The Kevin Sheehan Show - Jack In The Box

Episode Date: June 9, 2022

Kevin and Thom today on the Del Rio "dust-up". Some Strasburg, NBA, and a Riggo golf story to boot.  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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Because it's kind of hard for me to say I can realistically look at it. I see the images on TV. People's livelihoods are being destroyed.

Businesses are being burned down. No problem. And then we have a dust up at the Capitol. Well, there's nothing burned down. And we're not going to talk about, we're going to make that a major. Major deal. Damn it. I told the producer of this show to come in with an NBA highlight. I wanted to talk about the NBA today. Because that game last night through three quarters, Tommy, was phenomenal. Oh, yeah, it was phenomenal. It was great. You know, I actually almost texted you to say, are you watching the game? You weren't, were you? I watched the second half because I was at a D.C. Gray's game last night. We had a home open. We had a home open.

Yes. Are you going to get me on one of those hats that you tweeted out the other day because my son said, look at what Tommy tweeted out. That's a nice looking hat. And I said it is. I think you can get us some. We have great gear, and people should be alerted to it. You can buy D.C. Gray's gear online.

And I'm telling you, it's old school great gear. Shirts and hats and all kinds of stuff. As far as you, I've been given orders by the hierarchy of the D.C. Graze that said they've got everything you want. You just have to come to a game to get it. Well, I'm not going to do what you would do, which is to go in and say, well, what can I take? And then just start taking everything. I want to leave, you know, most of it, obviously, to be sold.

And I'm even willing to pay for some of it if it benefits the organization. but that that DC gray's hat and I've had a couple of them over the years because usually on your cigars and curveball, curveballs night, you gave out gear and for a couple of years you gave out t-shirts and hats and I, the hats were phenomenal. I usually like the hats that fit me the best because I have one of those heads that not every,

every hat fits. I've got a large head. And then I like also the large. look of the hat, I'm just telling you that I don't need anything other than maybe two of those DC Gray's baseball caps. They were the light blue color with DC on the front. That's all I require. Tell Chris, I don't need a boatload of shit sent to me.

You sell that stuff. If you want the hats, you got to come get them. I do? Yes, you got to come to a game. Oh, I got to come to a game. You can't just send them to me? You can't bring them in when we have our guest in here? It's beyond my control.

I've been given orders. Okay? I mean, you can throw out the first pitch at a game. You don't have to stay for the whole game. I'll throw out the first pitch. I'll throw out the first pitch. There you go. Absolutely.

You've been invited before to do that. And you don't even have to stay for the whole game. I'll throw out the first pitch and take a couple of caps with me and maybe a t-shirt or two. Maybe an extra long tee. There you go. There you go. I'll tell you what, seriously, the gear is great. It's really good gear.

I know it is. And here's the thing, and I don't mean this as, you know, people wouldn't want it because it's the D.C. grays. But it says D.C. on everything. And so if you are, you know, if you have kind of a pride about your hometown and your city, I think the gear looks awesome. I think the logo is great. I did notice in the team store, there's, there are a few caps there that have RBI as the header and not D.C. I would prefer the ones that say D.C.

Yes, well, because we also run the RBI program in town as well. I know. I know. For, you know, reviving baseball in the inner city. But we set up a date for you. That works for you. You think I would be nervous? I've never thrown out a first pitch. I don't think he'd be nervous.

You don't seem like the nervous type when it comes to athletic endeavor. I don't, no, well, let me just tell you. I mean, it's not going to be a Karan Butler-John Wall situation because I played baseball and I can throw a baseball. But, you know, that's different from lining up on the bump 90 feet away and trying to, you know, throw one right into the catcher's glove. I mean, I could be a little wild. That's your first mistake.

What? You don't line up on the bump. You don't line up on the bump. Where do you line up? You line up in front of the mound and throw it. Everybody does that. Okay. I mean, there's no great horror in not throwing it from the mound.

Your risk of failure increases significantly from there. So, I mean, reasonable people, but you can throw it from the mound. You can practice, you know? I think if I throw it from the mound. You can practice before the game? I think I'm going to throw it from the stretch if I'm on the mound. Okay. I don't know why I said that.

And people will come out to watch this, hopefully. I'll definitely do it. You know, I'll never forget. I remember at RFK once, Dr. Phil came to throw out the first pitch. And he was in town because his wife was an author, and she was doing some kind of book signing. he's a big guy, by the way. I think he played football at Tulsa for a while. Who's Dr. Phil?

Phil again, the TV guy? I don't think I've ever watched the show. Okay, no, I know who he is. Well, I don't think I've ever watched it either, and he was warming up in the, under-RFK stadium, and I was interviewing him for a column I was doing, and he was pretty good. He did a great job. He was an athlete, so he did a great job, but my... interview with him. I remember what, I'm going to write a calm, and I went to the stadium

saying, man, I'm going to crucify this guy, this guy, this Oprah wannabe, you know, and after it, I wrote this really nice calm about him because he had that Don King quality, where he could make you feel like you were the most important person in the world. See, that's the people, you know, the people that get upset with you on Twitter, all you have to do, is just say one nice thing about Tommy and say it in a creative way, and it doesn't matter what you think about anything. He'll be right there with you. You know, I was going to tell you something because you just reminded me something,

you know, the throwing out of a first pitch. I think I've told this story before, but have I told the story about when Riggins, you know, at the stadium course, out in Scottsdale at TPC Scottsdale was out there for a promotional event and took a seven iron on the par three, you know, the stadium course part three. Have I told that story before or not? I don't recall ever here. Okay. I'll make it quick. We were out there for a Super Bowl when I was doing the Riggins show with John and with Gary Braun and we were out there and Rigo had to do

this event in a Super Bowl week where they went to the TPC Scottsdale course. the famous par three stadium, you know, hole. And it was him and Joe Buck, and I think it was Ron Jorski, if my memory serves me correctly. And the three of them were doing something for charity, and it was a, it was, you know, I don't know if it was televised or not, but there were cameras there.

And Riggins had talked about all day. He's like, I'm not a golfer. What kind of club do I hit? What, you know, and I said, I don't know, we'll get there. I'm not warm enough. I said, well, since you're not a golfer, you might want to take a couple of swings, you know, before.

Meantime, we get there, and Joe Bucks out on the range, and he's hitting, I mean, probably 500 balls to get ready for this thing. And I'm pretty sure it was Jorsky, too. For whatever reason, I'm forgetting who the other person was, but I think it was Ron Jorski, and he's out there hitting a bunch of golf balls.

And I said, do you want to go hit any? And he goes, I'm not hitting any golf balls. I'll be fine. And so we get up there, and I don't know, the hole was playing like 150 yards. And they had a bunch of clubs. And I think Buck had his own clubs. And Riggins said, I don't have any clubs.

