way. I think that maybe they're not going to use the tag, but they're still going to aggressively go after him. And remember, they still have another, what, week and a half or so to tag him. The last thing I wanted to mention was just this story that came out yesterday, Aaron, about Russell Wilson. Apparently, it was,

it originated from Colin Cowherd's show. What's his show on? I actually don't know. Is it CBS Sports Network? I think it's Fox. Is it Fox Sports? It's Fox. It's Fox. It's Fox. I have not watch it. Now, what was her name Christine something? What was her, the girl that used to sit on the set with him? I don't remember that. She's not on it anymore, I don't think, but she was a beauty. Anyway, look up her last name. It's an Irish last name. It's escaping me right now. She was

gorgeous, though. That was about the only time I think I've watched the Cowherd show. Christine Leahy, right. By the way, on Cowherd, most people, for whatever reason, in our business, they're not big fans. It's not that I was a big fan of his,

but he knows how to do a show. He knows knows how to do a show and that dude prepares for a show more than anybody I think I've ever heard other than Galdy probably um I mean he scripts out the show word for word Aaron Colin Cowher's show is scripted out that's hard to do that's a lot of work and to make it sound like it's unscripted um is you know a skill that he has anyway uh I got sidetracked there apparently he started some sort of conversation about Russell Wilson ending up playing for the New York Giants, that he wants to play in New York because his beautiful wife prefers to live in New York and not Seattle,

and I can understand that. I've spent a lot of time in Seattle. It's a lovely place. The Pacific Northwest is beautiful in terms of scenic and physical beauty, et cetera. I wouldn't want to live in Seattle personally. If you gave me the choice of New York or Seattle, I would take New York 10 out of 10 times. But, you know, this is crazy.

Like, he's not, this didn't come from Russell Wilson, right? Or we don't think it came to Colin Cowherd via Russell Wilson. No. Well, according to him, it passing a long word from the, quote, Entertainment Agent World. How can Wilson, Wilson's contract, you know, Wilson's contract is, he's still got years left on his contract, right? This isn't, I would hope this is not an Anthony Davis situation where he's trying to, you know, get out of, get out of Seattle with a trade. I don't think this,

I don't think he has much, I think this might be the last year on his contract. Is it? Yeah. Okay, well, then he'll have the choice. Yeah. When he finishes his contract. Um, damn, Russell Wilson's a great fit for Seattle and that team and has been, I, it's funny about Russell Wilson, because Cooley's opinion to me on football is probably the one I rely on more than anyone else's by Miles. And he's never been a huge Russell Wilson fan, says he's not good from the pocket. I take Russell Wilson as my starting quarterback every day of the week and twice on Sunday if he were available. I think he's a great quarterback. I think he is a winner. I think he's a playmaker. I don't know that there's anybody that makes more out of less than Russell Wilson does. I think

he's elite. I don't think he's top five. He's top ten, though. And he's unique. Anyway, I still think the Giants are going to draft a quarterback in this particular draft. They have to. And bring Eli back for next year. All right, thanks to

all of you for listening. Back tomorrow, and we'll preview some of the college basketball for the weekend in great detail. Good weekend coming up. Enjoy the day.