The Kevin Sheehan Show - Josh Norman's Bull Leap & Westbrook Trade

Episode Date: July 12, 2019

Kevin opens with the Josh Norman running/leaping with the bulls in Pamplona. He talks about a recent report from Chris Russell/WJFK about a mass exodus of Redskin employees and a rift between Bruce Allen and Skins' coaches. He talks Westbrook trade to Houston and finishes up with the Nats, a weird baseball rule, and Sean Payton's comments about the Pass Interference "replay" rule. <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. Aaron's here. I'm here. 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. They've got a great deal going on right now. No interest for 24 months. So more coming up on that later. You know, the Josh Norman video of him leaping over one of the bulls in Pamplona. We didn't see the video when we were doing this show yesterday. The story came out right when we were starting the show. And I said to you, I'm looking for the video. You were looking for the video. We couldn't find the video.

It then later emerged and we both watched the video now. And now that I've seen the video, I do have a... more in-depth reaction to it. And I'm going to start with this. I've got a lot to get to today. A lot of it's Redskins-related. Just write a lot of different things over the last 24 hours that I want to react to a little bit, not in great depth, some of it. But this one is interesting because if you watch him leap over the bull, I think it's two times. There is an initial leap with a running start and then less of a running start and a leap over, I wouldn't call either leap over the bull, a leap over a charging bull necessarily, but it was still a bull that was alive

and potentially looking to hurt somebody. You know, you can run with the bulls in Pamplona with different levels of risk from what I've been told. I had multiple people reach out to me yesterday on Twitter and say that they have done this before and they said there are safe routes you can take, and there are more risky routes you can take. The dangerous approach would seem to be to get inside the ring with the bulls and try to leap a bull. That would seem to be high risk. Now, I did find something about the running with the bulls.

It was an article called Tips on Running with the Bulls in Pamplona. And this was put out just a month ago, prior to. to this festival in San Fermin, I think it is pronounced, where the running of the Bulls is just part of this overall festival. And it starts off in this story where tips for running with the Bulls at Pamplona, running with the Bulls is dangerous and not recommended. That's the opening line of this particular story, which was on tripsavvy.com.

Each year, the story goes on. Dozens of people require medical attention after running with the bulls. It's important to get tips on running with the bulls from people who have done it before. The biggest problem is that people run with very little knowledge of what to expect. The other major reason why there are so many injuries, as we would all guess, is that people often run while incredibly hammered, drunk. So I have no idea whether or not Josh Norman, you know, was. tipsy had been drinking, got tips before he ran or not.

But here are a couple of the tips. It starts off with don't trick yourself into thinking that the bulls are somehow a safer, more humane equivalent over the years after being experienced and running with people. There are different bulls every year. The bulls you are running with in the morning, please understand they will be in a bull fight later on in the evening. Secondly, bull's hooves are not designed to run on cobblestones, and the streets are cobblestone streets.

Bulls trip often and break their legs during this process. They also fall on people who are running. Another tip, a thing to remember is that the bull run begins at 8 a.m. local time. You can get up early, but most revelers are partying all night as part of the festival and drinking all night long and then trying to get up early and running with the bulls and they say this is not recommended. A later afternoon start is better. Also a tip. Remember that there are bulls that run all week long. You don't have to run, I'm sorry, there are bull runs all week long. You don't have to run on the first day. In fact, it's the most dangerous day due to the large volume of people who want to participate in it. Instead, party all night on July 6th and watch the first bull run on the morning of the 7th to get an idea of what to expect. Do we know which, day. We know it was earlier in the week. It could potentially have been the first day that Josh Norman ran. There isn't anything that says anything other than from what I found is that this happened earlier in the week. Well, July 7th, the first day, I believe was Sunday.

Yes. So perhaps he ran on the first day. Just as a quick picture of the bull ring, they just in this story, would we recommend running with the bulls? Absolutely not. How to get the out of running with the bulls in Pamplona. There are a couple of tips that they ask you to follow. Do not climb on or over the fences. Do not hide in corners, dead ends or doorways on the route before the release of the bulls. Those who are drunk high or otherwise perceived to be a danger to others will not be allowed to run. You'll be removed and kept away from the course during the bull run.

So even watching the spectacle won't be an option. Of course, that's if they catch you. Do not carry anything while running. You must be dressed appropriately, which means a white shirt and pants with a red scarf. Do not distract, grab onto, harass or mistreat the animals. Do not take photos and follow all of the instructions from the authorities that are managing this race. More tips. Take the corners tight as bulls are going to go wide.

If you go down, stay down, cover your head. and just lie there and pray. You might get a few bruises, but it's safer than trying to get up. If you want to get into the arena, which is where Josh Norman ended up, don't fall behind the Bulls as they will close the gate shortly

after the Bulls have entered. You don't need to actually participate in the arena action. Once in the ring, you are free to climb the wall and watch from the safety of the spectator areas. However, don't run too close

behind the Bull. You don't want to risk it turning around. and causing more trouble. We now know that Josh Norman not only entered the arena, entered the ring, but got close to the bull and let the bull, actually leaped over the bull twice. I don't know if it was the same bull or not. Anyway, this is a dangerous activity,

and Josh Norman went ahead and did it anyway. And I said yesterday, and I've said this before about Josh Norman, that he is an interesting, bright, just a different dude altogether. Different anyway compared to most of the pro athletes that we get to meet and sometimes spend time with. You know, Cooley is very much the same. I think it's why Chris and Josh actually get along pretty well. I don't know what's in his contract when it comes to things like this, but if the team isn't protected from it, he's done risky things before. You know, he's skydived. He's driven race cars at 150 miles per hour plus. He's clearly,

a rush junkie, craves that kind of thing. If it's not in his contract, if there isn't something prohibiting him from doing these kinds of things in his contract, it should be. It should be. It's surprising if there wasn't, because there are many other players who do specifically have things like that. I thought for whatever reason that skydiving and sky, not skydiving, that actually skiing and snowboarding were in contracts. At least, you know, that very dangerous where you get dropped off back country helicopter skiing, that kind of stuff.