Anybody got a club? And I said, give him a seven iron. And so John lines up seven iron. And he takes, I don't even think, I think he took one little practice swing. And he hits the ball and it's sailing through the air beautifully. And it lands literally, and I'm not exaggerating. It was within 10 feet of the cup. I mean, first of all, he never felt like any angst or pressure over it because he's rigo.

Secondly, he was in all sport, many sport athlete. But that really is remarkable because golf is much more of a skill and a learned skill. It's funny, I was talking to Kevin Grevy about this yesterday. I really enjoyed Kevin Grevy being on the show yesterday. If you missed that, go back and listen to it. He is the nicest guy and a really good storyteller. But anyway, you know, it's much more of kind of a learned skill golf is. Now, if you're a good athlete, you've got a better chance of being a good golfer.

But Rigo stuck it to 10 feet. And Joe Buck gets up there and he's got the nicest golf clothes on and he's got brand new clubs. And he basically shanked it 50 yards to the right. And I don't remember what Joroski did, but Rigo got a standing ovation. and I was just like, of course he did that. Of course he did. Of course he did. Absolutely.

But to be honest with you, I think even he was shocked. Because he was like, is that normal? And I go, no. No, not even for good golfers to stick it to within 10 feet. Is that normal? Anyway, there was one of the thing I wanted to do before we get to, you know, the story of the day, which is clearly, You know, Stephen Strasbourg's debut tonight, season debut tonight. Remember last week, or it might have been the week before,

when I read that Apple podcast review from a J. Gruden, not actually J.A.Y. Gruden, but a J. Gruden, and I don't think it was his brother, John, and I don't think it was actually Jay. It was the review on Apple about the podcast where he wrote, Would you rather fear this podcast or love this podcast? Both. you want to be afraid of how much you love this podcast.

And then he wrote Matthew McConaughey at the D.C. Sports Podcast Association Award dinner. And you and I were trying to think of where the quote came from. It was familiar to us and we're like McConaughey. And that got us into like the true detective conversation and the McConaughey movie list, etc. Do you know where this Jay Gruden intended for us to recognize where the quote came from? Because he... I do now because I've been reminded of it, and I felt like an idiot. Me too.

When people brought up to me, the first reference we should have gone to about where this came from. I felt like a dummy. I did too. I said, duh, yeah. I did too. but I don't think we should have felt like dummies about it. It came from Michael Scott in an episode of our favorite show, The Office, but it threw us for a loop because the McConaughey reference.

I mean, I'll be, being perfectly honest, it didn't, like I didn't think of Michael Scott. And I know when, you know, I remember him saying that. And I think it was after the episode. was it after the episode where Packer takes a dump in Michael's office? No, no. It may have been after the episode where he and Dwight have the fight in the dojo. That might have been the episode. I don't know what episode it came from,

but it's a closing line to an episode of the office, which both of us should have remembered. I didn't. But I think what threw me for a loop is that he essentially attributed the quote to Matthew McConaughey. Yes. Yes, he did. That's all I'm saying, is that maybe that's what threw us. Okay. Well, I know, actually, it just didn't click with me.

And I feel, I'm so ashamed. I'm so ashamed. I really am. Now, he titled, and I didn't read this, he titled his review, two queens at Casino Night. Was he talking about the Casino Night episode where Michael was, you know, balancing two dates, you know, Carol and Jan? I don't know. That was a great episode. That's the famous episode, seasonender from season two,

where Jim and Pam kiss for the first time. But anyway, hey, Jay, Gruden, we both feel like idiots for not picking up on the fact that it was a quote from Michael Scott from a show that is one of our favorite shows. So there you go. But we really appreciate the review, though, don't we? Really appreciate the review. And really want everybody.

Very creative review. Yeah. We had a review from Zeke. Zeke said I had tears in my eyes. When Tom was talking about Alan Iverson being a longtime Sixers fan, I would have expected the opposite from Tom DeGote. DeGote, Go Commanders. Yeah, we were talking about the differences between Alan Iverson.

You think Alan Iverson is a better player all time than Steph Curry. By the way, the game was through three quarters last night, really good. And then the fourth quarter, and I fell asleep because it got out of hand. It turned into what a lot of these playoff games have become, which are one-sided blowouts. So let's get to it. So unless you've been buried under a rock for the last 24 hours, most of you have heard or read the quote, the soundbite that we played from Jack Del Rio coming into the show. I'm going to play it for you again now. If you don't know, it was in response to questions that he was

being asked yesterday about his very active Twitter account the last few nights where he basically said, among many things, you know, why so much attention on January 6th when there was so little attention paid to the riots following the George Floyd death back in 2020. He ended up saying this yesterday. This was the money quote. This is what got the headlines. Because it's kind of hard for me to say I can realistically look at it. I see the images on TV. People's livelihoods are being destroyed. Businesses are being burned down. No problem. And then we have a dust up at the Capitol, well, there's nothing burned down. And we're not going to talk about, we're going to make that a major deal.

Referencing January 6th as a dust-up was obviously a headline, news headline, sports headline with the Washington Commander's defensive coordinator, Jack Del Rio's name and voice and face attached to the whole thing. Now, so far this morning and early afternoon, as we're recording this podcast, Tommy, there is some news. and it's kind of final pillish. You know, it's like enough is enough. And I'm not saying that this wasn't headed in this direction anyway,

but the Virginia legislature has put this thing to bed. They've killed it. According to Michael Phillips from the Richmond Times Dispatch, the commander's bill for the funding of a new stadium in Virginia has officially been pulled from consideration by the Virginia State Legislature. In D.C., news from Charles. Charles Allen, a council member who was leading the stadium discussion, said this morning, quote, we will not support an NFL stadium as part of the future of the RFK campus.

The debate is done. That was a letter that was sent to Eleanor Holmes Norton from several of the D.C. council members. So while, again, I think that maybe the final result in Virginia, D.C. may have been this anyway, certainly the Del Rio comments yesterday got them to officially put a nail into this coffin this morning. So, to your credit, this thing will be built in Landover. That's the only site interested in providing anything. They're going to provide, you know, $400 million in infrastructure. And when the new stadium is built, it would certainly appear right now as if it will be built right next to FedEx Field.

1.0. So congratulations. You called this probably two years ago and you brought this one home. Well, look, anything can change. I mean, things can change. You know, so I mean, you know, it's not a lot. But what, what did, and like you said, these weren't the, these weren't the deciding factors. Del Rio's comments, what wasn't the deciding factor in either of the demise of this support? But it didn't help. You know, where, where, in two areas where the people who are trying to push this through are fighting against this basically tsunami of bad publicity against this team to try to push for a stadium in Virginia or the mayor in the district trying to do the same.