I don't know what's in his contract. The Redskins signed him to a five-year $75 million deal. He's got two years left on that deal. If they cut him, they saved big time this year, about $8.5 million this year, and close to $12 million next year. If he's allowed to do it contractually, and if he gets hurt and you're on the hook,

if that's the way his contract reads, then after this thing, which by the way, the Redskins tweeted out in almost congratulatory fashion, like, hey, look at what Josh Norman did on the Redskins' Twitter account. We've talked about the Redskins' Twitter account.

I mean, they seem to be clueless as to what makes a good tweet and what doesn't, what makes the organization look good and what doesn't. I can't imagine that if I were the owner of this team or the team president or the head coach or the defensive coordinator. I can't imagine that I was thrilled in watching this. It's one thing to be in Pamplona for this festival and maybe run and take some truly cautious,

a cautious approach to it. He didn't take a cautious approach to it. He went for it. I mean, he took the highest risk possible. He was the only video I saw of anybody leaping a bull. And by the way, it was congratulated. I mean, people are going nuts. Slaping on the back, high fives, the whole thing.

They probably didn't even know who he was. They just thought he was a badass for taking that kind of risk. But if you're the owner or the team president, don't you call him and don't you say, Josh, we appreciate your outside interests, your cultural interests. And we don't have any problem if you head to Paris and spend the day at the Louvre. We don't have any problem if you go to Tuscany and hang out at a winery. for a couple of days, but running with the bulls in Pamplona and then leaping the bulls,

no, we cannot allow that. And we need your word right now that something to this level of risk won't happen again, or we're going to have to release you today. Now, maybe Josh Norman doesn't care if he gets released. Now, that I do think is a fact. I think he's one of those guys where, you know, he's made a lot of money. He doesn't necessarily need the money, and he wants to live. He likes playing football, but he loves living his life.

And I think I have a sense as to what he thinks about the franchise that he plays for and probably wouldn't mind playing for a contender at this point in his career. But if you are Bruce Allen or Dan Snyder, you don't tweet out, and I know that they don't really have that much, seemingly that much, you know, day-to-day responsibility or involvement in their social media accounts, clearly. We've seen examples of that. over the last couple of years. But you've got to go to Josh Norman,

and you've got to say, look, you can't do this, dude. We're on the hook next year right now. Dead cap money is $6 million. The year after that's $3 million. We're about to pay you. Your cap hit next year is $14.5 million. We need you, by the way. And they do.

Josh Norman is a good enough player to want on your defense. He's not an elite player. He hasn't been a great player since signing that five-year $75 million deal. There are lots of reasons for that. He's a better zone corner than he is a cover or man corner. He just is, and the Redskins have played a lot of man with him over the years. He was better in Carolina when they had a lot of zone coverage behind, by the way, a very good pass rush.

So you haven't had that here, so that's hurt him a little bit. I've loved his playmaking ability at times. his forced fumbles, you know, in key spots, you know, especially that first year. But you do have to have a sit down with him after something like this to say, are you going to continue to do this? Let us know now. If this is what you're really interested in, if this is, you know, a priority for you to, you know, satisfy that rush junkie gene that you have over and over again, that's fine. let us know, but we'll have to release you today. We cannot take the risk of being on the hook for this.

Obviously, again, let me repeat, this assumes that it's not in his contract, that it's not something that he is contractually prohibited from doing. So if he's not, you've got to take that approach with him. I think you do. Anyway, few things. Also, Redskins related. Do you see what Chris Russell reported, the other day about the Redskins? For those that missed it,

Chris Russell, JFK, 106.7, reported that the Redskins, that 40 employees have left the Redskins since Brian Lafamina got fired last year, late in the season, if you recall. Russell reported that on 1067, the fan. He also said, quote, I've been told this by multiple, multiple people, almost 40 people have left, behind the scenes people.

We're not talking about football players or coaches or anything like that. By the way, they've had several coaches, you know, leave as well. For lateral moves, as we know. He continued, he said, quote, nobody wants to work there. It's a terrible culture. Closed quote. Later on, he said, where is it? This part about Bruce Allen.

Everybody thinks, here it is, quote, from everything that I hear, there is a split between the coaching staff and Bruce, where the coaching staff kind of thinks it's all a joke, and they're wondering, what the hell are you guys doing? Closed quotes. So that was from Chris Russell, you know, a friend of ours. I like Chris. I've always liked Chris.

And Chris worked at 980 for a while and can think whatever you want about Chris. Chris has always worked hard and been loyal. and been a team player in all of the places that he's worked. And that's what I've always liked about Chris. I have no idea about the 40 people who have left. For what it's worth, about a week ago, I heard something similar. I'm not sure if it was exactly 40, but I heard a lot of those background people have left. And I think the person said like 35 or 40.

I know that people have left, and I know several people in, you know people in the sales department who have left. And I also know people in the sales department. who have been added recently. Let me just tell you that the Brian Lofamina thing, from the minute that he became super transparent about the ticket situation, that relationship was dead with Dan Snyder, and it was dysfunctional.

And Brian, who I, you know, it's not like I got to know Brian, but I had multiple conversations with Brian, you know, dating back to last summer. You went out, spent an hour or so with him at the park, just the two of us talking about a lot of different things. And I actually thought it was pretty bright and also very confident, very confident about what they would be doing,

but also not a guy that outwardly was what the other part of the organization has been, the people that he worked for, you know, openly arrogant about everything. He was not that openly, outwardly. He may have been that inside the building, but he took the, you know, the humble public route. You know, in saying, look, you know, I think it's about time. Remember this quote, and I'm paraphrasing this quote. But remember when he said early on, he said,

look, when you have tickets available, it's probably best that you tell people that they're available. And he referred to the Redskins as a sleeping giant in town. I knew that was going to rub somebody the wrong way. But anyway, I don't know how many people have left the organization. I know some people have left the organization. I don't know if it's 40 or not. But the last quote that I read from Chris Russell,

from everything that I hear, he said, there is a split between the coaching staff and Bruce where the coaching staff kind of thinks it's all a joke and they're wondering what the hell are you guys doing. This is something that I have referred to. It's something that I believe to be true. It's part of why I believe dysfunction more likely than not will continue. And I think draft day,

day one of the draft, the first round of the draft, was very off-putting to many people in the organization the way it was handled. There were a lot of people that did a lot of work, year-round work in preparation for that draft, putting together a draft board, only to be completely trumped by the owner and perception-wise, the team president as well, because according to what most people think, Bruce was all in with Dan on Dwayne Haskins. Again, keep in mind when we talk about this. I don't, I hate when people say stop, you know, why do you keep bashing Dwayne Haskins? Why do you think the organization hated Dwayne Haskins? I didn't say that. I haven't said that. I think the football people liked Dwayne Haskins. They just didn't like him there. They had put

together a draft board to follow and the draft board wasn't followed. That didn't make them happy. that made them think that the year's worth of work that they did was all for not. Most of the football people did not have Dwayne Haskins as a top half of the first round guy. They had several other people rated ahead of him. I've been told, and I think Cooley mentioned this, I've been told that many of the football people had Haskins as a second round player. By the way, a second round grade is a hell of a good grade. If he had been there in the second round and they hadn't taken a quarterback in the first round,

they may have taken him there. And it's not because they thought he sucked. It's just that they thought there were, you know, 32 or more players better than Dwayne Haskins. That's how you put together a draft board. You rank them one to whatever. $400, $450. I don't know how many players they put on a board. And you follow your board.

Obviously, if you get to your pick and there are a couple of players there that you've got that are really closely ranked, you may draft the player that fills a bigger need if the players are really close in your evaluation. But I do believe what Russell said. I think that the relationship that Bruce has with the football side of the organization, which he's a part of. is not what it was, that it is afraid to say the least. Now, a good season can fix everything. I mean, this is the thing about sports. Somehow you put together a good season and you start winning

and all of a sudden the place becomes a little bit more palatable to be around. It becomes a little bit more popular for others around the league. The job that you have becomes a little bit more valuable, regardless of the people that you have to work with. And the people that you have to work with that you've been, basically rolling your eyes towards if you're winning, hey, you know what, maybe he was right about that. So that could fix everything.

But I do believe Russell. I don't know about the 40 people that have left the organization. I haven't counted. I haven't asked anybody. I know some people have left the organization. We know coaches left for comparable positions in other organizations, and we know a lot of people didn't want to come here and take open jobs on the football side. But I do think that Russell the information that he had about the split between the coaching staff and Bruce,

and I would add to that, it's not just the coaching staff, it's part of the scouting staff as well, that that is indeed true. I believe that to be true. All right, one other Redskins thing, NFL.com, Adam Rank, I don't know who he is. He's a writer for NFL.com. He wrote a story. he was sort of previewing the NFC East, looking at the state of the franchise for the NFC East teams. And he made a case for the Redskins potentially being a team that could be the surprise team in the NFC East.

He stroked Jay Gruden a little bit and said essentially that Jay Gruden compared to other Redskins coaches, you know, hasn't been that bad. I mean, we've talked about, you know, the record being one of the better ones. It's a losing record, but still in the Dan Snyder era, even though he is yet to reach a double-digit win season. But, you know, in his run with the exception of 2014, which was a dumpster fire because of the Griffin situation, you know, the teams have been fairly mediocre, record-wise. You know, this guy writes that Case Keenum is the key. This is something that I mentioned the other day in making the case for how the Redskins could be. the surprise playoff team or a surprise playoff team. And he essentially says, you know, the only chance for them to do it is for Dwayne Haskins to sit in Case Keenham to play. And I completely

agree with that. The Redskins are not making the playoffs in 2019 if Dwayne Haskins is the starting quarterback for the majority, significant majority of the games. He also says the addition of landing Collins is going to be huge for the Redskins that he will end up being the team's defensive MVP, and he expects the breakout star to be Duran Payne, and, you know, Montez Sweat to be a major factor as a rookie. But he said, you know, he emphasized they need a high-impact wide receiver, they need to figure out the running back position, and again, emphasizing this, they have to hold off on inserting Dwayne Haskins into the starting lineup. And this is going to be, you know, one of the interesting storylines for the