And it's just, this is, this just makes their job so much harder. Right. Okay. So enough about the stadium. two of the news items that came up today, and it's not, I don't think, coincidental that it comes the day after Jack Del Rio created headlines with his dust-up comment. But the stadium deals with more of the issue that I want to get to. No, no, no, no. I think the bottom line is it wasn't going to happen in Virginia probably wasn't going to happen in D.C. Because Dan Snyder is toxic. And it's impossible for politicians progressive or even many, you know, conservative politicians to look their constituents in the face.

and say, we are going to give money to Dan Snyder to build a stadium. It's just too hard. Maryland's got $400 million dedicated for infrastructure that's going to go into that area of Landover with or without a stadium. I know things can change. I understand they can. But if the odds were two to one last week that it would end up in Maryland, it is, you know, they're minus 500 now for the new stadium.

to eventually end up in Landover. That's how big of a favorite that location is. It's the only area that he can do it without having to worry about politicians, really. And, you know, Maryland's $400 million, none of it's dedicated to him, and they were going to spend it anyway, and they will spend it regardless. It's not, you know, they've made it very clear. This has nothing to do with the team or the owner. Although this guy that I had on last week, the point guy in Maryland,

said they do want the team to remain in Maryland and be the centerpiece of that new area. It makes it more attractive, certainly. It gives them a lot more options. And for the team, like I've said all along, the simple phrase is the path of least resistance for them. Okay, let's get to Jack Del Rio on what he said and what we think of what he said. Tommy, you can have at it any way you want. You and I have been doing these kinds of shows for years together. I'm going to handle it this way. I'm not getting into the politics of this. I'm not getting into

Jack Del Rio's politics. I'm not getting into whether or not January 6th was a dust-up, which I don't think it was. I'm not getting into whether or not January 6th was a combination of 9-11 Pearl Harbor and the Civil War combined, which many politicians have said over the last year and a half. I'm going to get into Jack Del Rio's judgment. Jack Del Rio is a prominent coach for the Washington commanders. He's not just the defensive coordinator. Jack Del Rio's a name in this league. He's a prominent name. He's been a head coach.

He was a longtime player in this league. And I want to get into whether or not his tweets, his late night buzzed tweets, and what he said yesterday shows good judgment or bad judgment. My opinion is it shows very poor judgment. I think he's a dope for doing what he's been doing. I think it's selfish. I think it shows a lack of self-awareness. I think it's disrespectful to his employer.

He's entitled to his opinion. We all are. He has the freedom to say whatever he wants to say, but not as an employee working for an organization that has been a three-ring shit show circus for a long time that doesn't probably want and probably wasn't thrilled with what Jack's been tweeting and what he said yesterday because it does not make the organization look good. He works for a private employer.

You don't have freedom of speech working for a private employer. You want that freedom of speech? Go be an activist. But when you are employed, you abide by their rules. and I think that his behavior on Twitter recently, really over two years, but recently, even though, you know, some of it was kind of funny, the, you know, bite d's. But the last few days, and then the way he handled that press conference, which I would have never had him out there to begin with, I'll get to that in a moment. I think as a leader, as a coach, as a prominent person in this organization, I think it shows. absolutely horrible judgment.

And now the issue, and I'd like to discuss this, and I'll let you have at it here next, and then we can go from there. I wonder whether or not he's done damage to himself and his ability to coach his team. I'm not saying it one way or the other. I'm not sure. And I also wonder whether or not the team will reprimand him

or worse, consider firing him. but netting it out, this organization is an organization that doesn't need another side show, and Jack Del Rio became one and has been becoming one here. And I think it is self-absorbed. I think it's disrespectful. I think it shows bad judgment. And I think it makes them look like a total dope. One other quick thing, too, I would say is, you know, the Washington commander's PR group,

It's been horrible for years. The people out there now are really nice. They're young. They're nice. They're trying hard. And maybe, you know, they lack an experience. Yesterday, I'm just curious to what you think on this, Tommy. They should have never allowed Jack Del Rio to go out there and face the media.

After he had been tweeting what he was tweeting, retweeting what he had been retweeting, liking what he had been liking, the stir that he had created with some of his late-night buzz tweeting, after an OTA day. I don't care that it was planned. That would have been one of those. Jack had a personal matter he had to take care of. We'll try to get to him next week during minicamp. Okay.

You know, I agree with you that we shouldn't argue the merits of the debate, of the political debate. That's not going to get us anywhere in this. I agree with you 100% that if you're a commander's fan, you should care about the business of this and how it's harmed your team business-wise. And that's what it is. It's a business issue. I mean, a team that can't afford to lose any ground.

I mean, like you said, they're like an expansion team. They're starting out trying to win customers. And let's take even out the political capital they lost in the district in Virginia as a result of this. You know, the polls are, and I'm not talking about what's true or not, there was a CBS poll that said 83% of Americans believe that what happened on January 6th was wrong. Okay? So at the very least, take however, you know, whatever amount you want for what's right and what's wrong in that poll, you have turned off some of the segment of your fan base way you can't turn off one.

you can't afford to lose one, and you've just angered a segment of your fan day. So, yes, business-wise, is the real damage I'm talking about when I say that Jack Del Rio should be fired for this. But he's a buffoon, Kevin. He's like a cartoon character in this, okay? Here's the guy, and this talks to your PR issue. Here's the big problem. This is the guy who needs to go. is the guy whose fault it is.

This is at Jason Wright's feet. This is the president. Why? Of the organization. He is in charge of the stadium issue. This, he should have a button-down tight ship in that organization that says nobody says anything that could harm us in any way, anything political, anything controversial. You just don't say it.

the coach all the way down to the equipment guys. You just don't do it. I mean, every day he should give a speech about the stadium, how important it is, and how they can't afford to have any damage. Instead, this is like a trade wreck every day. It's a train wreck. I mean, this guy's in charge of the stadium thing, and the stadium thing is a joke. I mean, there's no discipline at the top.

There's no leadership at the top on this. You know, people in that building should be scared to death about what they say in terms of how it could impact their business. Nothing like that. This is at Jason Wright's feet. I mean, it's just one more thing. The only thing Jason Wright has done since he's been on this job is not be Bruce Allen. that's the only thing he's done. That's what, you know what Bruce Allen did in his first few years?

The only thing he had done is that he didn't, he wasn't Vinnie Serrato. Yes, yes. So I wasn't asking you why Jason Wright, as in questioning you, I was curious as to what you were going to say. Actually, I agree with that, but I think I put it more at Ron Rivera's feet. Ron Rivera is the number one person in this organization, not named Tanya or Dan. This is coach-centric. Ron is kind of a CEO coach. Ron has his hands into every part of this organization. And Jack reports to Ron. He does not report to Jason. And Jason should make it very clear, and Ron should be making it very clear. Look, we have a lot of things. We have an uphill battle here.

We are trying to get a new stadium, and we are trying to make friends with three different jurisdictions so that we can get a new stadium, a new beautiful stadium that will be built that maybe some of you will be around to play in. But right now, in the immediate, what we're really trying to do is have a really good football team and get people to be interested in the football team. So it is very important. And this goes to their PR department, too. And I know some of them listen to this show. And trust me, the group they have now is a million times better than the group they used to have. And we know who we are comparing them to. This group tries to be helpful.