Redskins season this year is that we've mentioned it many times, but I'll just mention it again in case you haven't heard me say it before. But Jay Gruden sort of has to win, but he also simultaneously has to begin developing Dwayne Haskins and developing a relationship with Dwayne Haskins if Jay Gruden wants to stick around beyond the end of this year. And I think, you know, most reasonable reasonable people could say, look, if Dwayne Haskin starts, that may be the right thing for the organization for him to start sooner rather than later and get experience playing this year so that he's ready to really take the team in 2020 and run with it. But you then essentially have to concede 2019, which with Case Keenum and a good defense and a good running game

and every break in the world, you might not have to concede 2019. team. It's going to be interesting to see those two paths and how the organization navigates either, both of them, which one they choose. And perhaps they end up choosing both. You know, maybe they start with the, let's see if Keenham and a good defense in a running game can make us competitive in the first five games. And if we come out of this thing, two and three, maybe we continue with that. And we really put off Dwayne until 2020. But if we're one in four, 0 and 5, we're moving off that path and we're going to get our rookie quarterback into the game and into the starting lineup so that he can start to get experience. And by the way, as I've

mentioned many times, the team can learn whether or not this guy has the goods sooner rather than later. All right, quick word about stamps.com. The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast is a small business and is a stamps.com customer. Why? Because it saves time and it saves money. We do send out invoices, fortunately enough, in this business, and that's a good thing to have receivables, not just payables, in a business. We signed up with Stamps.com a while back. It's the most popular time-saving tool for small businesses right now. Stamps.com eliminates trips to the post office and saves you money with discounts that you can't even get at the post office. Stamps.com brings all of the amazing services of the U.S. Post Office right to your

computer. Whether you're a small office sending invoices like ours, an online seller shipping out products, or even a warehouse sending thousands of packages a day, Stamps.com can handle it all with ease. Simply use your computer to print official U.S. postage 24-7 for any letter, any package, any class of mail, anywhere you want to send it. Once your mail is ready, you just hand it to the mail carrier, or you drop it in a mailbox. It's that simple. With Stamps.com, though, you You save. You get five cents off every first class stamp and up to 40% off priority mail. And an even bigger savings opportunity I'll tell you about in a moment.

Stamps.com's a no-brainer. It saves you time and money. 700,000 small businesses are already using stamps.com. All right now, the offer my listeners get. It includes a four-week trial plus free postage, free postage, and a digital scale without any long-term commitment. You just go to Stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the home page, and type in Kevin D.C. That's K-E-V-I-N-D-C. That's Stamps.com.

Use my code, Kevin, D.C. All right, let's get to the big trade from yesterday. See how I didn't open with the NBA today? Hope everybody's happy with that. And really, I'll be honest with you. I've gotten sick of it to a certain degree as well. The big NBA news, of course, is that Hachamura scored 25. points for the Wizards in a summer league game. Did you see that? He had 25 points, 12

rebounds in a summer league game. And I got tweets and texts from everybody, including my good friend Cowboy Clay, who said, hold on, what did he send me? He sent me, he actually didn't say it. He sent me a story in which Tommy Shepard told ESPN2 that Rui Hachamura is the best young player they've brought in at retaining information quickly since Bradley Beale. I guess Chase Hughes from NBC Sports Washington put that on his Twitter account. Personally, I think we should probably, you know, just postpone the building them up too big and slapping, you know, the Wizards on the back for the draft choice until he's actually played NBA games against current NBA players.

And I'm talking about real good current NBA players. It's the Summer League for crying out loud. Anyway, Hachamara has been impressive in the summer league. That's great. So the Russell Westbrook trade, of course, is the big news in the NBA. Oklahoma City traded Russell Westbrook last night, least according to Wojj, another Wodge bomb, NBA bomb. It traded Russell Westbrook to Houston.

they're going to get Chris Paul O'KC will get back. Two protected first round picks in 2024 and 2026. And two pick swaps, so the Thunder will get better picks in 2021 and 2025. I think I read this morning, and I haven't done the math on this, that right now the draft choices that they have through all of these trades. Oh, here's the list, actually. In 2020, they've got two first rounders. They have their own and they have Denver's for the grant trade. In 2021, they have two. They have their own and they have Miami's and they can swap if Houston's

is worse, all right, or it's better. They can swap with Houston. In 2022, they have two. Their own in the Clippers. In 2023, they've got two. Their own. They've got two. Their own. Miami's, but they can also swap with the clippers for a better pick. In 2024, they've got three first rounders, their own, their clippers in Houston. In 2025, they've got one their own, but they can swap with the clippers and with Houston, and in 2026, they've got three. So let's add this up. That's 24, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 first round picks. Did I do that math correctly? 11, 14, 11, 12, 15, I'm sorry, 15 first round picks between 2020 and 2026 and the ability to swap three, four, five picks for better picks

with their own. And they have Chris Paul and can trade him again. And they've got Chris Paul and they can trade him, which they will probably do. Yes. By the way, you know what I was thinking about Chris Paul? I would take him here in the back court with Beal. I know that he's not a popular guy. He's apparently, he's apparently insufferable to play with as a teammate. But you know what? I thought Chris Paul in that deciding game against the Warriors this year was their best player. Chris Paul still's got something left. Right now, would you give up a first round pick for Chris Paul?

I would. No, because I'd go the other way if I'm the Wizards. Well, I would go the other way too, but they've already shown they're not going the other way by keeping Beal. and not trading Areza and Jeff Green at the trade deadline. You put Chris Paul on the Wizards roster this year in the back court with Beal. They'd actually be an interesting team to watch. They wouldn't be a top four team in the East, but they would be a potential playoff team. I do believe that.

I think Chris Paul can still play. And I think he plays his best in games that matter. If you look at him over the course of his career, especially as he's gotten older, whether it was, you know, the Clippers beating Utah in that deciding game. I think they beat Utah, or it was a game six in Utah to force a game seven. He was phenomenal. Last year in the postseason, he was really good with the game on the line. I would make that trade with the thunder.

But anyway, about the trade. I'm rooting for Russell Westbrook. I'm a Westbrook fan. And Harden apparently is as well. James Harden, having played with Russell Westbrook, remember he didn't start with Russell Westbrook in OKC, he was coming up the bench. But Hardin wanted this deal. He wanted Westbrook more than he wanted Paul. Apparently, Paul is really difficult to play with.

And Hardin was ready to move on, as were the Rockets from Chris Paul. Russell Westbrook's been very difficult to play with. Just ask Paul George or Kevin Durant and others. or at least that's been his reputation that he's been difficult to coach and difficult to play with. He's very ball dominant, as is James Hardin. But Hardin wanted him. This, according to all reports, is something that James Hardin really pushed for and wanted. He wanted to be teammates with Russell Westbrook.

He wanted to play with Russell Westbrook and believes in Russell Westbrook as a teammate. Apparently they're good friends as well. I think Westbrook, I'm definitely in the tank for Westbrook to a fault. To a, there's no doubt, you know, based on his ability to truly win, I've got a bit of a blind spot for him. And I understand what he is. I understand that there are times when he does not make his team better despite the statistics. I know there are times when it's very difficult for the Thunder to close out a game with Russell Westbrook.

being ball dominant and his inconsistency as a shooter. I have just always appreciated his effort. I don't know that anybody in sports, in recent memory, has tried harder and competed harder than Russell Westbrook. Houston's become now, for me, a very interesting team. There are better teams in the West on paper. I mean, I don't think there's any doubt about that. The Clippers and probably the Lakers and maybe even Denver.

and, you know, some might say Utah and Portland, but I think Houston's back in the conversation. I think Houston's back in the conversation of a top five team, top four team in the West. And by the way, in a best of seven, with those two players a chance to win a best of seven. You know, right now I would favor the Clippers in the West. I like them in a best of seven more than I like anybody for the same reason. that I liked Toronto before the season started last year more than anybody else. I believe in Kauai Leonard. I think he's spectacular.

But a team that's got, you know, Capella Still and Farid and Gordon and a guy like Gerald Green and Austin Rivers who played pretty well for them and PJ Tucker, who was another tough, competitive dude. I mean, you know, in the playoffs, when you have Russell Westbrook and PJ Tucker, on the floor with James Hardin and, you know, Capella, potentially, and Eric Gordon, it's a pretty good five you put on the floor. That team could be a good team. I don't know.

I'm interested in wherever Russell Westbrook lands. I would have loved to have seen him in the east with Miami, perhaps more than with Houston. But I think Houston now becomes much more relevant. I think the odds, by the way, the championship odds, Houston moved up to like fourth or fifth. Did I see that correctly? Yeah, they moved up to about eight to one depending on the book. They're still behind the clippers and the Lakers, of course,

but depending on the book, and most would have them behind the bucks as well. You know what you have to do in these cases, just so everybody understands. The stories that you read that have odds, if they don't reference an actual sports book where you can wager, Typically, Westgate, Caesars, Golden Nugget, or CGI. A little bit. So I go to my site where I can actually wager on this right now. If I want to bet a futures bet I can bet it.

And Houston right now is the fourth pick in the league to win the title. The Clippers are three and a half to one. The Bucks are five and a half to one. The Lakers are six to one. And the Rockets are nine to one on my site right now. Followed by, by the way, the 76ers at 10 to one. and the Warriors at 12 to 1. You know, all the people that say the Warriors can't win a title.

Well, my shop, where I can actually wager right now, they're the sixth pick to win it all. They're followed by Denver, Utah, Boston, Portland, and then Brooklyn's way down the list. By the way, Toronto's way down that list now. So Houston, I don't know where they were before yesterday, but I bet they weren't the fourth pick to win it all. And that obviously means they're the third pick in the West behind the Clippers and the Lakers.

Who's behind Milwaukee? The Sixers, Celtics, I think the Pacers could be decent. Okay. So that's it. My net take on it is the Rockets, this was their chance to go for it one more time. Really, when you think about it, what did they have left? It wasn't working with Paul and Hardin. The window was shutting. And they just opened up the window for one last run. It's basically the rocket's going all in one more time in the James Hardin era. You know, by bringing in Westbrook and saying, let's try this. The other thing didn't work with Chris Paul.