They're not always helpful, but they try. They are responsive when you request things. But they and this organization should have, at the top of their list, we need to be customer friendly. And that means friendly to every customer. And by the way, that means being friendly for the first time to media people who still talk about us. When you could make the case that talking about us really isn't helping them anymore. And I'm talking about media people.

Although, let me just say, as it relates to this podcast, it does help me to talk about the team a lot. because most of you, that's why you're here. But there are a lot of media people in town, sports media people in town, that don't have to talk about the team as much, and they're not going to be hurt as much. But they should be in the business, as I've said before, and I've described it this way before, because this is the way you describe it,

when you are in a business that needs customers, customer acquisition mode. We need to acquire customers, paying customers, interested customers. So from a PR standpoint, we should be super friendly. We should be reaching out and giving media people suggestions for ways that they could talk about the team. You know, hey, we've got a player that's really a good interview. Maybe you'd like to have them on, you know, and talk about, you know, and if you don't mind,

if you'll mention also that we've got some tickets left for the preseason game, that would be helpful. You know, these are the things that are done by really good PR department. And as far as Jason Wright and Ron Rivera and those coaches and the responsible adults that you can communicate with, 100%. Hey, guys, we got to be, we can't bash media people, we can't bash fans, we can't get into it on social media with people. We are in the mode of needing every single person that's even remotely interested in paying attention to us and potentially watching us or even buying a ticket. even some merchandise to do that. And so from that standpoint, Jack Del Rio clearly with his social media musings over the last two years, but really over the last few weeks, no one's gotten that message to him, that whether people agree with you or not is not the point. There are always going to be

people that are pissed off with you if you're going to go political scorched earth on Twitter or in a press conference. There are a lot of people that may have been nodding their head. There may have been people in that building that were nodding their head in agreement with Jack. But that's not the point. The point is that you've got to try to appeal to everybody. And Tommy, you're older than I am, and you know what I'm about to say has long been one of those say about work. You don't talk politics or religion at work. And he's is free to say whatever he wants to say. And if he wants to be an activist, he's free to leave the team and go out and be an activist and start stumping for Trump or DeSantis or anybody else he wants

for 24. Whatever he wants to do, because it seems like this is a real priority in his life. Certainly it is on social media. And I am all for his right. He's entitled to his opinion. We all are. He is free to say what he wants. He is not free of the consequence. that gets attached or is a conclusion to what he says when he's working for a private business and an employer that is trying to acquire customers right now. And every week there's another shit show of a circus story that comes out. And what he did yesterday and what he's done for the last couple of days is show outrageously poor judgment. So my next question to you is, what will they do about it?

You saw the apology. You saw the apology. Yeah, I saw that. Obviously not written by him. No. I don't think they'll fire him. I think they should fire him. But I don't think they will.

You know, this as an aside, which I got a lot of on social media, you know, what happened to free speech. He's free to say whatever he wants, you know. And I think there should be an amendment to the First Amendment. that says you can't talk about the First Amendment unless you actually understand the First Amendment. Okay? It's not a free speech issue. That free speech that you talk about means that the government can't drive out to the commander's headquarters

and put Jack Del Rio in jail for what he said. But your employer, you've got no protections like that from your employer. If he had come out and said that women should be protected from Dan Snyder, how long do you think he'd be on the payroll? You know? So I agree with you 100%, but people that don't get this. They think there's some kind of protected free speech, everywhere they go in life, and there's no consequence with it.

Okay, so that's ridiculous. I don't think anything's going to happen to him. Let me ask you this. Do you think it complicates the issue? because I've heard this before. I don't know if you've heard this, that Jack Del Rio has a lot to do with running the team. You've told me this before.

Yeah. If you're asking me... I wonder if that complicates it. Well, I mean, let me just make sure, because Tommy has said this before. You've said this on the podcast before. That, you know, it's your understanding that Jack has a large influence on the overall team and locker room,

not just the defense. And, you know, that would go hand in hand with Ron Rivera, something he told me during the season on the radio show, that his role here in Washington is a little bit different than it was in Carolina. It's more of, you know, and I think I described it as more of a CEO role, and he didn't sort of dispute that. He has allowed Scott Turner, his two coordinators, to be certainly very autonomous as it relates to running their respective units.

You've told me that Jack has, you know, significant influence beyond, just the defense. I take you, you know, I take what you've said and I don't disagree with it. I can't support that because I haven't heard that from others other than to say, and this is another complicating, it makes the issue an interesting issue, a more interesting issue. And that is, I've heard that he's very well respected in that organization by coaches and players. And, you know, from a football acumen standpoint, anyway. But that, you know, remember when he first started tweeting out a lot of pro-Trump stuff when he first got here in 2020, and we had the conversation.

That's how come I gave him. That's how come I gave him the name Voodoo Jack. Right. Because he was tweeting out stuff about the woman. What was her name here? Uh, what was her name? You know what, Emmanuel? Yeah, I know who you're talking about.

Right. Yes. I mean, he went nuts. He, you know, he went nuts over her. But remember. So, Jack was a big fan. So that's why I started calling him voodoo jack. The reason we, the conversation that we had was,

will his politics impact his ability to lead a group of men that are probably, you know, very different in personality and beliefs than him? Well, nothing. Correct me if I'm wrong. But over the two years he's been here, no matter what he's tweeted, no matter what he's said, and obviously it reached at least a crescendo yesterday, it might not be the only crescendo. Who knows? No one's ever pushed back against anything publicly. None of the coaches, nobody in the organization, none of his players. I don't think they have. Let me go. No, they haven't. You're right. Now, let me just put a caveat on that. The organization, because of COVID, has been protected from the kind of criticism that would emerge from a locker. Right. You've told me that people are. Right. Something you might get. I'm not saying it would. You're 100% right. We've seen nothing to indicate that there's that Jackdell Rio's public political positions have. have had any impact on the football players and what they think of him themselves. But there may be things we don't know because the access that you would get to ferret out an issue like that

for basically two years they haven't had. Now, you know, maybe we'll find out now. And I tell you what, the one thing about like the football players, you know, football players, they're taught to compartmentalize things. You know, this goes over here, that goes over there, and nothing gets in the way of the football stuff. But I guarantee you, when they go home and talk to their family and friends, they hear it. Yeah, by the way, on your point that, you know, during COVID and during the lack of access, you know, it still, we would have seen something on social media from some player. if, you know, we would have seen some sort of an emoji to something that Jack tweeted out.