So they're making, you know, this one last big move to try to get to a championship series. I mean, just to get to a championship series, I'm sure they'd be thrilled if they got there, you know, as a Western Conference final. They'd probably be the favorite. All right, a quick word about Window Nation. The intense summer heat is back, causing your old leaky windows to produce unnecessary high energy bills, allowing damaging UV rays to fade your valuables and make your windows even less effective. Listen up.

While the kids are at camp and families are taking vacation, maybe even yours, my good friends, Harley, Aaron, Eric, and all the guys at Window Nation, they're working. They've got 80,000 satisfied customers, including me, and an A plus Better Business Bureau rating. They've got extra capacity right now, and they're trying to leverage that capacity and create an offer for you that's unique, and they've got one right now. They want to keep their factory busy and their installers working. For the first time ever, you're going to get no interest for 24 months. That's two years. Now, the buy one window, get one free is still available with no limit.

That's no minimum or maximum purchase required on all style of windows, by the way. Plus, no down payment required right now, no payment of any kind, and no interest for 24 months. So you can buy now, start saving now on those lower energy bills, and literally pay nothing for two full years. Trust the window company that I've trusted and visitwindonation.com right now. You can also call them at 86690 Nation to get one first. window for every window you buy with no limit plus no down payment no payments of any kind and no interest for 24 months call soon this sale ends july 31st uh i just opened up um as i finished that when donation read i just opened up one of my new favorite things to drink which

are these deer park flavored uh sparkling waters i don't even know if they're new they're my wife started buying them a month ago. I liked them zero calories, lots of water, more thirst quenching. And for the second straight day, and Aaron is witness to this, I opened up this Deer Park sparkling water, triple berry flavor today, by the way. And it exploded all over me. Yes, it did. All over me.

Now, it's just water, not a big deal, but I wonder how a sparkling water that's been sitting still for an hour, how it explodes like that for the second straight day. Usually you've got to shake things up for them to explode. Maybe you're banging on the table a little bit too much when you get animated. Maybe. When I was a kid, this is how simple the times were. You know, you're playing kick the can in the neighborhood at night, ding-dong ditch, throwing crab apples of cars, snowballs of cars.

Those were the good old days. But, you know, one of the things you would do is take a soda, a can of soda, shake it up, and then open it up to see how high it would shoot up in the air. Of course. I haven't done that in years, but did it the last two days without even trying. So there are a couple of other things that I wanted to get to today. The Nats are going to open up a big stretch here tonight with the series in Philadelphia, and then the two games in Baltimore against the Orioles,

which obviously the Orioles aren't any good. and then that huge four-game stand in Atlanta next week. I mean, this is the stretch. Like, we're now into mid-July. You know, the season's not going to be determined. Their playoff fate's not going to be sealed, or a playoff berth isn't going to be delivered based on these next nine games. But what a key stretch right out of the gate with the way they ended going into the All-Star break.

with three games in Philadelphia, because these are huge games for the Phillies as well. And then starting next week, next Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday in Atlanta for games with the Braves. And remember, really the last difficult stretch of schedule that the Nats had was when the Braves were in town. Before that closing stretch of the Marlins a bunch of times, the Tigers and the Royals, they lost two of three. to Atlanta. It's the last series they've lost. In fact, I think it's the only series they've lost in over a month. It might be a month and a half at this point. So big stretch for the Nats. Really starting tonight in Philadelphia, where they can put some distance this weekend between themselves and the third place Phillies. The Phillies are in third place right now.

They've had a lot of injuries and more injuries, you know, right before the break. And the Nats gets Strasbourg, Corbyn, and Scherzer, right out of the All-Star break for these three games. By the way, just out of curiosity, why does the game start at 6 o'clock tonight? I'm actually not sure about that one. There might be fireworks, something like that. Usually if you see a 6 o'clock Friday start, that's usually the reason. Okay. So the game tonight in Philadelphia is a 605 start, Strasbourg on the hill for the Nats.

But this is, I think, you know, one of the things about becoming a baseball town, a true baseball town, which I don't think Washington is. I think there's great love for the Nats, and I think that these playoff series that they've had four times now. This is a franchise that has only been here now since 2005, but they've been in the postseason four times. And those were exciting octobers, even though they haven't won any of them.

You know, losing to St. Louis in the fifth and deciding game, losing to the Giants in four, losing to the Dodgers and the Cubs and fifth in deciding games. By the way, all of those fifth and deciding games at home. I mean, think about that for a moment, right? Their postseason history, the Nats' postseason history includes 2012, where they lost to the Cardinals in a fifth and deciding game where, as most of you know, they had a commanding game five lead

before all hell broke loose. In that game, I believe it was 6-0. Yes. In that game. Andy Poland came up to the press box and said, well, time for the NLCS after like the second inning. Well, it certainly appeared as if that was going to happen. And then you got the four-game loss to the Giants, which included that epic 18-inning game. And then you lose to the Dodgers in a fifth in deciding game.

After you had a 2-1 series lead, you lose to the Dodgers at home with the incredible Kirshaw relief appearance at the end of that particular game. And then you had the drama of the Cubs series in 2017 where Strasbourg evened up the series at Wrigley in a game in which he was sick and we didn't think he would pitch. and he ended up with his career moment, no doubt his career moment, only to come home in a fifth and deciding game and lose to the Cubs 9 to 8 in that particular game, if my memory serves me correctly.

It was a super high-scoring game, lots of things going on in that game. And if you recall in that game, and this is why, you know, as great as Max Scher's been, right, in key spots he hasn't delivered, and he came in in a key spot in that game as a reliever and got shelled in that game. I don't remember specifically what the numbers were. I think Gio may have started that fifth and deciding game, but Scherzer was available to pitch in a key spot and got completely lit up in that fifth and deciding game by the Cubs. Anyway, so what I was getting to, I'm sorry, a long way to get to,

they haven't had a pennant race. their four division wins were comfortable division wins. There weren't true pennant races in August and September. And what the Nats can really be involved in here by winning the majority of these next nine games, especially the seven against the Phillies and the Braves, is they can put themselves, you know, basically entering August into meaningful pennant race games. There will be a bunch of them. There will be scoreboard watching.

We've never had that in this town. And those are the things that sort of, look, they've had the crushing, you know, Game 5 elimination playoff games, the biggest being the blown lead against the Cardinals in 2012. But they haven't had that, you know, month long, two month long, late summer, early fall pennant race that so many of the great baseball towns have been a part of so many times. This could be our first. This could be the first for D.C. It certainly would appear based on the way they played recently

that they're at the very least going to be in a wild card race through the months of August and September. But they can put themselves right back into the NL East race by playing well here over the next week to 10 days. A couple of other things real quickly, and then I'll wrap up the show today. First of all, the story, so we talked a lot about the NFL rule related to the pass interference. You know, the replay challenge ability for pass interference calls and calls that weren't called pass interference to look at those calls.

Sean Payton, whose team it was, caused all this stir because they were on the unfortunate, on the unfortunate end of a terrible missed call in the NFC championship game, which my God, have we ever heard one NFL franchise cry more about a bad call than the New Orleans Saints have since that NFC championship game? But Sean Payton basically weighed in on the more recent sort of solidifying of what the rule will be for 2019. And remember there was that brief discussion about no booth review in the final two minutes, which was my recommendation because I envision a disastrous application of this rule by allowing it to go to the booth in the final two minutes of a half or a game, because I think so many past plays are, you know, plays that deserve review

for pass interference. There's a lot of contact between DBs and wide receivers. And now in the final two minutes of a half or a game, because it's, in, it, it's, in, it, It's been put on the booth to review these plays. I think we're going to have a lot of stoppage of play. I really do. I think it's stupid for them to have not amended the initial rule to just make it a coach's challenge, even in the final two minutes of a half. Anyway, Sean Payton finally weighed in on all of this.

And he had an interesting take. You know, understanding, again, just so everybody's clear on this, coaches will be able to throw challenge flags during 56 of the 60 minutes. Take out the final two minutes of the first half, final two minutes of the game. During 56 of the 60 minutes, a coach will be able to challenge an interference call or a non-interference call, a missed interference call. And in the final two minutes of each half, it will be incumbent upon the booth to review and to make a decision. So Sean Payton weighing in said, quote, let's start with the very first premise for the fans.

It's still just like all of the other challenges that we have in place. Remember, we only have two to start with. So I don't think you're going to see more challenge flags. Probably you're going to be a little bit more judicious, knowing that you want to have at least one left if you feel like there's something you see clearly and it's outside of two minutes as a coach that you can check. challenge. And of course, inside of the two minutes, it goes upstairs to replay. And we're all in this day and age with our technology and with the fans getting a chance to see it in real time,

we're wanting those calls, especially in games like that, to be officiated correctly. I don't know that I agree with Sean Payton that coaches are going to be more judicious now that they have the ability to challenge pass interference or non-pass interference calls. if there's a fumble that wasn't a fumble in the first quarter or an interception or a catch that's ruled no catch or no interception, but clearly based on replay was a catch or was an interception, coaches are throwing that flag. They're not thinking about the missed pass interference call, you know, later on in the game at that point. I just don't see coaches passing on opportunities. Here's the thing about a challenge. flag. You are never, there are games in which you never throw a flag. And even with the ability to challenge pass interference, you know, there may be more of an opportunity to challenge a play, an interference call or a non-interference call, but there are still going to be games where you

never use a challenge flag, or you only use one of your opportunities. When you have the opportunity to clearly challenge a missed call, and I'm not talking about, you know, uh, you, uh, you, placement, ball placement, you know, where the ball was spotted a yard short of the first down and it looks on replay that they got the first down, and it's third and one instead of first and 10. I'm talking about the big plays. Coaches are not going to be more judicious on those big plays. They're not going to be thinking about past interference. I wouldn't be. I wouldn't be holding my challenges back for missed interference or non-interference calls. Why? because if I hold them back for a big play early in the game,

that interference call may not mean anything. That missed interference call at the end of the game may not mean anything or with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter because I can't challenge in the final two minutes. If I don't overturn that fumble, that lost fumble going into the end zone for a 7-0 lead, there's no chance that I think, I just don't see coaches being much more cautious

and thinking about the availability of challenging pass interference calls. Now, if they had the ability to challenge those calls in the final two minutes of a half or a game, maybe a little bit more, but that's going to the booth, and I think that's going to turn in to a disaster. I really do. The only other thing that I wanted to mention today was just a follow-up. Oh, you wanted to mention the Grace and Allen stuff from Summer League. He got ejected for two flagrant calls in a summer league game,

one in which it was obviously flagrant. The other one was obviously flagrant, even though I don't really know that it was truly intentional. It was just a bad look to be doing that right after the other flagrant. Against my guy, by the way, Grant Williams, who I love, who I think is going to be a really good player for the Celtics. But, you know, Grayson Allen's got an issue. Yeah.