I just, I'm just, that's reasonable. The observation here is if he really is at odds politically with people in his locker room, or if there's an issue with his politics, we certainly haven't seen it to date. Now, what I said, I think I said this on the podcast yesterday, because the news was just breaking, and I think I did a quick few minutes on it. in after the fact. You know, here's the thing that, first of all, like yesterday and the day before and the day before that should not have been a revelation to anybody in the organization about, you know,

his political beliefs. You know, and perhaps, you know, we never heard from any of this stuff before because, I don't know, because they really think he's a good coach and maybe he really is a good manager and he treats them well and maybe they like him as a coach. Maybe you know what they're able to do. Who knows? They're able to separate politics from a person that they actually believe in and respect professionally, which would be kind of nice in the country as a whole. But beyond that, it could also be a situation in which maybe some of the actions have spoken for what they feel about him. First of all, the team sucked

last year. They appeared not to be very coachable last year. We kept hearing, nobody's doing their job. They're not adhering to the scheme, yada, yada, yada. We had this excuse about the phase two last year with veteran defensive backs not showing up.

By the way, I wonder if the defense sucks this year if we can blame it on phase three tweeting and press conferences when we get there. But, you know, it's possible that players feel, you know, have negative feelings towards Jack because of some of the things he said. And maybe they internalize them as racial issues.

That's possible as well. And that the actions of the defense speak kind of louder than words. Because performance-wise, the defense was horrible last year. It was horrible. Yes. And so what he said yesterday, you know, maybe they, will blow it off again with respect to a public response, either on social media or otherwise.

Although somebody texted me a little while ago and said, did you see what John Allen said about this? Did you see what John Allen said about this? Because I didn't. Yeah. What did he say? I don't recall. I mean, it was basically I don't pay attention to them

or I don't listen to them. That way I don't have to deal with them, you know? Here it is. I mean, football players do. Me personally, I don't care about his opinion. As long as he shows up every day and he works hard, that's what I want from my defensive coordinator. Okay. By the way, John Allen is, he's as grown up an athlete as I've ever, you know, had the chance to talk to.

I just think he's one of these young people that any one of us as adults would say, you know, he's just one of those young people that gets it. I think he does. And so he's not going to make waves. I don't know how he feels one way or the other. I mean, the other thing to consider is that many people in that locker room actually agree with the politics and the political expression from Jack Del Rio. And by the way, wouldn't surprise me, especially on a lot of the anti-woke stuff that Jack has been tweeting about if many players agree. Look, you're the one that told me and made me aware of, and by the way, it's very intuitive, that, you know, in most of these locker rooms, especially basically, football locker rooms in particular, these guys are rich. They're very conservative more times than not. But where was I going with this? I guess what I was going to say is that, you know, I wonder if this time will be different. I kind of think that it may not be different with the players and maybe not even

other coaches. But he did, you know, add to the continuing damage of, you know, negative public image, you know, stuff for, you know, creating more of a negative public image for the organization when they are in the business of trying to build a business. And so I would bet that nobody, Ron Rivera, the Snyders, Jason Wright, you know, some people, by the way, who may both, you know, agree with a lot of his political beliefs. And it wouldn't surprise me if that's true. But that they just said, you've got to be kidding me. Somebody's got to stop this guy.

And I don't think he will get fired. Personally, I just don't like the whole idea of immediately defaulting to firing people. But I do think there should be a serious conversation that goes, you know, something like this. Get the hell off social media now or this is it. You're done here. Period. You're not to be politically outspoken. You're to coach.

You are to shut up and dribble. You have a job to coach the football team. That's your job. You didn't do it very well last year. This is a very important year for us. And we are trying to focus here in this part of the building on building a much better football team while, you know, the other people are concentrating on getting us some fans to help us win some home games. And you are not helping that issue. I don't care what you believe in.

You have the right to believe in whatever you want to believe in. You do not have the right to express that as an employee of this company if it is hurtful to the company and to our operation here. So if you don't understand that, we're going to part way. Because, you know, the issue is whether or not he'd understand it or care, because I did have this other thought, and that is, what if he just wants out of here? What if he's trying to get out of here? It wouldn't be the first time that somebody's wanted out of here. I know. I don't think he's that smart.

I don't think he's brilliant either, that's for sure. And his judgment clearly is, again, people, this has nothing to do with his political beliefs. His judgment is poor. He put the team in another, you know, he gave the team another circus of a day yesterday that they just don't need. And by the way, you know, slam the door potentially on any of this stadium stuff in Virginia, D.C. Certainly they enjoyed slamming the door on the organization today, even if they were going to slam it anyway. Yes, exactly. So, you know.

I mean, it's almost like the autopsy report on it. dead body. You don't, yes, it's exactly that. So you don't think he'll be fired. Do you think he should be? I don't think he should be. I don't think he will be, but I do think there should be from Ron. And by the way, this gets to another question.

Does Ron have the stones to do this? You know, you said Jack's got larger influence than most would say. You know, Ron, I talked about the other day from some of his quotes. that Ron is an encourager. He is an empathy leader. He's not a dictator. I just don't see him that way. And I know what his background is,

but I don't think that's the way he manages. Does he have the stones to go to Jack, you know, yesterday afternoon, and say, you got to stop. You are not helping the situation. Or did they just, as a, group behind closed doors say, hey, Jack, you got to put an apology out there. You can't call this thing a dust up, man. No matter what you think of it, no matter what, you can't call it a dust

up. I mean, you created headlines. You got to, you got it, you got to sign off in this apology here. And then we'll be fine. Maybe they're afraid of them. Maybe they're afraid. Look, I'd be afraid of them. Why? Why would you be afraid of them? This guy, this guy, this guy is a badass. He is. Okay. How do you know that? Legitimate bad ass. This guy, okay, I'll tell you a story I read about him. He was a terrific athlete at USC. Right. He played catcher on the USC baseball team.

Okay? And there's a story that went around that they were playing Pepperdine once, and there was a fight on the field, and the Pepperdine bench ran out on the field, and Del Rio got up from catching and walked towards them, and the whole bench ran back. They ran back on the bench. They were so scared of him. Okay. he beat up Otis Taylor during one of the football strikes

because he thought Otis Taylor was 45 years old and a scout for the Kansas City Chief. He beat the crap out of him because he thought he was a scab player. Wait, well, hold on for a second. He beat up the great number 89 Otis Taylor. What are you talking about? He beat the crap out of him because he thought he was a scab player. A scab during the 87 season? Yes.

Well, what was Otis Taylor doing there? He was long retired. He was a scout. Oh. He was a scout for the team. He worked for the team. Was he a scout for the chiefs? Yes.

And Del Rio was playing for the chiefs, you're saying, at the time. Yes. Oh, my God. He was accused, Del Rio was accused of flashing some scab players tired. This is not a guy to trifle with. Well, you know, you know what they say about bullies. Just go right back at them and see what happens next. And if they don't back down, you can turn and run.

I, you know, he played for the Cowboys. I know. Was his longest stint with the Cowboys? I don't know if it was. I thought it was with the Vikings. It might have been with the Vikings because he played actually. in the, well, he played in the last playoff game won by Joe Gibbs during his first stint. It was when they were defending champs.

They played Minnesota, beat Minnesota in Minnesota in the wildcar game before losing to the 49ers, and Jack Del Rio was on that team. I remember looking at that when they hired him to see his career, and then it just occurred. to me that he played in that game, and I went back and he did. He was a starter, I think, in that game. He played from the Saints for two seasons, then the Chiefs for two seasons, the Cowboys for three seasons, the Vikings for three seasons, and he ended up with the Dolphins. He was a good player. He was a pro-bow player one year.

He's a good player. This team just can't get out of their own way. No, no. I mean, you, you, you, you, You didn't respond. Do you agree with me on the PR that they should have never, they should have understood? I'm not putting it on them. That's Jason Wright. I'm putting that on Jason Wright. Jason, there should be orders in that building that everyone knows they have to follow or else there's consequences. Yeah, but when you're in the middle of like these practices and stuff and Jason's in the middle of putting together all of his themed days and the whole thing, you have a PR department there.

to make sure that somebody doesn't walk into a snake pit. They should have the fear of God in them. They should have the fear of God in them that we better not let anything out there that's going to hurt the stadium. Well, again, it's more than the stadium. The stadium. Not for Jason Wright. That's what he's there for. Yeah. I mean, it's one thing after another with this guy.

The Sean Taylor tribute, the unveiling of the new commanders, the stadium. Tell me one thing this guy has done right. I'll tell you one thing he's done right. He got rid of some of the most reprehensible people that you would ever want to be in business with or work with. He knew who was really, really, you know, incapable of kind of being a part of this next wave and got rid of those people. Yeah, I could have, but he did it and he was given the ability to do it. And I hear you, look, what did I tell you early on? I said, he's bright. He, you know, he looks like he should be a co-host on like Good Morning America. and he is kind of a budding star,

but he's never run anything. He's been a consultant his whole life. So this is a new gig where you actually have responsibilities rather than kind of explaining to people what you think they should do and have responsibilities over. I don't know. Some of you have reached out to me to say, what's so impressive about Jason Wright?

And I guess the point is I've tried to make, he's a better person and a lot brighter than the people that they have had there before, and he cleaned out a lot of the dead weight from the other side of the building. There's probably still more to go, but... Well, that's why I don't put it on the PR department. Okay. I put it on the guy who's supposed to control the message. That's Jason Wright.

The message is we're fucked up every day. You know, they could put together a calendar. You know, these little calendars that they had 365 days a year, you know, and for each day, you know, they could call it the commander's fuck-up calendar. And for every day of 365, they list the screw-up for that day. You know, when they look back on the Del Rio comments, let's just hope that they don't call it the 20-23 season. Yes, I know what you mean.

But, yeah, just trying to highlight another one of the missteps. But they fixed it. They listened and fixed it. I think they're trying to do the right things. But again, like we've always said, the top people and the top person is still there. So it probably will never work out. I'll tell you one thing. They can't get a break, that's for sure.

But you're right. You're 100% right. There should be leadership in that organization that makes every single person that walks into that building that wears a uniform or represents that business that says, don't say anything and don't tweet anything to fuck us today. Yes. That's number one here. We are trying to make friends and become likable. That's hard for them, and I don't know if it's even possible.

Okay. I actually did want to ask you about Stephen Strasbourg. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Wind Donation is the segment sponsor today of this second segment of the podcast. They have a great deal going on with home prices on the rise. There's no better time than now to improve the look and value of your home with new windows from Window Nation. Get two free windows with every two you buy, plus pay nothing for two full years. They've got a 96% satisfaction rate with their customers.

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Go ahead and shop it if you want. 86690 Nation or windownation.com. You had something else to say in follow up to our Jack Del Rio discussion. Well, let me just point out that this shitstorm started after he blocked me. Oh, God. This is a... Oh, it did. Okay.

I mean, I was the first one to... I was the first one to retweet what he had tweeted. And on my retweets, my quote tweets, I didn't make any political comment about what he was saying one way or the other. I just said, Boodoo Jack is out there commenting about grooming and brainwashing children. That's all I said. And then I let the tweet speak for itself. And then he followed that up, but I said Boodoochak is out there talking about the January 6th insurrection. You're just letting everybody know what he's tweeting about?

I was just letting everyone know what he tweeted. I didn't make any political comment, one way or the other about it. It's a service that you were providing to everybody to make sure that they didn't miss what Jack was weighing in on. Yes, and then he blocked me. And then pretty soon after that, the tsunami hit. And you think that they are somehow tied together, the events, the tsunami, and you, it, in being blocked. On this podcast, they are.

Right. So once again, this circles back to you. Yes. Right. Yes. If he's such a badass, why does he have to block anybody? That would be the first indication to me that he's not as much of a badass as you think he is. All right.

Steven Strasberg's back for the Nats tonight. Do you know that 12 years ago last night, 12 years ago was his debut? Were you there? I know. I was there. You know what? We did a show. Oh, no, I was on the sports report. No, no, no, no. We would have been together. I forget what happened. Huh? Well, we were together doing a show during that, during his debut. It was 2010.

Out of the golf course in Virginia. Right. I forget for what. And I had to hurry. to get to the ballpark for the debut. And I did. I walked in within minutes of him thrown his first pitch, and I'll never forget the scene because it's all-to-wall people in the stadium.

As I'm walking by, there's some guy holding his infant child up over the crowd as Strasbourg has thrown his first pitch. As if to say, to tell his child years later, you saw Stephen Strasbourg first pitch in the major leagues. I thought that was so funny. He's holding this baby up over his head.

So the baby, the infant would have a clear view of the mound. You know, I'm going to tell you right now, it's very possible that it was our Team 980 Wounded Warriors event because we always had that in June. Ryan Kerrigan had his event, and we always did a show from his event as well. But I'm pretty sure it was our event. And we were out in Virginia.

And I remember, I didn't go to the game. I remember being excited to watch it. It was described by a Sports Illustrated columnist as the most hyped pitching debut the game has ever seen. I don't know if that's true or not. You would be able to weigh in on that with more historical knowledge. But I do remember

there was an electricity, there was an anticipation over him being called up and pitching his first game. And then with the way the game went, 14 strikeouts, you know, seven innings, didn't walk one batter, struck out, I think,

the last seven batters. You know, it was one of the most incredible debuts of anybody, you know, of an anticipated debut of all time. The only player in D.C. sports history that we could compare to Strasbourg's debut was shock and all RG3 in 2012 in New Orleans. Yeah. It was certainly the most anticipated pitching debut I've ever witnessed in my time covering sports, and it exceeded

expectations. I mean, how many times does that happen? He's struck out the last seven batters he faced. I know. I know. And you know what's funny? He was on when I was doing the weekend show on 106-7. This is after they won the World Series, and they had their Winterfest in December of 2019. And he was a guest on my show.