Like, he is a dirty player. And the league is going to have to really, really hurt him in the wallet. He was reprimanded, if you recall, in 2017 for Duke, and it led to a one-game suspension, and a lot of people thought it should have been a longer suspension. This is his first ejection from a Summer League game, and I think it's his first ejection from an NBA game.

There have been other ejections this summer in Summer League. But Grayson Allen, when he is bothered or feels, you know, somebody gets under his skin. He does not react well at all. They're going to have to hurt him in the wallet with this one. Although he doesn't have the track record in the NBA that he had in college. But the track record still follows him. I guess. What else? I had something else that I wanted to mention. A lot of you followed up on some of the tennis conversation, which I was surprised with yesterday. And talked about, you know, the three players, Federer and Adolf and Jokovic and the rivalry among all. all three of them. Djokovic just advanced this morning to the final, and Nadal and Federer are getting ready to go right now in their match. But, yeah, I mean, some of you said, you know, that you're still into tennis, and you've appreciated this and followed these rivalries, and some of you updated me on some of the information

that I gave out and talked about, and I think I did mention this later on, that the, you know, the Jokovic Nadal, you know, rivalry in terms of numbers of matches and numbers of Grand Slam matches is even more significant than Nadal Federer. Yeah, I get all that. The three of them are just incredible. They will, I don't know that Djokovic will go down as one of the greatest three men, three players in the history of men's tennis. But I think at this point, it's a lock that Federer and Nadal will go down as one, two. I mean, that to me seems obvious. I know a lot of you tennis people will say that Rod Laver is the greatest player to ever play

and that he wasn't around, you know, part of that, some of his majors came in the non-open era, et cetera. I don't know. Federer Nadal, 38 combined major titles, possibly a 39th this weekend. They're won too. Jokovic has 15. He's already topped Sampras. He's third on the list. Jokovic is probably going to get some love for the third greatest player of all time. I mean, for me, I can tell you this. John McEnroe, to me, was the most talented player I ever watched. It's a shame he didn't train. It's a shame that he couldn't stay away from some vices and injuries in a lot of the training and a lot of the partying.

led to a lot of the injuries. But McEnroe's the greatest talent I think I've ever watched play tennis, although Federer is, you know, right there as well. But McEnroe's only got seven majors and only, and he's only won two majors. He won three Wimbledons and four U.S. opens, never won an Australian, had a chance to win a French, 1985, I think it was, up two sets to love, and up a break against Lendell and blew it. if not for that he would have had his French Open.

He was a dominant player in 84. 84 was his dominant a season by any men's tennis player we've ever seen. McEnroe's 1984. But, you know, in terms of the greatest tennis players in the history of men's tennis, we've watched them here. Or, you know, the world's watched them. The U.S. hasn't watched as much, but it's Federer Nadal, one, two in some order.

I think most people would put it Federer I, Nadal too, but as we pointed out yesterday, Nadal's won 24 of the 39 matches, head-to-head with Federer, and he's 10-3 against Federer in the Grand Slams. 10 and 3. I mean, that alone, you would say, you know, if you were talking golf and you were talking, golf's conversation centers on majors alone. Now, so does tennis to a certain degree, and Federer's got more than Nadal, but Nadal is 10-3 head-to-head in grand slams against Federer. That's pretty You could certainly make the case that Nadal is the greatest player in the history of the game. Well, they're playing right now, and I'm going to go watch it, actually.

I'm interested in watching that match today. I guess that's it. Did you have anything else? Did we miss anything? Nothing big, no. I don't think anything big. There is something I want to talk with Tom next week. The Atlantic League is introducing a few more really weird rules that MLB will be looking at,

including the possibility of stealing first base while you're a bad. How do you do that? On a wild pitch, like a wild pitch. Let's say it's a one-o count. Nobody's on base. A wild pitch? You can sprint? You can run.

Instead of a third strike call. Right. So it's like a third strike code, but on any pitch at all, if it gets by the catcher. I don't like that. I don't love it either, and I think, but it's interesting. I don't like that. I agree. I don't know.

Just leave the games, as they are for the most part. I don't want any more replay. I don't want any more rules. all these games are good games. You know, baseball, you know, for all that said about the pace of play, it doesn't seem to, well, I know television ratings aren't great anymore. Look, baseball for my kids and their generation playing it, I know a lot, look, a lot of you fathers and mothers have really good baseball players. I mean, one of my son's best friends is an excellent, you know, it was an all-met, excellent college baseball player now. But, you know, for a lot of the kids, especially in areas like this, it's slow.

It's a slow sport. You know, you're not going to all of a sudden turn it into basketball or lacrosse. That's impossible to make baseball that. Baseball is great because of the strategy and the psychology. That's what's appreciated about baseball and the power and the strength and the athleticism to a certain degree. But anyway, whatever. Enjoy the weekend, everybody. I'll be back Monday.

Don't forget to rate us and review us on iTunes. If you haven't done that, subscribe as well. That really helps us. And for those that don't know and don't listen to podcasts, but would love to listen to this show, tell them they can do so on the interweb at the Kevin Sheehan Show.com.