And I don't know. Somehow the expectations when he first got there, he was kind of. complain because he tends to complain a little bit, even though I like Steven Stratford a lot. He was complaining a little bit about the expectations you know in his first couple years. And I looked at him and I said

well you didn't help in your debut tapping down those expectations, did you? What did he say? He laughed. He thought that was funny. I said, you didn't exactly not contribute to those expectations by striking out

14 guys in seven winnings. Have you thought about him as it relates to a Hall of Fame career? I mean, you're a Hall of Fame voter. I'm not saying that he's had a Hall of Fame career yet, but certainly there have been points in time where it's been considered, like some of his very good playoff starts, including Game 6 of the World Series in 2019, which was an unbelievable, you know, pitching World Series pitching performance. But he's not a Hall of Famer right now, but it, At various points in times, haven't you been convinced that he was well on his way? Yes.

Yes, but he is not a Hall of Famer right now. You're right about that. I mean, it used to be you had to get even 200 career wins just to be in the conversation. Now, that's changing because of the way pitchers are used now. you know, a lot of times they don't get a result in a game. They're polled early, and wins are not as considered as important or as prevalent. So that 200 win figure is not as important as it used to be, but he's really far away from that.

Like he's 113 wins and 61 losses with a 3.21 ERA. He's a three-time All-Star. he got no Sy Young on his resume he would have to have a pretty strong run in the next couple of years including at least one Cy Young to be considered for the Hall fame Do you know what his playoff record in DRA is?

Not offhand. He's six and two record in the playoffs with a 1.46 ERA. is a postseason pitcher, which includes that relief appearance against Milwaukee in the wild card game in 2019 when a lot of us thought he should have been the starter and not Scherzer to begin with. But yeah, he's got to have a three-year run of being a dominant pitcher, lowering that ERA,

being a Cy Young winner at least once, winning a lot more games than he loses. And by the way, it wouldn't hurt if he had enough. brilliant postseason or two? Yes. All those things. I don't think he's going to be able to do that. You know, because it's come back from an injury. It's an injury thoracic outlet.

Thoracic outlet. Is that what it's called? Yeah. I think that's what it's called. Yeah. Yeah. Where there's not a lot of big track record of guys coming back from it. It's not like Tommy John surgery.

where there's this long list of players who have come back from it. So he seems like an unlikely candidate, given his fragility, in the first place, to be the one to blaze the trail on coming back from this kind of injury and reviving his career to where it was. He just seems like an unlikely candidate to do that. He's pitching tonight his first game tonight for the Nats against the Marlins. You know, I didn't ask you about this, and somebody asked me to ask you about it. I was with some guys yesterday, and they said, what does Tommy think about the Rizzo comments about never trading Juan Soto?

And I said, well, you know what? I don't think we've talked about that on the show. So here's your chance. What did you make of Rizzo last week being pretty emphatic about never considering trading Wan Soto? Well, you can't sell. the team and trade Juan Soto. Juan Soto is one of your biggest assets. I mean, you can't turn around and sell the team.

It's not going to help your sales price. I don't know how much it's going to impact it going up, but you can't sell the team and trade Wantsota. There's no reason to trade Wants to. You're not going to sell. If you're going to sell the team, you don't particularly care about what kind of return you're going to get for Wan Soto as an owner because you're not going to be here to own the team.

And so you're not worried about what kind of prospects you're going to get back. And if you're talking to an owner about selling the team, you want Wachotto as one of your assets. So I think that's going to be the driving force. You know, he's not getting traded

by the learners. That's not happening. And by the way, as an aside that I've thought about with selling the team, you know, that's going to be a very difficult process because the learners are difficult in small transactions. This is a huge transaction.

Yeah. This is a big deal. It's going to be a difficult sales process. Because every process is for doing business with them. I've certainly heard about stories of doing business with them. We've got a couple of owners in town that apparently are very difficult to do business with. When we come back on the other side,

I do want to talk briefly about Deshawn Watson and the LIV tour situation. We'll do that to finish up the show right after these words from a few of our sponsors. If you want to bet on these very exciting NBA playoffs, you can do so at mybooky.com or mybooky.agy. They've got everything you need. All the prop bets,

series, odds, et cetera. Right now, after last night's game three win by Boston, and what was really a raucous Boston Garden, I mean, even Mike Breen was back. He had had COVID. Van Gundy was back. He was back the other day after having COVID and missing a few games. Mark Jackson, they were all commenting last night, Tommy,

about what an incredible environment Boston Garden was. But Boston's a four-point favorite. tomorrow night in game four. And Steph Curry, I was long gone at that point as they were getting blown out late, but Steph Curry apparently got banged up at the end of that game. But go to mybooky.com, my bookie.orgie.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C, and they'll match your deposit dollar for dollar all the way up to $1,000. So I talked, I think, briefly about this, but I really wanted to save it more for you. You know, with the Deshawn Watson, New York Times, story. Did you read that story? I didn't even ask you if you read that story or not.

I have emailed it to myself to read. I have not read it yet. Okay. Well, basically, it looks pretty long. Yeah, I mean, basically the report in the Times was that over a 17-month period from the fall of 2019 through the spring of 2021, Deshawn Watson booked massage appointments with 66 different women. Amongsts, those 66 are the 24 who have filed civil lawsuits against Watson. By the way, I mean, I think I said this yesterday or maybe the day before I forget now. The details from the 24th woman, plaintiff, are really, really incredible to read. This guy, you know, if I didn't say it already, you can claim he said, she said, you can claim he wasn't indicted by a grand jury, but it's 66 different women that he

booked massage appointments with within a year and a half, 24 of whom, if you really believe him and his denials have somehow conspired together. This guy was looking for massage sex. That's what he was looking for. and he was obviously inappropriate, if not, you know, illegal in his behavior. And if he's so innocent, by the way, he should claim his innocence and then counter sue rather than, you know, being interested in settling these civil cases. But the question came from somebody, and I'm looking for the tweet. I got the tweet yesterday. I'm going to paraphrase it. It was basically Sokev, do you still think that it wouldn't get any worse?

Because my position was, and I admitted, look, I was wrong on this. My position was it can't get any worse with this organization. I mean, you can't fall off the curb. They're in the gutter right now. So if they trade for Deshaun Watson and he gets suspended for six games and he settles some civil law suits, with women that he obviously, you know, wasn't indicted on, but, you know, clearly there was some wrongdoing there. So what?

The most important thing is that they win games. No, it would have gotten worse. Can you imagine if right now he was a Washington commander? I put it this way. Old JDR yesterday, that would have been like just, Yeah, no, no, no. But did you read the Times story? Yeah.

I mean, Cleveland could be wrecked by this deal. They traded three ones, you know, twos. It was like seven draft choices. They ripped up his deal, and they gave him one of the all-time greatest guaranteed money deals. And he is a problem for the league. I mean, I'm not saying that the league doesn't have a lot of problems. but I think they're going to throw the book at this guy eventually. They've got to let all these things come out.

They've got to finish their investigation, and they may have to wait for these civil cases to be settled, but this is not going to be a six-game Zeke Elliott situation, in my opinion, anymore. This is going to be a long suspension, long. This guy's been dishonest with respect to how many massage appointments he put, He testified that it was perhaps 40 different massage appointments with women. Well, the reporting, if accurate, is 66 different women. The number of plaintiffs keep coming forward.

By the way, in the Times story, there are women that had the exact same complaints as the other 20 as the 24 women, but they don't want to come forward. They're embarrassed to come forward. They may want to remain anonymous and private because they don't want their family members to find out, you know, what they went through. And by the way, I'm not naive enough to think that some of this wasn't consensual. I'm sure it was, but not all of it was. Look, look at what Major League Baseball did with Trevor Bauer.

They suspended him for two seasons. His career is basically over, okay? That is going to have an impact on what Roger Goodell does, what MLB did with Trevor Bauer. The Trevor Bauer case. I think it will. Remind everybody what the Trevor Bauer two-year suspension was about. It was about domestic violence.

But specifically what was it about domestic violence. Okay. Was it his wife? Sexual assaulting. No, a woman who talked about rough sex. You're looking up. Whatever. It's domestic violence.

Obviously. domestic violence. But why was it two years? He's accused of choking her without a consent dozens of times. Right, that's right. He's a third known woman to accuse Bauer of sexual assault. Right. He got a little

rough. Yeah. It was a little bit of a dust up. Yeah, it was. Let's not joke, buddy. I honestly, I think Deshawn Watson is in, I think he's going to be suspended for a long period of time.

And I wonder, like, I've been reading Andrew Brandt, who has, you know, really been adamant that it's coming soon. But I think if they're going to really throw the book at them on this and make it a year-long suspension, which I think is in play, I think they almost have to wait for these civil cases to be settled. They have to wait for, you know, potentially more women in this story to continue, because it's continuing to grow in terms of. of the number of plaintiffs that are coming forward.

By the way, the Houston Texans have now been named as a defendant in these civil cases. I don't know if you saw this because they provided the hotel room where some of this stuff took place, which, you know, I doubt very seriously that they provided the hotel room to give Deshaun Watson a chance to do what he did to some of these mass. therapist. I think that they just had these hotel rooms available for players who wanted to get away and have some privacy, maybe. I don't know. But, I mean, I think, go ahead. No, I was just going to say, the net of it is if he were here, like if Washington had pulled off the trade, but, you know, he didn't want to play here anyway. So this place was beneath him. Right. But if he, if it, it would have been, it could have gotten a lot worse. It would have been awful for them.

Really bad. I think the Sean Watson's people are already expecting at least a year-long suspension based on his contract. Yeah. His contract is set up, this $230 million contract, it's set up. So his first year of salary is $5 million. Right. Or $4 million, something small amount, that he would lose if he was suspended for a year.

So his contract is already set up in anticipation of losing a season. Exactly. All right. The last thing that I wanted to mention, I know you're not following this story, but I just... I am following this. Okay. So the LIV... Which one are you talking?

Oh, I'm following this. Okay. So the PGA tour suspended today, the 17 PGA players who are competing at the inaugural event this weekend in London. Players who resign their membership before starting this are also no longer eligible to compete in tour events or the President's Cup. By the way, just for those that don't really follow this, they're still going to be eligible for the majors. The four majors, the Masters, the PGA Championship, the – well, I'm sorry, three of the four majors. The Masters, the British Open, and the U.S. Open, which is USGA run.

You know, they are inviting all of these players to play in the U.S. Open, including Phil Mickelson the week after next at Brookline in Boston. But the 17 players suspended by the tour, Sergio Garcia, Taylor Gooch, Brandon Grace, Dustin Johnson, Matt Jones, Martin Kimer, Graham McDowell, Phil Mickleson, Kevin Naugh, Andy Ogletree, Louis Oostezen, Turk Petit, Ian Pulter, Schwarz, Swofford, Euline, and Westwood. I don't know why I just read that list.

it's meaningless other than the big names on it. But anyway, that's the list of 17. I don't know if everybody has been following this story, but I just want you guys to understand why some of these players are going to this Saudi-back tour because they are getting just outrageous guarantees. All right, Dustin Johnson, $125 million to leave the PGA tour and play on the LIV tour.

That doesn't include what he may win from winning events, but he doesn't even have to win events. There are 48 players in each one of these events with no cut, and they're 54-hole events. The last place finisher this week is going to walk home with $120,000. Understand on a PGA tour event, they have something called the cut. If you don't make the weekend, you don't make any money.

These guys are not only getting these guarantees, they're guaranteed to walk with large sums of money, even if they finished dead last. Phil Mickelson, his guarantee, $200 million. Tiger Woods, according to multiple reports, initially the report was that he turned down a nine-figure offer. Now the reports are that he turned down nearly a billion dollars to join the tour. Now that still could have been nine figures, but it was in the nine hundreds of millions range. I know there's criticism of these players joining this Saudi back tour just as there's

been criticism in the past of other sports leagues doing business with repressive regimes like the NBA in China. But how the hell could you turn down this kind of money? I know. I mean, I know, especially golfers, because golfers have no conscience whatsoever. I don't expect anything from golfers. Okay? I mean, so it doesn't outrage me because, I mean, of course they're going to go where the money is. And if the money is that outrageous, which would require a certain level of backbone not to take it. You're not going to find it on a golf course for crying out loud.

That from the guy who writes a column for a newspaper backed by, Reverend Moon. I mean, please. No, we're not. Actually, we're not. Well, but you did work for a paper that at one point was. I don't know who owns anyone. Yeah, well, you worked for Dan Snyder.

So did you. We actually didn't work for Dan Snyder. But my God, if, you know, if Beijing called tomorrow and said they've got an opening for a calmness to cover, you know, to cover a lab in China, and they're offering you a million bucks to come over. You'd be on the first flight. No, I wouldn't. No, I wouldn't. Absolutely not.

So the money, I mean, Tiger Woods, who, by the way, wouldn't even have been required, from what I understand from this reading, to actually play in all of these events, because he's not healthy enough to play in all of these events. But they were willing to have him just associated with the tour at the tune of nearly a billion dollars. Harold Varner, reportedly, Harold Varner is a good player on the PGA tour, has been for several years. I think he's won once or twice,

but he's certainly not, you know, a top 20 player. He's probably in the top 50, top 40 somewhere around there. He was offered $40 million and turned it down. There have been a lot of guys that have turned down a lot of money. But I don't know, you know, look, I don't know how you can, you know, athletes in lots of different sports, entertainers all over the world, they take money from a lot of countries that do a lot of horrible human rights things. That's a lot of money to play.

Basically, you know, to go over and hang out in some beautiful locations, too, and play golf. For only three quarters of the time, too. You only have to play three rounds. 54 holes, I know. Anyway. You know, I mean, Nick, you know, it's blood money. What are you going to do? What else you got?

I got nothing else for you, buddy. All right. We're done for the day. Back tomorrow. This crowd is on its feet in the seventh inning. And they just saw number 13. Seven-dening stretch. They have it on their feet almost every top of an inning today.